Sine Runner

[marcos]

Hey there, everyone!

Figured I'd share a little project I've started, which will likely be my next release. It's an endless runner with a bit of a twist.

Here's a gameplay video to get things started. Capture frame rate wasn't great, it's smooth in game:

Also, here's a WebPlayer. Space to jump/double jump, you can hold it to go higher, Left Shift restarts the level:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/m8g1rgnq52a0vnb/SineRunner.html

(Probably worth mentioning that it's quite hard at the moment, I just packed in lots of enemies to test it all out)

The colour coded cubes are placeholders, obviously. (Wanted to be sure it was fun first!):

Yellow - Coin
Red - Static enemy
Brown - Walking enemy
Orange - Jumping enemy
Light blue - Flying enemy
Black - Spike/Missile
Pink - Speed Boost
Blue (Ultramarine) - Shield/Mushroom pickup
Green marker - best score

I've wanted to make a platformer for a while (always been a favourite genre for me), but I'm still not entirely convinced that mobiles are great for them. So I'm making a runner with massive platformer influences as a happy-medium. Ideally the game will feel like you're doing a sick platforming speed-run, weaving through stuff and bouncing off enemies, rather than just dodging hazards.

Everything is done with PlayMaker and the Unity 2D physics engine. Using Pool Manager 5 to spawn the random sections and all of that.

I still need to implement a few more things, including a main feature, more on that later though. 

I figured I'd take on a smaller project this time, and making little platforming segments is a lot more straightforward than designing increasingly difficult puzzles like in Parasol.

Idea at the moment is for it to be a free to play game, with IAP for coins and so on, which you use to buy unlockables. Though these will be mostly cosmetic,  I'm steering clear of the pay to win design philosophy. I want a first time player to be  just as able to get a high score as someone who has unlocked everything.

Hope you like it, I'm eager to hear feedback!
- Mark.

[blazingriver]

Looks awesome and plays awesome! Its a little complex at first but after a few tries you get the hang of it. Keep up the good work!

P.S. It good to know that your not making it freemium/ pay2win! I can't stand those sorts of games

[marcos]

Thanks!

Yeah hopefully it's natural enough after a short while!

And yeah, I was playing a freemium game the other day, and there was a massively noticeable point where the difficulty suddenly skyrocketed. At that point I could either grind stuff that I had already done, or pay more money. Haven't opened the game since.

Anyway, here's a new gameplay video. Added a lot of gameplay elements:

Character is a placeholder, just reusing Parasol to build the animation controller. Maybe he'll be unlockable in the release build?

Though it's not really explicitly shown, if you collect all the letters of a word, you spawn a bonus section, which is that part in the video with a ridiculous amount of coins at 1:55.

I've added a headstart (not shown) and revive system, which coins can be used to purchase. You can only purchase one revive per run though, rather than having them become increasingly expensive. The only other gameplay altering thing you'll be able to purchase will be a powerup (shield, slowmo or invulnerability) at the start of the run, but once again, only one can be bought per run.

Almost up to the art stage. I have a basic idea for the theme of everything, should be cool!

- Mark.

[marcos]

Doing some lookdev! Still super rough, I did get a bonkers high score though!

[jeanfabre]

Hi,

 Very good! I like to see the progression between cubes and actual artwork, it's very informative of your good approach to development, keep up and good luck with this!!

 Bye,

 Jean

[Graham]

Looks pretty fun!

[marcos]

Hi,

 Very good! I like to see the progression between cubes and actual artwork, it's very informative of your good approach to development, keep up and good luck with this!!

 Bye,

 Jean

Thanks, Jean! I figured if it's not fun with cubes, it won't be fun when it's polished.

Looks pretty fun!

Thanks! I'll put up a new webplayer when I hit the next little milestone.

[jeanfabre]

Hi,

 Indeed, you are totally right, the fun factor must be there first.

 Bye,

 Jean

[coffeeANDsoda]

How did you pull off speed boost?

[marcos]

How did you pull of speed boost?

The running FSM adds a 'bonus' float to the 'base run speed' float, to get the final run speed, which is fed into the x of an add velocity 2D action (from memory). The bonus is usually 0, but when you hit a speed boost trigger, that is set to 2 (or something) and then interpolated back to 0.

[Lane]

Great progress, it's looking slick! =)

[coffeeANDsoda]

How did you pull of speed boost?

The running FSM adds a 'bonus' float to the 'base run speed' float, to get the final run speed, which is fed into the x of an add velocity 2D action (from memory). The bonus is usually 0, but when you hit a speed boost trigger, that is set to 2 (or something) and then interpolated back to 0.

So what your saying is that in order to add a object to speed up the player, first you have to add two variables before adding velocity action? I'm asking this because awhile ago I tried to set a object up to do the same thing with constant force but didn't work.

[marcos]

Great progress, it's looking slick! =)

Thanks!

Still trying to decide what style to go with. Leaning towards solid colours with ambient occlusion now. Going to need to produce a lot of assets, so it's probably not wise to hand paint a billion textures.

How did you pull of speed boost?

The running FSM adds a 'bonus' float to the 'base run speed' float, to get the final run speed, which is fed into the x of an add velocity 2D action (from memory). The bonus is usually 0, but when you hit a speed boost trigger, that is set to 2 (or something) and then interpolated back to 0.

So what your saying is that in order to add a object to speed up the player, first you have to add two variables before adding velocity action? I'm asking this because awhile ago I tried to set a object up to do the same thing with constant force but didn't work.

This is the running movement FSM, it's just the one state:



The Boost Speed float is set from another FSM. When you hit a SpeedBoost trigger object, it sets the float to 8, and interpolates it back to 0 over the course of one second.

[coffeeANDsoda]

Great progress, it's looking slick! =)

Thanks!

Still trying to decide what style to go with. Leaning towards solid colours with ambient occlusion now. Going to need to produce a lot of assets, so it's probably not wise to hand paint a billion textures.

How did you pull of speed boost?

The running FSM adds a 'bonus' float to the 'base run speed' float, to get the final run speed, which is fed into the x of an add velocity 2D action (from memory). The bonus is usually 0, but when you hit a speed boost trigger, that is set to 2 (or something) and then interpolated back to 0.

So what your saying is that in order to add a object to speed up the player, first you have to add two variables before adding velocity action? I'm asking this because awhile ago I tried to set a object up to do the same thing with constant force but didn't work.

This is the running movement FSM, it's just the one state:



The Boost Speed float is set from another FSM. When you hit a SpeedBoost trigger object, it sets the float to 8, and interpolates it back to 0 over the course of one second.

I see, well I'd like to try this out then.

[marcos]

Good luck!

On another note, does anyone know how to prevent physics from continuing between frames? It shouldn't be an issue in the final when everything is optimised, but I'm having a problem on my old phone at the moment where if frames drop, the inertia of the character goes bonkers and you fly up into the sky, way beyond what you are able to double jump to normally.

Kind of stumped.