Espitene

I've been busy last year giving shape to my simple, modular engine AGNES. I've created this game which tries to replicate most of the gameplay of the original Sonic game for the Master System (bar the scroll ) using standard features of the AGNES engine as a showcase of what v1.0 can do.



The main character moves too fast. To stop, you don't simply have to stop pressing the direction, on the contrary most of the time you will have to actively brake by pulling to the opposite direction. This may seem awkward at first but once you get the hang of braking, that's it.

Download still needs some testing and fixing, but I hope you like it. The game has 12 normal stages + 6 boss stages.

description.txt


[EDITS]
20180109 - updated download. Map bugs fixed.
20180111 - updated download. Map bugs fixed. Level selection added. Dying animation added.
20180114 - updated download. Many bugs fixed.
20180116 - updated download. Final OGT.
20180117 - updated download. Collisions while in "dead" state no longer occur. Added falling bridge animation.
20180118 - updated download. Fixed level sequence and palette effects in NTSC
20180131 - updated download. Compo entry.

More pics

And the slopes, if the screenshots are any indication... Looks pretty cool though! I'll definitely give this a try when I get home.

This is awesome. Is Espitene also a hedgehog or another animal?

Looks good, will give it a try!

Accoriding to wikipedia, Espinete is a Hedgehog.
I dont like games with long acceleration\braking, but still, gave it a try.

I finished the game with 5 emeralds. The one I missed was somewhere in Zone 3....no idea where.
I like the fact you can finish the game and continue with collected emeralds....but to enhance that, you could offer the player to select the zone they want to visit.
After beating the game, I felt a bit tired and didnt really want to play through two zones just to get to zone 3 and search for emerald there.
If you could make a Zone selection available to the player after he beats the game to collect emeralds, that would be cool(and zone selection would also pop up after beating a zone, so you are not forced to continue with next one if you have an emerald in there!).

I encountered some glitches and oversights. I know game is still in early stages, but I'll still list them:
-Spikes hit you on the sides (whyyyyy games do that...)
-You can be knocked by enemy into the ground(but seems lower tiles were non solid, to I wrapped back to the top)
-At end of Broken Fridge, Act 1: You can use right spring to jump on the rightmost wall.
Going right will take you to either start of the Act(if you go right one screen above)
or to end of Act 2...but all objects are turned off and you cant go back.
-You can also skip ENTIRE second act of third zone(forgot the name, jungle-waterfall one)
by jumping over the left wall at the begining and going one screen to the left, then fall down.
-Jumps underwater are deceptively short. Isn't it usually other way around? Player can jump higher in the water?
-In final zone, you can skip a few screens. Go to the screen with big ladder(red ship) and jump from there to the left.
You will end up in last room

Finally, I dont want to sound like a douche, but Im not sure why this topic is in this sub forum as it breaks one of the compo rules:

Im not a lawyer, so I cant say much about Espinete character...but im pretty sure putting a demake\cover of commercial title and game over music is copyright infringement.(correct me if Im wrong).
Sorry, I pointed that out so blatantly. In the end, I think compo organizer will deal with this, but If I were you, I would change required music before entering the compo.

Yeah, no slopes It's a feature I have in the roadmap for future versions of AGNES (2.0 will feature the ability to use both nametables for each room and configure a camera, for instance). This is just a showcase of what AGNES 1.0 can do. I've tried to replicate the game as much as possible although level layouts are different, but gameplay elements have been retained when possible: collecting emeralds for a true ending, collapsing bridges in bridge zone, falling logs in jungle zone, underwater sections in labyrinth zone, switchable doors and conveyors in scrap brain zone, bolts of electricity in sky base zone. Also the bosses have been modelled to resemble the originals, specially the final boss.

Espinete the hedgehog (note: different syllable order) was the main character in the Spanish version of Sesame Street from 1983 to 1988. Last year, news broke that the original costume (built by Jim Henson's puppet maker Kermit Love) was found abandoned in a junkyard (which was rather sad, considering the quality of the work and how popular the character was among Spanish children who grew up in the 80s). This gave us the idea for the game: Cheril finds the puppet and the "soul" of the character commands her to wear it and fulfill a task.



The joke of Espinete taking part as Sonic has been pretty common in Spain since the games were released, so the setting was pretty obvious.

As mentioned, I'm sure there are some bugs in map layout and object placement, I'm currently beta-testing the game. Appart from that, it's pretty complete.

Thanks for the bug report, I had noticed some of them, some not. I like the idea of the level select feature after beating the game.

About copyright, it's just a cover version, but I can change it.

Fixed map bugs, enemies should no longer be able to push you underground. Spikes keep killing you from the side, I'm used to that and won't be changing it. As for jump physics underground, as long as the character doesn't seem to float, it feels natural to me that the higher density of the environment won't let you jump far.

