I think automatic or forced movement would be at least a nice option to have for a more difficult experience. If you don't know them already you should check out the abstract platform levels of Super Mario Sunshine, they are straight forward too and should give you some ideas, I loved them back then.

EDIT: Not the best example but look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dulHYb83PXQ

by automatic movement, do you mean that it just keeps moving forward or something else? it sounds like an interesting concept and can certainly add some challenge to it. however it would probably mean that i would have to redesign alot of the levels.

I cannot talk for Quad but I thought it would be interesting to give the funkybox a constant minimal speed so the player can only control the direction and jumping and attacking. Then the player would have to change the direction multiple times per second to stay more or less still on a small platform.

Btw. don't be afraid of redesigning (and deleting) things, this ... "concept" helped my current game a lot, it only got better with each level or even gameplay redesign.

so you mean sort of like once the funkybox starts moving then it will never stop? that would add to the challenge

Yes, and maybe the speed could increase over time slowly but steadily (not sure about this one, though). Crystals/ diamonds could then be used to slow the funkybox down a little (every or every 5 diamonds).

interesting idea, however i can imagine the idea about increasing the speed can be a little risky. there would have to be a limit otherwise i can imagine you can just jump straight trough entire levels.
of course that could also be an interesting aspect of it since you could make places where you would have to gain a certain amount of speed to complete it.

Yes, that's true, then scrap that idea. However, the diamonds IMO should have some impact on the game and not only give a high score, maybe the funkybox could have better (more direct) handling the more diamonds the player collects but the funkybox consumes one diamond every second or so (collecting a diamond would give the player 5 of those then).

well right now the diamonds acts as a way to get more extralives. the red bar in the bottom fills up when collecting diamonds and when the bar is full you get an extra life. but then they still does not have that big an impact.

i guess if you had a gamemode where you slide all over the place then you could make that the bar, instead of giving extralives, it would allow you to brake as long as its not 0.

I'm currently working on one of the mini games (Alien Slime) we add to our Meteor Mess project.



The gameplay is something between the good old Donkey Kong arcade and Lode Runner.

The alien movement is powered by a Dijkstra algorithm. They also use the elevators to hunt the player.

more WIP Stuff (far away from finishing) NO DETAILS YET!!!

~33k tris
7 Tex (3x 512² / 4x 1024²)



Feedback?!

regards Sebastian