TheSailor 2023-01-24 14:33 (Edited)
A little Fruit Drop game I've been working on. Was8bit helped me out with some damage control code 😁
I haven't got all the code sorted out for the levels entirely yet. After level 3 it goes to game over. That's just for now.
Update 1: I've worked on the levels. I've also added powerups and worked on the music a bit more.
Update 2: Worked more on the game mechanics and started playing with extra character sheets.
Update 3: I worked on a few things here. You now have a high score. A bonus for not dropping any chips. I improved the look of the powerups. I have an idea in my head for a second level to progress from the simple back and forth of the game as it is currently.
Update 4: It's starting to feel like a decent little arcade game. The music is very repetitive but I'm working on it. Right now there are 2 stages you work through each having 5 levels each. I absolutely love how Stage 2 turned out. It's still not quite there but it's fun. Would love to hear what you guys think.
Update 5:
I have played around with making the first level use collision checking to stop chippy from falling through the floor. I haven't implemented it into the conveyor stage yet as you'll see. I also have tweaked a few things.
Update 6:
Small update. I tweaked the running animation and the dust particles a touch. Still deciding on if the purple suits Chippy but the blue definitely highlights his emotions I think. Stage 2 (Conveyor) has now got tile collision for the belt. Haven't implemented the boxes and I "broke" the level just to test out the tile collision.
Update 7:
I have changed how the chips drop from the top now. Instead of it being a totally random x position I have opted for creating setup up drop columns. So on the first stage chips can fall from one of two columns. The columns increase with the levels.
I have got the conveyor belt animation working using background tiles. Now I have to figure out how to get BG Scroll to work so that the crate tiles can move. Not sure if I'm going the right way about it by making the crates tiles instead of sprites.
Update 8:
I have Stage 2 working to a point now! Can't seem to get the sprite to stop the jumping animation yet but it works! Haha! Also I created a cover for Chippy last night in Pixel Studio. No idea if it's possible to convert it to be used in Lowres though.
Update 9:
Realised I left it on Stage 2 from debugging. This version plays from Stage 1. My bad.
Update 10:
@Pablo is such a slave driver. Making me feel bad for not working on my game... (Kidding 😂)
Here's an update. Stage 2 is just about done now. And you'll get a hint at Stage 3
Update 11:
@Pablo once again being a huge help and working some magic in shrinking down my KB in order to keep my images in the game! I have now got the screens looking as I intended them. I also tried mixing up the colours of the splash screens (as Timo pointed out they were looking cold) using BG Tint to colour sections. It's not perfect but it's not bad either. Force a game over to see the new game over screen. Level 3 is my goal today. At least getting some of the mechanics working.
Update 12:
I have Stage 3 working to a point. I get an out of memory error for some reason. If you want to cheat just change the DAYS variable from 1 to 11 to skip to Stage 3.
Update 13:
Have it working fine again now. I would love to hear what you guys think of Stage 3. The idea is conveyors drop chips randomly and Chippy has to move the container to catch them before the crash. To move the container you have to jump/headbutt the green button (Safety first - wear your helmet Chippy). For now the Stage is pretty easy because I haven't added an "enemy" yet. But thought I would hear what you guys think about the mechanics of the Stage.
Update 14:
I finally have 3 Stages working. Incorporated @Pablo's helpful code as well! Now I need to think of more random things for Chippy's boss to say at the end of a level. Because I don't want it to become too repetitive. I now have to come up with a Stage 4 now. But I must thank everyone for helping me get this far! Honestly it's been awesome learning to do this I really feel the game is looking so good!
Update 15:
Hopefully I've fixed all those memory leaks in the game. Thanks to @Pablo and his eagle eyes. I have info screens now at the start of each new Stage. I have also made a few visual changes. Trying to make the game feel more tied in together with all the screen types.
Timo 2023-01-24 14:59
Very cool, I like the graphics and the sound effects :)
TheSailor 2023-01-24 19:26
Thank you. I'm still learning a lot about chiptune music 😅
was8bit 2023-01-25 04:21
Nice "ouch" graphic and sound :)
TheSailor 2023-01-25 07:31
Haha thanks. I'm enjoying the ability to make random sounds
was8bit 2023-01-25 13:00
:D
GAMELEGEND 2023-01-26 14:25
I absolutely love this game.
