1-Bit...

[willfaulds]

Hello.

EDIT/ This post has been updated to house WIP animations

I'm working on a set of 1-Bit flash games... a compendium really. One file with 3 or so games all built on the same core game engine.

I'd like to try an open work flow and see how it goes... Basically designing, building, playing, designing... All in little chunks

Dev log:

-One button gameplay. UPDATE: Basic keyboard movement.  UPDATE: Mouse movement - spaceship has inertia.
-Single screen. Wrapping game environment UPDATE: Side-scrolling with parallax background layers. UPDATE: Single screen & scrolling with parallax background layers (level dependent).
-Basic gameplay abduct people. UPDATE: abduct and avoid projectiles. UPDATE: abduct, avoid, destroy, move objects

Game play mockup:


You'd be amazed what a different the larger spaceship makes - so much more fun... you feel all powerful.

Characters/Objects:



Everything is  inspired by games of my youth - played on a Mac Plus. Dither patterns are mostly the ones I played with years ago in MacPaint...

[Iceman]

Very nice start...I like it. 

One thing tho..... this guy needs a bit of work.  I know you have limited the animation frames as you said, but he is missing an arm. You need to add the left far-side arm to this, but I am looking forward to seeing how this work progresses.
(It reminds me of work I did on the Dragon computers eons ago )

[willfaulds]

Polished some bits and pieces.

Iceman thanks for the crit. I got distracted - not being sure whether I was taking the project in an interesting enough stylistic direction. I think the answer I came to is that the animations can be a bit more fun than I was making the first ones. I was doodling and made the varied characters and thought it was more appropriate. Ease up on the realism. Make it more quirky and exaggerated.

I'll update with new character animations when I can.



and for anyone willing to pass judgment of the screen effects;
http://pixelbeard.willfaulds.com/blog/2009/3in1bit_ScreenEffects.swf
That's about the opacity I'm happy with. It also has the animated bar distortion (still not sure what to call that). Good or bad?

[willfaulds]

& in context

http://pixelbeard.willfaulds.com/blog/2009/3in1bit_ScreenEffects.swf

happy with this one.

EDIT/ never noticed the insert flash button before ^_^ ... though it doesn't seem to work anyway.

[Chris2balls]

That looks great.

[Souly]

Is he standing on the horse?
His arm seems looser then the horses tail.

The horses weight isn't convincing I think it make be the back legs.
It looks like a dog run more then a horse, and at some point I read as though the horse has 1 back leg.

[Jakten]

I agree with Souly, the horse run seems strange. Though I think it's more so because of the shape of your horse. His legs are way too thick at the tops especially the back ones. And although the tail doesn't move much in this reference I'm about to post I think it should flow really nicely.



Quite cool though, i hope to see this project finished!

[willfaulds]

Thank you:



(Once someone mentioned the dog similarity - I'd seen this earlier but thought maybe it was tired eyes - it had to be amended)

Reference was useful  - 1st on was done from a still photo ref - interesting to see where it differs from what I thought.

And yes he is standing - decided I could have a bit more fun with the characters - who needs realism?

EDIT

What resolution would people rather play a game like this in?

[Iceman]

I think this project is going well willfaulds, your getting it all together

As for the rez of the game screen, it does depend if your wanting to make it look a lot like an old retro game played on an old 8bit screen limited computer.  For myself I would stick with the smaller screen, because it gives you a wider play screen that more things can fit on at once, plus the smaller characters do tend to look better than the bigger, more chunky ones.

You may also have to change the game play and game design (EG: enemy waves, difficulty levels etc) with a bigger set.

But it is your project and either way Im sure it will be worth the wait.

[Ben2theEdge]

I greatly prefer the doubled up pixels. Too much negative space on the high-res version.