OHR Multicart Compilation

Nathan Karr · Post by **Nathan Karr** » Thu Dec 08, 2016 1:48 am

In a mild slump right now, but I am still slowly adding NPCs and flavor text to the castle.

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:06 am

Progress on Xeno Safari is going well. I've drawn pretty much all the graphics. Now I'm writing text boxes. I will begin assembling all the pieces into an actual game quite soon. I'm on track to be done by the end of December. I'm not quite sure I know what to do for the music. Does anyone know any chip tune musicians that they can put me in touch with?

How is everyone else doing? Does anyone have any progress to show?

Nathan Karr wrote:In a mild slump right now, but I am still slowly adding NPCs and flavor text to the castle.

This game is looking cool. Let me know when you are ready for some feedback. I'll be happy to play through it.

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:38 am

Willy Elektrix wrote: I'm not quite sure I know what to do for the music. Does anyone know any chip tune musicians that they can put me in touch with?

After I'm totally done with school on Monday, I'll look into trying to make some music in addition to some new sound effects. What kind of music scheme were you wanting to go for? Something simple and rhythmic, slight fluctuations in style for different area of the island maybe?

Nathan Karr · Post by **Nathan Karr** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 6:48 am

For my game I've just been running free web MIDIs of public domain music through a MIDI-to-MP3 program and then importing the results. I had a friend adjust the tempo and volume on some of them.

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 6:52 am

Willy Elektrix wrote: How is everyone else doing? Does anyone have any progress to show?

Just about. Player and enemy knockback is buggy, but more or less working enough for a pre-alpha state. I want to implement talking NPCs in caves/rooms (hopefully this weekend) and then I'll release a playtest.

kylekrack · Post by **kylekrack** » Sat Dec 10, 2016 3:30 am

I just finished finals week, so I haven't made any progress to show in a week or two. However, I've been fiddling around and keeping the project live. So far I only have movement working, and a few graphics (I like to save graphics until last, because I always end up wanting to change everything.). The NPC-hero and NPC-enemy relationships are pretty much sorted out, so making a fighting system shouldn't be too difficult, other than animations and such. The only animation I have is health bars falling from one value to another.

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Sat Dec 10, 2016 6:57 am

Just about done with finals at school, however I got another nuke of responsibility dropped on me at work today: I'm being promoted to a senior level supervisory position, I'll be making considerably more money but also will be taking on new job responsibilities that I've never had before.

I'm going to try my best to get the Zelda game into a decently playable state before March, but my free time may end up severely shortened starting just next week. We'll see how it goes.

On a related note, I'm probably going to need some direct feedback and assistance with getting a less glitchy damage/knockback system going for combat pretty soon, hopefully via IRC if possible.

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 10:54 pm

Foxley wrote:After I'm totally done with school on Monday, I'll look into trying to make some music in addition to some new sound effects. What kind of music scheme were you wanting to go for? Something simple and rhythmic, slight fluctuations in style for different area of the island maybe?

Since you said that you are now more busy at work, you might not have time to make music for me, which I understand. If you do, do you have any samples of things you've made in the past that I can check out?

kylekrack wrote:I just finished finals week, so I haven't made any progress to show in a week or two. However, I've been fiddling around and keeping the project live. So far I only have movement working, and a few graphics (I like to save graphics until last, because I always end up wanting to change everything.). The NPC-hero and NPC-enemy relationships are pretty much sorted out, so making a fighting system shouldn't be too difficult, other than animations and such. The only animation I have is health bars falling from one value to another.

It's nice to see a screen shot. Your project is pretty ambitious! Don't forget to leave time to make the actual game (i.e. levels, encounters, etc.)

You could get away with some simple animations and no one would probably complain.

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 10:55 pm

Nathan Karr wrote:For my game I've just been running free web MIDIs of public domain music through a MIDI-to-MP3 program and then importing the results. I had a friend adjust the tempo and volume on some of them.

If I strike out on finding a musician, I might go this route.

Nathan Karr · Post by **Nathan Karr** » Mon Dec 12, 2016 12:18 am

Willy Elektrix wrote:
Nathan Karr wrote:For my game I've just been running free web MIDIs of public domain music through a MIDI-to-MP3 program and then importing the results. I had a friend adjust the tempo and volume on some of them.
If I strike out on finding a musician, I might go this route.

The first two I decided on using were What To Do With A Drunken Sailor and Blow the Man Down. The versions I have are adequate, though FamiTracker compositions of these and similar tracks wouldn't be unwelcome. Heck I don't even remember the names of all the tunes I'm using right now.

