OHR Multicart Compilation
Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
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MorpheusKitami
- Slime Knight
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- Location: Somewhere in America
I'm glad to say my game should be done by the weekend, except for sounds. Maybe. It depends on how not bad my work in FamiTracker sounds over the next few days.
Willy: I really like the idea of the whole fake company thing, since my first game used that idea and it was probably the best thing about it. Although it was less about the company and more about their strange releases, like a car as copy protection and impractical amounts of disks in some games. If you need any help with that, I'd be glad to be of assistance.
Willy: I really like the idea of the whole fake company thing, since my first game used that idea and it was probably the best thing about it. Although it was less about the company and more about their strange releases, like a car as copy protection and impractical amounts of disks in some games. If you need any help with that, I'd be glad to be of assistance.
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 910
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:30 pm
Awesome. I'm ready to play the hell out of your game.MorpheusKitami wrote:I'm glad to say my game should be done by the weekend, except for sounds. Maybe. It depends on how not bad my work in FamiTracker sounds over the next few days.
Willy: I really like the idea of the whole fake company thing, since my first game used that idea and it was probably the best thing about it. Although it was less about the company and more about their strange releases, like a car as copy protection and impractical amounts of disks in some games. If you need any help with that, I'd be glad to be of assistance.
What was your first game? I want to check it out and get some ideas.
I could definitely use your help. Let's start by batting a few ideas around. Here are some things I think it would be fun to make:
A short written biography of the fake company.
Some fake interviews with staff members of the company. These don't need to to be videos (although that would be cool). They can be text transcripts.
Some box art for the compilation.
A manual for the compilation.
Some print-style ads for the compilation. These should be the type of adds that might have appeared in magazines in the 80s.
Some fake artwork and design documents for weird cancelled games that didn't make it onto the compilation. In other words, some fictional games that "didn't make the cut".
It would be best to combine these items onto a website. Does anyone have some rudimentary graphic design or web design experience to contribute to the marketing of this? I don't think any of this needs to be too flashy. If not, I can probably whip something together on Word Press.
Sorry for the slow response.
Those ideas sound pretty cool, but maybe a bit over the top if all of the above were done. I think the core concept of a multicart kind of speaks for itself though, and inventing a fake company biography, while fun, might come off a bit pretentious if it were oversold.
I really like the idea of having hints of games that got canned - we could even add a couple to the game launcher and have it glitch out and quit back to the launcher menu.
I uh... know basic HTML and CSS. But I'm not very good at it. Wordpress might be a better idea.
Those ideas sound pretty cool, but maybe a bit over the top if all of the above were done. I think the core concept of a multicart kind of speaks for itself though, and inventing a fake company biography, while fun, might come off a bit pretentious if it were oversold.
I really like the idea of having hints of games that got canned - we could even add a couple to the game launcher and have it glitch out and quit back to the launcher menu.
I uh... know basic HTML and CSS. But I'm not very good at it. Wordpress might be a better idea.
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Newbie Newtype
- Reigning Smash Champion
- Posts: 1873
- Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:44 pm
Alright, so some feedback for Xeno Xafari:
It's cute! I like it. Only gripe in terms of presentation is that the built-in OHRRPGCE screen fades ruin the illusion of it possibly being a NES game. If you have spare time before release, maybe do a scripted screen fade method. Or you could do something like reverse-dissolve a black slice that covers the screen using the crossfade dissolve method, teleport, then dissolve the black slice to get rid of it.
My main issue with the gameplay is that the pacing of money/upgrade progress feels anemic. I have to save up several days' worth of eggs just to get a single $500 upgrade, and $1000 upgrades seem downright insurmountable. May I recommend tiered upgrades, for example maybe have a class A, B and C Trail Mix where the more expensive the class it is the more energy you receive? It'd give something cheap and feasible to work towards in the short term, especially for a new player. For the items that let you see other creatures, you could do that too, like make the most expensive version the only one that'll let you see all of the creatures.
Also, aside from fulfilling the spirit of gotta catch 'em all, it'd be more exciting if you also got monetary rewards for spotting creatures, with eggs as secondary income. I think it'd contribute to the feeling that the more creatures you discover, the more it'll help you to discover additional creatures by buying upgrades with the reward money.
