Nomolos: Storming the Catsle

[bigjt_2]

I think it's looking pretty slick, myself. The collision detection looks spot on and everything seems to be moving in a good, solid manner. And the dragon!! I'll play the game for that boss alone! That looks great!

[tepples]

A game is harder in the hand of someone who didnt' make it.

Not always. I made Lockjaw for PC, but I can't come close to Jono's speed. (See also the interview.)

Back to the topic: Is the jump code using Newtonian gravity like that in Super Mario Bros.?

[Zepper]

I think it's looking pretty slick, myself. The collision detection looks spot on and everything seems to be moving in a good, solid manner. And the dragon!! I'll play the game for that boss alone! That looks great!

- Yes, surely! As advice, I would adjust the jump physics a bit. ^_^;;

[Zepper]

Saying the game look like action 52 is just bashing: explaining possible issues in the play mechanics or that could have impact on the game itself (i.e. enemies that blend with background) which would lead in the end in improving the game is constructive criticism.

- I really hadn't the intention of making anyone upset. I'm sorry...

[GradualGames]

No offense taken. All comments are welcome.

[thefox]

Some constructive criticism / rambling:

- Jump physics seem OK to me. You might want to add friction to walking, though, so that when player releases the movement key the character doesn't stop immediately.

- Here when the character jumps up the stairs his legs don't move at all which looks unnatural: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFqWBYEh_E0#t=0m45s

- Also it seems that the camera position is fixed to player position. You might want to have a little window in the center of the screen where the camera doesn't scroll.

- It's the mediocre graphics that give it this "colordreamy" feeling. Of course it's understandable from a one-man project.

- The main weapon, sword or whatever is too short range to my taste. I like projectiles.
E: Let me just add, that when you can kill enemies by jumping on them etc, it's also fine. I just hate when the only option is a very short range weapon.

- It's sometimes hard to immediately see what parts of the background are walkable... especially at the castle where the color scheme is pretty consistently grey all-around.

- All in all, very good one man effort!

[GradualGames]

This is actually a two person project. I'm doing all the programming, music (some transcribed from classical pieces I like, some composed by me) and level design, and Ravenwolf (my wife) is doing all the art. There is a projectile weapon in the game, wouldn't want to spoil all the surprises =)

[Zepper]

- Jump physics seem OK to me. You might want to add friction to walking, though, so that when player releases the movement key the character doesn't stop immediately.

- I could mention Super Mario Bros. 3 as example of your suggestion, but is there another game with such effect?

- It's the mediocre graphics that give it this "colordreamy" feeling. Of course it's understandable from a one-man project.

- Well, if the game brings replay value, then graphics wouldn't matter that much.

[tepples]

You might want to add friction to walking, though, so that when player releases the movement key the character doesn't stop immediately.

- I could mention Super Mario Bros. 3 as example of your suggestion, but is there another game with such effect?

Tokumaru might know of one

But consider that Mega Man 1 had slide to a stop, but none of the later Mega Man games had it.

[Memblers]

Nice graphics and music, the game looks pretty interesting. The attack style made me wonder if it could benefit from downward and upward-stabbing attack (like Zelda 2 or Rastan), that's always fun. But that leaves the question open on how to handle enemies that take more than one hit to kill (bounce off or pass through, or how to not make it a suicide technique).

The music I think could use a little improvement with the volume envelopes, I kinda thought it was the NES hardware envelopes until I heard the fade-in (the fade-in timing in particular gave it a de-synchronized feeling). The songs themselves sounded nice though. Especially keep in mind that NES volume levels are linear, while perceived volume levels for humans are logarithmic (perhaps this why the NES hardware envelopes sound overly loud and boring). Very commonly you'll see volume envelopes look like : 15, 9, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, etc. to compensate for that.

Nice progress though, pretty impressive to see as it is.

[GradualGames]

Sorry I hadn't responded to some of the posts above previously---I think I was reluctant to spam the main forum until something like this forum was created. (feels more appropriate now). @tepples, as far as I know the jumping is newtonian. It produces a nice arc if you move horizontally.

@memblers, thanks. Thanks for the tips about volume envelopes, I definitely intend to improve the sound at some point.

Also, I've started a brief series of dev videos for fellow nesdever's to see if interested. Links will be posted in the top of the thread.

[zlash]

- Jump physics seem OK to me. You might want to add friction to walking, though, so that when player releases the movement key the character doesn't stop immediately.

- I could mention Super Mario Bros. 3 as example of your suggestion, but is there another game with such effect?

If I recall correctly, I can remember dying a lot because of that effect on "Gimmick!"

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The game looks really good! What I most like about it, its the feeling of cohesion I get from it. It really looks like a game, and that's something hard to achieve.

Good work!

[GradualGames]

Just uploaded the MAGFest 9 video (link in top of thread). There's not a ton more that is new, the main thing is better video quality. Thanks to bigjt_2 for showing this at Sivak's panel, and thanks to Sivak for opening up his panel for me and other homebrew authors!

zlash: thanks!

[qbradq]

This is very impressive! I noticed on your blog you mentioned that you have completed the second boss and the first eight levels. Any chance you could post a video showing those off?

[clueless]

Gradualore,

Would you like us to demo your game at the MGC? We'll have a few powerpaks and we will nuke your ROM image when done. It probably isn't feasible to show your entire game. Do you have a build that contains just the first level?