[FINAL UPDATE] BGMC 15 | KWAKTROID: The Kwakening

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Download](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktbpggyc7p6b3bj/KWAKTROID_4_BGMC15.blend?dl=0) (old build)

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Download Redoux version (still a .blend file)
If at all possible, please consider the Redoux the ‘final build’ for this competition. If I added to or altered my game too much at the last minute, the original upload is still available above.
This build should be more direct in showing you what it wants you to do, and rewarding you for doing it. I also tried to dial down the difficulty (a little) and replace it with more interesting and progressive challenge which tries to ‘teach’ you how to play through its level design.

Here is what was changed in the Redoux:
-Totally new level design with…well…more design
-A (superficial) end goal scenario
-The gun is now a pick-up, and you start without it (a small sample of the upgrade system I originally intended)
-Added lifts, death-spikes and checkpoints
-Made jumping a bit more powerful, and added more vertical push to upward-walljumps
-Nerfed the baddies a little (Squi die quicker, Chubbas are slower)
-Some bug-fixes and minor tweaks
-Removed all text objects from the scene (were causing nasty crashes, and generally were broken)
-Removed MooseBrine

Since there are no in-game instruction texts, a README file has been included as a text block in the blend file. Please take a minute to read through it (especially if you didn’t play the original).

[ end of edit ]

STORY: You are Special Agent Drake Mallard, the sole remote operator of the Federation Biological Rekking Unit Model QD-03 RoboDuck Public Relations Droid. You and your team are sent to the far-out planet of Noogy V to bring Robo-Democracy, or propagate the will of your shadowy autonomous overloards (whichever you decide is more interesting.)
Your Objective
: cull the native wildlife and convert their wasteful organic matter into efficient little drone bots to…I dunno…bring us snacks?
You are equipped with the latest BeakTron plasma conversion cannon, as well as Infra-Magnetic footy-pads which allow you to move across any surface that is blue.
TeleCat could explain the science behind that last part far better than I could. Which is why he is being sent along to aid you in your quest!

CONTROLS
Controls are meant to be set up in two different schemes, depending on whether you prefer using the arrow keys or WASD. Both are active at the same time, so you can switch or mix-and-match at your leisure. Although I would have liked to, I could not impliment gamepad support.

SETUP 1: CLASSIC
Arrow Keys: Movement
X: Jump
Z: Fire

SETUP 2: SOUTHPAW
WASD: Movement
M: Jump
N: Fire

SYSTEM CONTROLS
Esc: Exit game
Keypad 1: Self-Destruct
Keypad 2: Re-Spawn

Built on a fresh copy of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS using Blender 2.73
(not tested with any other versions, but will probably be just fine with any 2.7x build)

All textures were drawn last-minute using pixel.tools

sound created last-minute using LMMS with sfxr (which I just picked up and OMFG is it great!)
Audacity was also used to trim/normalize/mono-ize the audio

KNOWN ISSUES (last minute things I did not get fixed)
-Sound effects for Squi-Squi pain & death do not play properly
-HUD can show you having four ‘hearts’ when you actually have a maximum of three.
-Text objects do not respect Z-depth all the time (they were meant to be temporary in the first place)
-Removed all Moose

CREDITS
All assets were created by me, except for the font Cartoon East which is owned by Galdino Otten.

Special Thanks goes to my cat, who, for some reason, was fascinated by watching me write python, and tried very hard to help out.

Super-Special thanks goes to all who showed their interest and support on this project. You guys are the wind in my sails, and there is no way this would be here otherwise.

Quite fun, but very hard to play:D

Hard as in challenging, or hard as in frustrating?

Hard as challanging would be closer, but I might more say- hard to control the duck. I can’t do the wall jump- it took me like 20 tries until I jumped on that platform, but in next fall I fell. Also sometimes I can’t shoot(the mouth opens, but no bullets flies out of it…

I downloaded your game, nice work! I like it. Like adriansnetlis said it is hard to wall-jump. Now you have to release the jump key to bounce to the other side, but maybe it is a better idea to let the duck bounce to the other side just when he hits the wall like in other games on my mobile phone. This is what i mean:



and here an example in a other game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AnPTG4Al5c

I think that will make your wall-jump idea more playable. All else in the game is very good! Nice enemies and animations. Well done :slight_smile:

( Lol, just realised that the image I posted is huge :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

The idea was supposed to be that you charge up the wall jump. Holding down jump longer allows you to jump farther. I guess I failed to show this mechanic working in-game, or even explain it at all. Oops.

Ok… now i got your idea…
But again: cool work :wink:

Wall jump isn’t hard at all. Tough to explain though…
“Hold Right,” “hold jump”, “hold up”, “release jump”

Quick review:
-Not sure what to do once I reach the end of the level (the second Cubba-Chubba)
-Sound effects are nice, like the slippery floor motion. It’s like playing the original mario… but with Megaman’s blaster
-Duck’s animation is nice, as well as the squirrels
-How do I win?!?

First thoughts: Really like the art style, felt very original. The instruction text as you play along is a good idea too. I wasn’t sure what the objective was, perhaps the text could guide you more? The sound effects link up well with the game play. Like others, I found the wall jumping challenging to get right.

I did kind of fail to provide any objective for the player in this demo. A bad move on my part.

Having some people other than me playtest would have been good as well. When you build your own movement system and play with it as much as you need to to iron it out, it becomes hard to gauge the challenge level for those who aren’t so intimate with the game’s inner workings.

Many good lessons I am learning from this experience. I have been taking many notes in preperation for expanding the project at some point in the future. At the moment I am feeling a bit burnt out on Kwaktroid, and want to work on other things for a while.

This was fun to play and I like the art style but as you mentioned there wasn’t really an objective which was the only downside for me, apart from that wall jumping was a bit hard to get a hang of at first, but otherwise I liked it!

Couldn’t agree more! You’ve got a great concept there, i hope to see it finished one day.

It looks like we still have another day to work on these?

I am going to see if I can fix this up a little, and upload a new blend file.

It is up there. Hopefully this will be okay as a final product.

Even if it’s not, go grab the new version and enjoy it for yourself!

Cool.
Now that I’ve started to polish this up, I’m getting random crashes to the desktop with a Segmentation Fault (core dump) error:

Here is the dump file

Can anybody make sense of this? I’ve never had blender crash and burn like this before. I don’t like it!

Movement seemed washy. Other than that the duck was great and it was good.

Playing through this some more, I notice now that some last-minute tweaking of the jump code made this little jump at the mid-point of the level waaay more difficult than it’s supposed to be (I think I got lucky in my last-minute play testing and nailed this jump the first time):


It is possible to upward-wall-jump past that little ledge and make it to the top, but you need to start your jump from just the right point on the wall (about 1/3 of the way from the base of the wall).
Plus, it doesn’t seem overly clear that you’re actually supposed to go up there! I could see where people could get stuck at this part, and assume it’s the end of the level.