My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

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klonoa
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Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:53 pm

My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by klonoa »

Hey all,

I'd like to share the game I made over the past few months.
It started out as a school project that became quite the passion project.
After I got my grade I and a friend kept working on it to finish it.

It's not completely finished yet but it is finish-able.

Biggest inspirations were the survival horror games of the ps1 and early ps2 era
where you have to collect items and use them to progress through the level.

Feedback is much appreciated!

A few points:

- It's a horror game that contains death, blood and gore.
- Doesn't boot in nestopia for some reason. (maybe someone knows why? Fcuex works.)
Edit: The Ines header was broken! Thx Nocash and lidnariq for spotting this error!
- It's not finished yet so some bugs could be lurking in the dark corners. :P
- Keep in mind it's our very first nes game. :lol:


Edit (2-9-2020):
Thank you all for the amount of attention and feedback these past months! Didn't expect so much attention as a first timer.
I've been working on the game on and off since I made this post and feel like it's time to update it.
I won't list everything I've added in detail since that would ruin the surprise. :wink:
But in short, the big thing I've added is weapons and enemies.
I also fixed some bugs, some of which took me quite some time and added some other minor features.

The player can't die yet and is ridiculously overpowered, both things I still need to add and tweak.
Haven't fixed the iffy collisions yet, it's still on my list. :D

Once again feedback is very much appreciated!

P.s Mr.scarecrow is watching.. :twisted:
Attachments
DemonDistrict 2-9-20.nes
Newest version! :)
(328.02 KiB) Downloaded 227 times
DemonDistrictFixed.nes
Same game with a fixed Ines header
(312.02 KiB) Downloaded 628 times
DemonDistrict.nes
(312.02 KiB) Downloaded 442 times
Last edited by klonoa on Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
nocash
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by nocash »

What mapper is that? Do you have a version with intect NES header? The size entry(ies) seem to be broken.
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Drozerix
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by Drozerix »

nocash wrote:What mapper is that? Do you have a version with intect NES header? The size entry(ies) seem to be broken.
Looks like it is an MMC1, right?
lidnariq
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by lidnariq »

Looks to be marked as having 256KB PRG and 128KB CHR, but has only 56KB CHR. Works fine if I change the header to match.

Lots of padding in the PRG; should be possible to re-link the game into 64/64 without much effort.
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Punch
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by Punch »

I finished it. Pretty neat!

I would maybe tweak the interaction areas and collision detection a bit, and make the menu be exit-able with the A button but this is otherwise pretty cool for a demo.
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klonoa
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by klonoa »

lidnariq wrote:Looks to be marked as having 256KB PRG and 128KB CHR, but has only 56KB CHR. Works fine if I change the header to match.

Lots of padding in the PRG; should be possible to re-link the game into 64/64 without much effort.
Oh wow, how could I have missed that..

What do you mean with padding? Unused space?
What's 64/64?
klonoa
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by klonoa »

Drozerix wrote:
nocash wrote:What mapper is that? Do you have a version with intect NES header? The size entry(ies) seem to be broken.
Looks like it is an MMC1, right?
Yep, It's the MMC1
klonoa
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by klonoa »

Punch wrote:I finished it. Pretty neat!

I would maybe tweak the interaction areas and collision detection a bit, and make the menu be exit-able with the A button but this is otherwise pretty cool for a demo.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback! :D
lidnariq
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by lidnariq »

klonoa wrote:What do you mean with padding? Unused space?
Yeah. You've got a lot of completely unused 16KB pages (#s 6-14) and many of the remainder are less than half full (#s 0,3,4,5)
What's 64/64?
64KB for both PRG and CHR.
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rainwarrior
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by rainwarrior »

I survived!

Congrats on making this.
nocash
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by nocash »

I've changed the CHR size entry to 07 (=56Kbyte), but my emu (no$nes) still displayed garbage with that, apparently not knowing how to map CHR ROM that isn't a power of two in size. It worked when padding the CHR rom to a power of two. I had never problems with that, so I guess 56Kbyte is extremely uncommon (and unlikely to exist as physical chip size in real hardware).

The NMI handler should push/pop A,X,Y registers (or push/pull, in 6502 language). It's somewhat working without because the main program just sits in an endless loop... but before entering that loop, it does execute a few opcodes that do use the A register (which can be destroyed if the NMI should occur during that time).

The game solved end came a bit abrupt, I am a bit left in the dark about what had happened exactly. I am glad that I have survived, but how? And I am unsure... did I save the world or something?
homepage - patreon - you can think of a bit as a bottle that is either half full or half empty
calima
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by calima »

Very nice for a first game. I like games in this style and horror in general.

I didn't play long, so just some polish would be needed for what I noticed:
- button state isn't cleared between stuff (press start to start the game when the chick is shown -> it opens the menu in-game)
- things are jumpy when the menu opens
- scrolling between screens isn't smooth
- sprites not shown during scroll, they snap out and in
klonoa
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Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:53 pm

Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by klonoa »

nocash wrote:I've changed the CHR size entry to 07 (=56Kbyte), but my emu (no$nes) still displayed garbage with that, apparently not knowing how to map CHR ROM that isn't a power of two in size. It worked when padding the CHR rom to a power of two. I had never problems with that, so I guess 56Kbyte is extremely uncommon (and unlikely to exist as physical chip size in real hardware).

The NMI handler should push/pop A,X,Y registers (or push/pull, in 6502 language). It's somewhat working without because the main program just sits in an endless loop... but before entering that loop, it does execute a few opcodes that do use the A register (which can be destroyed if the NMI should occur during that time).

The game solved end came a bit abrupt, I am a bit left in the dark about what had happened exactly. I am glad that I have survived, but how? And I am unsure... did I save the world or something?

I'm sorry I don't understand at all.
What should I do with the A,X,Y registers? and why?

Still Wanna make a small cutscene where she goes on the bike and jumps the gap at the end of the road.
klonoa
Posts: 76
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:53 pm

Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by klonoa »

calima wrote:Very nice for a first game. I like games in this style and horror in general.

I didn't play long, so just some polish would be needed for what I noticed:
- button state isn't cleared between stuff (press start to start the game when the chick is shown -> it opens the menu in-game)
- things are jumpy when the menu opens
- scrolling between screens isn't smooth
- sprites not shown during scroll, they snap out and in
Thanks! :D

Could you be more specific?
What do you mean with the button state not being cleared?

With scrolling not being smooth do you mean the screen stalls a bit before scrolling?

The sprites not shown during a scroll was a small sacrifice I made.
Might improve on that later.
klonoa
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Re: My first nes game! (DemonDistrict)

Post by klonoa »

rainwarrior wrote:I survived!

Congrats on making this.
Thanks! :D
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