Hello
I have been working on a new game as I needed a break from my other project. It’s started out as a remake of the old iOS game “Tiny Wings” but has gone through changes and has become a snowboarding game. All the mechanics haven’t been set in stone yet and there bound to be more changes, but I’m in need of testing what I have. As I don’t have a playdate yet, I have no idea how it performs on real hardware.
You play as a snowboarder going down a random generated slope. The only controls you have are braking (B) and increasing “gravity” on the player (A). While in the air you can perform tricks by doing d-pad combinations (e.g., right + down = 360 Grab. There are 8 tricks for now, but more will be added). So far, I haven’t implemented any kind of goal nor a scoring system but it’s coming.
As an avid Tiny Wings player back in day, I can't wait for this! I was thinking about making my own remake of that game but now I'm glad I don't have to! Happy to play test more when you are further along, and and for now I can re-affirm what metafish said about the consistent framerate.
Thanks for trying it out. As I progress, I’ll keep this thread updated and send the game when there are any major changes that needs testing, so any play testing and feedback will be much appreciated. For starters I have added an animation for when failing a trick as well as a speed penalty.
To get big airtime it’s important to get proper landings (landing downhill) as well as increasing the gravity (A button) while falling downwards and sliding down hills to increase your speed. But don’t increase it while going up hills as that increases friction and you will lose a lot of speed. You also lose a lot of speed when landing in an uphill, so sometimes it’s good to brake (B button) to better line up the landing. In the gif I added a small icon over the players head when I’m pressing A to show what I’m talking about.
Hi. I’ve got an update on the game. I have added an avalanche and a small bar at the bottom that shows how far away the avalanche is (the art is only placeholder). Right now, the speed of the avalanche increases the further you have travelled until it reaches a maximum speed after a given distance, so that it doesn’t increase indefinitely. The speed is also going through an easing function so that it’s not a linear increase. In this build I’m using easeOutCirc, but I’m testing a few different types. I’m unsure if this is the best way to set the avalanche speed (by travel distance) or if I should do it differently (e.g., by score). If anyone has any suggestions, it will be much appreciated, as well as any feedback.
Wow, that looks awesome! How're you creating those animations?
The small bar is cool but it's a little hard to tell what's going on when the icons overlap. Also it seems like the left 80% of the bar is unused (unless you're able to get really far ahead of the avalanche?). It might make sense to move the player icon slightly left so the avalanche icon can actually "overtake" the player when you lose.
Also that is a lot of leading 0's on your score maybe show less digits or award more points? (it always feels better to get large scores like Whitewater Wipeout).
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, the bar needs some work. It was only implemented to get the logic working, but I’ll come back to it later to make it better.
The score is also work in progress. Right now, it’s only the distance travelled that effects the score, but I’ll be adding scores from tricks soon. I agree that large scores are much more satisfying so that is the plan, but I’ll be waiting until I’ve got tricks implemented before I start tweaking values.
I’m also thinking about maybe adding a speed boost from doing tricks, but I’m unsure what is the best way. I’m thinking either when you land after doing a trick (and maybe you must also get a perfect landing?) you automatically get a small boost. Or the speed boost gets charged up so you can use it (by double pressing A) whenever to get out of a sticky situation. I’ll probably implement both to test which is best.
As for the animations, I have a 3d model in Blender that I animate, and I use the compositing from this video to render 1-bit images. I also made a small blender script to add many cameras to the scene with different rotations to get all the angles I need for rotation. It makes it very easy to make animations and I think it looks great.
Hi, it’s been a while. I’m back at university and haven’t had a lot of time to work on this game, but I’ve gotten around to add some more stuff.
Got a score system now as well as a high score screen. The scores for different trick haven’t been set yet, so for now they all give the same score. There is also a score multiplier that increases for each unique trick you do in one jump.
I have also added a boost to get out of tricky situations. It gets charged by doing tricks, the more tricks you do the more charge you get. The charge is also affected by the multiplier, so it is recommended to do many different tricks in one jump. The boost charge does also have a decay, so you need to keep doing tricks to keep it up (Double press A to use the boost).
Some sound effects have also been added, but they are mostly placeholder. The ui is also all placeholder
Hi. I have a small update. Nothing really new, but I wanted to show the new background I’ve got. I used a 3D model of a mountain and pre-rendered it the same way I did the player. So now the background is more in style with the player.
The slops always starts the same, but after getting past the initial flat area the rest is random generated. I really liked your idea to mark prior runs, so I will most definitely add that, but I’ll probably only do it for the longest run.
While I’m posting I could also show what I have added since last time.
The game now has a book with instructions, some stats and info about all the tricks there are (info is locked if you haven’t discovered the trick).
I have also added a credits scene, which I’m very happy with.
Hi. I’ve got an update. Today I have finished implementing the last thing I planned to add to the game. Tasks and Upgrades! There will be 15 tasks to complete and for each complete task one upgrade token will be given. You can use these tokens to upgrade your max speed, number of boosts and how much the gravity is increased when pressing A. I have only added 11 of the 15 tasks so far, but the rest will be added soon.
A background to the high score screen has also been added, which I’m very happy with (art is not my forte). There is also some music, but its only placeholder and will be replaced in the future.
As it’s been a long time since I got the game tested on actual hardware, I would really appreciate it if someone could test it and report the performance. A lot has been added since last time and I have no idea how it really performs. Any feedback will also be much appreciated. I plan to release the game on itch in the future. I’m thinking it will be a paid game, but as I have no experience setting prices, I don’t know what price to set it to. What would you pay for a game like this, or would you expect it to be free?
maybe show less digits or award more points? (it always feels better to get large scores like Whitewater Wipeout).
