Sludgeman (a little platformer attempt)

[randomnovice]

Hi all,

For a little holiday project I played around with making a little platformer. Levels are simply .txt files so it's really simple to make new levels (have a go!). There are 20 levels and counting...

gameplay.jpg (371.25 KiB) Viewed 8874 times

controls.jpg (141.38 KiB) Viewed 8874 times

Give it a try and let me know your thoughts?

Download the latest version here

[randomnovice]

Updated to 10 levels so far. My top score is 1580 with 4 hearts. Level 10 is a bit tricky!

[JoshGrams]

Did you test the .love file? For me it stops with a black screen with just the character when I try to go through the first door because you got the capitalization of your level filenames wrong. It will work on Windows from a directory, but not on Linux or Mac or from a .love file. Otherwise it seems to work ok.

[randomnovice]

Whoops! Thank you for the feedback, great spot. That didn't show up in my testing environment at all (and you're right, I didn't check by running the .love file). It's been fixed and I did this time run the .love file to make sure! Original post edited for the new download link.
Oh - and 13 levels up and running now!

[milon]

Fun little game! I love the way he splats after falling too far - without losing health 'cause he's a slime!

Small thing I noticed - when riding a moving platform, Sludgeman animates as if he's "walking". I would have expected him to remain (not to animate) instead. Not a big deal though, especially if it's intentional.

[randomnovice]

It's not. Good spot thank you.
Still finding quite a few bugs (grr... collision testing!) but fortunately I think that one should be pretty simple to fix Thanks.

[randomnovice]

Would anyone like to contribute a level? They're quite fun and simple to make. They're just text files with the following key:
(single space) = background
. = feature (random)
' = torch
_ = sideways platform
- = lift platform
= = bridge
| = pushable block
@ = teleport

b = bomb (pushable)
D = down spring
E = electric switch
e = electric fence
F = finish
G = lg gold coin (100)
g = sm gold coin (50)
H = extra life
h = heart
I = indestructable wall (bombs no effect)
i = invulnerability
L = left spring
M = moving spikes (up/down)
m = moving spikes (left/right)
O = lg silver coin (10)
o = sm silver coin (5)
R = right spring
S = start
s = sludge
T = toggle switch
t = toggle wall
U = up spring
W = deep_water
w = water
X = wall
x = fake wall
z = lava

V = spike
^ = spike
< = spike
> = spike

1 = SNAIL (place between solid blocks)
2 = BAT (place immediately below roof with space below and to left)
3 = SPIDER (place immediately below roof with space below)
4 = FLY (travels horizontally, shoots at the player)
5 = MOUSE (place between solid blocks)
(6 = TBC)
(7 = GHOST.. not yet included)
(8 = TBC)
9 = PIRANHA (place in 1st tile of deep water)

**PLEASE NOTE: THE FIRST LINE IS THE NAME OF THE LEVEL**

Feel free to upload a .txt file here or even copy and paste if you'd like to contribute!

[milon]

Sure, here's one for fun. The blank lines are intentional.

FYI, I noticed that being on a vertical platform seems to count as "falling" rather than being at rest. The horizontal move speed is *really* fast, and even if he only falls 1 tile, he still splats when he lands. Just an observation.

On to the level! You can edit, rename, etc. Do what you want with it.
It's very cool that empty lines are treated correctly, and that you can have more than 1 exit.

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[randomnovice]

Thanks for the bug spot and for the level!

I think the bug is fixed in the latest release. Vertical platforms were being really awkward. (Okay, my coding of them was.)

Your level made me smile so much! Of course I completely missed the fake wall first time and just thought: "was that it??"
I made a couple of small changes to make sure that it isn't possible to "escape the grid" and gave a little more incentive for the longer journey. That's a lot of fake walls in there!

It will be level 15 when I upload next. Thanks!

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[milon]

Awesome!

And yeah, I had a good chuckle the first time I fell off the map - and again after the mouse dove off it!

PS - I totally won't be offended if it's too hard/annoying and you want to make it a bit easier. Your call.