And here are a few things I noticed.
It's cute! I like it. Only gripe in terms of presentation is that the built-in OHRRPGCE screen fades ruin the illusion of it possibly being a NES game. If you have spare time before release, maybe do a scripted screen fade method. Or you could do something like reverse-dissolve a black slice that covers the screen using the crossfade dissolve method, teleport, then dissolve the black slice to get rid of it.
My main issue with the gameplay is that the pacing of money/upgrade progress feels anemic. I have to save up several days' worth of eggs just to get a single $500 upgrade, and $1000 upgrades seem downright insurmountable. May I recommend tiered upgrades, for example maybe have a class A, B and C Trail Mix where the more expensive the class it is the more energy you receive? It'd give something cheap and feasible to work towards in the short term, especially for a new player. For the items that let you see other creatures, you could do that too, like make the most expensive version the only one that'll let you see all of the creatures.
Also, aside from fulfilling the spirit of gotta catch 'em all, it'd be more exciting if you also got monetary rewards for spotting creatures, with eggs as secondary income. I think it'd contribute to the feeling that the more creatures you discover, the more it'll help you to discover additional creatures by buying upgrades with the reward money.
And here are a few things I noticed.
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 910
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:30 pm
Perhaps you're right here. Although, we need some kind of clever marketing to get noticed. I've discovered that a strong gimmick is pretty useful to get website coverage. The NES multicart is a good gimmick, but some interesting advertising might take it to the next level.Foxley wrote:Those ideas sound pretty cool, but maybe a bit over the top if all of the above were done. I think the core concept of a multicart kind of speaks for itself though, and inventing a fake company biography, while fun, might come off a bit pretentious if it were oversold.
Good point. I'll figure out a workaround here. I'll get some help if I can't do the scripting myself.Foxley wrote:It's cute! I like it. Only gripe in terms of presentation is that the built-in OHRRPGCE screen fades ruin the illusion of it possibly being a NES game. If you have spare time before release, maybe do a scripted screen fade method. Or you could do something like reverse-dissolve a black slice that covers the screen using the crossfade dissolve method, teleport, then dissolve the black slice to get rid of it.
Cool. Let me think about how to handle this. The goal was to make the player catch 'em all and have everything in the shop at approximately the same time.Foxley wrote:My main issue with the gameplay is that the pacing of money/upgrade progress feels anemic. I have to save up several days' worth of eggs just to get a single $500 upgrade, and $1000 upgrades seem downright insurmountable. May I recommend tiered upgrades, for example maybe have a class A, B and C Trail Mix where the more expensive the class it is the more energy you receive? It'd give something cheap and feasible to work towards in the short term, especially for a new player. For the items that let you see other creatures, you could do that too, like make the most expensive version the only one that'll let you see all of the creatures.
Tiered upgrades isn't a bad idea. I could also make the necessary items cheaper, but then add some more items that would have fun affects. There could be more outfits, or special items that would give you different endings or something.
I'm less sure about this. I'll ruminate on it.Foxley wrote:Also, aside from fulfilling the spirit of gotta catch 'em all, it'd be more exciting if you also got monetary rewards for spotting creatures, with eggs as secondary income. I think it'd contribute to the feeling that the more creatures you discover, the more it'll help you to discover additional creatures by buying upgrades with the reward money.
Thanks for bug reports!
Last edited by Willy Elektrix on Sun Jan 29, 2017 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 910
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:30 pm
OK, just got around to playing "Dodge" for a bit, here's some thoughts and feedback:
This game makes my eyeballs hurt. I'm pretty sure it's the scrolling. Physical discomfort aside, I like this one because it totally seems like an Action 52 game. It's simple: screen scrolls, if you touch something you die. Graphics are appropriately eyebleed-ey, in a good way.
The movement is a little weird in that you move by half-tiles at a time. Paired with the repeat rate of holding the up or down arrow keys, the main thing that gets me killed is trying to move in a way where I'll just barely fit through some obstacles but I accidentally held the movement key for a split second too long or short and get killed. I'm not sure how that could be improved upon.
