atte

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    447

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by atte

  2. Posted

     

    Since this game was basically one big reference parade (and writing about actual game design and progress stuff is much harder) I wanted to do a big post like this. Here's a bunch of those references and details showcased. They range from loose inspirations to very, very direct copying.

     

    horseBag.png.9acfa24e37c3a87bf1c1219d0e8d59e2.png

    (edit: At first I decided to leave random Idle Thumbs memes out of this list, but the Horsebag has a relevant game connection, weird backstory and mechanics with unexplored potential)
    Ah, the Nintendo’s Patented Horseback Riding Wii Controller aka Horsebag. Original idea was that it would be a more direct Mega Man's Rush equivalent (it still has the Rush colors and it does help you jump higher) until I decided it made more sense and was more fun if you could goofily ride around with it and bounce on things (like in Zelda 2 and Ducktales!). The behaviour of a loose Horsebag is not really explored in the gameplay/design, but it's something quite fun to play around with: Loose Horsebag acts as a bullet damaging enemies and has basic physics so it is affected by the wind currents and bounces off walls. It also bounces away when colliding with the player or player bullets, so you can do some cool trick shots.

     

    1castlevaniaEnemies.png.fa1bf90b7f290b90788278bb2a5a6419.png2handGrab.png.980b6aa288922efed541b0eed10adc42.png

    Spooky head flying in a sine wave pattern and a dragon head turret shooting fireballs are both very Castlevania. Those flame hands loosely resemble SMB3's Dark Land Hand Traps. They can't grab the player but they can catch a loose Horsebag causing them to withdraw.

     

    3mrComputerShop.png.35fff3b47bd88c3583d4790b6be3e2f4.png

    This is one of my favorite scenes in the game. Mr. Computer Products is the company behind Dot Gobbler. The Wizard appearing on a TV mimics how Shredder appears in TMNT2's second level. The statue silhouette is from the old Idle Thumbs Puffin, Wizard, Far Cry 2 guy image.

     

    4oldStuffReused.png.80c49a145b720fa83860aa29cf0aa3cf.png

    I recently uploaded my pre Wizard Jam Idle Thumbs themed game Big Dog Run from 2014 to itch. I actually reused (after slight editing) some graphics from it here (police car, big dog (appearing later in the game), statue in the computer shop window). I didn't remember/have time to put the police car siren sounds in, which is pretty silly as the classic sound of sirens was the main reason I wanted those cars in the game in the first place.

     

    5nemoRooftops.png.1b3425b421975768c401a43cd3fbcc34.png

    This is more of a general inspiration: Little Nemo The Dream Master (stage 6, The Cloud Ruins pictured here). Overall note to make here is how the clouds are the only moving part in the backgrounds, there is no parallax scrolling in the levels. Parallax scrolling can be super cool looking but I feel that heavy use of it can also break the familiar nes style look I was going for, so I pretty arbitrarily decided no parallaxing (...anyhow here's a cool showcase of nes games that did have plenty of that sweet scrolling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltuRuGM271Q )

     

    6mmBuilding.png.2536a6f6fcc3c9dc8da99406679a7e3f.png

    The classic titlescreen building from Mega Man 2. Also the background has strong Cave Story vibes.

     

    1metroidElevator.png.3e8f00b3ca55f89c067c6a8793a6a7e7.png

    Elevator screen from Metroid. This is super simple and probably the most direct recreation of a scene.

     

    2marioCastle.png.e6764f49685c8449c396efa539a8f170.png3arrowtrapConfused.png.c040b78d0b375b53ab4df50c8948eabd.png

    This is all very SMB1 castle, you can even jump out of view/on top of the ceiling for a safe shortcut. The homing drone shooter resembles Spelunky's infamous arrow traps. You can confuse the trap by sending your Horsebag in to the trap's sight line so the drone will go towards the bag, leaving you alone.

     

     

    4labEndComp.thumb.png.4932ec97bc6ff19acae7c3ba74ed5630.png

    SMB1 castle ending where Bowser and Toad have been replaced by Boston Dynamics' Petman and a Dr Light lookalikes. I had an idea for a joke where the Petman would give a thumbs up Terminator 2 style when sinking in to the lava... until I realized Petman has no hands at all.

