Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

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tepples
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by tepples »

rainwarrior wrote:(This says "the border" is black, but doesn't seem to explicitly talk about stuff outside the 256x240 picture?)
"and it covers the top scanline and the left and right 2 pixels of each remaining scanline."

By this I meant the following: The border is black. The first scanline after prerender, the one where sprites never appear in the NTSC PPU, is black. The left two pixels of all scanlines are black. The right two pixels of all scanlines are black.
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rainwarrior
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by rainwarrior »

That doesn't answer my question.

I want to know what colour appears to the left and right of the 256-pixel picture. (This is what I meant by "hblank".) Is this what you mean by "border", or does it refer to a 1-2 pixel border on the picture? The word is ambiguous to me in this context.

I'm a little confused because the way you use "scanline" because it sounds like it does not include hblank, but only the 256 pixels of the picture?
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by tepples »

The side borders are also black in PAL.
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rainwarrior
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by rainwarrior »

The word I was specifically having trouble understanding was "border", so I am having an increasingly tautological frustration with this dialogue. :S

I will presume that the answer to my question is "yes, the area outside the 256x240 picture is black", and thank you for clarifying this (unless my presumption is incorrect).
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by tepples »

Y=0 and Y=240-311 is black. X=0, X=1, and X=254-340 are black.
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rainwarrior
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by rainwarrior »

Thanks.
M_Tee
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by M_Tee »

rainwarrior wrote: 256m once skeleton and yellow slime get together in that same groove at the top middle they seem extremely difficult to cross (need to wait a while until they overlap with good timing, but even then the yellow slime jumping makes that iffy.)
Actually, a better way to handle that section is to wait until the leech is in front of the ghoul, jump down into the pit and crouch... causing the leech to jump over you and out of the pit. (The main gameplay mechanic for the yellow leech is to crouch and cause it to jump places. Leading them into spikes and under stalactites helps boost score.

The reason we added its vertical jump capability in the latest build is to restrict the player from being able to jump over it, forcing the player to crouch was the original design intention, but it had been lost when we modified collision boxes, hence the vertical jump.)
rainwarrior wrote: 224m if you just wait all the skeletons will destroy themselves on the spiked floor, is this intentional? The level seems very plain once they're all gone.
Yeah, this is intentional, but I don't think we're communicating the intention to the player successfully....

Actually, enemies dying grants a notable score increase.

I had designed it hoping a player may lose a life or two trying to evade the ghouls until they realize they could wait and get a bonus score, like an award for the progress.

We have a concrete score cap based on:
  • Amount of time remaining at the end of each stage (limited by fastest possible playthrough speed, although we haven't calculated that.)
  • Amount of gold collected (not variable unless player can access bonus stages... which have a lot of gold in them.)
  • Number of exits (higher if playing 2-player)
  • Number of lives remaining at game over (again, possibly higher if playing 2-player)
  • Amount of diamonds collected (maximum of 48)
  • Number of enemies eliminated (since there is no combat in the game, this is limited to level design. There are x amount of potentially killable enemies due to falling objects or spikes in the game.
I was really hoping to make the game a strong contender for high score competitions, maybe on the AVS scoreboard, or old-school, send in screen captures (hence the little camera icon).
rainwarrior wrote: [*]I notice you set the Y scroll (second $2005) to 255. I'm guessing you did this just because sprites are more convenient if you don't have to think about the Y+1? On NTSC TVs it shouldn't make a difference, but on systems where you can see the whole picture, there's one line of "garbage" at the top of the screen. (Not necessarily something that's worth changing, just wondering if that's the intent.)[/list]
That's on Łukasz's end. I was wondering why screenshots were a pixel vertically off grid, but never inquired about them. I would assume intentional.

EDIT: I tried to add this reply earlier by phone, but it didn't take:
rainwarrior wrote:I gave the revised version another playthrough, this time getting every gem (though I didn't make it through in a single continue... not sure if that matters, the stats only seem to show when I die, not at the end of the demo).
Collecting 8 diamonds grants access to a Hidden Chamber (bonus stage). Diamonds are shown at the top of the screen during gameplay. Getting a Game Over does empty out your diamonds (and all other stats other than level progression).

