Now, I don't really have an income anymore which means I gotta start doing some stuff PRONTO that is going to start paying the bills. You know what I mean???
So guess what, fire sale on 1 Screen Platformer. Yup 51% off right now!
Pick up a copy. Pick up two. Give one to your loved ones. Give one to your mistress. I am not judging here, you do what you need to do to survive.
So consider helping a solo dev who is just trying to live the American Dream of running his own small business selling amazing, wonderful, beautiful video games.
If you have any questions, ask them below. I will answer them because I got nothing but time NOW THAT I DON'T HAVE A JOB!
Birthday Sale!
Hey first off. It is my birthday this week. Hold your breath. This post isn’t me fishing for compliments. I turn 40 next year and that means I don’t really care about birthdays anymore.
Really this post is about you. You see when it is my birthday I put all my games on sale. Look up there you see that. 1 Screen Platformer is on sale. FOR 50 CENTUM (that is latin for cents kids).
Boom.
Now I only have 1 game on Steam (for now) so I am sorry but that is the only thing I can discount for you.
Now you are probably like awwww that hard working game dev is selling his game for pennies. I really wish I could give him something. Close eyes. Nod head. I think I have an idea.
If you really really want to get me something. Just click over to the main store page there and review the game. You don’t have to give it a good one. I don’t care what you rate it. Just put a review up there. Listen to your heart bro nobody is going to listen to it for you.
Happy birthday to me. Hope you like it there is only one size and one color and I threw away the receipt.
Update 1.2 - The VEZ Update
Holly heck I thought this was going to be, you know, a little patch that kind of fixes some little things. But whoa boy it was not. There was a lot that went into this one.
Note: To get this update sometimes you have to close steam and then open it again and it will download. ALSO if the game immediately crashes when you open it, uninstall the game from steam then reinstall (your level progress will still be there, don't worry.) You will know you have the right one if you get a red splash screen and on the main menu there is a 1.2 in the bottom right corner.
1) First off, the big one. The Vez levels are now a lot easier. I know. I watch the stats. Nobody gets very far in his level. So I cleaned up the nav orbs so they are in a much more manageable spot. Get to it. If you gave up on Vez, try it again I think you will have a much better time.
2) I added music! I thought the subtle thumping of the giant stone heads of azergoth, and the wailing guns hurtling hunks of hot lava would be enough of a soundscape, but no. Everyone was really wanting to have a sound track to listen to while they died over and over again. So I give you the new backing track: It is called “BushWeek.” Great song. Terrible Title. I would have called it “Theme of a 1980s action film where the team comes together and starts build a totally boss tank out of metal scraps hanging around the warehouse so they can infiltrate the bad guy’s secret headquarters” But that’s why I don’t get to name song titles. Try it out on any of the levels.
Here are a bunch of other changes I don’t think you would notice unless I told you about them:
Buttons are bigger on the main menu. Sweet change right? I know you were complaining about that Carl. Well here you go stop bugging me about tiny buttons. Carl!
Actually the select difficulty is now on the right side of the screen so that we don’t cover up the character names. Who put that menu there before?
See this little icon. FULL!CONTROLLER!SUPPORT! Seems like a minor achievement. But that little 16x16px badass cost me 49 hours worth of coding to completely rewrite my GUI code. I sure hope you enjoy it and use your controller a whole lot.
There is now a big red title screen with my big fat name on it.
Added a sign right at the start of x97c’s level that says “MUST GET 100% fog.” A lot of people were playing thinking they had to get to the end and then at the end it was like NOPE! go back and get all the fog. Sorry for not telling you at the beginning. Hope this clarifies things.
Debug is no longer toggled by just pushing “T”. Too many muggles were just doing that by accident and then emailing me asking what was with all the boxes. Now to view hitboxes you have to go into settings enable debug mode. Then in the game pushing “T” will turn on the debug mode.
