Duty:Ridiculous - Demo V 1.3

[WidgetKitty]

My game doesn't have its title yet - that's usually chosen halfway through my projects. But in the day since I made my intro post, I've gone wild working on this game, with a bunch of new graphics, custom objects, and levels. So, the game should have its own post now.

Plot & Premise
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You play as a spy girl on a mission to infiltrate the island base of a mad scientist, building an army of monsters. She is shipwrecked by cannon fire before the game opens (perhaps I'll make an opening scene?), and has to begin her mission on the opposite side of the island, with no gear - earning upgrades as she clears a path to the castle base atop the island's volcano. The story is simple of course - I really just wanted to make a game with a punk-looking girl with several attacks, jumping around and beating the crap out of skeletons and monsters in fantasy and tech locations - this fits the bill pretty well!

So, this game will be like crossing Mario, Metroid, & Donkey Kong from the SNES era, with James Bond, & Tomb Raider, and other spy, sci-fi, and adventure tropes. I'm planning on 25+ levels and forts on one large open map, with lots of bonuses, secrets, and challenges. Take a look at my map screenshot up ahead for an idea. Probably will be a while before I actually put out a demo, maybe when it's about 1/4 done.

Custom Objects/Mechanics
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I figured out how to make breakable bricks that can also contain items like in Mario, invisible coin/item boxes, and a shop with an inn (well, a "Sleep" item that's free in the player's boat or friendly NPC houses, and various costs at inns).


I'll be adding several projectile weapons and ability items to help progress through the game's branching paths.

Custom Graphics/Music
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I'll be drawing all custom enemies, blocks, and items eventually. These are most of what I got done over the last two days:



These are my bombs, bats, bees, and skeletons (Powcherries, Stingbats, Vovems, and Skelwards, respectively), techy item boxes & message boxes, and my map icons so far.

I'll also be writing the game's soundtrack. I'll be going with an SNES action feel, have a bunch of ideas for melodies ready, just no finished songs yet. But I'm no stranger to this, I've been writing instrumental music all my life - I'm currently  50+ songs into a soundtrack for an RPG Maker game I'm working on. If you'd like a sampling of my music, most of the RPG OST WIP (UGH!) is posted to my Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/widget-kitty/tracks

Screenshots:
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Lastly, here's some screenshots of what I have done so far.

My world map, which will have three main branching paths after the first fortress:


Second level, desert with a short cave:


The first "Challenge Zone" has you riding a platform around an obstacle course:


Getting one of the yellow keys in the first fort. My forts will be a bit similar to the ones from Zelda 2 on NES:


Level 4 is a maze inside a dried-up well full of bees:

OK, that's all I've got so far - plenty more work to do! I'll update this thread with new screenshots, music, etc as I go along. Thanks for having a look!

[Gizgord]

very nice. your game looks real fun.
I really dig the story and custom design you're coming up with. screenshots don't look half-bad.. 

[WidgetKitty]

very nice. your game looks real fun.
I really dig the story and custom design you're coming up with. screenshots don't look half-bad.. 

Thank you! This is really easy to work with compared to stuff I've tired in the past, and just started using a better program for sprite editing. I'm envisioning a decent 40-level game, maybe done by end of winter. Just a lot to flesh out still

[Antikore]

Very cool looking game! Keep up the good work!

[WidgetKitty]

Very cool looking game! Keep up the good work!

Thanks very much!

So, I've finally go more work done on the game, bunch of new sprites and screenshots to show.

World Map:
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I'm now up to 8 levels, one fort, an airship and a train. We're just starting on the three branching paths to the final level - Underground tunnels on the left path, through the town and headquarters in the middle, and over mountains on the right. Of course, the map is free roaming, and to really complete the game you'd want to beat every level and get every upgrade.

New Sprites:
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Got a few more enemies done - replaced Puglits with Torchers and Flying Torchers, Bipis with Bumpermites, and Statix's with Jolters. Also a giant Powcherry who serves as a boss in the airship and train - which you can see the icons for there. I'll have three each of those levels, plus tanks, I just haven't made those icons or levels yet.

Last is my new weapon system. These boxes give you an energy weapon to use in that level - 30 of them. The blue box and item refill the ammo. So far I have boomerangs (that collect items), grenades (that destroy crates), and fireballs. Might make more, but three is pretty good.

