Project Blue: Full version. LIVE on Kickstarter!

A place where you can keep others updated about your NES-related projects through screenshots, videos or information in general.

Moderator: Moderators

Rahsennor
Posts: 479
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 3:09 am

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by Rahsennor »

Stop making everyone else look bad, it's not allowed. :shock:

Jokes aside, great work as always. As a programmer I'm curious about how you encode the 32x32 pixel metatiles, since it now allows more than 256 of them. Are they just bit-packed into an array, or are you using some form of room-level compression (other than metatiles)?
User avatar
toggle switch
Posts: 139
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:57 pm

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by toggle switch »

to be perfectly honest, it's achieved by being quite wasteful with ROM.

once we were done with the compo version we moved to a BNROM board, which has 16 times as much data.... so each 4x4 on the screen has a 'high' value (0-3), and a 'low value' (0-255). obviously these could be bit-packed, but since there's more ROM space than we need to use, i didn't bother.

i also got to devote an entire bank to sound, and have around 20 minutes of music written.

in addition we also devoted 8 banks to a 'hard' mode and a 'custom' mode so that players can make their own levels using the level editor and overwrite the relevant data on a ROM file to make their own game.
User avatar
bleubleu
Posts: 108
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:29 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by bleubleu »

Nice! Cool stuff man!! Keep posting stuff on Instagram! :D

-Mat
User avatar
slembcke
Posts: 172
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 2:40 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by slembcke »

FrankenGraphics wrote:I'm curious what your thoughts are. :o
Hmm. As a programmer. I would have made tools to take the finished levels and build the metatile sets, then find out that it causes more problems than it solves. I'd still have no idea what to make or how to make it. Not sure I would recommend it as a design strategy... :p
User avatar
tokumaru
Posts: 12427
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:43 pm
Location: Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by tokumaru »

Those graphics are gorgeous!
pwnskar
Posts: 119
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 5:46 am
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by pwnskar »

High quality stuff all around! Very inspirational work! :)

At first I was a bit bothered by the acceleration/deceleration but after a while I got used to it and quite liked how the running speed influenced the height of jumps. Like super mario with a little bit of sonic the hedgehog.

Btw, did you solve the graphics issue you had with the demo on PAL machines? The one where all graphics were black? If so, what caused the issue?
User avatar
FrankenGraphics
Formerly WheelInventor
Posts: 2064
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 2:55 am
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by FrankenGraphics »

thanks!

The running/jumping physics have actually been tightened up a bit for the coming kickstarter version. Same SMB-style rules apply, but the acceleration is a bit snappier. Leads to fewer missed high platform reaches and is a bit friendlier to first-time players of the game. :)

do you mean the black and white ripple on a particular line i posted about in the graphics subforum? Turned out it was the luma filters' fault on my particular tv set, but i avoided the trigging condition (vertical chroma bleed resulting in a mid-bright gray.. or what should be a gray on a more robust tv set).

If you mean something else, toggle_switch might be able to chime in on that... our test builds have worked with PAL units for as long as i can remember now. I seem to remember we had a funny mishap when the game was converted to BNROM where an empty block was loaded into chr-ram at some point.
User avatar
toggle switch
Posts: 139
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:57 pm

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by toggle switch »

the BNROM issue was caused by a mapper issue... whatever device you were putting it on was only giving 4 BNROM banks instead of 16.

it made the screen go black instead of loading graphics, IIRC. fixed by updating the mapper.
pwnskar
Posts: 119
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 5:46 am
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by pwnskar »

I was refering to the issue that toggle switch described here https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php ... 5&start=60
toggle switch wrote:could use a bit of help troubleshooting.

code appears to be working fine on emulators and on AVS but apparently is getting some serious bugs on an actual PAL machine/powerpak combo:

the sound is working properly (which means that bankswitches are occurring and working during every NMI), and controls work too, which means the main code is also running during that time period, but the graphics are all black and the game 'resets' after the opening sequence plays.

just looking for some known areas where BNROM emulation doesn't meet the reality.
I guess that was the BNROM issue you described now, toggle switch. Glad you got it sorted! :beer:
User avatar
toggle switch
Posts: 139
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:57 pm

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by toggle switch »

our kickstarter is launching very soon.

full soundtrack available for listening here:

https://toggleswitch.bandcamp.com/
User avatar
Space Raft
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:21 pm
Location: Milwaukee WI
Contact:

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by Space Raft »

toggle switch wrote:our kickstarter is launching very soon.

full soundtrack available for listening here:

https://toggleswitch.bandcamp.com/
Awesome! I love the triangle instruments and the little pitch slides in the theme. Very cool!

Will there be an NSF file available at some point?
User avatar
toggle switch
Posts: 139
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:57 pm

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by toggle switch »

Thanks for listening!

I'm not planning on doing an NSF release but if it's easy to compile I'd consider it.

In other news we are planning on going live with our Kickstarter tomorrow (10/17) at 10 AM EST.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ne ... oject-blue
User avatar
Space Raft
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:21 pm
Location: Milwaukee WI
Contact:

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by Space Raft »

toggle switch wrote:Thanks for listening!

I'm not planning on doing an NSF release but if it's easy to compile I'd consider it.

In other news we are planning on going live with our Kickstarter tomorrow (10/17) at 10 AM EST.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ne ... oject-blue

Did you compose the soundtrack with Famitracker? If so, it should be easy to simply export the .nsf file :)

I am only asking because I tend to listen to .nsf on the go rather than streaming or downloading from bandcamp.

This is the type I would totally listen to on a long hike! I saw the KS campaign, great news!
User avatar
FrankenGraphics
Formerly WheelInventor
Posts: 2064
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 2:55 am
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Project Blue: Full version news thread

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Hey, crawling out of the woodworks.
Is there a semi-automated way or something for merging disparate FT files into one?


Also yeah the kickstarter is live now! Hope you'll enjoy the trailer :)
User avatar
toggle switch
Posts: 139
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:57 pm

Re: Project Blue: Full version. LIVE on Kickstarter!

Post by toggle switch »

96 hours left in the campaign, for anybody interested.
Post Reply