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AppGameKit/AppGameKit Studio Showcase / Goblin Dreams - old school platformer

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jhanson
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Joined: 19th Jun 2017
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Posted: 22nd Sep 2017 11:45 Edited at: 22nd Sep 2017 11:50
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I just put my first game made with AppGameKit out on itch.io. It's free and playable in a browser.

Goblin Dreams is a 2d platformer done in an early 90s shareware aesthetic, inspired by games like Commander Keen, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, and the like. You lead Peelu, a goblin Dream Warrior, through a variety of levels to recover the lost dream crystals.

You can play it here - https://jhanson.itch.io/goblindreams

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RickV
TGC Development Director
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 22nd Sep 2017 16:41
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Hi jhanson,

Well done! I have awarded you with an AppGameKit Developer badge in honour of your game release! Nice to see a HTML5 game published.

I got to level 3, starts to get tricky!

Rick
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Cybermind
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Posted: 22nd Sep 2017 20:08
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It looks really good! Great to see a take on the old PC games
13/0
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jhanson
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Posted: 23rd Sep 2017 17:29
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Thank you for the kind words and the badge! It was fun to make, and a great way to learn AppGameKit.

I also put it out on GameJolt (http://jhanson.gamejolt.io/goblindreams) and Kongregate (http://www.kongregate.com/games/hanoth/goblin-dreams) so hopefully more people will try it.

Oh, and while this other one wasn't done in AppGameKit, I put a fun (but gross) old Ludum Dare entry of mine out on itch.io along with it. Tick Attack - https://jhanson.itch.io/tickattack It's guaranteed to make you feel itchy.
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Supertino
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Joined: 22nd Jun 2017
Location: Behind you!
Posted: 23rd Sep 2017 22:34
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I made it to the tower. I'll keep the rest to play at work. Does indeed remind of random games I downloaded of BBS's back in the day.
Checkout my PC/MAC games on itch.io | Checkout my STEAM games | Checkout my ANDROID games
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jhanson
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Posted: 25th Sep 2017 16:00
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Supertino - I'm glad you're enjoying it. The tower is a tough one. My personal favorite stage is the haunted house, though the evil circus makes me laugh.
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AK
AGK Developer
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Posted: 26th Sep 2017 01:00 Edited at: 26th Sep 2017 01:06
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This is an adorable, highly authentic "shareware era" game!
I would suggest tweaking the friction in your next platformer though. Left-and-right friction in GD is very low, so making a precision landing or stopping in a hurry is very difficult. Yet if Peelu so much as touches his nose against a wall during a jump, he's brought to a standstill and falls down. If the horizontal and vertical friction effects were switched, I wouldn't have ragequit so much. Something else that would help with precision movement is to have the controls accelerate Peelu up to maximum speed a lot quicker, so that jumping doesn't feel like piloting a jetpack. I felt like the movement was the main challenge for me in this game, rather than the environments which I expected (and wanted) to be able to explore more easily with running, jumping and climbing abilities.
But I don't want to get too negative, since this is on the whole a good game, and a wonderfully crafted tribute to those early '90s platformers (I'm a big Commander Keen fan). Some of those had pretty slippery controls too!
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jhanson
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Posted: 26th Sep 2017 04:59
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AK - Thanks for the feedback. It's intentionally a little slippery, but I'll keep tweaking. Oddly, without changing any of my code, the controls feel more slippery in HTML5 than they do when I target other platforms.
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blink0k
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Posted: 26th Sep 2017 06:24
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Great work. Luv the pixels
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jhanson
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Posted: 26th Sep 2017 14:47
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I tried making the physics a little stickier than they were before. If you tried it before and found it to be too slippery, would you mind trying it again and let me know if it feels better? I'd really appreciate it.

To me, it made the physics feel more like they do when I build for other platforms (OS X is where I normally test).
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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 27th Sep 2017 05:02 Edited at: 27th Sep 2017 05:15
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I like the slippery aspect of the controls because it takes practice to get the hang of it.

The only thing I do not like about the controls is that I am use to w,s,a, &d for movement, and using my right hand for shooting.

So, everything was backwards for me, and I had a really hard time getting used to that setup.

