Slimey Carnage (alpha)

[Ironbell]

Wow awesome what such a "simple" change can do to the feel of the game! Great, thank you, I'll be happily testing your game when I find the time to play 

[thebwainz]

Update!

08 Mar 2016
v0.1.2.0 alpha

• Added world 5: The morass! (see screenshot below)
• Fixed level exploits
• Last playable level now unlocks properly
• Visual improvements (shaders, particles mainly)
• Bug fixes

(click to show/hide)

Took me a bit longer than anticipated. Oh well.

This update will unfortunately wipe your save file again,
so if you want you can download a save file that unlocks all levels in worlds 1-4 (bonus pickups won't unlock):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9v2yg838lsaysod/slimey_carnage_progress?dl=0

[Ironbell]

Cool, nice update! Two small things I noticed while testing:

• I move the slime with A/D but to leave a level, W doesn't work, I have to use the arrow-up key. If both A/D and the arrows work for moving, I would expect that W does the same as the arrow-up key.
• In the first level of the icy temple, there is a shooter-thingy at the bottom. When you just drop beneath it, it kills you instantly (you see no red shot). Is this intended?

[thebwainz]

I move the slime with A/D but to leave a level, W doesn't work, I have to use the arrow-up key. If both A/D and the arrows work for moving, I would expect that W does the same as the arrow-up key.

Now that you mention it, it really does make more sense to use W instead of E to use the doors. I'll change it in the next version.

In the first level of the icy temple, there is a shooter-thingy at the bottom. When you just drop beneath it, it kills you instantly (you see no red shot). Is this intended?

Colliding with the turret shouldn't be lethal, only with its projectiles. There's a spike right underneath it (that wasn't there in early versions). Maybe you got killed by it?

And thanks for testing

[thebwainz]

Update!

21 Mar 2016
v0.1.3.0 alpha

• Added the final standard world: Strange Depths! (see screenshot below)
• Changed some key bindings (keyboard)
• Particle system update! All particles now properly move and fade out smoothly
• Adjusted volume for some sounds
• Updated several levels
• Bug fixes as always

Don't anger the flying Buddha statues.

(click to show/hide)

This is the last time your save file gets wiped. All future updates will preserve it.

[thebwainz]

Update!

25 Mar 2016
v0.1.3.1 alpha

• Prepared for release that contains the final campaign world
• Added some juice! (e.g. explosions and hard impacts will cause the camera to shake!)
• Quality of life changes, visual improvements, and bug fixes

This version unexpectedly broke the save file

Here is a download link to one that unlocks all levels in worlds 1-6 (excluding bonus pickups): Dropbox link
This save file is for version 0.1.3.1 alpha and not compatible with older versions.

Stay tuned for the next release!

[thebwainz]

Update!

05 Apr 2016
v0.1.4.0 alpha

• Added the final campaign world (the one that's unlocked via bonus pickups)! (see screenshot below)
• Game progress is (or rather: can be) saved more frequently now. Check out the new options menu tab for details.
• Fixed layer/object draw order
• Fixed player spawn point when killed
• Fixed some audio files' replay gain info
• Replaced world 1 (Sky Temple) ambience with a better, less annoying one
• Random bug fixes and visual improvements

Bonus world screenshot

(click to show/hide)

Save file info

Note that previous save files won't work with this version.

Since this update wraps up the campaign, the save file will work for all future versions.

What's next?

The next version will have another small campaign content update (which can be unlocked by beating the final level of the bonus world), but other than that the campaign is finished.

I'll try to find and fix any bugs or annoyances that I overlooked, and then start working on the new game mode (for multiplayer).

I'm eager to know what you guys think. If you have suggestions, found bugs, or have feedback of any kind, I'll be all ears!

PS: I'm in the process of recording some gameplay footage, so expect to see some videos in the near future.

[eXpl0it3r]

Yay, no more breaking save files.

One suggestion when you finish on stage and you get back to the nexus, maybe highlight the entrance/exit slightly (some glow effect or so), that way it becomes more obvious that one has to go back.

Will be looking forward to your footage.

