JNKPlat
It's a Platform game, but it isn't.

It's a side-view Puzzle game, with Platformy events included.

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JNKPlat needs buttons.
Up, Down, Left, Right, Jump Left, Jump Right, Hold.
If you're not sure that it needs those buttons, grab the DS08 edition (or 2010 PC/Linux/Mac one, but the DS one feel's better), and try it.
Get a feel for the game, and you'll understand why it has all the buttons.

Now.... The iEdition....


View on YouTube

You might be thinking "Ooooooh!!!"
But I'm thinking "bah..."

Issue one.
The ladders don't work.
Or, rather, unless I want to slap a couple more giant buttons on the screen, I can't do up and down.

hmmm...

Issue two.
Those hold buttons work well, don't they!
..
Well, actually, no. They do for the simple pulling of blocks, and the holding of a bar, to a degree.
But they're also kinda awkward.
If you grab the left hold button, then need to shimmy left, you have to do a really weird finger-gymnastic thing, to get to the left-move button.
Doesn't really work well at all.
And you really don't want to see what happens when you're hold/jumping your way up a set of wall hooks.
Good grief, that's not pleasant!


In short, the onscreen buttons are playing havok with my lovely game.
I've already stripped out the ladders, and now I'm considering stripping out 95% of the Hold mechanics, too.
I'm trying to decide whether the things that are left would result in a good game, and I'm not 100% sure that they would.. or, if they did, they wouldn't be JNKPlat.
Instead, they'd be Platdude.
And those of you who know the difference between those, know exactly what I mean.
By the time I'm done, it won't be Puzzle. It'll be Platformer.

...

more later..


pre-post update!
As I was ranting, a tweet arrived.
@richardtlowe
@Jayenkai Is it worth considering a virtual d-pad (location relative to first press) and second press anywhere for action (jump/hold)?

eeeuw.. Unspecified randomly positioned onscreen action buttons.. blagh!

As a JNKPlat Game, there's a specific requirement for the whole "two-button-jump" thing, so I've been somewhat against changing that. People hate the idea of two-buttons, but that hatred tends to vanish quite quickly, once people play it.

If I do have to switch from Puzzle to Platformer, though, there's a little more leeway. Jump could be switched to "A jump button", and then I cry, and whinge, and complain about my game being scaled down.. By me!!!

Having said that, though. The run and jump buttons that are in the game so far, do indeed work quite well, especially having the jump buttons either side of the screen like that.
And like the video shows, you can still do the whole Run, JumpBack thing. Great for dodging things!

I'm currently thinking, rather than having two hold buttons, just use a single button in the middle, and come up with some new "action" things that would work with it.

It's not scrapped yet.
It's evolving...!