     

    1angryMoon.png.85b776336c6da22f5d060c9ac917dc6d.png2caveEntrance.png.d37957a0251188de20003749234436cf.png

    Angry Moon, the not so distant relative of Angry Sun from SMB3's desert world. It was important to get the sun's movement pattern (swoop down, switch sides) implemented pretty closely. The moon only starts chasing the player when a vase is broken, so it is possible to run through the level in peace if you leave the pottery alone. This cave door is not a direct reference to anything but I love these kinds of slightly ominous entrances in old games.

     

    3lemmingsPillars.thumb.png.12923a72111a5212786b32697bd94f99.png

    This is more of loose inspiration that I only noticed in retrospect. Gotta have those classic greek pillars.

     

    4powerPill.png.962ed803becd771681a05553146edcd7.png5barrier.png.d038ec21567b460651724562c5242f9b.png

    This whole tomb section is a fun and sneaky Pacman Dot Gobbler reference: A maze where you can destroy otherwise invincible ghosts with a power up. The barrier blocking the way to Dot Gobbler fight is inspired by the barrier in the Great Palace in Zelda 2.

     

    6yellowDevilGobbler.png.a290476b2912eae0780d84bb136ece20.png

    Yellow Devil fight from Mega Man 1. In a way, this scene was the whole reason for making this game. A couple of years ago, when I was randomly thinking about wizard jam stuff I got way too excited when I noticed how similiar the Yellow Devil and Dot Gobbler were. So when the final Wizard Jam came around, I had no choice but to actually execute this one very, very specific and obscure joke.

     

    7birdDoor.png.9cbbdb977c7ff463a80fe37b431b1709.png

    Puffin version of the SMB2's strange bird door.

     

    1zelda2Wizardry.thumb.png.4577da167c6e89876db136e982baa257.png

    3falling.png.10feaf8f832700ca2a092e0858ac8a59.png

    The whole Wizard section is heavily Zelda 2 themed. It starts with the 'Return of Ganon/Gaynor laugh' and ends in a drop shadowed hero falling down.

     

    2wizardNightmare.png.7ee6ff934a2f5015aeb744b4b7287e1e.png

    The Wizard boss is a general homage to all the big, screen filling final bosses, but Dream Master's influence shows here again (I noticed this only later but even the two different attacks (spectral blades & magic missile of course) are quite similiar to that game's final boss attacks.

     

    Here's all the screens that appear in the ending fall, showing a moment from every Wizard Jam game I made. It's just a quick slideshow but seeing that for the first time in context felt really special and wistful.

    Spoiler

    4allJams.thumb.png.234d796e4997e1a7593af5ee978fcffa.png

     

    skeleton.gif.7fec51941aa4d276ecfc21ba9159260c.gifsuperfrogCollectibles.png.aeb109628be74f229e271215e86547df.pngz2skeleton.png.b2a038d4946a02e48c0b7254fabe5c54.png

    Here's an unused enemy (yet another Zelda 2 reference). Also there's all the collectibles in one place. The mix of fruits and treasures is mainly inspired by Super Frog's selection (shout out to Bubble Bobble and James Pond 2 for having amazing and wild item sets also).

     

    And finally a bit about sound effects. My WJ1 game, Introduction to Video Games has no audio, but I actually made and prepared all of the needed sound effects after that jam had ended, I just never got around to implementing them in the game... Now, 5 years later I had a perfect opportunity to use those unused 8-bit sounds here.

     

    Thank you for reading, playing and jamming. :tup::tup:

     

     

     

     

     

  5. Posted

    Development has been going pretty well, don't know how long the jam deadline version will be but at least the showcase weekend version should have all the areas/enemies/hot memes I've been planning.

    Here's some random gifs.

     

    Because of the loose theme of magic and evil wizardry this looks like some kind of dishonored halloween game now.fwvg4.gif.e141db7667244a76bec60083e92111e0.gif

     

    Updating the player graphics took some time, the black outlines tricked me making the character too thin. Eventually I just had to bravely embrace the thickness.

    fwvg5.gif.5b6e3a70b51ce2751d6d7821dabbe216.gif

     

    And here's a fun effect I came up for the title screen.

    fwvgTitle.gif.3035754a2d8671a05ef4c5dd823c7050.gif

  10. Posted

    Thanks everyone!

