Mark of the Beast
- Thread starter red moon
- Start date
Dirk
Member
My sister and her boyfriend love to dress up for every occasion like carnival and Halloween so it is slowly creeping in as tradition... at least to go out for a couple of drinks and maybe dress up oneself.
If your game or a demo is ready by then I'll make sure we'll play it before we go out to set the right mood ^^
I should have ordered a flasher and cartridge so we could play it on a real NES. Guess an emulator will do.
If your game or a demo is ready by then I'll make sure we'll play it before we go out to set the right mood ^^
I should have ordered a flasher and cartridge so we could play it on a real NES. Guess an emulator will do.
red moon
Member
Hello everyone, It may not look like much, but I wanted to post an update on what I have been doing the past couple of evenings.
I started refining the player and roughed in a general walk idea before cleaning it up. I'll end of redoing these animated sprites at the end when I have a better understanding of animating sprites.
I then moved onto refining the climb sprites. My first attempt was too spider like, my 2nd was too small with the legs too thin. The 3rd is the right size but a bit blocky.
After that, I did a pass on the ghoul enemy to get some movement and setup the player attack with the weapon sprite being the fist part of the sprite. I did some bloodshard sprite designs as well for when I implement the projectile.
I then created a couple breakable objects just to give the player something to smash later in game. I plan on doing false stone walls that will function in the same manner.
Finally, I did a mock-up of the ruined bridge tile set to create a better transition from woods to temple.
Lastly, I refined the player death effect to be more substantial and reduced the human player sprite to 3 colors.
The video shows walking, jumping, climbing, crouching, animated enemies (thanks to Dale and Mugi) and loot pickup.
My next goal to too get the player attack functioning and energy drop working for dead ghouls. I'm not really sure whether or not to use a object based weapon or a have the code refer to a sprite on the player sheet. I've been reading lots of posts about object vs weapon hookup; I am unsure of what will be best. The object seems to provide you with a larger sized sprite from what I can tell, but my fist and projectile are small and may not need the larger sprite size provided by game object weapons.
Thanks for the feedback and help you all have offered, I really appreciate it!
Red
I started refining the player and roughed in a general walk idea before cleaning it up. I'll end of redoing these animated sprites at the end when I have a better understanding of animating sprites.
I then moved onto refining the climb sprites. My first attempt was too spider like, my 2nd was too small with the legs too thin. The 3rd is the right size but a bit blocky.
After that, I did a pass on the ghoul enemy to get some movement and setup the player attack with the weapon sprite being the fist part of the sprite. I did some bloodshard sprite designs as well for when I implement the projectile.
I then created a couple breakable objects just to give the player something to smash later in game. I plan on doing false stone walls that will function in the same manner.
Finally, I did a mock-up of the ruined bridge tile set to create a better transition from woods to temple.
Lastly, I refined the player death effect to be more substantial and reduced the human player sprite to 3 colors.
The video shows walking, jumping, climbing, crouching, animated enemies (thanks to Dale and Mugi) and loot pickup.
My next goal to too get the player attack functioning and energy drop working for dead ghouls. I'm not really sure whether or not to use a object based weapon or a have the code refer to a sprite on the player sheet. I've been reading lots of posts about object vs weapon hookup; I am unsure of what will be best. The object seems to provide you with a larger sized sprite from what I can tell, but my fist and projectile are small and may not need the larger sprite size provided by game object weapons.
Thanks for the feedback and help you all have offered, I really appreciate it!
Red
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red moon
Member
thank you Dale!
I am looking to improve things visually as I go. I want to get a first pass of getting all the element in and making an attempt to get them functional before I polish the visuals and play with any variables tied to functionality.
I am trying to chip away little by little and make tiny bits of progress as I go!
Moving forward, I will use the projectile object as in stands (projectile source) and see if I can get that working at least.
I am going to be pulling the projectile script from the adventure module and the input script to go with it.
I am looking to improve things visually as I go. I want to get a first pass of getting all the element in and making an attempt to get them functional before I polish the visuals and play with any variables tied to functionality.
I am trying to chip away little by little and make tiny bits of progress as I go!
Moving forward, I will use the projectile object as in stands (projectile source) and see if I can get that working at least.
I am going to be pulling the projectile script from the adventure module and the input script to go with it.
red moon
Member
Hey everyone, this is a bit of an art dump and some level layout testing.
I am working in a test bed level hoping to iron some things out before building out the rest of the demo levels and enemies.
In the past couple of days I've been creating some additional objects to adding more detail/variation as well as some breakable objects to reveal secret areas and generally give the player something else to hit besides enemies. I also added a gate and key that will be used to warp to special warp rooms and some NPC characters to have a little bit of dialog pop up here and there.
More to come shortly!
I am working in a test bed level hoping to iron some things out before building out the rest of the demo levels and enemies.
In the past couple of days I've been creating some additional objects to adding more detail/variation as well as some breakable objects to reveal secret areas and generally give the player something else to hit besides enemies. I also added a gate and key that will be used to warp to special warp rooms and some NPC characters to have a little bit of dialog pop up here and there.
More to come shortly!
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red moon
Member
Hey guys, this is a fairly quick update. I am working through the statue room designs and the screen that leads to the gate that warps you to the statue room.
I am not final on the background tiles of these transitional areas, so I am experimenting with different ideas. I can find a ton of resources on pixel art regarding characters and dungeon tiles but not many that deal with flat backgrounds and ways to create compelling images back there. If anyone know of any good tips or videos, plenty let me know!
And the statue is something that may change, it currently takes up 13 tiles on a 24 tile sheet which limits the number of unique objects that can be onscreen but I may go bigger and lose some of the other tiles. Some of these things, I will circle back to later.
I am not final on the background tiles of these transitional areas, so I am experimenting with different ideas. I can find a ton of resources on pixel art regarding characters and dungeon tiles but not many that deal with flat backgrounds and ways to create compelling images back there. If anyone know of any good tips or videos, plenty let me know!
And the statue is something that may change, it currently takes up 13 tiles on a 24 tile sheet which limits the number of unique objects that can be onscreen but I may go bigger and lose some of the other tiles. