Games Jack McLantern - 3rd person cartoon action platformer

New build on itch.io and indie.db (also uploading to gamejolt): https://swearsoft.itch.io/jackmclantern

Improved controls, camera, larger map, bug fixes and tons of improvements. Still early

 

And a video of the new build:

 

Tested it with keyboard and mouse and didn't like the inverting. It inverts the left and right, but I was hoping it would invert the up and down. Made it a bit difficult, but kept going. Auto target didn't do anything at all on keyboard for me, tried multiple times.

And not sure if it was intended but I held the fire button for like 2 seconds then let go and Ol' Jack fired 4 times in relatively rapid succession. Tried to recreate, shooting went absolute crazy this time. It felt like the mouse up was also firing at times after a mouse down, and other times half a second after.

Still, sliding into enemies was great! A bit easy, but fun!

 

you can use 'X' and 'Y' to invert the 'x' and 'y' axis (this will be a menu at some point, but it's in the controls)

character has to be looking in the general direction of enemies

fixed this
It was probably not going crazy, you weren't paying attention to your magic bar, which was depleted and the shots left once you had enough magic. I might just make it bullets

 

Added new build and new devlog, you can find it as usual on ithc.io, gamejolt and indiedb.com

itch.io: https://swearsoft.itch.io/jackmclantern
devlog: http://www.jackmclantern.com/

Here is a sneak-peek


And playing around in the game:

 

Added Death's Scythe with one attack at the moment, I also made a bunch of other adjustments and fixes to make things more stable.

I tuned the stamina and magic costs and regeneration values. The Scythe is very OP, but drains stamina like fruit juice.

I'm planning on adding an animation and effect for when you pick the Scythe, but at the moment it's just a transition.
I had to change a few things around in order to support additional weapons, but I always knew that going in, I just made what was useful at the time.

Oh the Pistol will also let you know you ran out of Magic, spamming the attack buttons won't drain your stamina and magic.
Opening Chests and Gates won't affect those either.


Anyway check it out and tell me what you think: https://swearsoft.itch.io/jackmclantern

 

Jack I don’t feel so good – Alpha 0.3.0

After version 0.2.8 I wanted to flesh out more of the level, so I started placing rocks, trees and of course enemies.

I also made some changes in order to better accommodate mouse/keyboard play, most notably you now run at full speed when you hold down shift, making the standard speed a bit more manageable for most players.

Now usually I let people know about this in the controls menu, but it seems a lot of people don’t look at those, like ever. So I decided to add a tips interface, at least until I make an actual tutorial for the game, but that’s not for a few months, so:

As I was testing I remembered my notes: make the enemies disappear more ‘gracefully’, I also noticed that enemies weren’t responding as fast as their number increased.

So first I tackled the ‘dissolve’ effect, since I want to do something similar with the weapons and I had already bought an asset to help me out:

​

So now the enemies dissolve when they die, from top to bottom, which was pretty easy to setup with ‘Advanced Dissolve’:

Then I tackled the enemy performance issues. Initially I was aiming for more compact spaces, but going around the map and exploring is part of the experience, but that means that enemies are in higher numbers. My first attempt focused on the enemy control script, I disabled it when the enemies were not visible in a way that would keep them working correctly when not.

This worked, but it turns out my script wasn’t the issue, I am using Unity Navmesh for the enemy navigation, the level is big, the enemies are many and the system has a built in system to defer calculations to reduce slowdowns, which means that the enemies weren’t as responsive once I passed a certain threshold.

So I implemented my first idea: divide them into groups/areas and enable/disable based on distance. Their paths are pretty much irrelevant unless you are near them, so having them be alive at all is not needed, this works and lightened the load quite a bit. I’m going to explore more options, but for the moment this is enough, now that I have the enemies in clusters I can set their parameters in clusters as well: for example maybe using a lower quality solve for the Navmesh the further away from the player enemies are.

Anyway, some more adjustments to the stats and general values, clean up and of course dissolving barrels.

Donwload on itch.io https://swearsoft.itch.io/jackmclantern

 

Filling out level 1 with more stuff, making adjustments to enemies and paths.

It's like a construction site here. I'm hoping to be finished in the next 2-3 iterations. New things to expect in very next build?
- beer
- potions
- NPCs

and more

In the meantime check out the new build and let me know your thoughts! Download https://swearsoft.itch.io/jackmclantern

 

The map getting filled in

 

Someone made a guide for playing Jack on Linux
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9i-IhiZQww

here is the link to the guide:
http://www.gamersonlinux.com/…/t…/jack-mclantern-guide.2782/

Jack will have an official Linux release, but for the time being this is awesome.

