As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Who wants to make a new game? :D

1356716

Posts

  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    slash000 wrote: »
    Q: How much faster is the Red Dragon than the Yellow and Green?

    The red dragon moves exactly equal to the player's speed.

    Ah! Thanks :^: Now I can finish the Red Dragon code...

    Also, the original did not have a sound for the castle gates opening and closing.

    I know :D But I think the game will benefit from having such a sound








    update:
    Just finished the Red Dragon's code. Now working on the Invisible Micro Dot code since I forgot about that item...

    slash000 on
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I can confirm in the code that the red dragon and the hero both have a speed of three Atari pixels per cycle., or "3 ap/c", if you will. 1 cycle = 1 game loop and the cycle speed is 60hz. My NTSC math may be off, but I think the Atari does 29.95 cycles a second.

    Of course, I may just be pulling this out of my ass. The upshot is hero and dragon are the same.

    I don't know how your game code works, but it's easier to update all the objects in the game every cycle before render. This makes everything much easier to keep track of offscreen.

    halkun on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I need to make a Title Screen. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make it look? Alternatively, anyone wanna make a title screen? :P

    slash000 on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I love the edits you did with my sprites :D

    halkun on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Gave Khavall a little challenge. The only music I can get to work on this thing is either *.wav or MIDI. As a wav, the sound files for music take up a huge amount of space (relative to the program data). As a set of MIDI files for music, the whole program, once complete, will be less than 20 megabytes or so.

    So.. he's going to try and see if he can make a tune that sounds decent in midi format.


    edit: as a matter of fact, it's perfectly feasible that a tune can sound good as MIDI. Just check out stuff on the VG Music Archive.



    halkun wrote: »
    I love the edits you did with my sprites :D

    Heheh, yeah, I've added some little minor flourishes here, some additional frames there, to make it work/fit better in the remake :P

    slash000 on
  • ImpersonatorImpersonator Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Hey, slash, just wondering, what are you using for drawing the sprites? Gale? Paint?

    Impersonator on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Hey, slash, just wondering, what are you using for drawing the sprites? Gale? Paint?

    The majority of the artwork that I did was in creating the overworld art. What I did was I created a set of tiles in Photoshop and then loaded the tiles into a program called Mappy. I used mappy to lay the tiles out to create the entire image of the screen. The torches and animated background bits I also used Photoshop to create the frames for.


    The sprites such as the Hero, Dragons, and items, those are sprites that Halkun actually made already, since he originally started this project and I picked up after he could no longer work on it. I'm not sure what software he used to make his sprites. However, I have had to modify his sprites and add intermediate frames as well as new animations, and to do that, I used Photoshop.


    Really, though, I only use photoshop because it's what I have. Just about any program that lets you create a 'tile' at a certain pixel by pixel size, then zoom in and draw on it on a per-pixel basis, just about any program that does that works fine. I probably could have used MS Paint to do the artwork that I've done this far, but it's easier for me to handle things efficiently in Photoshop.




    edit: I just googled up the Gale program you mentioned. That actually looks awesome and is probably pretty ideal for making sprites.

    slash000 on
  • KhavallKhavall British ColumbiaRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Well, it's MIDI at least. This is the feel I'm looking for for the Forest part. Shamelessly almost directly ripped from Chrono Trigger in terms of the layout. Also the last section before the loop is ripped from Barry Manilow or something. I added a loop back to the beginning, but not the whole thing repeating, to give the feel of how it would be looped.


    Changes I'd like to make: Each section should be about as long as the whole thing is right now. I'll find some way of changing it up so it's not a straight repeat and so it's not just a minute long. Also I'd like to re-do the broader section so that it doesn't sound like aural vomit. I'm too used to using close imitations of real strings where I can just paint with the biggest brush I have and it'll sound lush and broad. I think the problem is crowding in the Organ.

    Khavall on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I think it still sounds great in MIDI format, which is a relief, because that allows the game's filesize to remain within reasonable levels :D Also the MIDI format seems to fit within the 16-bit-ish look and feel of the remake.

    slash000 on
  • jothkijothki Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Would it be a good idea to also have a theme that plays whenever a dragon is on-screen? If you want to be more ambitious, you could make a dragon and non-dragon version of each theme.

    jothki on
  • Rigor MortisRigor Mortis Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Khavall, you ever worked with tracker formats? (XM, S3M, MOD, IT) If you're looking for A. small file size B. consistent reproduction on all computers C. 16-bit console sound - that's probably the best option. (In fact - SNES music is essentially tracker music) I don't know if either you or slash are familiar with them however.

