Aero's Construct 2 Entry ~ Solar Power

[AeroLowe]

A run-n-gun platformer made in Construct 2.

STORY:
Well, my morning's off to a great start.

Well, first, it isn't morning.
It's always night here for some reason, and I don't know why.
It never turns to day, or at least, not yet. But I'm pretty sure I've been here for at least...

Well, I haven't even been able to keep track.
It's probably because the world's breaking down into black and white.

GENERAL INFO:
In general terms, this game is a run n' gun platformer.

I'm currently making only one level, but it's expansive.
I plan on doing a boss if I have time (and the programming knowledge to do so)

But if I don't, I'm going to have multiple endings.
A bad, normal, and good ending, to be precise.

I'll reveal more info as I develop more and more of the game.

So, currently: Designing the one and only level, Snowfield!

EVENT LOG:

Spoiler: 3/7/12 - 3/12/12

I looked at various tutorials that involve platformers and shooters, experimented a bit with all of them, and I got fairly familiar with Construct 2. Throughout all that, I planned out the basic concept of my game, and (half of the time) I was looking for sprites.

Spoiler: 3/13/12-3/16/12

I FOUND SPRITES. Though shading's not so good, it doesn't really matter. I just need to modify them a bit to include a gun. I've also decided to have multiple weapons if possible...

Spoiler: 3/19/12

After real life took over for a bit, I made the engine (or at least the movement). I tried to make it as smooth as possible. I also looked for music, with some success.

Spoiler: 3/20/12

Decided on my final intro. Looked for music again, this time with more success. I finished importing the basic animations for platforming and got started on the camera and shooting mechanics. I found out how to do them, I just have to fine tune them to fit my game, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Spoiler: 3/21/12

I'm pretty sure I found all the music I need for now. I also made the camera center more in on the player, now named Vectis (I'm sure some of you can figure out what that means =P). After editing the sprites so that he has a gun in a matter of 5 minutes, and in a matter of another 10 minutes, I also made a bullet sprite plus an explosion/blast effect when it hits an enemy (they're kinda bad but at least I tried not to spend too much time on them =D). Also, yes, shooting mechanics on the way, if not done later tonight.

I also had to change the layout size of the whole game to 720, 480 instead of 1280, 720 as it made the camera (I just needed the ScrollTo behavior, by the way) way too large, or at least for my computer.

Spoiler: 3/22/12

Biggest achievement of the day. I did the full shooting mechanics (with help from the Scirra forum)! But who cares, at least it's done! Woo~

Now that I'm done praising myself, I also finished the shooting animations. There are a few glitchy animation transitions, such as shooting horizontally to shooting vertically while in mid-air, but I'll see if I can fix that. There doesn't seem to be any gameplay issues though, which is a good thing. Seriously. That's like the best part!

Anyway, tomorrow, I'm working on (spoiler alert!) ENEMIES! (/end spoiler alert). Such a genius idea! What will I think of next? A health bar?

My ideas are just so revolutionary, aren't they? =P

(also I noticed I use =P a lot haven't you noticed =P no? =P oh well =P)

(by the way I worked on Solar Power for 3 and a half hours isn't that some amazing dedication there
you know, compared to my usual 30-60 minutes a day =P)

Spoiler: 3/24/12

I worked on enemies. Gotta get their AI to actually shoot, but it's good enough for now. Not going to be able to work on this until Monday, though, sadly. D=

Spoiler: 3/26/12

I'll make this quick.
- Designed a new logo.
- Revamped the title screen.
- Found tiles.
- Started making the tiles Construct 2-compatible.
- Started building the level, Snowfield.

WILL WORK MORE TOMORROW. Hopefully, I'll get half of the level done or so...

Spoiler: 3/26/12

I'll make this quick (again).
- Built some of Snowfield.
- Found music.
- Fixed some of the jump mechanics.
- Implementing first enemy AI.

pleaseletmefinishintimepleaseletmefinishintimepleaseletmefinishintimepleaseletmefinishintime

DEMO:
What, are you looking for a demo?
Well, I'll keep them here for you guys.

SOLAR POWER V0.5:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/64495006/Solar% ... index.html

ARROW KEYS - Move
SHIFT - Jump
SPACEBAR - Shoot

SOLAR POWER USERBAR:
Like userbars? Like Solar Power? Then support my project by placing this into your signature! If you make one, I'll be sure to place yours into my sig as well!