 

@Swearsoft
Someone copied your game idea or it is your game ?

 

We are both working on a very similar idea during the same time. The guy is french, we are in contact. He is working in Unreal though

 

I hope you'll make it enough different about the gameplay and the game content.

 

I don't think we will make the same thing

 

Jimmy Vegas (Unity Youtuber) does a let's play of the alpha:

 

Annoying Orange Gaming also does a let's play of the alpha:

 

AlphaWolfGaming - a gaming youtuber also did a let's play:

 

It's nice some youtubers do let's play. No need to post so much youtubers videos here on Unity forum, i'm not your game director or editor LOL
(and it's a developers forum not something like twitter or youtube, really not the best place to promote your game lol).
But it is not too early considering some things are not finished ?


Did you pay the other game Pumpin Jack ? I think you will find good ideas playing it :

- Dialog and personality : the game has for example some checkpoints with some bird talking , and enemy boss dialog
- Check points : the game is linear and guides you , you have respawn with quick cinematic when you check it
- combat : auto lock with the bird attack, enjoyable combo , and ai able to do distance and melee attacks
- cinematics
- interactive elements : crates to break and gain health objects, mechanisms to trigger
- character transfrormation ability , and character bird pet
- puzzles
- collectibles (perhaps to unlock new things)
- appealing character design, for example player character many detail objects on top of clothes
- invisible barriers to prevent the player to go outside of the play zone
- also i found overall animations better with some more weight in them ( some animation pack ?)
- level design , it's not walk and fight, there is some things to do
- lighting mood is very well choosen between dark , but also bright
- Attractive post effects increasing a lot the graphics appeal.

I think he worked lot more time on it's game, about the level of polishing on everything you have when playing the game.

Overall Pumpin Jack is not the same game as yours, it is more about platformer and exploration with some interactive things, puzzles, and varied level design.

Perhaps i'm wrong because your game seems to be lot more focused on fun and combat mainly without needing to do puzzles and without having to explore for collectibles.
Your version is less platformer and more a Devil May Cry version LOL ( what is good also ). I would like chained attacks more easy to do , with some combo counter that would fill some power bar

 

I wasn't posting them for you Zen, I hadn't updated this page for a while, so I just posted the latest stuff that was worthy of posting.

You are assuming the alpha you see is the final product:

- I have dialogs
- I will have checkpoints
- I have auto-lock and I have both melee enemies and ranged even though this 1/10th of what I have planned
- of course I will have cinematics
- you can already break barrels, which give you magic and health
- I cut my head sequence, it was going to be too much and took focus from the main game
- he has a different style
- mine is just a side project
- I was trying to figure out combat with my alpha, the controls have changed drastically by allowing others to play it and see how they respond, which was the point
- his style
- his style

Yes, my game is not the same as his, which is why we are ok with doing a similar theme.

@zenGarden my approach is a bit different, because I have different constraints in my life and in what I want to achieve, the more different the game the better

we are in each other's discord server, we talk, we know what each other is doing. we are glad we both believe in a similar idea. I don't know what else to tell you

 

In my version you collect souls and you free roam around a map killing enemies, until you find where you need to go (mini-map will exist in the final version), but this isn't some obscure game type - it's not a platformer, yes, but there quite a few successful games in the genre.

No PostEffects

with PostEffects

 

Some shots from making of the bog/marsh area

 

That's looks awesome, more npc are welcome, the player feels less alone, and this gives more context to the game.

Exactly , your game really does not need to be the same or have the same gameplay or features.
I pointed ideas, but it looks like you have already planed what you want in your game, so you don't need any inspiration from other games.

With good polish, no doubt your game will be successful.
Anyone like good action games, good Devil May Cry action or Bayonetta like.

About post effects, we can see aliasing is missing or it's pictures resolution ?

Your swamp level looks really good, you are just starting this new level.

So i post more decoration inspiration about adding some details on levels perhaps inspire you ( or not when you already know how you want it to look lol)






That's good your game is progressing pretty well.
Count on me to test next beta and give you some feedback.

 

@zenGarden just understand that this is not going to be a huge incredible game, it's more modest, due to certain restrictions I have placed upon myself and also some imposed by reality.

but... just so you get a feel, these are things I am already working on

 

It's better to not have huge scope and be able to finish the game, instead of not finihsing it or abandon it and make another game instead like lot of people do.

BTW Great environment.
It is some model pack from Asset Store ?