Lumber-Jerks!

SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
titlescreen.png
A 2 player fighting game with a Canadian feel!


Still in early development, so It's pretty bare-bones for now. Using stand-in graphics for the levels. Working on all the under-the-hood stuff still before I focus on sound/music/background

The game will be a 2 player VS game with 4 different selectable characters. The characters will have their own traits, abilities, and personalities that should make for fun competition. I'm focusing on balanced play so there will be no "dominant strategy"

I Wasn't going to announce it this early, But I will be showing it this weekend at the "VS Sick Kids booth " at the Barrie Game exchange this weekend. It's not nearly ready for a release yet, but It's my hope that it will attract people to the booth where they can see the great things being done for these kids. If anyone is in the area, please say hi! I'd love to meet any other developers in the area.

Planned Features:
-2 player game
-unique combat gameplay
-4 characters with unique abilities and stats
-various hazards in different levels
-wall jumping - no infinite jumping here, you have to actually switch walls to jump again
-jump down through 1 way platforms
-axe throw is based on player momentum and inputs
-animated tiles
-cartoonish animations, bypassed the 8 action state limit and snuck extra animations into the game by setting characters facing directions to diagonal
-"effects system" - really just puffs of smoke/dust to make it feel like the characters interact with the world
-foreground tiles
-moving platforms




This game won't be out for a long time, since I am planning on slapping a lot of polish on it and actually going for a possible commercial release. But stay tuned for updates!
 
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SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
Here's a pic of the Demo game being used at the Sickkids booth at the Barrie Game Exchange. I was told by the Volunteer that it helped bring people to their booth, So I'm happy it worked out. Now I just got to get back to work developing the game into something everyone will want to play!

sickkids.jpg
 
SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
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a little BEFORE and AFTER pics to show off!
I'm not just coding here. Also trying to get a head start on getting some better tiles going. Trying to go for a cartoony feel. I still have a long way to go.
 
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SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
Here's the first bit of actual gameplay shown online. Still early days, and I've got a lot of work to do, But the game already can be very competitive and fun.

Any questions, comments, or criticisms especially are welcome!

Players each have 1 axe to throw at eachother and do damage. They can also stun eachother with melee attacks. They have to pick up an axe to be able to throw again.

Player 1 (RED) is playing as Paul. He has a bigger jump and can heal himself by doing a dance. he also whistles as a melee attack

Player 2 (BLUE) is playing Jill. She can throw her axe straight instead of in an arc, which is better for long range attacks.

The background tiles and maps are still in development, as is some proper music. I am also hoping a single player mode can be made.
 
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5kids2feed

5kids2feed

Well-known member
Black pops out more for me next to the red color, but I totally get what you are going for with the red and brown.
 
SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
JamesNES said:
I think black. Cool looking game, gameplay looks very intricate
Click to expand...

Thank you. While the game isn't strictly a fighter game, I am using a similar philosophy:

1: make a game that anyone can pick up and play easily, but give the oppurtunity for high level play (button mashing works to a certain extent, but players can learn the nuances of characters to get better results)
2: no "dominant strategy" (avoid allowing for one tactic to work perfectly regardless of what the other player does)
3: make each character unique, but balanced

basically I am going for intricate and simple at the same time, which is easier said than done.

Thanks for the response guys, Black it is then. It frees me up to use the dark brown as background that way.
 
SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
I don't want to keep spamming the forum with minor game updates, But I'm pretty excited to share this new feature:
I used layered sprites to have axes now appear strapped to the backs of players instead of being in the hud!

You might want to fullscreen this video so you can see what I'm talking about

I had to account for different action steps, left/right direction, and ammo count (one of the characters has the ability to hold 2 axes, others are limited to 1), but I was able to throw this all in to the sprite post-draw script. (pre-draw has a bit of lag that follows the player around, but can look cool in certain instances, post draw sticks right to the player, and also draws BEHIND the player which is what I needed)

I'm also not concerned about the amount of sprites lined up in 1 row, since there can only ever be 2 axes in play at a time with my game. (more than 8 sprites lined up horizontally is more than what the nes can handle without flickering tricks)

Most of the work is done with the DrawSpriteHud command, I just stick it to the player coords and adjust some offsets based on the mentioned criterias. While it doesn't account for animation frames, this sort of thing could easily be adapted to creating layered sprites to get more colors.

If there is interest, I can share the script, but it might be limited how useful it is to others.
 
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SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
MUSIC AND SINGLE PLAYER MODE!

This is an early test of a single player mode, in case someone doesn't have any friends to play with. Things to notice:
1: MUSIC! a very talented person going by Mangohabanero is providing some of the best NES music I've ever heard
2: Background tiles. Been working hard on making a lush looking forest, hope it stands up.
3: Enemies! the raccoon wanders around and pounces at you if you get too close. The beaver just waddles around and throws a stick. There will be more to come! I am having a few issues with the slopes and scrolling, but that is being worked on.
 
SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
CAMERA BOBBING AND WIND BLOWING FEATURES


The camera bobbing up and down is done using a table to make it seem more wave-like and not just an up down movement.

The wind is added to the physics script, it pushes any object to the left, except for things I have set it to ignore (like the axe pickups)

both are toggled using userscreenbytes, so can be added or removed from any screen.
 
Lord_Klump_Of_Kongo_Bongo

Lord_Klump_Of_Kongo_Bongo

Active member
SciNEStist said:
CAMERA BOBBING AND WIND BLOWING FEATURES


The camera bobbing up and down is done using a table to make it seem more wave-like and not just an up down movement.

The wind is added to the physics script, it pushes any object to the left, except for things I have set it to ignore (like the axe pickups)

both are toggled using userscreenbytes, so can be added or removed from any screen.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough was MAYBE going to make a VERY abridged version of a gamemaker platform fighter like this for NES the gamemaker version interestingly enough was pitched to me by my brother... obviously because my projects I've already teased this is going to be similar to a NESMAKER show finale. Might still make some NES games but won't be retro versions for every gamemaker studio game. To clarify further by "finale" it's going to be a least like four to six finished games by the time I share even any remote information so at bare minimum a decade but probably nuch longer... great work though dude!
 
JamesNES

JamesNES

Well-known member
Nice man, adding a shadow makes a surprising amount of difference. Your jumping physics look really good too
 
SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
Thank you. I've been toying with adding little flourishes that don't effect gameplay but look nice. stuff like the bit of dust that kicks up when players jump, shadows. weather effects, etc. As long as it doesnt actually slow down stuff.
 
SciNEStist

SciNEStist

Well-known member
Adding a section with a player falling down a waterfall. Was able to re-use a lot of code for player movement that I will be using in minigames and the overworld map, so I'm pretty proud of that.

This isn't actual vertical scrolling, I'm just faking it, but once I improve the water tiles, it should look pretty good.
 
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