Bun and Gun: Gameboy-style demake of Jazz Jackrabbit 1

[happygreenfrog]

So there's a demake GameJam going on over on itch.io, and I'm making a game for it based on Jazz Jackrabbit 1 called Bun and Gun.

Here's a GIF showing off the engine, which includes automatic horizontal panning, manual vertical panning, variable jump height based on player speed, and, of course, the ability to shoot your gun:

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/JCEA0si.gif" />

Here's a turtle sprite:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/WkMNbGK.png" />

Here's a WIP tileset:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/BFQZ0kU.png" />

And here's a GIF of the level builder (I forgot to capture the mouse cursor):
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/OF9adPl.gif" />

For what it's worth, if anybody's interested in making sprites or tiles for this, feel free to PM me about it (or preferably DM me over on Discord), I'd certainly prefer to not have to release this after the Jam rather than during it, and having somebody to do more tiles/sprites for me would certainly speed things up a bit.

Anyways, hopefully I can manage to finish this in time for the GameJam. If not, I currently do intend to finish it up regardless, though that plan could change if the amount of time it takes starts getting preposterous.

[happygreenfrog]

Progress update: Now with walk/run animation, turtle enemy (albeit without the ability to hurt the player yet, and without animations), proper interface, and working timer

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KsJYvIk.gif">

[happygreenfrog]

I've decided that I'm going to implement Sucker Tubes as a property for springs, as I demonstrate on the level builder side of things in this GIF here (JJ1 didn't have proper downwards sucker tube events):
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/0rOC0oh.gif" />

[happygreenfrog]

Well, it's not like the turtle walk animation was ever not wonky...

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/n5wHnZ5.gif">

[Primpy]

Well, it's not like the turtle walk animation was ever not wonky...

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/n5wHnZ5.gif">

Looks good imo. Also, I'm really digging your small project.

[happygreenfrog]

Looks good imo. Also, I'm really digging your small project.

Haha, thanks!

Anyways, what would a Jazz Jackrabbit 1 demake be without various collectible goodies of varying helpfulness?
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/IAwOQcS.png" />

I'm considering changing the ammo mechanics compared to JJ1 so any ammo items raise the max amount that a weapon can have, with weapons slowly recharging over time (recharging a bit faster if you have a more of the ammo items), and then making the ammo items a bit less common than they were in JJ1 to balance things out (and also changing it so you don't lose them when you die, and possibly not even when you run out of lives).

Also, I'm currently planning on making it so, when you run out of lives, the only penalty you encounter is that your score is reset back to 0, so it only matters for people going for high scores. (You wouldn't even lose your current checkpoint, to be clear.)

Thoughts?

[Love & Thunder]

I would suggest keeping the Jazz 1 ammo mechanics, but changing it to not remove ammo or fastfire when you die.


Also, those pickups look great!

[happygreenfrog]

One thing I forgot to specify in the concept for the new weapon ammo mechanic idea: You have to stop firing for a second or two before your ammo would start regenerating, so as to prevent players from being able to abuse the regenerating ammo too much.

[happygreenfrog]

Making some progress on the Tubelectric equivalent tileset:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/xFwp9lt.png" />

[Violet CLM]

I think your ammo plan could work, but there are two places I'm hesitant about it... one is that having fewer ammo pickups makes the levels that much emptier, which is bad for exploration, and the other is that it'd probably need a lot of balancing work to get the recharging speed/s just right. How wide can you make the sweet spot be between the weapon not being worth using because you have so little ammo, and then later the recharging system never being a problem because enough time always passes between enemy encounters? It sounds complicated.

Maybe put a spin on Cave Story's system? Each non-infinite weapon starts out at some small maximum. Ammo pickups still function as usual, but to raise a weapon's maximum, you need to kill an enemy using it?

[happygreenfrog]

Here's a GIF showing off the entirety of the first level in Bun and Gun, for anybody who may be interested:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/LcrMAVS.gif" />

[Violet CLM]

That's looking great. My only concerns are that Jazz's jump height looks a bit extreme, and that some of the pickup sprites are too close to the originals, which would explain why their scale is all off compared to the shrunken rabbit/turtle animations.

[happygreenfrog]

If I have time to before the GameJam's duration is up, I'll shrink down the collectible sprites a bit. For now, I'm going to have to focus heavily on getting stages and the few enemies I haven't implemented into the game, because oh my goodness I'm starting to run out of time. I can also tone down the jump height a bit, but then I have to make sure all the jumps you're actually intended to be able to make are still possible (some of them are actually pretty high up).

[happygreenfrog]

The title screen now has a logo:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/AcBID0H.png"/>

Also, have some floating eyeballs:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/jrp1Knp.png"/>

[happygreenfrog]

Help, this glowing eye thing won't stop chasing me!
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/R0YoLtb.png"/>
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/A5FGDsI.gif"/>

[happygreenfrog]

A bit of a smaller update this time, have a Helmut sprite:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/YJQihUy.png" />

[happygreenfrog]

It's been released!

https://happy-frog-games.itch.io/bun-and-gun

Let me know what you think! :D

[G@vie]

It's been released!

https://happy-frog-games.itch.io/bun-and-gun

Let me know what you think! :D

Holy crap! Awesome! I just finished the game in easy mode. (just a quick run) You can tell you love Jazz and this is probably the best jj1 fangame ever made! Very, very nice! A lot of work I'm sure.
Even the screen delay when scrolling is signature jazz 1 style, you really got it down. Very nice work! I hope you win. Although I see you have some crazy good competition too, this game is definitely up there. I'd only change one thing: I think you should work on that title screen to stand out more in the submissions. Add a bad ass bunny in there ;)

[SAMI]

This is lit AF ��

10/10.