Added keyboard menus to the mailing list signup page when you use a controller so that you dont have to get up walk over to your computer and type in your email information. All you have to do is smash the action button while in a text field and the keyboard will popup.
You now get a little “Are you sure?” Message when you try to clear your data. No slip ups this time.
There was a bug where if you just walked up and touched that timed door that protects the golden skull it would just open. The door was totally unlocked! You didn’t even need to hit the switch. I am surprised nobody figured it out.
That is all for now Scamps! As always email me if you have questions or post in the forums. I always answer them. IAMCHRISZUKOWSKi [AAAATTTTT] gmail DOT COM!
Final 24 Hours of 1 Screen Platformer Speedrun Competition
The 1 Screen Platformer Speedrun community has been holding a mini competition over at speedrun.com/1sp. We are trying to see who has the fastest completion time for each of the characters.
In less than 24 hours (That is Wednesday 9PM Pacific time) I will screenshot the runs that were submitted in 12 different categories. Whoever has the best 3 scores in each category will win a prize (steam keys for some great games or a $10 steam gift card)
Currently there are 6 categories that do not have at least 3 entries. That means you could start the game, make a sandwich, finish it. Upload a video of that (video of you eating the sandwich optional) and still win a prize. Just head over to www.speedrun.com/1sp and submit your run.
This is a fun and friendly competition.
If you want to see more info and what prizes we have head over here: https://mailchi.mp/chriszukowski/1spspeedruncontest
If you want to chat with other folks running the competition head over here:
https://discord.gg/9vyJUe
When you complete a run, upload a video here:
https://www.speedrun.com/1sp
If you have any questions, comment below:
Patch Notes 1.10
I patched 1 Screen Platformer. Thank you so much to everyone who has emailed me a support note or has left a comment in our Discord. I take your feedback VERY seriously. Here is what has changed:
Fixed the Let's Play Badly(TM) shortcut. Like the Kessel run this was a shortcut that was a little... lets say illegal. Double-jump capable characters could use it to bypass the entire game. I needed to brick up that wall. Let me tell you nothing is getting through there now. If you want to see the discovery of it check out this excellent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqYMjh3quiY&feature=youtu.be
Fixed the glitch just above the flame plates where you couldn’t fall back down through the opening. You would just float there like "What now?"
Made the sound of the intro drums quieter. True story that sound actually scared my wife one time when I forgot to mute my laptop and she was watching TV. Don’t know why it took so long to quiet it. I guess I felt like I had to go big or go home. I went big and I am sorry. I will add volume control to the whole game soon but that takes more time so I will update that in a future patch.
Vez Specific: The stars from the little nav orbs were updated so they weigh as much as 100 fairy kisses, 22 dancing angels, and have the heaviness of a maiden's heart on a fresh summer morning... which means they weigh nothing so they do not trigger the trampolines.
Vez Specific: His hitbox is now the exact same as Nadia’s. I gave him the wrong hit box in the launch of the game. This will make it MUCH MUCH easier to play as him. If you gave up on him try it again, you would be amazed at what 2 fewer pixels can do.
I added hit box visualizations to the spinning orbs so you can practice your circle jumping. Just press "T" to see them.
I changed the sound of laser blasters. On some machines the sound would produce a high-pitched whine that someone described as a mosquito. So I tried a new sound effect.
That is all I have for this update. There are two bigger game crashing bugs when you beat the game as Vez or Subject x95c. I am working on it! I just wanted to make these changes first because I know they cause a lot of pain for people day to day.
20% of sale ends today
Don't forget that today is the last day to pick up 1 Screen Platformer before it rockets up to its all time high price of $1. So you better get on that bronco.
Now I don't like just SPAMMING you with some dumb sales pitch. So here is a super secret tip just to keep you happy.
While you are playing the game, press "T" key on your keyboard and you can see your player's hitbox (it is that little red box). You also get to see hit points for all the objects in the game. That is what those little "1s" are. Everything has 1 hit point because this game is fricken hard motherlackers.
