Panjoust - A New Simple Platformer

[nickmaymusic]

Well I'm really glad you guys all like my music, and thanks for all the nice comments! In some weird way I feel more pressured now though to make all the music as popular as the demo in the youtube video haha. I think I might re-work some of the music to be more similar to the track used in the video, not only because it seems to be popular but also I think it's working quite nicely with it being a little darker than some of the other ideas I've written.

But thanks again, and I'm really enjoying working on this project!

 

[fusion_power]

So, I tested the original "Joust" 1 and 2 via MAME and I have to say, it is hard as hell. :lol: The birds have a abnormal fast acceleration but a abnormal slow break, so if you move, you easily rush over the screen many times before you can stop (one side out, other side in). Hard to control and even harder to hit enemies.
Pandjoust seems to be more fair with this I think.

 

[MarkoeZ]

So, I tested the original "Joust" 1 and 2 via MAME and I have to say, it is hard as hell. :lol: The birds have a abnormal fast acceleration but a abnormal slow break, so if you move, you easily rush over the screen many times before you can stop (one side out, other side in). Hard to control and even harder to hit enemies.
Pandjoust seems to be more fair with this I think.

Well, i must say, the video on youtube is not by far the first attempt i recorded. It's not quite as easy as it looks there.
That being said, it does have a bit larger margin of error than the original.

Nick May: Well you know allready what i think about your music, it's awesome. I've just sent you a pm with some more thoughts. (Also hello Dad May ; )

Cheers!

p.s. small update: currently implementing pointy stuff to avoid

Edit: Pointy icy spikes working, you hit the point, you die. blocks on the sides. different sizes. many...

Rock pickup and release behaviour are much improved.

 

[Masterfurbix]

In some weird way I feel more pressured now though to make all the music as popular as the demo in the youtube video

The work of the pressured artist suffers.

Some Elizabethan poet (whose name I have forgotten) said it better, but simplicity always has its benefits. Don't worry about the expectations of others, yours are sufficient. I myself, can get HIGHLY critical of my own work, especially my traditional art and sketches. This project has helped me loosen up in an artistic way, and I find myself being far less critical of the work I've already produced for Panjoust.

So, I tested the original "Joust" 1 and 2 via MAME and I have to say, it is hard as hell.

I assure you, Panjoust will be no bed of roses when it's complete. Even in the limited demo, with few enemies and no deadly obstacles, I've died countless times to the same nonsense I always have.

 

[fusion_power]

p.s. small update: currently implementing pointy stuff to avoid

Edit: Pointy icy spikes working, you hit the point, you die. blocks on the sides. different sizes. many...

Rock pickup and release behaviour are much improved.

sounds tough. Can we destroy the evil icy spikes with throwing a rock onto it? ^^"

I assure you, Panjoust will be no bed of roses when it's complete. Even in the limited demo, with few enemies and no deadly obstacles, I've died countless times to the same nonsense I always have.

Yes, I think it will be hard because you don't stay in the air without pushing the fly button. And in Joust there are only enemies (at least as far as I played) and ist's hard enough. In Joust 2 you also have lava onto the ground and you can easily touch it and die there. Very mean additional obstacle. AND you jump like a pinball-ball from obstacles very fast, nearly impossible to control the Bird. AND if you are not fast enough to catch the eggs, Enemies slip out of them. Evil.
Joust 2 Lvl 6:

 

[Masterfurbix]

That is actually a REALLY good idea.


Hold on, making broken icicle sprites.

EDIT: finished and sent them to Marko, we'll see if he likes the idea as well.


And hopefully the final version of panjoust will be a different kind of hard. A difficult hard, but not one made so by frustrating controls.

 

[MarkoeZ]

And hopefully the final version of panjoust will be a different kind of hard. A difficult hard, but not one made so by frustrating controls.

Yep. The original joust needed that kind of maniacal movement to make it difficult, here we have whole levels to fly through with lots of obstacles and enemies to make things harder.
The main thing that makes this game difficult (and makes it different from other games i think) is that in mid air, you can hardly adjust horizontal velocity without flapping your wings, and that also makes you go up and there might be some nasty spikes there. So you have to think about where you are going slightly before you actually do, instead of (for instance) just making a jump at the exact right time.

