Goblin Kingdom - adventure platformer [available in Made with GameMaker forum]

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joeygopher

Member
Hi all, currently working on my first attempt at an adventure platformer. And my first attempt at using a palette of 4 colours for a whole game. Also my first time with save files - what a headache that turned out to be!

itch.io link here: https://joeygopher.itch.io/goblin-kingdom
Dropbox link here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4hfoptqvpkokvu1/goblinKingdom.exe?dl=0

titleScreen2.JPG

Kidnapped by goblins, shrunk to a tiny size, and imprisoned underground - you need to find a way to get back to the surface and back to your proper size!

goblinKingdom.jpg

goblinKing.JPG

goblinKingdom3.JPG


WASD or arrow keys to move, spacebar to interact, M for map, Z for zoom toggle, ESC for pause.

Any feedback greatly appreciated!
 
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pixeltroid

Member
that looks nice dude! I'd love to give it a try. But can you please upload it to itch.io? It'll help you showcase your game better and attract more players.
 

pixeltroid

Member
joeygopher Hi. I downloaded your game's exe but it's being detected as a virus and deleted immediately. Other users may be having the same experience. Perhaps you could save it in a zip folder.
 

pixeltroid

Member
hey I've been playing your game. I really like what you have going on.

The whole idea of finding random objects, figuring out how they are used and then making breakthroughs and progressing through the game is well executed. I like the systems you have in place: stepping on mushrooms brings down platforms, diamonds to save progress etc.

I've played an hour or two so far. And I was feeling stuck because I really didn't know what to do. But just a while ago, I figured out what to do with the oil can, and that opened a new pathway. So I'll continue exploring. Edit: made more progress, found a pair of spring boots, matches, sickle.

Just a few issues: It would have been nice if it had a proper inventory system that lets me carry more than one item at once. Because backtracking to pick up the item when I need it feels like a chore.

I'll get back to you when I make more progress in the game.
 
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pixeltroid

Member
hey, I made more progress in the game -- I saw a giant rat, a giant rubber duck and many other items. Unfortunately, I lost all my lives and it's too demotivating to restart all the way from the beginning.

I'm really liking the game. It's very original and immersive. But having to play it from the start is too much. IMHO a game like that shouldn't have a system of limited lives. It should be like Metroid where you just restart from the last save point. Besides, it's a good way to keep players interested in the game.
 

joeygopher

Member
Thanks pixeltroid! I'm thinking of re-working the whole lives/death/saves thing. I reckon you're right, it's possibly too long for a limited number of lives.

In the meantime, I've fixed a whole bunch of bugs. Man it was buggy. Kudos to you for getting so far without crashing to desktop!
 

pixeltroid

Member
Thanks pixeltroid! I'm thinking of re-working the whole lives/death/saves thing. I reckon you're right, it's possibly too long for a limited number of lives.

In the meantime, I've fixed a whole bunch of bugs. Man it was buggy. Kudos to you for getting so far without crashing to desktop!
Good to hear. I didn't find any bugs, except one -- when I died and returned to the first room (because I didn't save progress with a diamond), and the mushroom wouldn't bring the platform down like it was supposed to. So I had to exit and start a new game.

With regard to the saves, IMO it would be better if the player could save without a diamond. Because a player can accidentally use up a diamond at the saving booth. Limiting how many times a player can save progress makes the game unnecessarily difficult.
 

joeygopher

Member
I've taken your advice and made it so you can save any time in the pause menu (accessed via pressing ESCAPE). You now just have to collect all the jewels before escaping the kingdom.

Also solved that bug with the mushroom. Why is it always the little stuff that ends up so hard to fix?!?!
 

pixeltroid

Member
I've taken your advice and made it so you can save any time in the pause menu (accessed via pressing ESCAPE). You now just have to collect all the jewels before escaping the kingdom.

Also solved that bug with the mushroom. Why is it always the little stuff that ends up so hard to fix?!?!
Awesome. I'll give your game another shot. Thanks for making the update!
 

pixeltroid

Member
Hey I found a bunch of bugs in the new version:

1. The cauldron disappeared when I came back to this room.(I haven't figured out how to use it).

potdisappear.jpg


2. I was able to walk through this iron crushing thing once but it went back to being normal later).

walkthrough.jpg

3. All the platforms disappeared when I walked into this room for the first time.
missingplat.jpg

4. The mushroom caused a new set of platforms to appear on the left, even though I had already activated it once. But after dying and coming back to this room, activating the mushroom caused 2 new platforms (left side) to appear and move to their positions.
mushroomplat.jpg
 

joeygopher

Member
Seems I've made things more complex than my tiny brain can manage! My saving code wasn't playing nice with my instance deactivation code. It meant that key interactive items (like the cauldron) were being disabled if you were too far away, and would then get missed from the saving script. I'd not picked it up in my testing because I'd always stood next to things to check if they saved/loaded ok.

