Hi. I'd love to get some feedback on our latest game, called 8-Bit Commando.


8-Bit Commando is a run and gun platformer with fast-paced action, a rocking soundtrack and explosions. The graphics will take you back to the classic age of gaming and the gameplay is bound to challenge even the most seasoned vets. (Gameplay Video)

Download

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

Looks interesting.

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

That looks pretty cool. I'll have to check it out

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Version 0.1.3 is out. Changes include:
-enemies take less hits to die
-continue points so you don't have to start from the beginning of the level
-improved powerup sprites (plus a cheesy announcer voice tells you what each powerup is)
-less inertial effects on the player
-the granades are more powerful

The demo of the first level can be downloaded at:
http://2dengine.com/commando/

Also, here's a sneak peek at the second level (which is still in the works):

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

That is pretty cool. The control layout are bad though. I found that you can show the hitboxes which are red, not sure if thats suppose to be there.

So if you wanted to, you can remake Ninja Gaiden the old school? Iv seen the engine, perdy cool too.

In the new version you can use WASD and '.' '/' instead of the arrow keys.


Sure, although I should mention that the game runs on top of a physics engine called box2D.

I'd also like to mention that version 0.1.5 is out.
New features include:
-Co-op mode (play with a friend if you have a joystick attached to your computer)
-Loading screen
-Basic storyline via the select screen
-New boss fight in level 1 (you're now fighting a nuclear reactor instead of a tank which is more appropriate I think)
-Improved the rockets powerup (rockets now home in on nearby enemies)
-Improved granades powerup (greater blast ranger)
-Numerous gameplay and enemy AI tweaks
-Numerous graphical/sound tweaks
-WASD control available in addition to the arrow keys
-Options screen that saves your settings (you can play the game in widescreen!)

Download is available at: http://2dengine.com/commando/

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

nice it is. Resembling the good ol' Amiga times.
This is an example how pixel art can be beautiful (of course even more). Looking forward to play it also.
May I ask - just how much time did it take you to do the graphics? (Perhaps I might inspire myself from it )

Hey, thanks ElectroPaladin.
The graphics take a LOT of time (especially the animations).
It depends on how much detail you want to put in.
A single level takes me about a month to complete and that includes a background tileset, about 6-10 animated objects and a boss.
But again it depends greatly on how much detail you want to put in.
For example, one explosion animation took me several days to draw. Sprites that you're not going to show that much in your game can only have 2 frames and nobody will notice.
But overall it's very time consuming.
If I could start over I'd probably make my sprites with fewer colors (like Dark Void Zero) or more like 8-bit Capcom style.

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

even such a platformer like this was something I wanted to program. Got stuck in collision checking (just how?).
What's your code to your Player character and the tiles? How did you solve moving, jumping, falling in the map with recognizing position of the tiles where to land, where to stop falling etc.? (snapping the player or characters on the ground when intersect with floor)

Hi. We're using box2D which is a 2D physics library. I had to do some 'hacks' in order to adpot Box2D for this sort of game since Box2D is a general purpose physics library. It's a bit technical to describe but in general Box2D provides quite a lot of flexibility. Basically, we're moving rigid bodies around by applying various forces. Box2D has 'contact listeners' which are used to buffer and handle collision data. Here's a short tutorial you might want to check out. Here's another article describing how to make a platform game with Box2D.

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

New gameplay teaser video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ-Uie5zgIY

The game is still work in progress and the final version should hopefully be out in about a month.

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

Hey everybody, I'm excited to announce that a new public beta is out! This version includes an online hiscore and many new features:

download beta 0.2.1

The final version of the game is almost ready. All feedback is much appreciated.

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

Cool game man, it's nicely polished. Only thing is that the grenade launcher is like the worst gun ever Works fine on my system, Windows 7 64-bit, Intel quad core, 4GB ram, Radeon 5770.

I like the birds on the line that fly away, nice touch

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Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve

Hey thanks a lot, I hadn't tested the game on Windows 7 so I'm kind of suprised there are no bugs.
Yep, the granades do LOOK like a worthless powerup.
You can only shoot one at a time but they are the most powerful weapon in the game.
It's not obvious but you can throw them at longer distances by holding the shoot button.

Hehe yeah, a bit of a Canabalt influence there.

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

New public beta demo 0.2.2 is out.
Updates include:
-continuation points
-added difficulty modes ('easy' and 'normal')
-a large number of bug fixes
-you can now get the powerup on top of the orange building

Download: http://2dengine.com/commando/ ~11 MB

Screen from level 5:

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

Hey, everybody. We're excited to announce that today, after nearly 12 months of developement, the game was officially released for both Windows and MacOS!


Full version includes:
- 6 levels of intense action
- local coop multiplayer
- beautiful retro graphics
- online hiscore system
- a rocking chiptunes soundtrack

download 8-Bit Commando (Windows/MacOS)

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

Awesome! Looking forward to playing it.

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Hi everybody. I'm looking for some help in localizing the game to different languages. In return, I'd send you a full version of the game. The game has only about 200-300 words of text. In particular, I'm looking for native speakers in the following languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Japanese although if you speak some other language we might work something out. If anybody is interested, please send me a PM.

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains

Thanks to the laborious efforts of Phil, the Linux version of 8-Bit Commando is going to be released soon. Before we can do that, we need to get some feedback from Linux gamers. Please try out the demo version and post your feedback here or on our forums ( http://2dengine.com/forum/ ) so we can make sure everything is working. Looking forward to any replies, especially if the game fails to run on your machine.

Download Linux i386 demo
http://2dengine.com/commando/8Bit_Comma ... 86.tar.bz2

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2d engine | 8-bit commando | chains