Jasper's Journeys Preview

[lexaloffle]

Jasper's Journeys is a platform game due for release in a couple of months. We felt like getting something out early, and this is the result. It's still in development and missing a few things (sound!), but is a completely playable one level demo. Any comments/criticism is welcome. Thanks!

Windows (~500k):
http://www.lexaloffle.com/jasper_preview.zip

Mac (1Meg):
http://www.lexaloffle.com/jasper_preview.tar.gz

Screenshot:
http://www.lexaloffle.com/joseph/pixel/jasper2.gif

[JiriNovotny]

Runs very well on my box - I've DURON and RIVATNT2 with Windows ME.

I like the graphics and the hair of the guy, although it's very weird hair :)

What I don't like is the big difficulty. I would add hit points, because one touch = death is too hard In my opinion.

[BinaryMoon]

It's cool. The way the hat moves is nice.

I agree with the comment above though, some sort of health bar would definately be good, especially for more casual gamers.

Also you say it's a single level but I could find no way to complete that level, I ran back and forward a few times and couldn't see an end...?

[DadTimesTwo]

I've been looking forward to this. Can't have enough good platform games!

It took me a few minutes to get used to the movement dynamics. I liked them after spending some time jumping around. The movement penalty when going uphill seems a little severe. I never did get good enough to figure out how to get up on the higher clouds.

Is Jasper a boy or girl? Just curious.

[lexaloffle]

Ah, sorry about that - I forgot to mention that it isn't possible to finish the level. Usually there is a dragon at the far right who takes you away, but I took him out for this build.

Re: difficulty.. the earlier levels will certainly be much easier than this (I've thrown in a few extra bad guys to make things interesting), and there will be more shields available in general. That's something else I should have mentioned.. jump up onto the cloud to the left at the start to grab the shield which gives you an extra hit point.

Agreed about the hill slow-down.. I left it like that for too long and got used to jumping up hills.

Both Jasper and Pip are male, I think.

[DadTimesTwo]

You might already be planning this, but it would be great it the pickups that appear when an enemy dies bounced around faster and lasted longer. Many things in the game move sluggishly, as though underwater.

[radishan]

Cool demo, the two player aspect is neat. Did you make a level editor to pump out levels? When do you think you'll have the game finished?

I'm looking forward to hearing the music and sound when it's implemented.

[Mike Wiering]

Nice, I like the graphics. However, for me it was hard to control: I have an old joystick plugged in, which has been calibrated, but the game detects me pressing up+left all the time. I think you should make the center zone larger, I normally use 1/3rd and that works fine.

[lakibuk]

Reminds me of Bud Redhead a lot, which is better in most aspects.
Its graphics are more beautiful (hard to make anything similar i guess).
And your controls are not as friendly, like too many inertia.
The passage below got me puzzled. Why was i suddenly moving left?
The reason for this was not transparent to me until i went there a second time and saw the "windy" sign.

[lexaloffle]

Dx2: good idea - I'll try that out. Now that you mention it, I see what you mean about the game feeling like it's underwater. We slowed down a lot of movement to make the game easier, but this would probably be better achieved by removing some inertia as lakibuk pointed out.

radishan: This game is actually a remake of an old DOS game we originally released in 1997, so we still have most of the level files. I did write a new editor though so that we could fix up some of the levels and make a couple of new ones.

Mike: Thanks for the tip - I've only tried it with my digital joypad so far.

[svero]

Well i liked it overall. I dont really agree with most of the complaints listed in this thread really. I kind of like the feel of the slow intertia and the way the hat moves etc.. I'd certainly be interested in playing the full game.

[Anthony Flack]

Hey, does this you mean you've been doing some work? I'm actually surprised how faithful it is to the first one. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's just been in the works for so long...

I disagree with it being like Bud Redhead. Bud Redhead is the indie Superfrog, and this is much more Marioey. And, even though it's much more minimal, I actually prefer the graphics of Jasper. Another beautiful and distinctive Lexaloffle colour palette at work. Although that blue bird isn't much of a looker.

I like the underwatery inertia too. But I think you should put a speed slider in (like I've done, ho ho) so people can decide for themselves how slow they want it to be.

[lexaloffle]

No, no, nothing like that. Just the odd evening of tinkering.

The original plan was to just do a straight port of the original DOS version similar to what Mike has done with Charlie the Duck. We thought while we're at it, we might as well redraw the graphics at a higher resolution and recode the game from scratch. At this point we have a nicer engine / map editor etc. than the original so it is tempting to stray from the plan and push Jasper in new directions, but I'd rather save that energy for a completely new game. Although, it has been fun playing around with monsters and bosses later in the game.

Speed slider. Why not.

[Codemattic]

I agree with DadX2 that "movement penalty when going uphill seems a little severe"

Im of the opinion that when running on clouds your movement should throw up little puffs of cloud. Puff puff puff - cant you just see it?

I got one shield, three gold spheres, one key, and 157 points. I cant get to the bottom right to use the key to open the gate b/c of the wind. I cant get to the higher clouds or to the platform (castle?) in the upper upper left. *Can* I get to them in this version or should I stop trying?

[jumpin']

yeah, puffs of clouds would be great. do that lexaloffle, it would be worthwhile, since you spend alot of time jumping round on clouds.