    Rigor Mortis on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Khavall, you ever worked with tracker formats? (XM, S3M, MOD, IT) If you're looking for A. small file size B. consistent reproduction on all computers C. 16-bit console sound - that's probably the best option. (In fact - SNES music is essentially tracker music) I don't know if either you or slash are familiar with them however.

    I don't know anything about them. But I'm pretty sure I can get *.mod, *.it, *.s3m, or *.xm working in this thing. Just can't be *.mp3 or *.ogg, and *.wav is fairly impractical considering the filesizes.

    There's also *.rmi that can work but I dunno wtf that is.


    The big important factor with the music is file size though. But like I said I know nothing about mod/it/s3m/xm/rmi. I just figured that MIDI sounds good for this purpose and is also small in size....


    Khavall, you know anything about these file types? (mod, it, s3m, xm, rmi)? What is your opinion on these types, both as far as sound quality and filesize issues? You're the music man so your opinion on the matter is pretty important.

    slash000 on
  • ben0207ben0207 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Do you guys need any more help? I can write (English, not code) and I'm a professional proofreader / copy editor.

    I also might be able to offer a germna translation if I can pester my girlfriend enough.

    ben0207 on
  • Rigor MortisRigor Mortis Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    slash000 wrote: »
    Khavall, you ever worked with tracker formats? (XM, S3M, MOD, IT) If you're looking for A. small file size B. consistent reproduction on all computers C. 16-bit console sound - that's probably the best option. (In fact - SNES music is essentially tracker music) I don't know if either you or slash are familiar with them however.

    I don't know anything about them. But I'm pretty sure I can get *.mod, *.it, *.s3m, or *.xm working in this thing. Just can't be *.mp3 or *.ogg, and *.wav is fairly impractical considering the filesizes.

    There's also *.rmi that can work but I dunno wtf that is.

    The big important factor with the music is file size though. But like I said I know nothing about mod/it/s3m/xm/rmi. I just figured that MIDI sounds good for this purpose and is also small in size....

    Khavall, you know anything about these file types? (mod, it, s3m, xm, rmi)? What is your opinion on these types, both as far as sound quality and filesize issues? You're the music man so your opinion on the matter is pretty important.
    Well, basically tracker formats are MIDI data + a built in wavetable + effects. They're most commonly seen in the old 90's-era demoscene.

    Mod is the oldest, most limited type. XM/IT/S3M are all extended formats initiated by the popular trackers FastTracker/ImpulseTracker/and ScreamTracker respectively - Deus Ex had music in this format, so did Unreal and Unreal Tourney classic... basically any old Unreal Engine games since the official Unreal music format was mod music for the first few engine revisions - and like I said, SNES games used this format. Or if you want to hear examples here and now, pop over to www.modarchive.com

    What I can do is download Khavall's MIDI once I have a chance (not on my own PC right now) and convert to XM so you can see.

    Rigor Mortis on
  • RidleySariaRidleySaria AnaheimRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    This is pretty cool, Slash. I have good memories of Adventure. It and Pitfall 2 were my two favorite Atari games.... then later Zelda and Metroid ended up being my two favorite game game series. Funny how that works out.

    Sooooo..... any plans to remake Custer's Revenge? :winky:

    RidleySaria on
    -- Switch friend code: 2978-3296-1491 -- PSN: RidleySaria -- Genshin Impact UID: 607033509 --
  • ZackSchillingZackSchilling Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Sooooo..... any plans to remake Custer's Revenge? :winky:

    A game that awesome deserves nothing less than a PSX-style remake.

    Software-rendered 3D at 320x240 with no more than 1 MB of textures on screen at any given time.

    ZackSchilling on
    ghost-robot.jpg
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Sooooo..... any plans to remake Custer's Revenge? :winky:

    A game that awesome deserves nothing less than a PSX-style remake.

    Software-rendered 3D at 320x240 with no more than 1 MB of textures on screen at any given time.


    Already been done...
    ss1.jpg
    ss2.jpg

    halkun on
  • RidleySariaRidleySaria AnaheimRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Well I'll be a monkey's uncle.

    RidleySaria on
    -- Switch friend code: 2978-3296-1491 -- PSN: RidleySaria -- Genshin Impact UID: 607033509 --
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Whoo!

    Every room, item, and dragon for Quest 1 has been pieced together and placed properly, and everything works as it should!

