Caution: This game starts loudly so please turn down your volume.
Game Play
Goal: Get to the exit.
Keys:
- ←/→: Movement
- ↑: Activate (switches/diamonds/teleports)
- Q: Jump
- W: Shoot
- E: Switch Weapons
About
I was quite happy with the direction of where Adventure 2D went. And while I was still working on it, I thought it was time to start something new. I thought instead of making just another passive platformer (not that I was above making yet another platform game) it would be good to make something a little more run-and-gun. So I started a new project and gave the player a laser they could use to break blocks.
It was also the first game that developed a bit of, shall we say, “place”. After a few rooms filled with white tiles, I start thinking about adding scenes that were “outdoors”, complete with ground tiles, water, etc. This eventually developed the game into one that was episodic, where the second episode was set in space (not that it was clear) and the third episode was set on another planet (notice that the ground tiles are now purple). I may have been inspired by was Duke Nukem 3D here. That probably explains things like bombs that would explode when you walked on a particular tile.
Funny enough, for a game that was meant to be more run-and-gun, there were zero enemies for a long while. Levels just consisted of things you needed to do (turn force-field off, grab key, etc.) and a bunch of obstacles you had to jump over or shoot through. I can’t remember what prompted me to add enemies, but I can’t deny that it made the game much more fun. Of course I never internalised this lesson for most of the other games I built — and yeah, the main reason for that was my crappy art skills — but it was good to add them to this game. One advantage of using text characters: you’re excused from having to come up with your own artwork.