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GAF Creates Contest II: Are you a bad enough nerd to make a retro game by year's end?

T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Dude OOP makes thing soooo much easier.

Although Game Developer had an article a while back exploring the idea of a format-based programming paradigm, which sounded interesting. Basically you group functions based on the file format, not a strict set of classes... Ehhh actually I'm fuzzy on it now but I know it sounded pretty cool. :p
 
K

Koren

Member
Why would you do that? said:
Also, when you fall down while holding the direction button into a wall, gravity is lowered, like, you fall slower. I don't know if it was intentional, but it would make a great wall slide.
Click to expand...
It is indeed intentional. I reuse a lot of gameplay mechanics of games like metroidvanias, and recent ones have introduced wall sliding. It's a bit less "hardcore" than older titles like Super Metroid, but it makes wall jumping easier. I'm still not sure that I'll be able to keep it, because it's causing me a headache graphic-wise, but I'll see.

As for the sticky walls, it's not surprising it's a bit strange currently, but I will need it (especially since I don't want the scrolling to reveal any secret area), so I wanted to make sure it would work. In intend to rely a lot on level design to hide most effects, though. Again, metroidvanias games use this a lot, even if it's for technical reasons (I think that they use this to hide palette swaps, they fade to black before the scrolling, and fade in after, so that you never see both sides at the same time).

Many thanks for your impressions, that's nice to hear that you had some fun visiting what is mostly a testing ground. I'm adding one gameplay element at a time (managed to program a working staircase wednesday evening, for example), but now, I'm mostly on the drawing board for the complete map layout.


Why would you do that? said:
Pertaining to my engine, I wasn't really thinking about Link to the Past... More like games like TMNT and other beat-em-ups. It's interesting how you connected it to my favorite game series...
Click to expand...
That's because I was crazy with this effect in ALttP. In the first hours, I was doing it on purpose just because I liked the animation. I remember similar things on other, older games, but not as nice, and with 45° ledges.


Why would you do that? said:
About enemies... Yeah, enemies aren't very fun to code. :( Well, at least not the easy ones. Bosses can be fun to code.
Click to expand...
In fact, that's not really that I don't like coding them, but do a simple goomba, for example, and you'll need a way to know whether there's a hole in front of it, so that it can stop before falling, and it can be a nightmare to implement those tests.


Why would you do that? said:
but unfortunately, doing pixel art for an NES (which has very limited colors... 4 colors per 8x8 square, 32 total on screen, only 56 or so total to choose from) isn't as easy
Click to expand...
Indeed. That's the reason I'm going 16bits, in fact, I don't want to be too limited by colors. I'll try to limit the number of colors I use as much as I can, but I won't spend time to count them for each screen. Besides, I don't want to spend half an hour thinking if I should trade a blue color in palette for a red one, and redo six hundred sprites to remove the blue in them.

I think music will come last, especially since I don't have much experience in mixing music and sound effects using SDL_Mixer. I can usually compose correctly, but I'm a bad arranger, and cheap tunes will be a challenge.


Why would you do that? said:
Learning 1 language a year is actually a really good idea. It isn't something I really enjoy doing, because 1, I love familiarity, 2, I am somewhat afraid to touch object oriented programming, and 3, I feel like I'd need to find a good graphics library in order to get anything out of it...
Click to expand...
1) Me too, that's the reason why I'm reluctant to use anything else than C/C++ most of the time (I'm going more and more towards D, though, which I prefer), with some pieces of OCaml sometimes. Even if I can write programs in probably 50+languages now, and some of them being theorically better for some usages. Since I'm mostly coding for fun, now, I use what I prefer. I only try new languages as a challenge, but I don't use most of them on a regular basis.

2) It took me much time to go object oriented (I learn programming back in 85, when I was 7, and haven't had access to something else than basic/pascal/C/assembly for twelve years, so it's difficult to changes your habits), but I'm getting better at it, and it has its merits... you have to take the jump one day, but it's rewarding (I'm more at ease with languages that exhibits OO mechanisms, like C++, D, Objective Caml, Lua or Java, than pure OO-languages like Smalltalk or Ruby, though).

3) Again, since I usually don't conduct large projects in many languages, I don't really care for a graphical output. Should I decide to use another language for the logic (such as OCaml), I still use C/C++ for the graphical engine most of the time. The fact that you can mix languages in a program is truly useful. Besides, most of the time, I use for graphics either vanilla OpenGL (which has bindings for many things) or vanilla SDL (which also can be used with various languages, including Ada, C, C++, C#, D, Eiffel, Erlang, Haskell, Java, Lisp, Lua, Objective Caml, Objective C, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Smalltalk and others, which is far more than I need... I won't write a full-fledge game in Brainfuck, LT or Whitespace!). And FLTK as a toolkit for anything not game-related.


I have not experiment Game Maker yet, even if I've said for years now that I should at least look at it.
 
bumpkin

bumpkin

Member
I'm not sure what the etiquette is for this sort of thing, but I've been working on building a SCHMUP of sorts and find that I have encountered one problem; I'm not an artist! I've basically been working on the game with placeholder sprites (ganked from various Google search results), but would really like something original... Honestly, having a good title, a nice logo, and a cool look/feel for the menus and HUD would be nice too. :D

It's not much, but here's a screenshot of the work-in-progress during play...

SCHMUP.png


Is there anyone in the thread with some artistic inclination -- capable of making pixel art -- that would be interested in collaborating? If so, drop me a PM!
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Hmm, I think I'm at a point where my lack of fluency in programming lingo is preventing me from polishing up my engine. While I have enough done to actually start building my game, there's still stuff that I can't figure out how to add or fix.

If anyone who knows C# and wants to lend a hand in helping me work on my code just give send me a PM. Here's some of the things I need help on:

- Disabling sprites offscreen
- Integrating a screen states (like a start screen and pause screen)
- Save states
- Fixing an issue where turning off FixedTimeStep screws with collisions and camera
- Plus any other code cleaning and fixes you can help with
 
J

jepense

Member
After not having touched the thing for a month, I now finally have the time to continue working on my game. I should be able to finish the battle engine this month. We'll see if I have ever time to build the actual game. :lol
 
W

Why would you do that?

