It’s been quite a while so here’s an update post on the progress of the upcoming version 2.1 update for A Koopa’s Revenge 2.

I’d like to start by reminding everyone that this is largely a polish update, and not a content update. That means it’s focused mainly improving the existing experience, rather than adding new experiences. So no new levels, powerups, or cheats. I don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up.

I added quite a bit of visual polish with the 2.0 update, and those before it. But this update is going to go above and beyond in that regard. Almost every tileset is receiving a makeover. As well as many sprites and most of the backgrounds.

There’s a number of reasons why I’m doing this. Firstly, some of the art is just not up to the standards of the rest, leading to an overall lopsided experience.

Secondly, I made most of the game’s tiles with the expectation that they would be rendered in game as vector art. This resulted in many flat looks and simple shapes, as was necessary to render effectively. But at some point I realised that I would need to prerender the tiles and backgrounds to get a decent performance out of the game, so I rasterised them. But what I didn’t do was take advantage of the image complexity allowed by prerendered art. I just used prerendered verisons of the existing simplistic art. I’m correcting that now.

Thirdly, a fresh look will really justify the long wait for this update. I’ve had some setbacks, and suffered from the usual feature creep. Hopefully all this new art will make the wait feel justified.

Fourthly, a great deal of the game’s artwork was made with the intention of replacing it with something better later. But as time wore on I simply got used to the subpar art. For example, the Hammer Toads didn’t really look like Toads; the details were all wrong. Let this be a lesson to always use absolute dogshit art for temporary assets, lest one get used to them and publish a plain looking game.

And fifthly, some of the art has simply been reused to save development time. Many levels have the same background, and some separate level themes use the same tileset. The second ghost house looks identical to the first, the forest ground tiles are the same as the plains ground tiles, and the switch palaces all look identical. This will be remedied in the update. This in’t 1992, saving memory isn’t an excuse to reuse assets, only deadlines and laziness are. The deadline has long since passed, and I don’t want to be lazy on this any longer, so it’s time for an upgrade.

From time to time, I get complaints that the game’s control is ‘slippery’. This consistently appearing criticism has always confused me, as the game has very high friction for the player character. But as a general rule, when people describe what they don’t like about something, especially something as subjective and lacking in strict vocabulary as gamefeel, there are bound to be misunderstandings.

What I think these complaints were getting at is the player accelerates too fast. Which in my mind is the opposite of slippery. But I suppose it can be thought of as trying to hold onto a slippery bar of soap, whereas when I describe a game’s controls as slippery I mean it feels like the player is always subjected to ice physics.

I finally made this connection when I was switching back and forth between testing AKR2 and playing Super Mario Maker 2 (which I play too much of by the way, currently ranked 20th in the world for normal endless challenge). Koopa’s controls are much tighter than Mario’s. Koopa can jump running right at full speed and land to the left of where he started. Mario can’t come close to that. I always considered this a good thing, because you have more control, but I can see how that rapid acceleration might be overwhelming, or create an incongruous feeling.

To fix this disconnect I cut the player’s acceleration in half. It now takes twice as long to get to full speed from standing still, bringing it more in line with the mechanics of modern 2D Mario. This isn’t without its drawbacks though. Objectively speaking you have less control over the player now, but I think slowing things down somewhat paradoxically makes it easier to control. I also have to make some other changes to the physics and controls to compensate for slower acceleration, mostly relating to walljumps, though shell sliding will also be affected. (Side note: speedruns will probably be slower, but there might be some neat speed tech created as a result.)

The biggest drawback to these changes will be extensive testing (this is why I’ve been so reluctant to change things until now). I’ll need to do another thorough beta test to be sure the game is even beatable with a slower acceleration. In my own experience so far, the game isn’t that much harder because the top speed is unchanged and the player can rely on momentum to carry them through most levels, much like official 2D Marios. But many areas, particularly twitchy and vertical areas, will need to be tweaked. It might be somewhat jarring for those used to the lighting fast acceleration, but it feels more natural this way and I’m sure we’ll get used to it.

