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Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 10:34 am
by lidnariq
... Wow, that looks amazing!

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 7:59 pm
by Rahsennor
Alp wrote:[...]I had devised a custom level format that is 30% smaller than what Super Mario Bros had, allowing for more complex level designs, in less ROM space!

The game is also way prettier than Super Mario Bros. while using less tiles!
I'm struggling to understand how you manage to avoid imploding from sheer density of awesome. :shock:

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 8:14 pm
by Alp
calima wrote:The red-yellow alternating blocks hurt my eyes. Maybe try less contrasting colors there?
Well originally, the checkerboard was yellow/brown, but when I added the background layer, it looked too washed-out, so I swapped the brown to red, for vibrancy. The problem is that the foreground/background platforms share a single palette.
na_th_an wrote:Hey Alp, I'm glad you are entering the compo. Game looks amazing.
I'm really just showing what I have planned, and if it doesn't meet the deadline, I can always release this later, on it's own.
WheelInventor wrote:Astonishing work! Well done, Alp! :beer: I especially like how you turn the lake into a desert by a simple palette swap; very elegant. And the ice level looks fun. Does your level algorithm always include a water line?
The red-yellow alternating blocks hurt my eyes.
It may be less of a problem on ntsc/pal video, but in pixel perfect emulation, i agree on the checkerboard. Though, sonic the hedgehog does this with less contrast and those elements still don't appeal to me, so maybe it's more the pattern than the colours used for me.
Thanks! I was also considering a similar palette swap, for the cave background. Using the lake tiles for a top/bottom background layer, connected by stone columns, to give it even more depth.

...and yes, there will be slippery ice physics in this game! :P

Yeah, the water layer is constant, in the level decoding, but it can be swapped between the foreground/background layer (for castles), or disabled entirely, in the level's header byte. Water/Lava can't be manipulated in the middle of a level, simply because it would look strange.

The game engine supports 4 different background layers:
0: Global Background
1: Foreground, Back Layer
2: Foreground, Front Layer (Including blocks)
3: Foreground, Water/Lava (Optional)

The two ground layers are drawn separately from the blocks, but handled by the same drawing routine. They can be easily manipulated by a single control byte, allowing for a little more flexibility than the coin/powerup blocks, and breakable bricks, while keeping the data size small.

The checkerboard pattern for the first world's foreground layer, was intended to introduce familiarity, so players are eased into the game.
tokumaru wrote:Game's looking great, Alp! Looking forward to playing it!

Awesome use of color! With a single palette you were able to draw light and dark versions of ground and grass chunks, and the final result still looks pretty colorful.
Thanks! The goal here, was to get a unique visual style, while using as few tiles as possible.
Including the 42-tile font, I'm not even halfway through the game's 4KB background tiles, yet!

Ideally, each world will have a different visual theme of some kind. (Grass, Ocean, Desert, Mountain, Snow, Forest, Sky, Hell) If there's enough tile space left when everything's done, I may consider adding a Super Mario World-like overworld, just to give this game a little more!

Speaking of Super Mario World... here's what world 6's "castle" stage is intended to look like!
Image

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 1:12 pm
by gauauu
Still chugging along on my game. Hoping it will be ready by february (it's looking likely). It's almost time to invite a few friends over and find out if it's any fun whatsoever...it's hard to gauge how it will actually feel once all 4 players are involved.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 12:59 am
by mikejmoffitt
I've decided to work on a new game, and I hope I can have something reasonably ready. I might have to submit a "Part 1" or a demo ROM or something, as that would help deal with space constraints and will make the workload not quite as intense.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 11:05 am
by JRoatch
I'm not doing too well with my project, I've been finding that I can't even think about the programming problems in the few sliced up hours I have left after my day/night job and sleep. I'm currently trying to figure how to best use my remaining time. The idea would of been an omnidirectional swimming kind of game, something like The Legendary Starfy. I know I'm going to have to involve a pixel artist and a chiptune musician if this idea is to be done within the deadline.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 10:40 am
by gauauu
JRoatch wrote:I've been finding that I can't even think about the programming problems in the few sliced up hours I have left after my day/night job and sleep.
Yup. Between work, family, other work, etc, I'm lucky if I have brain power for 30 minutes a night on this. I'm slow.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 11:31 am
by tokumaru
gauauu wrote:Between work, family, other work, etc, I'm lucky if I have brain power for 30 minutes a night on this. I'm slow.
Story of my Life! :mrgreen:

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 2:31 pm
by mikejmoffitt
Really bummed, but I doubt I can make my game. I have a tiny NROM game idea I might try to whip together as a port of something else I made once.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 2:13 am
by na_th_an
Made Lala into UNROM successfully, and my other [NROM] entry is 90% finished. And might rescue an abandoned project for the "anything goes" category.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 9:27 am
by calima
Really close whether I can get anything. Haven't slept in three months thanks to an asshole druggie neighbor.

One game is just missing music and sound integration, the other needs art, music, sfx, and testing. The first one is so close, but I'm in no condition to code anything, not even something that simple.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 7:44 am
by RogerBidon
Hello there.

I am working on an NROM-128 demake of Super Smash Bros. (without reusing Nintendo's IPs) but I do not know if it is eligible for the competition. Mainly because it is definitely open source and freely redistributable which seems grey area reading the competition's guidelines/rules. The game is playable, but I do not think of stopping developpement anytime soon (and certainly not on january 31).

Please tell me if it is still eligible, I'll be sure to submit it as an entry.

About the game:

As said, it is a demake of the Super Smash Bros series. It features Sinbad from Ogre3D as the only playable fighter and is named "Super Tilt Bro." As an animated gif is worth thousand of words:

Image

It's maybe late to start a progress thread, but I keep my twitter @RogerBidon updated as I go and the latest sources are on github.

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 8:51 am
by na_th_an
I don't think the open-sourceness makes the game not suitable for the compo, quite the contrary.

Looks great, I love the contact delay complete with screen shake. Looks fun!

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:26 am
by team_disposable
Hi Roger,

This looks awesome! The ghost gif in your twitter looks like the very best kind of bug.

I'm also hoping to have something for the compo. I originally intended it to be much bigger, but I am now working on something else quite exciting which is taking up most of my time.

My entry will be called Psychic Death House.

You will play little Tommy Taylor, who, guided by the mysterious Professor Jam, will try and rescue your friends from the creepy and mysterious Psychic Death House.

It will likely only be a single level, but hopefully a good one!

Re: How's everyone doing?

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:28 am
by tepples
You might have been confused about not entering work that was already public prior to the announcement of the compo and not substantially improved since.

Open source software is certainly eligible. In fact, it'd be great for a remix compo that I have planned for the future, which will focusing on improving or remaking an existing compo entry. Both my past compo entries (Thwaite and RHDE) are under a free software license, as is my forthcoming (non-game) entry for this compo (240p Test Suite).