Pyrrhos

A lightly-narrative platformer made with Pocket Platformer.

A bit of a downer.

ESTIMATED PLAYTIME: 

10-20 minutes (or a 5-ish  speedrun).

CONTROLS:

Move with left/right arrows.

Jump with C or up arrow.

WASD is also OK I think.

Made for both the Pretentious Jam and the Pocket Platformer Jam #3.

TOOLS USED:

• Pocket Platformer (by the_l0bster) is responsible for the much of the core stuff, including:
  • A bunch of prebuilt mechanics/objects (water, spikes, cannons, toggle blocks, etc -- I wrote code for zero new mechanics)
  • A bunch of default graphics (I used a many of these, including the default player sprite)
  • Several default sounds (I kept a few, like the jump and dialog)
  • A built-in font or two? (It renders blurry in the intro/outro screens, but whatever)
  • A way to build levels (it's primarily a level editor)
  • Making graphics (it has a very serviceable bitmap graphic editor)
• JFXR (by Frozen Fractal) for making most sounds
• JSFXR for making some other sounds
• Visual Studio Code (with no AI features enabled) for editing the Pocket Platformer source code
• LMMS for making the music & ambient loops (it has some great retro-game instruments included, as well as another port of sfxr)

DEV TIMELINE:

Made in about 5 consecutive days between work and other duties/adult stuff.

Day 1: Pocket Platformer ramp-up (first time trying it). Start on level design and rough plan. Jot down engine pain points. First 1/3 levels complete.

Day 2: Next 1/3 levels built. Polish first levels. Add a bit of writing. Plan narrative arc & goals.

Day 3: Everything but the ending is built. Polish earlier levels. Revise writing. Jot down additional pain points. Plan sounds and things to add/hack into Pocket Platformer.

Day 4: Ending drafted. Most sfx/sounds added. Additional effects/particles/animations added/hacked on to PP, after getting oriented to those parts of the codebase. (Note to future travelers: "SFXHandler" is NOT for sound effects, but for sprites/particles.)

Day 5: Music & ambience. Polish sfx. Add a few more sound features to PP. Polish writing. Minor tweaks to levels.

"PRETENTIOUS JAM" NOTES:

The jam prompt/pep-talk inspired me to make something after such a long hiatus! But I spotted it with just a week left and struggled with scoping something interesting until I spotted Pocket Platformer (through its own jam) after a few days. I wondered if it could be used for something more narrative and contiguous than mario or meatboy, and wanted to try pacing the challenge/intensity in a musical way, rather than purely ramping difficulty.

The theme for the jam is "BE BOLD; DO NOT DEFAULT TO A PUN" and I felt like maybe using the platformer genre for its sense of space and place and danger to describe a vaguely absurd videogame anxiety dream might be okay. Bonus: a slightly oblique historical reference and thematic foreign word/name.

"POCKET PLATFORM JAM #3" NOTES:

The themes were cats, stars, and halloween/spooky stuff. Pyrrhos is set under the stars and featured spooky stuff (maybe I'm using an older definition than intended though).

Hacks/changes to the Pocket Platformer Engine:

• Portal changes: sounds, extra visual effects, and pausing for a few frames.
• Death change: spawn extra stationary visual effect on death.
• Water changes: enter & exit sounds, simple splash vfx
• Disappearing block changes: sound for starting to disappear (separate sound for connected disappearing blocks)
• Toggle Mine changes: sounds for arming and activating