| Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-12-26
14:53:42
|  Stick Man!
 After many months of development, Epy is proud to present his first game: Stick Man!
The game is a platformer, somewhat reminiscent of Manic Miner, but with many new and interesting game elements. Your task is to walk, climb, jump, avoid and collect. Help the hero find the relics scattered around and ultimately escape from the clutches of the Evil Programmer who captured them. The game has been submitted to the still-running game dev compo. Enjoy!
As a bonus, Epy has also released his editor: Plus/4 Platform Game Editor. Finally, a couple of quick housekeeping notes: Kávégame has been released, the author's first program - a small BASIC game submitted for the same compo. Karácsony is a surprise old release from Pigmy, a never-before-seen oldie, but sure to check all of these out as well!
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2022-12-26
14:53:42
| Re: Stick Man!
Interesting but needs much more patience than I have. And better eye-hand coordination. My achievements were getting three keys, one relic, seeing Dizzy, Prince of Yolk-folk and reaching the system centre then entering system B. And 700+ points. Nice game. Congratulations Epy and Csabo.
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Posted By
Chronos
on 2022-12-26
15:34:10
 | Re: Stick Man!
Ezúton gratulálok Epy, hogy lett végül kész stuff belőle és nem adtad fel!
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Posted By
seff
on 2022-12-26
15:37:03
 | Re: Stick Man!
Love it! It reminds me of Dynamite Dan on ZX Spectrum - i.e. the dark theme. Hi-Res. And it's only 28 kB. Bravo.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2022-12-26
15:41:38
 | Re: Stick Man!
Oooh come on lads, so many games to play, so many little gems to watch, this one, the Csabo's smart code about playing music in few BASIC lines, the other sweet entries of the Hungarian compo, the surprise from Ulysses777, the full pack of new adventures in a new superfashion suite, the incredible Doom-ish engine by Puls4r, the recovered game by Pigmy...
I swear I'm gonna vote'em all and play'em all once at home in few days, I won't miss to spend time on any of those releases, they're all worth of my respect!
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Posted By
Epy
on 2022-12-26
17:15:01
| Re: Stick Man!
gerliczer
Thank you. You are at the very beginning  . I think you need more time, it's about 2 hours to finish the game.
Chronos
Köszi
seff
Thank you. 28 kB with compression, the uncompressed game is ~60 kB
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2022-12-26
16:12:40
 | Re: Stick Man!
Yeah, quite heavy holidays season this year with all these releases! Thanks to all of you guys!!
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Posted By
Mad
on 2022-12-26
21:08:32
| Re: Stick Man!
Awesomeness! Animation of the player character looks very cool. Very fun to play.. Happy Holidays! (Ah and music is ultra nice!)
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Posted By
Rüdiger
on 2022-12-27
11:02:42
| Re: Stick Man!
Good work! Thanks to Epy & Csabo for the new game, and of course Happy New Year to 2023. The only thing missing would be a joystick version.
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Posted By
raze
on 2022-12-27
11:54:38
 | Re: Stick Man!
Really love it! Simple and clean platform game, I wish I had games like this back in the days...
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-12-27
13:45:50
| Re: Stick Man!
We have maps from Epy added, but be warned, they contain spoilers. If you don't mind, they are an awesome way to get a sense of scale of the game
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Posted By
Litwr
on 2022-12-27
15:04:43
| Re: Stick Man!
I have been able to get only 200 in my first go. I have a question. What are bells for?
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Posted By
Epy
on 2022-12-27
15:34:21
| Re: Stick Man!
The bell is a respawn point, don't miss it or you will get back to the last touched bell.
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Posted By
neil1637
on 2022-12-28
10:22:48
| Re: Stick Man!
Just realised I can post without being a coder/member. Slowly getting back into C16 games (my first home computer) and this game is everything that I loved, and still do.
Brilliant effort by those involved.
Hopefully find some time in 2023 to explore things a bit more.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-12-28
14:23:54
| Re: Stick Man!
> and this game is everything that I loved, and still do.
That's lovely to hear The game is 99% Epy's achievement (I only wrote the title screen music), but I'm really to glad to see this game getting some recognition and actual playtime
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2022-12-29
04:13:35
| Re: Stick Man!
