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Nomolos: Storming the Catsle

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:13 pm
by GradualGames
Nomolos: Storming the CATsle is Gradual Games' debut release for the NES. If you wish to support us, cartridges are available at infiniteneslives.com

ROM Download

Nomolos videos:

Release Trailer

Nomolos progress

Nomolos MAGFest 9 video

Nomolos progress as of Dec 4th, 2011

Further progress updates can be found on our blog and on youtube:

Gradual Games Blog

Gradual Games Youtube Channel

Some brief videos talking about my dev process for those interested:
Dev Video 1 - Backgrounds and levels
Dev Video 2 - Sprites
Dev Video 3 - Notepad++

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:40 pm
by MottZilla
Well all I can think to say is I like it, it looks interesting. I look forward to seeing more and hope you complete it and let us know when you do.

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:48 pm
by Dwedit
Something about the jumps and apparent framerate reminds me of Cheetahmen O_o. Is it any smoother when outside of Youtube's 30FPS bubble?

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:52 pm
by 3gengames
Dwedit wrote:Something about the jumps and apparent framerate reminds me of Cheetahmen O_o. Is it any smoother when outside of Youtube's 30FPS bubble?
I second that. Looks like there's 3 movements when jumping.

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:03 pm
by cartlemmy
Looks good. I hope that I can make it that far :)

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:39 am
by miau
I'm always excited when someone shows off the progress of his homebrew.

The video quality might be obscuring a few things, but I wish the attack at 0:40 had more visual oomph behind it. Also, some enemies are hard to make out against the background (also at 0:40 especially).

Nevertheless, it's looking pretty good so far. The dragon is definitely one of those impressive huge "shit-in-pants" NES bosses. He is looking sinister, but also very lonely to me. How long has he been dwelling in that cave?

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 12:17 pm
by Jeroen
Definitly looks interesting :P You can see that you slightly based it off castlevania (or am I imagining things) That being said I do think the music could use a little work. (The basis is there...but it would benefit from a bit more tempo imo)
Great job! :D

edit: I mostly mean the music in the first part...the second part + boss are more of the tempo I speak off.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:55 pm
by Banshaku
Good to see that you're progressing well.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:05 pm
by Bregalad
Well, asaide of the framerate problems the other guys mentioned it looks neat.
If you can't beat the first level yourself, nobody will be able to though. A game is harder in the hand of someone who didnt' make it.

Also the graphics are a bit weird to me. The enemies looks almost invisible, maybe they need to be more polished ? Is it on purpose that there is a pattern of hearts symbols appearing on the big boss ?

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:25 pm
by 3gengames
I agree with that. Look at Sivak's videos of Battle Kid, just flying through levels/screens like it's easy, but people can't beat half the game still. :P



Can't wait to see more though. :D

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:23 pm
by GradualGames
Thanks for the responses. I did have some difficulty getting good video quality; unfortunately the demo video does not do it justice. Perhaps I will make another one in a few months once some more graphics/levels/enemies are added to the game.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:32 pm
by Zepper
[removed content]

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:58 pm
by whicker
The game itself looks very good. There are some improvements like not always ruining jumps with enemies in the way. Hard to tell from the video, but the play control could use just a hint of acceleration when starting to move right or left from standstill. But obviously if that earlier era feel is what you're going for, that's fine too.

I like that the player's character moves towards the edge of the screen when reaching the edges of the level, instead of remaining in the middle.

Areas with some vertical scrolling would be nice too.


Guys, come on. I find it insulting to pull out the Action 52 references. Anyone's project with new and unknown characters and environments is going seem kind of foreign in that way, as in not giving that warm fuzzy feeling of childhood nostalgia. There don't seem to be totally out of place enemies and broken jump mechanics.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 7:01 pm
by cartlemmy
Yeah, what's with the negativity... It may be the nOOb in me, but I'm in awe that any one man can make a game for the NES.

(EDIT: I realize constructive criticism is a good thing, in case y'all was wonderin' :P )

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 7:59 pm
by Banshaku
I agree with Whicker. Saying the game look like action 52 is just bashing: explaining possible issues in the play mechanics or that could have impact on the game itself (i.e. enemies that blend with background) which would lead in the end in improving the game is constructive criticism.

People seems to forget that most people are working alone on their game(s) and we're doing that for fun. We don't have talent in all area of the creation of the game itself and it may show. I know that for myself that if I would make my own sprite it would suck like hell but programming is not an issue. This is one reason I liked the MM9 porting since I didn't have to draw any sprite and it helped to make my game engine move forward.

If it was a commercial game in the time of the nes era I could understand the harsh criticism but it's not the case: it a game made by someone that do it for fun because he like the nes.