What the Crow?! / Midnight Raider / Prototypes

Working on a few ideas for the Playdate. Really excited for this device!

Neko Lost

The 1st main game I will be focusing on for initial release is Neko Lost. This is a game where you scroll around looking for the missing items.
  • User can only scroll up to a certain point until they complete each stage by finding all the items. As you unlock each area, you have the ability to scroll even higher.
  • User can switch controls for cursor between accelerometer or d-pad.
  • Once you reach the top, there is a final surprise mini game.

NekoLostTest

Midnight Raider

  • A hack and slash rogue-lite / metrovania.
  • Battle enemies and get to the next stage/area.

discordLogo

19 Likes

More stacks / Aug 15

Decided to split up the sectors/areas with seasons. So far, I have spring and just starting on summer. Lots of small animations in the works.

springSummer

9 Likes

Wow I'm loving this artstyle!

2 Likes

Thanks so much! I wasn't too sure about the sketchy type of look, but others seem to like it!

Accelerometer / Aug 17

Working on the accelerometer cursor that also stops before the left panel edge. Will most likely provide two methods for cursor control: with accelerometer and with d-pad.

I don't have a device so any feedback on the feel of controls is welcome!
NekoLost-v0.3.pdx.zip (710.9 KB)

  • Accelerometer moves cursor
  • Right d-pad opens panel and Left closes it

accelerometer

5 Likes

Just tried it out and it’s super smooth and cute. :slight_smile:
The accelerometer controls have the expected issue that it’s tricky to get the cursor where you want while holding the device in a way that you can see the screen and it’s not too dark. I played at my desk with sunlight coming mostly from one side and made it work after playing around a bit but I imagine it’d be more comfortable with the d-pad.

1 Like

Thanks for trying it out and the feedback! I forgot to think about people who might use a lamp or limited light source. Makes sense!

Two cursor modes / Aug 18

Added a "tile cursor" toggle in the menu to turn off the accelerometer and use the d-pad instead.

  • When using the d-pad, B opens and closes the left panel.
  • When using accelerometer, d-pad right opens the left panel and d-pad left closes the left panel.

d-padtilt

2 Likes

Animation exploration / Aug 19

Little side animation of a fox platform game idea that leverages the crank to move platforms.

fox

4 Likes

Really looking forward to this one. Nice work! Is it possible to use the crank to scroll vertically or is it purely cursor controlled?

1 Like

Thanks! For Neko Lost, the crank scrolls the building vertically. Feel free to check out the zip as I included crank for scroll plus two types of cursor control. Any feedback is welcome.

For the fox game, the crank only moves the platforms and objects.

Fox runner / Aug 20

Got the fox to run on platforms (with the wonderful support of the Playdate community and neven). Also added in platform movement with the crank.

foxPlat

2 Likes

Scenery / Aug 21

Drawing up some scenery in the fox runner.

foxrun

3 Likes

Art explorations / Aug 22

Just pulled some of my pixel art drawings into the playdate simulator to see how some concepts could look.

frog-king

story

6 Likes

Animation explorations / Aug 23

Worked on some running animations. This one took a bit of time as getting each limb to be correctly drawn was a bit challenging for me.

fighter

4 Likes

Platformer development / Aug 25

Started working on the code side of a platformer. It's been quite the learning curve, but slowly getting the hang of it thanks to the great community.

runningTest

6 Likes

Attack / Aug 27

Incorporating in the attack animation. Realized there was a lot more to think about than just simply adding in the animation when pressing the button.

swipe

4 Likes

Train builder / Aug 28

Train builder early concept. The goal would be to assemble the train parts according to spec before the time runs out. Once you're done, you crank it to make the train leave the station. Then, onto the next train!

trainbuilder

6 Likes

Love the puff animation as it appears.

2 Likes

@matt Thanks! I do want to add more bounce and fun cartoon-like elements to this one. Will look to experimenting with squish and squash as well.