Li'l Trooper

[Magnulus]

Ever since I made the little 4x4 footsoldier (

) for SimpleRTS (now dubbed Platoons) I've been wanting to make a bigger little guy and put him in some sort of platformer. I didn't have any real idea of what kind of a platformer this would be, but I wanted to make one.

So today I sat down and put together some animations for a little trooper. This is what I came up with:

(is there any way to zoom them in BB Code? I know some types allow me to do that.)

Some more time went by, and I made a few things for him to run around on:

(in it, you can see grass, metal girders, and ice)

I've been thinking about the style of gameplay, and if you've played N, the awesome little ninja game, I'm thinking something along those lines, though of course not identical. You have a gun, so that will be used. You'll have some nasty enemies and things to contend with as well, of course. Each level will be one screen, no more. (unless I want to make gigantic levels, in which case, we can discuss scrolling levels.) I'm planning on giving the guy a grappling hook to swing by and to use for wall-jumping as well (like a gun-toting ninja!)

I kind of also want to make it highly customisable so we can add objects and enemies and maybe even player actions easily as we go. It would be nice if we made developing tools that could later be released as level editors, as a game like this would REALLY benefit from user-made level and enemy packs.

I have no detailed design docs or anything, as I just started detailing this game TODAY, but I thought I'd throw it out there and see what people think.

Of course, all this is in vain as long as no one codes it. Me and Vynx have sort of decided that GT3X (that's what we call ourselves, the guys behind Platoons.) needs another coder. So I guess this would be sort of your initiation if you were willing to join us. We need someone who's not likely to jump out of a project mid-way, though, so someone dependable. You don't have to stay in after Li'l Trooper, but you'll be welcome to join us if you do well and behave nicely. ^_^

EDIT: Added the lie-down, sit-up animation.

 

[BenRoshi]

Sounds cool, good luck!

 

[trooper]

Cool, A game named after me and with me in it.

How cool is that.

Sorry for not adding anything constructive to this thread, So i`ll shut up now.

**Bow`s head and exit`s left**

Trooper

 

[Magnulus]

Cool, A game named after me and with me in it.

Hahah! You're welcome, Trooper! Hope I did all right in trying to capture your powerful sense of presence in only 8x8 pixels. ^_^

 

[DaveN]

I have no detailed design docs or anything, as I just started detailing this game TODAY, but I thought I'd throw it out there and see what people think.

Awesome?

Actually this sounds like a good idea and with the graphics I already can imagine a in-game scene of the game. The graphics would have to be kept in this size, else the nice one-screen idea wouldn't work because there wouldn't be enought space. Even in this size the space could get a little bit small. 320x240 isn't too much. But if that would work, we could get a game that could be cooler than N ( which rocks hard, of course ).
With a tile engine the customisable part would also be solved. Something important here would just be that the game will be fast.

But don't use double-jumping that wouldn't suit the theme. And walljumps are something I hate aswell. I mean, this is a soldier, how the hell would he walljump? The grappling hook could be nice, but just if it wouldn't allow the player to just go from the bottom of the level to the top in like two seconds. More something to get over bigger holes.

And Platoon, looking forward to it, but can't help coding it. I don't think that I'm dependable enough for it, the last bigger projects I started never got finished. And so I'd like to finish a medium to big sized project by myself first, since I don't want to slow any progress down with possible jump-outs.

Edit: I'm just learning pixel art, so have you learned it from somewhere by yourself?

 

[Magnulus]

Awesome?

Squee! Thanks! ^_^

Actually this sounds like a good idea and with the graphics I already can imagine a in-game scene of the game. The graphics would have to be kept in this size, else the nice one-screen idea wouldn't work because there wouldn't be enought space. Even in this size the space could get a little bit small. 320x240 isn't too much.

Well, I was going to make a mock-up in Photoshop, but wasn't really prepared for just how damn big 320x240 is for an 8x8 character. Here's an example right below. Of course, it could be bigger, like I said. But we'll see about that. It's probably just as well to add a tile engine from the get-go and just leave it up to the user, I guess. About his size, 8x8 was my idea all along. It's perfect for the GP2X.

But don't use double-jumping that wouldn't suit the theme. And walljumps are something I hate aswell. I mean, this is a soldier, how the hell would he walljump? The grappling hook could be nice, but just if it wouldn't allow the player to just go from the bottom of the level to the top in like two seconds. More something to get over bigger holes.

