Citrus Engine now has parallax scrolling! Demo 3 has a few new things to show off:

• Hopping enemies. Just like the Koopa Troopas in Mario.
• Spring surfaces. They’re out of control!
• Spawn management.  Those baddies always appear at the most inopportune times.
• Parallax Scrolling (Already Mentioned). That’s right, we’re not confined to a  single screen. The Citrus Engine supports five distance planes: deep background, background, back midground, front midground, and foreground. Look carefully for examples of all five in the demo.

In other news, I’ve started version control on the Citrus Engine. Thanks to Remix Technology for hosting CE versioning. It also looks like they’ll be helping out with development, but more on that in the future.

In the next demo, look out for:

•  A new enemy. Maybe something with a bit more smarts.
• A new power-up. Possibly melee.
• What do you want to see?

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I will be vacationing to Washington State over this weekend, so unfortunately I won’t be able to get another platformer demo out this weekend like I had hoped. I have finished the planned features that I wrote about in my previous post, I just have to create the level to show the new features off.

In the mean time, check out the Video that Brad Borne (Fancy Pants Adventures) made. It even offers a few hints as to how he get such beautiful slope hit detection. I’m watching you, Brad. I’m watching (wanna collaborate?).

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You can now play the second installment of my “World’s Easiest Platform Game” demos, based on the Citrus Engine. If you missed the first one, go check it out so you can see the differences. Also, check out my previous post for more information on the Citrus Engine. Okay, enough linking. Here are the updates to the engine in this demo:

• Prize boxes - These are boxes that float. You can bump them with your horns, and if you’re lucky, stuff will come out. As shown in the demo, you can place just about any other level object inside these prize boxes, even enemies (or nothing at all).
• Strolling Enemy - Also known more generally as a “goomba”. These are the most common enemy of platform games. To kill them, jump on their heads–but keep an eye out because they walk (although quite slowly).
• Powerups - You can use the “D” key to use the “pitching powerup” and throw pieces of green gloop at enemies and prize boxes. Try throwing some gloop at the wall.
• You may have noticed I moved the “coins”. See if you can figure out how to get them.

Here’s what I have planned for the next demo:

• Hopping Enemy - You can make a mental comparison between this and the jumping koopa troopas in Mario.
• Level Scrolling - Because you can only do so much in a single screen.
• Springs - Who doesn’t like bouncing really high?

Hey, since you’ve read this far, do yourself a favor become a Blueflame fan on Facebook. And if you don’t have Facebook, then just subscribe to the blog. Really, I’m done linking now.

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Demo 1 of the Citrus Engine is now up. Starting now, I will begin posting updates to the Citrus Engine through a series called The World’s Easiest Platform Game. Whenever I make updates to CE, I will use them as examples in the ever-changing demo.

In case you aren’t aware of what the Citrus Engine is, hark the following: the Citrus Engine is a 2D Platform game engine that allows for easy, rapid development of mario-style flash games. The engine is built off of Alec Cove’s Actionscript Physics Engine, and thus, everything in CE has mass, friction, elasticity, etc.

The current features in this release are:

• Keyboard-controlled hero
• The first, and simplest enemy-form, known in the engine as the “Dumb Rock“. Dumb Rock doesn’t move or jump or throw anything. He just gets in the way, and is very easy to kill. The only way he can kill you is by walking into him.
• Ground and Walls: Try jumping off the left screen to get a sense of the elasticity that you can get from the ground and walls (think springs)
• Coins: Known as “collectables“, these are anything that the hero collects in order to earn an extra life (or any other reward you can think of).
• Zones: These are spaces that trigger an event. The zone featured in this engine is the “Finish Zone” which tells the engine that the hero beat the level. Future zones will be areas that will change physics to simulate water, anti-gravity, etc, or simply trigger a scripted event, such as a boss battle.

Features in the next release (tentative):

• Hero powerups: This will be anything that gives you another ability. I’ll probably start with some of the basics, such as throwing objects to hit enemies, and extra-high jumps.
• Prize Boxes: These are boxes that you break to get collectables, powerups, or level items, such as keys or extra lives.
• Strolling Enemy: This would be an extension of the Dumb Rock, except it walks until it hits a wall, in which case it turns around and walks the opposite direction.

I’m looking for artists to help me with the graphics for demos. If you’re a game artist, or an artist who wouldn’t mind drawing for games, contact me, and let’s collaborate.

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Just released in Disney World’s Backstage Pass is Chip’s Leaf Leap. In this game, you use the leaves and branches to get as high up the tree as you can. My high score is 550, which I doubt you can beat. Although, I do have to admit, I have a slight advantage.

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