[RELEASED] Acrocatic - Highly customizable 2D platforming character

**Update**
Support for this asset has stopped. There will be not future versions. It will be free on the Asset Store when version 1.2.1 is accepted by Unity. Check out this post for more information.

**Update 2**
Just a heads up! Acrocatic might resume development and support. Please stay tuned for more info!

**Update 3**
I'm speaking with someone who is interested in continuing development and support for the kit. Could you please show your interest by posting a comment in the thread? What drew your attention to Acrocatic? How has it helped you with your goals? What would you like to see developed in the future? Thank you!


Hello everyone!

Our very first asset called Acrocatic has been released to the Unity Asset Store! Go check it out at the Asset Store or visit our website for more information and the detailed documentation.

With this Unity asset you can create your own highly customizable (and acrobatic) 2D platforming character. Obviously, we made a chubby cat in a ninja suit! You can walk, run, jump, double jump, wall run/slide/jump, crouch, dash and much more. Customize it to your own liking by simply changing the variables in the inspector—or by diving into the code yourself. Purrrfect for developers who are exploring Unity.

With Acrocatic you can create your own uniquely controlled character by simply changing some values. So, you want your character to do a triple jump? No problem! Need some infinite wall running action? Sure! Want 'press to run' functionality? Well, OK! This asset allows you to add these mechanics in no-time at all.

Got some questions, feedback or feature requests? You can email us at support@battlebrothers.io or you can submit a post to this thread. Check out the FAQ on our website.

Version 1.2
Because of several personal related issues explained in this thread, it took me quite some time to push out version 1.2. It's finally pushed to the Asset Store, so go check it out! It adds Unity 5 support, jump through platforms and much more. Check out the changes here: http://battlebrothers.io/acrocatic/#v1.2.

Version 1.1
Acrocatic v1.1 has been released to the Unity Asset Store. It adds stuff like ladder climbing, moving platforms, sinking platforms, boomerang wall jumping, ice and much more.

 

Here are some videos explaining Acrocatic! Hope you guys like it.

 

Awesome! Acrocatic is now a staff favorite on the front page of the Asset Store! We're so proud.

Here are some of the features we're currently working on and hope to complete for the next release:
- Simple rope/ladder climbing.
- Moving platforms.
- Multiple jumps that change the jump force based on how many jumps you perform in sequence (like the triple jump in Mario).
- Option to specify which direction your character is facing in the sprites, allowing you to also add sprites facing left.
- Option to jump higher based on how long you press the jump button.
- Option to disable changing from walking to sprinting while in the air.
- I'm trying to add support for rounded environments. Not sure if it'll make it in the next version.
- I'll add a seperate sprite for wall sliding instead of using a frame from the wall running sprite.

I have several other features planned for other releases. Got some feedback or some awesome ideas for features? Be sure to share it!

 

It's caturday (at least here in The Netherlands )! The purrrfect time to check out Acrocatic! ;D

 

A very cute character !!!
I like the way you're working here to allow beginners and others to select what they really need for their games...

6R

 

Thanks!

It's indeed a great asset for beginners. You can check out all the code and pick what you need for your game. Acrocatic will get even more features in the future, so it's only the beginning.

For all the lovely people who bought Acrocatic: be sure to leave a review in the Asset Store. Go to the bottom of this page and click on 'Write a Review'. The more reviews we get, the more people will actually consider buying Acrocatic as well. It also helps when you have enough ratings to show next to the asset.

 

Ladders and ropes are missing! Then i buy it for sure

 

Simple ladder and rope climbing will be available in the next update. So keep watching this thread for updates on that.

 

I will! I need a ladder that cant climb down and a rope that swings and the player can jump on... I am working on a old school platformer....

 

I'll add something to the ladders so you can disable certain directions on the ladders.
The rope swinging will be available in another update (not in the upcoming update). I'm only adding simple ladder/rope climbing in the next update, but it will be fleshed out more in the updates after that one.

