Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => Fan Stuff => Topic started by: Johnny on October 03, 2007, 05:19:42 PM
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I don't know if any of you saw the post from Jorge. Anyways I guess if you guys would like to discuss this we can. Its certainly a shame what happened. Just to clarify who the team was I will give you guys a good idea. Jorge was the project head. He did the music and artwork as well as beta testing. John Morris who disappeared was the programmer. I was the research and developer. We were in fact very excited for a release. Some things you guys didn't know was that we were actually kicking around making a working demo. Took us ages to do even what we had already decided on. Originally the game started off as a homebrew idea that was basically just talk. Jorge was the one who make the suggestion of a remake rather than a game from scratch. And so the game was done in secret.
Anything left of the game is left with Jorge. He was after all the project lead. But who knows. Maybe in the future I dunno a miracle will happen and it will actually get made. If thats the case I'm willing to help out once again.
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Johnny here (John Faraone) helped with the difficult (at the time) information, such as the HP of enemies, and the contents of the candles, as well as other game-related info such as how many seconds each stage had, etc.
John Morris and I benefited a lot from this information years ago, before tools such as ReVamp, etc. came out and gave us a little more insight to the game mechanics.
We thank Johnny here for his efforts.
As it stands, Quasar, the new programmer... well honestly, I never received a single piece of code from him. Sad, really. In my efforts to not be pushing for a deadline, I suppose I was not pressing enough to get him to deliver anything, and in the year+ that has passed, I did not receive any code updates or data in regards to progress.
Truth.
Right now I'm still holding on to the source code as well as all the information regarding the game, including but not limited to sprites, backgrounds, music, and documentation.
I also have not advertised for anyone to continue this project in the hopes that Quasar will show up with something. However, it is probably a fair assumption at this point that he will not be giving us anything, since he has not shown up here or in the IRC channel in months, and when I see him, I usually get the same response regarding the project, which is basically that he's busy with other matters but that he will give me an update later. This later actually does not happen, the situation just repeats itself. It's been rather disappointing to me.
John Morris, the previous programmer, is a very talented guy who worked with the game's original programming language, a variant of Basic called "Blitz Basic" (I believe Blitz3D is out right now), but later we migrated to Microsoft C++ with the DirectX SDK in order to get more effects, etc. done, since the BlitzBasic language was, at the time, very crippled (it was originally chosen because it was simple to code for, but later was abandoned due to its inability to do basic 3D objects and rotation/scaling efficiently).
Unfortunately, like most of us, John Morris developed a life outside of CVForums, with real-life matters taking up more and more of his time, until he reached a point at which he could not make time for the project, at which point we had to gather what we could and what we learned, and leave it on hiatus.
Since then, other people have been mildly interested in the project, but were either unwilling to work with John's Code (possibly due to a documentation problem), or they were unwilling to work with the system proposed (DirectX), or were unwilling to do something else related to its existing code. Since it would have been a shame to re-start the project from the bottom up, with all this potentially useful source code, no one has taken up the reins of the programming side.
To be fair, I have not posted a request for a programmer in websites such as gamasutra.com, etc. basically because I cannot pay, and most programmers deserve some compensation, and as such, they usually ask for it, though I did post such a request here. Unfortunately, not many programmers frequent these forums.
I'm only replying to this since it's a thread regarding the game, so I'm compelled to talk about it.
It's fine with me if Johnny or anyone finds someone who might be interested in the project, since most people here at the CVForum, as well as the CVDungeon, are well aware of its existence and I've not gotten any calls from Konami with a cease-and-desist or anything like that.
Well, that's pretty much all I've to say at this point, I suppose.
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I always have been interested but I'm not much passed basics >.> Still, if you can let me see it that'd be great, but I doubt I can do much....
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I wish I actually had some useful skills in this area...I would totally be on-board.
I'm interested in playing it, if that helps...heh. :P
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I could be of help.
Lately I've been retooling the engine of my Castlevania homebrew in order to make it easy for modifications to be made. You can do a lot from the map editor now with a minimal amount of coding. It supports rotation, alpha/additive blending, scaling, etc. I've got plans to port some 2D skeletal animation code I did for another project to it as well. I've also recently added joypad support to it. You can even import your own fonts into it for use.
Most importantly, it supports scripting which means that additional enemies and game logic can be added without messing with the C++ code. I am still working out how extendable I am planning to make it, but it should be enough to change the title screens, and add dialogue.
My goal is to clean out the bugs in the map editor and release it to the community so just about anyone can create levels. You'd basically map the level, set a few properties, and you're done. You could then import it into the game and play the level as it is or set it as a whole game with a bit of scripting that will determine the sequence of the levels.
As far as the coded stuff, enemies/items/bosses/etc, the engine will come with a fair few but it is extendable if you need to add more.
I could help you with more specific stuff, like writing a converter from the map format in your game to the one the engine uses or adding a CV3 like character system and other general things like that. Truth is you shouldn't need my help much at all, the engine is pretty powerful.
There are a few catches though. I made the mapper years ago, when I was still learning to program, and the interface may not be that well thought out. It might be a bit cumbersome and tricky to use at first. Also, the playable characters aren't very customizable at the moment, though it is somethign I hope to change in time. Besides that, you'll need the .NET 2.0 framework which most people should already have though also the Managed DirectX runtime which you may not.
As for a release date, just about everything is done now, except that there aren't many enemies and items implemented into the mapper. Also I still have to write up some more documentation for it.
If you're interested Jorge, I can send you a beta of the mapper along with an engine build that lets you play through the levels you make.
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In Reply To #5
now this sounds bad ass:)
not only could castlevania 3 be finish with this.
but you say your going to put it out for everybody one day.
this is very cool.
i'm not a programmer so i even have a hard time with gamemaker some times.lol
and takes along time to get anything to do right,to much time with life geting in the way:(
but your program sounds like it'll help alot of ppl make there games fast;)
can't wait to see you finish it so i can use it myself:P
i really hope Jorge takes you up on your beta and gets castlevania 3 done;)
also to Jorge.
i hope you'll use that trevor sprite you made in the game its bad ass.
you know the one in your sprite folder but its not used.
i was thinking it was just a re color at first until i looked at it better.
and seen it was a edit and a very cool edit i must say;)
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Really hope I can help you on your great project, but too bad I am not good at programing... ???
