Espitene

[na_th_an]

I've been busy last year giving shape to my simple, modular engine AGNES. I've created this game which tries to replicate most of the gameplay of the original Sonic game for the Master System (bar the scroll ) using standard features of the AGNES engine as a showcase of what v1.0 can do.



The main character moves too fast. To stop, you don't simply have to stop pressing the direction, on the contrary most of the time you will have to actively brake by pulling to the opposite direction. This may seem awkward at first but once you get the hang of braking, that's it.

Download still needs some testing and fixing, but I hope you like it. The game has 12 normal stages + 6 boss stages.

description.txt

Code: Select all

Title: Espitene

Author/Publisher: The Mojon Twins

Year: 2018

Players: 1
 
Description: 
Cheril found a mysterious
puppet in the junkyard. Upon
examining it, she knew she 
had a mission. Help Cheril, 
dressed as the puppet, to 
chase evil Somari, and find
the six emeralds of Podewwwr.

Use the D-Pad to move around
Press A to jump and down to
spin. Enemies are vulnerable
when Cheril is spinning!

Collect the rings as your
life will be spared if you
are hit while carrying some.

URL: http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=18283

Credits: 
Code/Music/GFX: na_th_an
Boss music/SFX: Davidian

[EDITS]
20180109 - updated download. Map bugs fixed.
20180111 - updated download. Map bugs fixed. Level selection added. Dying animation added.
20180114 - updated download. Many bugs fixed.
20180116 - updated download. Final OGT.
20180117 - updated download. Collisions while in "dead" state no longer occur. Added falling bridge animation.
20180118 - updated download. Fixed level sequence and palette effects in NTSC
20180131 - updated download. Compo entry.

[na_th_an]

More pics

[tokumaru]

I've created this game which tries to replicate most of the gameplay of the original Sonic game for the Master System (bar the scroll )

And the slopes, if the screenshots are any indication... Looks pretty cool though! I'll definitely give this a try when I get home.

[M_Tee]

This is awesome. Is Espitene also a hedgehog or another animal?

[Banshaku]

Looks good, will give it a try!

[Denine]

This is awesome. Is Espitene also a hedgehog or another animal?

Accoriding to wikipedia, Espinete is a Hedgehog.
I dont like games with long acceleration\braking, but still, gave it a try.

I finished the game with 5 emeralds. The one I missed was somewhere in Zone 3....no idea where.
I like the fact you can finish the game and continue with collected emeralds....but to enhance that, you could offer the player to select the zone they want to visit.
After beating the game, I felt a bit tired and didnt really want to play through two zones just to get to zone 3 and search for emerald there.
If you could make a Zone selection available to the player after he beats the game to collect emeralds, that would be cool(and zone selection would also pop up after beating a zone, so you are not forced to continue with next one if you have an emerald in there!).

I encountered some glitches and oversights. I know game is still in early stages, but I'll still list them:
-Spikes hit you on the sides (whyyyyy games do that...)
-You can be knocked by enemy into the ground(but seems lower tiles were non solid, to I wrapped back to the top)
-At end of Broken Fridge, Act 1: You can use right spring to jump on the rightmost wall.
Going right will take you to either start of the Act(if you go right one screen above)
or to end of Act 2...but all objects are turned off and you cant go back.
-You can also skip ENTIRE second act of third zone(forgot the name, jungle-waterfall one)
by jumping over the left wall at the begining and going one screen to the left, then fall down.
-Jumps underwater are deceptively short. Isn't it usually other way around? Player can jump higher in the water?
-In final zone, you can skip a few screens. Go to the screen with big ladder(red ship) and jump from there to the left.
You will end up in last room

Finally, I dont want to sound like a douche, but Im not sure why this topic is in this sub forum as it breaks one of the compo rules:

Entries must be original. Plagiarism and copyright infringement will result in disqualification.

Im not a lawyer, so I cant say much about Espinete character...but im pretty sure putting a demake\cover of commercial title and game over music is copyright infringement.(correct me if Im wrong).
Sorry, I pointed that out so blatantly. In the end, I think compo organizer will deal with this, but If I were you, I would change required music before entering the compo.

[na_th_an]

Yeah, no slopes It's a feature I have in the roadmap for future versions of AGNES (2.0 will feature the ability to use both nametables for each room and configure a camera, for instance). This is just a showcase of what AGNES 1.0 can do. I've tried to replicate the game as much as possible although level layouts are different, but gameplay elements have been retained when possible: collecting emeralds for a true ending, collapsing bridges in bridge zone, falling logs in jungle zone, underwater sections in labyrinth zone, switchable doors and conveyors in scrap brain zone, bolts of electricity in sky base zone. Also the bosses have been modelled to resemble the originals, specially the final boss.