[FRex]

Why is there a zip file without an extension with ogg files without extensions in it? Is that a security precaution?

[eXpl0it3r]

The game seems to use physfs.

[FRex]

Yes, I'm big fan of how nice that library works and I can see the dll there too.
The game seems to be easier now: I just passed easily all of world 1 since writing the last post. I quit after not being able to outrun the shooters in world 2 level 1 but I might try again later.

[K.F]

Great game  , flawed but great. Finished everything including world 7 and collecting all these yellow circles. Here some of the problems that I found in the game:

1- stage 6-10 and 7-6 are the same stage, they just have different exits. The exit is 7-6 is in the same place of the circle in 6-10, and you can't get to stage 7-6 without collecting the circle from 6-10 anyway, so the player is repeating the exact same thing.

2- Some hit boxes are questionable, but the rotating star hit box is just wrong, it's way too big compared to its sprite. the bomb explosion hit box stays way too long, much longer than you'd expect.

Also, the sides and the top of the screen kill you!? There should be something indicating that they are lethal, when there is nothing is on the side of a level, I assume by default either it is a wall or the screen will scroll.

The bottom should be lower than it is, there are many jumps that I plan to go off screen from the bottom before I jump again to a platform, but I can't because of the kill box. Same thing from the top.

3- Time wasters, these kill the pace of the game, main two offenders are insect traps, and spike traps. Spike trap takes long to go back, and takes too long to appear which looks pretty odd, traps usually snaps into position, and retracts slowly. This one activates slowly, stays in place too long, then retracts slowly, waiting for them is pretty tedious, but they are not even close to how bad the insect trap is.

Every thing about the insect trap is bad, it is the second worst thing in the game, they waste a lot of time, they are random, and twice in the game, they are in a combination with other traps, that appear to be impossible - or at least very difficult - to avoid death from first time, I had to activate it, die, then run fast to go past it before it activates again.

4- Absolute worst part about the game, the random yoyos. Nothing worse in a skill based games than doing everything spot on, just to be killed because you were "not lucky enough". If those f**kers were in the start of the game, I would not have touched the game with a light year long pole.

5- Jumping, a fixed height jump really gives a bad, outdated and clunky feel to the game I found my self  .Also, the game might benefit from a small ghost jump.

Still a fun game, the difficulty is perfect for me, and skill games should always be difficult IMHO, other ways they lose their whole appeal.

[thebwainz]

Great game  , flawed but great. Finished everything including world 7 and collecting all these yellow circles. Here some of the problems that I found in the game:

That's so cool. I'm currently replaying all levels because I'm recording a gameplay video, and even though I've played every level dozens of times, completing the game takes me longer than I'd like to admit

1- stage 6-10 and 7-6 are the same stage, they just have different exits. The exit is 7-6 is in the same place of the circle in 6-10, and you can't get to stage 7-6 without collecting the circle from 6-10 anyway, so the player is repeating the exact same thing.

Actually levels 7-1 through 7-6 are near duplicates of previous levels - slightly altered and a little harder. Namely, 7-1 is 1-10, 7-2 is 2-10, 7-3 is 3-10, 7-4 is 4-10, 7-5 is 5-10, 7-6 is 6-10. All other levels are unique.

2- Some hit boxes are questionable, but the rotating star hit box is just wrong, it's way too big compared to its sprite. the bomb explosion hit box stays way too long, much longer than you'd expect.

Fixing the pendulum's hitbox has been on my todo list for a while. I'll make it smaller in the next update. I guess I can also tweak the amount of time the bomb's hitbox stays up a little.

Also, the sides and the top of the screen kill you!? There should be something indicating that they are lethal, when there is nothing is on the side of a level, I assume by default either it is a wall or the screen will scroll.

The bottom should be lower than it is, there are many jumps that I plan to go off screen from the bottom before I jump again to a platform, but I can't because of the kill box. Same thing from the top.

Yeah, that's a bug. Currently there's a 1-tile grace space at the top and on the left of the screen (meaning the player can jump up to 1 tile outside the screen). However, there's no space at the bottom and on the right of the screen, which is something that will be fixed in the next version.