Making projects always takes time and hard work, but it brings players plenty of happiness.
Thanks for your great work and can not wait for experiencing it.
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I wish we had an editor for Castlevania that was somewhat easy to use like zelda classic but for Draculas Curse or IV. I do hope this remake someday gets more attention or reworked to finish the full game.
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The biggest problem I felt is that myself and Jorge were very committed to working on the project and touched base very often at the time. John Morris did as well, however then just slowly lost interest until a point came where he's not even online anymore. And if he is he, for some reason wishes not to keep in contact with anybody from the Dungeon anymore.
All fine and well but if someone really wishes to help with the engine, I think at this point I wouldn't blame Jorge if he's not getting his hopes up about someone being committed to it. Thus far its unfortunate he hasn't had much luck in his efforts and in my attempt to help him find programmers it just doesn't seem anyone really wants to do it.
People can make promises and say "Yeah cool I'll do it" and "Sure why not" but it comes down to the fact that will you continually work on it and finish the project or will you just SAY you will. Jorge has done alot on his end and me on mine. We finished our part. So its just a matter of getting a committed programmer.
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In Reply To #9
Since JohnMorris, there have been other programmers who have tried, including two college friends of mine, and Quasar here at the Forums.
Quasar was going to develop a whole framework, but I never got a single code update from him.
He doesn't even come here anymore (or the other CVForum), or the IRC channel, probably because he knows that the minute he shows up he's gonna get messages from people (as well as myself) asking him for an update, or what happened.
Such has been my plight since John Morris left.
Ringo here offered to help at one point, but wanted to re-code the entire thing from scratch all over (this was a while back). I don't think I could bear with another project started from scratched, then somewhere mid-project something would happen and the thing would get scrapped... again.
So I politely turned him down, then. I need someone that can work with the current code and build upon it, or at least re-code based on current code so that it doesn't feel like we're re-inventing the thing all over. The current stuff is a really good effort, and I'd hate to have it wasted for another one... plus there's the whole 'what if it happens again' thing.
If I had the money, I'd gladly pay a programmer to work on it... but I don't.
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In Reply To #10
I haven't posted here much, but I've been visiting the dungeon for years. I always check the fan section for news on homebrews, this one in particular. As a programmer, I feel I should chime in with some advice about these recent developments. It's your project to do with as you see fit, of course, but I'm making these suggestions because I think it's a great project that deserves to see the light of day.
First, as disheartening as it might be, I think you should be open to the idea of abandoning the codebase and starting over. I can't speak for every programmer, but at least for me, the prospect of working with an undocumented, unfinished codebase is actually WORSE than starting from scratch. Programmers are as individual as artists, and unless the code is already "finished," the clash in style and unfamiliarity with the old codebase and a new programmer will be a significant stumbling block for the project, and almost certainly impair the final result. In short, trying to find someone to finish half-done code is like trying to find someone to finish a half-written story or half-drawn picture.
Of course, just because the old codebase might not be used doesn't mean it's of no value. The basic algorithms and game design could be extracted and replicated in a new codebase, depending on exactly how obfuscated the old code is. Also, you already have levels, art, music, sounds, etc. That's a HUGE amount of work already done, almost none of which would go to waste. As Ringo suggested, a level converter could be produced based on the old codebase to avoid loss of work previously done. In addition, any future assets should use open formats whenever possible, to prevent work dying with the engine.
Next, I can say that, from my perspective, committing to a project before being able to see the old code is not an encouraging prospect. If you want a new programmer, you should be as open with the old code as possible. Put it up on the site for people to look. This will allow any potentials to see if they have the skill and the will to continue the project before having to commit. If the old code is tangled up in some agreements that prevents it from being released, that is another huge reason to start from scratch. As a community driven, non-profit project, oppenness can only help. I'm not saying just anyone should be able to join the team, and you're right to choose carefully, but the more information you have up front, the more likely you are to get recruits.
I understand your positition about only wanting someone who is passionate about castlevania to work on it, and I totally agree with that. However, I can guarantee you that any recruit you'd ever get for this project will certainly believe in it, otherwise they wouldn't even bother in the first place. As for sudden dropouts, that's always a risk over the internet, and I doubt there's anyone who can ever promise with 100% certainty that they can/will finish it, but without any programmers at all, there's a 0% chance.
Anyway, all my ramblings aside, you should do what you think is right for the project, but I for one (and everyone else here I'm sure) hope that it will someday come to completion. Thanks for reading, and good luck.
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Whoa what's going on here? I'm a little bit hurt, but I suppose that I deserve it because I've not been doing right. However, what Jorge said is not entirely true. Code has been delivered in the form of a SVN repository here:
http://eternity.mancubus.net/svn/halif/trunk/source/
And also in the form of two demos, the latter of which contains the source for the complete software polygon renderer I wrote so that the game would be able to have limited 3D backgrounds.
It is mostly my fault that more progress has not been made. I have bitten off more than I can chew trying to run multiple projects at a time in addition to working my job. Most of my time has been eaten up by the Eternity Engine, which is my Doom port. It's in a very critical stage of development right now and try as I may, I haven't been able to tear myself away from it since back in July after I finished the polygon engine for CVC. This was compounded by the death of my friend Jason in June, since I intend to devote the next EE release to his memory.
I have also suffered a serious lull in my interest in Castlevania. I've barely touched my fanfic since last spring until the start of this week, when I began a massive rewriting project on it with some suggestions from a friend. I have also been waiting for a new game to come out to give me some inspiration. It's hard to believe that the Rondo remake still isn't out. I'm just scratching my head over that, and also worried about what kind of bizarre storyline mutations IGA will pull on the SotN remastering.
I would like to continue working on CVC, as the word I gave means a lot to me, and the resources for this game are of an incredible quality and deserve an engine that can use them to their fullest potential. I've also already invested way too much time into the project, adding the sprite scaling and rotation, color modulation, polygon engine, palette/color-mapping routines, etc. to support it.
