Monstropolis (WIP)
My game Monstroplis which has been a work in progress for a while now, it came about when i first became aware of the Ludum Dare gamejam's, so although my coding skill at best is beginner and would never be able to make a game in 72 hours, let alone 48, i did kind of participate in my own little way and came up with a concept idea based on the theme of "You are the Monster", and have been plodding along with it ever since at my own pace.
The idea is to smash the buildings untill they are all gone, then you will go on to the next level, leveling up each time, with each level there are waves of humans running around, some will attack you, Police,Army etc, whilst others will just be running around. There are various vehicles as well which you can pick up and throw, either to destroy the buildings or just to create more chaos, you can also pick up the humans, which you need to eat to regenerate your health.
So far i have put what you can see, which is the handling of the arms and collisions events with the characters and vehicles, and this is very much an alpha/test build and i still have lots to do, but at least you can get a feel for the game as it is now.
No music or sound effects as yet, i am searching through the OGA archive till i find something i like, levels will only go up to 5 as im still working on that part, the score values, and health meter needs to be done and all the artwork is not done, so as i said still lots to do.
there will be bugs, so any troubles then just press the space bar mto restart the game.
:)
you can try it here if you like.
https://chasersgaming.itch.io/monstropolis-preview
Nice. Very reminiscent of Rampage. It wasn't immediately apparent from the controls page that I needed to select the monster hands each time before I could interact with other objects, but I got it figured out. Good preview.
--Medicine Stormthanks!, il redo the control page to make it more better, thanks for the feedback and nice comment.:)
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
Love it! I'd agree the tap an arm then tap the target isn't obvious but once I got the hang of it it was pretty fun! Especially enjoyed tapping several arms and then tapping a target, mega destruction!
https://withthelove.itch.io/
Thanks @capbros, glad you find it fun, and that selecting both arms to attack at the same time was cool, i do wonder whether that will be a problem later on thou, when it's busier on the later levels, il have to wait and see if it's ok. Thanks for taking the time to have a go.:)
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
i have done a few updates, still lots to do and may be bit buggy.
*updated title screen.
*updated controls/instructions (thanks Medicinestorm and capbros, i hope this is better.) :)
*updated man running , capture & throw sprites.
*updated women running, capture & throw sprites.
*updated officer running,capture & throw sprites.
*rubble now falls when you strike the buildings.
*dust appears when you hit the ground, although its not that clear.
*monsters eyes now follow the mouse.
*added score, there is now a score value generated when you strike the civillians.
*added health bar, still not operational, but is there.
:)
https://chasersgaming.itch.io/monstropolis-preview
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
Nice. Instructions are clearer. I love the eyeballs watching the cursor. Running animations are hilarious and really add to the theme.
I reached an effectively infinite score after level 6. The buildings just instantly exploded as soon as the round starts, moves on to next round, buildings explode, repeat. Initial building health set to zero after round 6?
--Medicine StormEr yeh, they do reset to zero, the buildings will get harder to break the higher level your on but I still haven't worked on the level progression yet, I need to finish all characters and vehicles first so I can then add them as you progress, thought I put a stop on that happening, oh well,sorry. Anything after level 5 then it's going do what it likes,:). Have press the space bar to start again.
appreciate you taking the time to have a go, I will work on a ending to stop that happening on the next update an to end demo or something or restart.
:)
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
This is a really fun concept and here's some ideas after playing it for a bit:
I think you should make the controls a bit simpler; just click a target and it chooses an appropriate arm to smash with. You can make the challenge managing which targets to select because not all of the arms reach all of the targets, and you can put more of a delay when smashing (fist stays down slightly longer). Make it so you can fling things you grab anywhere and they smash into other things to destroy them. As the game goes on maybe he could grow more arms. Soldiers could shoot some of the arms off so you can prioritize saving them by taking out the soldiers. Make planes, birds, blimps fly overhead, grab them too. After eating certain things (tanker of gas) or enough things he could burp out a firey cloud. Make the screen appear like a news broadcast with a ticker of funny things relating to the destruction at the bottom. For example, eat the news truck and it tells of the reporter's death a minute later. Use the news ticker and other game elements to advance the monster's story--It could tell of a cult starting around the monster, and later you see them show up with signs saying "Take me please green one".