[url=http://www.arpgmaker.com/viewtopic.php?f=293&t=76293][img][url=http://img201]http://img201[/url].imageshack.us/img201/2443/ubda6352n.gif[/img][/url]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Me for, well, making the game. =P
BlueScope and rosareven of HBGames for helping me on stuff when I need it.
NemesisTheory of Newgrounds for making AWESOME music.
Eventing_Guy and regi of HBGames for helping me start the project (kind of but I might as well mention them anyway).
Jason of HBGames for being inspiring. =D

 

[Eventing_Guy]

I believe it was said that using sprites from elsewhere isn't BAD... but it will
reduce your overall score...

or something to that extent.

 

[AeroLowe]

I believe it was said that using sprites from elsewhere isn't BAD... but it will
reduce your overall score...

or something to that extent.

I believe it was said that using sprites from elsewhere isn't BAD... but it will
reduce your overall score...

reduce your overall score

reduce score

And this is a great summarization of why I don't want to use sprites from other places. Because like you said, it will reduce my overall score, which is something that I, or anybody else for that matter, clearly do not want to do.

But thanks for the clarification. Sprites seem to be my hardest task so far, surprisingly.
Recently, I've actually become pretty jealous of your ability to make a decent sprite, after I played your ninja demo.

WHY AM I NOT GRAPHICALLY TALENTED

 

[regi]

I believe it was said that using sprites from elsewhere isn't BAD... but it will
reduce your overall score...

Pardon? I don't think we said anything about reducing scores just because you use another person's resources. It's understandable, especially for the non-artists out there, given that you have a limited amount of time to make a game in the first place. So long as it's visually bearable, go for other areas, such as gameplay, story, or music. You just won't get any EXTRA points for super aesthetics, unless you put effort into pulling together really nice rips.

That said, looking forward to hearing more about your game, Aero!

 

[Eventing_Guy]

I think I will just not say anything anymore... I'm usually wrong. uch:

 

[regi]

Hey, nothing wrong with being wrong on the Internet, despite what you might hear :box:

 

[AeroLowe]

I don't think we said anything about reducing scores just because you use another person's resources. It's understandable, especially for the non-artists out there, given that you have a limited amount of time to make a game in the first place. So long as it's visually bearable, go for other areas, such as gameplay, story, or music. You just won't get any EXTRA points for super aesthetics, unless you put effort into pulling together really nice rips.

Wow, really? Thanks for the (real) clarification! I guess I don't have to worry about sprites as much now!

If I understood your post correctly, then I will be able to use sprites from any other source. Of course, they need to be of good quality, and definitely need to be credited in the, er, credits.

Of course, I was always planning on having engaging gameplay and great music as well, but now that I have more time due to the sprite clarification, I'll make sure to come out with a great plot when I start on it!

That said, looking forward to hearing more about your game, Aero!

Definitely.
I'll most likely update every other day or so; whenever I get to work on it. School's terrible, especially considering I have two projects due sometime soon. But I'll try my best now, considering I'm more encouraged with sprites (almost) out of the way!

Thanks again, regi!

(Man, that was the most thankful post I've written yet. But hey, that's just the way I am sometimes.)

 

[valkyriegames]

@AeroLove lol you're funny. I'm in the same boat so its lucky we can use other people's graphics! I also wish I could draw - im more of a programming guy.

Poor Eventing_Guy xD

 

[BlueScope]

Let me tell you, being able to do graphics always makes you want to do graphics yourself. If you think further down this road, you will realize why not being a graphic person has it's benefits

 

[AeroLowe]

@AeroLove lol you're funny. I'm in the same boat so its lucky we can use other people's graphics! I also wish I could draw - im more of a programming guy.

I dunno who you're talking to, but I'm definitely sure he/she wouldn't have "love" in his/her name.

But aside from that, I totally feel your sympathy. It's awful not being able to draw nicely, but at least we can program, right? That's gotta count for something.

Though, I wouldn't treat graphics as "disposable" now, in a sense. I'm not going to use well-known graphics, just ones that fit my game yet don't clash with people's respect of where the sprites are from.

It's like using Mario in a RPG game that has original human characters as the main characters. If he joins my party, I'm going to hate the creator of the game forever.

Also, fangames don't seem to be the best option for this contest, but unlike the whole spriting commotion, this is my personal opinion. It'll evidently lack in creativity of the characters and the gameplay as well.

tl;dr I like programming better than drawing, but I like to use other people's sprites appropriately when I do end up using them.