I'm not going to ask for more patience because I realize I have exhausted that now. If you want to kick me out and go for somebody else, I don't blame you. I've been slow and irresponsible in not keeping up contact. I'll just bow down right here and say that I suck for sidelining this. I hope that's enough to at least win a bit of favor back and keep me in the team.
I will also admit that the task of getting the tile engine up and running is quite daunting. I have very little experience with tile engines, and the original source isn't very helpful since it's so poorly documented. I am fully capable of creating a working tile engine, it just wasn't going to happen as fast as I wanted it to, or that I knew you wanted it to, and that contributed to me putting it off.
So, let me know what you think. But please don't say I never did *anything*, because that's not true :)
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well i can understand myself i'm not a programmer but just messing with gamemaker program dealing with its gml code.
is hell you put something in and it don't work or works partly .
after changing it so much or racking your brain to find out a way to do something.
it might take a whole days work to just do something so little as to make a sprite do right or walk left or some other crazy thing.
plus back in the day of supervampirekiller i was trying to see how to use his stuff *after he said i could*
to help my own game,copying and pasteing don't work so easy.lol
because everything is all tied up together in obj/scrips/etc
and finding out what parts do what are a pain and over whelming.
so you put it off because it might even give you a headache trying to mess with it.
now i know there not the same,but in a way it is :P
so what i'm saying is i understand and i hope you can work it out ;)
because i love this game so much and hope it'll get finish!
btw Jorge
if you had the money to buy an engine where would you get it?
and how much would it cost?
maybe take up some money for an engine $5 here $10 there and you have the money in no time.
plus if you had the programmer make it where other ppl could use it.
like build a stage outside the program in a jpg or build them in a program.
and add sprites and chose attacks from other bad guy in the game kinda mix and match to build there own bad guy, make it easy and have them be able to add code if they have skillz.
i'm sure alot of ppl be willing to give you more money to get the engine as fast as they could.;)
hit them where it hurts greed for there own stuff.lol
i know i'd be one of the greedy to throw down something to be able to use the engine :o
because alot of ppl want to play this game plus with an engine to do there own stuff easy it's like killing two birds with a stone.
i'm sure a pro who gets paid for programing could do all that easy.
then when you finish your game 100% you could let everybody download the engine as well sounds cool i think
just what i think be cool and good luck i can't wait to play it! ;D
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Yes, it's easy to underestimate the amount of work needed to do certain things. Adapting the polygon engine took me several months from start to finish. The code necessary just to draw some whirling cubes is all of the stuff in matrix.cpp, projection.h, zbuffer.h, inlinemath.h, and polygon.cpp. That's several thousand lines of code and some of it is very complicated (the edge-sort/scanline method of polygon rasterization is just ugh x_x)
Anyway I should still be further along than I am. We should be at the point now where at least Jorge could continue working on the maps while I'm adding stuff to the code. Unfortunately that's not happened and the blame's on me. I never meant to be away for so long either. A couple weeks turn into a couple of months really fast :(
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You know, you guys could just each take on different parts of the engine. I mean if there's a couple of you who want to work on the programming part.
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In Reply To #14
I took a look at the code you linked and I'm curious.. why go through all the trouble of implementing a software rasterizer when you could just use SDL's OpenGL support with an orthographic projection matrix and call it a day? As for rotation/scaling, I believe SDL_gfx supports that already too.
OpenGL of course requires 3d hardware to be practical, but who doesn't at least have an intel GMA chip? And it seems to me that the work saved outweigh's the minor increase in requirements.
Just seems to me that with a hobby project, libraries that are already done for you should be leveraged whenever possible, and optimizations made later if and only if they are necessary.
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In Reply To #14
Sorry about that. I just remembered that you did deliver some stuff... I believe midway through last year. I forgot about it.
I will not chastise you further, and would like to keep you on the team. However... it'd be nice if I got at least an email once in a while (if you want, we can schedule some stuff... scheduling usually makes people want to do something). It seems leaving up to 'whenever we have time' doesn't work.
Anyway, the rest will be up in PM.
If any other programmers want to work on this, it's fine by me.
Also, the code IS available. Has been for a while. Let me find a link or something.
CVC:DC Source ZIP (http://www.inverteddungeon.com/jorgefuentes/images3/cv3/CVCsource.zip)
This has been up for a while now actually.
I didn't make a big link/announcement for it for two reasons:
1. people ripping it off and calling it theirs.
2. Konami and their cease-and-desist orders (which they did for Shin Natsume and his Simon's Quest 3D game).
I also would encourage a small band of CV Programmers' Guild. We have quite a few bona fide Programmers here (Ringo, Heretic, Quasar, and others), so it wouldn't be a bad idea to put something together. Problem is, most people just don't have the time and/or resources.
Well, anyway Quasar, again forgive me for saying you didn't give me anything, and yes I'd like you to stay on the team... but I do want something tangible on a regular basis, just so we know stuff is still being worked on.
-Jorge-
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In Reply To #14
I took a look at the code you linked and I'm curious.. why go through all the trouble of implementing a software rasterizer when you could just use SDL's OpenGL support with an orthographic projection matrix and call it a day? As for rotation/scaling, I believe SDL_gfx supports that already too.
The original code was done on the only type of interface that John Morris knew, which was DirectX. In an effort to not lose time/resources, a decision was made to continue working on it the same way. We're talking back in 2002/2003 when JohnMorris started working less and less on it.
Quasar started on coding in... hmm... February of last year? I forget the exact date.
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In Reply To #14
I took a look at the code you linked and I'm curious.. why go through all the trouble of implementing a software rasterizer when you could just use SDL's OpenGL support with an orthographic projection matrix and call it a day? As for rotation/scaling, I believe SDL_gfx supports that already too.
OpenGL of course requires 3d hardware to be practical, but who doesn't at least have an intel GMA chip? And it seems to me that the work saved outweigh's the minor increase in requirements.
