[Work In Progress] Bumpy Spider [2D Platformer + Puzzle]

tred

Genre: 2d platformer + puzzle
Technology: Adobe AIR + Starling

Hi all!
This is a game I creating in my spare time. Work title is Bumpy Spider named after it’s forgotten prototype called Bumpy Arcade Fantasy which was released in 1992 by Loriciels. The Bumpy Spider is a 2D platformer with some puzzle elements.

Besides the game itself I’m also creating a game level editor.
At this moment I’m almost done with coding and going to dive into levels creation and adding more content to the game.
Sounds effects and music still missing.

Early gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG1oHXntq8c

And this is a timelapsed footage of game level creation using my editor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3sb3us16SA

Screens:

Daniel

Brilliant work — I totally dig the game's style! The world feels truly alive, with the plants and cubes dangling realistically whenever the spider hits the floor. Oh, and when the poor guy bleeds to death ...! *sniff*

The level editor also looks quite sophisticated.

Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to what becomes of this! Be sure to keep us updated! 🙂

tuarua

This is a great looking game

kuba.sanitrak

Great job. Keep going.

tuku

Have you created graphics yourself? The game looks amazing! Good luck! Seems like you have plenty spare time 😛

macaan

Looks really nice!

Do you use physics or are things like the lianas done by your own?

tred

@Daniel, @tuarua, @kuba.sanitrak - Thank you guys for kind words!

@tuku - yes, I made all the graphics. Unfortunatelly I've got not as many time as I wish to. 🙂 It took me about 18 months to get this game to it's current state.

hardcoremore

This looks awesome and the editor is pretty cool. Are you planning to release level editor as part of the game (can I create level on the device) or only you will be able to create levels? 🙂

Do you use any physics engine like Box2D?

I am also working on a game for almost a 2 years now and I understand how big effort it is especially when you have a daily job. Keep up the good work. You created great graphics, you have good design skills 🙂

tred

@hardcoremore - I'm not shure whether to release the level editor to public. Initially it is an internal tool I'm using to create game levels. It is buggy and crap-coded. I ceased to understand how this damn thing work few months ago. Thanks god, it works somehow 🙂 So, in order to make this editor available to public I have literally recreate it almost from scratch.

For this game I'm using Nape physics engine.
At the beginnig the spider's body was a compound of rigid bodies joined together with elastic joints forming a soft body. But later I changed my mind and made the spider's body just a collections of points linked to a virtual center point with springs. Then I just move center point and draw a mesh around those points. Easy math, no physics engine routines involved.
So, the remaing parts that using the Nape are the sensors for collectable objects, and spider's legs which are dangling when it dies.

As for the graphics and overall design: It is the hardest part of developing to me. I'm not a person who can create a masterpiece with just a few brush strokes. It takes me for ages to get a decent looking drawing.
For this game I'm going to create at least two more different environments besides the ruins. It really scares me. I'm procrastinating.....

hardcoremore

Those dangling spider legs when he dies looks real and it is very effective.

Yeah, tell me about the design from some one who had coded entire life. The design is also very hard part for me 🙂. I am not so bad at creating UI and UX but designing the game env and objects is very hard for me also. But at least I have improved my Photoshop skills 😃

I have created level editor using Feathers UI. If you have any life and energy left after creating two more environments 😃 you can try creating level editor with Feathers. It would be really cool to edit levels on mobile 🙂

hardcoremore

And your graphics are really sharp and a coin is looking pretty good as well 🙂

hardcoremore

One more thing. It would be very cool for me (and I guess for other developers) if we could see small game play or just image of how this game looks with nape debug draw. I do not know if nape has a debug draw but Box2D has it and it draws all shapes and polygons of all objects and connections 🙂

tred

Yes, the Nape can do debug draw. But it's nothing to draw in my game 🙂
The only physics objects that exist on the stage during the game are the circle sensors around the coins and one circle around the spider. And that's all. The spider's legs are just a DragonBones armatures. No physics environment at all)) When player dies - I'm changing the spider's legs (Which actualy just animated sprites) to physics objects - is is rectangular bodies with pivot joints. They exist within short moment when the player can not control the spider.

As for graphics - I'm not using Photoshop at all. My choice is Krita. It is a great tool for drawing. And it's made for artists. The features it has is just like magic and it also free and open source and available for all platforms. If you have never seen it, definitely you should give it a try.

hardcoremore

Wow thanks for the Krita reference I never heard about it. I will check it out.

I thought all the stone blocks where boxes of some sort in the nape engine 🙂

So did you programmed all the hit tests to check that spidey don't go over the stone blocks?

tred

Nope, the boxes are just a sprites placed on the grid, so all distances are the multipliers of grid size and thus are constants, the spider speed is a constant too, I don't need even a hit tests. I know exact spider's position at any moment.

tred

P.S. Although the spider accelerates and decelerates, overall time required to move him from one grid cell to another - is constant value

tred

@macaan - I'm using Nape and lianes are controlled by physics engine. It's boxes linked with pivot joints
(And lianes are just the only extra physics objects on the stage besides sensors)

hardcoremore

Awesome it runs super smooth. I never thought it was a grid.

Are you planing to add some other collectables or there will be just coin. Also are there going to be any enemies that can kill spidey except just wooden spikes?

tred

One more collectable object will be an extra life, maybe I could think of something else in the future...
Currently I'm struggling to paint first enemy, it will be wasp. I'm not sure if I will add it to the game, need to do some experiments first

hardcoremore

Yeah I understand the struggle. I had so many ideas where programming them was not hard but when I think I need to draw it it all falls down 😃