Progress on Project MONOLITH... some technical mumbo jumbo inside

[Arkhan Asylum]

THIS GAME SUCKS I HAT EIT.


/end obligatory naysaying.

:3

[OldRover]

Then ME is skipping frames. The game relies on a consistent 60fps, like the real machine does. Anything less than that is going to look wrong, and that's why the youtube videos never come out exactly right; they cut it to 30fps, so things don't look right.

[grahf]

Wow, looking really good so far. Nice parallax!
The character's mouth looks a little funny during the down-thrust, but the animation is pretty good.

[OldRover]

PD, you might have to run the protos in mednafen to get stuff to look right...

New screenie today:

/monolith-0046.png

[spenoza]

The backgrounds really are attractive. That's some very good color use.

[OldRover]

Paul really knows how to utilize color range to maximum effect. The actual unique color count in the forest is quite low (51 colors in that shot, that includes the hud and character sprite). The village, on the other hand... although it looks a bit "busy" at times, the color diversity looks low at first glance. However, the actual unique color count is rather high, exceeding 80 most of the time for the inclusive scene.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Paul is a shading mastermind.  Look at the crap he pulled off in the Atlantean screenshots too! (That look kinda crapass in an emulator, to be honest).


We have a new secret weapon in OBEYbrew land, and his name is Sunteam_Paul.

Look out Segatards.

[OldRover]

So I'm wondering what to do about the jump sound... maybe make it more like Exile's?

[ParanoiaDragon]

So I'm wondering what to do about the jump sound... maybe make it more like Exile's?

Hmm, IIRC, that's more of a subtle woosh type sound....for lack of a better term?  Or it's some kind of quiet clicking sound, that might be a more accurate description?  That does seem like a good idea.  Maybe that jump sound will end up being better used in VM instead.  It seemed less noticeable in that from what I recall.

As for ME, that stinks, oh well.

[OldRover]

ME doesn't tend to like anything I code, lol. It really shows its weaknesses.

The original jump sample in Monolith was copied from VM, and is also present in JB. I'll replace it with something more subtle. I don't want Monolith to completely lose its cartoon appeal, of course, but maybe making the samples a bit more serious might help the overall tone... the graphics aren't all that cartooney so it might be more fitting to take the samples in a different direction.

[Arkhan Asylum]

the jump effect is too long. thats the problem. It sounds more like a noise when you land on a slime than anything.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Hmmmmm, you may be right, maybe it could stay the same but sped up.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Or make it a quieter/less dry noise.

wet jump noises work better.

[CrackTiger]

It probably just sounds weird to some people since jump sound effects are usually used in more cartoony games and more serious looking games like this tend to only use landing or step off sound effects.

[OldRover]

Hrm... that's true... though I experimented with removing the jump sample altogether and something just didn't seem right about it... but maybe it'd be welcomed by others.

[Arkhan Asylum]

the jump noise isn't necessary if you are ok with removing it.

Zelda II has no jump sounds.


and when you say "jump sample", do you mean you are using ADPCM for the jump sound?  use teh PSGGGG-unit.

[_Paul]

The jump sound doesn't bother me at all, but having no jump sound would.

Perhaps go the route of games like City Hunter, Cross Wiber and Daimakaimura and have simple white noise effects for jumping and landing.

I think people are mostly noticing it because they are watching a video with lots of jumping rather than concentrating on playing the game.

[OldRover]

Ark, the jump sound is from the PSG, but it's still made of samples, hence sample. ADPCM is used sparingly in Monolith; the sword attack sound and the level up sound are ADPCM but for now, that's it. Everything else is PSG-based.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Ark, the jump sound is from the PSG, but it's still made of samples, hence sample. ADPCM is used sparingly in Monolith; the sword attack sound and the level up sound are ADPCM but for now, that's it. Everything else is PSG-based.

Why are you using samples for that.  just set a 32 byte waveform (sine or squareish), and make a jump sound...

or are you being a nitpicking twat and you mean "hurhurhurhrrrr the waveforms are ALL samples hrurhuhurrrururururhrur"

[OldRover]

Why are you using samples for that.  just set a 32 byte waveform (sine or squareish), and make a jump sound...

Dude, wtf do you think it is? "Just make a jump sound"... yeah, "just make a game" while yer at it.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Why are you using samples for that.  just set a 32 byte waveform (sine or squareish), and make a jump sound...

Dude, wtf do you think it is? "Just make a jump sound"... yeah, "just make a game" while yer at it.

I mean are you using the sample mode or are you just setting a 32 byte waveform and having it go "bwoop".

When you use the word "sample", it's usually implying that you're sampling the sound from an external source and playing it back.  Like shitty Amiga games.

[OldRover]

Just setting a 32 byte waveform and monkeying with it, like normal PSG users do.