Just seems to me that with a hobby project, libraries that are already done for you should be leveraged whenever possible, and optimizations made later if and only if they are necessary.
Yeah, I was also confused as to why he chose to write his own software rasterizer as opposed to using a 3D API like OpenGL or Direct3D. These days, you are unlikely to find a computer that doesn't support 3D hardware acceleration.
Besides, any compatibility advantage of a software renderer would be outweighed by the sheer time required to code it. If the code was specific to the game, he could have done a fair chunk of it if he didnt write his own software rasterizer. But I believe he was planning to release the whole rendering code as an engine.
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I didn't use GL over SDL because it makes the framebuffer unwritable, and the engine I've been coding for a few years now is otherwise entirely software-based. I felt it would be more of a setback to try to rebuild Halif Engine from the ground up to be GL-based, as my megalithic Surface class would become completely useless. I might have been wrong, but let me tell you this, I gained some valuable experience by doing it. It is also quite sufficient for the uses we have planned, and turned out pretty fast as well.
If I ever write another 2D engine framework, it would indeed be more logical to do it as 2D-in-3D.
I wouldn't be opposed to having other programmers contribute. But I have a pretty high standard. Any code going into Halif Engine would need to meet the same design criteria as far as documentation, encapsulation, and object-oriented design go. Note that the engine itself is meant to be totally reusable, and that the code for CVC:DC itself will be separate from the engine code.
Another reason for that would be that on the unthinkable occasion of a C&D order, I wouldn't lose the rights to my entire source code. Frankly, all that needs to be done to avoid a C&D is not to post any info about this, anywhere. No websites, no regular announcements, etc. Even these threads make me a bit nervous.
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In Reply To #20
I'd be open to helping, except that I've developed an intense loathing of c++ over the years, and am firmly in the c# camp now. It's a great language, and with XNA now it's good for games too.
Anyway, will your engine be using LUAscript or similar for entity control? If so I'd consider helping with that.
In either case, good luck with it and I hope things start to work out from here.
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Well for me, my part is over with. I had a purpose then which was to do what I did. Now theres lots of proggies anyways that can do that. So my role on the team is over. "Count Dracula rises once every century, but my role is over......"
After all the work I put in though it would certainly be sad to have this project just die. After seeing myself first hand what we all had to go through just to make a little bit of progress, I would personally love to see the finished product of all of our laboring.
Just to let you guys know this much. If it ever comes down to a cease and desist from Konami, and this remake can no longer be worked on, I will gladly help out on another game remake where there is no threat of a cease and desist or possibly a brand new project.
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In Reply To #21
Lua is a definite candidate for the scripting language.
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In Reply To #23
I definitely think LUA would be a good move for the project and dramatically speed up development of the actual "game" part. It's lightweight, fast, easy to interop with, and supports coroutines.
Coroutines are great for entity logic and make it much easier to write complex behaviors without having to fumble around with a bunch of state-machine clutter. I've made a couple concept demos using c#'s coroutine support and it works fantastically well.
Anyway, just something to keep in mind when weighing the options.
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In Reply To #24
so....is this dead again? :P
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I have a feeling it's not exactly dead. I think this project is just suffering some of the same problems that most of the top projects on this forum have over the years.
Castlevania, though seemingly simple, is actually a very complex game to program right, especially to get it verbatim. I feel for everybody on this forum who is geniunely working on a fangame right now. I especially feel for the programmers, because I think it's diffucult for non-programmers to understand how much work it really takes to get even a basic engine running. It is very difficult to describe, but game programs get very complex extremely fast.
I'm happy to report that Undying Legacy (formerly SVK) is moving foward faster than it ever has, but our team has gone through many of the same phases that every main project on this forum seems to go through periodically. It's just the nature of homebrewing, especially when most of us are out of highschool, work full-time jobs, experience an occasional crisis, and have family and loved-ones to attend to. And don't forget, we also have to somehow find time to sit down and play the latest Castlevania games as well!
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This has never been dead, at least not since I signed up to help. It has been backburnered a few times, the last time for a lot longer than I meant to allow.
Regular progress reports are *not* going to be posted, and I explained why a few posts up. This thing could SO easily get foxed if we keep putting up more and more info about it.
But since you asked, the tile engine is currently being worked on. Tile layer drawing is finished and I'm currently working on positioned bitmap backgrounds. Once enough functionality is present, another tech demo will probably be released. However I will not be putting a link to it here. You'd have to stop by the IRC channel and talk to me about it personally.
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We have quite a few bona fide Programmers here (Ringo, Heretic, Quasar, and others)
*raises hand* Don't forget me. :P Too bad I already have a CV project going.
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This has never been dead, at least not since I signed up to help. It has been backburnered a few times, the last time for a lot longer than I meant to allow.
Regular progress reports are *not* going to be posted, and I explained why a few posts up. This thing could SO easily get foxed if we keep putting up more and more info about it.
But since you asked, the tile engine is currently being worked on. Tile layer drawing is finished and I'm currently working on positioned bitmap backgrounds. Once enough functionality is present, another tech demo will probably be released. However I will not be putting a link to it here. You'd have to stop by the IRC channel and talk to me about it personally.
I'm glad to hear this project is still going on. I wish you guys lots of luck. Might I ask one favor since I had contributions to this project. Can I be listed in the credits for research and development? If not its ok. Its just merely a request. This is if and when the project does get completed.
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In Reply To #29
Of course you're gonna get credited. But we don't even have Credits to begin with since the game is not done.
You did not need to request this, since it's obvious you would've gotten credit. No worries.
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Jorge man!!! you guys are REALLY serious with this stuff!! I'm scared!!
I'm new to this Forums, and I joined it only because of this project. I saw its gameplay in Youtube and I found it awesome.
I've downloaded the zip through a link Jorge posted at the Forum, but to my disappointment, I couldn't play it. To do so I need a version of a C++ developer, isn't it?
Well, it was then that I realized Jorge post the link so any interested guy could finish the project. Well I'm a VERY interested guy.
But I'm not a programmer, I'm an artist. Not as skilled oras equipped as Jorge, but I made some work to this project. I'm simply completing the game's sprite resources.