About the icicles, they are currently hanging, so nice job if you manage to throw a rock onto that But standing spikes will also be added, so the idea is still solid.

Not sure yet what im going to do tonight, i have some graphics to implement, gameplay to add/finetune, music to listen at and implement... Anyway, you can all read the update later.

Cheers!!

 

[Masterfurbix]

Yeah, I'm sure that Nick and I are keeping you busy with all of our stuff to implement.


When you get a chance, test out those rain overlays and tell me what needs to be fixed; if they end up working I want to ask Nick to make a mournful piano track with lots of white noise.

I can tell that kind of thing is his specialty.

 

[fusion_power]

About the icicles, they are currently hanging, so nice job if you manage to throw a rock onto that But standing spikes will also be added, so the idea is still solid.

:lol: Yes, I actualy meant standing spikes onto the ground! Just an idea to make some things a little bit more easy when to many spikes makes a passage unsave or you need a place to rest...whatever.

And I also think, that the difficulty of a game should lay into the Levels and enemies, and not into the controls.

 

[MarkoeZ]

:lol: Yes, I actualy meant standing spikes onto the ground! Just an idea to make some things a little bit more easy when to many spikes makes a passage unsave or you need a place to rest...whatever.

And I also think, that the difficulty of a game should lay into the Levels and enemies, and not into the controls.

got that. Since i have the graphics already, your idea will probably be implemented! I like those extra things you can do. More level interaction is almost always better. But not all spikes will be destroyable

And maybe i said it wrong. It's not really difficulty, just getting used to, and different playing style. It's also entertaining to learn, as you might have read in the testing post by Bandito. And what i've seen myself here is: people die in the beginning, but still have fun and somehow know that is was them messing up, and not the controls that were off. To me, after quite some playtesting, flight seems very natural.

Cheers!

 

[fusion_power]

I think these "extra things" are the spice in the game-soup.
Nothing really important for the gameplay itself but to have options and different interactions that you CAN use (but don't have to) makes the difference. ^_^

 

[MarkoeZ]

There is one thing i think i must make clear. Althought this is an open project, the rights to the game design and code still lie with me, the Penjin Engine with PokeParadox, Graphic rights to Dragons_Slayer and Amigo Bandito, music by Nick May (And Deise is coming with audio as well!!).
If changes are to be made to any of those, please contact me or the appropriate creator first. And if you have submissions, please use the existing material only as inspiration, not to copy.

Yes this will still be a free game for the Pandora! With open development like the Pandora! But with the current pace we are going, and the continued expansion of platforms supported by Penjin, other options are becoming viable as well.

So if you would like, for instance, a well drawn, flying bird without a rider, with proper transparency, as an avatar: just let us know!

Cheers!

 

[Masterfurbix]

So what do you think of the menu at the top.

There will be other Icons on it, of course.

 

[bzar]

Wow, this is looking better every time I pop in for updates! Great job guys!

OT: MarkoeZ, has anyone mentioned how your avatar kinda looks like the Weighted Companion Cube?

 

[fusion_power]

There is one thing i think i must make clear. Althought this is an open project, the rights to the game design and code still lie with me, the Penjin Engine with PokeParadox, Graphic rights to Dragons_Slayer and Amigo Bandito, music by Nick May (And Deise is coming with audio as well!!).
If changes are to be made to any of those, please contact me or the appropriate creator first. And if you have submissions, please use the existing material only as inspiration, not to copy.

Yes this will still be a free game for the Pandora! With open development like the Pandora! But with the current pace we are going, and the continued expansion of platforms supported by Penjin, other options are becoming viable as well.

So if you would like, for instance, a well drawn, flying bird without a rider, with proper transparency, as an avatar: just let us know!
I just make suggestions, nothing more. ^_^
Cheers!

I just make suggestions. ^_^

So what do you think of the menu at the top.

There will be other Icons on it, of course.

With a score-display embedded like this, there wouldn't be a Anti Aliasing performance problem because the numbers and the background could be one (smooth) graphic. (each number has the right part of the BG already there, so no transparency is needed)

 

[Jourdy288]

*Looks up at terrible bird avatar, cries*
Soo... I guess I should just... Yeah..