    On 16.1.2020 at 11:20 AM, sergiocornaga said:

    This looks incredible, I love the bizarre mechanics you've come up with.

     

    I clearly remember seeing you in my WJ1 devlog, makes me feel strangely nostalgic :lol:

     

    I now have a clear(ish) plan of the whole thing I'd like to put together. Let's see how well I'm able to execute this stuff then. Here's an overview of all the areas.

     

    fwtvg_overview.thumb.png.41da549c9a570cf98ec0c3587be78f6c.png

     

    ...Yes those are pretty on the nose Mega Man and Mario references :getmecoat

  13. Posted

    Very good! :lol:


    First time trying I got stuck in a way that felt like a bug/some weird edge case:

    Spoiler

    The 'hate wave' didn't trigger after getting rid of the Double Dragon dudes, and I was just trapped in that area forever...

     

    But trying again later I had a good experience filled with enjoying the intriguing visuals and slowly but steadily making progress.

     

    Some random notes:

    Spoiler

     

    As soon as I saw the Golden Axe graphics I was just eagerly waiting for the treasure goblin to appear.
    The turbo tunnel and the transition via the 10h pause theme youtube video to the next phase was really really good.

    The 3D part was sort of spoiled by seeing the resource folders, but that's kind of unavoidable and I would probably have expected that cool 3D bone realm to show up at some point anyway.
    The music in the end screen was nice, in contrast to the rest of the game's strange and harsh soundscape it was an uplifting conclusion.

     

     

  14. Posted

    https://atteo.itch.io/farewellvideo games

     

    ----------------

    I started with fake NES games and Thumbs memes in Introduction to Video Games, and now 9 jams later I'll celebrate once more those precious things (this will be a one multi level game, not a mini game collection).

     

    I started this a couple of days before the official start, putting the basic stuff in place. Even though the idea was to make a really simple and traditional action platformer, I pretty quickly veered off and ended up making this somewhat peculiar power up/collectible system: You can use the items as projectiles or try to collect three of the same for a health(fruits) or invincibility(treasure) boost.


    Aaand there's a Horse Bag for bouncing on enemies/ double jumping/ floating on water!

     

    fwvg.gif.3ddfa6a2048b3a679bac59a1a8e6be6a.gif

  15. Posted

    3 hours ago, Teljoor said:

    A very neat adventure. I liked the different movement types for some of the boots, especially the 'magic' boots' auto-jump and forced movement. I managed to get the cat puzzle piece by just trying solutions, but I couldn't figure out the puffin puzzle.

     

      Hide contents

    It seemed like I would have to jump up to the top part of the room twice, but doing so would interrupt the note boots' sequence with the other boots' sounds, so I'm not sure if I was on the right track. The three steps at the bottom where also a bit hard to tell apart.

     


    Thanks! In retrospect I could have done much more with the different movement abilities. There could have been pretty interesting platforming sections combining bomb jumps, steam hover and auto-movement.

     

    About the puffin room:

    Spoiler

    You can (and have to in the puffin room) change boots between the played notes. I predicted this might cause players to feel uncertain about the solution but I like the added step that's required.

     

    Nick played through this yesterday, besides the accidental resets (I had forgotten the 'R' to restart that I used while testing was even there) it was super fun to watch and see Nick's and the chat's reactions.

    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/462074713?t=00h31m15s

  16. Posted

    2 hours ago, RKSanders said:

    I really liked the music puzzles!

      Hide contents

    I ran past the owl many times before I put on the shoes to hear them hooting. It was a great surprise. I couldn't figure out how to get the green shoes though.

     

     

     

     

    ^_^

     

    Spoiler

     

    For a long time during the development the melody shoes always just played horn notes in every screen. I made them copy the clue sound to make the situation clearer but it also made the game a bit funnier and surprising (I sampled actual owl and puffin noises from some youtube nature videos).

    The green shoes are pretty cool so I'm going to hint and reveal how to get them.

    Spoiler

     

    You have to solve the hat puzzle in the second overground screen, solution is hinted in another screen.

    Spoiler

    The mural in the casle tells to cover the guys' eyes while keeping the dogs' eyes open.

