Plasmoid

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

I am currently working on “Plasmoid”.

Play a floating orb on an adventurous odyssey across a dreamy fantasy world.
This world has been cursed by an evil creature. But the force of the magic fireflies provides a glimmer of hope…

It is a 2D action adventure game. Above ground mostly sidescrolling, underground in all directions.
Movement is generally open world based but with restrictions, you have to complete tasks to open portals/doors.

You have to explore caves and underground structures.
On your way, you will have to solve various puzzles.
And you have to fight enemies which spawn randomly.
I’m trying to find a good mixture of action & exploring & puzzles.

Many inspirations for Plasmoid are from old games of the 8-bit area and you will sometimes encounter retro game references.

I’m using various open source software for the development. The base framework of the game is libGDX.

Other features:

  • Light effects
  • Special magic spells
  • Upgrades
  • Enemies also upgrade over time

Twitter: @LightmileStudio https://twitter.com/@LightmileStudio

[url=http://www.indiedb.com/games/plasmoid]

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Screenshots (click to enlarge)

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#2

A Wizball clone? I liked the game back in the days.

The graphics look great!

#3

Thank you!
Right :slight_smile: Wizball was the main inspiration. I loved to play that, too.

But this is not a remake or sequel. The main similarity is that you play a ball/orb and collect colored fireflies. The collecting is simplified, no color mixing, and you can just pick them directly (no “Catellite”). Other similarities are that you upgrade the ball and most enemies spawn randomly in waves (depends on the world).
Gameplay is not limited to side scrolling and there are also cave worlds. And you can cast magic spells. And there are puzzles to solve.

Within the game occur references to other 80th games, I will post examples soon…

#4

A while I pondered about making a wizball clone myself, but the color mixing looked quite complicated to me. Even with my current project, which is about colors, too, I most likely won’t change the display colors, but I guess with modern OpenGL and shaders it is doable.

Even if only remotely related to Wizball, good luck with your project! It looks very promising to me.

#5

Thanks I will need it :slight_smile:

Yes that was one of the reasons I didn’t implement the color mixing. It would not fit into the visuals of my game worlds, which are much different from Wizball (Shaders are a good point, maybe I will try out how it would look like…). I also wanted to keep the collecting simple and focus the gameplay on other features.

Generally I want to bring a bit of the fun back it was to play Wizball or other former games. In case of Wizball I enjoyed especially the upgrading and non-linearity.
I like the idea of having only one color per world, because this implies some non-linearity, i.e. the player has the freedom (and have to) fly back to previous worlds.
Don’t know if this works in modern times, most similar games have linear levels…

#6

Gorgeous. I look forward to a video demo.
Have always been partial to fireflies.

#7

You like fireflies? :slight_smile: Here’s a picture for you of the current state of the fireflies.
Yes video demo would be good… I only have some small pre alpha videos, you can find them on Youtube.

#8

Here is an example for a retro game reference: the “Forbidden Forrest Rumblebee”
Currently the only creature in the game, which can move in the third dimension. I tried to imagine how this monster bee could look like in my game world, e.g. sting in front - this is what I imagined out of the old pixels :slight_smile:
I tried to bring back a bit of the fun it was to beat this monster bee…

#9

Looks cool :slight_smile:

#10

Thanks :slight_smile:

The meteor shower
Here is another GIF animation showing the meteor shower in action, which I made recently.
The meteor shower occurs in the game just for some diversion in gameplay. The orb has to avoid getting hit, especially by the big ones…

#11

Looks good again. Maybe the smoke trail should initially be narrower, to emphasizes the speed of the meteors? Although they look slow in the video, the player will have quite a frenzy to avoid them.

Also, I’d like more irregular shaped meteors. But they look good already as they are.

#12

Thanks for the feedback! I will try to improve the smoke generation…
You are right, more shapes would be nice. I put this on my “nice to have” todo list, but there is so much work to get the core game ready… (The meteor shower is currently only a “game in game”)

#13

It’s terribly time consuming to make games, at least for me. Some people seem able to speed up the process, but I wouldn’t be surpised if yours takes a few years to be completed.

I tell myself that it’s alright to spend the time as long as it’s fun, but also to stop a project once the fun turn into a chore.

Unless you plan to sell your project.

#14

Yes it’s really time consuming. I’m trying my best to get the game ready as soon as possible, but there’s still a lot of work to be done…

#15

The firefly dance

I reworked the firefly graphics. Here is a GIF animation of the current progress.

http://lightmile.studio/extra/apps/plasmoid/screenshots/preview/fireflies_2015-12-05_c_400x243.gif(image larger than 102400KB)

#16

Let it snow.
Merry Christmas!

#17

Nice art style! I like those misty environments, looks cool! :slight_smile:

#18

Thanks klaus :slight_smile:

I’m currently working on a new world. Here’s a screenshot:

#19

Here is another screenshot of that world:

#20

The Asteroids Memorial

In one of the caves you will find the Asteroids Memorial complex, where you can (and have to) play a “retro game-in-game”.

Asteroids Memorial east entrance with artwork exhibit

Playing the game-in-game - featuring “the flying saucer” :slight_smile: