Platform engine demo

[OldRover]

The demo is almost done... it's an almost fully playable game at this point, most of the statistics are in place (just missing experience/leveling, but that gets added next), and it even has a boss fight (although it's pitifully easy). There's no magic spells yet though, and the submenu isn't implemented either... those won't be added for this demo release. The release will come with my next posting.

[OldRover]

The demo is ready.

/monolith-xmasdemo.7z

Not quite everything I wanted to have done made it in, but it's still good for a few laughs. However, it's actually a playable game at this point... just not a complete game.

[Vecanti]

Amazing how fast you did this.  Got to the boss and he kicked my butt.  This is just awesome!

[OldRover]

The shadow boss is pretty easy to beat... all he does is follow you, he never attacks (although he actually has attack frames... he never uses them). You take a swing at him, hop on a rope, and jump over his head... rinse and repeat.

[OldRover]

A lot of subtle little details are being added here and there...

/monolith45a.png

[OldRover]

Just a quick little update... the game engine now supports "door warps"... going through doors to end up in a different part of the map. It also now supports basic dynamic parallax. As a side-effect of door warps, it now also supports enemy respawning a la Exile II. I'm going to release a supplemental build of the ISO soon that shows off these new features if anyone is interested.

[OldRover]

Try this out. It's a replacement for track02.iso so use it with the xmas demo release.
CLICKY

[Vecanti]

Will try when I get home from work!

[OldRover]

Our server is having DNS issues at the moment so if it doesn't work, just try again later on.

[OldMan]

I musta snagged it before then :-)

Very Nice! Like the earth showing behind the walls, but there's only one good place to see it. Tricky jumps aren't my thing, but the controls were very responsive, even after adding all the extras over the last few days. Really impressed by the transparent HUD, especially scores. Some day I'll have to figure out how to do it :-)

My Complaints? Need to be able to change sides while climbing rope, and the ladder animation needs a back view. I know, it's a demo - just keep it in mind :-)

Good Work!

[OldRover]

The rope thing is a result of no X correction, and the ladder animation is a result of my first artist at the time not drawing the frames. The X correction is low on the priority list but it's in the plan, and Keranu is now drawing the sprites so it will be added. I have an even more recent version of the game built here:

/monolith-dec29.7z

It has a total of three rooms (four doors now total) with some serious timing corrections, plus new samples added and more exposure of the moon.

[OldRover]

OK... back from vacation. Getting some more work done on this. New shots to reveal.

/monolith49.png

Area names are now working, a la Exile II. This particular area, as stated before, is not going to be in the final game so I can call it whatever the hell I want to. This name just kinda popped into my head. Dunno why. I guess it means something still works upstairs.

/monolith56.png

This is the start of the submenu. As you can see, there is no "armor", "shields", or "headwear" in this game... instead, you have Bracer and Ring. Bracer is similar to Armor, and Ring is similar to something like Relic in FF6, or like the Rings in Ys Book I. Magic selects which spell you're currently using, and Item allows you to... use an item. I guess I don't have to explain Exit. At the bottom of the submenu is the statistics. Most should be easy to figure out. STR = Strength, DEF = Defense, M.A = Magic Attack, M.D = Magic Defense, W.P = Weapon Power, A.C = Armor Class, MLH = Moolah, the game's currency.

/monolith54.png

New title screen.

[OldRover]

Nod needs to post the Monolith update on PCEFX so people can worship my ego

OK.

/monolith-jan5thupdate.7z

This has a ton of changes from the last public release, most notably Keranu's new character sprite, some tweaks to enemy damage, the start of the subscreen, and some new sound effects.

[Vecanti]

Finally got a chance to play the latest version last night.  It's looking great.  I still can't believe how fast it's come along. Great work.

Oh, yeah I was going to ask about the rooms with the red/black stripe, is that some sort of copper effect?  It's scrolling at a different speed is why I was asking.  Very cool effect.