Member
This thread better not die. :(

I decided to do some graphic work on my game... by creating the player sprite. Because I don't think I'd be that great of a drawer, I decided to base the sprite on TMNT2 (reference). It's not finished yet, but I wanted to see how it would look in the game anyway.


Unfortunately, the sprite turned out to be so much bigger than I imagined. I was, in the back of my mind, expecting the sprite to be two 16x16 blocks high... but as it stands, the sprite I made is 3 blocks high, and it doesn't fit in my demos at all... But I really like the sprite/size though, because it looks so natural. I could create more stylized graphics, and it would solve many problems, but since I don't feel very imaginative, it would be somewhat hard for me to do.


Now, I need to come up with the tough decision of whether I should use the large 24x48 sprites for the game (and of course make the environment bigger), or if I should go with my previous vision and make the characters 16x32... With larger sprites, the game will certainly look better, I can have better animations, and all of that... but they may take more work to draw, and visibility of the play field won't be as high.


ou1jdc.png

^These ledges are now more like steps. Also, this house now seems much smaller than it should.


To come up with my final decision, I'm going to have to think about the rest of the game and determine of the extra visibility is really that important. (I can also "cheat" and use a higher-than-NES resolution. Also a consideration.) I'll also have to be prepared to do the extra drawing work, which I don't think will be that bad...
 
J

jepense

Member
Why would you do that? said:
This thread better not die. :(

To come up with my final decision, I'm going to have to think about the rest of the game and determine of the extra visibility is really that important. (I can also "cheat" and use a higher-than-NES resolution. Also a consideration.) I'll also have to be prepared to do the extra drawing work, which I don't think will be that bad...
Click to expand...

It's always nice to read the updates. I have been working on mine every now and then, adding graphics etc. but I haven't included any new gameplay for a while, so I don't have much to report in that sense. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

I don't think anyone minds if you use an arbitrary resolution. I have 240 x 426 pixels. Though mine isn't very retro in anyway (it just isn't modern either). But you can try just rip a smaller sprite from some other game and compare how it looks. Go with what you like and think you can handle drawing.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Don't worry, this thread will not die. I'm still working on my game on a daily basis but the engine building has slowed down a bit now that I've gotten to some of the trickier parts. I'm just worried that the code will blow up in my face at some point making my game unplayable. Thankfully rhfb offered his help with some of the parts I'm not sure how to code, so I thank him for that.

I've been holding off on the updates until I have a good amount more to show 'n tell. I failed to lived up on my word on what kind of game it would be. It has recently gone through an overhaul because I was dissatisfied with how certain elements were turning out. Basically I "upended the teatable" on myself so to speak. :) I'll probably be posting my current progress later this week to give you guys an idea of what I'm talking about.



Why would you do that? - I feel you on the whole "I like this better but damn, it's going to be a lot more work". If you think you're capable of making the larger sprite assets and it won't be detrimental to the game you're making, then go for it.

I actually find making the sprites to be my favorite part of the process next to level building. Whenever I feel overloaded with figuring out code I just shift over to pixelling. It puts me at a good zen-like state and makes me feel refreshed when I get back into coding.
 
B

BananaBomb

Member
I really want to join, but I am a bit confused about the rules. Does the game have to be accessible through the web a la flash or can I write it in C++ or python and ask the user to actually download it? Secondly, can I use "ripped" sprites from other games (in good taste, of course) or should my art assets be original?
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
BananaBomb said:
I really want to join, but I am a bit confused about the rules. Does the game have to be accessible through the web a la flash or can I write it in C++ or python and ask the user to actually download it? Secondly, can I use "ripped" sprites from other games (in good taste, of course) or should my art assets be original?
Click to expand...

You can write it in whatever your heart desires as long as you make it retro in style and make it as accessible as you can. You can also do a full mod of an old game if you choose, similar what we did with Mario World in the last contest. Using sprites from other games is fine as well.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
5 month progress report:

Now that we're veering into the fifth month of this year long GAF Creates I figured I would show how my game has progressed since its inception to where it is today.

Here is a screen grab from my March 6th build where I was testing out enemy patterns:

Untitled March 6th build
March6.png


At the time the main character was going to be temporary but I had grown attached to the little bugger so I eventually made the game based around him. At the time I was still basing the game around the idea that I wanted to try to make an NES styled game, but in widescreen. The grass textures I have in place were copied from Adventure Island 4 and the Angry Faced enemies might be familiar to you old time gaffers.

21 days later:

'Eg' March 27th build
March27.png


Over the course of the next several weeks I started to get a better grasp of coding. I had a somewhat functioning character and had begun to define the visual style. In the above screen the vibrant tiles to the left of the player was me testing out specified exits. The baddie to the right has a blue tint behind him were I was testing out the hit boxes. Also health was in place (but still buggy) and the enemies weren't exactly functional. The little guy I dubbed my "little marshmellow monk" became the "eggman" and the world started to build around that theme. This is pretty much where my game was when I last showed it.

Cut to April:

Graphic change
Comparison.png


During the month of April I came to the realization that I didn't like where the game was going visually. The NES style wasn't going as well as I had hoped and there were some things that I wanted to do but was limited by my graphical choice. So I basically just broke down and redid all the tiles. Now the game is slightly SNES in style and my influence from making Massimo from the last contest is starting to show more.

Since the last update I have added sound effects, improved the health meter, have 3 functional enemies, fixed a ton of bugs, improved the character controls, parallax scrolling backgrounds(!!!), a start, pause, and a nonfunctional options screen, made the game's logo, and other junk. I also had to ditch the 1080 mode since it was causing issues, so I'll just be keeping my focus on 720. It looked nice but it would have been too much work for me to be able to get this out this year. I also finally got around to porting this to my 360 and it seems to work great so far. No issues from scaling down to 480 or up to 1080.

So here are some 'EG' current build shots. I still haven't gotten around to actually making the levels so the screens presented are just from my test areas.