After a morning of sobbing gently over my keyboard, I think I've now caught everything! Not sure an old save game will work with this update, but any clean starts should be fine from now on.
 

pixeltroid

Member
Seems I've made things more complex than my tiny brain can manage! My saving code wasn't playing nice with my instance deactivation code. It meant that key interactive items (like the cauldron) were being disabled if you were too far away, and would then get missed from the saving script. I'd not picked it up in my testing because I'd always stood next to things to check if they saved/loaded ok.

After a morning of sobbing gently over my keyboard, I think I've now caught everything! Not sure an old save game will work with this update, but any clean starts should be fine from now on.
that's not an issue. I'll play through your game again. I remembered what to do, so I didn't lose too much time.
 

joeygopher

Member
Oh good grief! So busy testing to make sure that loading is finally working properly, only to find starting new ones is borked. That should be sorted now - but am now feeling incredibly sheepish about suggesting anyone should check it out! Thanks so much for your patience pixeltroid :(
 

pixeltroid

Member
Oh good grief! So busy testing to make sure that loading is finally working properly, only to find starting new ones is borked. That should be sorted now - but am now feeling incredibly sheepish about suggesting anyone should check it out! Thanks so much for your patience pixeltroid :(
Not a problem. I really like the game so I'm happy to test it.

Also, I found another problem: if I save while I'm on a moving platform, and if I die and restart from the last save location, I'll respawn in mid-air and not on the moving platform. If the moving platform is over water, I'll fall into the water and lose a life. That's how I lost all my lives and the game ended in my last playthrough.

I'll be careful to not save on a moving platform from now, but its still an issue you might need to fix. Perhaps you could make it so that the player can only save when he's on the ground or something.
 

pixeltroid

Member
Hey, there's another problem. Now I cant leave this room with the egg.

If I open the door, the elevator doesn't go down. If I step on the mushroom, the elevator goes down, but the door closes. If I leave on the left side, I'll have to leave the egg behind.

elevator.jpg
 

joeygopher

Member
Hey, there's another problem. Now I cant leave this room with the egg.

If I open the door, the elevator doesn't go down. If I step on the mushroom, the elevator goes down, but the door closes. If I leave on the left side, I'll have to leave the egg behind.

View attachment 35582
This sounds like it's working as intended.

You can't walk back out to the left with the egg, as you can't get past the fungus without the clothes peg on your nose.

Instead, you can place the egg on the platform and press the mushroom. The platform will lower, taking the egg downstairs to the kitchen. Take the clothes peg again and exit to the left to head back downstairs. The egg will be waiting for you down near the cauldron!

Hope I've understood how you've described things. I've tested it myself just now and all looks ok to me.
 
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pixeltroid

Member
This sounds like it's working as intended.

You can't walk back out to the left with the egg, as you can't get past the fungus without the clothes peg on your nose.

Instead, you can place the egg on the platform and press the mushroom. The platform will lower, taking the egg downstairs to the kitchen. Take the clothes peg again and exit to the left to head back downstairs. The egg will be waiting for you down near the cauldron!

Hope I've understood how you've described things. I've tested it myself just now and all looks ok to me.

aaaah! ok. I didn't think of placing the egg on the platform. My bad.
 

pixeltroid

Member
hey this might be a level design issue. I'm basically trapped here. It's my mistake because I didn't plan the positions of the platform and I've now I'm stuck here. I can't get the matchsticks. And I can't go back either because the platform I'm on isn't moving.

chambr.jpg

Another thing, how do I feed the fish to the cat? It kills me if I go too close to it. And if I drop the fish elsewhere in the room the cat still doesn't move.
 

joeygopher

Member
You should be fine anywhere on the step next to the cat (i.e. higher than the top of the ladder), as long as you're not actually touching him. I've just tested it again to make sure, and it worked ok.