I agree. Getting from bottom to top in two seconds wouldn't be very useful for an obstacle-based game. For games like Liero, it's super-fun, though. I don't intend to have double jumps, because they're just silly. How the heck are you supposed to jump when you're in mid-air? I always frowned upon those things.
Though I do still like the wall jumping, as long as you need to use the grappling hook for it. Think about it this way: You need to click the grappler button at the right time, then you need to release it and jump straight after before you start to fall. The level design decides how fast you can get up using it, but most probably, it'll be a way to get up some difficult walls and such rather than a speed-lift. You can also, like you said, use it like a swingie-thing for wide gaps and such, or to grab a hold of ledges and such when you need to get up some place high.
I just had a wild mental picture of grappling enemies to throw them down from ledges to certain doom. Maybe the grapple could be used to take down certain sentries and such if you can't get in a good position to fight them. With a rudimentary physics engine, one would even be able to add things like trapdoors with rocks above them to trigger and kill enemies. Wild fantasies, but THINK about how cool it would look! The graphics are simple enough not to take too many CPU cycles too, so... Anyway, enough of this day-dreaming (though, technically, it's night here.)

And Platoon, looking forward to it, but can't help coding it.

Oh, don't worry. Wite Noiz has got us covered on Platoons. We just need another one for this project right now.

Edit: I'm just learning pixel art, so have you learned it from somewhere by yourself?

I learned some from the legendary Tsugumo, who has since disappeared from the face of the internet. Even his forum, Pixelation, has disappeared. He had a few tutorials, but nothing huge. I'm mostly self-taught and completely self-taught in animation, which is why you're not seeing me do big-sized pixel animations. I just find them too intimidating.

Thanks for all that interesting and thought-provoking feedback!

 

[Daid]

http://daid.mine.nu/pub/Li'l%20Trooper.rar (30 minutes copy&paste work from other projects)

A link is like a 1000 words?

 

[Magnulus]

http://daid.mine.nu/pub/Li'l%20Trooper.rar (30 minutes copy&paste work from other projects)

A link is like a 1000 words?

Considering you did that in a half hour, that's awesome! Copy-pasted from your own projects?
Is this a way of saying "I am interested in taking this further"?
*curbs his enthusiasm until he gets conclusive answers.*
*fails* :lol:

I love what you've managed to do so quickly. If there's any chance of seeing him animated as well, send me a PM, and I'll toss a PNG sprite map your way.

 

[hitbyambulance]

i like these sorts of games - i already have a design document for another 'little side-runner'. my problem is that i like collaborating when designing these sorts of games, cuz there are so many good concepts and ideas that could be used and i want to be able to pick from as many as possible, as well as wanting to be sure that my level designs are solid.

 

[sparr]

320x240 really is more than adequate for an 8x8 character. To put it into perspective, little Mario is 16x16. The NES had a resolution of 256x240. That means a single screen level for trooper, at 8x8, is the equivalent of a 5-screen-wide level for mario. More, if you consider that mario was very vertical-movement-challeneged and trooper will have a grappling hook. Assume mario only used the bottom half of the screen on average and trooper now has the equivalent of 10 SMB screens.

 

[BenRoshi]

You also don't have to use the full screen, if you thought there was too much vertical room (for example), you could put a nice sized border on the top and bottom, I don't think people would complain if it was stylish.

 

[Magnulus]

For now, I've requested a scrolling map engine from Daid. You wouldn't HAVE to use more than a single screen, but you can if you want. That's the style of thinking I'm going for. And, of course, using 320x240 maps for the very first tutorial level would be a great big fat waste, so I'll look into making a sort of frame or something for smaller levels.

 

[Daid]

:rolleyes:

We're getting somewhere.

 

[Daid]

http://daid.mine.nu/pub/Li'l.gif

Actual ingame footage (ok, the speed is very wrong, I think the game is about twice as fast)

@Magnulus: As you can see, I fixed up the jumping animation and turning around animation now.

 

[Magnulus]

Woohoo! You rock so fabulously much! ^_^
Does he run up the little slopes as well?

 

[BenRoshi]

So what's the plan for how you beat a level? Since the user can see the entire level on one screen, it'd be cool if there were multiple ways to get to the final destination.

 

[Magnulus]

We're shooting for some simple physics in the engine, and also some interesting and creative uses for your weaponry and objects. Don't want to mention too much right now as we might not include everything we want, but I will most definitely try to whip up some multiple-choice maps, if you know what I mean. We're not going for a straight jump and shoot kind of thing here, though that's all there is right now. If that was all we wanted, the game would be done by the end of the next week. ^_^

 

[Draken]

On a side note, you're still working on Bork?

 

[Magnulus]

It's on a hold 'till Nick finishes flicking KuruKuru2X.

If he wants me to, I could always pass it on to someone else. Maybe Daid or Wite Noize once these projects are done.

 

[Magnulus]

*walks timidly into the room and waves*

Hi... Yeah, I just recently reflashed my GP2X which has been out of use since... I dunno, almost a year ago. I was thinking of some of these projects I was part of at some point, and thought it was a shame that I was never able to get a hold of my co-conspirators. The evils of not being able to teach oneself to program is that you're so dependent on other people.

So I was wondering if anyone was interested in sort of rebooting Li'l Trooper now, more than a year later... If you're at all interested, I have some builds we made during the days of early development for you to check out...