Title screen with logo
TitleScreen.png


A dark eggy place
EggLevel.png


A bright eggy place
CloudyEggs2.png
 
W

Why would you do that?

Member
Wow, your game is looking really nice. The graphics are looking really good. I liked the old style better (because it reminded me of Hudson's bright and colorful Turbografx games like Adventure Island), but the new style looks very nice as well.
Enk said:
Why would you do that? - I feel you on the whole "I like this better but damn, it's going to be a lot more work". If you think you're capable of making the larger sprite assets and it won't be detrimental to the game you're making, then go for it.

I actually find making the sprites to be my favorite part of the process next to level building. Whenever I feel overloaded with figuring out code I just shift over to pixelling. It puts me at a good zen-like state and makes me feel refreshed when I get back into coding.
Click to expand...

Making sprites would be much more fun to me if I didn't have to do it for every single enemy, every little tile, and make sure the tiles seamlessly wrap, too.

My favorite part is the programming, actually. I'd much rather program random, cool things than make cool graphics.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Why would you do that? said:
Wow, your game is looking really nice. The graphics are looking really good. I liked the old style better (because it reminded me of Hudson's bright and colorful Turbografx games like Adventure Island), but the new style looks very nice as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I was mostly looking at Adventure Island when I was trying to find a style I wanted to mimic (hence the Adventure Island 4 tiles in the first pic). While I very much wanted to make an NES game the look wasn't meshing well at all with some areas. The new style gives me much more room to be creative and allows for more variety. Maybe someday I'll eventually make an NES styled game I've been wanting to make.

Why would you do that? said:
Making sprites would be much more fun to me if I didn't have to do it for every single enemy, every little tile, and make sure the tiles seamlessly wrap, too.

My favorite part is the programming, actually. I'd much rather program random, cool things than make cool graphics.
Click to expand...

Pretty much the opposite for me. Maybe it's because I've been mostly working with sprites throughout the years rather than the programming side. I've pretty much learned a good amount of tricks to use to have the tile making process go by a lot more smoothly. The programming side still gives me a headache because of my gaps of knowledge with the language.
 
J

jepense

Member
Hey, I somehow missed your update. Looks nice. That was to be expected from you, of course. I especially like the egg-theme, as it gives it a style - more than just generic pixel graphics.

I now basically have the battle mechanics finished, though only the player's actions produce sound effects. As for balancing, it seems to not be completely broken. :) That is, the various strategies I've tried seem to work and be reasonably competitive, but I still need to play test and tweak.

There is also a deck building screen and battle results screen that function. So you gain exp, but I still lack a screen where you can manage your stats. Once I have that, I may ask if someone here wants to help in play testing... Then, of course, I'd need to build the actual game. I have some neat ideas I'd like to try with it, but we'll see if I ever get there. :lol

Enk said:
Thanks! I was mostly looking at Adventure Island when I was trying to find a style I wanted to mimic (hence the Adventure Island 4 tiles in the first pic). While I very much wanted to make an NES game the look wasn't meshing well at all with some areas. The new style gives me much more room to be creative and allows for more variety. Maybe someday I'll eventually make an NES styled game I've been wanting to make.

Pretty much the opposite for me. Maybe it's because I've been mostly working with sprites throughout the years rather than the programming side. I've pretty much learned a good amount of tricks to use to have the tile making process go by a lot more smoothly. The programming side still gives me a headache because of my gaps of knowledge with the language.
Click to expand...
I've enjoyed both making the graphics and programming, though both are insane time sinks. The programming has been a learning experience, and the amount of resources the game consumes, considering what it does, is quite... high. But hey, it works.

A screen from the current build:
penumbra_screen3.png


Some things (like the particle effects) look much nicer in motion. Some things don't. I am overusing particles in some places, considering that it's supposed to be retro, but it's just so much easier to add sparks than animate a lot of stuff...
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
jepense said:
I now basically have the battle mechanics finished, though only the player's actions produce sound effects. As for balancing, it seems to not be completely broken. :) That is, the various strategies I've tried seem to work and be reasonably competitive, but I still need to play test and tweak.
Click to expand...

Good to here you're making some progress! Balancing is a difficult thing. It's usually the one thing you didn't recognize that ends up breaking the flow of the game.


jepense said:
There is also a deck building screen and battle results screen that function. So you gain exp, but I still lack a screen where you can manage your stats. Once I have that, I may ask if someone here wants to help in play testing... Then, of course, I'd need to build the actual game. I have some neat ideas I'd like to try with it, but we'll see if I ever get there. :lol
Click to expand...

What I'm probably going to do on my end is make a small demo then post it on here for people to test and see what flaws they can find. Like you, I do want to actually start building the game until I feel the engine is polished enough.


jepense said:
A screen from the current build:
*pic*

Some things (like the particle effects) look much nicer in motion. Some things don't. I am overusing particles in some places, considering that it's supposed to be retro, but it's just so much easier to add sparks than animate a lot of stuff...
Click to expand...

Looking much more improved! Though I can't really tell what's going on at the moment. :D Don't worry about the particle effects, my game has them as well too.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
It's been about a month of quiet. So how is everyone's game going?

May was a slow month for me. This was mostly due to being out of town for a week, being busy at work, and adding more complicated features to my game. Currently I am stuck on trying to add a save system to the game. Right now rhfb is looking at it for me and he seems just as stumped. If anyone who is familiar which XNA/C# wants to lend a hand to helping me add a save/load feature please send me a PM.

I don't have anything new to show right now, but this month I will start actually making the game levels. So probably sometime next month I should have something to show.
 
J

jepense

Member
Enk said:
It's been about a month of quiet. So how is everyone's game going?
Click to expand...
Very slight progress as I've been busy with other things. I should get still something done in the summer, but in the fall I expect to get totally overwhelmed by more important stuff... Let's see what I can manage before that.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Well we have reached the halfway point of this GAF Creates journey, but it seems a lot of participants have been lost along the way. If you're still working on your game let us know of your progress. If you are new and want to participate there is still 6 months left to put something together. Remember that you can mod old school games as well, so using Lunar Magic and other editors counts as long as you're doing something more substantial than a nude Mario hack.