With some levels, especially level 2, if I just remain where I am in the middle of the screen I'll bypass a lot of obstacles by doing absolutely nothing.
Overall it's already a pretty decent rage game as is. Just needs SFX and music, of course.
This game makes my eyeballs hurt. I'm pretty sure it's the scrolling. Physical discomfort aside, I like this one because it totally seems like an Action 52 game. It's simple: screen scrolls, if you touch something you die. Graphics are appropriately eyebleed-ey, in a good way.
The movement is a little weird in that you move by half-tiles at a time. Paired with the repeat rate of holding the up or down arrow keys, the main thing that gets me killed is trying to move in a way where I'll just barely fit through some obstacles but I accidentally held the movement key for a split second too long or short and get killed. I'm not sure how that could be improved upon.
With some levels, especially level 2, if I just remain where I am in the middle of the screen I'll bypass a lot of obstacles by doing absolutely nothing.
Overall it's already a pretty decent rage game as is. Just needs SFX and music, of course.
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MorpheusKitami
- Slime Knight
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- Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 8:23 pm
- Location: Somewhere in America
Here's the demo for Dr Moonlight's Happyworld formerly referred to as Happy House:
https://www.mediafire.com/?8l5a2qk12uz9ihq
It's about 90% complete, and it's completely playable and finishable. Doesn't have much sound or music, and at the end it's going to describe what prizes you won. I have yet to put the instructions in yet either, but it's the usual arrows/enter/esc setup.
@Willy: You sure? I don't want to step on any toes by linking to a game on another engine and site.
Company:
How about we put all the "print" stuff in the manual, and divide it like a real one, introduction, released games, unreleased games, ads, etc., etc.. Probably shouldn't have any of the fake games in the actual game menu though, since that would get annoying if we add more than say, one. The game section should have what the production description would be, along with the usual bulletin list of features that were quite common back in the day, and a couple of pages for the manual, no need to go all Legend of Zelda there. Unless the game author wants it to be that long.
Fictional interviews would have to be interesting to work. If they're completely straight, we're just telling people things in a pretentious manner, and if they're about people who think aliens are inserting small needles into people to make them watch Law and Order reruns then it might make our games look more silly than they actually are. Video interviews seem a tad too unworkable, most of us probably couldn't pull it off unless we had the proper equipment for what the actual time period is and would be too young to do a believable modern interview.
I'm not sold on the idea of a website, revivals of old companies don't necessarily do that, although it could be a website straight from the '90s I guess? Though that depends on what years we'd want our fictional company to operate in, as depending on the years sequels could be made on different "platforms" as it were, but I digress into the realms of the future as I am prone to when thinking about projects.
XOO:
Seems to have a lot more sexual references than the average NES game, you'd have to have blackmail material to get this past Nintendo of America standards of the day. (also the whole kill and corpse thing, but that might make it by after censorship due to it being less worrying by comparison) Might want to include something saying our fictional company had a few headclashes with Nintendo, and that this is the original, uncensored edition. Hmm, or maybe we were a British company, since I can't recall if Nintendo of Europe was as strict as America was.
Money is a bit of a grind to say the least. You need something like 50 eggs for the cheapest things in the shop. That said, this sort of thing a NES game usually did, so I guess it isn't too much of a problem since when you've gotten through half of the creatures you should have enough. Maybe make rare eggs rarer and more expensive though, I never really felt like they were all that rare. Adding money to finding creatures would make it a bit too easy, so if money is to be made easier, you should just increase egg prices across the board.
The red tree with the things that look like cherry blossoms or fruit on the bottom look a bit ugly when there's another tree or rock beneath them. There's also a green one like this too, but the red one is more noticeable.
Sound and music fit a-okay. Nice volume and all that. All in all, it's enjoyable.
