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[Moon Goon]

Super Pitifall

FINAL http://www.esnips.com/doc/7c1b82ed-7f1e-4a42-a25b-85bd0f8e8e7d/pitifall

Title Screen


In Game


Gameplay
Pitifall Larry is on a quest for ancient treasures.  Unforunatly his Nieces Lion was captured.  Find the golden key and open Kittyclaw the Lions cage.  Deep in the dark jungle obtain the Ralf Diamond.  Finally, retrieve the antidote and cure Larrys Niece to win!

Controls
Use arrow keys to move Pitifall Larry.  Z key to jump.  X key to fire if ammo present.  Firing while climbing ladder or solid objects will nullify bullets.  Aim for bottom of vine to swing.  Press UP + JUMP and LEFT or RIGHT to leap off ladders, vines or balloons.  Pressing LEFT or RIGHT for an extended duration accelerates Larry and makes him jump higher.  Press UP while standing inside door to warp.  Press UP or DOWN while on ladder to climb.  Use arrow keys to swim while in water.  Gates may be opened by touch once its matching key is in your inventory.  It is highly recommended to toggle full screen mode via F4.  ESC quits.  F1 displays this screen.   If a joystick is attached it will become the primary controller.  To regain keyboard mode detach joystick.  Press button 1 to jump or start game and 2 to fire.  Pause the game by pressing ENTER.

Features (may change during production)
* Large areas to explore (over 250 screens)!
* High score for gaming session proudly displayed!
* Swinging jungle vines and angry Moa heads!

NOTE: PROJECT HAS EVOLVED SEVERAL TIMES - CHECK LATEST POST FOR ACCURATE INFO!


DEVELOPMENT BLOG:
8.1.08
.    Finally gonna bite the bullet and enter a contest.  Like they say:  A goal is a dream with a deadline!  Already have something in mind and have a small prototype.  I'm going from PC to Atari 2600 on this demake.
.    Low res mixed with higher res sprite art didn't seem to mesh at first but my spriting skills are nascent.  Also noted my trying to work around the development environments quirks was making the demo code unwieldy.  Have to remember to make the game clever - not the code.
.    My short-term goal is to rewrite the demo code using as many built-in features of the development language as possible.  Also, download and experiment with Visual Batari Basic as an aid in creating Atari 2600ish sprites.

Notes:
* Must find public domain or appropriately licensed Creative Commons soundtracks.
* Atari 2600 used single screen gameplay alot.

Links:
Visual Batari Basic http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=123849
ccMixter http://ccmixter.org/view/media/home

[moi]

wat game is ?

[Moon Goon]

The preliminary title is

Grand Thievery Adventure: Chalice City

The main characters name is Blocky Vermicelli

Let your imagination run from there

[Ivan]

Vermicelli is one of the best words ever!

[Moon Goon]

Vermicelli is one of the best words ever!

Indeed, and, if you notice the pun, Blocky Vermicelli sounds alot like "Tommy Vercetti".  Another interesting tidbit is that the protagonist from Atari Adventure was rather blocky in appearance.

Coincidence?  You be the judge!

[Moon Goon]

8.2.08

UPDATE: At the end of the day I decided to indeed change my theme.  Now I'm making

Axion 52

Reasons for the change:
* Too many GTA knock-off already.  Don't think my gameplay can compete.
* Too many dependencies on licensed material from real game.
* Too high personal standards for a good GTA clone.  Too many features to implement.

Axion 52 will be a knock-off of Action 52 - the notorious multi cart for NES and Genesis.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_52 for details.  While it may seem like a much bigger chunk to chew through making a 52 game, er, game, it's really much more simple than you'd think.  I'm going to randomize the gameplay for each entry.  All I have to do is build the engine and each games attributes will generate the gameplay.  The quality of each game should match or exceed most real games on Action 52 (this isn't saying much).  In a way this'll also make up for not entering the Procedural game contest as my key technique will be to procedurally generate each game.

Notes from earlier today (When I was still thinking about Grand Thievery Adventure: Chalice City)
Not so much progress today.  Came up with the name of the arch-enemy:

Squarey Fettucini (GTAVC's Sonny Forelli)

With more than one GTAVC clone in the running I might consider a different theme.  However, this is a great concept.  Would be a shame to waste it.  Someone posted about SFXR which helps create old-school sound effects.  Quite a find.  Glad people are willing to share.  Speaking of sharing, I didn't really foresee the fact I couldn't directly rip music and sounds from the real GTAVC.  I'm going to have to get serious about finding similar theme music and in-game music under the correct license.