Keep rockin in the free world.
Chris
1 Screen Platformer has released
My game about frantically dodging through a dungeon has finally released!
The game is $1 and I am running a 20% Discount right off the bat. For this game you will get 3 playable characters, 90 Awesome achievements, 2 difficulties and 1 Bonus character if you sign up for my mailing list.
What am I doing here chatting to you about it. Go get it!
Quicklook: Character Design
I want to show you what I have been up to with the characters. I hired a professional to do the art for the game's store page and promotional material. I want to make this game's marketing look as professional and to be as awesome as the game is. I hired the artist Eric Hibbeler who does a lot of work with other games you might of heard of like Crashlands and Hive Jump. I like his character designs and think they match perfectly with what I am trying to do.
I want to show you the process of how we game developers go from a rough idea to a finished piece of art....
Commissioning art might seem like being a fancy patron like the Medici. Like I now have to wear a monocle or something. But you just have to stay humble and just work through it with the artist. Collaborating with an artist to make something that exists only in your mind is like trying to get a police sketch artist to draw someone that you only met in a hazy dream from two nights ago. It is convoluted and arbitrary.
I start by sending the artist proximity characters in existing media. In this case I wanted the lead character to be a strong confident captain that is just a little crazy. Think captain Ahab and Aguirre from Wrath of God paired with a really strong woman like Ripley from the Alien films.
Based on these inputs, the arrest gave me this sketch:
Good outline. Good clothes. But she was too...soft. Too young. It looked like her first day on the job. He took the feedback and went in for a new sketch...
This was the right look. Bold. Confident. A bit intimidating. Exactly who the character is. Eric then cleaned up her facial expressions, added color and created a high resolution version of the character. Now we have the final version of Nadia Stormhammer. Captain, explorer of hidden religious antiquities, bad ass main character.
Talk to you in a week.
If you want to get extra insider information, please join my mailing list I send weekly tips, cheat codes, and secrets that I don't post anywhere else. If you do join I will also give you a special 4th character that can only be unlocked by members of my mailing list. Sign up by clicking this button:
Quicklook: The traps waiting for you
As you read this I am coding 1 Screen Platformer. While I am working on that I thought I would send you a bit of the background of the traps you will be facing...
As you know, 1 Screen Platformer is a game that fits on 1 Screen.
You play a tiny character who is only able to run and jump. Your goal is to get from that little tiny arrow in the top left corner that says “You are here” and wind your way through a crazy, dangerous, evil, bizarre, hot-lava-filled, laser-infested, temple, to the top right corner of the screen that says “Your goal.”
You are going to die A LOT.
Lets just take a look at a few of the traps standing in your way.
These are the pounding blocks of pain who smashy smashy anyone just thinking about getting any deeper into the temple. You must carefully time your approach so you can run past them without getting pulverized.
These are the ladders of the spinning blades.
Can you time your climb up fast enough to avoid these slicing beasts?
You think it would be nice and easy to ride a moving platform. WRONG. You are riding it right past waterfalls of fricking lava and underneath dripping spouts of molten metal. You better watch your head dude.
Those are just three of the traps you will face. The full temple has a total of 33 of these traps squeezed into a single screen.
Now what kind of character do you play? Well that is a trick question, you will actually play 3 different characters each with a different mission and play style. But I will save that for my next update which will be in 1 week.
If you want to get extra insider information, please join my mailing list I send weekly tips, cheat codes, and secrets that I don't post anywhere else. If you do join I will also give you a special 4th character that can only be unlocked by members of my mailing list. Sign up by clicking this button:
FULL!CONTROLLER!SUPPORT! Seems like a minor achievement. But that little 16x16px badass cost me 49 hours worth of coding to completely rewrite my GUI code. I sure hope you enjoy it and use your controller a whole lot.
