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F1ak3r
24-08-2008, 04:08 PM
Alternate Path

Battle and think your way through this retro platformer, and remember: all is not as it seems. Made for the Cpsgames.net Retro Contest. Have fun.

Download (1.6MB) (http://www.box.net/shared/ebmvvfumu1)
Play on YYG (http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/50097)

ZIP.
Platformer.
Fullscreen.
Changes resolution.
Made in GM7 Pro.

http://64digits.com/users/F1ak3r/AP3.PNG
http://64digits.com/users/F1ak3r/AP4.PNG

Tell me what you think.

Thaumaturge
25-08-2008, 01:05 AM
I love it!

When I first began playing, it seemed to be a pretty basic, standard and, quite frankly, boring retro platformer. I was expecting some form of alternate route to appear, I think, and indeed, at the "end" of the first level one appeared.

I was not, as I recall, expecting what happened when I reached the end of said alternate route.

Nor did I expect the various clever gameplay twists, including some clever gameplay punning and playing with my mind. The retro graphics help to undermine the player's chances of anticipating the twists, I suspect. Finally, it was topped off with a very nice end boss (although, to be honest again, I think that you could probably have done more with him - such as bringing back the head-jumping gameplay of the first level, for example).

Very well done. ^_^

My only criticisms are that the end boss continues to fire while the change-of-gameplay test is visible, which allows him to surprise the player while reading said text, and, as I mentioend previously, I think that the gameplay could have been varied more and more creatively during the boss battle.

F1ak3r
25-08-2008, 06:27 AM
Thanks for the praise! =D Surprising the player was my intention. Hehehe...

I'll admit it, the boss battle was a weak point. I left it too late, and couldn't think of enough interesting things to do with it. Using head-jumping is an idea I'll look into though.

I guess it would've been more appropriate if the boss had stopped firing and started moving towards the player very slowly when that happened.

You didn't get stuck on what you need? Everyone gets stuck there, I should've put a hint or two in.

EDIT: New version, with an added hint, and this: "I guess it would've been more appropriate if the boss had stopped firing and started moving towards the player very slowly when that happened."

DukeOFprunes
25-08-2008, 09:31 PM
I got stuck with the 50% health bit :(

Gotta say, this is fresh! Kickass man.

DukeOFprunes
25-08-2008, 09:32 PM
I like the Ocean Loader music you got playing at the end. Good ol' nostalgia.

Thaumaturge
26-08-2008, 01:33 AM
You didn't get stuck on what you need? Everyone gets stuck there, I should've put a hint or two in.

Only very briefly, as I recall - not long enough for it to be frustrating, I don't think.

However, I do think that, as it was, it was a little unfair, since it was more or less a "read the designer's mind" puzzle, I think.

Just please don't make the hint too obvious. ;)


I got stuck with the 50% health bit

Heh, that had me for longer than the "what you need" puzzle, as I recall, and involved trying a few slightly odd things before I realised (I believe) what the true solution was - that was a solution that I rather liked, as I recall. ^_^

Kensei
26-08-2008, 11:39 AM
Only very briefly, as I recall - not long enough for it to be frustrating, I don't think.

However, I do think that, as it was, it was a little unfair, since it was more or less a "read the designer's mind" puzzle, I think.

It was kinda like that - what about if you put a few words that give the desired reaction.
I tried key, lever, push, bomb, open, door, button before finally getting to 'gun' It is tough because in games you can open doors either with a key or pushing it or blasting it

I got killed at the boss too many times :(

My suggestion is to make the game a little more forgiving. For example those monsters that come at you seem to take 50% a hit, a little too much for my liking.

All in all I liked it, F1ak3r, it was a fun and interested game... reminded me of 'I don't know' that flash game that Miktar referenced on the NAG FB group (perhaps a bit more serious than that though)

Btw: How did you make that 'hint' text in Game Maker? (i.e. for all conversation options)

F1ak3r
26-08-2008, 01:21 PM
@People who got stuck on 50% health: I honestly thought that'd be a bit too easy after press F1 for help.

@Kensei: I'm not too proud of that boss. I spent hours trying to come up with a boss idea that fitted the game, and that's all I could come up with. I'm considering a sequel though, so maybe I'll make things better with that.

I'm not sure what you mean in your question, so I'll just outline how the whole text engine works.

obj_drawtext draws the variable text with the the variable colour as its colour. This text is set when rooms start, for introductory bits, and when the player walks into invisible trigger objects.

When more than one screenful of text is needed, I use a timeline. But I set the timeline_speed to 0 so it doesn't move automatically. So it looks like this:

Step 0:
tim
text = "Blah blah blah";

Step 1:
text = "Yak yak yak";

Step 2:
text = "";
timeline_position = -1;
timeline_index = -1; // Unset the timeline

Then, to make the timeline move along, or to make the text clear, I use this code in obj_drawtext's PRESS SPACE event:

if (timeline_index == -1) // if no timeline is in use
then text = "";
else timeline_speed = 1; // it just occured to me that I could probably have used timeline_position += 1 instead.

As far as the what you need typing object's code goes, I have it use the variable keyboard_string, with this code in PRESS ENTER:

if (string_pos(keyboard_string,"keyword") != -1) // if keyword is somewhere in the string (string_pos's arguments may need to be swapped around, I'm not sure, writing this on cellphone away from computer)
{
obj_drawtext.text = "Correct";
// necessary things need to be set/executed here. Eg: gotitright = true.
instance_destroy();
exit;
}

if (string_pos(keyboard_string,"keyword2") != -1) // if keyword 2 is somewhere in the string (string_pos's arguments may need to be swapped around, I'm not sure, writing this on cellphone away from computer)
{
obj_drawtext.text = "Correct";
// necessary things need to be set/executed here. Eg: gotitright2 = true.
instance_destroy();
exit;
}

// Continue for all keywords. At the end of the code, stick this in:

text = "Wrong"; // This is the text that the question object draws, the text shown above the typing field.
keyboard_string = "";

I'm not sure how accurate or helpful any of that was, as I'm typing it out offhand, from memory, but the basic logic should be somewhere there.

dislekcia
29-08-2008, 10:31 PM
Just wanted to point out that Alternate Path was the freeware game pick on the 26th at Indiegames.com (http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2008/08/freeware_game_pick_alternate_p.html)!

Congrats! :)

This is the sort of stuff I love seeing, members getting recognition for their efforts!

Kensei
30-08-2008, 02:11 AM
Wooo hoo, well done, Flak3r!! :D

Thaumaturge
30-08-2008, 05:59 AM
Congratulations indeed, F1ak3r! I'm glad to hear it. ^_^

F1ak3r
30-08-2008, 06:54 AM
Wow, thanks everyone, especially dislecksia! This is quite an honour for me, probably the greatest recognition any of my games has ever received ever. I'm pretty excited right now, so excuse me while I go do cartwheels down the street.