 

And different type of platforms like One-way, moving, trampolines. Crush Block and Bonus Block would be great too.

 

Added them to our backlog.

 

thank you

More sample scripts like Collectable coins or items, door, restartspawn etc...
I suggest a enough samples or examples to make a quick super mario game...

 

Yeah, I want to create some examples on how you can create something like Mario or Super Meat Boy by using this asset, so stuff like collectable items are something that will definitely be added to Acrocatic in the future. Quite essential mechanics for a platformer game.

 

Awesome will get it soon.

 

Bought it. Working pretty good i got it fast working with my Traveler.

When you disable moving if you crouch it still calling the animation. Disabling Allow Moving seems to make problems.

 

Thanks for buying! I'll look into the problem you're encountering. That shouldn't happen.
Your video is looking great!

 

Hope the update is soon release i need the ladder

How can i disable the walking? And only use running.... A basic prefab with only jumping, running, crouch, falling etc... would be great

 

You can disable 'Press to Run'. This makes your character run by default. It's inside the PlayerRun script.

 

Great thank you

 

Haven't had a lot of time to add new features, but the next update is getting along quite well. What I've added so far:

- Option to set the sprite's direction, so you can also use sprites with the character faced to the left.
- Option to disable switching between walking and sprinting while in the air.
- Added an 'Ice' platform prefab.
- Added a new feature: hold down the jump input to jump higher. You can currently set the initial force, the time you're allowed to jump and the amount of extra force you get while holding down the jump button (if you're in a double jump, you can set a different value for that). So when you press the jump button, the initial force will be applied to the character. If you hold down the jump button, the extra force will be added to the character for the duration of the timer. It works great! Anyone need some extra features for these kind of jumps?

I have a lot of new stuff planned for the next release, but I'm thinking of splitting it up a bit. So instead of having one big release in a couple of months, I want to release smaller updates in shorter periods (like 2/3 weeks). What do you guys think about that? What I'm thinking of to add in the next 'small' release (next to the stuff I mentioned above) is:

- Make the amount of air movement that is allowed more dynamic (instead of just disabling/enabling it).
- Rope / Ladder climbing (very simple).
- Movable platforms.
- A new scene showing off the new features.
- And some other minor stuff (bugs, improvements, etc.).

The triple jumping, jumping through platforms, wall jumping like in Super Meat Boy and other stuff are planned for the release after that one. And I still have a huge backlog of other stuff I'd like to add, so Acrocatic isn't finished just yet.

 

Animation hanging like in tomb raider if you dont reach the platform.
More animation that can enable or disable. (like shooting, rolling etc.. )
Breakable platforms, Platforms that can sink etc.

Also a example with prefab for a basic character with only running and crouch and moving etc.. would be great
Script that would be useful (collect items or powerups or coins)
Jump on Head of the Enemies etc....
Example enemies etc
i will write an waypoint system for enemies and send it to you.

Maybe i can provide some scripts and you can add it then etc...

 

Those are some awesome features! I've added the ones I didn't have in the backlog already to the backlog.
And I'm very interested in your waypoint system. Enemies will be added a bit later, because I want to focus on the player and the platforming first, but the waypointing is something that will definitely be handy once that is completed.

 

Version 1.1 is coming along quite well! Today I completed the following stuff:

