Hey guys, I'm happy to announce the demo of my new homebrew platformer has been released.
Check it out!
I'd like to thank the community for all the interesting forum topics and helpful documentation. This would not have been possible without you.
I've only checked the video because I'm at work but it seems amazing!
It's cool that eventually a homebrew that looks very good and professional is released !!
Did you submit it as an entry to that contest ?
I hope the final version will be available for free once the contest results will be out.
Thanks!
Just submitted it to the contest.
Unfortunately, the full version will take a while to be finished. I'd like to provide a free rom download of it eventually while maybe adding some bonus content to a possible cartridge version.
Wow! That was very impressive stuff! Congratulations dude!
Holy crap! Very very nice, and a VERY good music track to boot. Consider me impressed. Awesome. :D
Holy living mother! This thing is great! Congrats on such a well done demo!
You can really see the attention to detail on this game!
I don't like it. It is too good.
j/k
I just started to watch the video and it looks great. Will try the demo later.
edit:
and it looks like an evolution of your previous demo. I remember some of the things (money, way of people talking) which are similar but now used in a different context. I think that kind of make your "trademark", not sure how to say that in english
Edit2:
Removed remark regarding famicom thingy since it was mentioned on the webpage and didn't saw it (focused too much on the video!).
That looks and sounds great
Only thing I wish is multi-directional punching, like in Rockin' Kats / Nyankies
EDIT: or this is going to be an upgrade ?
Impressive! The graphics are great, and everything looks very polished! I'll play it as soon as I get home (which, unfortunately, is not for another 7 hours...!).
I played a little bit and the play control is quite good. Like mentioned indirectly before, when seeing the glove it reminded me of Rocking cat too.
I like that it looks and play like a typical japanese game. The only thing that gives it out is: the music. The arpeggios, which is a specific european style, gives it out.
TmEE wrote:
Only thing I wish is multi-directional punching, like in Rockin' Kats / Nyankies
EDIT: or this is going to be an upgrade ?
There's a a "pogo glove" upgrade of some sort planned... and it would make sense to have an upward punch, too. Not sure about diagonal punches, yet. Guess it wouldn't be bad to have either.
Thanks for the positive feedback guys. It means a lot, especially when after playing the game once a day for a year you don't see anything but its flaws.
By the way, if you're looking for a challenge: Make sure you don't turn your NES off after the credits.
I finished the demo. It feels like it's the best homebrew demo I have ever played. It's not a one game screen and it scroll in all direction. Play control is great. The music is good (except for my bias against arpeggios).
As for the comment regarding a challenge after the credit, I didn't know what to do next so I closed the emulator. I just thought that is was the next step but not finished yet. I will try again to figure out what is that challenge.
Most excellent! You did a great job in telegraphing what power ups were coming, and when to use those power ups!
This is seriously a great game. I'm looking forward to the whole thing!
Absolutely astounding work, the best I've seen so far!
I watched a few minutes of the gameplay video. It's really impressive from what I saw. I'll have to try out the demo.
I completed the demo on my NES an hour ago. I'm not sure about the challenge that would come after the game, I played through the stages again and could not really notice anything different. I saw one passage that requires being able to destroy blocks on top but could not get into it....
I very much look forward to the final game
I know you're going to get tired of hearing praise eventually, but here's to hoping it's not yet — This is awesome!
I love this :
Quote:
Will you help me ?
-> OK -> Fine
Good alternative to endless Will you help ? No -> Will you help ? No etc... loops.
I'm pretty sure this game will be a total masterpiece.
HOWEVER an issue I have is that you need to press start on controller 2. Not only this is unpractical both when emulating and when playing on real hardware, but even worse the original Famicoms does NOT have a start button on controller 2.
There is a work around for that problem!
Let me quote miau's Homepage text:
Quote:
For two players on a Japanese Famicom system, pause the game and press UP on the second controller.
(taken from
http://morphcat.de/superbatpuncher/)
Wow! Great looking (and sounding) game you have there. Is it going to be PAL compatible or am I going to finally have a excuse to import a US machine? ^_^
Looking pretty good. One odd thing is that you can pause during the game over screen.
Quote:
I'm not sure about the challenge that would come after the game,
I found it. It's in the first level. You find the dude you see after the credits and he gives you a mission. If that's not enough hints, I can totally spoil it, but I'd rather not.
(sorry for double post)
If the finished product is as good as these first two missions, I'm pretty sure I'll want the finished product on a cartridge. Is there a place where I can donate, pledge, kickstart, preorder, etc.?
And, now beat the challenge zone. One MUST take damage to complete it.
Am I the only one who is stuck at level 1 ? I can't find a way to beat it.
