[Prototype] Growing Ties

Regarding prototypes, Growing Ties is a special project as it’s based on an experimental game I created during the Ludum Dare game jam in 2015. I had 72h to create a new game from scratch using a theme. The result of this game jam can be played here:

http://www.ludoscience.com/EN/games/884-Growing-Ties.html 

It’s a Flash-based game, but I also did an Android version after the event because people seemed to like the idea. But it was a very short game: you had a single level with 20 patrons, and had to make the best score possible. In 2019, I decided to finally expand this experiment into a fuller game for the Atari Lynx.

-= PROTOTYPE 01 =-

First gameplay test. The tie machine moves left and right. The Up / Down directions allow you to grow or shrink a tie. It was a way for me to test how the "sprite transformations" work on the powerful Atari Lynx. With Left and Right you can move the patron left and right.

-= PROTOTYPE 02 =-

Some actual game mechanics start to show up. You can now grow a tie by pressing A, and cut it by pressing B. However, the tie won’t get attached to the patron for now (that’ll come with prototype 04).

-= PROTOTYPE 03 =-

A stress test of the Lynx graphics chip. All the required sprites / images are displayed on screen at once: the tie machine moving fast, up to 6 actual ties, 8 patrons with their "score" displayed, and the player score. The number displayed as "score" is the frame rate (between 59-60 fps in this version). I managed to keep it at this level in the final version with some extra optimizations in the later stages of development.

-= PROTOTYPE 04 =-

Now you can finally grow ties for your patrons! Patrons will come and go away once they get a tie. Notice the ear-tearing sound whenever you cut a tie.

-= PROTOTYPE 05 =-

This version shows a failed animation attempt for the patrons. I used the sprite transformation techniques of the lynx to slightly stretch and tilt the patrons left and right when they are walking in. As you can see, the results isn’t that great, so I dropped it. In the final version, patrons sprites are not deformed, and their walking animation is solely done through sprite x/y positioning. Every 2 frames, they move one pixel up and down, and every 4 frames they also move one pixel left or right to emphasize the "bunny hopping" animation effect.

-= PROTOTYPE 06 =-

Finally, the core game mechanics are all in! Patrons come and go, and they will give you a score according to the size accuracy of the tie you’ll cut them. You can also notice tie colors changing randomly. From now on, a lot of work was done but it wasn’t as "spectacular" as the previous versions. I fine tuned the animation, designed some levels, created the menus, added in the combo system and the color changing controls...

-= ALPHA 01 =-

This version is the first one that I showed to an external tester. It has all the mechanics in, with 5 levels, but it’s lacking sound.

-= BETA 01 =-

According the feedback from my beta tester on the alpha version, I fixed many things, while doing a lot of polishing work: title screen, music, sounds effects, high score save on EEPROM, etc. The result is the first beta version of the game, that was sent to more beta testers. 

-= BETA 02 =-

The beta testers enjoyed the game, but found that it lacked challenge and content (i.e. the game was too easy and too short). So I added 4 extra levels, and I reworked the whole progression system to add some actual challenge to each level. A lot of back and forth then happened with beta testers to fine tune the difficulty balancing.

-= RELEASE =-

And after all this work, here is the final result! The official release of the game, taking place on September 1st, 2019, right on time to celebrate the 30 years anniversary of the Atari Lynx!