So I will likely need to start another beta to get some feedback on the new physics. I probably won’t include Boss Rush at first, because the new Yoshi King boss isn’t ready yet, but all the graphics changes so far should be included.

As a bit of a segue here, there’s a quirk/bug where when jumping into a wall, upon reaching the top of the wall the player is given a burst of speed if they tried to move into the wall during the jump. I hope that makes sense. This has been a long standing issue (which further adds to the slippery bar of soap feeling) that I just couldn’t pin down until now. Turns out the walljump code was the culprit. The code that allows you to cancel sliding down a wall wasn’t checking which direction you were pressing, so you could in effect detach from the wall at half your max speed, but move horizontally toward the wall allowing you to keep that speed at the height of your jump when the wall was no longer in the way. I don’t think anyone cares about this nearly as much as I do, but it feels good to get it fixed.

Why don’t I fix the bugs with a smaller patch? Well, due to my own poor planning throughout the project, doing a hotfix is a major pain in the ass. I have no discernible version control. I periodically backup the game, but that’s it. So to fix the bugs I would either need to upload everything I’ve changed since the last version, or go into an old backup and fix them again. And frankly, non of the current bugs are a big enough deal to make that worthwhile. I’ll just have to tolerate getting the same bug reports over and over.

I could go through the entire game and make the code more professional and efficient, but at this point I’d like to put it behind me, and adopt better coding practices for future games instead.

The beta should be available sometime soon. Though it’s not going to be pretty. If you play it, you’ll be doing me a favour. Testing is work, and the experience won’t be pleasant, as the game may be broken. I want to make that clear upfront.

As for when the update is released proper, who knows? I keep finding things I want to alter, so the deadline keeps moving further into the future. This will be the final update (barring major bugs and compatibility issues) so I want it to be a good one. The best I can say for a release date is 2020, probably.

I’m also considering making the Goomba and Shy Guy skins available outside of Lambta.co and Newgrounds. This was originally a ploy to drive traffic to my new site, and it worked. But the “death of Flash” and the decline of personal websites are making it harder to justify, especially for people playing outside a browser.

On a final note, I’m considering changing the version number from 2.1 to 2.5. It’s become bigger than I originally intended, and I think a larger increase is justified. Probably going to do this.

That’s all for now, fellow nerds. Smell ya later.

I made a comedy sketch. Live action so no NG version. Here it's at:

This is a bit I filmed several years ago but never got around to editing until now. Just trying to creep my way back into making content again.

My last post was about the remake of A Koopa's Revenge 1, so if anybody wants to comment on that, there's the place to do that.

https://lambtaco.newgrounds.com/news/post/1056845

https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/1249011/preview

Figured I'd start with the money shot. There's also a video:

The gist of it is: I'm working on the remake of A Koopa's Revenge 1 again. There's a new demo out with three levels playable, and I want some feedback on the general direction I'm taking the game. This post is a good place to comment about AKR Gold.

Been ages since I did a blag. Sorry 'bout that.

I've decided to open my WIP AVGN fan game to the public. I had previously been a bit cagey about beta testing in general due to some harassment issues (long story), but I think I'm okay now. So here it is, for anyone with an NG account to check out:

https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/861501/preview

I have to reiterate that this is a work in progress. Only levels 1 through 4 are complete. I plan on adding more weapons and enemy types, as well as sprucing up the level graphics a bit. The next big project is adding in a sophisticated cheat system that takes 4 letter words as inputs and unlocks all sorts of cheats, ranging from changing your starting weapon, moon jumps, invincibility, to at least one secret character. These cheats will all be turned on and off from the pause menu.