I tried to go up the first ladder, but it went down when I hit the up arrow and did nothing when I hit the down arrow.

It went down into the ground, than I was stuck and could not get up or out.

Maybe it was a glitch or something, so I will try again.

EDIT

Not a glitch, definitely a bug.

I refreshed the page and that first ladder got me again.... went down into the ground when pressing the up arrow key, and down arrow did nothing.

Second ladder did the same thing, so did the last one, so I could not finish the level.

Using Windows 7 and Firefox browser

Coding things my way since 1981 -- Currently using AppGameKit V2 Tier 1
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jhanson
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Posted: 27th Sep 2017 06:51
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Very strange. I can't replicate that on any of my browsers here (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, all on OS X). I'll try to get ahold of a WIn7 machine tomorrow to see if I can make it happen there.

Also, I'll look at adding WASD as an option in the next build. I'm not used to WASD - what would be appropriate jump/zap keys to go along with that?

Thanks for taking a look!
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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 27th Sep 2017 13:18 Edited at: 27th Sep 2017 14:03
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Think of the WSAD placement as if they were arrow keys.

W = up
S = down
A = Left
D = right

This was only a personal hang up of mine, and not anything that is wrong with your game.

However, giving the player the option to choose input keys can't be a bad thing.

That is really some advice that I should be taking for myself, because I rarely do it, but it is a good thing.

I might even create some variables for the input keys based on the scan codes in my current project.

That way the user can pick their own keys for the PC builds of games (HTML5 too)...

Having input options for the user would appeal to everyone by letting them use their personal favorite keys for input without having a bunch of preset configuration options.

Coding things my way since 1981 -- Currently using AppGameKit V2 Tier 1
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jhanson
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Posted: 27th Sep 2017 13:38
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Oh, I understand how WASD itself works. I was just wondering which zap and jump keys you would normally use along with it. Like O and P because they're at the other end of the keyboard? I just have no idea what is customary/typical since I've always used the arrow keys.

I plan on doing remappable keys on my next game that uses the keyboard, but this one is meant to be a simple diversion (and a first delve into AGK) so I probably won't go there. I'm already onto the next project, aside from bug fixes and such, though the new one is mouse/touch-based.
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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 27th Sep 2017 14:16
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I agree, starting the next project is more important.

The key mapping suggestion was meant for the next project and not as a update to this one.

Maybe that bug was just in this version of FireFox.

I'll try again after my next update.

Anyway, I do like you game (especially because it is HTML5 for browsers) and I am looking forward to your next one.

Congratulations on your badge, and welcome to the forums.

Coding things my way since 1981 -- Currently using AppGameKit V2 Tier 1
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AK
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Posted: 28th Sep 2017 10:50
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It's a little easier to stand on single-tile blocks now, I even got up to the spooky graveyard level!
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jhanson
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Posted: 28th Sep 2017 16:35
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Thanks for taking another look, AK. I'm glad the changes helped.

You made it pretty far! The graveyard is followed by the haunted house (my personal favorite level), then the evil circus, and a trip to an alien world. The final stage has you teleport from the alien world to
an evil space station that is totally not the Death Star.
All in all, I think it winds up being 15 levels, counting both the longer and shorter ones (like the little cave after the first level) but ignoring the two secret levels.
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jhanson
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Posted: 28th Sep 2017 16:37 Edited at: 28th Sep 2017 16:47
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Edit: Pardon the multiple posts. I'm not sure what happened.
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jhanson
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Posted: 28th Sep 2017 16:44
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Thanks for taking another look, AK. I'm glad the changes helped.

You made it pretty far! The graveyard is followed by the haunted house (my personal favorite level), then the evil circus, and a trip to an alien world. The final stage has you teleport from the alien world to
an evil space station that is totally not the Death Star.
All in all, I think it winds up being 15 levels, counting both the longer and shorter ones (like the little cave after the first level) but ignoring the two secret levels.
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AK
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Posted: 29th Sep 2017 09:45
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Oh, cool. I've got it sitting in my browser so I can come back to it (as long as the browser doesn't crash or get closed!) and I'm in one of the haunted house levels now.
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