Lerp Development Thread

[benjymous]

http://grapefruitopia.com/lerp

Here you can find a (very) early video of a little platform/puzzle game I'm working on - the basic premise is that our little purple alien guy can morph into a variety of inanimate objects (that you must first find scattered around the game world) in order to solve various puzzles and progress through the world.

The video here shows how momentum is preserved when morphing, so that can be used to your advantage to reach inaccessible areas.

Second demo - 02/01/2009 - http://www.vimeo.com/2705236 - fun with physics [updated 03/01 - Vimeo version which is much better quality!]

Third demo - 29/03/2009 - http://www.vimeo.com/3905862 - This shows off the ability to absorb stuff, the radial morph menu, a scrolling level, and basic puzzle solving

Fourth demo - 18/04/2009 - http://www.vimeo.com/4210613 - Freeform maps, and a better idea of the graphics style

Fifth demo - 11/07/2009 - http://www.vimeo.com/5550298 - a little snippet of the game's intro (still WIP!)

 

[TaG]

Looks interesting. Nice character and idea. The balloon and morphing look pretty good. My only (small) comment is that his far leg doesn't look quite the right shade. Any more details?

 

[benjymous]

Looks interesting. Nice character and idea. The balloon and morphing look pretty good. My only (small) comment is that his far leg doesn't look quite the right shade. Any more details?

Don't worry - the graphics are very early (and very placeholder) - I generally suck at graphics, so it's a miracle they look vaguely ok! - You can tell I haven't bothered with shading on the walk cycle yet - the majority of the work so far has been in getting the morph effect working reasonably nicely (although my particle drawing code is horribly inefficient at the moment!)

I'm mostly in the concepting stage at the moment. I've had this game idea stuck in my head for a good 15 years (I started making a version on the Amiga, but was mostly hampered by the fact that all the morphing effects had to be pre-drawn)

I'll update here again when I have more progress to report (that video is pretty much it, at the moment!)

 

[Mark1970]

Love the character!

 

[Yannick]

If SDL on windows maps to DirectX then you should be able to capture it with FRAPS

 

[benjymous]

If SDL on windows maps to DirectX then you should be able to capture it with FRAPS

Nope, I tried fraps, and it doesn't seem to detect the SDL window

 

[Zoxc]

CamStudio with CamStudio's lossless codec is pretty fast.

ffmpeg/vlc can convert the files to H.264. Here is some tips for ffmpeg: http://rob.opendot.cl/index.php/useful-stu...encoding-guide/

Tell me if you find another program that can convert these files. ffmpeg gave artifacts with the mouse pointer and AviSynth fucks up the video.

 

[Prometheus]

Wow, what an excellent idea! I really love the concept you have here. Best of luck.

 

[TrevorBradley]

Great game idea. I sense vicious spikes being part of the future level design.

Good Luck!

 

[TheBrainSquid]

Cute character, I can't wait to see how the full game turns out.

 

[closetwam]

Excellent!

 

[ledow]

Reminds me of Alchemist on the Spectrum.

The character was a wizard who could morph in a puff of smoke to become an eagle. It was a stupidly difficult game.

Although I like the concept of this one more, you're going to have some seriously tricky puzzles if the balloon thing is anything to go by - having to use the momentum of the running char and then switching to a vertically move char to bounce off a wall and come onto the platform above - now imagine you have ten different abilities and you need to solve a puzzle! Which ones do you use in which combination?!

But the concept seems good.

 

[mrsnature]

concept looks cool. I like the particle morphing effect. IMHO the effect could be a bit shorter tho, with the momentum continuing in the morph phase - to keep the game smoother (i don't mean the fps of the capture!) and faster paced - i imagine it will soon get annoying, that 1sec transition phase.

If i'm making any sense!

Anyway, good luck!

 

[benjymous]

IMHO the effect could be a bit shorter tho

It lasts as long as you hold the morph button down (so a quick press will morph instantly to the next form) - eventually you'll get some sort of radial menu when you hold the button down, so you can choose which form to take (in the video there's only two, so it doesn't matter!)

...you're going to have some seriously tricky puzzles if the balloon thing is anything to go by - having to use the momentum of the running char and then switching to a vertically move char to bounce off a wall and come onto the platform above - now imagine you have ten different abilities and you need to solve a puzzle! Which ones do you use in which combination?!

Yup, that's where careful level design will have to come in - if you think of most games where you collect abilities (e.g. Zelda or Metroid) you'll usually be presented with an impassable barrier of some sort, which will make you turn back, leading you to where the new pickup is (which of course lets you pass the previous barrier) - this teaches the player how each item is used.

Granted, the later stages will involve crazy combinations of many different abilities, but I've always preferred games that really make you think!

 

[Trip]

Great idea for a game and I like the character.
Wind effects could be interesting to up the difficulty whilst your the balloon

 

[doriath]

Really like the idea, I like the morph effect too. It might look cool if you give the morphing graphic the physics of the new object and keep the momentum going? that way you can still keep the length of the effect and keep the pace going?

 

[benjymous]

Really like the idea, I like the morph effect too. It might look cool if you give the morphing graphic the physics of the new object and keep the momentum going? that way you can still keep the length of the effect and keep the pace going?

Currently, the idea is that time is frozen while you're in the morph state - I might try to make time slow down then speed up as you morph, which could stop if feeling so disjointed

 

[gaterooze]

Great idea, and you've addressed the immediate concern I had (delay when switching forms). Really looking forward to seeing your progress on this!

 

[sterling976]

Very nice! The concept reminds me of Ghost Encounters for the Atari 400/800 machines.

 

[likwidoxigen]

I love puzzle games. That looks like a really sweet idea. Keep us posted!