As far as progress on EG goes, I finally began putting together the beginning of the game last month and have started to get a feel for the mood & pacing I want for it. I am almost done with the first area and am pretty pleased with how it's turning out. I've reached a point in my coding abilites where I recently put a Help Wanted ad on the XNA forums. Luckily I got some responses pretty quick. Wouldn't be fun to play an adventure game without being able to save, right? I'll try to post some new pics of the game's progress later this month.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
There are a couple factors that have happened that are acting almost as a "perfect storm" to get development underway.

  • The Replica Island source code was released two months ago, giving me a solid base to build my game.
  • I've now got my own Android device to debug on, the ODROID-S. It has a game-focused form factor which is even better.
  • Someone on GAF has inquired about doing the art. ^_^
  • I recently discovered the excellent chiptune site 8bitcollective. I'm going through tracks and hope to approach some of the creators about including some tunes in my game.
  • Finally, I'm about 95% done with the design document for my game which as of right now is almost 9 pages long.
  • Secondly finally, with all of the level mechanics finalized and just about everything planned out (down to the menus!) thanks to the design doc nearing completion, I've started drafting up level designs and have lots of ideas now. :D
It's really looking up right now - I feel closer to actually making game than I ever have before. The difficulties I'm facing now stem from how complex the Replica Island source code is, and the fact that it's the full game (with all art and resources) and not just a skeleton or engine. On the flipside, it's the highest-quality Android game approach I've seen yet.

I also want to take a moment to say how proud I am of my design doc. :D When I finish my game, I'll make it public for all to view (it's on Google Docs, of course.)
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Alright! It's time to look back and see who's not keeping their word! :D Please understand this is mostly for your own good!
And slightly for my satisfaction...

Just from January to March, here are the people who committed or semi-committed to making a game. Striked out people have posted in this thread at least once since that time (i.e., in the past three months.) If they finished their game, their name is red. :)

"Definitely In"
  • Enk
  • Tain
  • JodyAnthony
  • Brobzoid
  • Andrex
  • Why would you do that?
  • rhfb
  • kai3345
  • Dr.Hadji
  • DMPrince
  • shuyin_
  • KittenMaster
  • :Motorbass
  • Mr_Appleby
  • Bay Maximu
  • uncledonnie
  • Bit-Bit
  • Olorin
  • sprsk
  • Tashi0106
  • BurritoBushido
  • Koren
  • Bumpkin
"Maybe In"
  • samratty
  • Koren
  • Tempy
  • Tunin
  • Tryckster
  • Scythesurge
  • jepense
  • AniHawk
  • ultim8p00
  • rohlfinator
  • baultista
  • Sega1991
  • Goron2000
  • Ducarmel
  • Willy105
  • Oblivion
Man. It almost makes me feel bad since I'm usually apart of this group. Heck even though I'm posting here I don't really have anything to show for it. :(

I feel like doing a mass PM to all these people inviting them back. I know I'd like to have a reminder and possible motivator.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Triple post but I want some feedback on something. How are you all handling level data?

I've been thinking of simply doing a text-based tile approach, like this:

Code: 
0000000000
0        0
0   1  1 0
0000000000

Then, when doing collision detecting, traverse the tile and check if the user is intersecting any space that's transparent. Just wanting some idea on how it could be done otherwise.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Sounds like you're doing something similar to how mine is set up. Mine is also using a text file but the difference with mine is that I have two characters represent each tile. The tile collision is on the tile itself for example:

if (tileType == "0)")
return LoadTile("Egg/Plats/EggRiseEdge", TileCollision.Impassable);

Now I'm finding that's still not enough so I made a tile that determines the tileset for each area. I also made two mapsheets per stage: one for the tiles, the other is for play position, items, enemies, etc.

Since I don't have a visual map editor I just use Paint.net to give me an idea on how the level is going to look. With that I make a grid layer of 16X16 squares, then make layers for tiles, items, backdrops, etc. For example:

Map-1.png
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Thanks for the reply.

The way the game I'm basing mine on did it is that every level has a value associated with "theme." All the level layouts themselves used some kind of black and white lines and such, but when paired with the "theme" (island, sewer, etc.) it loaded a different tileset. While they are all functionally the same, they look different. Pretty smart IMO. Sounds similar to what you're doing too. He stored it all in a level_tree.xml file, as well as the rest of the metadata associated with each level.

As for your style, you're right it's similar, but it doesn't seem like you can do slopes with that kind of setup. My current level designs aren't dependent on slopes so I may resort to that, but it's still nice to have the option. However, doing the "is the player intersecting a non-transparent pixel in this tile" approach is a bit out of my coding league at this point. Still, it'd be nice to learn it now for later on.

I'm gonna give Tiled QT a spin tonight with some dummy art. It's a level editor that lets you load your own tiles and such, I just hope it outputs in a format I can work with. Then the entire other half of this struggle is the level loader, although really... that can't be much more complex than a for loop.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Update:

I don't think TiledQT is a good fit even though it's a really solid program. It just doesn't export the format I want. Not only that, someone is working on a Flash level designer native to the game I'm basing mine on. So when that comes out (fingers crossed) I should be able to just put up my levels in that.

As for the levels, themselves, I'm about 30% done designing them, by my measure. It's actually been really fun designing levels. I'm trying to take inspirations from (primarily) Mario World, specifically how horizontal most of the levels are yet they still have a large sky component; however I'm trying not to take that influence too far. The main thing is to come up with designs that really use whatever set of mechanics you've given yourself. And about those mechanics, I've found it's best to limit yourself to a small set of them. That makes it easier to plan out fun ways they all interact with eachother, or standalone.

