Katey's Quest 2 demo

[Tifu]

Hello world! This is actually my first post, though I registered here shortly after getting playbasic almost a year ago. I've just been tinkering with it while working on another project and after many little practice engine tests, finally decided to work on something proper, and PB seems perfect for the sequel to my Katey's Quest game.

So Katey's Quest if you haven't played chapter one (can be gotten here, made with Darkbasic) is basically a lode runner style platform game. You run around levels collecting keys to open doors, flipping switches, etc. I originally had different plans (KQ2 was going to be played from top down instead of side on view, and was going to involve changing the seasons from winter to summer during levels) but after a few engine tests, it became clear that the best idea was to just take the basic gameplay of Katey's Quest and expand it with new abilities, new puzzles, new monsters, and vastly improved graphics :)

So for this chapter Katey (who is a kid witch by the way) has new magical abilities, and she also has a new ally with her, a slightly older witch called Sheridan. You can flick between the two witches at any time and use their different powers to get through the level. Katey is smaller, and can fit under some gaps that Sheridan can't. Sheridan can hop over gaps though. Katey can throw ingredients into a cauldron and cast spells, but if Sheridan tries it will backfire on her. Sheridan's main advantage is that her fire magic can be used on some monsters to attack.

Anyway, some screenshots, click for larger:


Controls:
Z: activate switches, teleports etc. On main menu, confirms level
X: fires magical ball to activate various things
C: if Katey, and have potions - drops a potion
if Sheridan it hops forward horizontally, use to get across pits
TAB: Change between Katey and Sheridan
ESC: Quit level/game

Demo download zip

The artwork on the title screen was whipped up pretty quick so I had something to put there that was a little more interesting than a plain pink background. More sketches get added as you complete the three challenges :)

I noticed one bug that can happen occasionally when you change characters while one of you is climbing ladders between two solid blocks, you can sometimes get stuck. If anyone finds anything else let me know, and if you could let me know if the font is fine to read thanks :)

[kevin]

Welcome, Thanks for sharing your game with us.  It's already looking rather lovely (took a while to figure the keys, since i didn't read the doc's- ;) ). How long have you been tinkering with this ?

[Tifu]

Thanks :)
I started work on this about two and a half months ago, mostly working mornings and weekends (I would have sworn less time, but I am pretty bad with time and the file says created 7th April so I guess I have to trust it :))

The final version should have, much like the first chapter, five different themed worlds, bosses to battle, and an easy to use level editor. And hopefully lots of secret unlockable things like the first one too :D

[kevin]

     I'll look forward to it.  Feel free to us updated your progress!

[BlinkOk]

hey! great stuff tifu. cool graphics and smooth gameplay

[ShadowCentaur]

that's acutally pretty fun. the graphics have a good feel to them. it'd be nice if whichever girl you're controlling had some sort of glow or animation to indicate that they are the one selected. it's a bit of a pain when they're both in the same screen. and maybe show katie crawling under the gaps (her head sticks up a bit into the wall).

[Tifu]

Thanksies :)
Yeah, animations and things are usually a later concern for me. Get things working then deal with making them pretty. And pretty they shall be! Magical sparks and explosions and bursts of flames when Sheridan does her jump move.
Though I haven't had much time to work on it of late blahr. I have made some progress since the beta, some more monsters and some teleporters that work in weird ways. But things should speed up soon :)

[Tifu]

I finally made some decent progress :)
Click images to see full:

We can now have dark levels! It looks a bit stupid seeing the blue sky there, but that will be changed :) The torches can be lit/unlit using Katey or Sheridan's magic. I also have a painting puzzle in this shot. It's a simple password thing, but using paintings instead of numbers or such allows for inclusion of riddles instead of simple passwords!

Water was just instant death in Chapter One, but in this one you can survive in it for a very short time. You can also raise/lower the water level :D
Also in this picture is magic-absorbing staffs. If you are in the vicinity of those things, you can't perform any magic! But Katey can blow them up with an explosive potion, huzzah!

And finally some smart AI! The demons are now capable of fidning the quickest route to catch you. They will avoid dead ends and pits, climb ladders and follow you wherever you go unless you block their progress with a switchblock or some such.

Happy progress :D

[kevin]

Looks excellent

[BlinkOk]

ditto :)

[Tifu]

I finally was able to upload another demo. Had problems with my website. The url has changed... it's all quite annoying...

Download: Demo 02

The new demo doesn't have anything tooooo new to show off. No level editor yet as I want to make sure the level editor is finished before I let people play with it. As it is, i've had to go through every level and resave them several times every time I changed the way it saves :P this is why planning is important!

The demo does have most of the things mentioned in my last post. No luck with the AI though, it turns out it worked fine in small levels, but in large levels it slowed the game way down. So i'm going to rethink how I do that. There are some new monsters in the demo anyway, including one level with all eight slime varieties present!

I added a few graphics so you can tell which direction your character is facing (and the girl not in control will face the camera) also:

If Katey gets caught in that fire, she will get hurt. Sheridan has fire proof boots on :)

There is a pretty plain level select screen right now. The level you are going to play appears in the middle of the screen. I have some ideas to pretty it up.


Also, if anyone can help with this: I disabled escape using "BreakKey 0" so that it will bring up the menu instead, but doing this seems to disable ALT+F4, and the redX. Is there a way to disable the escape key without also disabling these?

[kevin]

   Still Looks good,  what Keys does it use ? As it only seem to work from a joypad.

The demo does have most of the things mentioned in my last post. No luck with the AI though, it turns out it worked fine in small levels, but in large levels it slowed the game way down. So i'm going to rethink how I do that. There are some new monsters in the demo anyway, including one level with all eight slime varieties present!

     I assume that all of the objects in the world are dynamic.  Which is fine in small doses, but as the worlds get larger, you'll inevitability have to move towards a two structure approach.    With a dynamic scene object list and the world objects list.     

     Dynamic objects are those that are being currently processed.  They're either on screen or just off screen.  World objects are in sleep mode,  although you could selectively update them in the background if you like.  Whatever floats your boat.  Anyway, as the player move through world space,  the objects within  a specified radius/region of the of the player are moved to the dynamic list ( so there local, aka moving/alive), then when object gets too far away from the player (outside for the dynamic zone), the object is placed back in the world list.    So it's remembered, but not currently being updated.

Also, if anyone can help with this: I disabled escape using "BreakKey 0" so that it will bring up the menu instead, but doing this seems to disable ALT+F4, and the redX. Is there a way to disable the escape key without also disabling these?

Overriding the break key

[Tifu]

Ah thanks!

Controls be:
Z: Select/Use switches, teleporters etc.
X: Fire magic thing
C: jump if sheridan, drop potion if Katey
Tab: Change character

[ShadowCentaur]

Wow! I like where you've gone with this. One thing i think would be valuble would be some checkpoints of some kind. Maybe just one or two per level, so if you do something stupid and set katey on fire you don't lose all your progress on a level. I also had another idea, maybe you could have katey jump on sherridan's shoulders to reach high places or something?

[Tifu]

Thanksies.

You're not the first person to suggest checkpoints so I am giving it some thought, even though it's not something I would normally think of putting in... removes some of the challenge I think.

In the game I intend to make secret doohicks unlockable if you pick up all the secret items in each level, so perhaps I could include checkpoints, but if you use them, you don't get the unlockables :P I will think on it, not been making much progress in this game anyway of late, spending much time on my other project. Will get back to this once it is done.