Still have to produce a new tune for world 4. Consider what you hear a placeholder.

I still have to think about how level selection would work. I think that, after getting the "bad" ending, a level selection menu could be shown, with the control going back to this menu if you finish the world and not have collected all emeralds, or showing the true ending if you have. Not much space in PRG, tho. Will have to cram it somehow

Updated the first post.

Espinete forever!!!

I had done some speedruns of what I assume is an earlier beta because I liked the game so much. I haven't had a chance to mess around with the new one but it sounds like you have fixed several of the things I found already, but feel free to check out the video and see if there are any more that haven't been mentioned yet. This is currently my favorite game you have made so far and looks like I will have to speedrun it again once the final version is out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hxOfWrxEUg

Thank you! This is quite helpful. Will check it out tomorrow. Maybe you tested the previous versión from github? This one is almost the same, it only is less buggy.

I've implemented the level select feature after completing the game. Will post tonight.

Alright, so I played around some with the new beta, and you cannot beat 4-1, the first water stage. It seems like you reduced the max height of jumps by a pixel or 2 so it makes a jump in the stage impossible to make.

There is also still a minor glitch that if you jump on the frame you land on the ground, you will exit the jump in the standing animation, not the usual ball. This can lead to taking accidental damage since you are vulnerable in that position.

I will try more once I can get past 4-1.

Thanks for trying. I noticed what you say in bug #1 and fixed it, I have to update the download. As for the second, I'll look into it. Thanks again.

Fixed:
- Map bugs reported and found by myself.

Added:
- Once the player beats the game without collecting all emeralds, a level selection screen is shown until all emeralds are collected. Losing all lives still result in GAME OVER, but you can continue as normal pressing SELECT on the menu.
- Actual dying animation.



Todo:
- Change tune in world 4.
- Fix the "non ball jump" issue.

ROM updated in the 1st post

This was pretty fun! I haven't played much sonic at all so i can't comment on the likeness in gameplay. I like the cute music, it helps putting me in a good mood for playing this sort of game. For the graphics, i can see you wanted it to look like the source of inspiration and that it is a playful reference justified neatly by the story, but at the same time i'm left wanting just a little bit more of the atmospheric highlighting/shading and bold pencil strokes that is a hallmark of your previous games in the solid group. I hope that carries over as the compliment i intend it to be.

Some remarks:
Sometimes the spikes feel a bit too generous with their hit detecton but you can only do so much if hits always are at 16x16 (assumingly) and you might not want to open a sub-grid routine to check for a lower hit "roof".*

Something happened once when i died - after losing a life, the character fell through two screens down before the timer set me back to a new try. I wasn't paying attention when it happened but i think it might happen if you die close to the bottom of the screen, like if there's only one block of ground beneath you maybe.


*While doing further level design for project blue, after last compo, i've felt blessed that attributes are decided on a per tile-basis for that game. I decided to unflag the lethality of the "top" tiles of acid pools, spikes etc which felt more natural/less unfair. Now blue must actually fall into the toxic waste or get visually stabbed by spikes to lose a life. Plus you are forgiven for jumping somewhat diagonally over protruding spikes so you don't get killed by "air" pixels as much.

At the start of the first boss fight level you can easily go over the left wall, going to a glitched screen that takes you back a stage if you die or kill the ghost there.

I was about to reply with more glitch reports, but my keyboard broke down, lol
I downloaded new version and found new stuff:
-At start, Boss 1 moves fast while on top of the screen....he moves slow after a single loop...seems inconsistent...but is intended?
-If you hold any button during cutscene, game will fade out into black and wont come back until you let go of the button you hold.
-Player still, sometimes have idle animation while jumping.
-Death animation, while nice to have, is glitched. Player will continue falling while in said animation until he reaches last screen on the bottom of the map. In other words, he will pass other screens on his way down.


Thats both sad(for how Espinete ended) and cool (as for backstory of the game). I like how characters look in cutscenes(Cherils cute!).

@Frankengraphics: Everything you comment about my graphic work is always taken as a compliment for the only reason that you are an incredibly talented artist who always spends time in sharing your knowledge. I always learn from your posts. I know the style is quite different to what I usually do, but I had to cram six different world themes into just one pattern table, plus I wanted to somehow mimmick the style of the original. The space limitation also meant that I needed to create screens which compressed well so I could stuff 18 levels in the game, that's why everything is kept so simple.

The engine is also pretty simple (it is designed to be). Remember that this game doesn't use a dedicated engine, but is intended to showcase what AGNES can be put to perform. While it may seem odd, I've been struggling to implement decent spikes since I began making games... I think it's about time I open a discussion in the dev forums about how you guys implement spikes and spiky objects, and how you make interact actors with them, 'cause I never seem to get them 100% right.