Level Screenshots:
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Level 6, beginning of the mountain path. Torchers' fireballs can activate Powcherries, like in this case to make it harder to get that 1-Up:



The first train level. A light wind blows you back throughout, and it's covered in robot enemies:



I also made my third challenge bonus a train, with stronger wind. Making those spinning wheels was a lot of work, so I'm getting good  use of them:



Level 8, a haunted forest, is technically optional, but opens an area with an extra shop and two bonuses. There'll be a few optional levels like this, that only unlock a few extras:



The airship level. No wind here, but these will be more complicated, with more enemies and cannons:

I also added a soundtrack - all songs I wrote for another game, but I had music suitable for every area, so they'll be placeholders until I start writing this game's own soundtrack.

Thinking I'll make a few more levels and graphics - get the game about 1/3 done, to my estimation - and put a demo up on the explore section. It's just that I'm getting a lot of crashing on entering or exiting levels when testing the whole game. Not sure if that's something I'm doing wrong or my computer, or if it's an actual bug.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think of the new stuff; hopefully I'll have something playable released soon!

[Gizgord]

Thinking I'll make a few more levels and graphics - get the game about 1/3 done, to my estimation - and put a demo up on the explore section. It's just that I'm getting a lot of crashing on entering or exiting levels when testing the whole game. Not sure if that's something I'm doing wrong or my computer, or if it's an actual bug.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think of the new stuff; hopefully I'll have something playable released soon!

I dig the new stuff, especially the variety in enemies and tile-sets. I like overworlds and the one you're making is really good so far. eight levels are plenty for a demo, and what was it about branching paths? fun idea.
it's unfortunate that fatal errors keep bothering you. all you can do right now is to report the codes (paste the codes in, that makes things a lot easier), either in the form on the website or here.. and power through. big thumbs up, good luck and take your time 

[Antikore]

Must say everything looks fantastic!
Sorry about all those bugs, it's actually a problem with the program, don't worry.

[War]

Wall of screenshots showing off insane progress done on the game

Could this be the first major PB game post-price change alongside Antikore's Adventure

[WidgetKitty]

I dig the new stuff, especially the variety in enemies and tile-sets. I like overworlds and the one you're making is really good so far. eight levels are plenty for a demo, and what was it about branching paths? fun idea.
it's unfortunate that fatal errors keep bothering you. all you can do right now is to report the codes (paste the codes in, that makes things a lot easier), either in the form on the website or here.. and power through. big thumbs up, good luck and take your time 

Thank you! Though the pixel drawing can be a lot of work, making the custom enemies and blocks is one of my favourite parts! Two weeks ago I found this open source alternative to MS Paint, called Pinta, and it's made this a lot easier.

So the map is pretty open, but after the first fort it splits into three paths to the end - one underground, one through a settlement, one over the mountains. You can pick a path to the end and beat the game, or clear all three and get every upgrade and bonus.

Think I'll make a tank and two more regular levels before putting out a demo, that way the three paths will have the same number of levels.

Eh, I can tolerate occasional errors. I mean, some of my other experience is making house and dungeon mods for Skyrim, a few years ago, and their Creation Kit is so ridiculously bug ridden, you need a barrel full of patience to get anything finished! I'll report the bugs, but can work through it in the meantime...

Must say everything looks fantastic!
Sorry about all those bugs, it's actually a problem with the program, don't worry.

Thanks very much! Yeah, bugs are just something that comes along with a program this complicated and versatile. And Ting Thing's been really good at ironing things out - he's fixed three bugs for me since I registered, like 9 days ago. It'll only get better, I'm sure.

Could this be the first major PB game post-price change alongside Antikore's Adventure

Hmmm, could be - didn't know I was getting into this at such a pivotal moment! If all goes well I'll have it finished this year, and my second game started - a sci-fi Metroidvania is brewing in my head for the next one.

[Alley]

Hello!

Your game looks very beautiful and attractive, to be honest!


An interesting fact is that when I would have continued actively working on my project I would make a level with skeletons and graveyards. This would mean, I would have needed to design my own skeletons also but I already imagined how they should look.    Your made skeletons look just like that so if the mentioned level will ever comes I probably ask for your skeletons rather than designing them by myself completely. 

[WidgetKitty]

Hello!

Your game looks very beautiful and attractive, to be honest!


