The Devil’s Railroad

The Devil’s Railroad

Development Status: Pre-Alpha

Category ————————— Story driven, sidescrolling platformer
File Size: —————– 14.2 MB
GM Version: ———————– GM:Studio
Vista Compatible: —————– unknown
Changes Screen Resolution: —– no

Latest Version (as of Nov ??, 2013)
DOWNLOAD:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46956737/The_Devils_Railroad_003.exe

Previously posted downloads:

The Devil’s Railroad 002:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46956737/The_Devils_Railroad_002.exe

Jam 12 Release Version (horribly unfinished):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46956737/The_Devils_Railroad.exe

tdr_logo_splash_001

This is the story about John, a blues musician, whose wife divorced him to marry a banker. John, despondent at his failed marriage and saddened by the fact that another man was raising his daughter, took to riding the rails as a hobo.  During one particularly alcohol-filled evening, John was approached by a demon who promised John fame and fortune if he could make his way to Nashville and strike a deal with the devil.

 

DevLog

Entry 1 (from the Games topic)
(Time is hours and minutes since JamStart)

2:30

I finally got home from work about an hour after JamStart.  I had a few ideas, but I was slightly stumped on how to mix evolution with trains.  I wanted something unique.  I discussed this with my wife and she helped brainstorm a pretty good story line.  She said she would help with writing the narrative while I start working on the game mechanics.Here’s the gameplay core:  Fighting bad guys on a moving train.I am opening GM:S now.

2:45

I poked through the other entry logs to see the other ideas.  Looks like only one other game will be slightly similar to mine.

6:30

I have a little hobo guy placeholder, basic platform movement, and moving boxcars.  Collisions with the side of the moving train need to be ironed out.  Too tired to keep going.  Brain is mush, can’t concentrate.  I’m going to relax and possibly take a nap.  I just hope I don’t sleep too long.

Screenshot

TrainScreen_001.PNG

17:25

I finally made it back to my computer. I’m gonna work on some art assets.

31:00

I’ve been at it all day.  I spent too much time on an animated character sprite today, but I learned a few things.  I found some train pics on the web and converted them to sprites.  I created a ground and track background.  I still have parallax backgrounds to make and implement.  I’m close to having player movement finished, but I need to implement attack with animations.  I still have to create the story phases and different levels.  Seems like a lot to do.  I hope I can get it finished.  So, enough writing…  Back to work!!

Screenshot 2

TrainScreen_002.PNG

39:50

Finally!! I got past a problem I was having with the train’s movement.  Of course, the solution was much simpler than I was trying to do at first.  haha!  But a lot of wasted time spent there.  Time to get cookin’!!

46:25

I’ve been distracted with creating that Title Splash up there.  I hope I have time to finish coding and stuff.  Yikes!

68:20

God**** forum!  My post didn’t update costing me 20 minutes to rewrite and post!  Arrgghhh!

Let’s see If I can remember what I wrote.

I created my own animated character sprites and they took forever to make.  They aint much, for the time I spent.  But they’re better than non-animated and borrowed.  The only thing I stole from the webs were the train cars (although I did customize them) and the pictures for the logo splash.  Thank you kindly, webs!

I procedurally generated the train to eliminate room building and facilitate differing train lengths per level.  It was very difficult and time consuming to iron out, but I managed it and learned from it.

For the first time, I made the beginnings of a pretty good AI enemy.  “The Bandit” runs along the top of the train, avoiding the gaps between cars by jumping.  He is also controlled by different states:  wandering, chasing and attacking, running away, robbing the locomotive (so to speak).  Very time consuming and a new experience for me.  I learned a LOT here, too.

I hope I can get a win/lose mechanic finished in these last few hours.  Also, I still need backgrounds, sounds, music, start screen & menu, HUD, and levels.  LOL!!!  Oh well, it was a good try.  I’ll see what I can finish before the time runs out.

Screenie #3 (with debuggin’ infos  :P )

TrainScreen_003.PNG

 

Entry 2

I couldn’t stand the fact that I was unable to implement the scrolling, parallax backgrounds, so I fixed that issue right after the deadline.  Still a very unfinished game at this point, but at least it looks a lot better.

screenie with backgrounds

Entry 3 (11-18-13)

After spending several days lost in social media, I’m going to make an attempt at continuing this update.

Since the GMC Jam’s deadline on October 28th, I’ve continued development on this game (minus the social media and website update distractions).  Here’s a list of changes and additions.  Screenshots to follow.

  • Added fonts for HUD info.
  • Started a HUD.
  • Created beginning splash screen for HayMan Games.
  • Created menu system – still may need some tweaking.
  • Added Sound FX and Music.  Not all implemented yet.
  • Created a Credits room.
  • Worked on the character collision with the locomotive.
  • Created many more art assets for intro and storyline sequences.

I mostly focused on the Signature Splash and Menu.  No real change to the gameplay yet. Still no game intro or ‘level win’ yet.  Much more needs to be done.  Not sure what I’ll work on next, but that original “Devil’s Railroad” splash screen is bothering me.  I really want to re-work it, so, that might be next.

Sig_screen

tdr_menu

tdr_hud

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