As an example, one of my levels is completely ladder-based. I think a hallmark of a great platformer is one that doesn't let a mechanic be underutilized. Mario World in particular is great for this, like one of the levels was entirely using the spin jump. I'm not saying a full level should be devoted to every mechanic, but that you should exploit them for all they're worth. And that's why I think limiting the amount of them is a good idea overall. But, if you can handle more, obviously you should do more, as that's probably more fun. ^_^

A reverse argument to this is that every level should introduce a new mechanics, and indeed, I think the newer Mario games pull of this approach very well. But I think even Nintendo admitted that perhaps some mechanics should have more of a chance to shine by making SMG2.

Ah, wow, that was quite a tangent. This was just supposed to be a quick update. :p I wonder how others feel about this.

Anyways, if anyone really cares about my project, you can follow me on Google Buzz. I'll be posting dev blog-ish updates there every so often.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Alrighty, here is my update for the past month along with a few pics. I'm still working on the first area. Getting the second half of this area done has taken me longer than I had anticipated. One in part to my computer crashing at work. Thankfully I backed up my latest update to EG but I think I ended up losing my sprite sheets for my GAFRPG that I was hoping to make after this (also think I lost a bunch of Massimo stuff too). The other reason it's taken so long is that I've been trying to up my game a bit on a few things (mostly enemies and backdrops).

I still don't have a way to save the game. I had someone who offered to help from the XNA forums and he just recently dropped out due to a new job. So the offer is still on the table if anyone whould like to help me with my code.

Ok now for some quick bullet points about EG:

- Game will be free
- Runs full screen at 1280x720
- When done code will be open sourced, giving people a chance to improve on my game or use it to make their own.
- While playable on keyboard, a controller is prefered.
- Character starts with just walk 'n jump, but will gain at least 5 more abilities
- Game is a seemless world (think something between Metroid and Shadow of the Beast)
- Music will be from more obscure games, mostly from the C64 and Amiga era. So don't worry about hearing the Sephiroth theme during the final battle.
- There might be a demo in the coming months

And now for some pics. Most of these are from the first area. They're still a bit early as I still need to go through another run of polishing up some of the spritework. The last one is from a testing area in my game.


EggPlainsA.png


Chomper.png


EggPlants.png


Testing area
Waterfall2.png
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Very very nice! Love the black and white aesthetic. Also, the seamless world thing is something I'll have to try out sometime. Sounds like a great thing to do if it fits your game.

As for saving, couldn't you just do an XML file? My memory is fuzzy but C# (or XNA) has something called something like... XmlFactoryBuilder and XmlFactoryReader, or something like that. I'll have to check the source of my old XNA game to find out for sure. But they allow you to come up with your own schema and parse it very easily. So for a save file, couldn't you just make that, with the position/status of the player? Unless you're doing an auto-save system, where saving to an XML file might make things freeze up a little if you're constantly writing to it...

Anyways, after working on level designs and gameplay mechanics for all of July, I've started "seriously" coding now and I've contacted my artist that he should start working on the sprites as well. October is the targeted release time.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Andrex said:
As for saving, couldn't you just do an XML file? My memory is fuzzy but C# (or XNA) has something called something like... XmlFactoryBuilder and XmlFactoryReader, or something like that. I'll have to check the source of my old XNA game to find out for sure. But they allow you to come up with your own schema and parse it very easily. So for a save file, couldn't you just make that, with the position/status of the player? Unless you're doing an auto-save system, where saving to an XML file might make things freeze up a little if you're constantly writing to it...
Click to expand...

Yeah you can use XML to save but I can't seem to wrap my head around it enough to get it to work. I also tried just a basic saving data to a txt file and load it from there, but while I'm able to create a txt file with a save it won't produce any of the updated data. There isn't much data that needs to be save (items, level entrance, health obtained, and certain event triggers). If worse comes to worse and I still can't figure it out I'll just keep with the retro theme and do a password system. :p

Andrex said:
Anyways, after working on level designs and gameplay mechanics for all of July, I've started "seriously" coding now and I've contacted my artist that he should start working on the sprites as well. October is the targeted release time.
Click to expand...

Sweet! So should we expect to see some WIP screens in the near future?
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Enk said:
Yeah you can use XML to save but I can't seem to wrap my head around it enough to get it to work. I also tried just a basic saving data to a txt file and load it from there, but while I'm able to create a txt file with a save it won't produce any of the updated data. There isn't much data that needs to be save (items, level entrance, health obtained, and certain event triggers). If worse comes to worse and I still can't figure it out I'll just keep with the retro theme and do a password system. :p
Click to expand...

Hrm. I'll definitely have to crack open that last XNA game I attempted. The XML parsing was probably the thing I was most proud of.

Of course, after moving to Android, I'm without such niceties... Eh, I guess I have SQLite by default, and a key-value system, so I can't complain.

Enk said:
Sweet! So should we expect to see some WIP screens in the near future?
Click to expand...

Should be. I was hoping there'd be some concept art to show at this point, but I don't feel comfortable rushing him as he is doing me a big favor by default just saying he'll help. I shot out an e-mail yesterday saying we both should be picking up the pace, but haven't heard back yet.

At the very least, dummy art and dummy screenshots should be good to go pretty much immediately. :p
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
My new, full dev blog: http://gamesbyandrex.tumblr.com/

I've been posting this around GAF, so I thought it'd be best to also post it in the one thread it's most appropriate.

I have four posts in waiting all finished up about a variety of topics, but I'm saving them for if there's a lull in development. For now, I've been pretty good at updating at a decent clip. But still, it's a bit early. Still no concept art, unfortunately, but development trudges along.

Oh and Enk can you upload your game for the first GAF Creates? The one in the OP of that thread is dead.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Andrex said:
Oh and Enk can you upload your game for the first GAF Creates? The one in the OP of that thread is dead.
Click to expand...