    Now I just need to fiddle with the dragon(s) code a little bit to nail that down, put in the code to end the Quest when you return the Chalice, and animate just a few more background items (the waves/birds in the Wharf) and I'll be done with Quest 1!* Then time to tackle the biggest obstacle.... Quest 2....


    *(done, that is, pending music from Khavall)

    slash000 on
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Because you have LVL 1 done, you should release it as a demo

    halkun on
  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Holy penis. Making vidja games is a lot of work, eh?

    AbsoluteZero on
    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Holy penis. Making vidja games is a lot of work, eh?

    Hahah, yeah, this is a ton of work.

    I mean, sure, I'm remaking an Atari 2600 game, which sounds fairly easy and straightforward at first blush, but holy crap Adventure 2600 is probably the most sophisticated Atari 2600 game there ever was. Or at least it seems like it, considering how much depth there actually is going on under the surface to this game. I didn't realize there was so much going on in this game when I started. Thankfully halkun here can look at the original game's code and tell us how it works.


    So yeah it's lots of work and going to take me a lot of time. But everything is going pretty smoothly and I'm certain that I'll be able to complete this project. Just going to take a couple of months probably.

    I'm glad that I'm not tracking the amount of time I've spent on this though. I've probably spent more time making this game than I've spent playing videogames in general over the past month. :P







    In update news, I've been reworking some Dragon code to make it better, and it's working pretty well. I've also fixed up a lot of superficial stuff (title screen, HUDs, etc.), as well as polished a few areas' artwork. I've also been spending a lot of time animating the Wharf. Holy shit that place takes forever to animate with all the waves and birds and shit. But I'll be done with that fairly soon.

    Then I'll probably post a video.

    slash000 on
  • KhavallKhavall British ColumbiaRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Writing....



    music....


    slowly.....


    I actually had a wharf piece all worked up. Then I realized it sucked stupid amounts of ass and started again

    Khavall on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Hahah, nice. Keep up the good work, Khavall :^:

    slash000 on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Update -

    The code I initially put in (about a week or two ago) didn't really work properly. So the past 4 or 5 days I've spent reworking it. Fortunately, I've so far been successful, but I'm still hammering out the details. Unfortunately, it makes the process take a lot longer.

    In the meantime, I've been able to construct more of the front-end and gui, so that it actually looks like a game, rather than a demo, even at this early state. I did that mostly so I wouldn't have to look at plain text on white every time I booted up for testing :P


    Lastly, I've finished animating everything. The Wharf was a bitch, with all of its waves, water hitting walls, and rocks, and birds. But it looks so much better now. I'll probably go back, after doing more code, and polish more areas' graphics though, but I've done periodic polishing of various parts in the meantime.

    I've also put in some placeholder sound effects and a little bit of placeholder music, so that I could get that related stuff working so that when Khavall finishes some tunes I can be ready to insert them.

    Lastly, I finished putting in the "victory" state for when you return the chalice. I put in a funny little ending but of course that's not a primary focus right now :P

    I also put in a failure state, for when you get eaten. And you can Continue, subsequently, which respawns Hero back to the Gold Castle. And true to the original, all of your items and enemies are still in their respective places when you died. Thank God that worked the way I planned :D



    Since I'm kind of building this game from the top down, once I hammer out everything for Quest 1, doing Quest 2 won't be so difficult or time consuming, because all of the major features will already be in place, and I'll just have to expand the World and code the Red Dragon priority list and the Bat code. The Red Dragon will take not too long, since he's only interested in a few things. The Bat I have no idea how troublesome it will be until I start working on it. From the outset, the bat doesn't seem too difficult, but then neither did the priorities for the Green dragon...

    slash000 on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Finished "Quest 1." Just lettin' everyone know. I still need to do some superficial stuff but that all can come later.

    For now... I guess.. I'm going to start... the real task... Quest 2.

    slash000 on
  • SeeksSeeks Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    So wait... what's all this Quest 1, Quest 2 stuff?

    I didn't know Adventure had so much stuff in it. Of course I've never played it, soo....

    Seeks on
    userbar.jpg
    desura_Userbar.png
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Seeks wrote: »
    So wait... what's all this Quest 1, Quest 2 stuff?

    I didn't know Adventure had so much stuff in it. Of course I've never played it, soo....


    It's all the same "world," but the game is set up into 3 "quests." Each quest takes place in essentially the same world, but you encounter different things in different ways in each Quest.

    Quest 1 is kind of like a beginner's mode. It basically cuts off 2/3 of the Overworld, takes out two of the worst enemies, and is a very short quest.