[OldRover]

And no shitty Amiga games here. mwuahaha

[Arkhan Asylum]

Just setting a 32 byte waveform and monkeying with it, like normal PSG users do.

thats not a sample, you tard.

if you want to nitpick and argue semantics, let me make it easy:

No.



just speed the tempo up just a little, and then drop it down about 2 steps. Then, change the waveform to something more sinelike.  see what that do, sucka

[OldRover]

The tempo was already at its highest speed; I'll just cut half the steps and do some other tweaking.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I can't imagine the game without a jump sound, I believe it's gotta be there.  I think it's mainly in area's where there's a ton of constant jumping further up in the castle where it seems like it's a bit much for me personally.

[Arkhan Asylum]

The tempo was already at its highest speed;

What tempo was that?

[incrediblehark]

I'm all for a jump sound as long as it doesn't detract from the rest of the games sound effects and bgm, there were little to no sound effects for jumping in castlevania and mega man and worked out just fine.

[Arkhan Asylum]

mega man had an awesome land-noise though

[OldRover]

What tempo was that?

Tone change every vsync.

[Arkhan Asylum]

What tempo was that?

Tone change every vsync.

change the tone more than once per vsync?

[incrediblehark]

mega man had an awesome land-noise though

yep, and that's all it needed really. thinking back to the last wily stage of mega man 2

[blueraven]

Mega Man 2 was epic.

One of my favorite NES Titles.

Nobody even talked about the first game bitd.

[esteban]

Mega Man 2 was epic.

One of my favorite NES Titles.

Nobody even talked about the first game bitd.

Indeed. I had even played MM1, but I didn't think it was particularly captivating. It was only after playing MM2 that many of us went back to MM1 and gave it another chance. MM2 was so easy--MM1 provided a challenge yet was not nearly as charming.

[spenoza]

Try MM2 on Hard. That's the normal difficulty in the home country.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

/monolith-0017.png

I'm curious if the moon will change from waxing crescent during gameplay.  If not, I would assume I should be able to play through it in only one night.

[OldRover]

The game storyline takes place over the course of a few weeks, so... nope, not one night. You might be able to play it through in one night... well ok, if you have absolutely no life and have either mad platforming skills or find some way to cheat...

Most towns have a "time of day" parameter that affects their appearance.

[esteban]

Try MM2 on Hard. That's the normal difficulty in the home country.

Oh, I did

Remember, I play Blazing Lazers on "God of Game" difficulty

Most towns have a "time of day" parameter that affects their appearance.

That's very kool   The first thing that popped into my mind when I read that was Castlevania II...and then Victory Run.

[Keranu]

Try MM2 on Hard. That's the normal difficulty in the home country.

Oh, I did

Remember, I play Blazing Lazers on "God of Game" difficulty

Most towns have a "time of day" parameter that affects their appearance.

That's very kool   The first thing that popped into my mind when I read that was Castlevania II...and then Victory Run.

Do you have enough smilies there, Steve?

[OldRover]

[esteban]

Try MM2 on Hard. That's the normal difficulty in the home country.

Oh, I did

Remember, I play Blazing Lazers on "God of Game" difficulty

Most towns have a "time of day" parameter that affects their appearance.

That's very kool   The first thing that popped into my mind when I read that was Castlevania II...and then Victory Run.

Do you have enough smilies there, Steve?

I'm just so damn happy

[farankoshan]

Sorry to ask if this is stupid, but is this game available on a physical disc/Hucard to play on a real system to get the full experience?

[nat]

Now I haven't been following this too closely, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but currently no "game" exists to release on either disc or cartridge.

I believe it's just a project someone is working on, that may eventually get released at some point in the future.

[spenoza]

This game is not yet available. It is still in development.

[Arkhan Asylum]

This is Rovers post MSR game.  It's a CD game.

[ParanoiaDragon]

One of 2 post MSR games, as this & Jungle Bros. are being worked on side by side, using the same basic engine, so it's a race to the finish line to see which game is done first!  I know I have plenty of music to do for JB, but the music for Monolith is all done, so, in that respect, Monolith is ahead of JB.  I'm not sure which one has more sprite/tile work done, I'm inclined to say JB.

Oh, & yes Monolith, as well as Jungle Bros. will be fully pressed cd releases just like Mysterious Song Roto-rootered!

[DHG Hunter]

This has been some time coming (sorry!), but I finally got a chance to set up a new capture card and put a video of Monolith up from the Midwest Gaming Classic 2013 prototype:

I didn't get much more than a few second to play it at the MGC, so this was the first time I really got a solid chance to play.  I gotta hand it to you guys... Very nicely done!  It certainly helps that this is probably my favorite game type out there, but everything about the game at this early stage looks and plays outstanding!  I can't wait to play the final game!   

Later.

[OldRover]

That was definitely not a demo-worthy build of the game...

[esteban]

That was definitely not a demo-worthy build of the game...

L'exquisite.

[seieienbu]

The atmosphere/mood of the great seems fantastic.  I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this!