Sure, give me a couple of days to find it. I lost alot of my Massimo/GAF Creates stuff from the last contest on when my work computer crashed, but I know I have it backed up somewhere on my home computer. I'll reupload that along with the other entries too.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Coolio. It looked like the best of the bunch and I'm into playing SMW ROMhacks at the moment. :D
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Ok here they are in one neat little save file:

GAF CREATES I Compilation

If you get stuck in Massimo or want to find the secrets (I recommend playing the two hidden games as my favorite/most creative levels are in there) you can find my strat guide HERE.
Here's the games in this compilation:


Super Mario World - Trip to Bluey's Island
by Ventron

Pics:
Bluestitle.png

Blue4.jpg

Blue3.jpg





Massimo
by Enk

Pics:
title.gif


Massi2.jpg

Massi3-1.jpg





Bowser's Peak
by jepense

Pics:
Image11.gif

untitlediuyy3.jpg

untitlediuyy.jpg






Super Mario Mini Adventure
by Enk
MOD LINK

Image13-1.gif

Image7-7.gif

Image6-7.gif
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Andrex said:
Thanks sooo much Enk. <3

Edit- You made two?
Click to expand...

Yeah, after I got done with Massimo I had 3 weeks left to do something so I thought I would try my hand at making as much of an actual Mario game as possible in that time. I did some things in Mini Adventure that I originally wanted to do in Massimo. Things like making it one contiuous world with each area having a hidden, alternate (harder) version of itself. I think it turned out rather decently considering the short time it took to make it.
 
B

BlazeHedgehog

Member
So how rigid are the Retro game "rules"?

I started a project back in March that I've been slowly ramping up on lately. A Genesis-styled game, but quite clearly beyond the color/effects/resolution limitations of the Sega Genesis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlppP-mQJTk#t=21s

Assuming I light a fire under my own ass and start really cranking hard on it, would that be kosher for entry?
 
N

Neo Child

Banned
Posted this in the iPod Touch thread and whatnot but may as well plug it here.

I'm making a DOS style platformer/stealh game where you play as a bum and try to get to the end of the level, collecting beer bottles and boxes as you go avoiding cops & hiding in trashcans.

It's for the App Store as well as PC/MAc and should be done in September!

Heres a link to the blog so you can follow all the progress, screens & videos at the jump:
http://supercuriosityblog.blogspot.com/

Please subscribe :3 - I want to get as much interest as I can by the time the App Store version is out!
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Neo Child said:
Posted this in the iPod Touch thread and whatnot but may as well plug it here.

I'm making a DOS style platformer/stealh game where you play as a bum and try to get to the end of the level, collecting beer bottles and boxes as you go avoiding cops & hiding in trashcans.

It's for the App Store as well as PC/MAc and should be done in September!

Heres a link to the blog so you can follow all the progress, screens & videos at the jump:
http://supercuriosityblog.blogspot.com/

Please subscribe :3 - I want to get as much interest as I can by the time the App Store version is out!
Click to expand...

Subscribed a while ago. :p Even left your only comment, I think.
 
Link1110

Link1110

Member
Cool. I've been working on a gbmobo style rpg maker game, so now I have a deadline. Does using graphics (and only graphics) from actual gb games count as plagarism for the purposes if this contest?

Also, can my game have some modern amenities (tales like skits and optional voice pack?)
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Olorin said:
Those black and white screens look amazing Enk! Very nice spritework.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Though I do think my sprite work still feels a bit amatuerish, but at least it reflects what I want it to look like. I do find myself trying to improve with each new area I'm making. I'm just now starting to get a better hang of handling animations.



Sega1991 said:
So how rigid are the Retro game "rules"?

I started a project back in March that I've been slowly ramping up on lately. A Genesis-styled game, but quite clearly beyond the color/effects/resolution limitations of the Sega Genesis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlppP-mQJTk#t=21s

Assuming I light a fire under my own ass and start really cranking hard on it, would that be kosher for entry?
Click to expand...

What you have there is perfectly fine, and looks quite good so far. My game doesn't completely adhere to the time period limitations, but it's very much retro in spirit. Hope you get the motivation to finish it!



Neo Child said:
Heres a link to the blog so you can follow all the progress, screens & videos at the jump:
http://supercuriosityblog.blogspot.com/

Please subscribe :3 - I want to get as much interest as I can by the time the App Store version is out!
Click to expand...

Looking pretty nice so far! Has a Knytt like look to it.


Link1110 said:
Cool. I've been working on a gbmobo style rpg maker game, so now I have a deadline. Does using graphics (and only graphics) from actual gb games count as plagarism for the purposes if this contest?

Also, can my game have some modern amenities (tales like skits and optional voice pack?)
Click to expand...

That's fine as long as the game is your own creation and you're not planning to sell it with the ripped sprites.
 
D

desverger

Member
Oh dang, I wish I had found out about this thread sooner, might have actually made something. I'm currently developing an rpg on my spare time (with Unity), but it doesn't really fit the OP's description. Hoping to pitch in next year or something, if you're planning to hold a new one.

It was really nice to read those updates, Enk - things like that always give your own project more momentum. And I guess your own too :lol
 
J

jepense

Member
I haven't written anything here in a while, so here goes.

As I wrote earlier in the spring, I've been pretty swamped with Real Life and likely will continue to be for the immediate future. So, I'm afraid I won't be able to make the game I was hoping to. However, I did more or less finish the card game part of my game in the summer. In that sense I got what I wanted from the project, as I was able to build an engine of my own, even if a very simple one. If I find time, I'll try to construct something easy around what there is now.
 
K

kai3345

Banned
Might want to bump me down to "Maybe in" because of school and all I doubt I'll be getting any work done.

Also, just a question, would a Neverwinter Nights Module count?
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
Time for another monthly update (in wall of text form)

Lots of big and little stuff done this past month. I finished the general look and layout of an area that I spent the last two months on. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and because of it it helped defined the progressing mood 'n style that I will give the rest of my game.

I also managed to complete a small transition area that was fun to experiment with. One thing I learned from games like Metroid and Mega Man are the quiet moments. Sections that don't contain enemies that allow for a bit of a breather. I think it benefits the pacing a lot better and really helps heighten the atmosphere. I'm very much looking forward to next area I'm working on this month. I'm experimenting with some new things so it should be both very fun and frustrating to create.

