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Offline uzo

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2013, 03:15:57 PM »
+2
You have improved quite a bit, D9. That's a pretty impressive and solid display of gameplay.

I wonder though, can you jump off of and on to stairs? And or plan to do so.

Offline Jorge D. Fuentes

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2013, 03:22:31 PM »
+1
I agree with UZO.
Those are some very nice platforming physics you've got going on there.  +1
Good start-up engine.

Also, the doublejump spritework looks pretty great.

I also agree with MontoyaGraphics; if the entire game's stage progression is designed taking into account the abilities possessed, it should be fine. ;)
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Offline Dracula9

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2013, 06:34:42 PM »
0
Alright.

Given that I most likely won't make this a map-based game (Lecarde Chronicles, able to revisit stages), I don't see how upgrades on abilities would work. I did think about making the roll available from the start and finding the double jump later on, but with the levels being one-time-only the player would be fucked in later stages with stage platforming that would require it (since, after all, it would be a waste of time to program the ability but not the stages to suit it). So, I think I'll just leave them both in from the get-go.

And uzo, I AM in the process of working on that. Since I've got a better understanding of platforming physics and GML, it should be easier than the last time I said I was working on stair jumping. I should be able to get it done, but I'll post if I can't. I don't think that'll happen, but in the event that it does, consider this the FYI of sorts, I guess.


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Offline kaonstantine

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2013, 07:03:18 PM »
+1
I disagree Kaonstantine. Did starting out with the chain whip and the ability to perform a back flip spoil Rondo of Blood? I think not. 

Chain Whip is a weapon. I din't mention anything about weapons. Also, I never said nothing about starting the game with 0 abilities.

if the entire game's stage progression is designed taking into account the abilities possessed, it should be fine. ;)

Can't discuss that. I mentioned those abilities COULD spoil the game, thinking of a game where you need to revisit places to obtain new items/upgrades. I see now Dracula9 has a different idea for the game.


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Offline Belmontoya

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2013, 07:10:35 PM »
0
Chain whip is an "upgrade" from the leather whip. Leather whip is the default weapon.
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Offline Dracula9

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2013, 07:19:59 PM »
0
Yep. In this context, the weapon levels qualify as upgrades.

On that note, do you think I should leave the weapon-ups faithful to Haunted Castle and drop ONLY from enemies (i.e. only get the sword from knight enemies, because why would a skeleton ghost have weapons), or a more traditional candle-drop? Or both?


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Offline kaonstantine

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #21 on: June 25, 2013, 07:48:02 PM »
0
Chain whip is an "upgrade" from the leather whip. Leather whip is the default weapon.

Right, but I never talked about starting out the game with 0 "upgrades" neither 0 abilities.  I only talked about double jump and rolling (having re-exploration in mind).   ;)

I like buying upgrades or getting them after defeating bosses, but if i have to choose from one of ypur options, i go with enemy-drops



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Offline Belmontoya

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #22 on: June 25, 2013, 08:01:28 PM »
0
Right, but I never talked about starting out the game with 0 "upgrades" neither 0 abilities.  I only talked about double jump and rolling (having re-exploration in mind).   ;)

That's odd that you were thinking of re-exploration while talking about Haunted Castle.

I like buying upgrades or getting them after defeating bosses, but if i have to choose from one of ypur options, i go with enemy-drops

I think maybe you're thinking within the context of a Metriodvania game.

Have you every played Haunted Castle? If not, you should check it out Kaostantine. It's a really cool old school arcade game. I only wish they would of had this game at the old arcade I used to hang out at when I was a kid. I spent tons of quarters on the original Contra in the arcade. I would have dished out a fortune trying to beat Haunted Castle. The game is extremely difficult.

D9: It's hard to say what to go with for item drops without having played a demo of the game. That again will really depend on your level layout. Do you plan to have different difficulty settings? Considering how difficult Haunted Castle is, are you going to sustain that level of insanity? I certainly hope there is at least an option to take the rocky road, so to speak. If you are going to have different difficulty settings, perhaps have the items only dropped by enemies on the harder setting.

« Last Edit: June 25, 2013, 08:05:01 PM by MontoyaGraphics »
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Offline Inccubus

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #23 on: June 26, 2013, 01:28:03 PM »
0
Yep. In this context, the weapon levels qualify as upgrades.

On that note, do you think I should leave the weapon-ups faithful to Haunted Castle and drop ONLY from enemies (i.e. only get the sword from knight enemies, because why would a skeleton ghost have weapons), or a more traditional candle-drop? Or both?

I think I'd go with the candle drop system that most of the classicvanias use. This would bring HC more in-line with the rest of it's brethren which seems to be one of the goals of your project, no?
Personally I always favor giving the player more things to interact with than less. That's one of the problems I had with LoI & CoD for example. All those beautiful backgrounds and you can't break anything at all.
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Offline chainsawmidget

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #24 on: June 26, 2013, 02:03:10 PM »
0
Quote

Given that I most likely won't make this a map-based game (Lecarde Chronicles, able to revisit stages), I don't see how upgrades on abilities would work. I did think about making the roll available from the start and finding the double jump later on, but with the levels being one-time-only the player would be fucked in later stages with stage platforming that would require it (since, after all, it would be a waste of time to program the ability but not the stages to suit it). So, I think I'll just leave them both in from the get-go.
Rather than finding them, they could be abilities you get automatically as you clear a stage. 

