HTML5 Pork Chopper - 4 new enemies & Android beta!

SnoutUp

Member
Latest game update: 2016.09.18
HTML5: https://snoutup.itch.io/pork-chopper
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snoutup.porkchopper

---

Hello, everyone!

I'd like to invite you to try out my newest pigly project currently called Pork Chopper, which is a game controlled by a single button (or touch of a finger), but has auto-runner, RPG and hack'n'slash mechanics to make things deeper than they look at a glance.



Controls:
Hold to windup an attack, release to strike and tap to block.

Content:
At the moment levels (floors) only has cosmetic differences and their art is temporary. In the future, I hope every new area will bring completely different types of enemies, which currently are very alpha-ish and will bre rewritten soon.

There are items to unlock and equip, but the balance is also in a very early stage. Suggestions for all kinds of content, from type of glasses piggy could wear to an area it could explore or enemy to chop, are most welcome!

Currently web-playable on itch.io: https://snoutup.itch.io/pork-chopper

Let me know what you think!
 
Last edited:

Freddy Jones

Your Main Detective
Played to the end of the demo. It has a lot of potential, but feels far too grindy. Not nearly enough variety of enemies on the first level or a feel of attacks. I actually felt like I spent money to become weaker in one case. -- I like it however. It's some good short entertainment and cute!
 

SnoutUp

Member
Played to the end of the demo. It has a lot of potential, but feels far too grindy. Not nearly enough variety of enemies on the first level or a feel of attacks. I actually felt like I spent money to become weaker in one case. -- I like it however. It's some good short entertainment and cute!
Thank you for trying it out! There will be more enemy types and maybe even some sort of random events to mask the grind. I kept first level emptier on purpose, so player could have time to tr out the controls without stress.

As far as item values and buffs go... it's a huge mess right now. I need to do more balancing and update UI to show comparison between what player wears and what's in the store.
 

Bluetail7

Member
the game's mechanics are neat! Gotta love the art style and the level up visuals, it gives a cool feeling. Keep it up! :)
 

SnoutUp

Member
the game's mechanics are neat! Gotta love the art style and the level up visuals, it gives a cool feeling. Keep it up! :)
Thank you very much! I will be keeping it up! Still super excited about this game and that's the best feeling for a game developer to have!
 

SnoutUp

Member
Note: following updates are not in the playable demo yet!

Got quite a bit of feedback about shopping system flaws, so worked a lot on that today. Now it will compare buff values with the items which are equipped, calculate the price from the buffs, not some base value I set and has a little icon which represents inventory slot.

 
Last edited:
H

Heat4Life

Guest
Just saw your game on the YoYo Games Official Website... It's actually awesome! :D
 

SnoutUp

Member
Updated the playable web version on itch.io!
  • shop UI now shows compared buff values of shop and equipped items
  • little icon indicates inventory slot
  • changed how item prices are calculated
  • added new ranged enemy
  • added new surprise enemy
  • messed up all other enemy AIs, so they will act differently compared to previous update
  • increased enemy damage and made their attacks uninterruptible, so keep blocking!
  • changed some of the graphics a little bit
  • increased floor limit from 10 to 15 to see how imbalanced game gets later on
 

SnoutUp

Member
Started the main menu UI, created a temporary (probably permanent) logo banner and a screen/room/whatever transition with swords!
 
Last edited:
M

Mr.F

Guest
Just played through the demo! I am excited to see where this goes. The equipment kind of makes it easy at the moment, I struggled at the beginning but once I grabbed some armor to make up for my mistakes, I was able to survive til I grabbed a better weapon and then didn't need to think too much anymore. That spider in the previous post looks like it will be lots of fun with knocking it back and then needing to block!
 

SnoutUp

Member
Yeah, this is one of the biggest problems I'm struggling with right now. Already adding "min required level" for some better weapons, so the game wouldn't become a breeze after getting a chainsaw in the first shop and trying to think of different enemies (like spider) which would not be too easy even with good items. Currently experimenting a lot with ranged weapons. If they'll work for player - awesome, if not - there at least will be more ranged enemies :)

Just played through the demo! I am excited to see where this goes. The equipment kind of makes it easy at the moment, I struggled at the beginning but once I grabbed some armor to make up for my mistakes, I was able to survive til I grabbed a better weapon and then didn't need to think too much anymore. That spider in the previous post looks like it will be lots of fun with knocking it back and then needing to block!
 
M

Mr.F

Guest
Yeah, this is one of the biggest problems I'm struggling with right now. Already adding "min required level" for some better weapons, so the game wouldn't become a breeze after getting a chainsaw in the first shop and trying to think of different enemies (like spider) which would not be too easy even with good items. Currently experimenting a lot with ranged weapons. If they'll work for player - awesome, if not - there at least will be more ranged enemies :)
Chainsaw was definitely a game breaker in the current demo. More ranged enemies can definitely up the challenge, I kind of stopped needing to block up until the snow man appeared. Maybe a ranged enemy who can move similarly to the ghost? Cause Frosty kinda crumples once you run up to him.
 

