Topic: Castlevania Chronicles - Dracula's Curse

[theANdROId]

This looks AMAZING!  A few things I noticed:

1. If you whip or happen to be whipping when you pick up the whip-upgrade, it seems you whip through a vortex that comes out on another part of the screen.
2. If you hold the whip-attack button when kneeling, you rapid fire.  It's a pretty awesome glitch, unless it's intended...then it's still awesome.
3. On the note of kneeling, it doesn't actually dodge projectiles...not sure if that's intended either...can't remember if the classics did that or not and I'm too lazy to pull them out.
4. On the note of projectiles, the sub-weapons don't seem to disappear...ever.  A few times I got stuck with one I didn't actually want because of that.  Maybe if they disappeared, or if the current one dropped behind you SotN style?
5. There's a thing that kills me at the top of one of the stairs on the first screen of the clock tower -- right after the first skeleton.  Don't know if that's intended or not...it could go really well with the "untimely death" thing, but it's an annoying surprise the first time!  If nothing else, it will teach you to be the guy! ;-)
6. Finally, yet one more thing that may have been intended but glitch or no, I actually kinda love that I can still be hurt by the crumbling skeletons!

Absolutely amazing though!  Now to just survive all the way through the clock tower! ;-P

[BMC_War Machine]

Thanks man!  Im glad you dug it!  A few of those were intended, the rest were just overlooked or never found lol.  The blood skeletons actually was intended, wanted to throw a few surprises at you guys As for the subweapons, i hear you, for whatever reason that is one tough code to crack, but i'll get it straightened out before release   And the kneeling is another thing that i've had a hard time figuring out, but like the other, it'll get fixed very soon.  I've also made a trailer for the game and just uploaded it on YouTube, here's the link:

Make sure to sub as well!

[darkmanx_429]

Warmachine's Castlevania Chronicles Dracula's Curse Trailor

Here you go dude.

[BMC_War Machine]

Warmachine's Castlevania Chronicles Dracula's Curse Trailor

Here you go dude.

LMAO thanks dude, as you guys figured im horrible with embeding youtube vids haha

[theANdROId]

Finally got through the Clock Tower, and found just a few more little things...hopefully telling you is being helpful, not annoying. :-/

1. Stairs were a little weird in the tower...upon reaching the top of them I sometimes just fell back down.  I was pushing "up" though...didn't happen if I was pushing "left" or "right"
2. Traversing gears was awkward, especially the two that go together.  I got smashed into the center of them, then kinda slowly floated up (unable to jump or move, but I could attack) until I was on top of them.  This happened a few times.
3. Little hearts seemed to have a mind of their own in the tower...floating around in weird patterns before landing.  Maybe intentional though?
4. On a similar note and what I assume was intentional...the medusas flying around in unusual patterns...AWESOME!!!
5. When using the stopwatch to freeze medusas, I found that the moment it wore off the screen was filled with tons of them all of a sudden.


I'm sure some of the coding is really killer...I'd offer to help but I don't know a thing. :-S  Good luck though!  It's awesome so far, so keep up the great work!!  I'm really excited to see the finished product someday!  (and if I'm not actually being helpful, just let me know and I'll hush.)

[Mikepjr]

I envy you for being able to put this together man.

[X]

I also gave this new demo a run-through and while most of the new issues have already been mentioned I'll throw in one more people might have missed. When Trevor stops moving he slides for several pixels. This is a bad thing if you're trying to navigate single or two block platforms. It's what cost my life in the clock tower stage. Unlike Mega Man's 1 & 2, Trevor isn't supposed to slide, he should be stopping on a dime like in all the Castlevania games. Was it intentional for the challenge?

[BMC_War Machine]

thanks for all the input guys! as always its greatly appreciated and i think its awesome you guys took the time to play the guts out of it all the bugs have been added to my "fix list" lol and will be ironed out As for your comment X, i coded the player to gradually decelerate but you are right, i can see this being a deal breaker for the gameplay so consider it done! also, when i scrap that do you guys like or dislike the acceleration when you start to walk? if not i can eliminate this as well.

[VladCT]

As per the standard Classicvania rule all characters should walk at a constant speed, except when on a slippery platform.

[Intersection]

All right. Here are the results of my first playtesting session. I'm omitting what's already been said.
- Hitting Tab in the first room of the first stage transports you to the clockwork stage.
- Trevor still vibrates against walls.
- Trevor can't throw his axe while crouching.
- Trevor can fall off of the stage select platform. Freeze.
- Dying at the same time the boss dies still glitches the game (Trevor revives, stands, and can't be controlled. Freeze.)
- You can hit monsters through a platform while you jump. (happened at the beginning of 2nd clockwork area)
- The stopwatch clock animation hides certain blocks. I'd suggest putting it in the background.
- Gear jumping is too uneven. I've died too many times because of Trevor's choppy movements or the jump button's failing to work in certain places.
- Allow post-game over respawns at the beginning of the stage, not at the beginning of the game. Make passwords actually work (or am I not understanding something)?
- You can fall off the invisible outer edges of the screen. Not recommendable.