Kasumi wrote:
Looking pretty good. One odd thing is that you can pause during the game over screen.
It looks odd, but I thought it would be best if you could pause the game in as many locations as possible, especially if there is music playing.
Hojo_Norem wrote:
Is it going to be PAL compatible or am I going to finally have a excuse to import a US machine? ^_^
It is already PAL compatible. The game checks for PAL/NTSC at startup and adjusts music pitch to sound right on both consoles, but there is no compensation for the speed of the music and gameplay. PAL will feel a little more sluggish.
tepples wrote:
If the finished product is as good as these first two missions, I'm pretty sure I'll want the finished product on a cartridge. Is there a place where I can donate, pledge, kickstart, preorder, etc.?
Sorry, none of that. I am surprised people are actually asking for this, though. It's just that money will not help at all (unless it is magically enough to make a living off
).
Good job Kasumi and Dwedit!
Maybe that would be my only complain, but not a big one so it should be taken as constructive criticism.
The game is great, nothing to say against. the only thing is that it should show you how to use the new features that you received a little bit or explain how to use them. The only reason that I new somehow how to go forward was because I saw the video.
This is why Bregalad mention that he's stuck in level 1. I don't know what would be the best approach to explain but usually some hint from the bird or other character after you receive it could be a possibility.
Hmm, indeed. I try to avoid relying on text as much as possible, at least when it comes to explaining essential gameplay mechanics. Not just because small kids should be able to play the game, but because not using text is a more elegant solution in many cases.
Did you have problems finding out how the level 2 ability works? I guess not, because it is obvious what you have to do.
The huge problem with the level 1 upgrade, however, is that you can backtrack and go another way with the new ability, get close to the secret door and then wonder why you can't continue. It's not obvious enough you have to punch the block (which isn't any different from the others surrounding it) in the same room you find the upgrade to continue.
Feedback like this is extremely important, so thanks!
Is the secret area supposed to be Battle Kid hard? Is that what the third mission will look like?
Dwedit wrote:
teh grammarz, teh picshur no haz dem... i fix:
s/HEY,/Hey!/
s/are not/aren't/
s/get/be/
Otherwise "Hey! How'd you get in here?!" (or if it's in some high-up place, replace the word "in" with "up") would be better.
It's indeed very hard, but rather short in return. It exists to please skilled gamers and is intended to be a demo-only thing.
The third level will be completely different.
EDIT:
Hehe koitsu, that's what I get for hiding the place from my beta testers, I guess.
Ian A wrote:
Most excellent! You did a great job in telegraphing what power ups were coming, and when to use those power ups!
TmEE wrote:
I saw one passage that requires being able to destroy blocks on top but could not get into it....
Every passage as far as I know can be accessed in the Demo. Sometimes you have to get creative, sometimes you have to wait till you get a different powerup. Sometimes you have to beat the.... nvm I'm sure you'll find it
WhatULive4 wrote:
TmEE wrote:
I saw one passage that requires being able to destroy blocks on top but could not get into it....
Every passage as far as I know can be accessed in the Demo. Sometimes you have to get creative, sometimes you have to wait till you get a different powerup. Sometimes you have to beat the.... nvm I'm sure you'll find it
I just hex edited the Y coordinate to get through those blocks you can't fall through. Is there a better way that doesn't involve getting a bunch of bats to follow you into the tunnel?
Dwedit wrote:
WhatULive4 wrote:
TmEE wrote:
I saw one passage that requires being able to destroy blocks on top but could not get into it....
Every passage as far as I know can be accessed in the Demo. Sometimes you have to get creative, sometimes you have to wait till you get a different powerup. Sometimes you have to beat the.... nvm I'm sure you'll find it
I just hex edited the Y coordinate to get through those blocks you can't fall through. Is there a better way that doesn't involve getting a bunch of bats to follow you into the tunnel?
Yea, hex editing
Wait you said easier than hex editing.... wait for the pogo upgrade in the full version? Bat luring it is!
Just one of those jumpy horn guys get caught in a bubble! Nice!
I just made a short play through and the game is indeed very impressive! Like every one had already mentioned.
I'm exceptionally impressed by how well the game memorises defeated enemies (so
those damn bats won't respawn immediately like Rockman hell) and destroyed blocks. I found the game manage destroyed blocks a bit
too well though, as accidentally sending an exploding bat onto a destroyable platform can force you to do some difficult jumps.
Anyway, congratulation on finishing the demo and I surely am looking forward to seeing the full game!
How does it remember destroyed enemies? PRG RAM. None of the Mega Man/Rockman games had it.
Yeah, but it may still be possible that they could pay a little more attention to details and used a small fraction of the (tight) internal 2KB of RAM and made the game less irritating to have the enemies not respawning immediately.
