Progress Thread - Twin Dragons

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Broke Studio
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Progress Thread - Twin Dragons

Post by Broke Studio »

Hi everyone,

the NESdev Compo deadline is tomorrow and I just sent my entry today.
I attached the final ROM in this post (Twin-Dragons-20170131-0.074.nes).
I really had a blast coding it and I hope you guys will enjoy this short game.
Please give me your feedback as I'm planning to expand the game with more levels / features and release a cartridge for it later.

Have fun !

Antoine
Twin-Dragons-20170131-0.074.nes
NESdev Compo 2016 entry
(64.02 KiB) Downloaded 2025 times

Code: Select all


Description:    The infamous Cater Killar has kidnapped one of the twin dragons. Pick up your favorite
                character and go through a journey to help your twin, crushing the various dangers in
                different worlds.

Controls:       D-pad: Movement
                Select: Move between options in menus
                Start: Starts the game, pauses while in game.
                B: Shoot
                A: Jump
                UP+B : Shoot using power up (iceball when picking up icecream / mega-fireball when picking up red pepper)
                DOWN+A : Lets you go down from platforms / moving platforms

                Collect green peppers for extra lives

Credits:        Antoine GOHIN   - code (https://twitter.com/pixels_kitchen)
                JSR             - famitracker music engine (http://www.famitracker.com)
                Shiru           - SFX engine (shiru.untergrund.net)
                Matt PLB        - music and SFX (http://www.please-lose-battle.com)
                Surt            - art (http://opengameart.org/content/twin-dragons)
                MadMarcel       - additional art (dragon's jump pose - http://gamejolt.com/@madmarcel)
                MLB             - additional art (flame effect - http://mleborgne8.wixsite.com/portfolio)
                Aurélien 'Auré' Buisson - tests
                Guillaume 'Boc' Buisson - tests
                Loodish                 - tests

Other:          The game is fully PAL/NTSC/DENDY compatible.
                If the game is too hard for you, a well known easter egg may help ...
___________________________________________

Original posts :

Finally writing a post to introduce my entry to the compo : Twin Dragons.

Using some of Surt's graphics and MadMarcel extra graphics, I'm making an horizontal side-scrolling platformer. I've been working on it for two weeks now, re-using some code from other projects or test roms.

The test level is very simple and mainly used to check every feature. By the way I'm looking for some advice or articles on level design, if someone can help me on this it would be greatly appreciated !

What's working for now :
- horizontal scrolling
- actors animations
- basic physics
- one-way platforms
- dragon's fireballs
- simple enemy AI
- background collisions
- actor / item collisions
- items / power-ups
- moving platforms (horizontal and vertical)
- basic sound effects
- 45° slopes
- flying enemies
- first boss
- freezing power-up
- mega-fireball power-up

What's left to do :
- add flying enemies
- add at least a boss
- handle game over
- try again to add slopes (was a failure last time I tried ...)
- adjust physics
- any ideas ?! :)

Here are some screenshots, I'll try to add a video this week.
Image Image Image

Image Image Image

That's it for now, I'll keep you posted !

2016-12-06 update :

Clouds have been flipped, and I introduce you Minky which will have to rescue Dinky.

Image Image

2016-12-22 update :

I attached a test ROM so you can test the game and maybe give me some feedbacks.
The level is not a loop, but I copy/pasted the same portion multiple times.
There's not ending and you can't die.
Water is not implemented for now, so you're wrapping vertically.
It should be PAL/NTSC compatible .

Enjoy !

2016-12-24 update :

Dinky can finally die, it brings you back to the title screen for now.
New ROM version attached

2016-12-30 update :

Quick update :

- a lot of bugs have been fixed
- 45° slopes are completely implemented
- player can jump down from one-way platforms / moving platforms by pressing down+jump
- background CHR is now full, and contains tiles for 2 worlds

Image

Image

Image

2017-01-05 update :

Item collect and enemy death animations, and a lot of bugs fixed !
Next step : flying enemies !

Image

2017-01-07 update :

Transition screens added ! The game flow is now completely working !

Image Image Image Image

2017-01-09 update :

Today I finally started to work on boss battle / entrance. Still a lot of work to do though ...

Image

2017-01-13 update :

And here's the first power-up in action !
You can now freeze enemies by pressing UP+B after picking up an ice cream.

Image

2017-01-14 update :

Finally, the second power-up will help you to kill tougher enemies by pressing UP+B, after picking up a red pepper !

Image

2017-01-15 update :

Hey folks ! Will you be able to defeat Cactus Clay, the first boss of the game ?

Image
Attachments
Twin-Dragons-20170131-0.073.nes
(64.02 KiB) Downloaded 1165 times
platformer-20161224-0.017.nes
(72.02 KiB) Downloaded 1029 times
platformer-20161222-0.014.nes
(72.02 KiB) Downloaded 1036 times
Last edited by Broke Studio on Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:31 pm, edited 21 times in total.
My first game : Twin Dragons available at Broke Studio.
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dougeff
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by dougeff »

any ideas
It sounds and looks good.

My only issue issue, is, the clouds look upside down. If you study cloud science, there's something called a 'ceiling', below it, the temperature and pressure aren't right for cloud formation. So, the bottom of clouds tend to have a flat appearance.
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Alp
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by Alp »

This game looks charming as hell!