And I'm not sure what I can do about getting stuck in the Deepest Chamber. There's not much room to install an escape route for that situation. I'm sure players will only ever do it once, although I do see you're on your last life there!! Maybe I could figure out a set of positions for them to return to after 60 seconds?
 

pixeltroid

Member
You should be fine anywhere on the step next to the cat (i.e. higher than the top of the ladder), as long as you're not actually touching him. I've just tested it again to make sure, and it worked ok.

And I'm not sure what I can do about getting stuck in the Deepest Chamber. There's not much room to install an escape route for that situation. I'm sure players will only ever do it once, although I do see you're on your last life there!! Maybe I could figure out a set of positions for them to return to after 60 seconds?
yes, having the platforms return to default positions sounds like a good idea.
 

pixeltroid

Member
uh oh. I discovered another bug. I accidentally fell into the water and when I restarted, the platform disappeared.

disappearpl.jpg
 

pixeltroid

Member
Ok. another bug for you to investigate. I placed a full water can on the soil where I planted the cigam seed. Then I got the poop and when I placed it in the soil, the water can disappeared.
canwater.png
 

joeygopher

Member
uh oh. I discovered another bug. I accidentally fell into the water and when I restarted, the platform disappeared.

View attachment 35591
Try not to fall in the water then! ;)

Have just fixed. Turns out my initial auto-save was happening on the room start event - 1 step before those platforms actually get generated.

Will have a think about implementing default positions for those other platforms. Might not get around to it until the weekend though!
 

pixeltroid

Member
Try not to fall in the water then! ;)

Have just fixed. Turns out my initial auto-save was happening on the room start event - 1 step before those platforms actually get generated.

Will have a think about implementing default positions for those other platforms. Might not get around to it until the weekend though!
ok. not a problem. Just letting you know about stuff. I am enjoying the game very much.

Did you look at the watercan issue? Again, I won't make that mistake again, but there's a chance that other players might encounter the same issue.
 

pixeltroid

Member
Try not to fall in the water then! ;)

Have just fixed. Turns out my initial auto-save was happening on the room start event - 1 step before those platforms actually get generated.

Will have a think about implementing default positions for those other platforms. Might not get around to it until the weekend though!
ok. not a problem. Just letting you know about stuff. I am enjoying the game very much.

Did you look at the watercan issue? Again, I won't make that mistake again, but there's a chance that other players might encounter the same issue.
 

pixeltroid

Member
hey I can't seem to get past the cat. I tried placing the fish on the platform the cat is on, as well as the one below it. Nothing is happening. What do I do?

Do I need to interact with the cat after placing the fish down?
fish.jpg
 

joeygopher

Member
Well this definitely had me scratching my head as I couldn't replicate it. I even went to the trouble of making a YouTube video to prove I'm not going mad!


Then I found that if I lost a life, the hidden object that handles the cat interaction doesn't get added again when you respawn. This took me in a HUGE circle of digging and re-work of my save/load/respawn flows. Only to then discover a single-letter typo that caused the whole issue! Hoping I've not broken anything else in the course of fixing it!!

Have also solved the watering can bug. It turned out that if the game thought you were trying to pick something up but found it could also progress the quest, it would do that latter and remove the item you would have picked up. Should be ok now!

You have certainly found some "interesting" situations for me, PT. I hope I'm learning from them!! :)
 

pixeltroid

Member
Well this definitely had me scratching my head as I couldn't replicate it. I even went to the trouble of making a YouTube video to prove I'm not going mad!


Then I found that if I lost a life, the hidden object that handles the cat interaction doesn't get added again when you respawn. This took me in a HUGE circle of digging and re-work of my save/load/respawn flows. Only to then discover a single-letter typo that caused the whole issue! Hoping I've not broken anything else in the course of fixing it!!

Have also solved the watering can bug. It turned out that if the game thought you were trying to pick something up but found it could also progress the quest, it would do that latter and remove the item you would have picked up. Should be ok now!

You have certainly found some "interesting" situations for me, PT. I hope I'm learning from them!! :)

hey glad to hear that you've fixed it. I was able to get past the cat.
But I think some other things have gone wrong :(

There are 2 hearts in place of one.

2hearts.jpg

The moving platforms are behaving abnormally. If I'm on one of them and the other goes through it, I fall off the platform.

pla.gif
 

pixeltroid

Member
More platform abnormalities:
dragon.jpg

Also, there's a problem with the health system. If I have, say, 10% health and I lose a life. When I respawn, I still have only 10% health.
 

pixeltroid

Member
Also, is it possible for you to get rid of the limited lives system all together? Because limited lives in a game about exploration makes things extremely difficult. Having to redo everything from the start each time the game is over is just too laborious.