Quite interesting that it was supposed to be released in November according to the title screen, yet it was presented to the wide community during Christmas.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-12-29
08:23:44
| Re: Stick Man!
The game was nearly ready even before that, but (AFAIK) Epy was still waiting to see what was up with the rules and organization of game dev compo.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2022-12-29
19:11:00
 | Re: Stick Man!
This has a Mr Puniverse meets Spiky Harold with a bit of Booty feel about.
I played to 1000 points and what was here is fab, I just wish I was restricted to a maximum of 3 lives like the good old days...
Any chance of a 3 life version, a Stick Man Pro maybe? 
Neat game though, many thanks and cheers!
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-12-29
19:40:36
| Re: Stick Man!
That's an interesting thought about 3 lives... but then again, imagine getting 90% the way and losing it all due to one mistake! I think it's fine the way it is, and of course one can easily make this a self-imposed rule: I'm going to quit after 3 fails
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Posted By
Verona
on 2022-12-29
22:19:36
| Re: Stick Man!
Végre, egy jó kis játék!
Elsőre kicsit gyengének tűnik a grafika miatt, de aztán rájöttem, hogy nem kell több. Az animáció jó, a Shift-es ugrás meg kicsit nem, de gyakorlás kérdése.
Szóval, amitől jó: Nem az a "meg fogom ölni a programozóját" pályaszerkesztés, nincsenek életek (végre, 2022-ben eljutottunk már ide is!), egyszerű feladat. Tényleg tetszik, hogy nem az a lényeg, hogy kicsinálja idegileg a játékost.
Amitől jobb lenne: MENTÉS! Zene a játék alatt is!
Ami rossz benne: Ritka a harang. Pedig gyakran messzire harangoznak végleg a játékosnak... A backtracking mindig rossz egy játékban, mert megint azt kell újra és újra teljesítened, ami már a könyöködön jön ki. Térkép nélkül megesett, hogy visszamentem oda, ahol már jártam, valami jelzés jó lenne a teljesített szintekhez.
Összességében, az ötlet tetszik, a játékmenet jó, a kihívás nem az életek számából fakad és nem a szadista dizájnból, egy double jump-al érdekesebb pályákat is össze lehetne rakni, van stílusa. 10/10.
| Re: Stick Man!
Yes, at last, an awesome game.
At first it looks a bit weak because of the graphics, but then I realized that I don't need more. The animation is good, the shift jump a bit not, but it's a matter of practice.
So, what makes it good: It's not the "I'm going to kill the programmer" level design, no lives (finally, we've gotten here in 2022!), simple task. I really like that it's not about to killing the player's nervs.
What would be better: SAVE! Music during the game too!
What's bad: The bell is rare. And often they ring the bell forever for the player far away... Backtracking is always bad in a game, because you have to complete over and over again what already comes out of your elbow. Without a map, it happened that I went back to where I had already been, some indication would be good for the completed levels.
All in all, I like the idea, the gameplay is good, the challenge is not in the number of lives or comes from the sadistic design, a double jump could be used to put together more interesting levels, but sure, it has style. 10/10.
@MIK: It's greatest feature is that no lives here. The point is to play through the game. Maybe a Dark Souls with 3 lives? And you must sit down and play till the end? :D
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Posted By
Epy
on 2022-12-30
01:36:31
| Re: Stick Man!
Köszi a kritikát
Hát az tény hogy a grafika nem a játék erőssége . Az az igazság hogy a pályákat nem én terveztem, és ezt nem mentségként mondom. Ez, ha úgy vesszük egy játék átirat. A játékmotor fejlesztését még tavaly decemberben kezdtem el és úgy idén őszre lett kész. Pályaötletem egyáltalán nem volt, és véletlenül jött velem szembe a youtube-on a 8 Bit Space STEAM játék: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADwUkT3jFWo
Nagy kedvencem a platform játékok, de már az elején úgy voltam vele hogy ne legyen élet, mert játszani szeretnék, nem pedig idegileg kikészülni, ne legyen "meg fogom ölni a programozóját" érzés, ahogy írtad.