Note: (I clicked on the wrong option before, and accidentally posted a huge block of sample code here in your thread, check your inbox, instead.)
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Lovely use of colour, lovely artwork! :D

On ideas, i think the boxes are better looking if they are sparce. Could there be another graphic element in addition to them for over-ground solid blockades? Could the boxes be interactable?
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by tepples »

Twin... double... The dragons aren't named Billy and Jimmy, are they? Or Alex, like the Allegro library mascot?

Would interactive boxes look anything like this tech demo that I made a few years ago?
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Just as long as they don't blow bubbles
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Broke Studio
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by Broke Studio »

dougeff wrote:It sounds and looks good.

My only issue issue, is, the clouds look upside down. If you study cloud science, there's something called a 'ceiling', below it, the temperature and pressure aren't right for cloud formation. So, the bottom of clouds tend to have a flat appearance.
Thanks !

Since the graphics have not been made by myself and are free, I can't complain on things like this. But I can definietly try to do something about it !
Alp wrote: This game looks charming as hell!

Note: (I clicked on the wrong option before, and accidentally posted a huge block of sample code here in your thread, check your inbox, instead.)
Thanks too ! I'll check my inbox.
Lovely use of colour, lovely artwork! :D

On ideas, i think the boxes are better looking if they are sparce. Could there be another graphic element in addition to them for over-ground solid blockades? Could the boxes be interactable?
Kudos to Surt for the graphics.
This is a test level, real ones won't be so crowded with boxes.
They won't be interactable though, I have another graphic element for this (or maybe I'll switch the two).
Tepples wrote:Twin... double... The dragons aren't named Billy and Jimmy, are they? Or Alex, like the Allegro library mascot?

Would interactive boxes look anything like this tech demo that I made a few years ago?
According to the graphics' author, they're named Dinky (green one - the boy) and Minky (pinkish one - the girl).
I guess that Dinky will have to rescue Minky :)
And no the boxes won't be interative like your (impressive) demo.
WheelInventor wrote:Just as long as they don't blow bubbles
For now he only blows fireballs :)
My first game : Twin Dragons available at Broke Studio.
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by calima »

Why not be progressive and have the girl rescue the guy? :P
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Broke Studio
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by Broke Studio »

calima wrote:Why not be progressive and have the girl rescue the guy? :P
That's actually a good idea, I'll do this.

First post updated by the way !
My first game : Twin Dragons available at Broke Studio.
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

That looks nice!

I just realized, those 'cracks' or panel overlaps (i don't know what to call them) at the bottom of the purple/magenta ground might not be visible to everybody due to overscan. You may want to move and/or copypaste some of them one or two 8px cells upwards so you're guaranteed to show those nice details.
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by Broke Studio »

WheelInventor wrote:That looks nice!

I just realized, those 'cracks' or panel overlaps (i don't know what to call them) at the bottom of the purple/magenta ground might not be visible to everybody due to overscan. You may want to move and/or copypaste some of them one or two 8px cells upwards so you're guaranteed to show those nice details.
Thanks !

This is still my test level. 'Cracks' will be more randomly placed but visible, avoiding overscan 'zones'.
The screenshots are in NTSC though, so there's already overscans on it.
My first game : Twin Dragons available at Broke Studio.
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Broke Studio
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by Broke Studio »

Hi everyone !

OP updated :

I attached a test ROM so you can test the game and maybe give me some feedbacks.
The level is not a loop, but I copy/pasted the same portion multiple times.
There's not ending and you can't die.
Water is not implemented for now, so you're wrapping vertically.
It should be PAL/NTSC compatible .

Enjoy !
My first game : Twin Dragons available at Broke Studio.
na_th_an
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by na_th_an »

Nestopia refuses to open the file claming it uses an unsupported or malformed mapper. Tried in Fceux and it plays great. Really beautiful and very promising, really fun and easy to control. I quite like it. It took a while until I got used to the jumping (a tad fast, vertically), but the learning curve is not steep. It's fine, got it after a short while.

It seems that you are using horizontal mirroring. Wouldn't vertical mirroring be more suited for a horizontal scrolling game, or are you planning 8 way scrolling or vertical stages?
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dougeff
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by dougeff »

I could only get it to work with 1 emulator, FCEUX, (out of 4 that I tested)...I guess because it is mapper 28.

It's kind of hard to jump onto a small platform (box)...or rather, too easy to jump completely over it.

The music crashed after a minute or two.

Otherwise, looks good. Hope you finish it soon. :mrgreen:
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Re: Progress Thread - Twin Dragons (working title)

Post by rainwarrior »

na_th_an wrote:Nestopia refuses to open the file claming it uses an unsupported or malformed mapper.
It's using mapper 28, which is relatively new.

Though nes2edit.exe complains it has inconsistent/malformed data in the header? (Not sure why, though, the header looks OK?) Maybe it's the use of byte 9 to suggest PAL, which most emulators ignore?

(If you want FCEUX to automatically use PAL mode for it, you can put "(E)" on the end of the filename.)
dougeff wrote:It's kind of hard to jump onto a small platform (box)...or rather, too easy to jump completely over it.
I find the game feels a lot better in PAL mode, and a bit too fast in NTSC.
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