[OldRover]

There's even more changes in the most recent build... Keranu's sprite set is now complete and includes the ladder-climb animation as well as a death sequence. Also, the platform collision code is going to be upgraded with a new technique that will not only allow slopes to be constructed, but virtually any kind of dips or cracks in the floor, including curves. Using this technique, it will be possible to create floors similar to those found in games like Sonic The Hedgehog... rounded hills will be a piece of cake to create. I'll be starting the code for this today and if all goes as planned, I'll bring out another demo after it's implemented. I don't want to go too crazy with the demos but this has been one hell of an educational production thus far and once the game is complete, I'll be releasing the source code to the game engine so other people can utilize it to make their own platformers.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Finally got a chance to play the latest version last night.  It's looking great.  I still can't believe how fast it's come along. Great work.

Oh, yeah I was going to ask about the rooms with the red/black stripe, is that some sort of copper effect?  It's scrolling at a different speed is why I was asking.  Very cool effect.

I believe Nod missed yer question, so, I will answer it!  IIRC, that is an example of some dynamic paralax.  It's not that copper effect, as if I understand, that effect(used frequently on Amiga) is vertical, while this is horizontal.  Can this paralax go both horizontal & vertical?  I don't know.  Ultimately, if you want a real explanation, you'll have to wait for Nod/Old Rover to get back up in here!

[Vecanti]

I believe Nod missed yer question, so, I will answer it!  IIRC, that is an example of some dynamic paralax.  It's not that copper effect, as if I understand, that effect(used frequently on Amiga) is vertical, while this is horizontal.  Can this paralax go both horizontal & vertical?  I don't know.  Ultimately, if you want a real explanation, you'll have to wait for Nod/Old Rover to get back up in here!

Yeah, I add the question a little late.  But yeah, as an old Amiga user you're right, the copper goes the other way, but looks similar so wasn't sure.  Should be interesting to find out how they do it as it seems like 2 layers.

[OldRover]

What you're seeing is dynamic tile parallax. A lot of PCE games use it. Dracula X, for example... in MANY places, but most notably in the first part of Stage 6... those blue bricks in the background that move slower than the rest of the level... dynamic tiles. And it's easy for games like that which rarely scroll on both axes... when you deal with dual scrolling, it's a whole new ball game... required memory for two-dimensional dynamic parallax will be no less than 3x that of one-dimensional dynamic parallax... and that's to say nothing if you have a complex design which requires an entire tile scroll... that equates to 8x the memory required. And if you have such a complex pattern, you're already going to be using 8 unique tiles for horizontal alone... you then need 7 more variant sets of 8 tiles each. That's 64 unique tiles... and that's only for *one* repeating pattern... imagine if you have several independent scrolling tiles (like Dracula X does). Now, each of these dynamic tiles tile consumes 1KB of RAM. However, in a game like this one, tiles are represented as *metatiles*, which means that everything has now expanded to 4x the usage. Again, this is also dependent on the complexity of your tiles. In my demo, only four tiles are required to pull off the parallax, and since it's a solid up-down pattern, it could go vertical without even noticing that there's no actual vertical parallax.

Another thing Dracula X does, which is also seen in quite a few other games (like Air Zonk) is h-int parallax. Basically, what you're doing here is redrawing parts of the screen based on the position of the raster. That's how you get games with serious full-line parallax. Air Zonk nailed this one *hard*, as did Shadow Of The Beast. My platformer currently doesn't show off this technique, but it will later on. Of course, some games combine both techniques in the same display, and then you can also mix sprites into the display to give the illusion of "true" parallax by creating "uneven" scrolls.

So yeah, anyways... you do dynamic tile parallax when you want to create areas where the background is simple but you need a complex foreground arrangement, and you use h-ints for when your foreground is simpler but you need complex backgrounds with full-line parallax scrolling.

[spenoza]

Well, this is coming along quite nicely, now. Jumping still feels just a little bit fiddly, like the physics of it still need a little tweaking, but definitely improved. The character also still seems a little fast. Perhaps a slower character with a double-tap to run function would be easier to manipulate. I like what you've done with the background work, and though the level design seems interesting but sparse, I'm sure that'll change as the level becomes populated with more enemies and stuff.

[ParanoiaDragon]

That level's not going to even be in the game, it's just a demo level to base everything on. 

