Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

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

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
kikutano
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 6:14 am
Location: Italy

Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by kikutano »

Hello to everyone! I'm working a new game for NES called "Retro Dungeon" ( working title ). The main idea is to create a rougue like game, with radomized rooms and a tactical turn based combat system. You can also improve your player stats, equip and abilities by killing enemies, collectiong money and advance into the game.

My main goal now is to reach a playable demo with a complete dungeon ( 8/9 rooms + boss fight ) with a single class player ( Warrior ) and start to get some feedbacks to understand if this project can reach a complete release. I want to finish the entire tech, and maybe, after this, try to find an artist to do the graphics ( now it's a complete placeholder ). I know it is hard, and the fail probability are really high, but ehi, I'm really tired to make game using Unity :P .

By the way, for now you can:

- Move the player and using a basic attack to kill enemies.
- Dynamic walking cells calculation ( 1x or 2x ).
- Room generation is completely dynamic, I descrive levels with a simple matrix.
- Enemy AI can reach you, avoid obstacles, but they skip to attack you.
- You can change the room by enter into next door ( not in the GIF ).
- Animation system for blinking sprites, and "puff" animation after dead.

Next steps:

- Improve and update GUI with real enemy and player stats
- Implement enemies attack and Game Over.
- Insert money, items and more.
- Level Up and the first shopping system to buy abilities and equip.
- Switch from NROM to a more capable ROM, like MMC3?
- Find the time to do all of this stuffs! :D

I will try to update this topic as soon as I can, I'm working on this project on my spare time. Attached there is a video because the gif had a really poor quality and you can't see the amazing bliking animations! :D

Anyway, any suggets are welcome! Thanks!

Image
Attachments
FCEUX 2.2.3 (New PPU)_ main 2020-03-04 17-44-31_Trim.mp4
(2.07 MiB) Downloaded 225 times
Pokun
Posts: 2681
Joined: Tue May 28, 2013 5:49 am
Location: Hokkaido, Japan

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by Pokun »

As a big fan of RPGs I like the idea, and it looks good.
Since it uses a normal turn-based combat system on a grid, I'm a bit puzzled how much of it is a roguelike though? Random generated dungeons and perma-death maybe?

Also how does the walkabout mode work? Realtime or maybe roguelike?

Other than the hero, it looks very good for just replacement graphics. My replacement graphics are always much simpler. If you can draw that much by yourself I don't see a reason why you couldn't polish it up without an artist (unless it's about the work time).


I've also been working on an RPG since forever and I planned it to have roguelike movement in dungeons at least (towns will be realtime). If I make it for NES, actual battles will probably be standard Dragon Quest-style though so it's more like Lufia 2 than Rogue, and no perma-death or random dungeons either.
User avatar
kikutano
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 6:14 am
Location: Italy

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by kikutano »

Pokun wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 4:13 am Other than the hero, it looks very good for just replacement graphics. My replacement graphics are always much simpler. If you can draw that much by yourself I don't see a reason why you couldn't polish it up without an artist (unless it's about the work time).
All the assets are taken from other artist projects ( https://opengameart.org/content/loveable-rogue ) and some animations is "stolen" from other nes games :P . This is the reason why are all placeholders. I'm not really able to draw like that.
M_Tee
Posts: 430
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 12:24 am
Contact:

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by M_Tee »

Excited for it. I love the genres.
Pokun
Posts: 2681
Joined: Tue May 28, 2013 5:49 am
Location: Hokkaido, Japan

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by Pokun »

kikutano wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 4:37 am
Pokun wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 4:13 am Other than the hero, it looks very good for just replacement graphics. My replacement graphics are always much simpler. If you can draw that much by yourself I don't see a reason why you couldn't polish it up without an artist (unless it's about the work time).
All the assets are taken from other artist projects ( https://opengameart.org/content/loveable-rogue ) and some animations is "stolen" from other nes games :P . This is the reason why are all placeholders. I'm not really able to draw like that.
Oh I see, Loveable Rogue looks nice.
User avatar
kikutano
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 6:14 am
Location: Italy

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by kikutano »

Some improvements here:

- Finally you can go from a Room to another.
- Everything is loaded ad runtime, enemies, background, turn system etc etc.

Next Step:
- Rooms compression. Rooms are described as you can see in the image below. ~1.48Kb needed for every level, too much for a single level. I need to create a sort of compression model to improve the space.

https://twitter.com/kikuTano/status/1240917635468050437
User avatar
kikutano
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 6:14 am
Location: Italy

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by kikutano »

User avatar
kikutano
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 6:14 am
Location: Italy

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by kikutano »

Back to work on enemy AI, now I'm working on enemy attacking. :)

Image
User avatar
kikutano
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 6:14 am
Location: Italy

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by kikutano »

Some graphics update:

Image

Enjoy! :)
Pokun
Posts: 2681
Joined: Tue May 28, 2013 5:49 am
Location: Hokkaido, Japan

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by Pokun »

I much preferred the FF-style green guy over this square-shaped blue guy.
calima
Posts: 1745
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:16 am

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by calima »

Agreed, the new hero doesn't fit in. Instead of agreeing with the bgs, he looks like a cross between Famicom Wars and modern pixelcrap.
User avatar
Alp
Posts: 223
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 12:37 am

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by Alp »

calima wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 1:18 am Agreed, the new hero doesn't fit in. Instead of agreeing with the bgs, he looks like a cross between Famicom Wars and modern pixelcrap.
I disagree. If the knight looked like modern pixel crap, he'd look like this:

Image

Big head, no face, and thin, noodly limbs.
(It physically hurt me, to draw this. :lol:)
User avatar
kikutano
Posts: 115
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 6:14 am
Location: Italy

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by kikutano »

Thanks you for your feedbacks, but we prefer to use a "modern" style for now. Our goal is to make a game for nes that feel "modern". I know this is probably a controversial, but we are happy with the result for now.

I hope to release a playable demo as soo as I can. Feel free to post your feedback!
User avatar
qbradq
Posts: 972
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:50 am

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by qbradq »

I think this looks really fun! I love rogue likes, especially the rare tactical ones. I would love to try the demo when it's ready.
User avatar
Tuï
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2020 8:12 am

Re: Retro Dungeon [Working Title]

Post by Tuï »

@kikutano Just saw your game on twitter and knew i already saw it in a thread! It looks really promising, congratulations! I don't know what your plans are concerning music but it'll be a pleasure to offer my help, nice work !!
Post Reply