My idea for tomorrow is to start the second prototype.

Links: SFXR http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2007/12/13/sfxr-sound-effects-for-all/

[Moon Goon]

8.3.08

As this is a backport from Action 52 NES to the imaginary Belico (Coleco) and Smartvision (Intellivision) consoles I'll need to research those systems specs.  According to the almighty Wiki, Coleco as a resolution of 256x192 while the Intellivison has 160x196.  16 rocking colors for both and roughly Sega Master System quality sound using Square Waves (Coleco).  SFXR and MarioPaint Composer should do fine for sound and music.  MarioPaint Composer seems to have a proprietary song format so I either need to find out how to export or use a software loopback program to record usable tracks.  Sprites for both systems were rarely multi-colored.  Lack of dithering made for lots of solid colored sprites.  Must've been an industry-wide fad.
Another item of consideration is passwords.  If I use a-z, A-Z, 1-0 and "-" and "+" I can get 64 values.  If I use A-Z and 1-0 less 4 confusing characters ("I", "O", "S" and "B") I can get 32 values.  I think most people will put up with inputting 16 characters.  Trouble is, if they want to generate a particular game and load a save for that game the total might turn into 32 characters (16 for the game and 16 for the save).
Might have to go pseudo authentic on the resolution.  192 or 196 just doesn't fit well in the lowest common denominator for PCs (640x480).  160x160 may be what to use as each pixel lines up nicely as 4x3 real pixels (160x4 = 640, 160x3 = 480).  Man, those're some pixels you can eat with a knife and fork!  Hearty!
Haven't decided what to do about the box art.  May end up outsourcing (bribing a friend) or doing it myself.  Outsourcing may be a timesaver as well as a stylistic choice.  The box art is so awful and in a style totally alien to me.  A different artist could have a better chance of capturing the "Action 52"idness better.  However, no one could reproduce my humor.  I guess it would be best if I did the initial mock-ups myself and then decide later.

The idea for today is to write on paper the various screens needed.  Maybe write down some preliminary standards for the game generation password and game save password.

Notes:
Stopped using "goals" to describe targets for the day.  I'm much too undisciplined/mercurial/lazy to have goals.  Now using the much more flexible word "ideas"


Links:
Coleco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColecoVision
Intellivision http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellivision
MarioPaint Composer http://www.unfungames.com/mariopaint/

[Moon Goon]

8.4.08
* Started actual prototyping on Game Maker 4
* Collected Action 52 manuals, music, pictures

Notes:
* May have to move to Game maker 5/6 for more features
* Coleco graphics are constraining - low res and hard to do multi-color
* Mario Paint Composer Gameboy tone is great for Coleco style music

Ideas for Tomorrow:
* Firm up resolution that's good in full screen and windowed
* Use a version of Game Maker with sprite fonts and learn how to use it
8.5.08
* Perused Action 53 manual and YouTube videos.  Started writing down basic parameters for game generation.
* Found and tested best resolution for game.  Turns out 512x384 looks good windowed.  My pixels are actually 2x2 real pixels big so that in full-screen mode the blurring effect is like an old TV.  When I tried the actual resolution the pixels were too blurry when stretched in full-screen.  At 512x384 I get 32 by 24 8x8 pseudo pixel tiles which is basically the same as Coleco.
* Moved to Game Maker 5 as 4 lacks the sprite font feature.

8.6.08
* Started on sprite based font.  Got through basic symbols to numbers.

8.7.08
* More work on sprite based font.  Got to capital A-Z and created mock-up.  Took a fellow members lead and used Photobucket for screenshots.
* Used SFXR to farm for sound samples.
* More YouTube Action 52 reviewing.  Made list of most games characteristics and managed to nail down a 10 aspect structure.

Ideas:  Firm up "password" format for game generation.  Think about/implement menu interface.  Start code for each mini-engine type (Platform, Top-down, etc..)

Links: Photobucket http://photobucket.com/

[Moon Goon]

8.8.08

As mentioned yesterday I had some luck finding a game attribute structure for Axion 52 by viewing YouTube videos.  Here are the value fields I made based off of that:

Mode - Top Down, Overhead, Platform, Top Down (forced up), Side-scroll (forced right), Overhead (forced up), 1 Screen Top Down, 1 Screen Overhead, 1 Screen Platform
Theme - Space, Forest, Cave, Factory, Kitchen, Urban, etc..
Character - Girl, Cat-men, Indiana Jones, Baby, Guy, etc..
Enemy - Space Alien, Robots, Symbols, etc..
Music - Space, Spooky, Cowboy, Kung Fu, etc..
Sounds - Space, Platform, etc..
Goal - Kill Boss, Kill Enemy Wave, Collect Key Objects, End of Level, etc..
Attack - Punch, Bullet, None
Life - 1 Hit, HP Bar, HP Units
Items - Power Ups, 1 Up