Let me tell you, being able to do graphics always makes you want to do graphics yourself. If you think further down this road, you will realize why not being a graphic person has it's benefits

I'm not exactly sure of what you mean here. Are you saying that being able to do programming is better than being able to do graphics because of...well, what, exactly?

 

[valkyriegames]

Lol my bad AeroLowe! xD im on the phone atm so all the writings really tiny.

Actually i think what BlueScope is trying to say is that you might end up using heaps of time making your graphics instead of working on the core game so it can be a good thing if you cant draw. Actually i get the same with programming - sometimes i get too bogged down with it that i forget to make the game fun xP

i agree with only using suitable graphics too though!

 

[BlueScope]

Yeah, I was going towards what valkyrie said. Personally, I'm more of a programmer than an artist, so it's a double-burden anyway :blank: But yeah... there's nothing wrong with using graphics from others IMO, I'm just too much of a self-loving person not to insist on using my own :thumb:
To take this further: If you can program, you can astonish people with your game's mechanics. That can work very nicely, or it can't work at all. You're more likely to impress someone with graphics, however if you can only do graphics, your game will most likely suck gameplay-wise. Which is why I still say judge games by their whole, not by their announcements in the screenshot thread ^^
If you can only program, you're not likely to get eye candy, but you're likely to still get a good game out of it - think Paschitnow.

 

[AeroLowe]

EVENT LOG UPDATE:

Spoiler: 3/7/12 - 3/12/12

I looked at various tutorials that involve platformers and shooters, experimented a bit with all of them, and I got fairly familiar with Construct 2. Throughout all that, I planned out the basic concept of my game, and (half of the time) I was looking for sprites.

So I will be logging my experiences throughout this project, to put it simply.

I'm still looking for sprites, and this seems to be the most challenging part of the contest so far, surprisingly.
Or at least for me. =P

I don't think anyone has any suggested places for looking for graphics, do they?

 

[rosareven]

I'm going to enter the contest with RPG Maker's sprites, including years worth of collections made by HBGames community in the resource section of this website, charas-project sprite generator, sithjester's resource, you name it. I'm going to use them and I'm going to credit the original creators of what I have used that aren't mine.

Sure it's not going to look original, but you have to consider what amount of time you're going to spend on what activity. Depending on how talented and dedicated an individual is, drawing graphics for the game from scratch is *as much work* as developing the mechanics of the game from scratch. That's double the amount of work load you need to spend into. Drawing is my hobby so I've done a casual bit of it in my spare time, and I know how much time it's going to take me to really start my own game sprites (I'm not even a professional artist so I won't be able to do it anywhere near fast).

Even if non-original graphics lower our score, what is going to be the trade-off of making your own sprites? Time. You can make your own sprites, but the time you used on making sprites are taken from the game development. You could spend the whole duration on game development, but you need someone else to make sprites for you.

Have original graphics or have a more interesting game play, you decide.

Or use dead-simple graphics, circles, lines, blocks etc. The motto "good games don't have to have good graphics" is true.

 

[AeroLowe]

Uh

Title

Simple

Still

Need

Sprites

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/64495006/Solar% ... index.html

And on a more serious note, the first post has been updated! Check it out?

 

[AeroLowe]

It seems that real life has prevented me from working on much of my project.

Therefore, it shall only be one level.
But because it's one level, I can add more features and such without worrying about an event limit.

It WILL be a long level, too.
More info to come as the level is developed.

also i found sprites so now programming is flying pretty fast surprisingly

 

[rosareven]

That's great to hear AeroLowe. I'm going to have to pause mine to deal with this week's real life stuff as well before I can continue.

I'm also sticking to one level (or rather, it'll feel like one single level) myself just so I can focus on mechanical features instead of loaded content.

 

[So fist]

Hey areolowe, love the title screen music. What is it?

 

[AeroLowe]

The title screen music is "Welcome, Let's Begin" from the album Pixel Vision made by Ray/Raybob Industries Inc., who is more noticeably known for his work in the (now defunct) webcomic of considerable fame, 2P START!

However though, my game's concept has gone through quite a bit of change. The style of the game along with the planned music for it will and is currently changing, so that song will not be in the final version.

 

[AeroLowe]

So, right now, I'm perfecting the movement to make it feel as smooth as possible.
I'm also working on camera and shooting at the same time.

Updated Event Log up there somewhere.

I'll probably make a demo by this weekend just to demonstrate the mechanics if done, but don't count on it.