Ultra:
Reminds me of Micro Mike, except much better. Seems like it'll cause serious eyestrain, and while NES games did have a bunch of that, it's obviously not something that should be kept if possible. I would say something along the lines of making them less bright and more consistent in color. There are various little problems too, like loose controls and the top and bottom killing. But as long as you find a way to make it look less eyestraining, I think you'll be good.
https://www.mediafire.com/?8l5a2qk12uz9ihq
It's about 90% complete, and it's completely playable and finishable. Doesn't have much sound or music, and at the end it's going to describe what prizes you won. I have yet to put the instructions in yet either, but it's the usual arrows/enter/esc setup.
@Willy: You sure? I don't want to step on any toes by linking to a game on another engine and site.
Company:
How about we put all the "print" stuff in the manual, and divide it like a real one, introduction, released games, unreleased games, ads, etc., etc.. Probably shouldn't have any of the fake games in the actual game menu though, since that would get annoying if we add more than say, one. The game section should have what the production description would be, along with the usual bulletin list of features that were quite common back in the day, and a couple of pages for the manual, no need to go all Legend of Zelda there. Unless the game author wants it to be that long.
Fictional interviews would have to be interesting to work. If they're completely straight, we're just telling people things in a pretentious manner, and if they're about people who think aliens are inserting small needles into people to make them watch Law and Order reruns then it might make our games look more silly than they actually are. Video interviews seem a tad too unworkable, most of us probably couldn't pull it off unless we had the proper equipment for what the actual time period is and would be too young to do a believable modern interview.
I'm not sold on the idea of a website, revivals of old companies don't necessarily do that, although it could be a website straight from the '90s I guess? Though that depends on what years we'd want our fictional company to operate in, as depending on the years sequels could be made on different "platforms" as it were, but I digress into the realms of the future as I am prone to when thinking about projects.
XOO:
Seems to have a lot more sexual references than the average NES game, you'd have to have blackmail material to get this past Nintendo of America standards of the day. (also the whole kill and corpse thing, but that might make it by after censorship due to it being less worrying by comparison) Might want to include something saying our fictional company had a few headclashes with Nintendo, and that this is the original, uncensored edition. Hmm, or maybe we were a British company, since I can't recall if Nintendo of Europe was as strict as America was.
Money is a bit of a grind to say the least. You need something like 50 eggs for the cheapest things in the shop. That said, this sort of thing a NES game usually did, so I guess it isn't too much of a problem since when you've gotten through half of the creatures you should have enough. Maybe make rare eggs rarer and more expensive though, I never really felt like they were all that rare. Adding money to finding creatures would make it a bit too easy, so if money is to be made easier, you should just increase egg prices across the board.
The red tree with the things that look like cherry blossoms or fruit on the bottom look a bit ugly when there's another tree or rock beneath them. There's also a green one like this too, but the red one is more noticeable.
Sound and music fit a-okay. Nice volume and all that. All in all, it's enjoyable.
Ultra:
Reminds me of Micro Mike, except much better. Seems like it'll cause serious eyestrain, and while NES games did have a bunch of that, it's obviously not something that should be kept if possible. I would say something along the lines of making them less bright and more consistent in color. There are various little problems too, like loose controls and the top and bottom killing. But as long as you find a way to make it look less eyestraining, I think you'll be good.
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Willy Elektrix
- Liquid Metal Slime
- Posts: 910
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:30 pm
Sometimes it makes my eyes hurt too, but only after a long period of playing. This will be challenging to fix. Here are the ideas I have...Foxley wrote:This game makes my eyeballs hurt. I'm pretty sure it's the scrolling.
1) Try darkening the color palette. This probably won't make a difference because I think it is eye strain is because the game moves so fast.
2) Try slowing down the game a little but fill the levels with more obstacles to maintain the difficulty. I'm a little unsure about this because the speed of the game is such a large part of its challenge.
3) If all else fails, put a screen between each levels that says "Rest your eyes!" and stays on screen for 15 seconds. This break might make people get fatigued more slowly.
I'm not sure either. I've been fooling around with the controls for a while and I haven't got it perfect yet. I'll keep working on it. My newest version uses a greater input delay but full tile movement, rather than half tile. I think it works better, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to redesign all the levels.Foxley wrote:The movement is a little weird in that you move by half-tiles at a time. Paired with the repeat rate of holding the up or down arrow keys, the main thing that gets me killed is trying to move in a way where I'll just barely fit through some obstacles but I accidentally held the movement key for a split second too long or short and get killed. I'm not sure how that could be improved upon.