I'd rather have a few savepoints but unlimited lives, than any-place saving and limited lives. Please consider this! It will keep people playing your game for longer.
 

joeygopher

Member
Have sorted the health thing - it was restoring the health you were on at the moment of your last save, which isn't correct. The duplicate hearts and platforms issue should also be gone now. It was yet another relic of instance activation/de-activation clashing with saving/loading. If I ever build this game from the ground up, I'll do things quite differently!

I'm not yet sold on the idea of infinite lives. My original inspiration was the Dizzy games from the C64/ ZX Spectrum era, and those always had finite lives (and no saves!). So at the moment I'm reluctant. Happy to take more feedback from players though, so not 100% ruling it out!
 

flyinian

Member
Odd - and slightly worrying! Have uploaded a zip on itch.io instead so fingers-crossed that works ok!
If this hasn't already been covered,

Game maker games will be flagged by antivirus. Using zip files help bypass that.

There is an official post on these forums about this very topic. Here is a official link from yoyo games on anti virus flagging games.

I just suggest offering the zip file first and then explain that the other way may be flagged as a virus. As well as providing the above link or other links explaining that it's a false-positive.
 

pixeltroid

Member
Game maker games will be flagged by antivirus. Using zip files help bypass that.
yikes. Now I know why my game received hundreds of downloads but I received no feedback on the sites I had uploaded it to. I guess people who downloaded the .exe just deleted it after they got the virus warning. :(
 
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pixeltroid

Member
I'm not yet sold on the idea of infinite lives. My original inspiration was the Dizzy games from the C64/ ZX Spectrum era, and those always had finite lives (and no saves!). So at the moment I'm reluctant. Happy to take more feedback from players though, so not 100% ruling it out!
Yes, I got that "old-school" vibe from the game on day 1. But the thing is in 2020, people have shorter attention spans. If a game doesn't let players make progress easily (as a result of having limited lives), they might just quit playing and move on to something else. I'd argue that having infinite lives (a staple feature of exploration games) would keep people playing your game for much longer.
 

joeygopher

Member
Major update!

I've revamped the inventory system so you can now carry up to 3 items at the same time. This seems to have made a huge difference to the playing experience as it removes a fair amount of frustration/travel and means you can actually make full use of things like the hat/robe/shoes. I've decided that (for now at least) I'll stick with limited lives. I've thrown in a few spares - it's actually really hard to die completely now!

Also fixed a whole bunch of minor and major bugs. Seems to be pretty smooth now!
 

pixeltroid

Member
Major update!

I've revamped the inventory system so you can now carry up to 3 items at the same time. This seems to have made a huge difference to the playing experience as it removes a fair amount of frustration/travel and means you can actually make full use of things like the hat/robe/shoes. I've decided that (for now at least) I'll stick with limited lives. I've thrown in a few spares - it's actually really hard to die completely now!

Also fixed a whole bunch of minor and major bugs. Seems to be pretty smooth now!
Great to hear about the updates. Time to give it another go!
 

pixeltroid

Member
hey there's an issue. I'm not able to drop the egg into the cauldron. It says I need to read a recipe book. I did use the recipe book but it's still not letting me drop the egg.

Ok, I started a new game and this time, I was able to drop the egg. But that bug is still there and other players might find it.
 
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joeygopher

Member
Hmmm I can't replicate this one - were you returning from an older savegame?

There's a "discoveredRecipe" variable set when you first read the book. I've checked and that's being set ok and then persisting across save/death/reload.

I've put in a backstop fix so that flag is also set to true on subsequent readings of the book. Just in case!
 

pixeltroid

Member
Hmmm I can't replicate this one - were you returning from an older savegame?

There's a "discoveredRecipe" variable set when you first read the book. I've checked and that's being set ok and then persisting across save/death/reload.

I've put in a backstop fix so that flag is also set to true on subsequent readings of the book. Just in case!
Ok. I don't remember exactly what I was carrying when it happened. But I just got back from the egg room.

Anyway, being able to carry 3 items has made it much more easier now. I don't have to backtrack so much and it feels much more balanced overall.
 

pixeltroid

Member
hey, I found a minor bug. It doesn't break the game but I thought I'll let you know.

Earlier, when I used the sickle on the plant, the sickle would disappears and I'd pick up a cigam leaf. Now, the sickle doesn't disappear and I can cut multiple leaves from the plant.

cigamleaf.jpg
 
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