Ghostr - 2D Ghost Hunting Arcade Game

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

Ghostr is a 2D ghost hunting arcade-style game. Ghosts are killed in the light and you will walk around a room or room(s) attempting to kill ghosts, until you run out of health. Levels are similar to Jetpack Joyride, where there is one type of gameplay that you play over and over again, attempting to get higher scores or better jetpacks (or flashlights in this case).

Goals:

  • System to load stored room layouts from files
  • Support for playing multiple rooms
  • Upgradeable tools/tool stores
  • Ghost entity AI
  • Multiple ghost types

I am new to making games, and have only made games without physics or advanced movement before, so this game is going to be a learning experience for me.

I will be posting my updates here and hoping for constructive criticism on not only the gameplay, but also my code quality and design patterns, as I wish to learn game development with help from the community.

If you have any thoughts on something that could be improved, something you’d like to see in the game, how you feel about it or the design, etc, please comment!

Tech Demo
A demo of the intro to the game, the music, and current gameplay environment. The menu was removed from this demo due to problems, but will be added back soon.

Here you can download, fork, or help contribute to my current code. It will be left open source even once released and I am hoping some constructive critique of my design patterns will come out of leaving it open source.

Github Repository

The latest images from the game. They will be updated when the aesthetics change or new things are added.

#2

I really like the style of the flashlight and menu! Nicely done :slight_smile:

Mike

#3

I agree with Mike, I like the flashlight. The flickering effect is well done.

The music is brilliant and very fitting. However I can’t help but feel the ghosts are out of place. You create quite a creepy atmosphere with the music and lighting, and yet there are bright neon-coloured ‘bed sheet on head’ ghosts?

I feel that with what you have presented so far, you could in fact take this game or a spin-off in a different direction. Perhaps more of a 2d adventure-horror game? Food for thought.

Well done.

#4

Thank you both for your feedback. I am not very good with computerized art other than basic graphic design, so I’d need an artist to make a better ghost. If anyone wants to work with me to make better ghost sprites for this game, contact me and we can work something out.

Originally I was going for an aesthetic similar to that of Luigi’s mansion, which was why the ghosts were going to be neon colored. I think I’d still like it to be arcade style, but I can definitely drive the scary aspect further. An arcade game that keeps you on your toes. But I don’t think you could get that scary with a 2D top down game. But if anyone has any more specific ideas on how the game could go instead of an arcade format, that would be good to hear.

#5

How do you make those neon effects on the ghosts? I have no idea how to make graphics like that, and really need them for my game.

#6

The ghost’s outline is simply a PNG file. The glow around is was created using a PointLight from Box2D lighting framework and Box2D physics engine.

I was using these two libraries with LibGDX, which comes with the option to automatically include these libraries in your project upon creation.

Here’s the LibGDX page on how to use Box2D lights.

#7

The ghosts would be more effective if they were just eyes.

#8

I was thinking about making ghosts only visible in the light, or when they collide with the player. But to implement this I would need to do some sort of path finding first, which requires some sort of map planning.

Should a map consist of one large room, or multiple rooms? Just asking for people’s opinions on game design.

#9

It depends on how much time you’re going to spend on making this game. If you want it to be just a quick project, I’d say 1 room would be fine. If you’ll be more serious with it, I’d want more rooms (and then an epic boss fight in the basement, but you don’t have to do that).

#10

I think I am going to make the map have multiple rooms, and I am going to attempt to have it load maps from a data file. What I’m thinking now is a data file that specifies what will be in each tile of the map. For example, if a tile is part of an entry way, part of a wall, etc. But I am not really sure how I’d store/load data about things that took up multiple tiles. I don’t know. I’ll have to look into it more conceptually and figure something out.

I was also playing around with drawing some possible pixel art for the game, but I don’t know if this will be the aesthetic I will go for.

Sprite 1: Ghost in motion
Sprite 2: Ghost at a stand-still
Sprite 3: Ghost when invisible (not hitting the player or not in the flash light beam)

#11

I’ve been working on the map creation system for the past few days. I have walls implemented and the ability for certain sections of walls to be windows or doors that light can travel through. Pretty small accomplishment for most people, but this map system is a pretty big step forward in the game for me. Check it out in this gif!

#12

I love the new ghost pixel art you came up with! Makes me jealous, I can’t draw like that :frowning: