Manic Miner with destructible levels?

[SteveSmith]

Hi all.  I recently started a new remake project of Manic Miner, this time using a new game mechanic of destructible scenery.  However, I've got a problem of trying to create some good levels for it.  The problem is that by its very definition, destructible stuff tends to fall to the floor, meaning eventually everything is rubble around the player and they can't go anywhere.  My version of the Skylab Landing Bay works well as the player can climb the wrecked skylabs, but after that I'm stuck.  Does anyone have any suggestions for how the other levels could work?

[Spider]

EDIT... Replied to wrong topic!

[Spider]

Could you have the rubble slowly disappear perhaps ?

As in say every 5 seconds have it drop one pixel row ? 🙂

[SteveSmith]

Thanks for the suggestion.  I don't know if I've misunderstood though, but wouldn't that exacerbate the problem, since there would be less platforms for the player to climb onto so they'd be stuck at the bottom?

[Spider]

On 12/12/2022 at 9:06 PM, SteveSmith said:

Thanks for the suggestion.  I don't know if I've misunderstood though, but wouldn't that exacerbate the problem, since there would be less platforms for the player to climb onto so they'd be stuck at the bottom?

I'll have to have a detailed think about this, to provide a sane sensible idea or two. I'm hoping @jetsetdanny will also have some creativity ideas to assist, as well as others. 🙂

[jetsetdanny]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for sharing info about your project. Are you creating a ZX Spectrum game or one for another platform?

 

[SteveSmith]

7 hours ago, jetsetdanny said:

Hi Steve,

Thanks for sharing info about your project. Are you creating a ZX Spectrum game or one for another platform?

 

It's for Win/Linux/Mac.  There's no way I could create this on a Speccy. (even the Next!)  :)

[jetsetdanny]

Thank you for your reply.

It sounds like a very interesting and creative project, and something I don't believe have ever been done before.

There is something about destruction that fires up one's imagination and makes "Skylab Landing Bay" a charmingly attractive room. I once created the room "Skylab Recuperation Bay" (for Sendy's and mine game "Jet Set Willy: Mind Control"), which you can see here starting at 1:13:17 - it was inspired by the fascination with the destruction theme.

I don't have any good ideas for the other rooms for you right now, but if something comes to my mind, I will certainly share it 🙂 .

[SteveSmith]

Thanks, that JSW: Mind Control looks really good, but almost makes me feel agoraphobic with the sheer size of it - so many rooms and challenging jumps! 🙂

[SteveSmith]

If anyone would like to try a pre-pre-pre-alpha version of this game, it's available to play in a browser at https://stephensmith.itch.io/manic-destruction . The password is "writetyper" (obviously!).  Any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome.