🐸 KEROLL - A swampy rolling platformer for Playdate (WIP)

Games
,
1

kerollLogo640

Recently, I started working on KEROLL, a rolling platformer, inspired by games like Super Monkey Ball and Marble It Up!, with pseudo-3D visuals. The game is (very) early in development, so I thought I could share this game-making journey with you!

In the game, you'll play as Keroll, a little frog who loves rolling and hopping around. While seeking food one morning, she spots a very tasty looking butterfly. Problem is, it's on the other side of the river, and Keroll can't swim! She's gonna have to use her rolling and leaping skills to make her way across, while making sure she doesn't fall in the water!

I'm currently struggling trying to get the pseudo-3D visuals working, using the SDK's built-in drawSampled() function to create a Mode-7 floor to navigate on. The biggest challenge at the moment is figuring out how to draw sprites inside that 3D space...

playdate-20231119-010515
playdate-20231118-230254

6 Likes
2

That is a seriously good logo! And it looks like you have a decent MVP already, which looks fun even just to watch.

Rendering in 3D on a 2D platform is always an interesting challenge. Do you have any sources of inspiration for the visual style?

1 Like
3

Wow this is cool! Seems like you have a good base for the 2D-3D visuals. Excited to see how this develops!

1 Like
4

Really love the premise and the character. Is the player going to use the crank to play? Also, what happens with the butterly when you get at the end of the course? Do you eat it? Or does it fly away?

Got all these questions as the game got me a bit hyped up ^^

1 Like
5

Thanks a bunch for the kind words! I'd say my main inspiration would be games like Super Mario Kart or F-ZERO on the SNES, those that made use of the hardware's mode-7 rendering to create those pseudo-3D floors!

1 Like
6

I think it might fly away, as an incentive to keep playing to chase it, haha! As for controls, I imagined it would use motion controls, where you tilt the console to move Keroll around! But I'll happily explore alternate control schemes as I continue working!

1 Like
7

Interesting idea to use the motion controls. It makes sense since the frog is rolling! Then you'd have to move it upwards quick when you want the frog to jump, I assume :slight_smile: . Feels like it can be fun.

Looking forward to more updates for the game Voxy ^^

1 Like
8

I was always partial to "Wacky Wheels", a Super Mario Kart clone originally released on DOS.

Have you tried HyperZone on SNES/SFC? It is another great game that uses BG-M7 for fake planes, and the gameplay could give you some more ideas for Keroll.