Nebs & Debs

Decided to move Nebs & Debs progress reports and news from the 2016 compo thread to here since development is continuing past the competition.

Since the competition

• moved crystals to the background (rather than using sprites) so there are tons more
• added secret doorways to warp the player to special rooms in the level
• optimized code to create more ROM space

Planned changes

• moving platforms
• trampoline plants
• new enemies: pill bugs and cannonellias
• portal plants
• spikes
• four areas: forest, jungle, mountains, underground/mines
• new tracks by Kulor
• new tiles and sprites by Anders Gullmarsvik

Release

TBD, but hoping for a physical & PC release in late fall.

Pictures



(Edit - 06/13/17 - Added another picture to show off swamp tile-set).
(Edit - 06/05/17 - Updated release details).

Thumbs up.

nice

That preview is gorgeous. Loving the use of black as shading, not just outline.

It looks both vivid and clear! That's great! The platforming action was really solid. Adding new challenge elements and mechanics will support the player's interest throughout the extended length of the game. Congrats on the continuation, i'm sure it'll be a gem to the nes library.

That mountain area mockup is top notch :O

The mountain mock-up looks wonderful and I love how vibrant it appears. Although, the pill bugs don't look to be of the same quality as the rest of the art. Don't get me wrong, they look good, just not as good as the plants. I understand it's only a mock-up and still being worked on but just thought I'd make a mention of it.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing it in game, seeing it come to life. Good luck!

Thanks for all the feedback so far

What about Nebs & MSIs? Nebs & DMGs? Nebs & RPMs?

Translation: Are you also considering a PC release on Itch?

Since the sky is represented in the subpalette used by the rock/dirt blocks, i have a suggestion if you have tiles and metatiles to spare.

I redrew it hastily so there would be lots of room for improvements, but it should illustrate the idea.

Good question tepples. Yes, a PC release would accompany the physical release. Not, sure on which marketplaces at this time though. I updated the release notes in the original post.

Thanks for the suggestion FrankenGraphics and demo image.

This is looking great. Is there a demo rom for testing?

There's always the earlier version that was submitted for the 2016 compo which can be downloaded here with all category 1 entries.

Updated first post with another mock. Unfortunately, the GIFs I have showing off progress with trampoline plants are too big to upload here, but you can check them out at twitter.com/cacciatc.

The demo of the game was really good. I hope the project goes ahead.

EDIT: I just saw the new GIFs published on the twitter account. Sincerely, the changes look great.

Thanks Ryoga! Progress continues....

Anticipated by a well-known anime?

Officer wearing a Chansey hat from Pokémon EP034 "The Kangaskhan Kid"

Ha! I guess I need to watch Pokemon.

Dullahan Software will begin a Kickstarter campaign to fund the physical release of Nebs 'n Debs starting next Wednesday 8/22/2018. The campaign will appear under the Dullahan Software profile (https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/dullahan-software)

Links:

Nebs 'n Debs Press (http://dullahansoft.com/press/sheet.php ... _%27n_debs)

Dullahan Software Press (http://dullahansoft.com/press/index.php)

Nebs 'n Debs Progress (https://twitter.com/cacciatc)

Once, the campaign is live I will post the link here as well.

Awesome, been looking forward to this for quite a while. Definitely looks like it will be a fun speedrun.

Congratulations on the launch date! Looking forward to it.

Nice cover art, really like it.

I checked the video on kickstarter and is it just me but the game play when hitting thing seems to have changed a little bit? I was sure that it didn't stop abruptly when finished to hit things. Maybe it just may memory that playing tricks on me. I will go try the previous version and see how it looks like.

Thanks for your enthusiasm WhiteHat94 & FrankenGraphics

Thanks Banshaku. Yes, the mechanics of Debs' dash are different. Now, when dashing through enemies her dash speed is increased as well as the dash duration. So you can do fun enemy chains. The playtesters and myself felt this plays better than decreasing the dash speed or halting it.