- I've put all Acrocatic related files in a seperate Acrocatic folder.
- Fixed a bug that activated the crouch movement animation when crouch movement itself was disabled.
- Changed xVelocity inside the animator to xSpeed (xSpeed is now 'horizontal'). It made more sense, because ySpeed is using the velocity as well.
- Also performed Mathf.Abs() on the xSpeed value to fix a bug.
- All air movement now directly sets the player's velocity. So 'Use Force' isn't used in the air anymore. I needed to do this to add a new feature to have more control over player movement in the air.
- You can now easily change the player's speed in the air by setting a new factor (default is 1.0). So if you set this factor to 2.0, the player is twice as fast in the air compared to the speed on the ground. Or you can slow it down. Setting this to 0.5 will make the player twice as slow in the air.
- The amount of air movement is a lot more dynamic as well. There's a new variable: a factor that determines how much you are allowed to change movement while in the air. This is set to 1.0 by default. But if you set it to something like 0.1, changing direction while in the air becomes a lot harder. Setting it to 0 will disable movement in the air (like the checkbox that disables air movement). How it works: It basically checks the current X velocity and the new X velocity and calculates the difference. This difference is multiplied by this factor and the result is added to the current X velocity. So a lower factor will make turning around while in the air a lot harder.
- Fixed a bug where you could move around in the air after wall jumping, while movement in the air was disabled.

 

Awesome! Just sent you my waypoint system to the support email. Should work is the first version we need to add the animation direction later...

 

i will write some of the scripts you need and you can add it then to the plugin....

 

Cool! Thanks.

I'm almost finishing up something I'm calling 'Boomerang wall jumping'. This allows you to wall jump on the same wall while moving in the same direction as the current wall (instead of having to move away from that wall to wall jump). So when you jump, you move away from the wall and you'll move back after a timer is completed (the timer value can be edited inside the inspector). You can also stop the boomerang wall jump when you move in another direction. It's a very nice feature and works great! Super Meat Boy has these kind of wall jumps as well.

 

Here's a new video showing a preview video for version 1.1 of Acrocatic. Hope you like it!

 

Awesome.... i worked today on the Collect script and more i will send you soon...

 

When will you release the new update?

 

I'm busy with the moving platforms at the moment. You can set waypoints (thanks again! ) and the platform will move between these waypoints. There are some bugs I need to fix, but it's like 80% completed. Besides that I'm adding the ladder climbing and I'll fix some smaller bugs and add a few extra scenes. Then I need to change the documentation and I'll need to submit it. I hope to submit the new version in about 2 weeks, maybe sooner. Then I'll have to wait for Unity to accept it. So it'll be in the Unity Asset Store in the beginning of June. If you provide me the invoice number of your Acrocatic purchase, I can send it as soon as it's done, so you don't have to wait for Unity to accept it.

 

Great i will i sent you too the levelmanager and an updated Collect script. Pretty simple but should get the job done

 

Moving platforms are completed! Here are all the variables you can adjust in the inspector:
- You can set waypoints where the ladder should move to and in what order.
- Make the moving platform stop.
- You can set the platform's speed.
- Make the moving platform go forward or backward (to the next waypoint or the previous).
- Loop the moving platform, so when it's at the last waypoint, it goes to the first instead of going back to the waypoint before the last one.
- You can set the waypoint the platform should move to first.
- 'Stop after total' which allows you to set after how many waypoints the platform should stop moving. So when you set this to 3, it'll stop at the third waypoint it passes.

You can run, crouch, dash, slide and all other stuff on the moving platform. Any other feature requests for the moving platforms?


Now it's time for ladder climbing! That also means a bit of photoshop to create a new sprite for our lovely little cat.

Variables (inside the inspector) I'm thinking of:
- Enable/disable movement in any direction. So you can set movement to only allow going upwards on the ladder.
- Horizontal or vertical ladder.
- Speed while moving on the ladder.
- Snap to the middle, so you stay on the middle of the ladder.
- Flip character when on horizontal ladder (enable/disable).

Any stuff I'm missing? Let me know!

 

For moving platform a platform like an ice block(enable, disable)
moving platform direction changing with an bool.
jump through several moving platform is missing for sure...
One Way moving platforms.
Moving Sinking platforms.

When ladder is done rope thats missing too

Keep me updated!

 

#1, #2 and #4 are already possible with the new moving platforms. You can set waypoints, the direction and when it needs to stop. So if you tinker with those values, you can get the results you described. You can also change the platform's physics material to make it resemble ice.

