So what have I been working on?
Community Forums/Showcase/So what have I been working on?
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| A retro platformer with ZX spectrum style graphics. Currently the only mechanics are the ones you see the the video. I have decided to start the project over but flesh it out more with enemies and other hazards to be more like battlekid or metroid, if I can manage it I'll throw in some big bosses. |
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| I love the old zx spectrum graphics. This looks promising, reminds me of Bruce Lee or JSW. Definitely needs some moving hazards. Nice music too. Did you score it yourself? |
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| I love the old zx spectrum graphics Me too :) |
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| Thanks for that vid; making me nicely nostalgic. I grew up with speccy games. |
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| Love it... clever little game mechanic, too. Looks bloody hard! |
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| Yeah lol. I thought that too - great stuff! |
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| Thanks all. Music was just some stock royalty free music I found on a website, I just threw it on the video for effect, no music in game yet. I’ll probably have a stab at the music with a sid tracker program later down the road, how hard can it be? I’ll be going back to the drawing board with weekend and make it more of a game with back tracking needed to find keys and other items to progress. e.g, he doesn’t start out with a gun but needs to find it and so on. Something like a 5x5 room grid a player need to explore to find his way. I went with ZX style graphics cus’ I can’t draw and the massive restrictions ZX graphics have (8x8 sprites & 2 colours out of 16) actually is help. I even toy’d with the idea of replicating the colour clash you find in real ZX game when sprites overlap but people would just thing the game was broken. Originally I went for a c64 look with the 1x2 pixel format but that just looked odd.  |
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| This looks awesome. Something I am looking forward to playing |
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| I think the blip bloppy old style music really adds a lot to it - having the right audio really gives it the feel I think you are going for. |
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| love the look of the speccy version, but the c64 one is adorable :) To make the foreground pop - darken the background so there is more contrast Got to say the only thing I was not a big fan of was the music, so looking forward to another look :) |
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| ======= Update ======= Well I got some free time in the week, made a new editor to support 40x40 rooms (1600 total) that I can use to build a maze-like metroid world, got all that working with full freedom to move between rooms. Up next this weekend will be adding in enemy types. Thought about some things like allowing the gun to act like a teleporter where the player can teleport to his bullet to add a puzzle element to the game, but I want to keep this fast pace moving from room to room it no portal game. Made some additional tile sets, an outdoor set and an industrial set. I have no idea as to a story or a motivation or an end goal as yet. Think I might start a blog (do people still do those?) for those interested, I'll post the details later. |
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| I have no idea as to a story or a motivation or an end goal as yet. I can't remember any old 8-bit games having either of these anyway. Everything was so simple back then. You just played and after you got fed up dying yet again, you loaded another game... The teleport thing sounds like fun, a good way to pass hazards. If you had a bullet limit then players would have to save bullets for when they need them. Blogs are still very popular as far as I am aware, and wordpress is a great free tool. It would look better than a bb topic anyway, and it means you reach more than just bb visitors. It's also a way to create a good public identity as a developer, and everything you write is in one place. |
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| @Munch Yeah story in the good old days were all about girlfriends or princesses being kidnapped. I'm not to bothered about a story more about a setting I am currently going with the following; [in the future] You're an amusement park security guard on an intergalactic 'earth themed' theme park built on an asteroid flying through space, it's a holiday weekend so you're the only one on duty. Some terrorists\robots have infiltrated the park and taken the control room setting the park on a collision course with earth. You must move through each of the themed amusement worlds, Egypt, Factory, cave etc. beat the boss and move on to the next world until you come face to face with the real enemy in the control room. I am also thinking of having a friendly character (or is he) interact with the player via talking sequences at key points, Solid snake esq. Maybe even include the "no no no!" when you die. |
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| Looking forward to playing this one...If I can control my nostalgia senses :) |
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| After some struggle adding moving platforms and thinking on to adding slopes I think I might have rethink my AABB method when it comes to collisions. Thinking about maybe using Box2D or Chipmonk - experiment time. |
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| Love the sound and style of this! It would be nice to be able to switch between the ZX and C64 graphics as option. |
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| It would be nice to be able to switch between the ZX and C64 graphics as option. I agree as that would be cool for user prefer |
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| Oooo, we're back to the Speccy vs C64 again haha ;) |
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| Oooo, we're back to the Speccy vs C64 again haha ;) Its alright, loading stuff in c64 mode shouldn't take 45 mins these days ;) |
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| Haha...Still think the Speccy version is better lmao ;) |
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| I think I'll stick to ZX for now, though a C64 theme graphic set could be easy to add as long as tile size, animation frames etc. don't change, could just switch up the image atlas. Box2d is not an option reading up on it and its universally not recommended for these retro games that need pixel perfect stuff going on. Bookmarked several pages regarding slopes with AABB collision so I'll work with that might just mean I am limited to 45 deg slopes which is fine. |
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| http://www.funstock.co.uk/sinclair-zx-spectrum-a-visual-compendium-book |
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| Brilliant book :) Just ordered the Amiga and 64 one - yay! |
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| I have the Amiga one, it s true bundle of nostalgia when you need it. I might get the c64 one though would make a nice collection. |
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| Sadly I have had no time to work on the game, largely cus' my Blide trial expired a week and a half ago so waiting for payday (next Monday) to buy it, I cant get on with maxide. I have had time to work on some tile sets; A dark factory of sorts;  An outdoor area of sorts;  The Red tile set in the video I'll rework into a tomb or Egyptian style theme. Other sets I am thinking of Icey, Moon/Mars (might reuse the red set). |
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| SWEET! The bottom one might be improved if the (yellow) dirt was more red/orange? That way the upper free would pop a bit more :) |
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I wish the ZX palette had an orange, ill play the colour a little though. |
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yep, you're quite right, although I would allow you some form of artistic licence:  <wink> Although if you were keeping strictly ZX, then possible dark red+yellow instead of the yellow+white? |
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| @AdamStrange - Okay that orange would be nice and hey who will remember the ZX didn't have an orange, but that's it artistic license has been used. Here's the latest mockup, some enemies now and I have changed the main character, he's no longer a space man, kind of a treasure hunter now, still not idea as to the plot yet, but it's time I get this into code now.  |
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