That's intentional with level 2, but I'll change it. In retrospect, it's not that clever of an idea.Foxley wrote:With some levels, especially level 2, if I just remain where I am in the middle of the screen I'll bypass a lot of obstacles by doing absolutely nothing.
I played for a little bit. I'll put more time in tomorrow and then post. My initial impression is: This game is really hard and confusing! There are a couple notes I made below.MorpheusKitami wrote:Here's the demo for Dr Moonlight's Happyworld formerly referred to as Happy House:
https://www.mediafire.com/?8l5a2qk12uz9ihq
It's about 90% complete, and it's completely playable and finishable. Doesn't have much sound or music, and at the end it's going to describe what prizes you won. I have yet to put the instructions in yet either, but it's the usual arrows/enter/esc setup.
The concept is pretty promising and I totally dig your graphics (especially those big monsters). I'll be playing more soon. Stand by for more constructive criticism then.
No one will be offended. I just want to take a look to get some ideas.MorpheusKitami wrote:@Willy: You sure? I don't want to step on any toes by linking to a game on another engine and site.
While Xoo might not be a realistic Nintendo game, I think the sex should stay. It's pretty low key and the players will be amused.MorpheusKitami wrote:XOO:
Seems to have a lot more sexual references than the average NES game, you'd have to have blackmail material to get this past Nintendo of America standards of the day. (also the whole kill and corpse thing, but that might make it by after censorship due to it being less worrying by comparison) Might want to include something saying our fictional company had a few headclashes with Nintendo, and that this is the original, uncensored edition. Hmm, or maybe we were a British company, since I can't recall if Nintendo of Europe was as strict as America was.
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- I loved this title screen, but it needs an actual title! Put some text on it.
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- This text box should be at the bottom of the screen. It blocks the image at the top of the screen.
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- A consistent problem with your monster graphics is that they are cut off by the user interface. Move them down so they are under the player health meter.
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- The invisible player is highlighted by an arrow at the bottom of the screen. Fix this by going to "Edit General Game Data" then "Preference Bitsits" then "Disable Hero Battle Cursor".
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- You can delete the order, spells, and other menu items you aren't using. Go to "Edit Menus" then "Menu Items" then press delete to get rid of the ones you don't want.
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Last edited by Willy Elektrix on Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:39 am, edited 2 times in total.
That actually sounds like good ammo for the website. Some extra reasons the compilation didn't make it through production. I mean, hell, maybe we should all be trying to make more controversial stuff in our games. Get juicy.MorpheusKitami wrote:XOO:
Seems to have a lot more sexual references than the average NES game, you'd have to have blackmail material to get this past Nintendo of America standards of the day. (also the whole kill and corpse thing, but that might make it by after censorship due to it being less worrying by comparison) Might want to include something saying our fictional company had a few headclashes with Nintendo, and that this is the original, uncensored edition. Hmm, or maybe we were a British company, since I can't recall if Nintendo of Europe was as strict as America was.
While Xoo might not be a realistic Nintendo game, I think the sex should stay. It's pretty low key and the players will be amused.
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
Ps. I love my wife
Giz already handed in a bunch of menus! Worst case, we can put in the game titles etc, no problem.
Sorry that I haven't been actively following along or provided feedback on Xeno Xafari; it does look great. I also realised that there's a lot of stuff earlier in this thread that I missed completely while I was on multiple trips for weeks.
The fake company website would be pretty amusing! Do you want to create a modern website for a defunct company, or a 1990's website (in lieu of the nonexistence of 1980's company websites)? A fansite about a 1980's company?
Sorry that I haven't been actively following along or provided feedback on Xeno Xafari; it does look great. I also realised that there's a lot of stuff earlier in this thread that I missed completely while I was on multiple trips for weeks.
The fake company website would be pretty amusing! Do you want to create a modern website for a defunct company, or a 1990's website (in lieu of the nonexistence of 1980's company websites)? A fansite about a 1980's company?