As for dynamic paralax, it doesn't bother me when a level have verticality in it, but no vertical paralax, just horizontal, & I believe that's totally doable IIRC.  I've seen plenty of games do it, even on the Gen & SNES, let alone the Turbo, so I hope we can do some more complex looking bg tiles in this in an area that has vertical scrolling, & not worry about the vertical paralax.  Just leave the bg where it's at(solid, so it scrolls at the same speed as the rest of the tiles), or maybe make it static like the moon.

[Vecanti]

I've seen plenty of games do it, even on the Gen & SNES, let alone the Turbo, so I hope we can do some more complex looking bg tiles in this in an area that has vertical scrolling, & not worry about the vertical paralax.

Do you mean something like this?

The far background only moves horizontally and when the guy climbs down ladders it doesn't move vertically at all.

Or are you meaning something more like first 10 seconds of this?

Where neither of the backgrounds move vertically, but have parallax when going horizontally.

I was just playing Gradius II and level2 does the second one just fine.

[awack]

Yeah, they're two levels in gradius II that use horizontal and virtical scrolling dynamic tiles.

[OldRover]

The current demo level has reached the end of its usefulness. I'm going to be preparing a new demo level, which will be an outside area, with the new slope functionality as well as passable platforms and probably some h-int parallax.

The movement speed is probably going to stay the way it is. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's games like this that move way too slow and feel like you're controlling a lethargic tortoise ass. JB originally moved at this speed but it was a bit too fast for that game so we slowed it down a bit. However, the movement speed is not the reason for the spotty jumping... that's the result of the hitbox being too small. I will increase the size of the hitbox on his feet by 1 unit in each direction, which will give more solid control on edges.

Well anyways, here's the final test build of the Aroso map. The bookcases are big black boxes in this build for some reason but I'm not concerned with that as this is the final build using this test map. It was compiled the other day so it doesn't have any changes to the collision just yet. It does, however, have Keranu's additional sprites.

http://www.nodtveidt.net/monolith-arosofinal.7z

[ParanoiaDragon]

I've seen plenty of games do it, even on the Gen & SNES, let alone the Turbo, so I hope we can do some more complex looking bg tiles in this in an area that has vertical scrolling, & not worry about the vertical paralax.

Do you mean something like this?

The far background only moves horizontally and when the guy climbs down ladders it doesn't move vertically at all.

Or are you meaning something more like first 10 seconds of this?

Where neither of the backgrounds move vertically, but have parallax when going horizontally.

I was just playing Gradius II and level2 does the second one just fine.

I'm confused, are those both the same links?  I didn't see a difference in either's scrolling, seemed like both vertically did the same thing, with them both being in the same level.    I think from a technical standpoint Shadow of the Beast's vertical scrolling for the bg (or lack thereof) makes it static(which I believe is still dynamic paralax) which is easier then to have it scroll.  But having a bg that would scroll along with the rest of the level(at the same speed) making it solid vertically I would figure would be eaier yet.  Offhand I don't remember what games I've seen do this for SNES & Gen, but I do recall finding some, even though both can technically do vertical with no problem(atleast in regards to having atleast a 2nd bg layer if not more).

If I recall, the Gen version of Valis 3's tower level, actually have the reverse of sorts.  When you move horizontally, the bg is solid, but horizontally it uses regular paralax(as opposed to static).  Other then that, I can't think of any examples at the moment.

[Vecanti]

I'm confused, are those both the same links?  I didn't see a difference in either's scrolling, seemed like both vertically did the same thing, with them both being in the same level.   

Yeah, same video but different times.  On the first link I was wanting to show the vertical scrolling where the farthest away background doesn't actually move (vertically).  The second was I was just meaning the first ten seconds.

On level5 in Aero blaster there are 2 layers with horizontal and vertical parallax at the same time.

level6 has this part that is interesting, looks a little like Air Zonk, but the layers are moving vertically and horizontally in parallax to each other.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Yeah they did some neat stuff with Aeroblasters, that Stage 6 part might be considered h-int(horizontal interupt), like you said, in Air Zonk, though, this seems to overlap slightly, so, I'm not 100% sure.

[ccovell]

I think from a technical standpoint Shadow of the Beast's vertical scrolling for the bg (or lack thereof) makes it static(which I believe is still dynamic paralax) which is easier then to have it scroll.  But having a bg that would scroll along with the rest of the level(at the same speed) making it solid vertically I would figure would be eaier yet.