It's a common problem for games in that era though, even games designed for the FDS (which at least has more amount of RAM in total, though the memory also has to be used for PRG data) often had this problem, where there shouldn't be that much of an excuse. One particular example is Akamajou Dracula. This makes me think either the programmers were used to programming on simple cart mappers and didn't want to invest much on the potential of the disk system (one example is that few FDS games really used the extra PWM sound channel), or they already expected to release the game in cart format at a later time, either for the western market or a local Japanese version (both happened to Akamajou), at least the FDS version of Akamajou had save game feature though. (Zelda I was a good example, that enemies in a room won't respawn until you have walked several rooms away from it.)
AFAIK Rockman was originally for the FDS too.
I just played through the demo and I'm on the extra level. My advice is: DON'T give too many hints as to where you should use power-ups, and what those power-ups do. The sense of discovery of these techniques is half the fun of games like these.
The music is great, play control excellent, graphics atmospheric and cute. It's fab!
HOWEVER: You need more palette swapping of backgrounds between the hub, level I, II, extra, caves.... All orange for every level gets tiresome quickly. Also, how about using the last unused(?) BG palette for other colourful things inside the background, like vines, granite, etc. Look at how Duck Tales does it in the Amazon. As it is, the colours of your levels are a bit flat.
Also, your game has a lot of challenge with the physics engine, but the rest of the game feels sparse and empty. More enemy placement and incidental sprites/graphics would make the game feel less lonely and less of just a physics engine challenge.
I hope you find this criticism useful.
ccovell, it was very helpful. You mentioned the two issues that are bothering me the most.
I may be able to improve the graphics, but I'm not sure how to combat "dead space", as somebody put it. Ideally, I'm hoping that more different types of enemies will make the problem solve itself eventually, but with the amount of backtracking you may be tempted to do in the full game, this...
Gilbert wrote:
I'm exceptionally impressed by how well the game memorises defeated enemies (so those damn bats won't respawn immediately like Rockman hell) and destroyed blocks.
is actually going to pose a problem.
Other games never feel empty
because of the respawn. There is always something looking to kill you, I like to call that the "Arcade Spirit".
Again, thanks for everyone's feedback! Very inspiring. :)
Perhaps have soem enemies respawn and others disappear completely ? That way you won't be overwhelmed by enemies all times, and you would also never feel boredom as there's always something trying to get you.... ?
TmEE wrote:
Perhaps have soem enemies respawn and others disappear completely ? That way you won't be overwhelmed by enemies all times, and you would also never feel boredom as there's always something trying to get you.... ?
Make some of them "sparkly" like the second bat in the game.
WhatULive4 wrote:
TmEE wrote:
Perhaps have soem enemies respawn and others disappear completely ? That way you won't be overwhelmed by enemies all times, and you would also never feel boredom as there's always something trying to get you.... ?
Make some of them "sparkly" like the second bat in the game.
Or make them respawn on locations where you can use enemies to advance.
Quote:
teh grammarz, teh picshur no haz dem... i fix:
s/HEY,/Hey!/
s/are not/aren't/
s/get/be/
Otherwise "Hey! How'd you get in here?!" (or if it's in some high-up place, replace the word "in" with "up") would be better.
NO !!! DON'T FIX THIS. Good NES games MUST use incorrect english !!
Other than that, no I didn't watch the video. But if I should watch it to play this is the equivalent to vatch a video on youtube to beat a part of a game you can't beat (I do that quite often in fact) and this normally shouldn't be needed, at least not in level 1. Don't take it wrong, the game is great, it's just that a walkthrough shouldn't be needed to beat level 1.
OK I know some NES games (Castlevania II, Zelda I/II, Metroid etc...) which are impossible without using a walkthrough.
EDIT : It's the trick at 4:21 that I couldn't find on my own. Oh well...
I see you're using the Faxanadu trick for your text boxes: rendering them to CHR RAM tiles. How hard would it be to make them use a proportional font?
miau wrote:
Did you have problems finding out how the level 2 ability works? I guess not, because it is obvious what you have to do.
I knew what it was doing but I didn't know at first how to enter that "mode". After some practice I figured it out.
As for the secret level, I'm almost done but that level of hard kill the fun. It should only be as an extra for people that want to test their skills. If something similar ends up as a normal level, you will lose your audience.
Even thought the enemies were sparse I didn't mind much at first about that detail. The game is so fluid that I didn't focus on that since I was having fun playing it. If there is a way to put more then yes, that would make it less empty.
looks and plays very nice, I'm looking forward to the end result! =)
It has a bit of a Cave Story feel to it, intentional I guess?
