Cut the rope

About 2 months ago, I experienced some health issues. Working from home did a number on my back and I had to take a break from my job.

During this time, I had to mostly lay on my back. So I needed a project that I could do laying down. This meant that I had to use my laptop instead of my (much, much beafier) desktop PC. I had to buy a laptop stand that allows me to lay on my back while having the laptop perched up so that I’d easily reach it. I found a thing that was pretty much perfect:

It wasn’t ideal, but I wanted to challenge myself and finally develop a game from start to finish. And this goal I achieved (yay).

Engine Choice

Since I had to work on my laptop, I basically ruled Unity out. My laptop can’t handle it anymore. I really wish that Unity would improve the performance of their editor again, as I thing that it would certainly improve the development experience.

With Unity out of the equiation, I turned to Godot. Godot is on my radar since quite some time. So I tried it out and I was quite delighted at the performance. I’m still surprised that the Godot editor basically runs on a potato. I never felt bogged down by a slow UI or slow compilation times. That was an amazing experience.

Gameplay

The game itself is nothing special. The main mechanic is that it’s a platformer that doesn’t have jumping. At least not in the traditional sense. It’s more about taking leaps of faith and seeing where you can climb up and where you can land again.

It’s simple, but effective, I think.

In an earlier version, your character would actually jump when leaving a platform, giving you quite a bit more air-time. At first I removed that by accident, but in the end I kept it, since it made the game a bit more difficult.

Artwork

I’m artistically challenged. That meant that any art I create probably sucks. Therefore I decided early on to create an art-style that’s as bare-bones as possible. By emulating an “art”-style associated with an Atari or a C64, I thought I could get away with more.

With the animations of the character I’m actually really happy with. I created them myself in Aseprite. It was the first time I used that tool and the first time I tried to animate something myself. I think it turned out alright.

The CRT-monitor effect I added to enhance the feeling that this game is played on a really old console. It probably also masks some things I got wrong, so I’m really happy with that. I didn’t write that effect myself though, I used the VHS and CRT monitor effect by pend00.

The sound effects are all created in BFXR, while some music cues were created in Bosca Ceoil. I’m even worse making music than I am creating artwork. That’s why only one jingle made it into the game. Again, the Retro-Style helps in that regard, as more sound effects are not really expected.

What I would change

There are some things I’d like to improve in a second version. Currently, the blocks spawn more or less randomly. I’d like to include some logic that makes the block appear in a certain pattern and make them spawn more infrequently the longer a game is running.

Also a global high-score list would be fun.

Final thoughts

In the end, I’m quite happy with the results. It’s a game, it’s out and people can play it. I have a few things I’d change, but in the end I think I’ll move on to the next project. Don’t know yet what that will be.