Believe it or not, I've been working on this game on and off for like ten years now. It's never been my #1 priority, so I keep pushing it aside year after year. But I like it. There's a bit of a ticking clock running, as I started the project in AS2, so it will need to remain swf only (AKR2 is in the same boat). That means it will be much harder to play after the Flash player dies off at the end of 2020. But that gives me a soft deadline. Ideally, I'd like to have this done this year, but there's a lot of work to do, not just in finishing the last levels and bosses, but in refining the game. It's still kind of rough as it is. We'll see.

So if you're interested take a few minutes to check out the game and give me some feedback, either here, or on my discord server: https://discord.gg/8AjqeCz

In semirelated news, I have been working on the Boss Rush update for AKR2, and the remake of AKR1: A Koopa's Revenge Gold. Mostly AKR Gold. I should have a video on that one out soon. I've been sharing a few screenshots and asking for feedback on discord and Twitter.

Although initially discouraged after showing off my mascot based endless runner game, I recently started fiddling with it again. The feedback wasn't negative per se; it just wasn't useful in any obvious way. A lot of people were misunderstanding the genre of the game, but that makes sense considering how blind I wanted my feedback, and where most of it was coming from. Anyway, let's talk about how that feedback has affected the game itself.

Main Event: The Demo

Difficulty

The game was a bit too hard. It's tricky to judge the difficulty of your own game because you know it inside and out, and don't have the benefit of ignorance literally everyone else has. That's one of the reasons I released a demo. I don't think anyone explicitly said it was too hard, but when I asked people how far they got, I was surprised that it wasn't far at all.

So to make things easier I've increased the maximum extra hits from 1 to 3. I did this by dividing the 9-piece cheese wheel into 3 segments of 3 pieces each. This also reduces the number of pieces needed for an extra hit to 3, which makes the game more forgiving, and thus more fun. This also greatly increases the chances of a player getting any extra HP at all.

This required I change the graphics for Lamby when he has extra HP. Instead of changing entirely bright orange for the queso shell, he turns orange in thirds, one for each hit point. I also added some cheese pieces that fly off when you get hit to make it clear that they're your health.

Conveyance

The biggest take away is that it's not clear you can hold down the mouse to charge a higher jump. I wasn't under the impression that it would be, but I released it with absolutely no instructions just to see what people would pick up from playing it. Because I want to include as little instruction as possible.

The game now has detailed instructions, but the screen is a little busy, so I'll probably divide it into two screens. One screen for the basics, and another for the complications of rocketmode.

Enemies

I got a lot of requests for enemies, and even bosses. Despite the fact that there's no method for attacking in the game. I'm not going to completely ignore such a common suggestion, so I'll be adding some enemies. They'll be more like moving obstacles mechanically speaking, but there will be tractors and bats and other such entities assaulting the player. Still no way of attacking them though, as Lamby is a pacifist.

New Stuff

I made some mechanical changes to the game, but there's very little in terms of new content. I'm just kajiggering the gameplay mechanics. More areas and obstacles will come after I get the basics straightened out.

Starting a Run

Now when you start a new run, instead of just nonchalantly walking out of the barn, you get the chance to charge up an initial boost of speed. I based it on the end level bonus of Dynablade in Kirby Superstar. The visuals are temporary. I'm either going to to with something that fits the theme for the HUD, or try to incorporate the meter into the barn you start in. (This part ins't in the instructions yet.)

I felt the beginning needed to be more dynamic and interesting. When you charge the meter even a tiny bit past the maximum, you're penalised with a slower start than if you never tried to charge at all. It's got a risk vs reward thing going on now. Balance is a work in progress, so this will likely be tweaked somewhat.

Area Intros

I've added an overlay for when you enter a new area very reminiscent of the one used in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This will pop up each time you enter a new area, or start a new run. I'm not 100% sure I like how it looks/works at the start of a run, but my tests for entering a new area look great and give a strong sense of progression.

There's also a counter for how many laps you've done through all the areas. Right now it says "Pass 1" but that might change. I though of using "Lap 1" but that seems to imply there is a maximum number of times you can run through all the areas. I don't want to give the false impression that the game has an end goal. It is an endless runner after all.