Also this past month I FINALLY have a save system! I have to thank Mad Mojo over at the XNA forums for helping me with this, because without it I would have been greatly concerned over how long my game was going be. His help as also taught me how to handle some things in the menu system that could be very beneficial in the future if I want to add things like difficulty levels.

I've also been tying up some loose ends, trying to make the game feel less like an awkward mess and more like a real game. The main character now has a death animation and a more refined moveset. I've added fading transitions between each area along with a way to fade out music. I've also expanded my engine to be more open. I now have a near unlimited tile system, overlapping tiles, and an easier way of handling large tile pieces. I'm starting to get to a point where I feel comforable showing this off to people without having to constantly explain "oh this is just temporary".

There might be more pics in the near future. I've been pretty reserve on what I want to show and will probably continue to do so for the time being. I rather you all going into this with very little expectations. So in the mean time here's some more deatils on EG:

- I'm trying to mix a balance of old school difficulty with some modern tropes. The player will have infinite lives and will always restart at the begining of the area you died on with full health... BUT the areas are a bit on the lengthy side (think Shadow of the Beast). There are no health drops so it becomes more about survival. I'm paying a close eye on how difficult each section of the area is and making sure that even though it can be tricky, I would be able to pass it without getting hit on my many playthroughs.

- The first section of the game (the B & W screens I've been showing) starts off very linear. There are a couple of times where you a can branch off the path but for the most part it's straight forward. Like any other good Metroidvania I will tease the player at other paths you can take but can't reach due to a lack of an particular item to get there. If you come to an area that seems impossible to get by (I usually try to make it very clear) then try another route. At a partcular point after the first section, the game will really open up and will become something different and more adventury.

- Like any other good side scrolly adventure game, this one will also have its fair share of backtracking. While I realize that me and many other gamers love the idea of going back and exploring the game's world to uncover new secrets, there's some people that don't. So at one point in the game there will be a way to make traveling back and forth quicker for that group of people.

- The game's pacing is more old fashion. There's a slower pace to it than more modern retro styled games like Cave Story. I would put it along the same lines as something like Ufouria, Faxanadu, or Castlevania II.

- Story is strictly kept at a bare minimum, in fact on first impression there isn't any! There is a bit of the story there but I'm not going to stop the flow of the game to tell it. For this type of game I believe the story is best told through level progression rather than jumbling up the screen with bullshit.

- I'm conceding to the fact that I am not a "Bad enough nerd" to be able to finish this game this year. I broke one of my rules and got too invested and ambitious with what I'm making. I do think I should be able to provde some type of demo of the first section by the end of this year.

jepense said:
I haven't written anything here in a while, so here goes.

As I wrote earlier in the spring, I've been pretty swamped with Real Life and likely will continue to be for the immediate future. So, I'm afraid I won't be able to make the game I was hoping to. However, I did more or less finish the card game part of my game in the summer. In that sense I got what I wanted from the project, as I was able to build an engine of my own, even if a very simple one. If I find time, I'll try to construct something easy around what there is now.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad you were able to get something out of it though. Don't feel too stressed about meeting the contest's deadline. Once I came to the conclusion that my game wasn't going to make it out by the end of this year I got into a much more comfortable mindset about making it. If you feel you may have something good and fun on your hands take the time you need to and make it into what you want it to be.

kai3345 said:
Might want to bump me down to "Maybe in" because of school and all I doubt I'll be getting any work done.

Also, just a question, would a Neverwinter Nights Module count?
Click to expand...

Probably not. I was thinking something more retro like 8/16 bit console games or Amiga/C64 style computer games.
 
D

desverger

Member
Enk said:
- Story is strictly kept at a bare minimum, in fact on first impression there isn't any! There is a bit of the story there but I'm not going to stop the flow of the game to tell it. For this type of game I believe the story is best told through level progression rather than jumbling up the screen with bullshit.
Click to expand...

Just dropping a point to this - it's an excellent idea and I wish more stories would be actually told through the game world itself in games, in a way that the worlds themselves are built different and interesting. Leave little details in hidden and not-so-hidden places for the players to find, and they can ogle them if they so choose. It's easy the place stuff that will pick on the brain of the player, for example empty houses, signs of living and mysterious object formations (think of those little fairy circles in Ultima games) scattered around the game world.

Most games these days are trying to simulate dramatic situations from real life in a text box, which isn't a bad thing always, but not all the people want to read all that text just to immerse themselves. My personal biggest offender is definitely a big wall of text at the start of a game, when the typical player wants just to actually play the game.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Nice, Enk. Keep on trucking. I can't wait to play that demo.

@desverger: I agree. My game has cutscenes, but they're optional through collectibles. I think it's a good reward.

As for my game, I don't know how I should best say this... But here it is. In June I was approached by GAF member El Papa about doing the art for my game. We were in close contact until about August, and I haven't heard from him since.

I don't want to turn this into a he-said, she-said type of deal, but it is disparaging not to hear back from him, especially since art is an important pillar of every game - perhaps even the most important part. I'm not a graphics whore, but what the player sees is definitely one of the key ways a game makes an impression, and it's one of the quickest ways as well.

So, in lieu of that, I decided to re-arrange some aspects of development. My game will either be made in Game Maker or XNA (I'm leaning on Game Maker unless I hear some serious objections) so that I can better focus on the art, and of course, now it will be free. (This also means I'm eligible for the contest! Woot.) As per the original vision, the graphics will be scaled back to 8-bit to accomodate my skills.

The only missing piece now is the music, which his brother was supposedly going to provide. I've messed around with WarioWare DIY's music editor a bit but I don't know if I can make a full OST. At best, I can make some sound effects and maybe a song or two.

So that's where thing's stand right now. A bright spot is that I recently finished up almost all the level designs (87% done), so that coupled with the static design doc means that all the design aspects are finalized and only await implementation. Which, of course, is 2/3 the work. :lol

I don't know what to make of this transformation, I'm sad I won't get to debut my game on my favorite mobile platform (and possibly make some money from it), and I'm sad I won't get to see someone else's take on how the game should look and sound, but at the same time, I'm a bit relieved that I'm switching to an easier-to-develop-for platform and that I can say that I made this game 100% by myself.
 
