I am pleased to announce my upcoming Xbox Live Indie Game platformer, Slick! I figure now that it's in development and can actually do stuff like draw maps to the screen, I'd share what I'm working on with you guys.

Slick started out as an experiment in retro/minimalist game design after I realized that I couldn't possibly overcome the workload that my more ambitious ideas presented, in terms of both art and programming, since I'm not too great of an artist. Naturally I decided it would be better to just scale my ideas down to a more manageable workload, and so the scope of the world I aimed for was brought down to several points:

1. Instead of scrolling like in Super Mario Bros., Slick would take place in a fixed screen.
   
2. Movement of the character would be binary instead of analog.
   
3. The only possible actions a player could perform would be running and jumping.
   
4. There would be no enemies, only static blocks (e.g. spikes/lava) that could harm the player.
   
5. The player would have infinite lives.
   

Thanks to this restrictive list I don't have to worry much about feature creep, which is often the death of many projects (I'm looking at you, SC mapmakers). It's making development much easier, as I don't have the urge to reinvent the wheel as much as possible, and then invent more wheels only to reinvent them.

ANYWAY. This probably won't turn into some multi-month project and I'll probably finish it in maybe 2-6 weeks depending on the amount of time I have to work on it. Unfortunately, you need to be 18 or older to submit your game to XBLIG, so I will have to wait until June to release it. As I continue to work on it I'll start posting more screenshots and stuff. Once the underlying engine code (which is done for the most part) is completely done, all I'll have to do is design levels using text files!

And now, a screenshot of the very simple first level portraying the very finest programmer art:


I PRETTY MUCH BROKE ALL OF THESE RULES LOL. If you want to see actual screenshots and not just an early prototype, go down.

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Aug 1 2012, 9:01 am by lil-Inferno.

I'm already excited.

This looks awfully similar to a flash game with the same concepts which I've seen before.

They're pretty universal concepts.

There was one which was completely identical to this. Same pixel-like graphics, fixed screens, infinite lives, single button control for jump and everything.

You're probably thinking of this, which is nothing like my game.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/566168

Care to elaborate? Sounds identical to me.

My game is a traditional platformer in which you control your path. The one you were thinking of was a "rails" platformer where movement is limited to jumping only, and the levels are flat aside from some humps. There's a big difference, but maybe my screenshot looked similar because of the design of the level, which is only meant to be a rudimentary tutorial.

Need video of gameplay.

I'm having a few problems with input, level loading, and physics at the moment that are resulting in compiler errors, otherwise I would.

In the meantime, have a sprite sheet I just whipped up for the character.

I haven't really kept SEN updated in the development of this game, but it's playable now!

Here's a load of animated .gifs of sprites (blown up and not necessarily at the same animation speed as in-game):
Player (blown up 1000%)
Turtle Enemy (needs name, blown up 2000%)
Coin (blown up 1000%)

Here's a screenshot of a demo level I made featuring an enemy, coins, lava, etc. (This level won't show up in the final product, and the tile art doesn't necessarily reflect what the final product will have)


Here's a screenshot from the map editor I made using Windows Forms to assist in level creation.


I just realized how many of my "specifications" from the original post that I broke.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 14 2012, 3:37 am by lil-Inferno.

Ahah epic :], it's only for X-Box?

Probably only for Xbox Live Indie Games unless a PC platform like Desura or GamersGate will pick it up. Shooting for Steam would be a little too ambitious. Since XNA also supports Windows Phone, I also may port it there (but let's be honest, no one has a Windows Phone).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 14 2012, 3:51 am by lil-Inferno.

I'm testing consecutive defeats of enemies granting a multiplier to score gained (e.g. enemy 1 gives 5 score, enemy 2 gives 10 score, enemy 3 gives 15 and so on until the player touches the ground). It works! You can also see some re-texturing and some rudimentary background scenery.

I watched a gameplay video of Pixel Man. You really should change the level end thing; having a yellow box just like in Pixel Man is kinda lame. ;o

KAY. I may replace the "EXIT" letters with a symbol of exiting (e.g. running guy) because they look pretty ugly plastered on there.

I demand a demo. I demand it now!!!

Pretty impressed with your artwork lilz.

As you wish. Please do keep an open mind that this isn't entirely reflective of the final product and is only a demo (with two hastily thrown-together levels). The controls should be self-explanatory but in case they aren't; arrow keys to move, space to jump, up arrow to transition to next level.

Prerequisite check for system component Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile (x86 and x64) failed with the following error message:
"Installation of the .NET Framework 4 Client requires Windows XP SP2, Windows 2003 SP1, Windows Vista, or later. Contact your application vendor."


See the setup log file located at 'C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\VSD17F.tmp\install.log' for more information.


well okay. my computer is old and out dated