Jumping through platforms will be available in v1.2, but maybe I'll try to add it to v1.1 as well. It doesn't seem very hard to add. No promises though!
Sinking platforms are something I'll add in a future update. It'll be a script you can add to other platforms, like the moving platform.

 

Great keep up the great work!

 

any news?

 

I haven't been able to work as much as I wanted the last week, because of some private and work related stuff. I've been tinkering with the moving platforms a bit more. Found some bugs I'm trying to fix and added some features (like moving the platform when you stand on it and disable movement when you're off the platform).

I have also created sinking platforms (when you stand on them, a timer starts and disables the 'Is Kinematic' property). I also added a 'default' platform you can use to add properties like sinking and moving. So that's nice as well.

Tomorrow I'll start on the ladders and then I'll try to fix the platform bugs I found. After that it's just small stuff. I think I'll have to postpone the release by a week, but maybe the ladder feature is implemented very quickly, so we'll see. I'll keep you updated!

 

Great... thank you... keep up the great work..... I will send you more scripts that you can use or add to the plugin soon.

 

Hey, I got your asset yesterday and really like it so far

A few bugs I have found (I'm running in Unity 4.5) which are quite possibly already fixed for your 1.1 update:

- Character gets stuck crouching all the time
- If character is standing a block that rotates/topples over, the rotation of the character gets stuck at wrong angle
- When standing on an unstable block (in this case they were all stacked on top of each other with bouncy physics material), character refuses to jump

And here are some features I would love to see:

- Simple swimming (like in Mario or Donkey Kong games) - this could then also be used to simulate space floating
- Ledge hanging (like Lara Croft)

Keep up the great work!

 

I'm sorry for responding so late. I didn't get a notification that there was a new reply to the thread.

First of all: thanks for buying Acrocatic! I'll look into the bugs you mentioned.

I'll try to fix the rotating issue for version 1.1. The issue where you couldn't jump should be fixed in version 1.1. It's because there is a check on the player's velocity before it's considered grounded (and you can only jump when you're grounded). It checks if the Y velocity is equal to 0, but that doesn't work on bouncy materials (and moving platforms as I figured out when creating that feature). You can delete that part in the code yourself. I believe it's in the Player script.

I added swimming to the backlog. Ledge hanging is something I'll add for version 1.2!

Thank you for your feedback!

 

Version 1.1 has been delayed a bit. Last couple of weeks have been kind of busy at work. The weekends were packed with personal stuff, so I haven't had enough time to keep to my schedule. I'm very sorry and I'll work extra hard the coming weeks to ensure version 1.1 releases as soon as possible. I have nothing planned this weekend, so it's a great time to catch-up to the schedule. I'll keep you updated here!

 

np thank you Awesome!!!

 

I'm interested in this! Any ETA on when you are likely to add the following ?

1) Rope swinging system (2D physics based)
2) Ledge Hanging

 

Ledge hanging will be available in v1.2 and rope swinging will probably be in v1.3. I'm trying to release v1.1 this month, so hopefully v1.2 will be available the month after that. Not 100% sure though. Depends on my schedule at work and personal stuff. I'll keep you posted!

 

Great! Looking forward to it!

 

Version 1.1 is coming along quite well! I completed the ladder climbing feature today and I'm currently adding tooltips for all variables (new feature in Unity 4.5). After that I have to squash two annoying bugs with the moving platforms (moving platforms with 'ice' physics material and a bug that causes the player to fall off a very fast moving platform while walking). After that I only have to change the documentation and then I'm ready to submit it to Unity, create some new videos and more.

 

Great i keep waiting for it

 

Hello Robin,
This character is suited for mobiles. However there seems to be no documentation about mobile input. How to add mobile controls?
P.S: General observation: I am new to unity and find that none of the tutorials bother to talk about mobile inputs, which is strange.