Pyramid Plunder Public Beta

[esteban]

Yeah I only designed the enemy sprites from level 2 and up. I was thinking though Arkhan, I can touch up on your player and mummy animations if you want so they don't look so "waggily" when they move. You know, like I did for Insanity X.

Could we have two or more selectable character sprites? Or, even better, make this unlockable.

And, for once in a video game, let's do something beyond "Stout Indiana Jones Plunders the Pyramids". Let's have a goddamn FELINE (he/she has to be CUTE) plundering the pyramid! And, for achieving certain milestones on each board, our hero should meow/purr.

And, I want FELINE MUMMIES (this is actually historically accurate!).

I AM SERIOUS. Seriously, I'm not kidding.

I'm sure other playable characters would be sweet, too (e.g. the goddess Isis, a 1972 Honda Civic Hatchback, a 5 1/4" floppy diskette, "Slinky" from Somer Assault/Mesopotamia, Seabloon, Anto, Ghostcloth or any of the characters/enemies from Neutopia (or Dungeon Explorer),  an undulating block of tofu, a crayon, a snowman, La Pinta, La Niña, La Santa María, a hopping cup of coffee that is always splashing, etc.)

Anyway, I'm so serious it hurts.

[Arkhan]

lol, well, the idea was kinda to keep one character for this, named Alabama Smith or something.

[esteban]

lol, well, the idea was kinda to keep one character for this, named Alabama Smith or something.

I hear you.

Hmmm, would you consider a hopping Moai as a playable character? I like the whole "Easter Island meets Egypt" mashup.



Alternatively, if you want to keep the existing sprite, can you refer to him as "Herr Doktor Veelgüd" (a German national) in the documentation and have him addicted to morphine (his backstory).

[Arkhan]

lol.  wow.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I like Alabama Smith, I fully approve!

[nodtveidt]

If you aren't entertained by the concept of Pac Man, this won't help you either.

Every time you give me an answer like this, I wanna hit you with a bag of Clue board games. The Pac Man concept isn't the problem. Pac Man is fine. The problem is the large maps... it draws out the levels too much and it gets stale. Of course, this is just my personal impression... others' mileage may vary.

Aw, I thought Keranu did a good job on the stuff.  I drew the hero-guy, and the mummies though.  The mummies are kinda special looking.

I don't know which ones were drawn by who. I just know that the main character and the enemies you run over after you touch the ankhs are rather dull-looking and could use improvement. Those are the ones I was referring to. Everything else looks fine.

Freezing the enemies while scrolling is a definite no-go.  That's part of the gamble of teleporting.

Good design strategy, though I wasn't suggesting making the game freeze... just making it look less amateurish by implementing a more impressive technique. Making him just float up or down, through solid walls, looks terrible. And give it a sound effect! hehe

[Arkhan]

Every time you give me an answer like this, I wanna hit you with a bag of Clue board games. The Pac Man concept isn't the problem. Pac Man is fine. The problem is the large maps... it draws out the levels too much and it gets stale. Of course, this is just my personal impression... others' mileage may vary.

The only reason I give this response is because some Pac Man fans have a different opinion on the fun-factor of the game...  So that leads me to believe pac man fans will like it, and pac man "eh its ok, I guess" people won't find much fun.

Plus, the large levels are part of the reason there is a dash button.  Backtrack with ease!

I don't know which ones were drawn by who. I just know that the main character and the enemies you run over after you touch the ankhs are rather dull-looking and could use improvement. Those are the ones I was referring to. Everything else looks fine.

Those are palette swaps when you hit the ankhs. 

Good design strategy, though I wasn't suggesting making the game freeze... just making it look less amateurish by implementing a more impressive technique. Making him just float up or down, through solid walls, looks terrible. And give it a sound effect! hehe

I wasn't responding to anything you had said there, lol.  Someone else said make the enemies stop moving when you teleport.  Adding an effect is jerkoff polish.  same with the sound effect that would go with it.

[nodtveidt]

The only reason I give this response is because some Pac Man fans have a different opinion on the fun-factor of the game...  So that leads me to believe pac man fans will like it, and pac man "eh its ok, I guess" people won't find much fun.

Plus, the large levels are part of the reason there is a dash button.  Backtrack with ease!

Fair enough, I suppose. Doesn't seem to keep my interest though. Ah well... maybe I should try it again.

Those are palette swaps when you hit the ankhs.

I figured that part out already. The character designs are rather lacking, that's what I'm saying. They don't look as good as they could.

I wasn't responding to anything you had said there, lol.  Someone else said make the enemies stop moving when you teleport.  Adding an effect is jerkoff polish.  same with the sound effect that would go with it.

"Jerkoff polish"... hehe. Such "jerkoff polish" can make the difference between a "meh... it's alright" game and a "hey this is cool" game.

[Arkhan]

Keranu said he could give the hero and mummies some treatment, so, we'll  have to see how that goes.  But, you only played two levels so you didn't even see the other enemy types... you're missing out.

"Jerkoff polish"... hehe. Such "jerkoff polish" can make the difference between a "meh... it's alright" game and a "hey this is cool" game.

Jerkoff polish is best left for when the core of the game is operating properly.  Otherwise you just jerked off all over a pile of shit.  etc.

[futureman2000]

If you hold button I with turbo on (middle selection on the turbo-switch), then you can get a decent speed boost while still picking up the gold bars.

[Keranu]

I like the way the teleports look as is, I just think they should be faster or more instantaneous to not interrupt the flow of the game. I love the arcade look of the game. The main character looks cute and 80's, Arkhan did a great job on his design!

I agree with Nod though about the boards being big, it does feel like a drag when you're on the other side of the board collecting gold without a enemy in sight; it takes away from the Pac Man feel. And when there's five stages of this for each level, it does make me want to quit playing after the first couple screens. I don't think it's necessarily a problem with the board size, maybe the ghosts need to pursue the player more (and I assume they do as the game progresses).

[Keranu]

If you hold button I with turbo on (middle selection on the turbo-switch), then you can get a decent speed boost while still picking up the gold bars.

Yeah I noticed that too by tapping the button! Fun technique.

[Arkhan]

If you hold button I with turbo on (middle selection on the turbo-switch), then you can get a decent speed boost while still picking up the gold bars.

Yeah I noticed that too by tapping the button! Fun technique.

I was waiting for people to catch it.    It's like the pussy-way to play, but still fun!

I notice myself that the ghost-AI is semi-retarded at times and doesn't chase you much.   The diabolical level maps later on kind of make up for it, but I could see the ghosts getting a bit smarter/harder.

I'm glad the "arcade look" is achieved successfully, as that is the idea.

[Keranu]

For what it's worth, I caught the bug on 1 - 4 yet again.

[Vecanti]

Just had my first crash.  Maybe the mummy half out of the spawn area is telling?  I don't know.

EDIT:
Just thought I'd add that after the crash I kept pressing I and it went frame by frame. Slowly the mummy walked through the wall and eventually came through the wall and back on the main game screen.  The game un-froze and started playing again!  It takes like 16 key presses (frames)  I just added 3 frames after the initial freeze.  I happened to do a save state when it first froze.  

This is how it first froze:


This was later when I pressed the I button several times:


Several more I button presses:



Here it starts playing again, you can see "High Score" comes back but the 2 on Wal 024C error is still there.