I found out about Playdate and PulpScript just yesterday and immediately started messing about for the good part of my evening. I grew up on Infocom and later Sierra games, learning to program in BASIC and later C++ a bit, but haven't done much since university.
I decided to learn PulpScript just by having a go, and built a first room in a game with the working title "Heavy Drinker". I intend to build individual new rooms to learn new skills and to focus on a new puzzle/challenge each time. Let's see what happens. I still struggle to remember the proper syntax and rules for scripting, so I imagine I'll have alot of questions in the forum.
Thanks! Actually, I'm just free-wheeling it. More of an episodic adventure. First room you are forced by the baddie to drink 3 of the 5 bottles at the bar in order to leave. 50% chance of each being poisoned. Start with 1 health, but there's a hidden way to increase health in the room. Survive and he moves out of the way. Through the door and POOF, you're suddenly on a beach in Thailand. Stream of consciousness game...
I've worked on art design, puzzle design, and story design for games before when with a coding partner. Would be interested in collaborating again on something.
Could try! That's the method of learning the scripting for me. I try a new thing each time. Gets more complicated as I go. Still pretty basic but growing.
i hear you on that
i've been exploring through trial and error myself.
I wish I had even half of your artistic talents - that fishing boat up above is awesome! most of my exploration has been focused on the backend stuff... crafting up ways to do random things at random times, or to create a random dungeon layout with chambers and connecting paths that are different every time you enter the 'room'.
I hope you do try for a physics engine of some sort and post about it here. good luck!
This looks excellent! Love your pixel art, especially the negative bar stools against the bar flanked by regular stools either side, and the dithering on the backdrop of the Thailand screen couldn't be more simple but effective. Did you draw that screen up elsewhere then import it as tiles? Those two very different art styles are certainly fitting of the stream of consciousness design, I think that's a great way of both playing around and learning as a dev and of making something interesting and experimental - which is what I understand to be the playdate's brief!
Thanks alot Scott! For the Thai beach I grabbed an image online and then overlaid a 24 x 14 grid on my iPad app (Sketches Pro) for location reference, then just hand-"drew" the tiles on my lappy. Most changes had to do with composition and the choice of stylization (white on black or black on white), or weird little decisions like how curved the prow should be, etc. Felt like I was back in the early 80s as a gamemaker!
Hopefully I can get some hints here about other ways to import art from elsewhere as tiles... I'm all ears.