The more trivial ones:
- Hitting the bone tower in the first stage with the very tip of your whip doesn't seem to do any damage.
- Jumping straight up while keeping the jump button pressed displays a split-second "standing" frame at the very top of the jump.
- Hitting a different directional button while whipping changes the whipping direction mid-animation.
- You can hit the skeleton's death animation, and it can damage you (although it doesn't seem to in the clockwork stage?)
- The pendulum jumps are great, but you're 'redirected' too abruptly to the center of the pendulum. Make it feel more like the moving platform the original had.
- Candle-dropped items never disappear.

The aesthetic comments:
- Music much improved. You should release a soundtrack. 
For the title screen, though, I preferred the guitar version. You can hear the MIDI-ness of the current string version, and it's a bit underwhelming.
- Great opening, good music. But why MoF Trevor? Doesn't fit with the game. It may just be me, but I'd suggest original DC Trevor or at least CoD's Kojima Trevor...
- The second stages might need some extra ornamentation, especially the woods stage. It's slightly bland as it is. You might also try to reproduce the background effect the original had. Great owl mechanic, by the way.

I might update this once I'll have stopped losing all of my lives in the gear jumping sections. Try to get them more polished.

[darkmanx_429]

There is going to be a OST. I designed the art for the album. Check page 3 of this thread...

[X]

- Great opening, good music. But why MoF Trevor? Doesn't fit with the game. It may just be me, but I'd suggest original DC Trevor or at least CoD's Kojima Trevor...

Well it's only my opinion but I wouldn't use Kojima's CoD Trevor. That's just not the Trevor Belmont of CV III that we're used to. What you might want is...This guy!\/\/\/

http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/026/2/8/trevor_belmont_by_spidermanfan2099-d4npose.jpg

[Intersection]

There is going to be a OST. I designed the art for the album. Check page 3 of this thread...

Glad that's covered. By the way, Do you take preorders? 

Here's also some insight on the cover design (if you still care for it): I'm not the greatest fan of the horror-styled font used for the tracklist. It gives off too much of a generic bloody-horror film feel -- I don't know if that was what you were going for, but it doesn't fit Castlevania as well as a more 'dignified' font could.
The rest of the art looks great, though.

Exactly.

[Rugal]

Wahaha Grant throws an anchor at you?

That's awesome.

[BMC_War Machine]

Hey fellas, thanks for ALL the input as usual!  Some very good finds!  To note the easier parts first haha, the OST will not be charged  I am remixing the entire OST with the new style which i agree brings much more of the traditional CV flavor to the table with more of my metal mix as well so it's so far panning out EXTREMELY well!  I had to take a few days break from the game and start working on my band's CD as well so now its back to business  

Intersection, theANDROID,X,Vlad - Thank you guys for testing the game out hard and finding all the issues with it!  Most, if not all of these issues have since been fixed, also, Vlad, i got the idle stance ready that you suggested as well (finally! lol) and just a little bit ago i was able to set up the 8 directional whipping, with new animations(not just the standing whip, actually using the jumping whip animations now ) so now you have the downwards diagonal and straight down whipping while jumping/falling.  Also, in regards to the idle stance for half a second while jumping, fixed!  With all your input i've been able to isolate all the major issues and get them worked out, now im working on the remaining problems now and we'll be in good shape!  In the meantime, while you guys were testing out the demo i started incorporating the refreshed coding into the other stages along with the candles, subweapons etc and im up to the sunken city now so things are moving rather quickly.  I know reading that you would think "Why not have all that shit ready to begin with??" lol it was much easier for me to set up the stages and enemies first so i could go back and fine tune everything and just drop in the new stuff where its needed.  As it is now, all of the original tracks with the exceptions of the main boss theme, inner halls and boss theme for aquarius/castle keep are completely ready, and im adding several new tracks as well.  When i have the game completed, there will be various hidden "extra" levels and will effect the ending depending on what is found along the way, so as it stands the game will have 2 endings, the standard ending that we are used to and an all new custom ending    Not dropping any spoilers, but picture the progression of this new ending to be achieved in the same vein as RoB, how you had the ghost of shaft from finding all the maidens.  It wont just be a cheezy different ending sequence, but an extension of the game in general (dont expect anything nearly as big as an inverted castle or anything haha)  You guys will love it    As for the album art, guys, that Trevor pic you found.......AWESOME!!!!! i LOVE that!  I'll have to get at the artist and see if they would be cool with me using it for the OST art.  Also, my sis is a WICKED artist as well and has opted to hook me up with material for the game.  I may see if she would be down for maybe some dialogue pics for the characters or possibly a game cover in the vein of the old school painting style CV covers.  Again, thank you all for all your testing and input and i'll give you guys an update as soon as i have one ready to roll