Potato in the Kitchen

I started a new game two days ago, and I just finished enough to make it playable and do a quick simple level to show the gameplay! Here we go!

Overview

After a friend suggested me to make a potato the protagonist, I decided to try. I was going to make an alterable platform game, so I was not paying too much attention to the context or anything, but I ended up with the potato being stuck in a kitchen and trying to find its way out (an open window, at the top of the level). The potato is being helped by a fork, which can move slices of bread, that the potato uses as platforms.


Gameplay of Test Level 1

"Potato in the Kitchen" is a scrolling tower platform game, so just like Mario but on the vertical instead. I wanted to add something special and I thought about a creation possibility (like in Rainbow Islands where you can create rainbows and then walk on them. And then I thought "why not making the player move the platforms instead?" Hence we are on a PC and we can use the mouse to do so. So basically, the fork (the mouse) can drag and move the platforms (the slices of bread) and then make different paths for the potato to move on.

Gameplay


The movement of the potato is quite simple: left and right to move, and up to jump, and it can jump up to two blocks high. And actually, the fork (mouse) is also really simple. You click on a slice of bread you want to move, and then while holding the mouse button, you drag in the direction you want. Of course, if there is another block or something else in the way, you won't be able to move it (which makes it really long and difficult to program...)

But here are some elements that had fun to the game. First, beware of the knives, as they can cut the small potato you are, and it would mean to start the level again. Knives bounce from left to right, which means that if you move a slice of bread in their movement path, knives will bounce on it. You can therefore block the knives and make your way without being cut. For example, here the picture on the left shows how you can use the slices of bread (the one with a number "1") to block their movement path.

Another important element is the timed slice of bread. These objects have a number on them, and it indicates the number of moves they have until they disappear. And if they do so, a new slice of bread will be created at its initial position, so you can try again with the new one. These timed slices of bread add a puzzle element to the gameplay, so we can have both action and puzzle, which is shown in the part of the level of the picture on the right. The player needs to move the slice of bread up to be able to jump, yet he needs to pay attention to the knife. He also needs to destroy the slice of bread so that a new one appears, on which he will go and drag upwards to be safe. All of that before the knife comes back! So it definitely is puzzle and action oriented.

The top part of the level features a small puzzle, as the player needs to find where to place the slices of bread to make his way through the window, the final part of the level, where the potato will be able to get out of this kitchen.

Reflexions

As much as the mouse dragging system is innovative and fun, it was really hard to program. A lot of bugs arose and I had to find ways to correct them, which wasn't easy at all (which is why it took me two days to only make this). I still need to test more for collision detection, as I found some other bugs (especially in the upper part). The timed slices of bread also don't always appear, but this is because of limitations in Multimedia Fusion (i.e. I can't make objects inherit properties from others like I would be able to with a programming language). One way to arrange that is really time consuming and I preferred modifying the level design so that no one would notice it in the video. Yes, that's a wrong practice, but at least I don't hide it, and I know I could find solutions if it was to be a professional game.

I really had a lot of fun playing and testing it, being able to move any platform makes really a good addition. I think I did a good job with the dragging programming, as it is intuitive and works well. The graphics, as always, are not so nice, yet they share a thematic, so it's a good thing. I also don't have so many different objects or monsters, so I would need to think about good ideas (the only ideas I have right now are not so interesting...)

Future Additions

New kind of blocks (slices of bread) should be added, with new enemies. But as for additions in the gameplay, I don't have many ideas. The mouse could be also used to deflect enemies, instead of only dragging objects. Maybe I could add a score system (and some collectibles that add points to the score) and a life system, so that when you are touched by an enemy, you can still continue where you were, up to maybe three times. But then, all of these additions are the usual platform genre stuff, so it's nothing really new or interesting.

I'll put this project on hold for now because I can't find any interesting idea, I will definitely come back to it later to make it more complete. But for now, I will start a new game, which might be a multiplayer arkanoid-like game!