3- Time wasters, these kill the pace of the game, main two offenders are insect traps, and spike traps. Spike trap takes long to go back, and takes too long to appear which looks pretty odd, traps usually snaps into position, and retracts slowly. This one activates slowly, stays in place too long, then retracts slowly, waiting for them is pretty tedious, but they are not even close to how bad the insect trap is.

While replaying the game, I've noticed that too. I'll adjust the activation and retraction speed in the next update.

Every thing about the insect trap is bad, it is the second worst thing in the game, they waste a lot of time, they are random, and twice in the game, they are in a combination with other traps, that appear to be impossible - or at least very difficult - to avoid death from first time, I had to activate it, die, then run fast to go past it before it activates again.

Right. I'll look into that and see what I can do about it.

4- Absolute worst part about the game, the random yoyos. Nothing worse in a skill based games than doing everything spot on, just to be killed because you were "not lucky enough". If those f**kers were in the start of the game, I would not have touched the game with a light year long pole.

Can't argue with that.

This is what I'm going to do: The random yoyos (they're not called yoyos internally, but let's call them that will stay in the game in the easier levels / in the levels where they can't really screw the player over that much, but I'll see to it that I replace them with the standard yoyos in the levels where the random aspect is too much of a burden. (Also in the next update.)

5- Jumping, a fixed height jump really gives a bad, outdated and clunky feel to the game I found my self  .Also, the game might benefit from a small ghost jump.

The whole game was designed with the fixed jump height in mind. I won't change the physics because I'd have to basically redo every single level.

However, I'd be interested in what you mean by "ghost jump"?

Still a fun game, the difficulty is perfect for me, and skill games should always be difficult IMHO, other ways they lose their whole appeal.

Thank you! I appreciate you typing all that out, and your honesty!

---

Also, there's currently a bug (which is already fixed in the next version) that causes the vsync setting to be ignored if there's a framerate limit set. If you want to play with vsync, here's a workaround for the current version: Turn off framerate limit and vsync in the game, and turn on vsync in your graphics card's settings.

[K.F]

Actually levels 7-1 through 7-6 are near duplicates of previous levels - slightly altered and a little harder. Namely, 7-1 is 1-10, 7-2 is 2-10, 7-3 is 3-10, 7-4 is 4-10, 7-5 is 5-10, 7-6 is 6-10. All other levels are unique.

Aww, and I thought that I was being perceptive catching that level 

However, I'd be interested in what you mean by "ghost jump"?

Ghost jump is allowing the player to jump even after they left a platform and started falling, usually just for a couple to several frames. It is used in the vast majority of platformers - at least good ones -, it vastly improves the feel of the game, and eliminates the latency issue where the player actually presses the jump button at the right time right at the edge of the platform, but because of latency, the jump press will register in time, and he will fall instead, or in the case of your game, cannot double jump after the air jump.

More elaborate articles:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MarkVenturelli/20140810/223001/Game_Feel_Tips_I_The_Ghost_Jump.php

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AdamSaltsman/20100929/88155/Tuning_Canabalt.php

Thank you! I appreciate you typing all that out, and your honesty!

Glad it helped, I reach the end of a project sometimes, and nothing help me improve it more than a brutal but friendly other pair of eyes. 

[thebwainz]

Update!

07 Apr 2016
v0.1.4.1 alpha

• Fixed vsync/fps settings bug
• Made adjustments to the following levels (made them much fairer): 4-6, 5-4, 5-8, 5-9, 5-10, 6-5, 6-7, 6-9, 7-5, 7-10. Note that a few traps have been exchanged and moved.
• Bomb trap: Decreased time its lethal explosion hitbox stays active; decreased lethality range (explosion visuals are unchanged)
• Spike trap: Increased both activation and deactivation speed (activation speed is much higher though); there are now different sounds for activation and deactivation to account for the new speeds; increased cooldown from 1s to 1.75s; fixed bug where the trap would initially (before the first activation) be on cooldown;
• Pendulum: Made its hitbox smaller to better fit the visuals

This is a quick update to address some issues. More changes will come within the next days!