Scuttle: A Roach Tale(Casual Platforming)

Community Showcases
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Scuttle: A Roach Tale

Here’s the next game I was working on for my Portfolio. It’s called Scuttle: A Roach Tale, where you play as a cockroach in a house trying to survive by collecting bread crumbs and other foods lying around the room and then heading back to the nest before time runs out. I’ve added a Jump Pad system for getting to higher levels, a method of time addition to extend your time allowed, and a magnet script to make collecting easier. It’s not the prettiest game but it’s mostly functional.

Play Here

Instructions:

  • Arrow Keys to Move
  • Space to Jump
  • Use the Jump Pads to get Higher
  • Collect Red Orbs to Extend Time
  • Touch Nest in Wall to End Game

Status:
This version is Pre-Gold. The game still has a few bugs present:

  • No Camera Collision

Notes:
I’m wrapping the game up at four stages due to time constraints. That camera thing is the main problem now. I kind of fixed the jumping issue.

Credits:

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hmmm, annoyingly the ad bar along the bottom caused the most trouble with play. Once I had disabled that first thing I noticed was the camera clipping and seeing some form of epic mountin scene outside the world. Very much like it - its quite addictive :slight_smile: Personally, the only thing I would add would be little scuttling legs to the cockroach. That would be pretty sweet :slight_smile: It did take a while to download though - my inet can be quite lame, I didn’t see anything which should cause uber huge download times, though taking intoaccount the ad bar could have been the cause of the issues. I like it :slight_smile: would love to see it in a more polished state :smile:

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Ad bar?
You mean the freewebs one?
Sorry about that, that website is being used for something else and I needed it since it was the only one that holds the data. The camera…is outside of my area of expertise. If I attach a collider then when it hits the wall, the entire camera malfunctions.
As for the leg scuttling, not possible for me since I have the modeling skills of an enlightened monkey.

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For the leg scuttling, make a sprite image in Photoshop, and when you press a arrow key, the sprite starts doing its thing…
For the sprite, just make a few horizontal brown lines, and attach it to a cube that is outmatched to the roach.

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Updated the Version from 1.6 to 1.7

Changes

  • Added a prototype stage 2
  • Added Retry option to Game Over and Complete
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  • 3rd Stage added
  • New character model
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4th Stage Added.

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looks pretty kool man, movement could do with some refining, especially with the jump feature and the jump boxs, they are pretty hard to use.
I like the collecting crumbs more than i did the chocolate bar.

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Updated once again

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EDIT, EDIT, SOME MORE EDIT:
Alright so let me retype this thing. The jumping need a lot more work done to it. My suggestion would be lowering the gravity. That would give you air time as well as more time to coordinate a landing. The main issue is that when you begin the game, you don’t know where the end goal is. Some potential fixes are:

create a camera that either runs on a track from the chocolate bar to you
create a camera that either runs on a track through the course you need to take to get to the chocolate bar
create some trail, either painted on the ground or like a light stream.

Just some ideas. The issue just keep reoccurring: I don’t know where to go. Now if that’s the point, then you want to give the player more than enough time to explore around.

Another issue is that when I die, I have to start all the way over. I’d like to restart the level. At least a few times.

I hope you don’t mind, but here is some constructive criticism on your levels:
Level one:
One of the issues I am having is the jump platform. Its extremely hard to jump on. I keep over jumping it, hitting the bottom of the platform, etc. The crumbs are also kind of glitched. You have them all come to you kind of like your a magnet all pretty and lerped. But, they kind of glitch towards you on this stage.

Level two:
Well I ran through it about 3 times before I realized I could jump on the chair. The pillow makes it seem as if you have to jump on the pillow and then onto the couch. The rubix cube only show up some of the time? I’m not even sure what its supposed to do. Also, I ran into the last ramp before the chocolate and it teleported me into the next stage. Everything was the most functional out of the other two as far as I could see. Minus the rubix cube.

Level three:
Misleading with the collect chocolate bar AND 80 crumbs. Went through this like 6 times. The time limit is fine without the search for a chocolate bar. The second time extension on top of the night stand doesn’t work. Make it kinda obvious that you need to touch the hole in the wall. Well the wall next to the hole in the wall. Also, you can jump out the window.

