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I took a day to do whatever i wanted, and found myself reworking this screen. The difference is large enough to show and tell / ask for critique.

It seems to me the dither on the coarse rocks of the castle foundation is done better justice now that not everything is made out of dither. I also helps that the fog looks more like fog, instead of static. I'm not satisfied just yet, though.

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

Hot dang, that looks awesome. What a difference a year and a half makes.

Definitely looks better now that it's not swimming in noise, and the stingier use of purple makes it much more eyecatching where it is used, in the best way possible. I like the emphasis of color, contrast and outline too, especially in the darker areas.

Some of the changes between blue/purple and green/yellow seem a bit arbitrary though. Like attribute glitches that aren't quite hidden. But you have to be looking to notice them, so it's not that big a deal.

Thanks! It feels good that that time wasn't spent in square one.

At first i had thought this to be some sort of splash screen for an intro or even a castlevania-style ending scene. But with a flat enough level segment, it could really serve as a background. Like so:

Some areas (most notably the fog creep between the castle and the lesser mountain) will checkerboard-shimmer this way. How much shimmer is acceptable?

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

Oh wow, that looks amazing

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Amazing work! That's all I have to say..

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If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers

That parallax intro is really pretty.

Wow! You create wonders.

This is lovely, both as a background and as an intro - I think the parallax scrolling works for both.

Super duper incredible stuff! Really want to see this further developed into having sprites doing something.

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Aww you guys!



For the purpose of scenery - If used as a level, i was thinking of maybe having a celestial body rise or descend really slowly, based on time passed since level init. It would look slightly different from one playthrough to another based on how quick the player is. Used as an establishing scene shot/intro, it could simply be timed along with the rest. A place i work and live at each summer has a geography where fog filling the valley often coincides with sunrise and sundown.

I initially thought of lightning, but fog and lightening in the same vincinity at the same time is a rare phenomenon due to different meterological preconditions - But that didn't stop the sorcery from happening in the mad forest of Dracula's curse, though

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

jesus christ, let's make this game when we're done with the compo! i'll even put up with castlevania-style mechanics (except the stairs. i can't do that in good conscience)

If you can handle me trying to convince you at least once how we might approach stairs in a better way than castlevania did, do we have a deal?

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

in all seriousness - i will try to emulate castlevania movement exactly if you want.

that said, we really should improve the stairs though!

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

Rondo of Blood does Castlevania stairs perfectly.

But honestly, if you don't appreciate Castlevania-style mechanics, please don't make a game in that style. Make something that you enjoy yourself and are able to get the best out of.