[lexaloffle]

jumpin' - ok, ok.

Codemattic - Yes, I can see it. That would be nice. We thought about puffs of cloud coming out the bottom when you jump on them but it didn't seem to work. I don't know if you've tried Neko Puzzle but if you run your mouse cursor through the title you'll see that I'm quite fond of cloud puffs (:

Everything in the preview is functional except for finishing the level so you can get to all of the secret places. Clue: there is another way into the tunnel at the bottom.

p.s. try keeping the helmets in the air by shooting them for a treasure bonus.

[Anthony Flack]

Sounds like there's a heck of a lot of secrets in there - something I heartily approve of.

One thing I think you need to watch out for though, is if all your secrets are hiding away in the "really secret" level of secrecy, a lot of people won't find any of them... especially if they don't know to look.

I think this is a trap a designer can fall into all too easily. Particularly a cunning and devious developer.

[lexaloffle]

..if all your secrets are hiding away in the "really secret" level of secrecy, a lot of people won't find any of them... especially if they don't know to look.

Well, that's too bad for them then.

I think about 80% of the players will be able to find 80% of the secret places though. We're not doing anything mean - there is usually some visual indication that there is a secret place nearby. For some of them you can accidentally fall through a wall etc just by replaying the level a couple of times. We do have a couple of *really* secret places though - a secret place inside a secret level inside a secret place.

[Cycle]

I'm really enjoying this, the secrets are pretty clever and feel very rewarding once you find them. Good work! I think it's too early to give any heavy feedback, but it's shaping up very nicely. I look forward to palying a more finished version (or just the finished version).

So how much treasure is in the level? I've found 264.

[Curiosoft]

Jasper's Journeys is a platform game due for release in a couple of months. We felt like getting something out early, and this is the result. It's still in development and missing a few things (sound!), but is a completely playable one level demo. Any comments/criticism is welcome. Thanks!



Hey,

The game is pretty fun.

A couple things confused me...how do I use those yellow balls that I pick up?

Additionally, what is the number in the far right corner? Wheneve I pick up a diamond, it increases...but I don't know what powers it gives me.

It took me a while to realize that the flowers allow me to jump, etc.

Also, it would be cool if there was a story...and finishing each level helps you move towards some kind of completion of the story; reading some of the other comments..it does look like you have major characters...and kind of a story.

I also agree with the idea of having a health bar. One hit = death really annoyed me.

Maybe more special effects or particle effects when the guy jumps off a flower.

Thanks,
Curiosoft

[mooktown]

i really like this one, at first it reminded me alot of Wiz'n'Liz from the amiga/megadrive, but it seems like this could be better than WnL. I'd like the main characters to be a little bigger and for the sky to have some big fluffy faded background clouds in the distance. also i think the floaty movement of it all is part of the games charm, i wouldnt mess with it at all.

[Anthony Flack]

All right, I take it back, the secrets aren't too hard to find. Once I'd sussed out that the world was persistent, and I should therefore take care of the enemies before jumping around like a loon, it was a lot easier to progress with the exploration. And at first I was frustrated that I couldn't seem to jump high enough to reach a lot of the clouds... okay, I see, fair enough.

I brought it up because it's something I'm working on myself... I'm really surprised at how you can put secrets right in front of people, in plain view, and they will miss them. I have to work at including plenty of "dumb" secrets to go along with the more sneaky ones.

[Anthony Flack]

Oh, and I see that other secret chamber up there, but I guess you have to get at it from somewhere else...

[illume]

It keeps going up left/top left for me too. Even though I removed the joypad(a digital us logitek wingman).

Nice 8 bit graphics :)

Cheers.

[lexaloffle]

Cycle - I don't actually know how much treasure there is in the level o_o. Keep in mind that it varies depending on how much you can get out of the baddies. I should do a "You found 143/178 treasure" sort of thing at the end of the level - I know that there are a lot of players who like to know they have found everything there is to find.

Curiosoft - there are three golden globes in each level. If you find all of them, you get taken to a treasure room on the way to the next level. This isn't functional in the preview though - sorry I really should have given more detailed notes on stuff like this.

The treasure counter is just for points. At the end of the game there is a 'best treasure collectors' table.

I hope finding out that the blue flowers spring you up won't be too hard in general. The first time you come across one there is fruit above it to encourage you to jump on it.

There is a wee story, but not being a big fan of stories in games it just takes place at the start and doesn't interfere much with the rest of the game. It's a cheesy fairytale thing - a witch has captured your cat to use as an ingredient in an evil potions.

I probably made the preview level too hard, but usually the player would have a couple of shields so there it is not usually a one hit kill situation. The only shield is up on the cloud to the left near the start.

mooktown - I played around with the physics a bit and reassured myself that the floatyness works the best. I like to have a fair amount of inertia too because it makes the state of the world a bit richer i.e. the judgements you make as a player are more interesting.

[Anthony Flack]

it makes the state of the world a bit richer i.e. the judgements you make as a player are more interesting.

That's a very good way of putting it. You need to do run-ups and stuff like that. I think you have the inertia just right.

I also... really like the bit about the cat being an ingredient. That's a good story. I really like the word "ingredient" in this context.