Big Dog! Run - a video game tribute to BigDog

[atte]

I had this idea for a simple BigDog game about six months ago (inspired by thumbs episode 118), made some progress and then lost intrest. But when I saw this new game dev subforum I got the inspiration to finish this thing. The genre is 'a runner with an end' or maybe 'barely interactive joke', but I'm quite happy with the end result. It's made in GameMaker 8 and runs on Windows only.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mx4izqdyuw18nqu/BigDogRun.exe

 

Here's a gif:

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And a full playthrough if you can't play it or just want to check it out quickly.

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Edited March 6, 2014 by atte

[Murdoc]

I will be playing this as soon as I get home. Looks really rad.

[ihavefivehat]

Haha, awesome! Thoroughly enjoyed that!

[Lokno]

That is pretty incredible. There's real terror baked into that executable, you can taste it.

[le_pack]

dang it, that looks so amazing. Great work.

[SecretAsianMan]

You have pleased Jake

 

https://twitter.com/ja2ke/status/441399657982197760

[Drewcifer]

This is tremendous.

[pkirkner]

That was awesome, great job.

[chummer]

A goddman fucking delight. Good work!

[Coods]

Bravo. The number of gratuitously made Thumbs-related things increases.

[clyde]

Really slick design, I like how the focus is on having near miss experiences, rather than challenge.

[DrWaffles]

Is that a pixel Jake?  

 

 

I hope that's a pixel Jake.

[atte]

Thanks everyone, now I wait until the Google drones come knocking on my window.

 

  On 3/6/2014 at 3:30 AM, clyde said:

Really slick design, I like how the focus is on having near miss experiences, rather than challenge.

Cool that it worked. This project was a strange experiment, usually I try to prototype and design super mechanics focused, quite abstract multiplayer games but this at least started as a complete opposite of that... Maybe I will someday start working on a legit survival horror game.

[Justin Leego]

Hahaha amazing

[Dualhammers]

Pretty sweet, and quality Pixel Jake.

[Justin Leego]

I had trouble seeing the background of the cryo-warehouse, is there anything I can do to prolong the Big Dog! Run experience?

 

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Background details turned into the two-tone grey block you see above at the car.

[atte]

  On 3/6/2014 at 1:07 PM, Justin Leego said:

Background details turned into the two-tone grey block you see above at the car.

Oh... that's strange, it's a bug that I can't seem to be able to trigger myself.

 

The coding and techniques used making the game are suuper messy/lazy/beginner so I guess that's not surprising. I used a platforming engine for the player's movement/physics because I can only handle pretty simple code myself. (It is the same engine that the original Spelunky used as a base http://martinpiecyk.com/site/platformengine). So here's the source, if somebody wants to look how I cobbled this thing together (don't know how or if it will run in gm studio).

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yqe0l4otqtt9b4/BigDogRun_source.gmk

[Justin Leego]

Tried it elsewhere and it's fine, a superb experience. As others have said, the decision to have The Jake positioned nearer to the advancing side of the screen really makes it.

[theinternetftw]

This is fractally great.  It is great, and everything about it is just as great as it is.

 

I really like the idea that you can have the game equivalent of, say a short three-panel comic, and have it be a really good thing.

[Ucantalas]

That was amazing. Well done.

[Manburger]

Tremendous! You done did some good pixelcrafting, and I quite like how there's a couple'a different discreet challenges that you grok intuitively just by observation followed by action.

I suppose that is basic good design but you don't always see it (instead of, you know, some big ol' words telling you HEY HEY DO THIS THING AT THIS TIME)

Densely packed with cool stuff for something so quick! Also very funny. Good work! 

[DoomMunky]

I really enjoyed this! Thanks! The music is great, too, which no one has mentioned.

[Patrick R]

Loved it. LOVED it.