Thanks for taking the time to have a go at Monstropolis and giving some feedback on your ideas.
"think you should make the controls simplier....."
Having the monster decide its own arm when selecting the floor tile would make it difficult to then select when having hold of a hostage or vehicle, and have it perform the throws. having the player select an individual arm to perform a particular event is a players choice.
I have considered using letter keys to select the individual arms which is something i may add later.:)
"not all arms reach the target...."
its split in two really, the 2 left arms do the left half screen and vice versa for the right, having the right arms go all the way to the left side of the screen didn't seem neccessary already having 2 arms there.:)
" more delay when smashing"
Yes I could do this, i also thought about having the arms retract slower then they would smash.
"as the game goes on maybe grow more arms..."
My original concept had the monster with 6 arms, when creating the four arms, it was a bit tough, and once the screen lay out was done, there wasn't much room for anymore arms, and I thought it looked overkill.
"fling things anywhere, destroy other things..."
When you have the vehicle in hand you will be able to throw at any of the buildings,or floor destroying anything it collides with, although in the alpha demo, it doesn't work fully for everywhere yet, but the finish version will, you can only throw the humans at the monster, i haven't decided if you can throw them anywhere yet, but now that you have mentioned it, i may do it.
I have thought about when the vehicles hit the flor that they roll. destroying whatever and gain a combo score for multiple kills.:)
"make planes, birds, blimps fly over head..."
There are some helicoptors that will appear at later stages, these will cover the hands so you cant select them, no plans for anything else for this version.:)
"After eating certain things, burp gas..."
I had this idea before, where the monster could blow fire, and i had more than one monster drawn up and they would have there own ability, and that you could choose your monster or custom it, the drinking of a tanker is a great idea, i thought about a "Rage" bar.:)
"advance monsters story..."
Never really considered a story for it, kinda think its a "ronseal" game "Does what it says on the tin".perhaps i could add a story, may give it a bit more character.:)
"take me please green one"
LOL, yeh, that is cool, i was gona have a load of people dancing on top of the buildings with picards, like independance day!, might add it.:)
I hope i have answered some of your ideas, and again thanks for taking the time for your feedback. I am very much a novice at game development, i had lots of ideas for this game and think my novice skill can limit me somewhat, so i decided to leave alot out for this, as 1 idea leads to another and another, it would take forever and never be finished, so i was hard on myself to keep things back, and keeping it relativley simple is good for me, all the ideas i had, plus any feedback received, i will come back to this game, add all those things i didn't this time around and when my coding and artwork is better, i will hopefully create a better game, also doing that allows me to see my progression in development and artwork.
:)
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
just my two cents here. I feel torn about the idea of altering the controls.
Tapping the fist(s) and then the target is kind of unintuitive and cumbersome.
But at the same time, it's the central mechanic of the game. If you just clicked on the ground and the hands automatically attacked, there really wouldn't be much to the game. It'd just sort of be another random screen clicker, and one with a very small play field to boot since the ground is actually a fairly narrow strip of the screen.
Playing the game with the mouse, I am struck that it all might work considerably better with a touch interface.
I would describe the issues with the 'click hand then target' as two-fold:
1) it's not entirely intuitive
2) it's slow and actually quite a lot of work to keep physically moving the mouse cursor back and forth between the hands and the targets
Touch controls wouldn't entirely elminate issue #1, but they'd help a good bit I think. And for certain they'd completely eliminate issue #2.
I'd say, if you want to keep going with a mouse interface, you probably do need to re-think the controls a little. One thought, if you can read both left and right mouse buttons, you could go left button strikes with the left hand(s), right button strikes with the right hand(s). The mechanic then is alternating your button presses to keep the attacks coming while also accounting for the difference in range between the two sides. I guess for that you'd want a little space in the middle where the arm ranges overlap.
https://withthelove.itch.io/
I see what your saying, I didn't think the controls were cumbersome, I can't think of any other way to have the arms operate as they do, like you say they are the central mechanic of the game, like command and conquer, click man, click space, man moves. My feeling was you had to be quick on the arms to eliminate everything, this would cause a panic to the player and make em "anxious" (in a good way), feel good of having quick hands, a good hand an eye coordination etc, but at the same time I completely understand what your saying.:)
i think maybe implementing some keys to make arm selection may help a lot with this control issue.
touch screen is much better, this does actually work on an iPad, and it is much better for these controls, just can't select the grab option as it is thou, but fun never the less.
i will have a tinker with the suggestions and put them in the update then we're see what's best.
thanks again.:)
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |
Wow! Never thought to try this on a tablet. Tried on my iPad and it works great!
It also gave me an idea of what you might try to make the controls feel better:
blow up the collision boxes. I'm talking 2-3x bigger, especially for the hands.
It might not always 'look' right but guarantee it'll make it feel better. And I think you'll find players can be remarkably forgiving when the 'error' is in their favor.
I'd also suggest maiing the arms part of the collision for the hands. So if you click any where on the arm it counts for selecting the hand.
also, i had no idea you could and/or we're supposed to smash the buildings. I was instinctively just going for the stuff that moves.
https://withthelove.itch.io/
Fun Game! Works well on my computer. As mentioned above, it's probably more fun on a touch screen.
Not sure if it's just me, but there is a green rectangle missing from the bottom left side of the monster. Does anyone else see that? It's about a quarter the width of the body.
In the game screenshot, the monster sits behind the top road. On my screen, it overlaps the top road, but a rectangular section of him is behind making it look a bit odd...
Anyways, other than that I thinks it's great!
Cheers,
Darkwall
http://darkwalllke.com/
I have updated the game and added/ fixed some issues.
updated:
* you can now throw hostages and vehicles at ALL floors and buildings.
(this was only working on some not all)
*Monster takes damage and Game Over screen.
(monster took no damage or did but nothing happened.)
*Monster regains health when eating hostages.
(yum yum)
*You can now control the hands independently using A,S,D & L buttons.
(i have taken note of your comments on the controls, and i'm hoping this will feel a bit better whilst playing. you can still click the arms as before if you prefered it that way, but now you can do either. The buttons are not set in stone, these were suggested by a member of OGA, i may consider letting the player choose which buttons to use in another update.)
* No longer need to click the hands when performing a smash or grab move, You just click the buildings or the floor tiles. this is now only necessary when holding a hostage or vehicle.
( excessive selecting arms and clicking targets was annoying, so the above update should resolve this, but it is still neccesary to click an arm when holding a hostage or vehicle, so you can target what you want to do with it, i feel this would be a more acceptable behavoiur to take from the player. or you can use the new button control)
* Level doesn't crash on level 6, it will now just repeat level 5 until I start creating the other levels.
(it crashed on level 6, and just did its own thing, now it will just loop back to level 5 so you can keep playing, at least until i sort the rest of the levels out.)
* Level transition added when a level completed.
( the screen moves to one side and then starts the next level instead of just jumping right unto the next one.)
* Space bar will restart the game.
(think this was already there in there)
*Slight improvement to the movement of attached arms.
( i have tried to make the arms move better. Although its an improvement its still not the best. This is one of the games biggest achillies heels for me, and its a bit beyond my programming capabilities, so i will have to accept that it is what it is. I have spent months poking about with it, and i'd much rather focus the time on getting the game towards a finishing line.)
Thanks for all your comments everyone, I appreciate your feedback and the time you take to play.
:)
https://chasersgaming.itch.io/monstropolis-preview
Chasersgaming | Support | Monstropolis |