Topic: Just another Castlevania fan-game...

[Lanforse]

Hi there. Several months ago I've started a my own Castlevania project.
It's a remake of the first Castlevania game (still unnamed though), featuring graphics and style from the Rondo of Blood, old-school gameplay, music and atmosphere from the Super Castlevania 4, and some of my own features.
I'm planning about 15 "zones" with corresponding bosses, 60+ different enemies, 6 weapons, 6 sub-weapons, 6 usable items.
By now, I've completed about 25 enemies, 2 bosses, one zone and all 6/6/6 items.
Demo version will be soon, just need to fix some critical stuff. For now, I'll be glad to hear some thoughts, questions, suggestions - any type of feedback, positive or negative.

P.S.: I want to thank Jorge D. Fuentes for his gorgeous Simon's sprite sheet. Don't you mind that I'm using your work in my project..?
P.P.S: Sorry for my bad English.


The first demo: http://www.mediafire.com/download/3l97q24poa2ozvc/Castlevania.exe
The second demo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uhccgj5i9p4lc28/Castlevania%20demo%202%20fixed.exe?dl=0
The second demo (android): https://www.dropbox.com/s/guaucso42dwo0s1/Castlevania%20demo%202.apk?dl=0

There is video of my full walkthrough of the first level, and some screenshots (in the attachments):

[Wallz!]

This is looking pretty damn cool. Here's some of my thoughts:
-Simon's walking and stair animations seem really off, as if they're missing frames. Are you using all of the frames from the original sheet?
-You might want to look in to creating edges for some of the tiles you're using. Some of the cutoffs make the game look less professional.
-Some tiles seem to be used wrong; for example, you have half of a diagonal roof appear at one point and it just stops with one side.
-I'd also suggest modifying the right edge of the title, you can tell it was cut off from something else.
-Remember that the village tileset on Rondo has a pallette made for the town being on fire. I'd make some of the red accents on the ground and bricks gray.
-Some of the jumps you have to make (the ones that are like 4 or 5 blocks long) seem like they require great accuracy. Even though it's possible, I'd make them shorter just so it appears like a possible jump to the player.
-This may be just me, but it seems like that first boss has A LOT of health. And the sound played when he walks doesn't match very well.

[Lanforse]

Thanks for the reply!
1. I still don't see the problem with the stair animation, but you're not the first, who told me about it. So I'll try to see and fix it.
2. Can you tell me a concrete example of the bad cutoffs? I can see the one in the first room (before the bridge) and the another one in the next room (before the sign). There's more of them..?
3. Oh! Totally missed it, thanks. Maybe you can tell me more, please?
4. Ah, the title. I'm reeeeeeeally not an artist, so I've spent quite a lot of time to make something decent. Maybe I should use another one, not from the CV4...
5. Yes, I can see that are you talking about. Maybe I'll just desaturate red bricks, but the road seems fine to me.
6. Those hard jumps are intentional, I'm trying to teach player, how far you can jump. Maybe I also should make even a bigger hole with unavoidable falling, to teach how far you can't jump...
7. This boss is temporary, just for the demonstration. Later, there will be no boss in the end of this zone (or will be another one), and this one will be a normal enemy.

[piscesdreams]

The stairs animation only uses one half of the frames, I believe. It looks like only half the body is doing the climbing instead each half taking their turn.

[Lanforse]

The stairs animation only uses one half of the frames

Yes, it was intentional. It's too hard for me to combine half of the animation cycle when character steps just for one stair and the full cycle when it's a long moving.
I think it's normal to simplify animation a bit, but I should to make it to be less eye-hurting, I guess.

[Wallz!]

Here's some examples of what I was talking about with the tiling. I apologize for the image quality, I was screenshotting the video.


In here you have the base of the building which is close to Simon, but the building itself is much farther in the background. It results in a really awkward looking piece of scenery.


Those pillars are holding the platforms up, cutting them off before the water seems strange. I also pointed out how the wall ends before the water also, but that's not as bad, it makes it seem like the water is flowing elsewhere. But you probably would want the pillars to go into the water, to make them look like they're supporting the platforms and not just floating.


The gray base of the building doesn't look right without the ground beneath it. I'd just cut it short one block.


You did adjust it a little here, but the stone doesn't really transition well into the blocks; it kinda looks like a cut and paste job. I'd suggest just using the stone without blocks on top of it, or having the stone fade to black under the blocks, to make it look like the blocks rest on top of it.

Also, I'd suggest slowing down the glowing animation on the hearts to about half speed.

Just to be safe all of this is constructive criticism, just wanna help out. With a little polish this can look pretty official.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Hi!

YES, you can totally use my Sprite, if you give me Credit in your Game credits and in your posts.  Which you did.  Sooooo it's all good.


EDIT:
So I just looked at the video.


The way to use the stair animations properly is to totally disregard foot placement with regards to the step.  Don't try to match the foot to the stair because, while that would work, it ends up resulting in Simon going up the stairs really quickly or super-slowly.