Level four:
Ok, so all the crumbs was cause them to “lag-lerp” to me. Other than that it was pretty straight forward and simple. That, you might want to be your first level.

Again, for your jump, I highly recommend you tune down gravity. Adjust your jump speed from there. You want a bit of air drag. As it is, the jump needs a lot of work.

Very important: If you do have some goal, make it very clear. I saw the text “get to the chocolate bar” or something to that effect, but I didn’t know where it was or if it existed. Have an intro cut-scene to show where it is, or show it using the Lerpz tutorial’s “split screen.”

This is a pretty good game concept, but I suggest you work on it a lot before you go Gold. Especially on your main mechanics. Exceptionally good music on the bedroom stage.

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Will fix.
I’m not selling the game or anything so I’m not going for absolute perfection. This is practice and for the portfolio. The sequel will be better. If I ever get to it and a level designer.

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I’d say at least release it to a web portal of some kind, and to get it up to par before you put it in your portfolio. After all, if its gold, you are releasing it in someway. And, if you strive for perfection in your portfolio, it really shows.

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I’d like to put it up on a portal site but I never did so before, so I’m fishing for information on how to.
Also, the music artist for the game asked that it not be released commercially, only free. I never originally intended to make money off this game, so I’m hosting it off my portfolio site but having a portal site advertise it would do me some good.

Update:

  • Altered the jumping
  • Added goal camera cutscene
  • Added guiding arrows

Anything else need improvement?

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From my understanding, all you do is contact the portal and submit your game.
Where some tweaking would be nice:

the rotation of the turn could be increase just a little bit,
make sure your jump pads don’t make you hit anything when you try to use them (ex: the bed level, you hit the top of the cover.)
The crumbs lag-lerp to the roach on the 4th level.
I like the new view of the goal, but it would still be much nicer to have the camera either move to the roach, look at the roach after looking at the chocolate bar, or even run the track that the roach is supposed to.
The jump is 100x better.
I have this glitch were if I run into certain things on level 2, I’m automatically entered to level 3.
Its a nice skip, but I’m sure you don’t want you’re players to skip to the levels.
Also, don’t forget to add a life system. Where you get to redo the stage you are on until lives run out, then its game over.
A few members from my team have tested you game and that was one of the biggest turn offs they had.

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I wanted to make it challenging by making it without a life system for the player since the gameplay is simple.

I might try to move the cutscene to the roach but I lost the script I had for it, so it’ll take a while.

Can you tell me what exactly you hit on level two and how long since the start of the level, cause if it’s about 3 seconds it’s possible the clear variable has been left over from level 1. I don’t get that error so bug testing has to come from other players.

I could probably stop the lagging if I decrease the number of crumbs…I’ll try that next.

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Needs some transition screens and some kind of congratulations for polish, maybe a floor texture, but otherwise not bad.

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No clue on how to do transitions.

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Multiple issues have cause me to enter level 2 and just skip to level 3 I’ve ran into the chair as well as the slope just before the chocolate bar and been teleported to level 3. Also, the hit box is off on the bed level for the hole in the wall. Its a bit to the left. I suggest you do a thorough run down on you code. Look into transitions, they’re fairly simple. Unity answers should have that.

As for the restarting from the beginning, its a huge turn off for casual gamers. I know its a bit more challenging, but its extremely aggravating.

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Well, I’ll look into reloading the level but your score drops to zero as a result. How’s that?
I’ll also disable the script once you hit your goal so you’ll know you did it.
I’ll look up transitions as well.

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Just do this:

var levelEndTexture : Texture2D;
var levelEnd : boolean = false;

function OnGUI(){
   if(levelEnd){
      GUI.DrawTexture(Rect(0,0,Screen.width,Screen.height),levelEndTexture);
      // Add some stats here about time spent and score etc.
   }
}

function EndLevel(){
   levelEnd = true;
   // play win audio here and any other effects
   yield WaitForSeconds(2);
   Application.LoadLevel(2);
}