Of course, we could all list the perceived influences: Cave Story, Hebereke/Ufouria, Gimmick, Trip World, Rockin' Kats, Blaster Master, Metroid, Esper Boukentai (?), but I don't think Miau is trying to hide the fact (he couldn't even if he wanted to.)
I finished the extra level (no cheating but with savestates, of course) and even found the 3rd-stage lady hanging around there. That level was quite the mind & reflex-twister, so good job! I also liked the various messages that you get from exploring the levels and newly-reachable areas on the second time through.
I did spot two block-elimination bugs while playing... One when I destroyed a bat and he flew towards the right edge of the screen and destroyed a block that was on the right edge, or maybe halfway off the screen. The block hadn't been erased when I then jumped over to the right, even though it was now physically gone and I fell through this visible but incorporeal block.
The other was in the extra stage in the final part. One of the archers at the bottom of the screen was destroyed by me and so he destroyed the spikes to his left but also the floor under the spike directly to his left got a black 16x8 chunk erased from it.
Good luck fixing those...
Quote:
I finished the extra level (no cheating but with savestates, of course)
The ones with spikes everywhere ? Congratulatoin on that. I saved it for later.
Quote:
I see you're using the Faxanadu trick for your text boxes: rendering them to CHR RAM tiles. How hard would it be to make them use a proportional font?
I saw this too and I wonder what's the advantage of this method. I guess he can squeeze 3 lines of text plus top and bottom border in 4 lines of nametables, which is smart (you could only fit 2 lines of text the standard way).
I guess for tiny boxes like this it takes the same VRAM as the whole alphabet, but if you want larger boxes then you're pretty much forced to go the standard way or else you're going to need way too much VRAM.
In the case of Faxanadu, it'd be hard to see why they used that technique if you don't investigate the original Faxanadu (J). Most FC games used simple 8x8 hiragana character while Faxanadu (J) used this technique to allow a mix of large 16x16 hiragana, katakana and kanji (I guess...) characters.
Small boxes looks very good for this game in fact. But in the case of a RPG for example it would probably be inappropriate.
Personally I think Ufouria is probably the main source of inspiration of this game. I might be wrong, but if I had to name a similar NES game I'd name it.
From top to bottom: Screenshot of game (from previous page), mock-up of the same font drawn proportionally, mock-up of a narrower font drawn proportionally.
And would it be a balance killer to center the view a couple tiles in front of the character, as Yoshi's Island does? Or to let the player move the view up and down by holding up or down on the Control Pad?
I guess that if the 3rd option would be used, it would become REALLY distored by the coposite "dot crawl" therefore hard to read when played on real hardware.
Therefore 1st and 2nd options are best.
I ran the 3rd option through blargg's NTSC filter, and I didn't think it was so bad. The colors are $0C (dark cyan) and $20/$30 (white), and there's enough contrast between the light phase of $0C (which is the voltage for color $00; the dark phase is $0D) and color white to keep the text readable.
Eh, that looks about like the text on most Playstation games that used a thin font. Those were kinda hard to read though
I normaly just read things here and hardly speak up, but this is the most freaking great piece of work for NES I have seen in ages!
tepples wrote:
I ran the 3rd option through blargg's NTSC filter, and I didn't think it was so bad. The colors are $0C (dark cyan) and $30 (white), and there's enough contrast between the light phase of $0C (which is the voltage for color $00; the dark phase is $0D) and color $30 to keep the text readable.
The problem is a lot of people use LCD screens which distort things MUCH more. One of the competition entries used a single pixel font and it was completely unreadable once upscaled on my 42" LCD.
I find if I set my TV to square pixels it helps the distortion a lot. There is some unused screen area, but it's much easier to actually see what's going on. Playstation games without this setting on my TV looks so blurry it gives me a headache. It looks fine with it on.
This may be referred to as something else on other TV's. It basically forces an integer scaling factor. I figure if my cheap Pnasonic and Sanyo TV's have it others probably will to.
WhatULive4 wrote:
tepples wrote:
I ran the 3rd option through blargg's NTSC filter, and I didn't think it was so bad. The colors are $0C (dark cyan) and $30 (white), and there's enough contrast between the light phase of $0C (which is the voltage for color $00; the dark phase is $0D) and color $30 to keep the text readable.
The problem is a lot of people use LCD screens which distort things MUCH more. One of the competition entries used a single pixel font and it was completely unreadable once upscaled on my 42" LCD.
Also a problem on modern consoles, see the font in Battlefield Bad Company2 for your ammo. Pretty much all the text in that game is ridiculous to make out.
