Oh no! More gooey goodness

After establishing that The Uncontrollable Gooey Blob was in fact very controllable I decided to put together a simple test level. Just a few platforms and such, nothing special. The blob himself has had a bit of a face lift thanks to code from Yan and Indiepath, but please ignore the rest of the graphics.



Download (189kb)

Please test and comment. Thank you.

I just LOVE the idea!!! Its very fun and original! Normally when playing indieplatformers I usually quit the game after I fall down the first hole but this one I tried over and over again. nice job.

Funny isn't it. I gave up fairly quickly after failing the 3rd of the first 3 jumps repeatedly.

His jump seems rather pathetic .... but then that might be a blob trait for all I know ;-)

fun, another gishy thing. I love smiling blobbies :)

Not bad, only took 20 goes to get over the 3rd jump and another 20 to get over the next batch. I gave up before getting to the bridge. Maybe I'm just s**t at it ;)

Some constructive crit ..

The jump needs to give you more distance or it's just frustrating rather than fun.

If you stop on one of the slopes at the bottom you don't have enough power / force to go up the incline.

The blob itself looks much better with the sphere mapping indy gave you but could still do with a bit more animation when moving.

Stevie

haha brilliant :) I love the chrome effect at the end too!

Looks like you can had (read: let the player have) alot of fun with this engine.

awesome job! a bit frustrating at the beginning, but after i had the first 3 jumps and understood the mechanics it got fairly easy and i completed the wole level in around 2minutes :)

nicely done, Mr. Williamson ^^

http://www.chroniclogic.com/index.htm?gish.htm

Looks really nice ! I would make the face move a little bit up and down when moving so make it look more dynamic. But very nice so far, keep it up.

Thank you very much. As I think boomboom is trying to point out though I can't take credit for the idea of rolling a blob around.

These things are always hard to judge so early on. I can complete the level with ease so getting the balance right for someone playing for the first time is difficult. I'll see about giving his jump a bit more power, don't want to make it too easy though.

I'm getting the feeling people would like a bigger jump :)

This is the physics at work again and more specifically friction. Slopes are a little boring anyway so I'll use them sparingly in future or make them serrated for better grip.

I have a few ideas in that department but not tried them out yet. Visuals are usually the last thing to get sorted so plenty of time for improvement yet.

Did you press space and try the level again as chrome? He has slightly different properties when metal so the level is harder. This maybe one of the routes I go down where you can achieve different thing when made of different elements.

You're probably better at it than me. Although I do spend a lot of time trying to turn the blob inside out instead of trying to complete the level :)

I was already getting sea sick from the jittery scrolling so I think that might push me over the edge. I'll give it a go though and see how it looks.

There was a great Amiga game for which I only ever saw a demo where you could change between gas, liquid and solid.

Nice idea, but controls feel a bit laggy.

Anyway, far too difficult for me... ;)

I love it... plays wonderfully, feels just right to me.

Ha, ha... this is great. I love it!

Barney

This one is quite nice as well:
http://www.gumboycrazyadventures.com/

Looks like I'll have a hard job getting the controls so everybody likes them.

I played Gumboy a while ago. I think I'm going for a more slower paced game than Gumboy. Although I do like the idea of interesting scenery and supporting characters. The collision detection I use deals easily with complex concaved hulls so it would be a shame not to use it for making intricate and interesting scenery.

looks fun. I couldn't get past the first jumps though.

Yet again, I nearly fainted with all of the excitement. I didn't seem to get the source code in my download though - probably an oversight.

nice idea but the limited jump makes it very repetative having to go around the same bit over and over.

Gamers today are obviously spoilt, and want games to hold their hands. :p

Death to the casual market - games are meant to be a challenge. ;)

I dont know what your all complaining about, i found it easy and only fell down once... made the rest in the first go.
I really like the idea, and i think the controls are perfect.
If you make it too easy, that gets boring too.

Looking great so far, but it's true that it's a little tedious to repeat the jumps.

Looks like it's started quite a debate. It's a little tedious at the start of the level I know, but it is still only at the prototyping stage. The final level designs would be a lot more varied and inventive. I like the idea of a mix between puzzles and platforming so the final game won't have so many jumps all bunched together.
I'll be upping the power on the jump so it feels a little more useful, but I like the speed at which he rolls so that won't change much if at all.
Thanks for all the comments so far, it's invaluable info at this stage of developement.

Glad you liked the sphere mapping, I wanted it for exactly this reason :) My suggestion on the GFX is to make the face and the outline part of the texture - you'll get some really nice distortion when the blob stretches.

I'm not sure where you are wanting to take this but if you'd like to contact me I've got some ideas about how to develop this into a class game.

I'm always happy to listen to suggestions. Your email isn't in your profile though so if you're still interested in discussing ideas give me an email. All help is appreciated.

How about giving the game the same name as your nick? The character is kind of an odd ball, afterall. :P

To make it slightly different why not have a 'bounceability' slider so you can adjust the bounce. You might need to be very light to jump from a to b but,when you land, need to be heavier. Too heavy and you smash the platform.
I like 'Oddball' as a game name as well.

Sounds like Morph:

http://amigareviews.classicgaming.gamespy.com/morph.htm

I love the idea Oddball, plays great, takes practice but whats a game thats easy to complete and over before the end of the week, acquire new skills, and beat it...lol.