Wrecking Ball Boy

Especially observant regulars may have noticed something in the README.txt of the source code of my multicart builder. I have something to confess: I'm cheating, in a sense.



I'm developing a video game in Python, and it's called Wrecking Ball Boy. It's a puzzle platformer involving a character resembling a roly-poly toy who tosses ropes and swings on them. A few regulars in #nesdev have been helping me test it to work out the physics, and I thought it might be time to widen out. Once I get some of the design nailed down, I plan to port it to the NES (after which point move the topic to Homebrew Projects).

Try it!
(last updated 2013-03-17)

You can't run a ROM without the right emulator, nor can you run a PC game without the right libraries.

• Debian or Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install python-pygame will grab everything
• Windows: Install Python 2.7 (32-bit) and Pygame for Python 2.7
• Mac OS X comes with Python; the Pygame download page has binaries for Snow Leopard and Lion.

Keyboard and USB gamepad control are supported.


A screenshot alone cannot show how smooth the swinging animation is, using the 8-pixel strip shearing technique that I mentioned earlier.


SPOILERS
Solution video 1 | Solution video 2

I like it! But it does need more polishing... for one thing, the character is far too sluggish while moving on the ground. I realize this might be by design to make you feel more empowered by the swing mechanism, but it's just way too much.

Also, it was very hard to get the proper timing to complete the last level, and having the grass tile there to stop you whenever you extended the rope a bit too much made the experience more frustrating than necessary, so I think you should remove it from the level.

You might also want to consider cheating in the sense of snapping the grappling hook more to a lone target, as it now seems to require far too much timing and/or blind luck to hit your target.

Any chance of a .nes ROM?

It's a bit hard to scoot around with no feet. If you draw up an animation of a plausible walk cycle, I'll revise it.


Yeah, that's like going from 1-1 in Super Mario Bros. to 8-1. User "hubs" in #nesdev designed that level as something that Worms 2 fans could appreciate. I don't have all the elements implemented for the levels in between, and I'm still looking for some setting concepts.


I already do a little cheating by allowing it to snap anywhere along the rope (search for wraptest_trace in wbb.py).


The NES version is way behind. But I've been designing the pendulum kinematics so that once I do port it to the NES, I can build on top of the trig code I developed for Thwaite.


EDIT:

In the next version, I sped up scooting by about 20% and added a seventh frame to the animation so that he leans forward a bit more at full speed.

And I found a way for the "cheating" to fail. I've addressed it in the next version as well.

New version available

Summary of changes:

• Sprite shearing to save crate rotation frames
• Neutral sitting pose
• Longer steps for 25% faster scooting
• Fixed failure to wrap when to the left of a lamp post
• Climb to top of lamp post
• New compact level format allows levels longer than 2 screens
• Ctrl+P to save screenshot

If you want to see how to play before downloading, here's the manual.

And in case your computer doesn't like Pygame, here's the latest video on YouTube.

New version available

Summary of changes:

• Directionally solid tiles
• Crate moving uses same in-column prediction as level loading
• Can climb crate even if next to ladder
• Removed failed attempt to antialias crates
• Renders sound effects to wav if recording video
• Movie (timed keypresses) recording and playback
• Window has an icon
• Preliminary Python 3 work (not yet tested)