We know Jorge only made complete a few of the Dracula's Curse enormous bestiary.
So I realized how I could participate in this fangame. I hope you guys approve my effort. ;D
Oh Jorge, I don't know if you'll like it, but I published my work also in the Mr.P's Castlevania Realm. I did it so more people will be able to check it out. Our chances to find an interested programmer will be even greater.
Don't worry Jorge, Mr P gave you credit as the starter of the Dracula's Curse Chronicles project. Congratulations for all the efforts you put into the project until now. ;)
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In Reply To #31
I went to Mr.P's site but could find no such information.
I'm interested in what you have to offer in terms of sprites and the like.
There were a few enemies which I did not have a chance to resprite and could not find 16-bit equivalents that would match the size format...
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http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/multi/Sprites/random-zeadsgame.htm
everything there is either a simple resize/recolour, or a minor edit :(
you also should have credited the original rippers/spriters.
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I'm even seeing graphics ripped directly from Jorge's game. So, the guy basically took Jorge's stuff and wanted to give it to him again. :P
Hi. I just stole your car. Do you want to buy it off of me? I threw in new tires for just half price! :o
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Just to keep people posted, I'm still working on the tile engine. Unfortunately my SVN repo is down since Mancunet has been moving to a new server for the last two weeks. That's not helping speed things up, that's for sure :P
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In Reply To #34
There are a few frames added in...
...but yeah it's mostly my rips and my backgrounds. The Castle with Bridge is exactly the same.
I was hoping people would not plunder the 'bg' folder... but they did.
I do appreciate the effort, but I wish it wasn't so... public.
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In Reply To #34
It's not his car im trying to sell. It's MINE's. Jorge prepared a total of 140 sprite files, and have in my PC now a total of 195. To get them all, you just have to download the zip at Mr P's page.
If you really played CV3 you know how much unique monsters it presents you. And if you really liked it, you would be doing more than just waiting the project to get ready and then download it.
We're trying to find someone interested in a fan game. So the larger the number of people able to know our ideas, the better.
And dont worry, Jorge's name as the main starter of the project is well-displayed at the top of mr P's page. I would never steal his work. We're doin this together. We're fans, arent we??
C'mon guys. I dont want to start it this way.
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In Reply To #36
We must publicize this work. We cant just sit down and wait for some CV3-fan programmer to enter in this forum and get interested. Check out the popularity of those videos from Joseph Collins at youtube and youll understand what im saying. 8)
I've even searched in my neighborhood for programmers, but I couldnt find any...these brazilians only want to play soccer in the streets from sunrise to sunset... ???
i guess some guy soon will appear to join us in this stuff. So Jorge, keep your eyes open and your hand ready for a hand-shaking. ;)
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In Reply To #29
Of course you're gonna get credited. But we don't even have Credits to begin with since the game is not done.
You did not need to request this, since it's obvious you would've gotten credit. No worries.
Thanks buddy :D. Yeah keep me posted man. If and when it gets finished I'd love to play it. You can contact me VIA AIM - MADJOHNWUNGRICE. I rarely use AIM and I'm mostly on MSN Messenger but it autostarts so I should be on there. If I don't answer keep trying. I rarely have much time to myself these days.
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??? God. I finally played the demo. I mean, its the first time i really play it. i have no words about it.
The only thing i know is that we need MUCH effort to "fix" it, to make something at least better than Dracula x, specially in what concerns about gameplay. If it goes on, people will begin to hate the original Draculs Curse as the new Castlevania Adventure.
I'll try to re-create the project with Game Maker. :'(
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In Reply To #40
Are you sure you want to use GameMaker? Ours is using a C++ engine, so there's lots of techniques that we can use that the regular GameMaker package cannot customize...
I'm not trying to shoot you down, but it's a big undertaking to re-do a lot of this stuff...
...we know 'cuz my current programmer is doing something similar, only adding in things.
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??? God. I finally played the demo. I mean, its the first time i really play it. i have no words about it.
The only thing i know is that we need MUCH effort to "fix" it, to make something at least better than Dracula x, specially in what concerns about gameplay. If it goes on, people will begin to hate the original Draculs Curse as the new Castlevania Adventure.
I'll try to re-create the project with Game Maker. :'(
I'm not sure why you have the impression that this project has no programmer, because I'm the programmer :) I won't tell you not to work on an engine of your own, because regardless of how you do it, it's good experience. Also, for all I know, you'll beat me and create something of higher quality faster than I can (speed is my main issue). However, don't assume that the project isn't being worked on.
Also, it does not currently need a high amount of attention, because the wrong kind of attention will get the project shut down permanently - if you know what I mean. Let's wait until the game is finished to start promoting it. Telling people about something that's only in beta only gets them in here whining about it not being finished, which isn't constructive.
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Also, it does not currently need a high amount of attention, because the wrong kind of attention will get the project shut down permanently - if you know what I mean.
Yeah, no kidding. Anyone remember Chrono Trigger 3D? If this project gets publicized while still WIP and if Konami gets a big enough stick up their ass about it, they could shut Jorge down in a second.
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I did suggest a custom project from the start to avoid something like that happening. But at the time (the team was Jorge, JM and I) both Jorge as project leader and John Morris shot down the idea as Jorge said he needed an initial blueprint to work with and that it would be much harder to forge together custom maps, a custom story, etc.
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In Reply To #42
Ok guys, i will explain myself.
I really tought there was no programmer since John left, so i wanted to publicize the project in sites like mr.P's in order to find another guy. But if you say team is ready and project is being made, i believe on you.
But if thats true, why is the project version i played dated as 2005-09-09? if my time zone clock is right, its aproximately 3 years old.
You know Quasar, now that i know youre the programmer, i suggest you some things:
-make a more interesting demo, with more enemies like mudmen or whip skels
-Give the player acess for those levels shown at youtube like the castle bridge and the courtyard.