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Mon Dec 12, 2016 1:05 am

I think I've done enough to show off a playtest. Feedback is welcome:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/unl ... tion37.zip

Knockback damage is horribly buggy and I'm going to need serious help fixing it. If something terrible happens, like you get knocked into a solid wall or get knocked out of the screen, press Tab to reset the game. I also included the .HSS, if you're curious or would like to give any input on stuff that isn't working right.

Willy Elektrix wrote: Since you said that you are now more busy at work, you might not have time to make music for me, which I understand. If you do, do you have any samples of things you've made in the past that I can check out?

Eh, not really. Nothing recent anyway. Except for the quick track I did in about 15 minutes this morning and put in my playtest. I'd love to get more experience composing in Famitracker though.

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Wed Dec 14, 2016 4:15 am

Foxley wrote:Knockback damage is horribly buggy and I'm going to need serious help fixing it. If something terrible happens, like you get knocked into a solid wall or get knocked out of the screen, press Tab to reset the game. I also included the .HSS, if you're curious or would like to give any input on stuff that isn't working right.

I don't know anything about plot scripting, but a few things seem weird to me. For one, the game does not use pixel-based movement. It does not necessarily have to, but it would make it feel much more natural.

Also, once you start swinging, you cannot change the your direction until you release the attack button. You should be able to turn and face a different direction while swinging. Does this make sense?

Foxley wrote:
Willy Elektrix wrote:Since you said that you are now more busy at work, you might not have time to make music for me, which I understand. If you do, do you have any samples of things you've made in the past that I can check out?
Eh, not really. Nothing recent anyway. Except for the quick track I did in about 15 minutes this morning and put in my playtest. I'd love to get more experience composing in Famitracker though.

Cool. Thanks for offering. I might take you up on that. Stand by.

MorpheusKitami · Post by **MorpheusKitami** » Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:02 pm

I haven't had a lot of time this past week, so I don't have enough to show yet. But I am working on it.

Foxley wrote:I think I've done enough to show off a playtest. Feedback is welcome:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/unl ... tion37.zip

Knockback damage is horribly buggy and I'm going to need serious help fixing it. If something terrible happens, like you get knocked into a solid wall or get knocked out of the screen, press Tab to reset the game. I also included the .HSS, if you're curious or would like to give any input on stuff that isn't working right.

It's not always clear where you can move you character. Like some areas under trees aren't accessible or the sand being unwalkable. As for the knockback, what if instead of just using zones 1-4 to change the view, you have areas that are using zones 1-4 surrounded by areas using zones 5-8. The idea being that in the 1-4 zone room the movement between areas would be normal but if you got knocked into the 5-8 room, it would automatically scroll over, with a variable or switch to automatically change which zone does which. It's not exactly the best fix, but I think it could work.

kylekrack · Post by **kylekrack** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 12:30 am

@Foxley: Honestly, I wasn't expecting much, but this game seems to be coming along fantastically well. At first I wasn't fond of the grid based movement, but with the higher framerate, it's actually not that bad at all. It truly feels more like a feature than a limitation and it no longer bothers me. I like the attacking animation, the song, the responsiveness when hitting enemies. Despite some graphical and engine bugs, the polish actually feels really good for where the game is in development. I found myself wondering where to go next and what to do when I realized this is not a finished product.

I agree that sometimes it is hard to distinguish wall from floor. I think putting some kind of one-pixel border on wall edges in a darker shade could help that. I also encountered an issue when I was hit from the side, moved down, and the knockback offset the hero sprite a few pixels to the right, which didn't return to normal. Then of course, there are some issues with player knockback, but I think you already mentioned that. Other than those things, I didn't find any issues with the game. I'm really in awe at it. I think it's going to be a really fun game.

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 6:56 am

Willy Elektrix wrote: I don't know anything about plot scripting, but a few things seem weird to me. For one, the game does not use pixel-based movement. It does not necessarily have to, but it would make it feel much more natural.

I'll consider trying it if I finish the game with time to spare before March 1st. Which isn't likely to happen, and I'd kind of rather polish up a very short, simple sidescroller I was working on over the summer and release that as well instead, if I have time to spare. In other words it's pretty low on my priorities list. Leaning on as much existing engine functionality as I can takes off a huge coding/debugging burden.

Also, once you start swinging, you cannot change the your direction until you release the attack button. You should be able to turn and face a different direction while swinging. Does this make sense?

I prefer leaving it as is, I even slightly lengthened the attack frames on purpose so that attacking in the wrong direction could be punishable. Being able to change direction while attacking would basically give you a faster charged B attack from Zelda 3 every 12 ticks with no charge time, just by spamming the directional keys. Dealing damage only takes a single frame, so theoretically you could attack in all 4 directions three times per attack animation (12 ticks) and be invincible due to enemies being knocked back. It'd be an incredibly cheap game mechanic, and in all likelihood, also look visually awful.