Well I "finished" the demo, and spent about an hour trying to make it through the "extra hard" area (which reminds me of Hell from Cave Story). I made it to the part where there's weird robotic pink flying things pooping sparkling turds and couldn't get past that point. Since you don't encounter those enemies anywhere else in the game, I have no idea how they're supposed to help you get across that huge amount of spikes.
Also, when you go through the door to that room there's no "Checkpoint saved" message, so I was like "oh son of a !@#$% don't tell me I have to do that whole thing over again!!". :-) I wish the player wasn't so "squirrely" with his movement. Sure he moves fast, that's part of the challenge, I get it. But making him slightly less so (just by a smidgeon) would make things a lot less frustrating.
Finally, I notice that when running around in some areas, you can briefly/occasionally see a hint of a sprite (tile?) on the far right side, usually that of a purple bat. Maybe something PPU-related that needs extra adjustment, or maybe that's just how the scrolling works. Dunno. Or maybe it's just been a really, REALLY long time since I've played an actual NES game *laugh*.
P.S. -- I bust out my NES and my PowerPak just to play this thing in its true present-day-yet-nostalgic glory.
Quote:
Well I "finished" the demo, and spent about an hour trying to make it through the "extra hard" area (which reminds me of Hell from Cave Story). I made it to the part where there's weird robotic pink flying things pooping sparkling turds and couldn't get past that point. Since you don't encounter those enemies anywhere else in the game, I have no idea how they're supposed to help you get across that huge amount of spikes.
Same for me (I used savestates to get to this point). No idea how you get past them. And I didn't find the "you're not supposed to be here" room.
koitsu wrote:
I made it to the part where there's weird robotic pink flying things pooping sparkling turds and couldn't get past that point. Since you don't encounter those enemies anywhere else in the game, I have no idea how they're supposed to help you get across that huge amount of spikes.
Assuming you're talking about the part I think you are:
Kasumi wrote:
One MUST take damage to complete it.
One must get hit on purpose, then abuse mercy invincibility a lot to pass through the spikes.
Get hit by an arrow from archer 1 on the left. Use mercy invincibility and Sonic's spinball
to get through the spikes to archer number 2. Get hit again by archer number 2, and abuse mercy invincibility. By then the wall should have been blown up by the flying thing, allowing the first archer to be able to hit you from where he is. Get hit again. etc, etc.
Maybe that kind of solution only came quickly to me because I watch a lot of TAS films. Kinda neat to see it REQUIRED in a game, actually.
If that's not the part, provide a screenshot of the part and I'll spoil all your fun/frustration.
Edit: Or... just watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gafy_9ceuaA
Kasumi, respectfully I understand what you're saying and the advice you're giving. And yes, you have to abuse invincibility as well as the fact that the bats can destroy spikes when killed.
However, the section I'm talking about comes immediately *after* the archers. There are pink flying robot-pig things pooping sparkly turds, followed by nothing but platforms and spikes. You can't jump high enough to reach the robot-pig things (to get hit), so I'm a little confused as to how to proceed past that point. Looks like Bregalad is too. :-) I'm sure it's a n00b thing, but this is the first time in the entire game I've encountered those pig-things, so I don't know if they do something special or what.
I can make a video + upload to Youtube (or somewhere) showing what I'm talking about if need be.
I might've ninja'd you with an edit. There's an entire video showing how to beat the whole thing on youtube. With that existing, I've probably run my course in this topic.
another edit, hopefully not a ninja one: I was talking about the part at 2:54 in the video, but it seems you're talking about 2:46
Actually I'm talking about 2:17 onward in the video. Now I see how to do it; argh, stupid rolling ball thing... ;-)
EDIT: The nonsense at 2:55 is nonsense. I have been at this part for probably 5 full minutes repeatedly trying to "bounce off" the enemy while being hit, and the invincibility doesn't last long enough to make it past the spikes (it's about 1-2 full seconds short). Is that guy playing a different version of the demo or something?
Definitely.
I can make it through the first set of spikes by using the sonic-ball while being invinsible, unfortunately this kills the enemy here so I can't get a second hit (a second invincibility) and I'm stuck there.
Bregalad wrote:
Definitely.
I can make it through the first set of spikes by using the sonic-ball while being invinsible, unfortunately this kills the enemy here so I can't get a second hit (a second invincibility) and I'm stuck there.
This is how I intended for players to get past this part, actually. You need to stop rolling by pressing left and then jump at just the right moment so you touch the bunny without destroying it. The way Rushjet1 is doing it in the video looks easier, but I haven't tried that, yet.
