[WIP] Mine to the sky

[Codestar]

Mine to the sky

Genre: Platformer
Developed with: HTML5 using ImpactJS

So I've been posting a few gifs of my current progress with this game in the lounge topic on here, thought it was about time I made a devlog post.

So mine to the sky starts out with an astronaut who sets out to study the largest planet ever found in his solar system. Once getting close to the planet, the planet's high force of gravity sucks his ship down into the planet so fast that his ship burrows itself miles underground. With his ship damaged and his life support being the only systems working, he builds small robots to go out and look for resources and missing parts of his ship, so that he may repair his ship and make it off of the planet.

The game is a reverse miner game. Your goal is to gather resources, items, and face other challenges to advance your ship upwards. The further up you go, the more ecosystems and environments you come across.

No game is the same either. The game implements and random generation level structure much like rogue legacy. Most blocks are destructible and allow for interesting ways of solving challenges and shaping your experience.

Every room in the game is designed much like any normal platformer, but with this destructible block aspect, each room becomes and opportunity for resource gathering for crafting new abilities and items.

As the design becomes more an more fleshed out I will post updates on here and on my twitter. http://www.twitter.com/codestargames

Here's a few of the gifs I've posted, as well as some concept art.

gif showing off lava physics


**newest

gif showing off block damage animation



Early concept art for the robot.


There will also be many other different kinds of robots to choose from after getting upgrades.


Super early screenshot showing a few resources buried in the dirt

[MC Jimmy]

Sounds like a neat idea. The character looks lovely too.

[Codestar]

Another gif screenshot showing the drill tool that I'm working on, as well as some falling stalactite obstacles.

[Koh]

Looks pretty good so far. One thing I want to suggest, based on the screenshot with the floor spikes, is to make it so that once you've taken damage from them and fallen into them, or walk into spikes from the side, you don't take any further damage. LaMulana did this when they remade the original, and it worked out fantastic. It makes more logical sense as well, since the only deadly portion of a spike is the tip.

[JustinGameDesign]

Looks sharp so far. Keep it coming.

[Codestar]

So a bit of an update on what I've been doing. I recently got my random map generator working, trying to decide on whether to cap off how many rooms get generated or generate the rooms on the fly.

I've also recently (last night) got my room generator working for the most part. It uses a room generation algorithm similar to spelunky(uses sectioned off room section templates and combines them), but also allows me to design specific rooms. This allows me to create both randomized layouts as well as designed rooms that I have full control over.

Here's a recent screenshot of my map generator in action.


With all of my recent progress, things are really starting to come together. So, I'm going to try to keep this devlog as well as my TIGsource one more up to date so people can see the fruits of my labor.

[Kelvin]

If this is an HTML game, will you be putting in on Game Jolt?

[Codestar]

I plan to release it on as many platforms as I can. With the game being in HTML5, I have a lot of options for how I want to distribute it.

[Kelvin]

Game Jolt's a site, not a system. HTML games posted there will be playable right in the browser, and they have their own achievement system and everything. It's pretty cool.

[Shade]

Game Jolt's a site, not a system. HTML games posted there will be playable right in the browser, and they have their own achievement system and everything. It's pretty cool.

But if you're making a game that will be necessary to buy, it wouldn't make sense to put it on Game Jolt for free.

Now, if it isn't a commercial game, that would be a cool idea.

[Kelvin]

GJ shares ad revenue with developers, so if the game's as awesome as it looks, he'll make plenty of money just by leaving it on the site, seeing as he'll make money every time someone plays it, as opposed to individual sales. Even though it's not much, a few loyal players could still mean a reasonable return for his efforts. Heck, I haven't even posted anything playable there, and already, I've made a bit just by having my WIPs up.

[Codestar]

Here's dump of some of the missing gifs from this devblog as well as a new one showing off the random room generation.





This new gif showcases the room generator. It takes in template files I that I design and patches them together. Afterwards it randomizes sections of the level and places different obstacles and enemies. In this gif, it just shows the same template repeated over and over again 3 times, but it gives you a glimpse of how it will work.

[Kelvin]

I think endless Minecraft-style lava would be too troublesome in a 2D game. It'd be too easy to flood an entire area in it. Any chance you could make it so it moves around like in Terraria? Doesn't have to be so precise, but it could be an interesting mechanic if the way to proceed was by getting lava out of the way. The risk of being burned in the process would make players have to be more careful, too.

[Codestar]

That's actually an older gif of the lava. The new lava will spread, but will eventually turn into hot molten rock. The rock still damages you if you touch it, but you are able to destroy it.

[Navana]

Interesting concepts! Really enjoy the sprite work!