Tower Climber, a 3D Sidescrolling Platformer (Web Build Included)

Here is an early build of a game that I have been working on for the past few weeks, all art assets are placeholders. I would appreciate any feedback or criticism that any of you might have.

Web Build: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6917435/Climber/Climber.html

Gameplay: It plays like a standard platformer, but instead of moving in a 2D plane, your movement is constrained to wrap around the cylinder of the tower.

Story: The princess has been kidnapped by a monster and brought to the top of this tower and it is up to you to make your way to the top and save her.

Game modes: There will be two game modes: story and endless climbing.
Story mode will have the player attempting to reach the princess by reaching the top of the tower. The player is not expected to reach the top of the tower or even get close on their first few tries. Instead they will collect coins from each attempt and use these to purchase upgrades that will help them get farther.
In Endless climbing mode the tower will not have a height limit and players must see how high they can reach in a single playthrough. At the beginning of each playthrough the player will be given a fixed amount of gold to spend on items that will be usable on that playthrough only.

Art style: Art assets are just placeholder right now. If I continue to make the art then I would probably end up with a art style similar to the placeholder assets (cartoony), but I have a vision in my mind of using a pixel art style similar to Sword Sworcery (I know that is a lofty goal but I can dream can't I)



TLDR- I made a platforming game, please comment and give criticism

 

I think the blocks that come down and squish you need spaced out a LITTLE more. Not much, but a little. It's very difficult to stop in between them. Other than that, it seems very cool. Unique to play like that.

 

Interesting concept. I like it.
I think the spacing of the blocks are just fine. Actually, it's a little bit easy at the moment, if it weren't for being able to slide off the platforms as you collide with the boxes. That will definitely need fixing. Otherwise, keep it up.

 

Think i've found a bug, after the second set of steps? (not sure what to call them haha) just before the big long flat, i fell through the floor and the capsule is now not colliding with anything left in the game yet still allows me free movement lol.



Other than that it's actually pretty fun... reminds me oddly of mario on the n64.


edit: figured out what caused the issue, everytime you press d into a block, you move on the z axis.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I think I will increase the spacing between blocks. I know it isn't to hard to dodge the blocks if you are patient enough but I would like to make passing the blocks neither boring nor repetitive.
And yes there is also the issue where I fall off of the platforms when I run into a block, though I honestly have no ideas on how to fix that. I have tried readjusting the player position to be on a certain radius every frame but that has resulted in jerky movement when colliding with a block and occasional clipping.

 

Nice work so far. The concept seems solid and simple, but definitely fun. I too think that the falling blocks should be just a little bit farther apart from each other. The player could also move just a bit faster, I feel.

For the problem where the player can fall off the platforms, I think custom collision boxes for the platforms could work. You could have them so that the outsides of the platforms would have invisible walls, so you wouldn't be able to fall off from there.

 

Cool, I always liked Nebulous, good to see someone doing a remake of it with actual 3d.

 

I think you JUST rebuilt the game. I got myself stuck too far away from the tower and I refreshed to reload the game and the blocks were different than what they were before. This second build, if that's the case, is much better.

I understand graphics may not be your focus at the moment, but my first attempt included trying to jump on top of the blocks. When you're finished be sure to make sure that it's clearly not safe.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I will try adding a second collider that is outside the block radius and slightly raised to form an "invisible balcony" of sorts

I haven't heard of this game before, are you referring to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3rx7cKIvo I don't really see the connection between my game and that.

The reason the blocks were different is because the levels are procedurally generated, meaning that you will get a new level each time. Also, were you trying to jump on the moving blocks. I hadn't thought about the possibility of players wanting to do that, but it shouldn't be too hard to add (the standard asset scripts for player control have platform movement implemented already so it should be too much trouble)

 

I was thinking of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTxrcTYCF-8

A game I was quite fond of back in the day