It seemed like everyone else in Flowlab had a big project going on except me (Awakening, Starblast, Shifter)… so I thought, “Well, why not go for a storyline in Fireball.io?”
So I began making it, and it’s started off pretty well. Since it’s a platformer, I can use some of the tutorial sprites instead of making everything from scratch. Although the inkscape spriting takes up a lot of time, it’s not that bad overall.
I have a general idea for the story line, of course… but it’s nothing too spontaneous or crazy. Also, I’m thinking of doing a couple of flat 3D-ish cutscenes by messing around with size and position, but I’m pretty sure it won’t work out as good as I’d hope.
Anyway, the story starts out in a village, where the player’s doing casual stuff and learning about how to play the game.
The part I’m gonna be working on right now (or later, if I can’t think of anything) is the rest of the progress that happens in the village, then a calamity that consequently destroys it. Everyone will be forced to escape through a secret passage…
I’m thinking of invaders coming in with planes to drop missiles, but if anyone else has any better ideas, I’m all ears. Also help/advice on making cutscenes would be greatly appreciated…
*Currently the levels aren’t accessible through playing, only through the editor
And yes, I did use some tutorial sprites because I was too lazy to make everything.
Things are actually still going pretty well, even the first cutscene (even though the explosion could be a bit better). Some more new stuff, in screen captures:
What’s happening is that one day, the protagonist is wandering around the village, listening to the tutorial guy on how to survive long journeys to the outside world, when suddenly a nuclear bomb drops and destroys a big chunk of the village, along with a lot of the player’s life.
Then he has to jump over the burning people running around and crying for help, because there’s nothing you can do to help them… while not setting fire to yourself, too. (Although you’re technically a “fireball”, let’s just call that a name). Make your way over to the secret passage to go to the next screen.
@grazer there’s another bug in the game…
Considering “go to” animations
The Life bar at the top right corner is supposed to deplete every time it receives the message “Hello”
It works on the first level like it’s supposed to.
Because it uses “keep between levels”, it stays in each level… but while its last animation frame from the previous level stays, it never goes down when it receives “Hello”. It just freezes in that frame.
I made another scene today, where the survivors are going through the escape tunnel. The NPCs are usually quite functional, made with simple logic.
I apologize if the transitions and storyline is going by too quickly-- but I want to get things done first, then I’ll come back and make some connections that won’t make everything fell rapid.
-3rd screen
You, Water, and Lightning are running along the escape tunnel and making your way to where the spaceships are. However, some of your enemies have followed you, and the mayor decides to sacrifice himself so you can live. The scene ends with the enemies killing him.
@grazer was the keep-between-levels behavior fixed yet?
Now that I think of it, I think it’s the messaging that doesn’t work, not the animation itself. The bar that’s kept between levels doesn’t receive any messages after the first level it’s in.
@Luminous - no, I haven’t investigated that one yet. I need to set up a simple test to reproduce it so I can track it down. You think it’s a problem with messages, not the animation? That kind of makes more sense.
turns out it was the message that wasn’t getting through.
If you test it in the editor, however, it’ll work fine because it’s the only level that the editor’s testing.
You have to start from the first level then go to the next level while playing to trigger the bug