Um, I was working on making a better bird, it's just, well, I gave it the hump in the back and all for effect, but, Amigo, how do you want the birds? I'll try and do them better.

 

[Masterfurbix]

Character sprites are Dragon's domain, I don't really care lol.

because the numbers and the background could be one (smooth) graphic

Ah, but you would have to have an individual graphic for each number, the number of required points changes each level, and the points value changes when you kill something or retrieve an egg. The system still has to be dynamic, to fit the level editor as well as the changing single player 'campaign'.

There are also turning out to be several variations of the mountain level, including a tentative fully-animated rain level. (LIGHTNING AND THUNDER! KABOOOM!)

However, if we end up using each graphic 'set' for only one or two levels, I'll have a shitload of work trying to make new ones, and Marko will be stretched thin trying to implement them. The best way to handle this would be to have 5 - 6 levels for each graphic set, with the option on the main menu to start at the beginning of each set or 'Chapter'

Currently, we have two graphic sets at 90% completion. (With matching music by Nick that is ABSOLUTELY amazing) Once we polish these two off and get everything working just great, I can start experimenting a bit more actively with different methods of rain and weather.

The way I currently have the levels imagined is something like this.

1-5 Mountains - Day
6-10 Mountains - Night
11-16 Mountains - Night (rain)
17-21 Hills - Sunrise
22-27 Hills - Day
28-33 Flatlands - Night
34-39 Flatlands - Sunrise
40-45 Caves - It's a cave you idiot.
46-50 Lava pits - Back to the traditional joust setting
51 - Final boss(?)

It is very, VERY ambitious, and will most likely shrink as we go along.

Needless to say, the majority of this work would fall to me, seeing how most enemy sprites can be reused or altered slightly to fit the locale, and the music for the mountains and hills could be reused. Marko would have to implement a lot of this stuff by hand, so don't take my word for all of this shit ending up in-game. I stop as soon as he says we're done, not a minute before.

I don't think it is unreasonable, however.

Stuff like icicles could be recolored and reused for the caves as stalagmites and stalactites.
The platforms for the hills and grassland will be the same.
The platforms for the caves and mountains will be SIMILAR, but most likely recolored to remove the snow in the former case.
The enemies and character sprites will probably work just fine in all cases, because I'm designing the color around them.


Anyway, this is the direction I would like to take the game graphically. I haven't discussed practically ANY of this with the rest of the team, so all this is a glorified list of suggestions.

Whaddaya guys think?

 

[Jourdy288]

I think the icicles should be semitransparent, the grass should be animated (and store some deadly secret, maybe crabs? or turtles )
Brilliant suggestions though, I think that'd be a pretty cool way to do the game.

 

[Masterfurbix]

If you go look at an icicle (I had one outside my window when I was making the sprites) You'll notice that they're really not transparent once they reach a certain size.

And if you look at the size of the rider on top of the bird, the size of the icicles is more than 20-30 ft.



At that size, they're almost completely white. I used a blue tone for the shadows to denote the temperature and help with the atmosphere. It also matches the heavy brown and contrasts the bright red of the bird's reins.

There's a lot of importance in small color decisions. Stuff like transparency can really throw off your palette if you're not careful.

Here is one during the day

And again at night

Notice the white doesn't become dark grey, like an icicle usually would at night. This is to maintain visibility, and make sure people KNOW where the icicle is, regardless of the size of the screen you're playing on.

Of course, this would be a bit more difficult in the rain, but that's part of the appeal of weather effects, an added sense of difficulty.

 

[Jourdy288]

Right, mostly tiny icicles are transparent.
Also, could we get some snow blowing around like a blizzard?

I found a problem and a fix that might come up with the Windows executable here:

1. Download and unpack the Panjoust Windows Executable
2. Double click PanjoustTECHDEMO.exe
3. SDL_gfx.DLL isn't there...

This occurs in Windows (duh).


To fix this, download Penjin here:
http://projectinfinity.org.uk/doku.php/homebrew:enginesenjin

Copy SDL_image.dll, SDL_gfx.dll, SDL_mixer.dll, and SDL_tff.dll into the folder containing PanjoustTECHDEMO.exe.