These 10 values can be made into a "password" for each game.  I could then generate each game just by feeding the game engine these values.  I'm ignoring the Streamerz "weapon" and Renegade type modes for now.  I need to re-find a good pseudo random number generator.  Also, one idea I had is to make each install of Axion 52 have a unique set of games. Basically, the first time the game is run it would generate a unique seed that dictates what games are listed.  I have to decide how I'm gonna implement the game engine.  I could go very general purpose or branch out the modules.  Hmmn..

I was gonna use "Lynxladies" in place of "Cheetahmen" but it turns out there is an escort service in the UK by that same name.  Dunno if it would be a trademark/copyright issue.  I may use "Tabbyteens" instead.  I like the change from (Action 52) Game World to (Axion 52) Game Planet and (Action 52) Action Gamemaster to (Axion 52) Radical Gamemeister

Ideas:  Now that I know the game generation values I should really start the in-game portion.  As I mentioned I need to dig up some pseudo-random number generation code as it is used in almost every aspect of the game.  Look into whether modifying the .EXE or just an .INI file should be used for the unique identifier for the game.

[Moon Goon]

8.9.08
* Consolidated tools and hunted down choice snippets of code including a nice pseudo random number generator.  Now I can carry one USB stick with my development environment, source code and resources.
8.10.08
* Found out Crossover for Games on OSX doesn't like Game Maker.  I can play Game Maker 5 games and see the source but not make changes!  Thankfully, I've got a laptop running Windows.
* Played around with the pseudo random number generator.  Found out not only does it need a seed but you must use it once to get a value returned.

Notes:  Just realized that my pretend console resolution is smaller than NES thus I get 7 games per column instead of 9.  That means I'll have to go 4 menu selection screens instead of 3.

8.11.08
* Edited the menu tiles to look more old-school.
* Now that I've got the random number generator in place I'm tackling the random game names.  You can see the difference in my update to the menu selection screen.

Notes:  Wasn't very productive this weekend.  I forgot that I treat my living space as strictly recreational and is for resting and recuperating only.  May have to rely on lunch breaks and bumming around friends and families places to get stuff done!

Idea for today:  Get the menu system functional!

[Moon Goon]

8.12.08
Almost done with the menu code.  Tweaked the font to use less colors.  The NES had 4 color tiles/sprites so my font had to use less colors to imitate the Coleco.  My early menu code would move the selected game UP, RIGHT, LEFT but not DOWN correctly.  Turns out I had each game selection item (14 of them!) doing separate/individual checks on the keyboard and that was a no-no.  Now I have an invisible controller object that takes care of all keyboard/joystick events in the game menu.  The game names (except for Tabbyteens) are generated based on the type of player, enemy and background used.  There is a 50/50 chance Axion 52 will take a synonym for the player and the background and make a game name - else it uses a synonym for the enemy and the background.  One thought I had is to read the computer name of the PC and use that as my pseudo random seed value - the net result is every PC would get a "unique" set of games!

[Noyb]

Sounds awesome. I heartily approve of videogame generators.

[Moon Goon]

8.13.08
* Little tweaks to the game font.
* Correct/Complete behavior for game selection menu.  Up, Down, Left, Right, Select and Start do what is expected.  Select switches between game listings and start launches game.
* Menu tiles change color every screen as in reference game. (See new screenshot)
* Selection, change game listing screen and launch events have unique sounds.

I'm trying to start small by only filling in the Firebreather-like and Cheetahmen-like game portions for now.  That's why you only see dragon and cat related references in the game names for now

I may have underestimated the amount of sprite art needed.  There are 4 primary game modes: Overhead (Zelda), Top Down (Lifeforce), Side Scroll (Gradius) and Platform (SMB).  Each of those modes may need different art for player and enemy sprites.  I may be able to cheat and use the same art for overhead and top down, platform and side scroll.  We'll see..

[deadeye]

I heartily approve of this, and hope you can pull it off.

By the way, for authenticity's sake you should have a few games that don't work.  The original Action 52 cart had a few that just plain didn't start, requiring that you reset the console.

[cyber95]

I heartily approve of this, and hope you can pull it off.

By the way, for authenticity's sake you should have a few games that don't work.  The original Action 52 cart had a few that just plain didn't start, requiring that you reset the console.

I was just about to request that a random selection of games that make it crash.