Hello all!
Okay, I have a multi-part question, and I know there are a lot of variables so I'm going to do my best to make it answerable.
First off, I'm wondering what ends up becoming the bottle-neck on producing a full-scale homebrew game, and why there aren't more full-length new games for the NES. I've seen a few, Battle Kid comes to mind, and I know there are a couple others, but I don't know if there are more than ten games the size of a commercial game that have been released in the last ten years.
So I thought the limiting factor would be the esoteric nature of the assembly coding, but I'm not certain. It seems there are a lot of people here who are pretty well versed with 6502 programming and I would imagine there are plenty here with enough know-how to build an engine for a brand new Mega Man style game, Zelda style game, Metroid style game, or what have you. So I'm thinking beyond the coding that designing graphics, sound, levels, testing, etc, alone would take hundreds of man-hours, and for something that doesn't make enough money for one to making a living making NES games, do you guys think that becomes the limiting factor? Having enough hobby time to create all of the game content for something that would take hours to beat.
Does anyone feel like they could make an estimate as to how long different aspects of the development of an NES game would take? I'm trying to get a better idea of what I'm really looking at to accomplish my project. I fully expect that it will be a long endeavor.
I'm starting from scratch with this, so I guess for starters I'm wondering how long it might take to learn enough about the coding to develop a solid game engine, and to be able to modify gameplay elements along the way to adjust play balance and incorporate new features. I'd say I don't want to do something really basic, I'd like to make something on par with some of the better later titles for the system, although I hope to have access to the internet and knowledge bases from those who have gone before me, which should hopefully reduce the time. My goal isn't to become a master programmer for the system, just to make a great game that I like a lot.
Beyond the learning aspect, how long do you guys think it would take someone to actually make the code for the game engine after becoming relatively familiar with it? I like programming enough and it's fun in short bursts but I guess this is the part that I'm most nervous about because it's been a long time since I've worked with a programming language consistently for years, and I know if I take that much time to do the code then it would be unlikely for me to take the time to do the graphics and music and level designs the way I'd like. Once the code part gets done (asides from tweaks) I'd feel a lot more comfortable spending a lot of time on the design parts. Those are the parts that are mostly just fun for me.
Graphics, I guess I have the best idea about. I'm sure it's different from person to person and I know how fast i can do this so I'm fine with that. It all comes down to how many characters and levels I want to make time to do and how many animations I have time to give them, but the more time I feel like I can get to dedicate to this part, the better, because this is where I can invent new varied content.
The music I'm still fuzzy on how it's written. I've seen programs like Famitracker that seem to be more familiar to normal midi music applications and easy enough to use, but then I've read people talk about programming their sound engines and I'm really hoping that the music doesn't have to actually be programmed in writing. I've read about video game composers using electronic keyboards though write their music so I'm guessing that the music can be written in more of a midi-fashion and then the software needs to be programmed on how to specifically interpret the music file, taking into account trade-offs for the capabilities of the hardware. Does that sound right at all?
Now, I guess the last part I'm wondering about is level design. Has anyone created a GUI sort of application for Windows or Mac wherein one can layout their stages while viewing the actual tiles, or does one have to actually program each tile of the layout and then assemble the code to check it in the game? If one does have to type it out, any thought on how long it takes to do something like this for something like say... Mega Man or Metroid?
Okay, I guess that's most of the big questions I'm wondering about right now. Hope you guys can help clear things up and hope it's not too much, or too noobish. Thanks!
Okay, I have a multi-part question, and I know there are a lot of variables so I'm going to do my best to make it answerable.
First off, I'm wondering what ends up becoming the bottle-neck on producing a full-scale homebrew game, and why there aren't more full-length new games for the NES. I've seen a few, Battle Kid comes to mind, and I know there are a couple others, but I don't know if there are more than ten games the size of a commercial game that have been released in the last ten years.
So I thought the limiting factor would be the esoteric nature of the assembly coding, but I'm not certain. It seems there are a lot of people here who are pretty well versed with 6502 programming and I would imagine there are plenty here with enough know-how to build an engine for a brand new Mega Man style game, Zelda style game, Metroid style game, or what have you. So I'm thinking beyond the coding that designing graphics, sound, levels, testing, etc, alone would take hundreds of man-hours, and for something that doesn't make enough money for one to making a living making NES games, do you guys think that becomes the limiting factor? Having enough hobby time to create all of the game content for something that would take hours to beat.
Does anyone feel like they could make an estimate as to how long different aspects of the development of an NES game would take? I'm trying to get a better idea of what I'm really looking at to accomplish my project. I fully expect that it will be a long endeavor.
I'm starting from scratch with this, so I guess for starters I'm wondering how long it might take to learn enough about the coding to develop a solid game engine, and to be able to modify gameplay elements along the way to adjust play balance and incorporate new features. I'd say I don't want to do something really basic, I'd like to make something on par with some of the better later titles for the system, although I hope to have access to the internet and knowledge bases from those who have gone before me, which should hopefully reduce the time. My goal isn't to become a master programmer for the system, just to make a great game that I like a lot.
Beyond the learning aspect, how long do you guys think it would take someone to actually make the code for the game engine after becoming relatively familiar with it? I like programming enough and it's fun in short bursts but I guess this is the part that I'm most nervous about because it's been a long time since I've worked with a programming language consistently for years, and I know if I take that much time to do the code then it would be unlikely for me to take the time to do the graphics and music and level designs the way I'd like. Once the code part gets done (asides from tweaks) I'd feel a lot more comfortable spending a lot of time on the design parts. Those are the parts that are mostly just fun for me.
Graphics, I guess I have the best idea about. I'm sure it's different from person to person and I know how fast i can do this so I'm fine with that. It all comes down to how many characters and levels I want to make time to do and how many animations I have time to give them, but the more time I feel like I can get to dedicate to this part, the better, because this is where I can invent new varied content.
The music I'm still fuzzy on how it's written. I've seen programs like Famitracker that seem to be more familiar to normal midi music applications and easy enough to use, but then I've read people talk about programming their sound engines and I'm really hoping that the music doesn't have to actually be programmed in writing. I've read about video game composers using electronic keyboards though write their music so I'm guessing that the music can be written in more of a midi-fashion and then the software needs to be programmed on how to specifically interpret the music file, taking into account trade-offs for the capabilities of the hardware. Does that sound right at all?
Now, I guess the last part I'm wondering about is level design. Has anyone created a GUI sort of application for Windows or Mac wherein one can layout their stages while viewing the actual tiles, or does one have to actually program each tile of the layout and then assemble the code to check it in the game? If one does have to type it out, any thought on how long it takes to do something like this for something like say... Mega Man or Metroid?
Okay, I guess that's most of the big questions I'm wondering about right now. Hope you guys can help clear things up and hope it's not too much, or too noobish. Thanks!