-And the most important, UPDATE THE DEMO VERSION (i know, you said youre slow, but no one else can do it)
Man, i really dont wanna compete with you in this stuff. :-X
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In Reply To #43
What did you mean by shutting Jorge down? Those japanese? If there were any possibilities of them meeting the project, I would already contacted them and asked for help, like i wanted to do with so many other guys.
We're just fans. Its just a homebrew. I guess Konami soon will release some new Dracula's Curse Chronicles for the PSP, with a couple of re-used Rondo models, and we, the fans, will remain here, forgotten deep inside a forum with our little unfinished project.
So Quasar, if you are reading this, HURRY UP.
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Uh, they mean cease and desist. They will do it! Like every other company.
And I'd suggest you try making the game in maker first before asking for stuff, its not easy. And its not like its his job, hes got a life too (or at least I think so anyway :P) so he isn't gonna devote all his time to it.
But if you tried it with game maker, you'd probably find out how hard and arduous it can be, maybe not as bad since this project is actually being coded out using C/C++.
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Nobody knows for sure if a few months or even a year down the line if Quasar will still be committed to working on this. I'm not saying you won't Quasar. But you can see why I have my doubts. Its been since 2002 and this project still remains unfinished. And thus far no programmer we've had has cared about being committed. If you don't want to do it then theres no problems with not doing it. Its not like you should care what a bunch of randoms on the internet think. If you do want to do this you can work at your own pace of course. Its a fan game. It should be fun to do. But be committed to completing it and not leaving it half assed like John Morris did. If you just plan on messing around and then in a few months say "Oh you know I have too much to do in my life than to mess with this any longer" or "I'm growing tired of doing this" then its better you bow out now than to give Jorge false hope.
I'm not trying to be rude but you're making tons of promises publically that you may not be able to keep. So just be careful of that because people are going to take you seriously.
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Well,i guess my role in this project is nothing more than secondary artwork. Game Maker is HARD, only worx for making simple silly games. >:(
So guys, why dont you pop up at Mr P's site, search for the Dracula's Curse Chronicles and download both zips with the material i've prepared plus Jorge's? If you do that, youll get a real idea (or should i say hope?) in what concerns about the project's finishing.
(Unfortunately, i couldnt post those rips here yet as fan stuff, i dunno why, the page tells something about an error...) :(
P.S as soon as i can post fan stuff here, ill give you guys everything i could do with game maker: a shinobi's bonus stage-based silly ninja game :'(
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Game Maker is HARD, only worx for making simple silly games. >:(
No, it's as good as the person using it. Some people achieve amazing stuff on it. Just look at thernody's games. If you put effort into it you'll get good results.
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I know its capable of good looking games, but..... I haven't really seen any, got any to show us Ringo? I'd like to see a good looking game maker game.
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hi. im thernody.
http://www.thepoppenkast.com/file.php?game=Clean%20Asia!
This game got into Independent Games Festival and was made in Game Maker. The guy who made it also got into a few magazines, is going to make a presentation at GDC, and he's going to be interviewed in 1up. So yeah, even with Game Maker, you can garner yourself quite the attention. That being said, I still say that if you do use Game Maker that in the future, you try your hand at C++ and etc. to really be in full control of your game.
This is a better looking one though.
http://www.thepoppenkast.com/file.php?game=Varia
It has a spectacular explosion effect.
And this a good looking Castlevania-esque game.
http://www.endlessfluff.com/valdisstory.html
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(Unfortunately, i couldnt post those rips here yet as fan stuff, i dunno why, the page tells something about an error...) :(
I made a thread about this, it's stickied at the top of this forum.
In order to keep spambots out, you gotta have three original threads in any of the three other forums in order to post here.
If you're a newbie, you can also PM me and I'll give you the three post-count thus allowing you to post here.
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How did i manage to make a post in this part?
I thought it was reply in the other parts of the forum 3 or more times lol.
Is it because i used to come here? *shrugs*
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You already have 23 posts. You need your postcount to show 3 or more to be able to post here.
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So it is post a responce not make 3 new threads asking questions lol.
I was just wondering how that worked exactly.
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If someone of you guys is skillful with gamemaker, why dont you try to help me on carrying on the stuff?? Ive got 2, ONLY 2, issues that really shot me up with gamemaker:
-first: in what concerns about a close-range attack from the main character: i know his weapon must be a different object to be created when you push the button, but i cant make this object to follow the character. For instance, when i do a jump attack, the character falls down while his whip stays still flotating where it was created!!!!! :o
-second: in what concerns about backgrounds: we all know its possible to set up the BG speed at gamemaker, but this speed makes for an automatic, neverending BG move!!! What i actually wanted was a BG following the characters position, just like we can see, for instance, at the CVC catacombs first block (that one with the many pillars). How do i do that? :o
Well, these 2 are the great issues that trouble my gamemaker effort. If someone can give me one or two pieces of code wich can solve these problems, i would aprecciate them so much. :D
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In the step event of the whip, change the x and y so they're the same as the character's. For the background, make an object that changes the background's x to the view_xview.
Though, I thought this project was still going with other programmers and not in Game Maker. I thought the progress was just slow. ._.
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In Reply To #58
Well, the project is actually going with Quasar, i guess you know him. And youre right,the progress IS slow. According to my sources, it was started in 2002...too slow for me, so im trying to do it with gamemaker.
About the whip, is the action i should use the Jump to Position? If thats so, once i placed in the x and y fields the value <charactersname> and checked the Relative box. When i pushed the key, the whip suddenly started flying away from the character position!! im not kidding!! It was the exactly opposite thing i wanted to happen!!! Why?
Oh, and i've tried also to leave the Relative box unchecked, and when i pushed the key, the whip was created at the hero's initial position. So?
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It's not relative.
You'll have to tweak the x and y so the whip's in the character's hand like:
simonbelmont.x+8
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We did have some humor also making this. Jorge would get on AIM with me and use the little Alucard Profile Image he made to talk to me SOTN/GBA Game/DS Game Style when we direct connected.
Me = Simon Profile Pic: Hey for this game will we have a hidden password option.
Jorge = Alucard Pic: No that would be retarded.
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In Reply To #60
In the Jump to Position action, right?
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Yeah. Jump to Position.
