3D Donkey Kong Classic prototype

Game Name: Donkey Kong Classic 3D
Developer: KingCharizard
Game Engine: Unity
Development Started: 2/25/2012
Release: Prototype
Final Release: Unknown

Game Info: This is a 3D remake of the classic video game Donkey Kong released by NES in 1981(I believe). Its a prototype still very early in development. The final version should have some very good 3d models and animations along with the classic sounds and music from the original game.

Screenshots:


Play in your browser for free Here

******If you like the game I have a request. I have a low poly 3d Mario but what i don't have is a low poly Donkey Kong and I cannot seem to find one. I cannot finish the game without it. You don't need to rig or animate the model I'd like it if you textured it but again you don't have to. Just a mesh would be nice. I hope someone helps. it will be free work volunteer but I'll include your name in the credits or something long them lines. Whatever you want.******

thanks, hope you enjoyed the prototype

 

Seems promising I can't wait to see this finished.

 

Wow No love for Donkey Kong? Making everything like the original is more complicated than it looks

my latest progress on the core systems

 

It looks promising, but there's not really anything to comment on at the moment. Apart from you can't climb some of the broken ladders - is that intentional?

 

Thanks,
At them moment yea I don't really see a point to make the small ladders work. I wanna get the core systems working. Also you cannot go back down the ladders either. Its because I set it up using triggers and haven't figured a solution to solve a couple of issues. I am curious to know for those that played the game how does it feel? What I mean is the gameplay smooth? does it remind you of the original?

 

I don't think it feels like the original, from what I can remember, as the original had constant speed left/right whereas your version has to accelerate up to speed. I think the original may have centred you on the ladder when you climb it too - not sure though, but in yours if you climb up one side of the ladder to an inclined platform, then the top of the ladder won't put you high enough to reach the step onto the inclined platform and when you move off you fall back down again.

The jumping also feels different. I think the original has constant up/down speed and is perhaps a bit slower. Having realistic gravity makes it feel a bit odd (odd because it's a retro game so the brain says 'you know how these 2D platformers work' but then it doesn't behave the same way).

 

In the original (haven't played it since it first came out btw) I dimly recall that barrels came down ladders sometimes. I can't remember if that's right or not. Also you should jump a bit longer.

 

Yes, you're right, most rolled over the edges, but occasionally a barrel would come down a ladder at random.

 

Yeah they did roll down the ladders I'm still thinking of ways to do that.. Also I agree with alot of the things you've said WGS and currently I am trying to find ways to correct this, I'm using a character controller but I may just re write the whole movement system, currently the z axis is used as the up axis in stead of y, which is causing problems with the character controller and is the reasoning behind the wacky movement and feel.. However I did make the ladder and platform textures myself and that I'm proud of because I suck at design usually..
I may redo most of the systems, heck I may just restart the project I'm not too sure still tweaking things but when I started I didn't realize that the game's systems or mechanics were more complicated than they look.

I now understand why I haven't found a Donkey Kong game made in unity, its kinda tricky if not a little complicated

 

The broken ladders could be used to dodge barrels.
Barrels frequently came down ladders.
The burning barrel at the bottom left of the screen would ignite and then move along the girders and climb up ladders to make the player hurry up.
The player was always positioned in the dead center of the ladder when climbing.
The barrels coming down ladders was not random, there are patterns to it.
The player could grab mallets to smash barrels for bonus points -- but not the burning barrel IIRC.

 

Thanks but I know all that, I redid the movement system it now feels more like the arcade movement, but I have ran into a problem with the barrels. I have worked on this for about 4 hours now and nothing I can think of works. So i'd like to ask for assistance, does anyone have a clue on how I could set up the barrel system?

Previously I was using rigidbody's and gravity which made the barrels go down to the bottom, but if i want them to travel down the ladders this method is not good atleast to my knowledge so any other suggestions on how I could make the barrel system?

In the mean time I'm going to work on other systems such as the score system and maybe add Mario and make a few animations

EDIT: For the barrel currently I'm thinking I can spawn two barrels randomly
One will go over the edge like I had previously and one will follow a pattern down the stairs

I know how to set almost all this up, but what i dont know how to do is to get a barrel to follow a pattern down the stairs...

 

I wouldn't touch gravity and rigid bodies to solve this problem with a 10ft mallet I can swing above my head.

Unless that is, the solution specifically wanted to use gravity and rigid bodies. Tuning the physics might be a more difficult proposition than just creating a cheated solution.

I would make the barrels kinematic rigid bodies for the collision detection with player and other items only. I would create a number of paths down the screen that a barrel can take. When a barrel is launched by Donkey Kong I would select one of these paths based on the pattern required and send the barrel on its way. I may, if I was feeling adventurous, make a special solution that would use a single path down the screen, that also had junction points indicating a ladder to be traversed.

Alternatively, I might consider using way points indicating where barrels should move to. I might temporarily switch on gravity and physics collisions for a barrel when it tumbles off the edge of a ramp, and then switch it back on when it lands on the ground.

 

If you're having issues with movement with angled platforms using non physics code, you can still utilize this by using a character controller for all moving objects including the player. This way you get the best of both worlds and fine control over the movement of everything (except it won't pass through colliders).

 

@justin I could try the first solution with the paths, i dunno if way points would work. yeah I've seen the horror in using gravity lol

@hippo I have used the controller still just modified the script big time.

EDIT: Well using path's in unity requires splines I believe atleast the ones i know of and they all have curves, i need something that changes at a corner, so way points seem the way i have to go....

 

You are correct, they did

Just be careful when publishing your game, calling it Donkey Kong might get you into deep doo doo. Not sure if you plan to charge for it or anything.

 

na, its clearly a remake to sell or charge for it would cause a heap load of legal problems. I just plan to keep it on my server and maybe on kongreate. But to keep eveyone informed I worked on this till 1am EST last night and i woke up about an hour ago I'm gonna start working on the barrel system using itween in an hour I'm hoping to have the barrel system finished by tonight...


Score system almost complete

 

nice, but i noticed a slight problem with falling off of the ladders. You should make it so that when you go up a ladder, your character latches on to a specific center point so that when you get to the top of the ladder you can actually get on the next layer of the level.

(obviously not THAT angled but i'm going to try to explain this with the slash keys)

for example, say the platform above you is angled like this: \
and the one your comming off of is angled like this: /
So you stay on the left of the ladder, what happens in the demo I played, if i were too far to the left of the ladder I couldn't get all the way onto the next platform, and would thus just fall off of it back to the platform i was already on.

I'm so terrible at explaining things like this

 

Well prototype 4 has been released you can fine it Here This has some things fixed from the original prototype and also has an added title screen and some sounds I hope it shows you guys that this is only the beginning of what is to come. This is the last release until the official release.Hope you guys enjoy and are looking forward to the full release....