     

     

     

  17. Posted

    1 hour ago, jmolenaar said:

    Nice game, I liked the puzzles! Didn't quite get the cat bell though

     

      Hide contents

    even when listening to it a dozen times. Wasn't even sure if there were 3 or 4 notes

     


    Thank you for playing, yeah the bell is probably the trickiest thing in there.

     

    edit: Oh and as a general note you can drop down from those thin jump through platforms by pressing down, it might make navigating the room a bit easier.

     

    Spoiler

    It's a fast 4 note melody. There's not many possible platforms to play a note on so at least trying out different versions is fast(ish), I know one of my friends solved it accidentally (which is not ideal of course :P)

     

  18. Posted

    3 hours ago, theschap said:

    This was a great experience. Thank you @atte!

     

      Hide contents

    I got everything but one last shoehorn bit. I'm guessing it has something to do with the cat bell room, but I couldn't figure out what I needed to do there. I also played Mary Had a Little Lamb in one of the areas and found it quite amusing.

     

     

    Nice, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
     

    Spoiler


    You have to bomb the cat bell to hear the puzzle melody. Maybe adding a little sound effect when touching the bell just normally would make it a bit clearer.

     

     

  19. Posted

    These kinds of simon says tasks really stress me out, so I can't comment much about the challenge but the execution and presentation is very fun. All the interaction sounds are good and help remembering the sequences. I would have liked maybe even more specific sounds, like the pitch would change when moving sliders, slightly different tones for each of the buttons etc.

  20. Posted

    4 hours ago, Henke said:

    Good stuff as usual, Atte! :)

     

      Reveal hidden contents

    I got all the shoes but I couldn't figure out either of the musical puzzles. Pretty sure I'm replicating the sounds of the birds just fine but nothing happens.

     


    Thanks!
     

    Spoiler

    The melody puzzles should be working correctly (there's actually a third one also), I do suspect that those kind of note/sound miming challenges might be a bit awkward for many players. The ending is not anything very special right now so you don't miss much if you just collect all the shoes and the two non-melody shoehorn parts.

     

     

  21. Posted

    The new visuals are lookin very very good! Thanks also for taking the time to do these in-depth posts.


    I just tried it again now with a controller. The analog movement feels nice but having both lean and up/down on the same stick makes it hard to lean without accidentally moving up/down (and vice versa). Maybe separate sticks for those (and then the side switch on a shoulder button so don't have to move your right thumb away from stick)?

  22. Posted

    It was more of a "Barbie Empties Her Dreamhouse" for me, I got everything but one table and a railing out.

    dreamdesert.thumb.jpg.f46f897dc727d14721991898d98a0f41.jpg

     

    The ad-like title screen was a fun idea!
    Restart/reset option would be good... or maybe it's a valuable life lesson, you have to deal with the mess you've made.
    Crouching would be nice (if it doesn't mess up with the collisions too much).

    Ability to throw objects forward, even a small bit, would be fun. Though just being able to drop stuff keeps it less chaotic and maybe makes it more laborious in a fitting way.
    Slowly lifting heavy objects up and dropping them down was oddly satisfying.
    Occasional glitchiness just kind of fits the chaotic nature (once I accidentally clipped myself from the second to the third floor (speed run strats))

    There was already lots of details and stuff to play with. I will mess around with this again if there will be more objects in the updates (...also I started imagining frustrated character grunts as I was "cleaning" the house).


    It might not be specially planned aspect but I really like strange atmosphere created by the contrast between cramped indoors and the vast endless desert outside. Speaking of the outside, the invisible walls make sense but I would have liked to wander off into the horizon in the end, leaving the cursed dream house behind me forever.

     

  24. Posted

    Thanks everyone! I was loosely inspired by Amiga stuff here but as Amiga was mostly an European thing (?) it's interesting to hear how it looks like to different people.
    Putting the game together is going pretty well, don't want to show much because it's all about just exploring and solving light puzzles.
    I should save this kind of stuff to next week, but I love tinkering with details like water drops (they give a bit of water to your steam shoes (<-completely pointlessB))) and magic markings here:

    dropsAndSecretLetters.gif.6a254a906772b956931d4d636da35053.gif