Tower

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never-obsolete
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Tower

Post by never-obsolete »

Early in development, but playable. Source code included, builds with asm6.

I used sprite layering to add more color to the enemies, causing sprites to drop out. The selection cursors will be moved to the background, and AI adjusted to avoid Y alignments.

Graphics: 16x16 Fantasy tileset by Jerom licensed CC-BY-SA 3.0

Code: Select all

Controls:
 D-Pad: Move
 A: Ranged Attack (if available)
 Select: Toggle Inventory
Most glaring issues:

Code: Select all

; bugs:
;		- enemies can move into player square without attacking
;		- sprite drop out
;
; to do:
;		- give bosses their own AI
;		- adjust balance
;		- add music/sfx
Attachments
Tower.zip
v 0.17.5
(88.51 KiB) Downloaded 581 times
Tower_002.png
Tower_002.png (4.25 KiB) Viewed 17727 times
Tower_001.png
Tower_001.png (4.54 KiB) Viewed 17727 times
Tower_000.png
Tower_000.png (4.43 KiB) Viewed 17727 times
Last edited by never-obsolete on Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:26 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Banshaku
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Re: Tower

Post by Banshaku »

Did a quick test and it look nice.

I think you update the map area onlt in the nt over a few frames? For some reason the player string seems to flicker a little bit but the rest doesn't.
WhiteHat94
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Re: Tower

Post by WhiteHat94 »

Looks really cool.

I briefly tried it and believe I got in a softlock. There were 3 rats in the corner of a room and I just couldn't do anything. My guess is that the one of the rats was blocked in by the other 2 so it was never actually able to take it's turn, and so I was stuck waiting for it's turn to finish but it couldn't. I'll try to mess around when I'm recording and see if I can replicate it.

Really looking forward to the progress!
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Tower

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Cool! I think this is a good niche to fill in the nes library.

I know balancing is on the todo list. Just something i came to think of while having an easy time with their current stats: maybe a few strong enemies (graphically shown as dangerous) mixed in with the easier ones at any one tower level for the player to try to avoid as much as possible until proper gear has been found might add some suspense/need for strategic use of items and movement.
WhiteHat94
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Re: Tower

Post by WhiteHat94 »

I also noticed that using Potions was confusing. You hit Select, then pick a potion, and have to hit B to use it, but the prompt says Press A to USE. Just seemed a little backwards
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never-obsolete
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Re: Tower

Post by never-obsolete »

Looks nice. Is the idea to have a roguelike game?
Yeah, pretty much. I wanted to play around with procedurally generated levels and the genre lent itself to it.
I think you update the map area onlt in the nt over a few frames? For some reason the player string seems to flicker a little bit but the rest doesn't.
The playing field is updated in one frame, during forced blanking at the bottom of the screen.

The string at the top indicates whose turn it is. When enemies are off-screen, they skip their movement animation and jump instantly to their destination. This is to cut down on the amount of time the player is sitting there waiting and nothing seems to be happening because it is all off-screen. So what happens is the enemy phase is much quicker and the "Enemy" string may only be there for a few frames, hence the flicker.
I briefly tried it and believe I got in a softlock. There were 3 rats in the corner of a room and I just couldn't do anything. My guess is that the one of the rats was blocked in by the other 2 so it was never actually able to take it's turn, and so I was stuck waiting for it's turn to finish but it couldn't.
That was exactly the issue. I've since fixed it.
I also noticed that using Potions was confusing. You hit Select, then pick a potion, and have to hit B to use it, but the prompt says Press A to USE. Just seemed a little backwards.
I had the constants for B and A reversed. This has been fixed as well.


Thanks for the feedback.
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Kasumi
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Re: Tower

Post by Kasumi »

I went up the stairs once and got a permanent black screen. I can't think of anything special I did beforehand. I was on the very first floor going to the second.
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Alp
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Re: Tower

Post by Alp »

Ooh! This is very cool!

I was working on a roguelike of my own, a couple of months ago, but lost all the code to a hard drive failure (3 days after a weekly backup). I still have all the art, though:
tower_of_algol.png
tower_of_algol.png (6.58 KiB) Viewed 18326 times
This game was a bit more action-based, taking inspiration from The Tower of Druaga.

Each floor was an 9x9 grid, explored screen by screen. The first "floor" was a forest area, showing the hero's journey, towards the tower.
Kasumi wrote:I went up the stairs once and got a permanent black screen. I can't think of anything special I did beforehand. I was on the very first floor going to the second.
Yeah, I encountered this exact problem the first time I ran the demo, and I was surprised, when it actually loaded another floor, the second time!

My first impression, was that it was just the end of the demo.
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Banshaku
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Re: Tower

Post by Banshaku »

@alp

And "nosey" as a font similar to namcot, isn't it? ;)

Art look nice, would love to be able to make things that looks like with ease but art is not my forte. I guess I should check if I forgot to backup any files on that 11 years old hdd then ^^;;;
calima
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Re: Tower

Post by calima »

Both the backup and main disks failed the same time? Ouch.

This reminds me to get a bluray burner and make some 50gb disks, those being somewhat more durable than hds.
zzo38
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Re: Tower

Post by zzo38 »

I have had the same problems mentioned by others. Also, how to pass your turn? And what are the numbers below the character selection? (It should probably be labeled)
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never-obsolete
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Re: Tower

Post by never-obsolete »

Updated version (0.17.5):

-fixed some of the lock ups (cause by map generation stuck in infinite loops)
-spiffed up the title screen
-improved lava/water pit generation, added bridges and shadows
-weapon/armor upgrades improve attack/defense
-ranged attacks do damage
-player can block enemy attacks (tap A or B during the enemy attack animation). the knight has the biggest success window, the wizard the smallest., the other 2 are in between.
-selection cursors are drawn with the background
-corrected the text errors
Alp wrote:...
That looks nice, too bad it was lost. I did take some hints from your artwork and tweaked the palette and added shadows to the tilemap.
zzo38 wrote:Also, how to pass your turn? And what are the numbers below the character selection? (It should probably be labeled)
Do you mean like skip your turn without taking any action? Currently not possible, but it is something I've thought about adding. It seems it would be helpful for the Wizzard to be more viable once the difficulty is ramped up.

The numbers are the seed that is used to generate the dungeon maps. There is a separate seed that governs enemy behavior and item drops, so the same dungeon will most likely have different outcomes.
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NeoTorpor
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Re: Tower

Post by NeoTorpor »

Hello!

That is the style of game i want to make, a bit like Diablo 1 and 2, maybe with D20 (dungeons and dragons) mechanics and each level made random by the game.

Any suggestions to share? (i am a noob).

I tried your demo and it would come in handy to show what the items do. Anyway a kick ass game.
Harvest moon with swords is a terrific idea.
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