Fantastic Franklin - Concept Demo

The Demo

It’s here! Check out the release trailer, and/or head over to the download page to try it out for yourself on Windows, Linux, or OSX!

This is only a concept demo, and as such, it is very short, it does not contain many advanced features, and it may still contain a few bugs. In addition to the basic gameplay mechanics demonstrated herein, the final version is intended to have more level gimmicks, enemies, many new levels, a built-in level editor for custom user-made levels, music, and possibly more. When it’s ready, it is to be released commercially

The Updates

As I’ve mentioned previously, the first build of this game was originally created in 2013 for Ludum Dare. It was entered in the “Jam” portion, and as such, my wife and I had 72 hours to create it “from scratch” (using the then-current public release of HCGE, as allowed under the rules). That wasn’t very much time, so it ended up with very little content and a whole lot of bugs. Several other projects and issues came up before I had a chance to really work on this again

Leading into the second month of activity for this Patreon campaign, I was suddenly struck by an idea regarding how to overcome one of the major collision bugs I was having an issue with, and decided to set to work on it, posting about a few specifics on my blog, where I mentioned that I’d be taking the time to create a cleaner demo for release. For those who have tried the original version, here’s most of what’s changed:

• Many collision, object interaction, and other bugs have been fixed:

  
  

  • Franklin’s animation now resets properly after death

    
    

  • It is no longer possible to carry rocks into walls and stick them there

    
    

  • The egg no longer hovers above Franklin when he carries it

    
    

  • Franklin is no longer occasionally crushed immediately after throwing a rock

    
    

  • The egg falling onto Franklin no longer kills him or falls through him (depending on how it fell); he catches it

    
    

  • It is no longer possible to pick up a rock or the egg unless Franklin is very near its horizontal center

    
    

  • It is no longer possible to move inside of a rock or the egg if it’s on top of another rock that Franklin is trying to pick up

    
    

  • Objects can no longer be carried/thrown into each other (they can no longer overlap)

    
    

  • Holding “down” and “left” or “right” while at the bottom of a ladder or climbing down a ladder and onto a rock no longer causes Franklin to have a seizure

    
    

  • Rocks are no longer barred from moving forward when pushed against a cliff that’s only a few pixels high

    
    

  • Others...
  
  

• Several mechanics have been tweaked and added to better serve puzzle creation and overall gameplay:

  
  

  • Franklin can now catch the egg if it falls from a height no greater than three block units

    
    

  • Franklin now has recoil when throwing rocks or the egg

    
    

  • Rocks/the egg can slip out of Franklin’s hands if he falls too far

    
    

  • Rocks now slide off of the edges of floors/other rocks

    
    

  • It’s no longer possible to pick up an object from its underside if it’s sitting on something

    
    

  • Picking up a rock or the egg now happens more quickly

    
    

  • Franklin now switches places vertically with the rock/egg he’s picking up instead of hovering in midair and falling slowly after the action is complete
  
  
• Digging now has a sound effect
  
  
• There is now a level timer and score counter. There are score bonuses for finishing with time left, and penalties for losing (death/time-over/forfeit)
  
  

• There is now a "map" mode for pausing the game and scrolling around the level freely

  
  

• There is now a pause menu with options for returning to the level, restarting the level, or returning to the title screen
  
  
• There is now a start-up menu that offers game start, key/button configuration, and program exit, as well as an option to start on any level that has already been reached (recorded in a save file)
  
  
• The one existing level has been modified, and three new levels have been added for a total of four levels. The difficulty of each level is greater than the previous level, with the fourth level being significantly more difficult than the third

Development

This actually ended up taking longer than I thought it would. I wanted to get it practically bug-free this time, so I spent a lot of time tracking down and fixing them. It didn’t help matters that I wanted to fix up the mechanics a bit at the same time, and the whole process actually exposed a few bugs in HCGE that I had to also take care of. Strangely, the new puzzles turned out to be the quickest and easiest things to do, although they still took a little time

Currently, the release is only for Windows, Linux, and OSX. As a general rule, HCGE supports a few other platforms, but this version of Fantastic Franklin uses several of the more-recent feature additions and updates I’ve made to HCGE, and as such, each platform needs an updated build to run it. Currently, the other platforms are exhibiting some problems with a couple of recent changes that I haven’t been able to solve yet, so, I bit the bullet and went with only the three PC platforms after having managed to successfully update each of them. The OSX version is actually a different port than the one I’ve been using; it uses OpenGL and Core Audio instead of SDL, so Mac users should no longer have install problems

I’d love to get a new end-user editing version of HCGE out, but aside from the current platform issues, several new features still aren’t exactly in end-user state. It’ll have to wait until I’ve had the chance to clean them up and add a few other new ones

You might have noticed two of the most-recent features, though- the ability to add a custom “exit program” function to a game, and the ability to add a custom key/button configuration menu to the game. Previously (and still currently), exit was handled by a standard exit button, and key configuration was done from inside the main HCGE menu interface, but those methods were rather messy, so they can now be implemented directly in a game in any way the author wants

Other additions/changes include removing the need for the “gdf” folder and associated “.gdf” files in favor of placing a “.ver” file directly in a game’s folder, and setting a game to run by default by changing its folder’s name to “game” instead of having to create a “default.gdf” file in the “gdf” folder. The strangely-named “default” folder containing the main program data has now been renamed to “data”, and the Sprite Editor now has a “copy/paste” feature for duplicating sprite frames and their properties so that they can be used to more-easily create variants

Closing

It’s nice to finally have what seems to be a respectable version of this game available for people to play. It’s still a good way off from what it’s meant to be, but at least this time it plays well. It’ll take a good while before the full game is ready, but hopefully it’ll be worth the wait

For now, it’s time that I cycle back onto some of my other projects. You might have noticed my previous blog post... yeah, I’m still working on that :P

Until I have more, I hope you enjoy the Fantastic Franklin concept demo!