E

Enk

makes good threads.
desverger said:
Most games these days are trying to simulate dramatic situations from real life in a text box, which isn't a bad thing always, but not all the people want to read all that text just to immerse themselves. My personal biggest offender is definitely a big wall of text at the start of a game, when the typical player wants just to actually play the game.
Click to expand...

While I don't have a big problem with stories in games, I do think some game types benefit more with a more ambiguous story than others. Imagine if in Super Metroid you were stopped every so often so that the game can give you a brief history of Samus, then proceded to tell you more of the current story, then described to you where to go next and why you need to go there, then gave you a new weapon while at the same time detailing why it's been given to you. For me that would take me out of the experience and would just annoy me, It's easier and more effective to just imply and let the player create their own suitable interpretaion of the game world.

Andrex said:
As for my game, I don't know how I should best say this... But here it is. In June I was approached by GAF member El Papa about doing the art for my game. We were in close contact until about August, and I haven't heard from him since.

I don't want to turn this into a he-said, she-said type of deal, but it is disparaging not to hear back from him, especially since art is an important pillar of every game - perhaps even the most important part. I'm not a graphics whore, but what the player sees is definitely one of the key ways a game makes an impression, and it's one of the quickest ways as well.
Click to expand...

Happened to me twice already. Thankfully I've been able to get by without much help but there's always a time where I would hit a brick wall. Thankfully I did manage to find someone to help me with my game's biggest problem (the save system). I guess people are quick to jump the gun but then realize the amount of work involved and quietly fade away.


Andrex said:
So, in lieu of that, I decided to re-arrange some aspects of development. My game will either be made in Game Maker or XNA (I'm leaning on Game Maker unless I hear some serious objections) so that I can better focus on the art, and of course, now it will be free. (This also means I'm eligible for the contest! Woot.) As per the original vision, the graphics will be scaled back to 8-bit to accomodate my skills.
Click to expand...

I haven't had much problem with XNA so far. but Game Maker would more than likely be easier to wok with. Good luck on the graphics. My advice is to take a bunch of screen shots from NES games and study how they handle their pixel. Also Paint.net has been incredibly helpful for me when drawing sprites.

Andrex said:
The only missing piece now is the music, which his brother was supposedly going to provide. I've messed around with WarioWare DIY's music editor a bit but I don't know if I can make a full OST. At best, I can make some sound effects and maybe a song or two.
Click to expand...
I had to give up on the idea of creating my own soundtrack for now. To do that would take me as long as making the game itself.

Andrex said:
I don't know what to make of this transformation, I'm sad I won't get to debut my game on my favorite mobile platform (and possibly make some money from it), and I'm sad I won't get to see someone else's take on how the game should look and sound, but at the same time, I'm a bit relieved that I'm switching to an easier-to-develop-for platform and that I can say that I made this game 100% by myself.
Click to expand...

Same here. As much as I wanted to put this game on XBLA's indie service, the file size and music would prevent me from doing so. Instead I'll take my cues from releases like Cave Story and Knytt: great new old school games that are free to play for anyone. I may try to port my game down the road to XBLA, but it's not on my mind at the moment.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Enk said:
While I don't have a big problem with stories in games, I do think some game types benefit more with a more ambiguous story than others. Imagine if in Super Metroid you were stopped every so often so that the game can give you a brief history of Samus, then proceded to tell you more of the current story, then described to you where to go next and why you need to go there, then gave you a new weapon while at the same time detailing why it's been given to you.
Click to expand...

I don't have to imagine, that game is Metroid: Other M. *ba dum pish* :p (Haven't actually played Other M yet.)

Enk said:
Happened to me twice already. Thankfully I've been able to get by without much help but there's always a time where I would hit a brick wall. Thankfully I did manage to find someone to help me with my game's biggest problem (the save system). I guess people are quick to jump the gun but then realize the amount of work involved and quietly fade away.
Click to expand...

Yeah, he started to fade into the background around the time I put together a spreadsheet detailing all the specifics that needed to be done (which features needed to be coded, which sprites needed to be drawn, etc.)

Enk said:
I haven't had much problem with XNA so far. but Game Maker would more than likely be easier to wok with. Good luck on the graphics. My advice is to take a bunch of screen shots from NES games and study how they handle their pixel. Also Paint.net has been incredibly helpful for me when drawing sprites.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm still swinging either way. While C# is probably my favorite language (it's at least #2, it and Java swap places every now and then) and I loved XNA when I played with it, I would have to either guess or iterate how to do certain things in it, whereas with Game Maker I know how to do those things. Plus I think GM is cross-platform now, and it has a neat "play GM games in the browser" kinda thing on the website.

Although, XNA is "cross-platform" too I suppose, with PC, Zune, 360, and Windows Phone 7 in the future I believe. :p

Enk said:
I had to give up on the idea of creating my own soundtrack for now. To do that would take me as long as making the game itself.
Click to expand...

Actually I just realized that since my game is going to be free I can use any of the music on 8bc.org. :D I just have to link it. So now the hard part will be wading through the site to find music that matches what I want.

Enk said:
Same here. As much as I wanted to put this game on XBLA's indie service, the file size and music would prevent me from doing so. Instead I'll take my cues from releases like Cave Story and Knytt: great new old school games that are free to play for anyone. I may try to port my game down the road to XBLA, but it's not on my mind at the moment.
Click to expand...

What are the file size/music constraints? How big is your game? o_0

I don't have a 360 so that is kind of out of the question, however I still have hope of eventually porting the game "back" to Android. Once all the art and logic is done, it shouldn't be all too hard.

But yeah, it is a good thing to have your game accessibly to the wide bastion of PC owners for free. Great indeed.
 
R

RobotNinjaHornets

Banned
Ok, I'd love to join in, even though it's probably a bit late to be just starting, but still, might as well.

However, I have one massive problem with these sorts of things:

I never have any idea where to start. Like, at all. It's just all so overwhelming. Any tips or anything?
 
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