An interesting fact is that when I would have continued actively working on my project I would make a level with skeletons and graveyards. This would mean, I would have needed to design my own skeletons also but I already imagined how they should look.    Your made skeletons look just like that so if the mentioned level will ever comes I probably ask for your skeletons rather than designing them by myself completely. 

Thank you! Yeah, skeletons aren't all that original, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to use them. Let me know if that day comes, and I can send you the sprite sheet, or put it in a resources thread.


I didn't get too much work done this week, was kinda sick and had a few things to figure out with the game, but got a few more levels and graphics done yesterday. I have the temporary soundtrack put together, enough for a demo, until I make the game's actual OST (again, just taking my music from my RPG for now). Not enough done to the world map yet to show it off, but here's a few things:

Graphics:
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I finally changed the Gruppies, into "Goons", which are little monsters wearing hoods, and the rest are robots introduced in the mine levels (I reused those wheels a lot, but figured these were all designed by the same mad scientist). First are Ragecarts, which can only be attcked from the top, are fast, and have high HP, but you get silver or gold coins if you defeat them. The orange guys are Grintorches, my first enemy with commands; you have to attack them from the side three times, then their torch goes out, they speed up and run away - but after 7 seconds they light up and chase you again. Last are the Torquen, mining drills that move across girders, and can only be killed by weapons. Then I made my map icon for tank levels, and redid the train and airship icons; they didn't stand out much. Finally, a giant version of my flying Torcher, the second boss on each path.

Screenshots:
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Panicked Park is the first level on the map's middle path, which takes you through a city overrun with robots and monsters:



The first tank stage, which is an auto-scroller. I made a ground block with just horizontal lines to maintain the illusion that the tanks are moving, like they did in SMB3:



This is the shop you can access after beating the optional level 8 (previous screenshot post). The inn is cheap here, which'll be useful later when you have higher max HP:



The mountain path on the East side of my map starts with a fast paced, rainy level, blowing you uphill:



Finally, the underground West path begins with an abandoned mine. It's a large level in one section, with three stories and a gate puzzle:

OK, I've got to get some sleep, but I'll probably work on this again later. Just have to do some more testing, finish a couple more bonuses, and maybe put out a demo later this week - let me know how it looks so far!

[WidgetKitty]

Got some time to work on my game this week, including an update on the world map:



Now you can see the three different paths better. The centre one through town and forest (easiest), the mountain path on the West side with a desert (medium), and the underground (hardest path). I'm done up to level 12, next up is three fortresses to make for each path, that ends with an upgrade (ground pound, double jump, and wall jump), then I'll probably put the demo out.


New Enemies:
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A couple new colours for my Goons, then I made thorn-spitting cacti and floating Pharaoh heads for the desert levels, and bulldozer robots and masks that chase you for the city levels. And a special version of a Stingbat that's on fire. These ones were pretty fun to make!

Screenshots
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Just a few new levels made:

Future Level Sketches:
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I needed a break from my screens, so I sketched out plans for my three upcoming fort levels, thought you guys might be interested:

Thanks for looking! I have a few kinks to work out and a little more to make, and this will be about 1/3 done, and worthy of something playable.

[Gizgord]

the new enemies are quite creative, and they look good - as per. bulldozer is a fun concept, never crossed my mind as an enemy. 
sketching on paper is the best, isn't it?
I really want this game to come out well, keep us in touch 

[WidgetKitty]

the new enemies are quite creative, and they look good - as per. bulldozer is a fun concept, never crossed my mind as an enemy. 
sketching on paper is the best, isn't it?
I really want this game to come out well, keep us in touch 

Thank you! Well, there'll be warehouse and construction style levels, I thought the bulldozer robot would be appropriate. Half the enemies are supposed to be construction/mining robots being controlled by an AI.

Oh yeah, I do more traditional art than anything else; it's so nice to plan something out in a sketchbook before trying to do it in the program.

I'll keep you guys in the know, but by the next update hopefully I can release a playable demo!

[Alley]

Thank you! Yeah, skeletons aren't all that original, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to use them. Let me know if that day comes, and I can send you the

Your game is looking very good but also I like how you can edit sprites so those would look like new ones but original to the PB so it keeps the feeling of PB. Should I get ready to add skeletons to any of my projects I will let you know and consider your name to be added to the Credits. I have never had a problem at all adding other names in addition to mine because I like to give players a feeling that a game was made by a team/company. Also, I like heartbreaking beautiful endings after intense fights and long Credits after all that.