Belated congrats on the launch date, and good luck with the Kickstarter!

Seconding Banshaku's comment on the cover art too, it's really well done.

I hope their will be a demo since I always like to try the game play.

There is a demo: https://nebsndebs.com/demo/nebsndebs-demo-08142018.nes
It's linked in the "A New Game On Ancient Hardware" section.

oh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the link!

I didn't notice it had a new demo! I thought it would just be the old compo one. Cool.

Though... kinda surprised it's using $0D all over the place? That's definitely not going to work well with some TVs.

Yep, the crystal animations need to be updated to not use $0D. Are you seeing it elsewhere rainwarrior?

It's constantly covering large parts of the screen and background in that demo. It's the background colour 0.

Also, all the sprite palettes using black in colour 3 are using $1D by the way. (Maybe not a problem on its own, but also unusual.)

what happens with $0d?
btw: congratulations!!!

Yep, you're right. Thanks for bringing it to attention. I'll have to review my palette generation logic.

It's a "lower than black" voltage signal that confuses some TVs which will interpret as a blanking signal. A lot of TVs will have horziontal hold problems (wobbly picture) or just drop the signal entirely.

Usually OK to use a little bit in sprite outlines or something (e.g. TMNT does this) but the more screen coverage there is the more it's likely to cause a problem.

Some info: http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Color_$0D_games#Effects

Thank you for the link.
$0e && $0f are safe, right?

Yes the E and F columns are fine. No problems with those.

Dullahan I don't know how much traffic you get at https://www.nebsndebs.com/ but you might want to put a link to the kickstarter on it now that it's live? (Also the press page link goes to the Dullahan press page rather than Nebs'n'Debs'.)

Thanks olddb

Rainwarrior, thanks for bringing it up. It's on my todo list. Hopefully I can get to it today.

At the risk of being that guy, autofire B lets you "walk" on air:

Thanks Kasumi. I'll have to look into ways to foil autofiring.

I really didn't see that I can't walk on those things, felt like a cheap death.

1 way scrolling?

Thanks for the feedback Oziphantom

Here's some half-baked quick edits to show some possibilities i could think of on top of my head. Hope it isn't too intrusive.

-darker leaves may help separate them a bit more from the brighter ground blocks.
-a bit added shade whenever they're placed to the right of or below a solid block (i did the effect quite sparsely here so it isn't that noticeable)
-alternately, maybe a hard diagonal shade does the trick (shown in just one spot, and not to its fullest potential - this needs to be true for blocks underneath solids too to feel convincing).
-two death saving blocks right below that a)text that it isn't treadable, 2)will save the player and teach the fact practically
-making it look less like a staircase/more like an edge/drop/void could help.

FrankenGraphics, thanks for the feedback and taking the time to demonstrate with a pic. I think one of those solutions will probably end up in the final version of level 1 because there have been a number of players who have commented on that part

The 2-block thing is pure genius.
Is there any good source online where one can learn concepts like this?

Frankengraphics is a genius I think the main concept is that foreground casting shadows on the background helps pushing the bg tiles back. With just 4 palettes sometimes you can't afford playing with contrast and saturation to separate layers, so this is a good "tool" when designing graphics.

Congrats for the success, dullahan, you are making a great game

Cheers na_th_an! That is very nice of you to say

Stretched goal reached! Thanks to everyone for spreading the word! More here in this Kickstarter update: https://www.kickstarter.com/proje...

Your link is broken, cannot check the update. oopsie.

You're right. Thanks Banshaku.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/du ... ts/2271422

51 hours to go! If you haven't pledged yet, but were thinking about it--now's the time! The Deluxe and Thank You reward levels are Kickstarter exclusives. So there will be no other official release with the poster and clear cartridges.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/du ... tform-game

FYI Nebs 'n Debs is now available at https://shop.dullahansoft.com/ or if you only want the ROM at https://dullahan-software.itch.io/nebs-n-debs