Long ago, a little more than two years ago, I started a game called Baby Ghost. The story was that a little ghost's friends were destroyed by an ethereal face, and it was his goal to bring them back. However, the story was admittedly bad, and the game used the default platform engine. Eventually I stopped working on it, but recently I decided to rebuild the game from scratch, with a custom platform engine. It also has a new story, but I won't be releasing it just yet. With this project and my website I will be releasing media for the game, and asking for help or opinions on certain things.
Project Forums
Topics
Posts
Last Post
Public Forum Public forum for open project discussion
Okay, so secretly, I've always had a desire to make the graphics in this game bigger, but I still like the small style, so I was going to make this one small and the sequel big (graphics-wise). But too many people have complained for me to be satisfied about this decision, so I'm making them bigger. 4x bigger. The first picture is an example of the original graphics at 4x resolution (except the grass for reasons which will be obvious when you see the new graphics) and the second picture is a sample of the new graphics. I'm not done with all of them yet. Please comment on these graphics.
HIGH-RESOLUTION BABY!!!
I'm not done making Pak (the main character, otherwise known as Baby Ghost) and I'm going to have to remake the engine. With these new graphics, however, I'll be able to make some new stuff. The first thing is Pak's eyes; Pak will look around at his surroundings and interesting things you might not normally notice, similar to Wind Waker.
Man am I bad at staying motivated. Haven't done much of anything at all. The most significant thing was adding layer switching to the engine, so if you hold the down arrow key, or up arrow key, you'll go on an alternate path (if such a path happens to exist).
One problem with the original engine was the fact that you couldn't shoot up or down and move at the same time. I decided that I'd fix that, so I switched one of the object's movements to Platform with no gravity or jumping. Of course, the engine still works just the same as before because the Platform movement is only for utilizing the movement's speed, acceleration, and deceleration coding.
Let's see, what else... I'm thinking of making a minigame using this engine sometime soon.
I have been working on this, don't you worry (for the two? of you who care). Notice that in the project forums there are some opinions I ask of you. Please go there and help me.
So here we go. In the original (demo), there was a move called the Ectobeam, which required charging and went through walls. Now the Ghost Shot goes in three directions, so if I do put it back, it will do that as well. But should it go through stuff, or hit walls? Should it charge up? Should it not exist at all? I don't know. I have ideas for powers that will be in the next game too. They won't be in this game because they don't fit the way powers work in this game, and those powers are EctoPossesion and EctoWalk (both are forms of the EctoFlight ability).
I also happen to be working on an inventory and quest system.
Finished Areas:
Outskirts
Apar Town
The Nearby Tomb
Areas in Progress:
NEW! Soul Mountain
After making your way across the bridge, you'll meet a mountain, a tall spooky mountain. This is Soul Mountain, an area that breaks into four paths. These lead to the Cliffside, the Port House, the Eastern Bridge (where you just came from) and the Northern Bridge. As you climb up the mountain (to go to the Cliffside) it gets colder and icier (icy-er) but never gets covered in snow (that is for another area). Scaling the mountain requires travel both inside and outside.
NEW! ???
The area isn't really called ???, but it is a hot lava-y area existing deep in Soul Mountain. There are two ways to get here, one existing on the second world map (yes there are two) and one requiring revealing a secret path inside of Soul Mountain. The mountain itself is dormant but this area is very active with lava and heat.
So I'm working hard on this game here, I really ought to be working on my competition game with Falkon, though, so that makes things difficult. Either way, two technical developments have arisen.
First of all, the cutscene engine is complete.
The cutscene engine is the one that will be used for important developments in the story, along with things like showing you what happened when you pressed a switch, collecting a new item, etc.
The first thing that happens is the game switches to letterbox, making it a widescreen cutscene. Speech is displayed in the bottom box, and the camera switches from person to person as they speak.
Secondly, two new angles of slope have been added.
12.25 and 6.125 degree slopes have been added to the game, which allow for more gradual changes in height. These slopes are also compatible with the platform engine's running technique, which allows for non-stop running in one area of the game.
<Now for a progress report on the game's areas.
Finished Areas:
Outskirts
Apar Town
The Nearby Tomb
Areas in Progress:
NEW! Western Bridge
I'm still putting off making the Crossroads, in favor of another location that was in the original game, the Western Bridge. Here is the path to the other island that was on the world map in the engine release. Part cement, part wood, this marbel stretches long over a vast expanse of supposed nothingness. There are no bottomless pits here, but there are dangers such as rolling barrels and cannons. Also found here are pistons, metal columns constantly shifting up and down. When still, the pistons are safe to walk across, but when in motion they pack a powerful punch!
NEW! Port House
This is another area from the original game. Originally serving as a save house, the area is host to a sea of acid. If, however, you were to get across, you'd find something very powerful and helpful to your quest. But how?
NEW! Plains
This is actually an area that wasn't in the original game. The Plains are notable for the fact that there is nowhere that you can't run. One could run across the entirety of the Plains nonstop for quite a while. They are relatively peaceful, but someone lives here who will give you some excitement (and maybe some items) if you give him some money.
Finally, a demonstration of the new tech features.