Jack and the Beanstalk

[Chris!]

I think I can do this, since I'm so far along with it and it hasn't broken yet.
Jack has a giant beanstalk to climb up. The pink birds just want to fly around. Hitting one makes you go down to the beginning. Right now there are only two screens, but there will definitely be more. Way more. And then once Jack reaches the top of the beanstalk, he'll find the Giant's castle...

I just wanted to see if I could do a game that doesn't have a score. Or lives. Going up the beanstalk is the first part, the giant's castle is the second part, and then going down the beanstalk is the third part. The intro is in a bank, the beanstalk code is in another bank, and the giant's castle will be in a third bank. Can I make a 6k game, or is it only 8k and I should think of something else to put in the game?

Anyway, I just want you to get used to the beanstalk climbing. It's really simple, just touch the beanstalk and move the joystick. Not touching the beanstalk will make Jack fall down. What do you think?

[Janzl]

Looks like a fun idea.
Will it contain some kind of scrolling or will it be a flip-screen game?

-edit- missed the rom link, so it's a flip-screen game 

It has potential but it is way to easy at the moment. Lets see where it goes.

[Rafael]

There´s an arcade game based in Jack Adventures, maybe it can inspire you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQuP4vOTxrQ
Jack The Giant Killer was also one of my favorite movies back in the days 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRpeM-AzZOo

[Chris!]

I doubled the size of the bird. Man, that's a big bird. But IMO it makes the game a little tougher.
I also added some animation of Jack climbing.
I wondered what the fight with the giant would be like. Thanks to Rafael for the video. I will make it like Donkey Kong. This will be an 8k game. And the game in the video doesn't seem to have any collision detection in the clouds level?

The latest binary is attached. I also made some changes to the intro. I thought it was playing too fast.

[Chris!]

Today's update.
I added some more stuff to the title screen and redid what I had of the beanstalk. I discovered you can skip a lengthy portion of it by falling down and catching the vine when it reaches the end of its coming back up after going down.

[Chris!]

Made it impossible to fall off the stalk. If you try to, it will bump you back on it. This is to allow for more interesting stalk designs. I found that if you fell off the stalk, you could skip parts of the stalk. Not any more. I will stop posting more binary files, I just wanted to include this one because I want feedback on how I'm doing, especially with the no falling off part I implemented.

[cjherr]

I like the "no falling" dynamic as it gives you the interesting option to "hang" from a horizontal portion of the beanstalk to avoid the bird. I'm going under the assumption that it is some sort of loop that is checking/pushing you back over and over. If not, the following idea won't work, but if it is, maybe a counter could be implemented so that you fall after a certain loop count is reached like your strength failed (maybe used as a difficulty setting?) Anyway, just wanted to say I'm for the "no falling" change, and really looking forward to this one.

-Chris

[Rafael]

I think differently. Without the fall, it appears that the player is simply walking along a path. The bird is very weird.

[Chris!]

I guess that's what the point basically is: Following a path, but climbing it. But things will change once I get started working on the castle. I plan to have a four story castle, with each floor having around 30 or so screens (I'll finalize this more when I know how many rooms the computer will let me have.)

[Chris!]

I changed the birds to bats.

[Rafael]

I like it better.

[Chris!]

Level 1 is complete. Now looking for feedback.
One major change is instead of a bat hitting you going straight to the beginning, instead it's 5 screens down.

[Chris!]

Began work on the castle.

[Pickaxe Brad!]

Solid game.  Looking forward to the castle.  And fighting a giant maybe?

I just realized that this might be the first game where the lead character is definitively an "Englishman".

[minodk]

I really like the level idea on VP/O2. Keep it up plz.