Like Kasumi, I enjoy TASes and speedruns in general and the tricks people come up with in them. There is an insane amount of hardcore gamers out there who this level is trying to appeal to. Apparently, it's still too easy for many of them. :)
The reward should be worth it. If you absolutely can't beat the secret level you can try slowing down your emulator (+/- keys in FCEUX, Options/Timing in Nestopia).
tepples: The idea of using a proportional font sounds good! Will look into it sooner or later if the dialog box system stays the way it is.
I thought the dialog boxes are too small, but then again this ain't an RPG
They look really slick!
Awesome job, super polished and pretty inventive.
Oh yeah I suck at playing games, but still made it to the second boss cause the music is great
Holy crap miau. This game is frigin amazing! It looks very professional and plays great. And, more importantly, it's fun! I'd pay good money if you decided on selling the full version. Major props on your accomplishment.
Any other little secrets?
Aw, didn't expect anyone to find the debug room so fast, good job!
More secrets? Apart from the giant bat and the level 3 spirit... Try to collect coins!
Yeah, that one dude comments on how few/many coins you have... come to him with an impossible number and he takes you to task for it.
Right! That's about all there is, then.
I don't think people have seen all possible messages, yet, however. It's not much, just something I added in last-minute since testers were complaining because there was no use for coins.
Very very good demo, I've played through it three times, it's one of the best NES games I've played. I'm looking forward to a cart release already.
I just watched the video; I can't play the demo on this computer.
WOW! I'm super impressed. Like some other people, I'd just like to comment on how polished this is. The animation is very fluid, and the physics of the game look very smooth. I really like how you bounce on the slimes, and how you can punch yourself across a gap by punching the wall. These kinds of things make for a really cool gaming experience.
I'm glad to see some more actual progress come from a NESDev homebrew project. Hopefully soon I'll finish the first 1 or 2 levels on my game so I can put it up
.
I can't play it now.*
But video makes me wonder if this is really NES.
Seriously, at first I thought it's a some kind of Cave story sequel.
Everything looks just awesome. Grafics aren't "best"(like kirby,smb3 or FAOD) but it have it's specifing feeling.I can't say much about music(because there's no loudspeakers in library**).
But gameplay looks fantastic.
Congrats
*Due to costs I had to turn off PC and internet connection to save the moneys.
**I'm using Computers at unversity library
I like the graphics a heck of a lot better than SMB3. The color choices alone make it much better.
Some sort of background might be nice though
The flat black is kinda not right with the rest of the graphics. You could try using a single, very dark brown from your rock palette to make the background more interesting.
qbradq wrote:
Some sort of background might be nice though
The flat black is kinda not right with the rest of the graphics.
Keep in mind that the Roast has transparent eyes. Unless he wants to waste a sprite, black is the best option.
Denine wrote:
But video makes me wonder if this is really NES.
Don't worry. It works on NovaYoshi's PowerPak.
WhatULive4 wrote:
qbradq wrote:
Some sort of background might be nice though
The flat black is kinda not right with the rest of the graphics.
Keep in mind that the Roast has transparent eyes. Unless he wants to waste a sprite, black is the best option.
When the main character's eyes are that close together, you can simply use one black sprite for the eyes overlaid on top of the main character. Make it low priority so it's the first one to blink away when there's more than 8 sprites in the scanline.
Super Mario Bros 2 used sprites on top of the rest of the sprite to give them eyes.
I didn't even notice that he was doing that with the sprites. That's a neat trick
Well then, never mind. It looks good as-is anyway.
He's not doing that, I was proposing it as a suggestion. He's just leaving the transparent pixels as "black" for now.
Yeah personally I'm a fan of filled background and sprites with black outlines, I think it just looks more modern. Black backgrounds makes it look like early 80's game. The price to pay is only 2-color for sprite palette (not counting black as a color).
But anyways if this works by all means keep to this formula - to each their preferences.
I always found Dark Color and Light Color to be an acceptable compromise when dealing with 3-color sprites. Some games on the GBC (I'm looking at you, Mario Golf) look terrible because their sprite palettes are White, Black, and a single color.
Quote:
This is how I intended for players to get past this part, actually. You need to stop rolling by pressing left and then jump at just the right moment so you touch the bunny without destroying it. The way Rushjet1 is doing it in the video looks easier, but I haven't tried that, yet.
OK I tried that a lot of times it does just not work. Even if I'm able to touch the bunny wihtout killing it the second invinciblity time doesn't even come close to last long enough to cross the second set of spikes, as your main character falls back to the lower set of spikes and I have to jump twice then cross them.
I even tried remain at the bunny's place to get hit a 3rd time (even if this would kill any chances for me to pass the 3rd set of spikes), but even that didn't work as I always run out of times before jumping off the 2nd set of spikes.