A ’mentést’ nem terveztem bele, bár mikor játszik vele az ember, néha azért jól jönne . Így viszont egyben kell végig játszani.
Játék alatti zenében nem gondolkoztam, hogy két szólamú legyen, de közben még hangeffektek is legyenek, ezt így elsőre nem vállaltam be. Bár Csabo lejátszója és zenéje így utólag beleférhetett volna.
A harangot az elején elkezdtem rakosgatni, hogy több legyen, de mivel a pályák nem túl nagyok, így csak a bejáratokhoz raktam. De tény, hogy vannak elég szivatós pályák, ha az ember sérül, kezdheti elölről az egészet, például a D2 és a D4-es pályák.
Viszont egy kis segítség, hogy ne bolyogjon sokat az ember, az ajánlott bejárási sorrend:
SYSTEM A: 1 2 3 4 T
SYSTEM B: 2 1 3 4 T
SYSTEM C: 2 1 3 4 T
SYSTEM D: 1 2 3 4 T
SYSTEM E: 1 3 4 2 T
SYSTEM X
| Re: Stick Man!
Thanks for the critique
The truth is not I was the designer of the levels. Actually this is a conversion of a STEAM game. I started the game engine development in December last year and nearly finished it in this September. I didn’t have any level desing ideas and I found on the youtube this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADwUkT3jFWo
My favorites are the platform games and I didn't want to use 'player lives', I just want to play I don’t want to die at the beginning and give it up early.
There's no 'Save Game' for one reason you have to play the whole game in one time . But this function sometimes can be useful because size of the game.
I didn’t want to play music during the game, but it need two voices and sound effects, I thought this will be hard to develop. But as I saw Csabo’s player really good to fit in the game.
I put more bells at beginning of the level designs but as I saw the levels are not too big I put only at the entry door. But there are some hard to play levels without bells like D2 and D4.
If you don’t want to play so much here is the suggested level order:
SYSTEM A: 1 2 3 4 T
SYSTEM B: 2 1 3 4 T
SYSTEM C: 2 1 3 4 T
SYSTEM D: 1 2 3 4 T
SYSTEM E: 1 3 4 2 T
SYSTEM X
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Posted By
MIK
on 2022-12-30
08:35:09
| Re: Stick Man!
@Csabo I was suggesting a different version with a different name meaning the original is not changed, but as it stands now it doesn't matter any way.
@Epy That's a common problem with indie games today, unlimited lives... It takes away that sense of achievement, and reward which you get by learning from your mistakes and doing better next time. As it's based on a PC version it's totally understandable to keep it as close to the original as possible and you did great work making a version for Plus/4!!
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Posted By
Verona
on 2022-12-30
11:19:22
| Re: Stick Man!
Epy: Nem gond a zene és a hangeffekt együtt, én is megcsináltam a Gigantic Monsters-ben, hogy a zene és az ütések hangja is menjen egyszerre.
Én a helyedben biztosan tovább fejleszteném egy-két fokkal, pl. amit mondtam, új pályák és double jump.
(A Gigantic-ba így került bele a tánc párbaj, az nem volt az eredetiben.)
Én most fogok egy sprite-kezelő motort csinálni, a te megoldásod nem rossz, esetleg majd kérhetek segítséget benne?
Ja, és jó ez így "örökélettel", nekem tetszik így a koncepció, de ezt már írtam. Hajrá, szerintem nyertes ez a játék!
MIK:
No, unlimited life is not a problem at all. The challenge of the game is still whether you can play it all the way through, or if you are persistent enough. There have been saves in PC or console games for a long time, Commodore games didn't have that. So that's the way it is, that after 3 lives, bye-bye, start the WHOLE game over, replay the parts that bore you, only to get 1 life again at that point, where the game actually starts for you. There must be either a quicksave or unlimited lives. So "good" are these Commodore games that even I don't like to play them for more than 1-2 hours, and with most of them even less than that. That's how good this kind of "challenge" is. I would describe them as more nerve-wracking than challenging. We've had enough of that, now let's have something different where we don't have to drive the player crazy because we don't want them to get bored of our game in 2 hours, if they bought it at a good price. It's time to try something else. It's just like the scroller or plasma in the world of demos. Yeah, sure, you need it, but everyone is bored of it, it adds nothing to the demo these days. That's why when somebody experiments with something new, I think we should be happy about it, we shouldn't want to impose the old stuff on it right away, because that's the way it was and "good". No, it was good because you were a kid then and that's all you had, that's what you grew up with and that's what you got used to! Not because those games were really so much better. If everything was really better in that way, would we have AVGN today?
