Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

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dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Trying out some basic enemy types...also noodling if I want to use overlay sprites.
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dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Added more enemy types. No plans for these guys, but wanted to make a pool of villains from which I can draw later. Probably will ditch the shading color later.
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M_Tee
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by M_Tee »

Love the style. Looks stronger without the extra color for shading, though.
dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Thanks for the input M_Tee. I agree about the shading; although, I am still partial to the shells having a different color.

BTW really like the Isolation pics I've seen so far.
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by M_Tee »

Thanks.

Have you thought about having the shells just use the color of another enemy? Instead of leaving those three pixels of shading/highlighting on the edge, the sprites could use two separate palettes. For example, teal for the body and orange or lavender for the shell. This will maintain consistency in (lack of) shading while increasing the color count.
dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Thanks.

That may be the route I have to go if I want to keep the color; although most feedback I have received is in favor of ditching the extra color so I will probably run with that.
dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Took a break from game mechanics and started experimenting with some background gfx. The clouds definitely need some tinkering. I want to animate those ultimately with palette swapping. Looking at the platforms now I of course realized that my collision engine doesn't currently support one way collisions through an object--doh! Will have to address that after I get Debs' physics working.
test-scene-nebs-debs2.png
dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Did some work on Deb's dash today. Currently,

* Players can control the duration of dash at a gradient of 8 px as long as they are not colliding with anything.
* If a full dash can not be executed, a smaller dash (8 px) is attempted, and so on.
* Dashing does not reset the player's ability to jump (although I may change that later).
* The dash speed is 4 px a frame. At first I had it at 8 px, which feels pretty fun, but I the ability for more fine control is probably more important.

Up next I need to animate debs for the dash and also I think add a target sprite so the player has a better idea of where they are dashing to. Right now it feels weird to dash through objects.

Click the GIF preview to see the GIF animated correctly.
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debs.gif
dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Still trying to get the dash animation right. Here are the first two attempts:
debs-run-test.gif
blinking-resized.gif
M_Tee
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by M_Tee »

Second looks better. That's a very interesting use of colors for motion blur, as they follow the outline like that. It's unique and works.

The first looks like a Matrix glitch.

I think the tentacles may be your best shot at showing weight in your animations by having them "catch up" with the body. For example, if the character dashes forward, the tentacles could be pulled behind. If the character falls, the tentacles could be lifted up, etc.
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Sumez
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by Sumez »

I think the first version works better, if it's intended to make the character able to move through walls (which I would assume, since you do it in the GIF?). I think the fact that the ability does that, feels much more intuitive if it DOES look like he's glitching through the matrix - which I also think is a really unique effect for an NES game that I haven't seen anywhere before, I really like that.

That said, I agree that the colored lines that follow the outline do have a nice look to them.
dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Thanks for the input. I think you're both on either side of the heart of the issue which is the dash ability both removes enemies and allows a player to pass through walls.

For the enemy removal and "empty space" dashes a player should be able to see Deb's progress in order to determine when they wish to stop dashing. Deb's should also have weight and the dash should feel like it is impacting the world.

On the other hand for wall traversal the player loses their ability to stop the dash (while in the wall) so showing Deb's progress through space is less important. Deb's should appear more incorporeal since she is after all passing through solid matter.

I am debating about possibly having two separate animations one for each; although I'd rather save the sprites. Another option is to possibly remove the wall traversal part...which truthfully would make the movement logic easier since dashing would then become glorified sprinting and I would no longer need to perform all those extra collision checks to make sure the endpoint of the dash is clear.
dullahan
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by dullahan »

Trying some more interesting run and jump animations. Also yet another dash :) Need to see how it looks in the actual game tho.
dash2.gif
new-jump.gif
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new-debs-running.gif
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Sumez
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by Sumez »

dullahan wrote: I am debating about possibly having two separate animations one for each; although I'd rather save the sprites.
If you're keeping the wall traversal, I think it would be important to have one animation for gameplay reasons. You can't expect people to read your manual. If trying out the dash without wall traversal looks like the character is "shifting" through space, and you subsequently put a wall up to block the path ahead (preferably on the first stage), dashing through it is probably the first thing a player would intuitively try.
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freem
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Re: Progress Thread - Nebs & Debs Prequel

Post by freem »

> dash2.gif

it's like the opposite of Mega Man zooming in from the top; neat! dunno if you can spare sprites/tiles for movement lines in the beam part, or if you have the tile/sprite budget for a pointed end (showing which way the player is moving).

The other animations look great!
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