Um, you should PM if you have questions so we don't clutter the thread.
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I don't know why everyone keeps accusing me of being likely to quit. That isn't going to happen. I have never quit one of my online programming projects.
Also, I have not been working on the game since 2002 - I have been working on it since late 2006. And the game engine is being rebuilt from scratch in object-oriented C++ using SDL, not Game Maker. This means that everything that was already done has to be reimplemented. I am well on the way however, and a tile engine demo will be released shortly.
Source code is at http://mancubus.net/svn/hosted, under the directory "halif" (my game engine is called Halif Engine, named after a character who was going to be in the Eternity Total Conversion project for Doom). Though, I have some uncommitted changes, mainly code for parallax bitmap backgrounds.
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To clarify, the original project started in 2002.
Here's an outline of events, but bear with me since I have trouble recollecting everything:
2002- Month 01 of Project (don't know which month it was exactly) - Found out the user "John Morris" was a programmer. He was working on a game engine (much like Thernz and Ringo and others)
I approached him about remaking a CV game, and we worked together using BlitzBasic, a simple but pretty neat basic-based programming language.
2002- Month 03 - After getting a basic engine going with Blitz, JohnMorris, Johnny (Byron was his handle at the time) and I started kicking around ideas.
2002- Month 05 - Editor was on its way. Basic movement in a stage was possible. Stairs not implemented yet. Since we were remaking, we went with "Stairs" rather than "Hills" (hills are what the new CV's use instead of stairs as a means of climbing).
2002- Month 09 - Editor done, devising ways of doing 'new platform' objects, like RotoBlocks and Gears.
2003- Month 01 - Decided to migrate from BlitzBasic to Visual C++ SDK, since we got ahold of the installation. Ditched BlitzBasic for the engine, but kept its editor.
From the beginning to the end of 2003 there were tweaks and fixes done. Got stairs working properly, got sweet effects for the ship, etc. and got a lot of ideas written down. Most stages were well on their way.
End of 2003 - John Morris develops a social life (full-time job, girlfriend/fiancee, activities away from the 'net) and also loses his Internet connection. This is when he informed me that he might not be around as much.
The last version of the Editor is from December of 2003. He came back a few times to give me a few updates or a complete backup of the code around 2005, but nothing all that new, and he seemed to busy with real-world matters to continue. Started looking for programmers around my tech school for the next few months.
2004 - It was my turn. I got a job and a girlfriend as well, thus my search for a programmer went and stagnated. I put the project on hold and restricted myself to distributing the game beta amongst the closest friends.
I did not want to post a request at pixellation.net (for artists) or at gamasutra.com (programmers) due to complete lack of funds at the time (even though I had the job, it did not pay all that much).
Project on Hiatus
2006 - Quasar joins project during February/March. Ambitiously proposes to overhaul code and add new things to it. I accept his offer. Off and on, he's been slowly working on the code, though without a playable demo, since he is basically updating/deciphering/un-spaghetti-fying the previous code.
I hope I got that all right.
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Forgive me Quasar if I'm prejudging you on the past mistakes of JohnMorris.
And actually Jorge it started off with DarkmoonFirelyte and Azrail's project and I came aboard what they were working on. Shortly after you did, but then their concept didn't go anywhere so we went on our own and got together with John Morris. That was only for an extremely brief period of time. I think their project's name was Castlevania Origins.
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In Reply To #66
Actually CVOrigins was dead before I ever went on board. It was all talk and no substance. Ideas that never got put down on paper, etc.
But yeah I do remember that. That was over in like a month or two.
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Progress report:
(http://eternity.mancubus.net/pics/cvcdc.png)
There are some serious kinks to work out, however, so no scrolling demo quite yet. I'd say expect it before the weekend is out.
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Thats hot, thanks for the update, Quasar.
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As you can see a demo release did not happen last weekend. This is because my Internet has gone down and has remained down for the entirety of this week thus far. I've only been able to get online briefly at work, and by "stealing" some unsecured wireless from somewhere across the street on my laptop. As soon as this gets fixed, I will be uploading a demo with fully functional scrolling.
Here is a pixel-perfect pic, however. The output now matches the old engine exactly:
(http://eternity.mancubus.net/pics/cvcdc2.png)
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No internet cafe?
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The demo is now up here:
http://eternity.mancubus.net/stuff/cvcdc_20080405.zip
Be sure to read the "README.txt" file first, as it details the controls and some other fiddlings you might need/want to do before running it.
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Totally does not work for me... =(
Edit: Great, just when I posted this, it worked >.>
EDIT2: cool... too bad its not a playing demo though, like the older one. But progress is progress.
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After all this time, I was expecting a hell of a lot more. At least something playable.
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Nice work, especially since it's a software renderer.
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In Reply To #75
Well Quasar never specifically said he would ever give us a playable demo. He might not give us anything playable at all until the game is completely finished. This was Jorge's original plan to keep everything under wraps until there was a finished game. I dunno if it still is. But even Morris as a programmer didn't want his work put out there as a demo, it was only exclusively for the team. It was later released when we considered the project null. Now who knows if Quasar wants to give anyone a playable demo. It would all depend on how much Quasar really wants to ruin the surprise of how the game will be played. Really its his and Jorge's call at this point.
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I've actually been working on a re-make of this game as well for about 2 months now using Game Maker. I thought the original project was dead until I read about it here. I'm wondering now if I should stop where I'm at and concentrate on something else... :-\
As of right now, I've gotten a working Design Document (about 85% complete) and am currently working on the frontend for the game. My goal was to get the frontend and the first level done to create a playable demo.
In reference to a few posts I read earlier about Game Maker; I've seen some pretty amazing games made with it. A good friend of mine is a programmer for a large company in Cincinnati and he's played around with Game Maker quite a bit and has been thoroughly impressed with it's capabilities. My own caveat about it is that it makes manipulation of objects and graphics VERY easy.
Anyway, I'm not sure what I should do now... I've only been working on it for a few months so it's not like I've put monstrous amounts of time into it... hmmm.