Bregalad wrote:
Quote:
This is how I intended for players to get past this part, actually. You need to stop rolling by pressing left and then jump at just the right moment so you touch the bunny without destroying it. The way Rushjet1 is doing it in the video looks easier, but I haven't tried that, yet.
OK I tried that a lot of times it does just not work. Even if I'm able to touch the bunny wihtout killing it the second invinciblity time doesn't even come close to last long enough to cross the second set of spikes, as your main character falls back to the lower set of spikes and I have to jump twice then cross them.
I even tried remain at the bunny's place to get hit a 3rd time (even if this would kill any chances for me to pass the 3rd set of spikes), but even that didn't work as I always run out of times before jumping off the 2nd set of spikes.
I think it is just a matter of mastering the controls and repetition. I got it on my first try yesterday.
The way I did it, I hit the first enemy so that the knockback would push me toward the correct direction. Both times though I had a really short amount of time to jump out of the spikes-- probably a couple flashes later and I'd have been hittable again.
Just played through the demo on my Powerpak, beating the challenge area after lots of frustration :)
I'll have to repeat what others have already said... WOW! The best homebrew so far! Lots of unique features and enjoyable design. I really look forward to buying the final game. :D
A few points of hopefully constructive criticism from my side:
- I found it pretty annoying how hard it was to jump of a vine since you can't hold UP on the cursor while doing so. This should be fairly easy to fix by only letting the player grab a vine mid-air if up was (re-)pushed *after* jumping.
- As Koitsu mentioned, the controls are somewhat frustrating at times. I understand you don't want to slow down the fluidity of the player, but how about making the acceleration from standing still just slightly slower? Right now I find it incredibly hard to move without falling down when standing on a single block.
- Like others have mentioned, the game could use some more color and variation in the graphics :)
- And last of all a minor point... I was really hoping to explore more of the game after aquiring the secret item, so I was kind of disappointed when I realized that beating the game the second tie with it seems to lock up the game eternally :/
Other than that, congrats again for such a polished game!
miau wrote:
More secrets? Apart from the giant bat and the level 3 spirit... Try to collect coins!
Where can that giant bat be found? I've played through the demo a couple of time now, but haven't noticed any bat of abnormal size.
Brilliant game, btw.
Which sound engine are you using? You could try multiplying tempo by 1.2 to fix music speed on PAL. (Multiplying by 308/256 is just some right shifts and adds)
Dwedit wrote:
Which sound engine are you using? You could try multiplying tempo by 1.2 to fix music speed on PAL. (Multiplying by 308/256 is just some right shifts and adds)
I thought it did fix music speed?
Music pitch is corrected, tempo is not. It plays 5/6ths as fast in PAL mode.
Bananmos: Thanks :)
A lot of people have mentioned these issues which is good as it tells where my priorities should be right now.
dr_sloppy wrote:
Where can that giant bat be found? I've played through the demo a couple of time now, but haven't noticed any bat of abnormal size.
The door in the bottom left corner in the last area of level 1 can actually be reached using the Bowling Ball and bats.
Dwedit wrote:
Which sound engine are you using? You could try multiplying tempo by 1.2 to fix music speed on PAL. (Multiplying by 308/256 is just some right shifts and adds)
I'm using a custom sound engine. All songs were composed at 150bpm in FamiTracker, but in theory, the engine does support different tempos. Me and the composer were worried about how they mess with note durations and instruments, but that won't hurt as much as a slower speed, I guess.
Yes, I plyed.I enjoyed it.
Yep, I think it is very good homebrew.
1 question-That Big bat...it just talk, nothing more?
The 4 screen scrolling is very nice in NTSC, but in PAL there are some artifacts...will this be fixed in future?
Yup, the bat just talks.
Not sure if I can fix the artifacts. They are kind of annoying in PAL, I agree, but compared to Ufouria, which uses the same mirroring setup for multi-directional scrolling, they are very tame.
Moving the artifacts to the top of the screen when scrolling down and vice versa may be a better idea.
miau wrote:
Yup, the bat just talks.
Not sure if I can fix the artifacts. They are kind of annoying in PAL, I agree, but compared to Ufouria, which uses the same mirroring setup for multi-directional scrolling, they are very tame.
Moving the artifacts to the top of the screen when scrolling down and vice versa may be a better idea.
Add the 2KB RAM?
Naw, I don't really care much about artifacts. Fun game!
Thought I'd put a note here too. The game looks absolutely fantastic. Play control is great too. I love the feeling of "impact" everything has. And that the screen vibrates. Also, the 4 way scrolling looks flawless, that's awesome. I get the feeling Kirby's Adventure is an inspiration to you. I loved the cute tiny little yellow bird helper guy.