The clip from SotB does have both horizontal and vertical parallax, in that the two backgrounds are scrolling in relation to each other.  The only thing that fooled you is that the far background has a vertical scroll speed of 0 yet the near background has a nonzero scroll speed.  It has no relationship at all to "dynamic" tiles (or "static" ones or whatnot.)  The Amiga can manage 2 scrolling background planes just fine.

Oh, and stages 5 and 6 on Aeroblasters has H-int parallax scrolling no different than stage 1 or 2, etc.  The bars that scroll up the screen are still solid strips of horizontal BG tile layer, and can't be seen through at any point, like they could on a system that has two true BG layers (MD, SGX, SFC, Amiga.)

[ParanoiaDragon]

Wow, then yeah I guess vertically it's going reaaaaaallly slow rather then static, like the moon in Monolith.

As for Aeroblasters, yeah I forgot about that solid bar......not that I still 100% understand paralax, but I know stuff on the Turbo usually has to be straightedged for it to overlap if using tiles, & if curves are needed, you add some sprites on those straightedges.

[Vecanti]

Oh, and stages 5 and 6 on Aeroblasters has H-int parallax scrolling no different than stage 1 or 2, etc.  The bars that scroll up the screen are still solid strips of horizontal BG tile layer, and can't be seen through at any point, like they could on a system that has two true BG layers (MD, SGX, SFC, Amiga.)

Ah! Ok, I think I got it now. I thought the BG tile layers couldn't overlap.  I knew you couldn't see through them.  Making sense. Thanks guys.

[mrhaboobi]

now what id love is something that documents teh concepts and says what algorithms are used and why, essentially the dummies guide to 2d platform games for newbies..  Seeing nicely documented source may be a great start .. ive been tinkering on PSX dev in C, and this "knowledge" would be helpful on that platform aswell

[CrackTiger]

Oh, and stages 5 and 6 on Aeroblasters has H-int parallax scrolling no different than stage 1 or 2, etc.  The bars that scroll up the screen are still solid strips of horizontal BG tile layer, and can't be seen through at any point, like they could on a system that has two true BG layers (MD, SGX, SFC, Amiga.)

Ah! Ok, I think I got it now. I thought the BG tile layers couldn't overlap.  I knew you couldn't see through them.  Making sense. Thanks guys.

I believe that full horizontal sections can push up or down over the rest, but not vertical ones going left or right. The KO bar in SFII' is a famous use of that.

[OldRover]

It's been awhile since I posted anything about this game, since MSR has been in the forefront for some time now. But anyways...

I've decided to change from doing it dual-presentation style to just sticking with side-scrolling, similar to Cadash. The main reason for this is that honestly... I actually prefer it that way. This also means that there will be less code involved, and also, fewer graphics requirements, meaning that both the environments and the characters in them can be more detailed.

The hired musician for this production has been doing a kickass job on the soundtrack. I will likely do some youtube videos featuring her work not long after MSR is finished. We're still aiming for a Summer 2011 release, but it's still too early to tell.

[henrycsc]

Bravo Rover!  Can't Wait!

[OldRover]

Shiny new youtube video:

and the build used to make it:

/monorisu.7z

[ParanoiaDragon]

Lookin' nice!  Music is sounding nice as well!  And for anyone wondering, no, I didn't do the music.  I don't have time to be involved in Epona, mainly cuz Epona is a professional company with deadlines, whereas, Frozen Utopia is more of a hobby company.  So, atleast for now, I won't be offering to do music on the Epona label.  But, I'm jealous of the quality of the musician Nod got!

[esteban]

Shiny new youtube video:

and the build used to make it:

http://www.nodtveidt.net/monorisu.7z

Very nice . And the music is classy.

[_Paul]

Looks very promising. I'm eager to see the final game now.

[spenoza]

I still think the dude moves too quickly and the jumping is a little twitchy. Graphically, however, it looks quite impressive.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

I really like the inclusion of climbing ropes and using that as a strategy on the boss!  Great stuff!  Kind of like a mix of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Downland for the Tandy CoCo.

Really looking forward to this!

[shubibiman]

I still think the dude moves too quickly and the jumping is a little twitchy.

Ditto.

Very nice transparency effect!