Instead, dedicate a stop point for the stairs.  Meaning, when you let go of Up or Down (or whatever direction you're using in the D-Pad or Arrows), Simon has to walk to that position on the stair.  Usually, these positions are single blocks (16x16 blocks, two Steps on the stair).  However, the animation you use to get there is complete, even if the feet don't match/sync to the stairs.


So basically, use the entire stair-climbing animation to climb one block tile, regardless of the feet.  Continue the animation if the arrows are still pushed, but when they stop being pushed, finish the animation to the closest point.  Note that this may make Simon appear to 'switch legs' at the very end of the animation.  This is OK and still looks better than the alternative, which is what you've got going on right now (which is the way Rondo of Blood did it with Child Maria Renard).





Simon's walk is way too slow and seems to be either missing frames, or is placing the frames in wrong locations, vertically (I can tell because the feet look weird).  Simon's Up-Jump is separate from his Forward-Jump, too.  His leg should just go straight up if you jump straight up (even if you're controlling him in mid-air afterwards), and be tilted if you're jumping forward.   like Richter's in Rondo of Blood.

[piscesdreams]

Yes, it was intentional. It's too hard for me to combine half of the animation cycle when character steps just for one stair and the full cycle when it's a long moving.
I think it's normal to simplify animation a bit, but I should to make it to be less eye-hurting, I guess.

Stairs are honestly the most annoying thing to program and are hard to get right in terms of placement. But adding the full animation will make it more easier on the eyes as a start.

[Rudolph LagnaGaisaer]

Stairs are honestly the most annoying thing to program and are hard to get right in terms of placement. But adding the full animation will make it more easier on the eyes as a start.

Depending on The Engine you are using, try to CREATE the STAIR OBJECT as an INVISIBLE LINE entity, rather than use then as the SPRITE entity itself.This will help you match the player climbing sprite and the stairs more easily.And hopefully, on later levels when you need stairs transitions to switch rooms like the First CV do, match then more easier.

PS : Sorry for my bad english, isn't my primary language ^^.

[uzo]

Aesthetics aside, this looks pretty good. You display that you have some sense of good game design from what I've seen in that video.

[Lanforse]

ronny14, thanks for your advices! I'll do everything what I can to fix this. I even didn't noticed most of this details, I think I should be more inspective for things like this.

Jorge D. Fuentes I already used "stop points" system with the stairs. When you press any directional button just once, character will move to one stair (8pix to both vertical and horizontal) and finishes his one-step animation. Anyway, I'll try to implement full-animation cycle, as you advices.
Oh, and one more thing! This video in 30 fps, but my game runs with the full 60 (sorry, I'm just decoded video that way), so there is some frames missing. I'll make a next video with some new features soon, I'll try to make it 720p60. Also, I have some webm videos (some of them are 60fps), Is there any way to post them here?
The jump animation... Things there can be little complicated, because of the way, how I have already done it. I hope it's not lethal, if It ended up with my current animations, but I'll really try to do something.

Rudolph LagnaGaisaer, thanks for the advice, but I already used a little different system. I have one special block, where in the beginning of the stairs and one another in their end, that's all. Also, I have never used sprite as an static game object (like stairs, floor, etc). In the attached picture you can see my dev-mode. And the special room transition isn't really the ROOM transition. It's still the same room, just with the camera movement blocked before the transition. Actual room switching always done the old way, with the simple fading in black before the room switch. I've already learned and using this technique, just didn't show it yet.

uzo, thanks, but... Nah, this isn't actually my own game design, I just looking at the official games and trying to do something very simillar, but still different. So I can't say it's my own design and as the whole game - It's just a rip-off with some of my own ideas.

[Lanforse]

Well, I'm fixed the walking animation - it's actually was missing 2 frames. Still can't do anything with the jump, sorry. Also I did some fixes with the tiles, how does it looks now?

[SabinFigaro]

I agree with Jorge, Simon's speed is rather on the slow side. Maybe speed it up a little. Maybe not SCV4 fast but something like the nes titles would be pretty good I think. Just my two cents. Otherwise, this looks very promising.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

The colors on Simon's sprite look out of place with the saturated RoB tiles in the background. Try using a more saturated color scheme for Simon, like this:

[uzo]

uzo, thanks, but... Nah, this isn't actually my own game design, I just looking at the official games and trying to do something very simillar, but still different. So I can't say it's my own design and as the whole game - It's just a rip-off with some of my own ideas.

That isn't quite what I meant. Anyone can take the concept of another game and try to clone it, but not everyone can do it well.

I was referring more to things like, when you want the player to go across the window ledges in one screen, you put an archer enemy on one of the platforms to give the clue the player can also stand on them. That is a great way to handle that.

Having the ape skeleton fall into the water pit before the player can reasonably kill it to display that there are pit deaths.

Having the ape skeleton fall down into the floor you just entered to make the player move to the left, creating a little action and tension of being trapped there with it.

Most people don't think about these things when designing a fan game. So I applaud you for it.