TheSailor 2023-01-26 14:32
That's awesome to hear 😁
SP4CEBAR 2023-01-27 15:22
I love the conveyor belt, but unfortunately I couldn't look at it for long: I got hit by a yellow projectile that I wasn't supposed to collect, and then I fell off the conveyor belt because I wasn't paying attention
SP4CEBAR 2023-01-27 15:36
On level 5 it's way easier to jump over the forklift than on level 1 because of the movement speed
If you land on top of a crate on the conveyor belt you'll fall through it and it seems like you get twice the conveyor belt speed
TheSailor 2023-01-27 16:43
You probably had the speed powerup at that time. The probability of it dropping then is greater than the first rounds.
Yeah I haven't done much collision work on the crates yet. Right now they just push you aside so it's more of a hindrance I guess. Also when you touch the sides of the conveyor you take damage and get reset to the middle. Still making it all work though.
SP4CEBAR 2023-01-27 20:05
I didn't notice there was a speed power up, that explains it!
TheSailor 2023-01-28 02:46
I thought as much. I made a change now so that you visually change colour when powered up. I also made it so that you lose the powerup when taking damage.
Still need to work on being able to platform onto the crates.
SP4CEBAR 2023-01-28 08:45
Good luck!
TheSailor 2023-02-11 08:52
I have not given up on this. Haha. Back at sea but as soon as I get a chance I want to work on landing on the crates in the second stage. I have been experimenting with chpitunes as well. No formal education at all in music but it's fun to play with sounds.
Timo 2023-02-11 09:27
Looking forward to it :)
Pablo 2023-02-11 23:56 (Edited)
Impressively detailed, and the player character looks so lively. Also, the sounds are fun.
TheSailor 2023-02-12 04:35
Thank you. Appreciate the feedback. This is my first endeavour not to follow a tutorial haha
TheSailor 2023-02-12 04:36
Well technically the basis of the game type is from a tutorial I guess.
nathanielbabiak 2023-02-12 21:54
What tutorial did you use?
TheSailor 2023-02-13 03:24
When I was learning about Pico 8 I found a tutorial that sets up a fruit Drop game. I just adapted it for Lowres NX.
SP4CEBAR 2023-02-13 21:44
the floor collisions on level "saturday" don't work anymore making the player fall through the floor
TheSailor 2023-02-14 03:29
Haha yeah I only got it working last night. But haven't tried making the crates tiles yet. Maybe tonight I'll get it going
Timo 2023-02-16 14:48
Wow, cool title pic. Will it be in the game?
TheSailor 2023-02-16 14:58
I designed it with the idea of using it. It uses only 3 colours and black being the BG colour. Just have to convert it I guess. I think I saw a tool here in the assets but think it was windows based.
GAMELEGEND 2023-02-16 15:26
I have seen every picture on this website and there are some pretty good ones, but I must say that this is the best one.
GAMELEGEND 2023-02-16 15:35
Before I saw the newest picture chippy looked like a robot to me.
TheSailor 2023-02-16 15:49
I can see that. I never really designed him in a real sense. I just put pixels together in Lowres and he was born 🤣
Awsa 2023-02-16 20:40
I leave for a few days and the game already looks sooo professional! Very impressive!
TheSailor 2023-02-17 03:22
I appreciate all the kind words guys. Especially seeing as this is my first game on here haha.
Pablo 2023-02-17 06:12 (Edited)
I've added a splash screen to the game with your cover image.
Edit: The image is centered now.
TheSailor 2023-02-17 06:19
Ah man! Thank you so much!
TheSailor 2023-02-17 16:12
I haven't had a chance to look at it properly yet but I appreciate your eye for detail!
TheSailor 2023-03-08 13:25
Bit it's not finished yet? 😶
Pablo 2023-03-16 18:36 (Edited)
It's already very good, maybe you can just set a goal for the second stage. You can always update it or make a sequel later. Just thinking loud.
TheSailor 2023-03-17 05:44
I appreciate the kind words. I have added a 3 level as well in the mean time. Unfortunately work has gotten in the way so far. I'm hoping to finish up the game soon though.
Pablo 2023-03-22 22:10 (Edited)
This is good news. And sorry, i didn't mean to be pushy. Having fun is the most important.
TheSailor 2023-03-23 03:47
I promise I was joking. I am having quite a lot of fun 😁
Pablo 2023-03-23 13:27 (Edited)
It's magic!
