Dr. Stretch is a famous adventurer, archaeologist, and finder of great treasures and mysterious artifacts of power -- or, he was -- until the fateful day when a mysterious evil sorcerer took his life so he could have the powerful artifacts for himself. He lost his body, and he lost his degree (that's why he's Mr. Stretch now), but he hasn't lost his will to set things right! Join Mr. Stretch on a journey to reclaim his treasures and artifacts from the evil sorcerer before he can use them to take over the world and cast it into shadow.
This game is a proof-of-concept that Mikey and I collaborated on using the SMBX2 engine. We plan to re-create it in Unity (at some point) with more areas to explore, more game mechanics, and even a final boss. It contains 10 unique levels, as well as a bonus stage that you can play if you have what it takes to open the Artifact Vault.
Use the arrow keys to move Mr. Stretch and navigate menus (menus can also be navigated by pointing and clicking with the mouse).
Press the Jump button to select items in menus.
Press and hold the Run key to look around the level or navigate back on menus.
Unlock the Artifact Vault by beating par score on all levels. Then it can be opened by pressing down or clicking the down arrow on the level select menu.
There are bonus points for collecting multiple gems in one move. There are additional bonus points for collecting multiple gems of the same type in a row. The last gem collected has an additional x10 multiplier.
You don't necessarily need to collect all the gems in one move to get the par score. You don't necessarily need to have full HP either.
There is no par score on the Artifact Vault level. The goal here is simply to survive while collecting all gems.
Added in 1 hour 37 minutes 14 seconds:
and par-score in level 3 is 7500, and I was able to collect a maximum of 6400, I could not collect more
UPD: I understanded that i first need to collect crystals of one color, then another
I don't know why this flew under my radar until now, but, this is super cool! It's truly a different game, and a fun one at that. Choosing your own tether-spots is a fun twist on this snake-game-mechanic, and collecting gems is a well-communicated and clear goal.
A few small notes-
- beating a level should probably boot you (if possible) into the level select screen, rather than the main title screen.
- the later levels become really tough not because of the navigational problems but because of off-screen enemies. I think a major feature--though a difficult one to pull off--would be to either zoom out as the player stretches farther and farther from their source, or, an indicator on-screen of an impending enemy. That actually makes the game more interesting, I think, since it gives the player a few things to think about (can I return to my source in time? or should I grab on to a new spot close to where I am now?)
- it was sometimes unclear to me when I could cancel a move and stay stretched, or when a counter-directional press would send me hurtling back to the start.
- a final feature that might be cool is a grid overlay option, since the entire player movement happens on one- could help one plan out their trajectory.
Overall this is a super cool tech demo and I think it has tremendous potential!
Added in 1 hour 37 minutes 14 seconds:
and par-score in level 3 is 7500, and I was able to collect a maximum of 6400, I could not collect more
UPD: I understanded that i first need to collect crystals of one color, then another
Thanks for pointing out these bugs. I swear, I fixed the "stuck in loading animation" bug at least twice, but it is apparently the bug that will not die. I'll have to see if I can reproduce these and get them fixed.
As for the par score, from your update it's unclear as to whether you were able to beat that par score, but I assure you that it is possible, if difficult.
Waddle wrote:
I don't know why this flew under my radar until now, but, this is super cool! It's truly a different game, and a fun one at that. Choosing your own tether-spots is a fun twist on this snake-game-mechanic, and collecting gems is a well-communicated and clear goal.
Thanks for the review and the suggestions!
- beating a level should probably boot you (if possible) into the level select screen, rather than the main title screen.
I assume you refer to what happens when pressing the "home" button after clearing a stage. I do agree that it would be a bit of an improvement to game navigation.
- the later levels become really tough not because of the navigational problems but because of off-screen enemies. I think a major feature--though a difficult one to pull off--would be to either zoom out as the player stretches farther and farther from their source, or, an indicator on-screen of an impending enemy. That actually makes the game more interesting, I think, since it gives the player a few things to think about (can I return to my source in time? or should I grab on to a new spot close to where I am now?)
I did see this as an issue, and I toyed with the idea of zooming out, but that just isn't feasible in SMBX. I suppose it could be done now with MDA's camera library. An indicator would be a good simple fix for the SMBX version, but since we'll be developing the full release in Unity, I don't think I'm gonna be doing any updates to the SMBX version beyond fixing the game-breaking bugs. In Unity, zooming out shouldn't be too much of an issue.
- it was sometimes unclear to me when I could cancel a move and stay stretched, or when a counter-directional press would send me hurtling back to the start.
Right now, there's just an internal timer that counts up to a maximum value when going forward, and counts down when going backward, causing control to be lost when it reaches zero. We didn't want the player to be able to just back up as much as they want. This could definitely see some improvement, though, in the form of some sort of visual indication. A gauge of some sort would be the simplest, but maybe we can come up with something more interesting.
- a final feature that might be cool is a grid overlay option, since the entire player movement happens on one- could help one plan out their trajectory.
That could be a good accessibility feature for the full release. Hopefully we can find a visually-appealing way to do it.
yo, i loved Silly Sausage on Nitrome
sorry if that sounds reductive, fr, but i thought of it immediately. imma play it and (hopefully remember to) get back with more in-depth thoughts
UPDATE: it's fun, the music is nice, the graphics are cute, but most importantly y'all made an Entirely Separate Game within SMBX2 and that cannot be stated enough, it's impressive that this exists and works as well as it does. i can't wait to see a full version one day, separate from SMBX, i'll be tossing money at it ASAP