    Quest 2 is the standard Adventure quest. You have to find all the keys, unlock all the castles, use the bridge, use everything. You have a bat flying around stealing/moving shit, and all 3 kinds of dragons chasing you. You have to traverse the difficult mazes to access all of the areas, since the whole world is open now, isntead of just 1/3 of it.


    Quest 3 is like a Hard mode but also gives you replay value. In Quest 3, the setup for the world/enemies/items is the same, except the items are all randomly placed. So each time you pick Quest 3, you're playing the true, full game, but each time it's a different experience due to random object placement. It gets tough, though.



    So in a way each Quest is like a difficulty setting, or you could look at it as a beginner's mode (quest 1), the regular game (quest 2), and a challenge mode (Quest 3).


    You pick the Quest when you first start the game, so usually it's good to do Quest 1 to get the hang of it, then tackle Quest 2, and finally Quest 3 if you're up to it.

    slash000 on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    OK, need some help:


    adv-map1.gif

    See the reddish maze connected to the White Castle?

    Look at the lower left 'quadrant' of that red maze.

    See how there's an opening at the bottom of that room?


    Where the crap does that door lead to!?!?!??!

    slash000 on
  • MenasorMenasor Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    There are numbers by those gaps. They go to the red maze screen on the right with the corresponding number.

    Similar to the letters showing the wraps for the orange maze and blue maze.

    Menasor on
    Destiny PS4: Earthen1
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Menasor wrote: »
    There are numbers by those gaps. They go to the red maze screen on the right with the corresponding number.

    Similar to the letters showing the wraps for the orange maze and blue maze.


    Sorry. Look at the bottom maze behind the White castle. It's got 4 pieces. the bottom left piece has a door, but no corresponding number...


    ..I'm confused as to where that door leads! :P

    There's no number! :(

    slash000 on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    This will help.



    Where does this door lead to?


    I circled it in bright pink and wrote out the question on the Red maze towards the bottom behind the White castle:


    moremapsav2.jpg

    slash000 on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Wow. I played the original, and tried going through that door. It leads nowhere. It's just a wall and plops you back into that room. It leads nowhere.

    slash000 on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Woo yeah, just finished "stitching" together all of the rooms of the overworld for Quest 2!

    Now for the hard part. Placing items and making sure the Dragons work properly.

    I think I'm going to rewrite the Dragon's chase and priorities code though to make it a little more reliable though so it'll take a while. Plus now I have to set up the Red Dragon properly. Damn.

    And then... I have to do the Bat. Ugh. The bat's going to take a while to make it work, since the bat itself can carry items; and the player can carry the bat while the bat carries an item. It adds a whole extra layer of complication.

    But I'll be crackin' at it. It'll just take a while.

    Once Quest 2 is done, Quest 3 should be fairly easy to implement I think.

    slash000 on
  • Capt HowdyCapt Howdy Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    slash000 wrote: »
    This will help.



    Where does this door lead to?


    I circled it in bright pink and wrote out the question on the Red maze towards the bottom behind the White castle:


    moremapsav2.jpg

    Make it an easter egg room. Slash's homage to himself, or an hommage to PA. Which ever.

    Do what you wish with it is the basic summary of this post, I suppose.

    Capt Howdy on
    Steam: kaylesolo1
    3DS: 1521-4165-5907
    PS3: KayleSolo
    Live: Kayle Solo
    WiiU: KayleSolo
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    oh, right, I forgot I still need to make an Easter Egg room. I'll put something interesting in there. Haven't decided exactly upon what yet but I have some ideas. :D

    slash000 on
  • KhavallKhavall British ColumbiaRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I'm done with finals week as of tomorrow morning, and once I do a "bridge" or sorts, I've got the wharves music ;-)

    Khavall on
  • SonarSonar Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Are you absolutly positive there wasn't a black dragon? I played the shit out of adventure and I recall an invisible (black) castle ( on a black background) and trivia g to avoid getting eaten by a black dragon. I think I remember the black dragon more than the red. There weren't two versions of the game were there?

    Sonar on
    I'm building a real pirate ship. Really. Wanna help? Click here!
    steam_sig.png
    caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
  • yurnamehereyurnamehere Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    slash000 wrote: »
    This will help.



    Where does this door lead to?


    I circled it in bright pink and wrote out the question on the Red maze towards the bottom behind the White castle:


    moremapsav2.jpg

    I believe it takes you to the room above (though obviously the way is blocked by the top wall.) I think you can use the bridge to pass through, though.

    yurnamehere on
Sign In or Register to comment.