SnoutUp

Member
Chainsaw was definitely a game breaker in the current demo. More ranged enemies can definitely up the challenge, I kind of stopped needing to block up until the snow man appeared. Maybe a ranged enemy who can move similarly to the ghost? Cause Frosty kinda crumples once you run up to him.
Yeah, frosty thing was more like a test and it has many issues (you can usually just run under the projectiles). Having him to give up after player runs near was sort of intentional, because projectiles at close range would be very hard to react to. In the future ranged enemies will have a melee weapon to switch to, so they wouldn't be hopeless in close combat :)

Current weapon system needs a big rewrite, because my end goals for it is to
  • have different combos for different weapons
  • have different speeds/locks/block timings for different weapons
  • have weapons, which can switch between melee & ranged
 

jazzzar

Member
Yeah, frosty thing was more like a test and it has many issues (you can usually just run under the projectiles). Having him to give up after player runs near was sort of intentional, because projectiles at close range would be very hard to react to. In the future ranged enemies will have a melee weapon to switch to, so they wouldn't be hopeless in close combat :)

Current weapon system needs a big rewrite, because my end goals for it is to
  • have different combos for different weapons
  • have different speeds/locks/block timings for different weapons
  • have weapons, which can switch between melee & ranged
Hey man, played the demo and enjoyed it! I actually like your games, but one question though, why all your games are about pigs :p
 

SnoutUp

Member
Hey man, played the demo and enjoyed it! I actually like your games, but one question though, why all your games are about pigs :p
Thank you! Well, I kind of like pigs (my dream pet is a miniature piglet), but as far as gamedev goes, they're easy to draw, goes well as a humorous game character and it sort of became "my thing" over the years, so I'm rolling with it. Makes me easier to remember (as the guy who makes games with pigs), which is good as a kind of passive self-promo.
 

jazzzar

Member
Thank you! Well, I kind of like pigs (my dream pet is a miniature piglet), but as far as gamedev goes, they're easy to draw, goes well as a humorous game character and it sort of became "my thing" over the years, so I'm rolling with it. Makes me easier to remember (as the guy who makes games with pigs), which is good as a kind of passive self-promo.
Ah haha, that's kinda fair than and it's working for you, i'm remembering you already as the guy who makes pig games :p
 
H

Hamed

Guest
Played the demo to the end. Everything looks fantastic :)
How long have you been developing Pork Chopper?
 
H

Hamed

Guest
20 days? HAHAHA, I thought you were working on this project for at least a few months!! It shows that you are both experienced and very comfortable with GameMaker.
Honestly, i don't play games much these days but when i played 1-2 minutes of your game i told myself i had to finish it which i did. :D
Very different and unique style in a good way.
 

SnoutUp

Member
20 days? HAHAHA, I thought you were working on this project for at least a few months!! It shows that you are both experienced and very comfortable with GameMaker.
Honestly, i don't play games much these days but when i played 1-2 minutes of your game i told myself i had to finish it which i did. :D
Very different and unique style in a good way.
Hah, thank you! To be fair, I did spend crazy amounts of time on this game during all that time :) It's not that complex under the hood. Compared, I still feel pretty average with GameMaker, but pretty comfortable when it comes to making smaller/simpler games.

Today's addition: testing a weapon with mixed melee and ranged attacks. Here's a shotgun which, for no apparent reason, shoots snowballs.

 
N

Nexusrex

Guest
I love this! A great one button game. I did complete 5 gameplay levels, dead at power level 3.35 xD
Had much fun.
 

Alvare

Member
Complete the entire demo. Pretty fun to play.
Ghosts appear too late for enemy variety's sake. And for these kind of games it's most fun if the environment has the same setting as the enemy's and upgrades.
 
H

Hamed

Guest
H
Hah, thank you! To be fair, I did spend crazy amounts of time on this game during all that time :) It's not that complex under the hood. Compared, I still feel pretty average with GameMaker, but pretty comfortable when it comes to making smaller/simpler games.

Today's addition: testing a weapon with mixed melee and ranged attacks. Here's a shotgun which, for no apparent reason, shoots snowballs.

Haha that shotgun looks sick!

I love making small games too. The ones that i prefer are small and online games. But I still haven't touched networking in GM.
 

True Valhalla

Full-Time Developer
GMC Elder
Cute concept, but I also found it too grindy after a while. I think the UI could be presented better (ie. an actual health bar, clearer labels, less intimidating amounts of text). I enjoyed it though.
 
From what I see, you're adept at thoughtfully using your in-game assets, keeping the designs simple yet effective. Forgive me, I am a very visual person! The bright and cartoony style implies humor and invites a child-friendly gaming experience. Great work!
 

SnoutUp

Member
Didn't have much time to work today, but got a couple big things done!

Mixed ranged+melee weapons are very close to being done!



Character rig works perfectly fine on enemy object & that's gonna open up a lot of options and save time for me!

 
Charming as always. =D
You said you're comfortable with GM, too. I think more than that, you're probably just legitimately clever. There really aren't a lot of tricks or tools to learn for simple games in GM. You're doing a lot better with what you know than most people do.
 
Z

zminusone

Guest
Looks great! This was for a fairly recent game jam right?
 

SnoutUp

Member
Added 4 new enemies for the testing and also linked to the Android beta!

* snowman will roll snowballs at you
* bear will shoot bees out of a bee nest
* bee with a spear will try to stab your snout
* and there's a trunk which spawns shrooms and bees
 

JacPete

Member
played the android version, dang this thing is so ultra cool. SnotUp i would say you did it. youre game is so nice to play and you got such an epic combat system. i love it. reminds me on a bonus level of international karate+ for amiga and c64. its an great game feeling. i use this game for stress relief and it works :D
 
Last edited:

SnoutUp

Member
played the android version, dang this thing is so ultra cool. SnotUp i would say you did it. youre game is so nice to play and you got such an epic combat system. i love it. reminds me on a bonus level of international karate+ for amiga and c64. its an great game feeling. i use this game for stress relief and it works :D
Thank you! It's still a long way from finished, but I'm glad people already enjoying it! Have some cool stuff planned for the future.
 
Top