I love, this game. It's amazing. It has serious quality to it, I really love the concept and trickery to the gameplay. The movement is very smooth and the graphics are amazing, the animation is smooth.
I really enjoyed the demo, and I root for you on your way to developing this game into a full one. Keep up the good work.
This project looks like it is a great platformer,
The demo is great, too.
Also like the Cave Story-esqe gameplay and feel!
It's been a while - how is the game progressing?
I wonder the same...
I'm planning to update my blog soon.
Don't get your hopes up, though, there hasn't been a lot of progress.
This looks amazing. I suck at twitch games, so it's probably not my cup of tea, but I'm still very impressed. I can't wait for this to be finished, so I can make a cart for my sister. She would love this game.
It's such an amazing game!!!
You mentioned you have no plans of selling the game, so I'm wondering whether you'd release the source; I'm sure community will benefit from it!
torrasque wrote:
It's such an amazing game!!!
You mentioned you have no plans of selling the game, so I'm wondering whether you'd release the source; I'm sure community will benefit from it!
He can correct me if I'm wrong, but he is planning to sell it using Memblers boards.
WhatULive4 wrote:
torrasque wrote:
It's such an amazing game!!!
You mentioned you have no plans of selling the game, so I'm wondering whether you'd release the source; I'm sure community will benefit from it!
He can correct me if I'm wrong, but he is planning to sell it using Memblers boards.
I see. So he has changed his mind since
this post.
I think it had to do with the overwhelming push from collectors. The demo carts sold in the hundreds of dollars.
I think what Miau meant was that he wouldn't accept money until the game is actually finished. Just a hunch.
Yeah you guys seems to forget that so far only a demo has been released.
For me it looks like the most promisive homebrew NES game ever, but it's not complete yet.
torrasque wrote:
It's such an amazing game!!! :)
You mentioned you have no plans of selling the game, so I'm wondering whether you'd release the source; I'm sure community will benefit from it!
It is also possible to do both; sell the cartridge and also release source codes. But even if you don't, I would pay a reasonable (but not high) price for it (in Canadian money only) but only a computer file, not the cartridge (I do not have a NES/Famicom system; I have one badly designed Famiclone supporting Japanese cartridges but it works very badly). If you don't sell it, that is good too as long as the completed file can still be downloaded.
I have made more progress in secret level, that is the best part of the game!
Please continue to make this game!
Looks so interesting like Metroid style. Liked the dialogues and power ups! (Hope it has a lot ones)
Anyway, keep up the good work, man!
miau wrote:
It's indeed very hard, but rather short in return. It exists to please skilled gamers and is intended to be a demo-only thing.
I like the hard level though; add more! (Although perhaps move it to end in case you have completed the game already and push continue game anyways, or make it a secret option on the title screen, etc)
This is my most anticipated NES game !
TmEE wrote:
This is my most anticipated NES game !
Same here.
"Personally" knowing miau, it's probably best not to put too much pressure on him for things. It'll either get done or not. The best chance of seeing this thing ever get finished is to completely forget about it so he feels like doing something with it. He doesn't really need help, hype, ideas, etc. He can do art, music, coding, etc all by himself but is just like everybody else and would much rather just not do much of anything.
Oh, hi, miau. How are you?
Just want to lend some support without saying "when will it be done"... The demo is already the best homebrew NES game I've ever played, thanks so much for that!
I probably said this already in this thread somewhere (can't be bothered to look it up -- sorry koitsu becoming very lazy these days, too busy doing other things), but I can guarantee I will purchase this game when it comes out, miau. Like others have said: no pressure, no rush. Take all the time you need. I think the term people use for situations like this is "shut up and take my money", haha.
hcs wrote:
The demo is already the best homebrew NES game I've ever played!
Yes.
I agree too. Best homebrew ever. Coolest hero with coolest weapon too.
koitsu wrote:
I can guarantee I will purchase this game when it comes out, miau.
This. Definitely this.
Bregalad wrote:
I agree too. Best homebrew ever. Coolest hero with coolest weapon too.
I think Rockin' Kats (aka NY Nyankees) has that beat, because their punch glove is also a grappling hook and pogo stick.
Rockin' Kats is a really nice game, one of my big favs. It is why I really like SBP !
"Shut up or take my money" you bet! That guy deserves a medal just for the demo. I couldn't not buy it when/if it comes out.
Since everyone else is expressing their opinions, I will cast my vote for this as the best NES homebrew I've ever seen. Very polished, and incredibly cute. I would certainly like to see a full game.
I would like to buy a copy too but I want a computer file
Just thought I'd mention this tweet I just noticed. It is from Sept, but very encouraging
https://twitter.com/morphcat/status/250115636829769728