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In Reply To #77
I agree GameMaker is HIGHLY overlooked. Everyone thinks its just somethin for shitty games to be made with but its just as capable of making somethin excellent. Anyway offtopic but yeah GM rules.
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In Reply To #77
I agree GameMaker is HIGHLY overlooked. Everyone thinks its just somethin for shitty games to be made with but its just as capable of making somethin excellent. Anyway offtopic but yeah GM rules.
Yep. And people are right, there are a lot of crappy games out there that are made with it. However, like I said, I've seen some amazing games made with it as well. The reason for the crappy games primarily has to do with the fact that just about anyone can pick it up and make a (crappy) game with it, whereas your average computer user would be utterly clueless about C++ and couldn't even make a functional executable.
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There is a good reason why game maker is treated as it is. It's code is still pretty buggy, and causes any game made with it to instantly crash on loading on many systems.
That's why i always suggest multimedia fusion. That and because it's more powerful.
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There is a good reason why game maker is treated as it is. It's code is still pretty buggy, and causes any game made with it to instantly crash on loading on many systems.
That's why i always suggest multimedia fusion. That and because it's more powerful.
I have to disagree about the buggy-ness of Game Maker. I've played MANY games made with version 6 and later and they've never even crashed once for me, and my computer isn't the most up to date either. One problem you might run into is if you actually try running a non-compiled game and you don't have the Pro version. There are certain features that are disabled in the Lite version that will bring up an error message if you run a non-compiled game that uses one of those features.
I've never used MMF, so I can't agree or disagree if it is as good or better and Game Maker. However, if you actually get into using Game Maker Language (which is similar to C and C++) you can do just about anything that C or C++ can do as far as making a game is concerned.
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I know the mod not to be dead. Omegasigma is still working on it.
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I dont see how ppl make games with MMF at all. Ive tried to used it a few times and it just seems completely backwards when it comes to games. Like tryin to make a game with a program designed solely for making business applications or somethin.
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So whats goin on as far as this is concerned....
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In Reply To #84
He's still working on engine stuff, nothing tangible (got an update last week).
Porting code is boring.
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I dont see how ppl make games with MMF at all. Ive tried to used it a few times and it just seems completely backwards when it comes to games. Like tryin to make a game with a program designed solely for making business applications or somethin.
you've just got to familiarize yourself with the software, and once you have a good idea of what it can/will do and the cause and effects of how it's setup you can do some pretty impressive things, but still, if you can code for real, that's obviously the best route. But for people like me who can't, MMF2 (screw MMF 1 or 1.5) is your best bet if you got the dough, otherwise Game Maker.
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Wait, what's going on? Is someone finally finishing this?
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In Reply To #87
Attempting to, but I wouldn't get your hopes up on it being done soon. And Quasar is doing it. I have no idea how far he is at, but I think hes just redoing code or something now.
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Wait, what's going on? Is someone finally finishing this?
No someone just asked and did an accidental thread necromancy. XD
There's still nothing worth showing. We're getting the framework worked on still.
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In Reply To #89
Oh I see... Johnny's fault for causing me false alarm! :P
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So is this project dead? I hope not.
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It's in permanent hiatus.
We lost Quasar, the programmer who was taking over JohnMorris's roles.
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yeah whatever happened to Quasar? He was gungho as hell then just *razzberry*
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I do hope this project doesn't die. I loved playing the demo that I had downloaded two years ago. Though largely incomplete I could still play through the different levels. My only complaint is that the original sprites were blown up which doesn't look too good in my eye. SCV4 managed to used the standard 16x16 blocks so why not this game? I also thought that Trevor's final whip upgrade didn't appear well either. It was just too short to sport that kind of look to it. But while I was playing around with the sprites in the demo I replaced it with the whip Richter used in Rondo of Blood/Dracula X SNES and it was far more visually pleasing. I do hope you guys continue with the project. I'd love to play the full game if and when it ever comes out. :)
-X
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What was this coded in again? I've done some work in Game Maker and MMF.
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Visual C++ SDK, the Microsoft Version.
Originally it was done in BlitzBasic, but then it got upgraded to C++.
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When I saw that you replied to this thread, I was hoping for an update.. :'( :'(
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I know... I'm sorry.
I wish I had stuff to update with... :(
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Sorry Jorge, I only know 3d, i'd love to learn 2d someday and bring a 2d Castlevania to the dungeon for all you guys, even then my 3d game is stuck in limbo too, no modellers... :'(
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Actually I do 3D Models.
I use Rhino 4.0.
What I'm not that good with (yet) are textures. Give me an example of something simple you might need (I still cannot do complex things like faces, etc.).
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yeah I do a lil modellin as well... look me up on tesnexus Ive made a lotta stuff for OB
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Yeah, I was hoping to see some miracle progress as well! ;) However, I totally understand the fate of this project, as my own project ("SVK/Undying Legacy") seems to have suffered the same fate. Of course, I am the programmer, and as far as the Legacy project goes, my personal life over the past four years has caused me to let the rest of the team down countless times. As a result, I feel like "The Boy that Cried Wolf" everytime I say I started on the project again. (which I've begun doing once more) I stab at it a little when I feel up to it, but coding and debugging can be extremely time consuming. I did separate from my wife a year ago, and am in the process of a divorce, so I've actually had time on the weekends to play a little. We will see. I do hope to see this project resurrected sometime though, because it was quite good.
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I did separate from my wife a year ago, and am in the process of a divorce, so I've actually had time on the weekends to play a little.
Sorry to hear about that dude. :(
I can definitly see such a calamity interfearing with your spare time to make progress on your homegame. Devorces suck ass. It's all about legal issues and finances :P (at least in my mind). The trick to avoid such a calamity from ever happening in the future would simply be to never tie the not again. For me, if I wanted to live with a womon, I'd just live with her no legalities, no rediculously costly wedding fees. And sould the time come for us to part ways then we'd just part ways cause we we're never married. The native americans did just this before we came along with our complex beliefs. I find this method to have the least amount of negative impact one the individuals and it keeps anoying things like layers out of the picture. But keep you're chin up dude! And don't give up on your projects :D
-X