Oldschool Platform Game

This is an attempt to do something with the (dead) single screen platform genre, of which Donkey Kong Jr and Manic miner are prominent members. With less restrictions on gfx, it's now possible to make each screen hand drawn (no tile gfx), and use an unique set of enemies for each screen. This will result in anticipation in seeing the next screen.

The character is quite small, and there's lots of little platforms, levers, ladders and stuff to use. This will require special programming (or scripts) for each screen. The physics will be very simplified (and hopefully thus more consistant), and there won't be any AI to speak of. The gameplay is more about timing various sliding and toggling things, so coding should be very easy. Since there's no scrolling so things will have to be quite compact. It would be an advantage to design each screen with colored blocks first, tweak the gameplay, then draw the gfx.

The player

Here are some estimestes for what would work in terms of player movement.

• The player is a bit less than 2 tiles high, 14 pixels or so.
• The player can walk. If it's icy the player will slide a bit. Mud or slime will slow the player down.
• The player can hang onto ledges, because it seems like a plausible ability, however, he can only pull himself up if he's not falling too fast, otherwise he'll lose the grip quickly. The same thing applies to grabbing onto ladders and other things.
• The player can jump across gaps 3 tiles long.
• The player can jump about a tile high with a little margin. Since he can grab onto ledges, it's possible to climb 2 tiles high, but not 3.
• The player can duck and crawl, and is a tile high while doing so. When pulling up from a ledge or coming up a ladder, he goes into crawl mode first, incase there's roof right above.
• The player can ride moving platforms, and be crushed by them.
• The player can hang onto chains, climb on ladders, and hang onto rail in the roof, sometimes moving ones.
• The player can pick up items.
• The player can activate things. This includes pushing buttons, stepping on traps, pulling levers, open doors (with a key item).
• The player can fall to his death by falling down 5 tiles, or falling outside the screen.
• Sometimes the player can alter gravity, find a jetpack, jumpshoes, magnetboots, invulnerbility, weapons, jump on trampolines, or other wierd stuff (temporary for each screen).

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Here are some screens without GFX. Yellows is ground and walls, and there's a few crates/boxes in the same hue. Orange is moving platforms. Grey rectangles are doors, the blue square is the exit door. White is keys that open grey doors, and green is things you need to pick up for the exit door to open. Dark grey is a track indicating movement. Red is enemies/death. Cyan is a treasure. Blue and pink is the player start.

These are the initial thumbnails I made... 150dpi, not much to look at.

Map

It can be frustrating to get stuck on a screen, so alternative paths between the levels would be good. To make this possible I came up with a simple 2D map structure. Most screens are connected to several other ones, and as you complete a screen, the connected ones become available for play. To complete a screen you just need to get to a certain spot, like an exit door. Note that you don't move between the screens, you can pick anyone that's available. The goal of the game is to complete the four key screens (and get the keys) so the boss screens become available. If you lose all lives... maybe a completed screen (except the first) becomes uncompleted, so completed screens are like continues or lives.

This is how the map screen might look, Green is where you start or the currently selected screen, yellow is completed screens. Never mind the bottom stuff, it's just some GFX I'm working on, a menu will go there later. The resolution is 256*160 (GBA).

The different themes are marked here. Read below for more ideas.

A1: Forest & temple gate
Enemies: Dragonfly, temple gargoyle.
Scenery: Temple gate left and forest right. Exit in temple. gate.

A2: Forest
Enemies: Bird, Armadillo.
Scenery: Branches, vines, grass.

A3: Forest and house lawn
Enemies: Ant, mole.
Scenery: Picket fence, mailbox, garden tree, house entry.

A4: House kitchen
Enemies: Toaster, knife, mixer.
Scenery: Owen, sink, microwave, fridge, drawers, table, pet food.

B4: House livingroom
Enemies: Cat/dog.
Scenery: TV, NES, sofa, paintings, lamp, bookshelfs.

B5: House office
Enemies: Stapler.
Scenery: Computer, drawer, desk.

A5: Barn
Enemies: Chicken/Cock, buzz saw.
Scenery: Hayloft, 'hay cubes', logs.

C3: Cellar
Enemies: Rat.
Scenery, Cellar junk.

C4-C5: Sewers
Enemies: Slimes, steam leaks, wrench.
Scenery: Pipes.

B5: Laboratory
Enemies: Sparks, Acid, mutant.
Scenery: Tubes, potions, wierd lab machinery.

A6-B6-B7: Factory
Enemies: Manufacture robot, cleaning robot, guardian robot, stomp/print pistons, grab arms.
Scenery: Tracks, elevators, parts, assembled parts, finished goods.

A7: Power generator
Enemies: Spark wisps, elec beams.
Scenery: Generators.

C6-D7: Storage
Enemies: Loader robots.
Scenery: Elevators, crates.

B1-B2: Temple
Enemies: Spike traps, Crush traps, ancient robot.
Scenery: Pillars, buttons, roots.

C1-D2: Ice caves
Enemies: Falling ice, yeti, penguin.
Scenery: Slippery.

D3-D5: Caves
Enemies: Bats, beetles.
Scenery: Brown rock.

E4-E3-F3: Lava caves
Enemies: Lava balls, fire bursts.
Scenery: Brown rock, lava.

F4-F5-E5: Alien lair
Enemies: Alien, floaty alien, tentacles.
Scenery: Giger'ish.

E1-F2: Boss area
Enemies: Skull, skeleton, ghost, zombie, reaper, spikes.
Scenery: Chains, gothic, heavy metal stuff.

E6-F7: Bonus screens
Enemies: various stuff that got left over.
Scenery: ditto, like... desart, junkyard...

Replay value

Since the game isn't linear, you can play it in different ways. You can replay a screen you have already completed. There's also unlockables, such as a concept art/art gallery with pictures of characters, Four Bonus screens, etc.

Screens completed
If you complete all the screens, a Bonus screen becomes available.

Time bonus
If you complete a screen fast enough, you get a little clock marking on it. With clock marking on half of the screens, you get a GFX substitute option, maybe affecting the player sprite. Clock markings on all the screens gives you a Bonus screen.

Treasures
Some screens have a treasure that can be grabbed. Each treasure opens up a gallery item. Grabbing all the treasures gives you a Bonus screen.

Boss defeated
Defeating the boss opens up another Bonus screen, boss art, and you get an ending sequence of course.

100%
With absolutely everything completed, you get a special ending and maybe a mini game.

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-By Niklas Jansson 2005/2007 - Subpage of PSG