You know, "Simon has cleared stage three.  Simon leanrs how to do a funky roll thing." 

Offline Dracula9

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #25 on: June 26, 2013, 05:19:39 PM »
0
Yeah, I could, but that wouldn't really make much sense. It'd be like, "You have defeated a three-hundred-ton giant stone golem. You can now nimbly jump again in midair."

And Montoya, the engine I'm working with does have a difficulty system in place, per se (in that it's mostly just easy-normal-hard variables and the chosen option affects your number of starting lives), but I haven't decided whether to fully implement it. I've already had too many bugs with trying to implement a customizable controls scheme (so it's going to be nixed for the time being), so all-encompassing global variables, rather than individualized ones like boss and player health and heart count, is a bit intimidating.

And Incubus, I couldn't agree more. There's gonna be plenty of shit to break here. PLENTY.

And I have an update for your question, uzo. I've successfully made Simon able to jump off of and fall from stairs(jump normally, fall if down is pressed). With how the stairs are done (top/bottom objects and Simon is in Stair mode while between them unless certain action buttons like whip are pressed, which changes that mode), I've had failure after failure in getting him to be able to jump onto them. I don't think it's going to happen; besides, Simon's a big macho powerhouse guy. He's not really the type of nimble that would be needed for acrobatic shit like that. Anyone can jump off of stairs, but jump onto them in perfect foot alignment? Unlikely for Simon.

The current work in progress is getting the stopwatch to freeze shit. So far it's going pretty smoothly, with a few minor bugs like animation playback after being unfrozen and the zombies losing their fucking minds.

Also,
Quote from: Dracula9
There won't be multiple character outfits/palettes, but that one's just placeholder anyway. The final will be an edit of X68000's Simon (since the outfit is pretty close to HC's Simon and requires minimal edit work on my part), but I'm just using Chronicles for the time being to make sure the changes in sprite origins (since Pedrozo's base engine uses Rebirth's Christopher) match up smoothly. And also because I found his sheet on my hard drive first and didn't feel like digging for the X68 sheet, especially when it would just be placeholder.
So, here's basically what the final product will look like, once I have time/get around to actually converting the entire sheet to it:


And now, for a random "D9 needs to pay attention to what code snippets he pastes from Clipboard" glitch of the day:

BEHOLD THE INCARNATION OF TRUE FEAR AND DESPAIR!
...Yeah. Although this actually gave me ideas for later enemies. Go figure.


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Offline Jorge D. Fuentes

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #26 on: June 26, 2013, 05:56:26 PM »
0
You're welcome to use my Simon Belmont sprites as alternates if they're compatible.
But you don't have to. Just throwing it out there.  Yours look quite fine.

You can start with the abilities, similar to how Richter starts with the best (only) chain whip and doesn't use upgrades, and starts with his backflip.  Or, how Richter 'starts' Symphony of the Night with all those funky abilities.

As long as the stage makes use of them intelligently, it should be no problem.

I imagine the game will play kind of like Castlevania Adventure Rebirth, only with slightly more out-of-the-way powerups/money/etc. that you would use your abilities to reach.

Example:
-Perhaps there's a perilous area with crushers you have to time perfect rolls to make it across, with the other side having a key or a weapon that's better-suited for the stage.
-Maybe there's an area with a waterfall but if you perform a doublejump leap of faith across it, you'll reach a hidden small alcove with a cache of stuff.

This all without doing it in Metroidvania style (I'm not sure the direction the game has but from the video it looks like it'll be done in the vein of a ClassicVania or, at the most, like Rondo of Blood with a Stage Selector upon a stage is completed, thus unlocked).
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Offline Dracula9

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #27 on: June 26, 2013, 06:12:42 PM »
+1
Thanks, but your red-armor Simon's a little too big IMO. Otherwise they'd probably have fit just fine. And I've already got the Chronicles bounding origins to work, which the X68 ones are pixel-identical to.

And it'll be a Classicvania. The revisit map is probably not going to happen, at least not right now. I'm sure I can code a variable that tests whether the boss has been killed already or not, but right now that's not really much of a priority. And those examples are exactly the kind of thing I had in mind. Let's just say playing Lecarde Chronicles is giving me a ton of stage-element inspiration (seriously, Mig's stage platforming elements are fucking top-notch. If you're reading this, Mig, great job), so that shouldn't be a problem.


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Offline uzo

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #28 on: June 26, 2013, 07:16:03 PM »
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What issues are you having with custom controls?

Offline Dracula9

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Re: Haunted Castle
« Reply #29 on: June 27, 2013, 05:26:44 PM »
0
Mostly, it's the keymapping script going wonky with the changes I've made to the base engine (I would imagine, since I've not touched the keymap script), in that altering the buttons in the options menu glitches and the enter key stops working, even when set back to its default. This makes it impossible to exit the options menu, so I really can't tell if the other buttons work or not after remapping.

Although, thinking about it, I'm working on removing all scripts and button scripts dealing with the Item Crash action, since Simon won't have one. Since doing that involves deleting/editing string placement and origins in the options (and therefore the layout of what's editable and what's not), that might be the root cause of the problem. I'll keep on it and see what sticks.


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