Espinete the hedgehog (note: different syllable order) was the main character in the Spanish version of Sesame Street from 1983 to 1988. Last year, news broke that the original costume (built by Jim Henson's puppet maker Kermit Love) was found abandoned in a junkyard (which was rather sad, considering the quality of the work and how popular the character was among Spanish children who grew up in the 80s). This gave us the idea for the game: Cheril finds the puppet and the "soul" of the character commands her to wear it and fulfill a task.

The joke of Espinete taking part as Sonic has been pretty common in Spain since the games were released, so the setting was pretty obvious.

As mentioned, I'm sure there are some bugs in map layout and object placement, I'm currently beta-testing the game. Appart from that, it's pretty complete.

[na_th_an]

This is awesome. Is Espitene also a hedgehog or another animal?

Accoriding to wikipedia, Espinete is a Hedgehog.
I dont like games with long acceleration\braking, but still, gave it a try.

I finished the game with 5 emeralds. The one I missed was somewhere in Zone 3....no idea where.
I like the fact you can finish the game and continue with collected emeralds....but to enhance that, you could offer the player to select the zone they want to visit.
After beating the game, I felt a bit tired and didnt really want to play through two zones just to get to zone 3 and search for emerald there.
If you could make a Zone selection available to the player after he beats the game to collect emeralds, that would be cool(and zone selection would also pop up after beating a zone, so you are not forced to continue with next one if you have an emerald in there!).

I encountered some glitches and oversights. I know game is still in early stages, but I'll still list them:
-Spikes hit you on the sides (whyyyyy games do that...)
-You can be knocked by enemy into the ground(but seems lower tiles were non solid, to I wrapped back to the top)
-At end of Broken Fridge, Act 1: You can use right spring to jump on the rightmost wall.
Going right will take you to either start of the Act(if you go right one screen above)
or to end of Act 2...but all objects are turned off and you cant go back.
-You can also skip ENTIRE second act of third zone(forgot the name, jungle-waterfall one)
by jumping over the left wall at the begining and going one screen to the left, then fall down.
-Jumps underwater are deceptively short. Isn't it usually other way around? Player can jump higher in the water?
-In final zone, you can skip a few screens. Go to the screen with big ladder(red ship) and jump from there to the left.
You will end up in last room

Finally, I dont want to sound like a douche, but Im not sure why this topic is in this sub forum as it breaks one of the compo rules:

Entries must be original. Plagiarism and copyright infringement will result in disqualification.

Im not a lawyer, so I cant say much about Espinete character...but im pretty sure putting a demake\cover of commercial title and game over music is copyright infringement.(correct me if Im wrong).
Sorry, I pointed that out so blatantly. In the end, I think compo organizer will deal with this, but If I were you, I would change required music before entering the compo.

Thanks for the bug report, I had noticed some of them, some not. I like the idea of the level select feature after beating the game.

About copyright, it's just a cover version, but I can change it.

[na_th_an]

Fixed map bugs, enemies should no longer be able to push you underground. Spikes keep killing you from the side, I'm used to that and won't be changing it. As for jump physics underground, as long as the character doesn't seem to float, it feels natural to me that the higher density of the environment won't let you jump far.

Still have to produce a new tune for world 4. Consider what you hear a placeholder.

I still have to think about how level selection would work. I think that, after getting the "bad" ending, a level selection menu could be shown, with the control going back to this menu if you finish the world and not have collected all emeralds, or showing the true ending if you have. Not much space in PRG, tho. Will have to cram it somehow

Updated the first post.

[Diskover]

Espinete forever!!!

[WhiteHat94]

I had done some speedruns of what I assume is an earlier beta because I liked the game so much. I haven't had a chance to mess around with the new one but it sounds like you have fixed several of the things I found already, but feel free to check out the video and see if there are any more that haven't been mentioned yet. This is currently my favorite game you have made so far and looks like I will have to speedrun it again once the final version is out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hxOfWrxEUg

[na_th_an]

Thank you! This is quite helpful. Will check it out tomorrow. Maybe you tested the previous versión from github? This one is almost the same, it only is less buggy.

I've implemented the level select feature after completing the game. Will post tonight.

[WhiteHat94]

Alright, so I played around some with the new beta, and you cannot beat 4-1, the first water stage. It seems like you reduced the max height of jumps by a pixel or 2 so it makes a jump in the stage impossible to make.

There is also still a minor glitch that if you jump on the frame you land on the ground, you will exit the jump in the standing animation, not the usual ball. This can lead to taking accidental damage since you are vulnerable in that position.

I will try more once I can get past 4-1.

[na_th_an]

Thanks for trying. I noticed what you say in bug #1 and fixed it, I have to update the download. As for the second, I'll look into it. Thanks again.

[na_th_an]

Fixed:
- Map bugs reported and found by myself.

Added:
- Once the player beats the game without collecting all emeralds, a level selection screen is shown until all emeralds are collected. Losing all lives still result in GAME OVER, but you can continue as normal pressing SELECT on the menu.
- Actual dying animation.



Todo:
- Change tune in world 4.
- Fix the "non ball jump" issue.

ROM updated in the 1st post