It's a bit like horror movies. You can make movies with jumpscares. But that's the cheap solution. A real horror movie has atmosphere, a good story, good characters. That's what games are like. Sure, you can cheaply get away with putting three lives in it, and unrealistically difficult levels. Or you can make it harder, with add more content and more interesting gameplay, which is the challenge itself. Or you can change the mechanics from time to time to make it an almost entirely new game. Of course, that takes more work and time. And back then there was neither the time nor the technology nor the need for it, because nobody had seen anything like that. We don't need a game that re-enacts the old tricks, this site is full of those too. The ones that give you something you've never seen before! That's the demand for demos, for something new that no one has seen before. It's time for games to evolve too. Actually thanks for coming up with this 3 lives thing, it made me think more about what my problem was that I couldn't articulate before. So thank you!
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Posted By
neil1637
on 2022-12-30
11:21:35
| Re: Stick Man!
Just adding a bit more, having played the game a bit more...
I am now 3 Relics in and just over 3k scored. And................. I love it even more, with every screen played.
The game play hint as so many classic C16 games that have gone before, Monty, Puniverse/Big Mac, Dark Tower, etc, and I really like the 'no lives' decision, although I haven't got to the end, yet, I hope it might tell me how many lives it took me, so that could become competitive, along with your score, which I'm guessing will have a predetermined maximum, once everything is collected.
I think the bell positioning and scarcity is pitched just right. Yes level 3.4 was a touch annoying with the bell so far away and some old school pixel perfect jumping required, but that just made me all the more determined.
I really want to get back into the C16 community, and games like this are hugely encouraging.
Oh and let's not forget the wonderful Easter eggs in the relic rooms.
Superb, just superb.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-12-30
12:12:34
| Re: Stick Man!
We were aware of the pre-determined maximum score, and I made a small suggestion to Epy about measuring the time taken and displaying it at the end. That's about my only other contribution to the game, Epy implemented it, and I think it does increase the game's replay value. Perhaps it will motivate someone to try again and go for a speedrun
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Posted By
Verona
on 2022-12-30
12:30:32
| Re: Stick Man!
@Csabo: And counting the deaths, and display that too at the end?
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2022-12-30
13:53:24
| Re: Stick Man!
Nah, each addition death is just added time. So... there's probably a theoretical best time too, but it would be a huge effort to do an "absolutely perfect" run. Though if Epy would ever consider a sequel, showing the number of deaths is certainly an idea to keep in mind
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Posted By
Luca
on 2022-12-30
14:33:38
| Re: Stick Man!
...and I promptly reported the playtime in the Hof entry for who've finished the game, @Csabo high five, I feel you resonating in the Universe thru time and space! 
I didn't played yet had not time :-/ WIll do!
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Posted By
neil1637
on 2022-12-31
08:48:33
| Re: Stick Man!
Got to the end, and love this game even more.
Final Easter Egg Relic was my favourite character/game, as a child, so it was terrific to see it there.
Score submitted. Not sure if I got everything, did find a couple of secret treasure rooms, but likely missed some too - maybe one per letter?
I know there are maps, but resisting that urge and will play through again soon.
Thank you to all involved (again), this has really made me smile.
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Posted By
George
on 2023-01-01
16:36:21
 | Re: Stick Man!
Great game! Epic intro music!
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Posted By
Luca
on 2023-01-06
12:25:16
| Re: Stick Man!
neil1637 allow me to you and all the other contestants that the score to be entered must be achieved in one solution, no emulator's snapshot involved, just like specified in the video's notes by VIPER, as example. I'm specifying this because I read your note beside the entered score:"Played over a few days, as you can see", and this might be read as an usage of the snapshots (but of course I can't know, I only picked up the chance to generally remind that ;) ).
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