TheSailor 2023-03-26 12:08 (Edited)
Can someone give me hand converting these into characters and a bg file?
(What's the markdown code to place images on the forum?)
SP4CEBAR 2023-03-26 12:41
if your URL looks like this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/CODE/view?usp=drivesdk
You can turn it into this:
Where CODE is the unique code of the google drive file, and NAME is the text you see when the image somehow fails to load
TheSailor 2023-03-26 14:25
*High 5 to you sir 😁
Timo 2023-03-26 15:24
As you are working on images again: The drawings are amazing, but I think the colors don‘t fit to the game. The game has warm colors, but the images are cold. How about trying a warmer palette?
Pablo 2023-03-26 20:52 (Edited)
Note: There's no ROM left, if you need more, these images could be loaded from strings.
TheSailor 2023-03-27 04:56 (Edited)
Pablo to the rescue 😁 Thank you. I was hoping they would both fit and then I was going to remove the gameover BG to be replaced with this new game over screen and then print out a new screen of details of the player's score etc.
Is it possible to rename ROMS btw? Instead of using the numbers allocated to them?
@Timo
I get what you're saying. I'll have a look. Limited to one palette is quite difficult.
TheSailor 2023-03-27 05:18
Maybe I could play around with tinting the BG tiles to mix up the colours
Pablo 2023-03-27 05:47 (Edited)
All the images are loaded from data strings now, and the title screen is back.
I'm a big CHIPPY fan!
TheSailor 2023-03-27 06:29
Haha... Man you are awesome. I'm glad my game is entertaining without even playing it 😂
GAMELEGEND 2023-03-27 06:54
You know it's a good game when you don't have to play it to enjoy it.
TheSailor 2023-03-27 08:15
It would be awesome if you made a tutorial on how you get the images into data strings. In fact even converting them to characters would be awesome to have a tutorial for @Pablo
@Gamelegend
I guess that's quite true.
Timo 2023-03-30 06:56
I love the new colors :)
TheSailor 2023-03-30 14:37
@Timo I must agree it is quite nice. Thanks for the idea
Now... I'm working on Stage 3. My code works through the Monday and Tuesday levels just fine but I get an out of memory error when starting the Wednesday level.
Pablo 2023-03-30 15:43 (Edited)
I've updated the splash screens, the file size is smaller now.
Edit: Removed all the remaining gotos to outside a sub.
TheSailor 2023-03-30 16:52
Man you are awesome! Thank you so much! I'll have a look at implement your update into mine.
I kinda got the problem sorted by basically duplicating code instead of trying to use a global sub function that all the levels call from. It's not giving the error now if I don't call out to the sub and instead have the code within the Stages code.
TheSailor 2023-03-31 05:03
I think I read somewhere in the manual about that problem with GOTO commands now that you mention it! Haha thanks again for the help!
TheSailor 2023-03-31 07:07
Also I appreciate you editing my lastest update with those changes on the screens. I was going to use your previous update but got sidetracked with that bug 😅
Now Chippy's boss can say some longer phrases 😁
I'm thinking that since the levels are based on days of the week the game should have a total of 4 stages. Basically representative of the 4 weeks in a month (technically it's sometimes 5).
Then I need to look at adding screens that explain gameplay perhaps?
Also I know you mentioned an intro screen @Pablo so maybe that as well.
I definitely need more music as well.
Pablo 2023-03-31 14:43 (Edited)
I believe you can fit about 4 to 8 more images, if the upload file size limit is 128 kB.
Stage 3 adds more variation to the game. Happy update CHIPPY!
TheSailor 2023-03-31 15:32
Ah thanks for catching that!
Timo 2023-04-02 15:17
Eventually I’ll have to implement a “show more” button here to hide older versions…
TheSailor 2023-04-02 17:08
I was thinking that the other day. Think I spammed the page. I'll edit the page when I get back to shore again.
was8bit 2023-04-02 17:38 (Edited)
.... or perhaps give the poster the option to delete older updates...
I see the value of keeping key updates so people can see and learn the steps of making games...
Timo 2023-04-02 17:58
There is no way to delete older versions currently. I think thats ok, but I want the “show more” anyway. But no hurry, I don’t have time.
was8bit 2023-04-02 21:21
Yep, no hurry.... real life (family, work) comes first :)
