The Princess and the Plumber
A downloadable game for Windows
Take control of the princess of Night in her quest to rescue her plumber who has been kidnapped by the queen of Day.
Jump, headbutt, pick up, throw, swim, climb and walljump your way through 4 worlds, full of enemies, obstacles and bosses awaiting at each world's last stage, until you reach the queen and get your plumber back.
Meet interesting NPC's during your journey and watch the story unfold until it reaches its totally climactic conclusion. Alternatively, ignore the NPCs, skip all the cutscenes and go die in an endless pit. Your call.
Featuring some quirky platforming mechanics that may take some getting used to. I advice patience and focus. The game does test your reflexes a bit, but it's more about thinking ahead and having good timing.
If you prefer more traditional platforming, download PrincessCasual.exe, and place it in the same place you have the .exe of the normal game. Use this .exe instead of the normal one for an easier experience.
PrincessCasual.exe offers three new settings:
- Casual Jumping: If set to YES, you can set your jumpmeter power manually via holding the left and right mouse buttons (left increase, right decrease), and it stays put. Then when you tap the jump button, you jump as high as you've set it. Note that holding the jump button still charges a high jump.
- Casual Walljumping: If set to YES, you can walljump without having to hug the wall, and thus don't need momentum to walljump. (It's possible that by enabling this you'll be able to reach places you're not supposed to)
- Casual Balance: If set to YES, you never lose your balance.
Turn them all to YES to make the game as easy as it gets, or to NO to play the normal game, or keep any mechanics you like and throw out any you don't.
But do give a chance to the original mechanics. The game was designed with them in mind.
And yes, part of the princess's moveset is heavily inspired by the Warioland games... Who doesn't want a princess who fights like Wario?
Warning:
- The game is hard, don't expect to finish it overnight
- Don't take it for granted that you'll finish it at all
- Colourful Language
Requirements:
Windows XP or later
DirectX 8 or later
Or, so I think. This is a one-man, no-budget project... I couldn't test it on many PCs (e.g. I didn't have access to any with x64 versions of windows, but they are supposed to be able to run 32-bit applications)...
Download
Install instructions
Extract the archive wherever you want, then select the Princess.exe to start the game!
PrincessCasual.exe must be in the same folder as the normal game .exe to work.
Development log
- CheatsDec 01, 2017
- Small fixesNov 29, 2017
- UpdateNov 28, 2017
Comments
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**** your jump mechanics!
I am sorry, that was very rude of me. They are beyond frustrating, and to torture the player by requiring them to use it to complete the tutorial. I have been playing platformers for years, and even the most difficult of them never had a jump system as God awful as this! I honestly want to like this game, but this feels like it will literally kill me if I continue playing this. Not even the most frustrating games have ever made me feel this way.
I am sorry. I tried, Lord knows I tried. I don't pretend to be an expert or master of games, but I can typically complete the tutorial.
Edit: And now I feel like a jerk now after typing this because I just saw you added a casual mode patch.
Haha, that's ok. Of course I had to make it necessary to complete the tutorial, because if you couldn't do that and started playing the actual game, it'd be a disaster. So I figured It'd be best to practice them first in a place you can't die.
You know it's not that hard for me, but that just goes to show what happens when you don't have playtesters or get feedback during development... You end up making a game only you can play. The funny thing is I kept making some levels harder, because I thought they were too easy... Depending on what feedback I get, I might also tweak some levels in PrincessCasual.exe to make it all around easier.
Anyway, let me know if it's better for you now with the casual controls.
Actually, ironically, casual mode made it so the first high jump was impossible. Tap or hold, you only did a short hop into the air like as if you didn't charge a jump in normal.
In all honesty, I just couldn't get a sense of timing for your charge meter for bouncing, if you press it too early you barely jump, but press it too late and it resets so you still barely jump.
You have to charge the jump meter with the mouse in casual mode. Check the description for more in depth instructions and if it still doesn't work, I'll check it out.
By the way, here are some pointers to help with the timing and jumping in general in normal mode.
When you're trying to bounce, you usually need to get the most out of your jump, so it's usually best to press and hold the jump button again immediately after you jump. If you do that, even the shortest (as in least high) jump you can perform gives you enough time to fully charge the next jump.
As for the timing, if you've noticed, when you hit the ground there's a small landing animation. As long as this animation is playing the jump meter does not reset. That's when you must release the jump button to get the timing right.
I really love the set up and the pixel artwork but some of the controls really kill the enjoyment for me. Any plans to release a version with more traditional platforming controls - where you don't lose balance on the edge of ledges and don't need momentum to walljump?
Yeah, it's not for everyone. I was thinking of including more traditional controls before releasing the game, but decided to wait and see what people would say... And turns out the first comment is a complaint about controls :P. Damn.
It's easy enough to do, but the problem is that all level design goes out the window if I do that... But I suppose not everyone's looking for this kind of challenge.
Alright, I'll think about this and probably do it. Anyone else feel the same way about controls?
EDIT: Done. Let's see if this will work better for more people.
Awesome! Thanks for the quick fix! Will check it out! :)
Have you already downloaded it? I noticed an inconvenience. The jump meter resets to lowest upon transitions. I'm uploading an updated file without that problem. If it bothers you download it again.
EDIT: Re-Reuploading to fix a minor visual bug.
No worries, haven't had a chance to check it out yet anyway. Will give the new build a go later today. Thanks! :)
No problem. Thank you for the feedback :)