The diamonds basically play the role of EXTEND balloons in Bubble Bobble. There are 6 bonus stages and 48 diamonds in the game, so in order to access each bonus stage, a perfect playthrough (not without deaths, just without continues) would be necessary.

In the demo, there is only one bonus stage and 12 diamonds (one per stage, which is a constant throughout the game. Each stage has one hidden switch and one diamond.) Only finding 8 is necessary to access the stage. Considering x amount of gold collected grants an extra life, the bonus stage almost always guarantees 1-2 extra lives.
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Myask
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by Myask »

Finally got around to playing the demo. (Gameover at 7 diamonds :() Really, really good music. Track 2 sounds like Tim Follin did it. (It also syncs nicely with the walk animation.)
M_Tee
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by M_Tee »

Image

The backgrounds for the final 24 stages of the game (minus gameplay elements), each frame of the animation shows one screen of the game. Intended effect is that after a few stages, a player would notice that the sky is intentionally showing the ascent.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by FrankenGraphics »

That feature is so cool. The only thing (and this is super nitpicky) i would perhaps want to change is that while you maintain a linear relationship between movement of perspective and the "jump" of 1 screen up, this only looks natural for the distant background but not for the black ground/chains. They would move faster. I'd let them start high up and let them move all the way down over the first two, three or four frames, letting the more distant background 'appear' or stretch out from a narrow band to what you have in your current slide, which would go well in hand with the expectancy of a changed perspective. Since you don't need to animate or display the motion from point a to b, this would be easier to do than otherwise.

Note that it's already really good as it is.
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by M_Tee »

Okay, so 18 months after my first mockup, we finally have a final copy ready and sent to INL for production. As far as I can recall, everything planned from the beginning and more is in the game: 54 stages, 4 difficulties, 14 BGM tracks (11 of which are full-length for gameplay, 3 of which are shorter for things like gameover, etc.), and 4 sets of "guest stars" (unlockable player skins).

It's hard to judge how much time went directly into development, but it's pretty high up there. I made the mockup and pitch in March of last year. We started middle to end of last summer. Game was pretty playable early this spring, then *a bunch* of polish, testing, bugfixing, and level design balancing (for difficulty ramping, fair play, etc.) Am fairly excited.

@Frankengraphics
I can't believe I forgot to respond to your post. I thought I typed one up ages ago. I actually initially took that into consideration, and my first drafts had the midground of the chains and fence posts move more quickly. The problem was that I either had to start with them too high (which threw off the ground-view of the midgame cutscene preceding the tower) or the chains and fence disappeared so quickly that the player probably wouldn't even notice them, so I just dropped it altogether and kept them together.
zzo38
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by zzo38 »

One thing I will say is that I don't like filenames with spaces; filenames with spaces are annoying to work with, and so would rather to avoid them.
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by thesubcon3 »

M_Tee wrote:Okay, so 18 months after my first mockup, we finally have a final copy ready and sent to INL for production. As far as I can recall, everything planned from the beginning and more is in the game: 54 stages, 4 difficulties, 14 BGM tracks (11 of which are full-length for gameplay, 3 of which are shorter for things like gameover, etc.), and 4 sets of "guest stars" (unlockable player skins).

It's hard to judge how much time went directly into development, but it's pretty high up there. I made the mockup and pitch in March of last year. We started middle to end of last summer. Game was pretty playable early this spring, then *a bunch* of polish, testing, bugfixing, and level design balancing (for difficulty ramping, fair play, etc.) Am fairly excited.
This is going to be an excellent release!
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by M_Tee »

Two bits of news:

First, we've recently released the full game digitally on itch.io.

Second, the game will be run at Games Done Quick Express this weekend. Schedule available (in your local time) here.

Apparently there's an incentive that if enough money gets donated toward it, the runner will need to retrieve all 48 diamonds on his run through the game.
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pubby
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Re: Cowlitz Gamers' 2nd Adventure

Post by pubby »

That's great! :beer: :D
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