Shock-A-Doodle
MEET DANNY DOODLE
He was always ambitious and diligent, always eager to satisfy his superiors, never sloppy and never not willing to run the extra mile to fulfill every new task with the highest level of precise focus and unwavering dedication. Danny Doodle had put all of his eggs in one basket. He believed in the system, believed in SusCorp Inc. and knew that his big break had to be imminent. He believed in it for 25 years.
Today he has decided to wake up. He won't lose any more feathers over a stupid company that doesn't appreciate him and probably sees him as nothing more than just another cock in their machine. It's time to run. It's time to exit through the Shock Factory and hopefully not get fried on the way out. It's time to get back to the henhouse and show the whole world what this rooster is capable of.
CONTROLS
Shock-A-Doodle can be played with a keyboard:
Use the ARROW KEYS to RUN LEFT and RIGHT and the X KEY to JUMP.
If the game prompts you to use the CIRCLE BUTTON, simply press the C KEY instead.
(Don't rest on the ARROW KEYS for too long or your jumps won't be registered.
BEHIND THE SCENES
This game was developed in Pico-8. It's super short and can be finished in less than a minute. Creating a platformer in Pico-8 is very tricky because the more sprites you use, the smaller your map will get: It's one of many restrictive aspects of the fantasy console, that challenges developers to get more creative and "economical" in their process. Instead of using smaller sprites, I decided to use every last pixel on the map to create a short but challenging level, which I then called "The (Shock) Factory". Due to the fact that it's a very short experience, I decided to implement a timer, which will give competitive gamers the opportunity to speedrun through the level and try to beat their personal best (There's no highscore table o. e., but feel free to take a screenshot when you get to the winning screen.^^ ). Shock-A-Doodle is my second attempt to create a game in Pico-8 and I used many youtube tutorials and reddit threads to get a better understanding of its specific "commands" and "concepts". It was a "punishingly" fun and instructive experience and I really hope, you'll enjoy the product it resulted in.
Shock-A-Doodle was developed
by MEGABELUGA aka W. Dolle in 2023
https://www.youtube.com/@Wloem
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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P8 file, is possible?
You can use this link. Simply click on "cart" to save the p8.png.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=shockadoodle
I take this as platform precision.
As for my opinion, I don't like the fact that you are sent back to main menu after failing once. It makes replaying unpleasant cause it takes more time. I suggest making it like this after failing:
Press X = retry, level is restarted.
Press C = return to main menu.
Also the danger sign has same color as platforms giving impression that you could step on it, which you couldn't.
Thanks for the feedback. I've heard from someone else that the danger sign could be confused with a platform. Since it appears very early in the level and some of the jumps are trial and error anyway, I kept in. It was more based on what I thought was visually pleasing than a gameplay decision... therefore your critique is valid.
The reason why the game always switches back to the title screen after each Game Over is because I didn't want the player to accidentally skip the Game Over screen. If you died during a jump, with X still being pressed, you'd jump back into the level without witnessing your "death". I also wanted the title screen to still be reachable, basically as an option to start your timer and as a prelude to the level. There might be some other option like deactivating all button presses for 1 second during the game over screen, but then it would take even more time to get back into the game. Btw I just tested how long it takes me to restart after I died and it's literally 1/3 of a second. :D
Anyway, I'm trying to be better with my next project and keep your points in mind. Especially the transition between Gameplay, Game Over and Menu screen.
Thank you so much for playing.