Topic: [Fan Games] Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Eggerland, Mario, Megaman

[Inccubus]

how are you gonna do the whip swingin? Thats somethin Ive never had any desire to even attempt to make

I don't think it will be very difficult. I've been working out some of the geometry and arithmetic in my head.
I'll start by having a collision between the whip and the anchors that will switch Simon and the whip into swing mode.
Then I'll just have an object for each chain link that contains the variable for a script that tells it how it should behave in relation to the other objects in the chain and build from that.

I was more referring to the random placement of the swing anchors than anything else. they serve no purpose other than to be there. its like something that you would make for a debug mode, to test out the physics, rather than put in any kind of level. sciv was mostly "tech-demo-y" in that it experimented with what the technology could do and played with it; but, it did so with tact and intrigue, its excursions into experimentation aren't awkward and fit well within the context of the game.

so its kind of a different kind of tech-demo-y?

i guess what i'm trying to get at is that every element in a level should be considered and should have a purpose or reason for being. the issue with the anchors is that they don't work with the rest of the level design; there's no reason for them to be there and as is they don't accomplish much. maybe instead you could build on the idea and have the anchors lead to a slightly different route in that particular room/part of the level, that you normally wouldn't be able to access? (also, try not to chain so many anchors together like that, it comes off as tacky and unnecessary).

i also don't recognize what room its edited from in sciv.

Well, that platform at the beginning isn't accessible by jumping with an NES style Simon. So the point of the anchors is to reach that ledge. I just haven't decided yet what is going to be up there. I see what you mean about there being too many anchors. I guess I'll break things up by adding intermediate platforms.

I'm updating the layouts now...

[Aridale]

well if you go like the LoI type swingin where you hit it and basically just swing really fast and detach it should be simple rotation but if you wanna do like CV4... thats gonna take a loooooot of work and you might as well try for the whole effect and make the CV4 limp whip

[Inccubus]

Yeah, I 'm planning on the limp whip too.
From the start I intended to incorporate things from CV1, VK, HC, SCV4 & Chronicles.

[Inccubus]

Here are the final layouts with all sources of fire, doors, & entrances.

This DOES NOT include enemies, secrets, or scenery.

[removed]

[X]

That bottom pic of you level; F. That's the 'Dracula's front door stage' from CV4 isn't it? I thought it looked familiar.

-X

[CristopherLee]

Looks good. Have you any sprites?

[Inccubus]

That's exactly it X. Most of the recycled stages will be left alone except for fitting them into the scale of an NES game.

Thanks, Cris! I don't have any sprites yet, but that is the next step... wait, that's not quite true. Someone made some updated Simon sprites for me a while back that I will most likely use.

Check out this thread:
http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php?topic=2516.0

[Inccubus]

Here's some early in-game shots of 1-1 & 1-2 with temp graphics in place.

[HeliosCentaur]

Do you have the player engine complete?

[TheouAegis]

*NOTE: I'm not the guy making this game*

My player engine based on Trevor is nearing completion. I'm probably going about it completely differently than this guy, though.

As for doing swinging, just mess around with Bionic Commando. Study the mechanics and sprites and then take it from there. That game had one of the best swinging mechanics to date and it was an NES game!

And I just want to add to the issue about 8-bit games rather than 16-bit or 32-bit games. Personally, I hate 16-bit and 32-bit fan games.  Sure, they look nice, but they feel more dated than 8-bit games. I mean, all you see nowadays are 16-bit or 32-bit games whenever you play video games, so there's no novelty in a fan game of that bit depth. I enjoyed SNES and Playstation games when I was in college, but now I play mostly NES games because new games just don't feel fun to me.

[X]

I enjoyed SNES and Playstation games when I was in college, but now I play mostly NES games because new games just don't feel fun to me.

What's old is new again. I know the feeling. Screen-shot looks good so far, keep it up 

-X

[Inccubus]

@TheouAegis: Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to be working on this some more now that things have settled down for me some. Just got divorced less than two weeks ago and I've been too much of a wreck to work on any of my projects the last few months.

[Inccubus]

Thanks to TheouAegis, I'm getting back into this project. His engine is going to save me a ton of time! Thanks for you work, TheouAegis!!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Let me know if you decide to use my MiniSprites.
Although they're not 3-color NES-Style, it looks like they might fit well within your game. 

[Inccubus]

Yeah, I'm going for a cross between NES and MSX styles for a slightly more updated look, but I may need a little color reduction so it doesn't look 16-bit. ... Or then again I could pull a Ninja-Gaiden-Trilogy and have a pure NES mode, an MSX mode, and a 16-bit mode.
The biggest thing is that I'd like the player to be able to choose between different costumes. So eventually I'd like to have a version of Simon in each mode with the different outfits he's had in the constituent remakes. That's a lot of sprites. We'll talk once this thing is actually playable.