Rocketmode

When you come out of the rocket powered hotsauce state, you can't die or lose hp by colliding with obstacles. Instead, you will lose speed collision, until you are at or below Lamby's regular top speed. This is indicated by the thermometer on the right side of the screen. When the mercury drops below the white line and the meter slides of the side of the screen you become vulnerable again.

I changed this because I felt the uncontrollable amount of speed would lead to damage or death and discourage players from collecting the hotsauce packet in the first place. It's a powerup, and so it should always be something you want. Plus, now that it provides invulnerability, you're encouraged to take risks to hold on to the speed.

I may need to work on some way of making the speed based invulnerability clearer to the player. He doesn't drop cheese, but that's likely not enough. And I don't want to have to explain every detail of the game up front. Perhaps sparkles or some other visual effect will work.

Colliding with obstacles now reduces your rocketmode time less than before, but also cause a loss in speed now. It's better balanced this way. It gives the player more time to figure out rocketmode before they reach top speed.

Jump Guide

There is now a large red arrow that appears when you hold down the mouse/touchscreen. IT indicates how high you will jump. By default it's set up to show how high the highest point of Lamby will go, but can be changed to align with his feet, the bottom of his shell, or the middle of his shell.

This was a necessary change for the mobile versions. It's much more difficult to judge jumps without the tactile feedback of a button. You can turn the guide off if you please.

Menu

Added a menu to the game with instructions and a couple of options. Instructions are a WIP. The logo isn't necessarily final, but I like the '80s vibe, and it adds some colour to the game.

An option for volume is now available. At five preset levels: 25%. 50%, 75%, 100%, and muted. I didn't think a fully granular 100% range was necessary. And a slider would be a pain to use with a touchscreen.

It's a bit boring right now, so I'll probably add all kinds of stuff in the background to spice things up. Lamby running by, obstacles from the game, stuff like that.

Other Changes

The first 1/10 of a second you hold down the button/screen now results in the lowest possible jump. This is mostly to accommodate touchscreens, because it can be difficult to touch for just one frame compared to using a mouse.

Jumping beans require 1/10 of a second of charge time. This is to prevent accidental use, especially after exiting rocketmode.

I also added a small burst of speed and brief invulnerability when using a jumping bean. I compare this to the instashield from Sonic 3, only finite and more useful. This isn't as necessary as it was before I changed the health system, but it's still a nice bonus. (Jumping beans still don't feel right, will probably change more.)

Lamby makes a frowny face when he gets hit. This was especially necessary considering how common it is now to take damage without dieing.

I altered some hitboxes that felt a bit unfair. Most prominently the stack of hay bundles.

This isn't a concern yet, but I may increase Lamby's top speed slightly each time he completes an area, or maybe just when he laps through every area. Nothing huge. Probably just 5% of the base speed, This would act as both a reward and an extra challenge to keep the game from turning into an endurance test.

Mobile Ports

I tested out using Adobe AIR to port the game to Android. Turns out it's very easy. I didn't have to change a single line of code. So that's great. It ran like crap because I haven't bothered to convert the game's vector art to raster, but I'm confident it will run fine when I make the necessary changes. I just like being able to alter the art in the same application I'm coding it in; it's a good workflow.

I plan to port to iOS as well. But I don't have an iPhone or iPad, so it may come out later on iOS because I don't have an easy way to test it like I do for Android. My phone isn't super powerful either, which is probably a good thing. It makes it easier to test for performance on lower end mobiles.

The Name

I'm going with the name Lambtaco Run for now. It's short and descriptive; good for a mobile app. I'm not married to that name, so if something better comes up I may change it.

That's all for now.

Updated on March 12th. A new version of the game replaces the March 9th upload. Text updated to accommodate.

Check out this stupid thing I made,

It's live action, so it's on Youtube but not NG. Just a quick thing to get me back into releasing stuff.

Last time on AKR3 Idea Blog we covered the Lakitu Shop. This week we’re doing a scrapped idea for multiple endings.

