[Android] Lemmings-like game (WIP)

[LJLPM]

edit: *** currently available tilesets (work in progress) ***

1/ dirt


2/ marble


3/ brick



4/ pillar



5/ rock



6/ colors


7/ tech


8/ sci-fi



+ early WIP: ice:


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Hi,

I'm coding a Lemmings-like game for Android (free-time project), and dev is going well. Well enough to say that I passed the critical "I hope to finish this project" stage: I've now coded too much on this project to let it down!

I create this topic to report (probably not-frequent, sorry) updates about the project, and for you to write game ideas you would find interesting to see in a Lemmings-like game (gameplay mechanics). I'm handling the Lemmings's actions now, so if you have gameplay ideas, the time is right.

Some news about the current wip version of the game:
- in the very-early stage of the game development (nov. 2013), it turned to be a "2-player vs" game, but it's no more, and now the game has a classic Lemmings1's 1-player-only style.
- I have the title screen + the level-selection screen + the level-briefing screen working (but the gfx are not final and have to be polished/re-designed).
- the actual game works pretty well, too (I use a dozen of levels for my tests): level-loading is ok, you can select your Lemmings, assign tasks to them, dig what's not a Steel piece, zoom/pan the level, pause the game, ... (but some Lemmings' actions have yet to be coded, such as builders, for example)
- the map, with Lemmings' real-time positions, is also there
- the game seems pretty memory-stable on my Nexus7

What's missing (a lot of things actually):
- saving the player's game progression (locked/unlocked levels)
- the success/failure screen after finishing a level
- the traps aren't handled yet, as well as the collision with the exit door (yes, you can't finish the levels atm...)
- many, many level's graphics have to be done (I won't use copyrighted gfx from Lemmings), as well as designing levels, of course

Please remember this is a hobbyist project, and there's no estimated release date yet.

- below: 2 early screenshots with gfx/GUI design not final:

[mobius]

looks really nice so far!  the graphics are really well done.

so, just to be clear, this is the same project you've been working on right? When finished, will it only playable on android? or can it work on a PC as well?

[ccexplore]

so, just to be clear, this is the same project you've been working on right? When finished, will it only playable on android? or can it work on a PC as well?

As I mentioned previously, you can try BlueStacks to get emulation of Android on Windows.  That's likely the only chance you will get it playable on PC.

[namida]

Depending on requirements, you might be able to pick up a cheap Android device to run it anyway.

[LJLPM]

All skills are now coded + the "speed up/down the game" option + the "pause" & "nuke" options: in other words, all the in-game actions from Lemmings1 are now available.

The next major step is to handle traps + the collision with the exit door.

This is a work in progress, but the current result (level display + ergonomics to assign skills) is already stunning IMHO. Be patient: the result should worth the wait.

[LJLPM]

As a little update, here's a preview of some tiles from my own "dirt" tileset.

[LJLPM]

Well, after almost 2 months without an update, here's a cool news: levels are now fully playable! 

Until today, I had all the basic actions coded (all the actions from Lemmings1), but the level's exit was just an image without any behaviour, and reaching the exit meant nothing for the game (you couldn't complete levels).
Now, reaching the level's exit is an actual game mechanic, and therefore you can complete levels!

I've also added the "1-way arrows" behaviour.

I still have a lot of work to do on the graphics, but about the game's mechanics, it seems that, now, I'm just lacking the ability to handle some traps (lava, fire, acid, ...).
Of course, things need some tweakings here and there, but, as I said, levels are fully playable now (minus the traps), and that's cool.

I don't have too much time to spend on this project, so it progresses slowly <img src="http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" class="smiley" />

[RubiX]

Looking forward to the finished game.    I think its going to be a big hit for androids around the world

[LJLPM]

Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't have too much time to spend on the game dev these days, so this project progresses slowly. 
As a little (but cool, nevertheless) update, here's the very first in-game screenshot!!!! So, as you can see, yes, the game is real

What you could notice:
- the screenshot is deliberately small: it's because this is a teaser Bigger in-game screenshots will come at a later time, when dev will be more complete.
- this is the 1:1 (not-zoomed) display of the game. Of course, you can zoom and unzoom the game's area with your fingers (it's convenient for making precise selections when dealing with tiny sprites)
- Level uses custom graphics (à la "Pillar" tileset)
- Don't pay too much attention to the action-icons: they are not final. As a matter of fact, I didn't rework/redraw the action-icons and the sprites yet: so for test purposes, I currently use DOS graphics (which I'll get rid of in the final version, of course). The basher is selected, hence the icon's weird color.
- In the game's lower-left corner, map has been disabled here (just because I actually changed the level design, and map was no longer relevant), but, yes, the map does work. Actually, every button or info you can see on this screenshot work: game is playable.

[namida]

Looking good!

[LJLPM]

Do you recognize me? It's me, it's Lemmings... but on Android, on Nexus 7  (it's playable)

[LJLPM]

This project is still in a "work in progress" status: it's too early to provide an apk file (for example, traps and water/acid areas aren't handled yet => it's the next big thing I'll work on!). I'm also still thinking about some design choices like the size for the sprites (on the screenshots, you can notice that sprites have a DOS-based size whereas tiles use Lemmini's double res).

Below are some new screenshots:
- on the 2nd screenshot, I show the "zoom" feature, which allows the player to perform precise selections.
(and as you can see, one can zoom in very closely to the action  )

[Ron_Stard]

The game looks promising! I acn't wait to test it on my tablet!

On which Android version are you coding it?

[LJLPM]

Thanks 
I use Android 4.1 for coding (but I think I don't use Android 4's specific functions, so the game should actually run on lower versions of Android. I still have to perfom some tests about this...)

[LJLPM]

When I don't have too much time for coding, I update the game's tilesets.
Here's a test-level using the "sci-fi" tileset (custom tiles except for the doors).