It seems I introduced a bug in the dying sequence. I had to code it during a break at work and should've tested it more thoroughly. Sorry for that. I'll try and take care of all the bugs for next release, specially that one which makes Espitene jump "standing".

Thanks everyone.

18 levels is pretty huge, with the compo restrictions and all! I didn't get as far on my first. Well done sharing a single tileset between them!

More map glitches found & corrected, death bug corrected, standing jump bug corrected, cutscene keypress glitch corrected, inconsistent speed for boss 1 (and 5!) corrected.

Updated first post.

If no more map bugs appear, the only thing to do is change the music for world 4.

No title screen music in beta4? Will play thru again to see if I can find anything else

I have to reshash the music so music is a placeholder until next version. Cutscene and title music are gone for the moment.

I finally changed the music and restored title and cutscene tracks. Everything should be complete now, so I updated the first post. I'll keep testing until the deadline in case I find more bugs.

Thanks everybody who tried the game and reported glitches and bugs.

Found a couple of things in Beta 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TnnTw1OWpk

Thank you, I'll get them sorted out today

Bugs fixed. They were related to the fact that actors could collide with the main character in "dead" state, which has been solved. Also, I added a new "hook" to the engine so you can inject code when bg tiles are "broken", and that allowed me to add animation to collapsing bridge bits. Updated the first post.

I really like the concept of this project (a "minified" version of Sonic), and the result is pretty cool. I did find the physics quite frustrating though... It's way too slippery I guess.

I have a few more things I noticed. The waterfall thing I noticed forever ago but I finally just made a clip of it.

I don't know if it's intended that if you collect all 6 emeralds that it skips the final boss, but that happened to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPbcCA3VcbE

@Tokumaru: maybe the fact that there's no scroll exacervates the slippery feeling - admittedly, it's been a while since I played Sonic. I'll think about it.

@WhiteHat94: Thanks for the report

- Waterfall - I completely missed it. I'll check the frame counters, I'm sure you've hit a edge case and the ntsc frameskip counter is interfering.
- Conveyors - Same thing, exactly the same snippet of code.
- Final boss missing - Heh - I guess I mistyped the level number when detecting the end of game condition ^_^u easy to solve.

Beta 7 up, solves (hopefully) the last reported glitches & bugs. Updated first post.

Just beaten newest build.
Not sure what you did with the physics, but I love it
Sorry, but I have two more issues to report:
1. You can loop the Zone 1, Act 1 by taking upper path(in final tunel, above end flag) and going out to the right. Not sure if it is intended.
2. When you progress a cutscene(whenever it is intro or ending) music will stop.

Glad there's only minor glitches left Will solve soon.

Thanks again for testing. You've been of great help.

Updated the first post with the compo entry as submitted.

Thanks for playing and good luck everyone.

It's cool!

The graphics are really gorgeous. I didn't get very far into the game, but I really liked how stage 3 looked. The waterfalls were a nice touch, and mad props to having so many stages.

The music and sound effects were nice too. I found myself humming it after I shut the game off.

The gameplay wasn't great unfortunately. It's mostly a control issue, which I'm sure you're aware of. The controls are based on Sonic but the level design isn't. The levels are slow and precise, and that clashes with the Sonic controls.

Pretty good game nevertheless. Great job. But next time improve your controls!

Curious why you increased the horizontal maximum speed in the final version, not a big deal but it does make certain parts feel pretty different

The maximum speed got unchanged, but I received feedback by several people that it was too slippery, so I increased acceleration and decceleration, which felt right to all who had complained.

Okay, so it's just accelerating faster now, makes sense. I could tell something was different because I was bumping into stuff I normally wouldn't when I was playing thru it

I've been looking for the download link on the mojontwins website as well as in this thread, maybe I'm blind but I can't find it.

It's not in our site but you can download the compo version in the opening post in this thread.

Ok i figured it out. I'm reading this on my phone and had to view the full desktop site instead of the mobile version. I couldn't see the attachment.

It has come to my attention that a reviewer believes that the music in this game sounds too similar to that of Sega and Sesame Workshop products. In particular, Wet Ruins Zone sounds like something from Sesame Street.

(Not that the opening theme from FaceBall 2000 for Super NES doesn't also sound like "Sunny Day" from Sesame Street though.)

Originally, the Labyrinth zone featured a free cover of Sunny Day (How to get to Sesame Street), but I changed it in one of the final revisions because I learned it's still copyrighted.

Hi. I will try to do some test for you. Hopefully, you'll read this before this post is no longer relevant.

Here is some movies for bugfix this game:

Will look into them, thanks! the compo is already finished but this will help in getting the best possible revision to the cart.

Cheers!

I thought this looked familiar.



Is this a remake of Sonic Mal or a direct continuation?

Sonic Mal was a short joke game for the multicart. Espitene is obviously based on the same premise, but uses a different engine and is a complete game.