The idea is pretty simple. Based on some undisclosed factors the ending cutscene or possibly even the final boss would be different. Because the game will have multiple worlds you can play in any order like Super Mario Land 2, I was thinking the factor would be which world you completed last. That is, second to last, before the final world/level unlocked by beating all the others.

This is related to a story I’m no longer going to use. The scrapped story involved the Koopalings being mind controlled by an unknown entity, while Bowser is mysteriously missing once again. So the different endings would reveal who was responsible for that. Possibilities included Mario, Luigi, Sanic, and even Bowser himself.

And that would be kind of cool. But also potentially confusing. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Confusion can be part of the fun. But there are other reasons why I won’t be using it.

It would be very difficult to make all the endings equal. With seven or so endings, some are sure to be duds.
It’s a lot more work. Simply said.
I want to do a different story. One that’s less derivative.

I won’t reveal too much about the new story, but I really like this angle. I call it:

A Koopa’s Revenge 3: Mutiny

And that’s all for now. Maybe check out the AKR3:FAQ I started.

P.S. Posted this on my site a few days ago, but forgot to dupe it to NG. Sorry.

Welcome to the third installment in the A Koopa’s Revenge 3 Idea Blog. The series where I describe ideas I have that could potentially be a part of the upcoming A Koopa’s Revenge 3. Last time we discussed how characters are affected differently by the same powerups. This week it’s somewhat related, the Lakitu Shop.

Coins aren’t just for extra lives (and flower faces) anymore. You can spend your collected coins at the friendly roving Lakitu Shop.

Lakitu wants to help. He’s not much of a fighter, but he can carry a lot of items. He’ll ferry his shop to where ever you may be, but getting these items isn’t free, he needs to feed his family.

Before we get to the shop, I need to explain items. A Koopa’s Revenge 3 will use an inventory of powerups like in Super Mario Bros. 3, accessible from the map screen. In addition to this inventory, there is also a reserve box like in Super Mario World. You can collect items out in the world, take them out of your reserve box and store them for later use. Items for your inventory can also be found other ways, probably on the map. Items can be swapped between the map inventory and you reserve box so you can use powerups like starmen anywhere in a level, not just at the start.

Lakitu won’t buy any used powerups (gross) but any fresh powerups in your inventory that you don’t need can be sold. Finally, a use for all those plain mushrooms. But Lakitus are attuned to the market, the more of something you sell, the less it’s worth. Don’t flood the market or the price of mushrooms will crash. Conversely, if you keep buying fire flowers, expect the price to go up.

From the start of the game Lakitu’s selection will be limited to the basics, but once you find rarer and more interesting powerups Lakitu will know where to get them and keep them in stock. The more locations you find an item the game’s world, the less it will cost in the shop. Supply and demand, that’s Lakitu’s motto.

In addition to powerups available elsewhere, Lakitu shop carries some exclusive content. Escape vines are an item you can use in a level to leave without losing your progress (coins, powerups, and other valuables). Without an escape vine quitting before getting to the end of a level resets all your progress in that level. He also sells expansions for your personal inventory, so you can carry hold on to even more items.

A small side note. The face on Lakitu’s cloud will be randomly selected from a pool of available faces each time you visit the shop. Increasing your score will increase the size of the pool. Even more reason to grab coins and extra lives you don’t need.

That’s all there is to say about the Lakitu Shop for now. I’m more confident I’m actually going to use this idea, so I went with a more in universe tone. Stay tuned for more AKR3 Idea Blogs.

I've been messing around with a small game to learn AS3. And I'd like to get some feedback from blind impressions. So here it is:

http://lambta.co/mascot-endless-runner-demo/

EDIT: Here's a higher res version on NG:

https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/1151206/preview

Here's the big youtube livestream I did to celebrate getting 10 000 subscribers, and releasing AKR2 v2.0. Sorry that I had the flu and sounded gross the whole time. Shit happens.