Show HN: My first platformer game (Mac, Demo)

Show HN: My first platformer game (Mac, Demo)(blog.helftone.com)

10 points by Corun 11 years ago | 12 comments

fwoty 11 years ago |

Nice! Love the idea, the visuals and the music.

It feels weird to press right to go left when you're on the underside of a box (though I understand why, and not sure what the alternative is). Most of my deaths were due to pressing the wrong direction when I was clinging to the bottom of something. Maybe with more levels I would develop muscle memory for how that works.

Also, I pressed 'feedback' after the end, and when I came back the option to subscribe to the mailing list was gone!

Overall, very cool! Looking forward to seeing more.

Corun 11 years ago | |

Thanks! You're right that it feels weird on the underside of platforms, though you get used to it ;-). We considered some alternatives (if you jump on to the bottom of a platform then invert the controls until you let go), but they were just weird in different ways.

The feedback button does hide the window. Perhaps it shouldn't. I'll fix it :-)

unfunco 11 years ago |

Congratulations! I've just watched the video and immediately clicked the download button on the demo, I've had a quick play on it too and it's really well done. It kind of has a LBP feel to it. One thing I might add is that I don't think gaming is big on Mac (I'm a Mac owner, and I'm into games but I don't combine them, maybe Minecraft from time to time but that's about it.) – Have you thought about other platforms or what distribution channels you want to release this on? It might work out really well on Steam.

Corun 11 years ago | |

Thanks! You're right that gaming isn't that big on Mac. The main target is going to be iOS initially with Mac on the side, but the Mac version is already ready and much easier to link to a bunch of people :-).

The game is written in Obj-C, but I think with either gnustep or cocotron (or I think there was a commercial one that I'm forgetting...), it wouldn't be too hard to port since it's almost entirely OpenGL. I hope that will be in Pentumble's future :-).

dsego 11 years ago |

The level textures are not working for me. It loads some junk from other programs. Moving objects have normal textures. I have a late 2011 macbook pro with hd 3000, os is 10.9.4. Not sure if it is worth fixing for an older model like this.

danvesma 11 years ago |

It's an absolute cracker. I'd probably pay for it on iOS, but I'd pay more on the mac... it's really fluid and beautiful. No bugs for me. MBPi7(2.8) 13" 16GB.

Corun 11 years ago | |

Thanks! We're still having trouble deciding how to monetize exactly. We were initially thinking $4.99 on Mac. But now we're thinking maybe freemium and you can buy the remaining levels after you've completed the first 9 (for still a few dollars on Mac). What do you think?

tharshan09 11 years ago |

Congratz! Its a very nice game.

How was this made? Was it with a framework? or with OpenGL? Would love to know some details.

Corun 11 years ago | |

It's actually my own engine. The whole game started out as an experiment in lightmapping, believe it or not. The graphics are OpenGL, the physics are chipmunk physics ( https://chipmunk-physics.net ), I used Sketch-up and Blender for the 3D design and Lua for scripting.

I'm planning on writing some articles on the process over the next few weeks which will appear on http://blog.helftone.com :-).

jonnotie 11 years ago |

This would be great on PS Vita. I'd buy it.

Corun 11 years ago | |

Hmm. This is unlikely unless Objective-C can be made to work on Vita with GNUStep or something. Doesn't look like anyone's tried it so probably a lot of work.

Maybe I should've used C++...

Egregore 11 years ago | | |

Also you could have used a language like Haxe which is very popular with game developers.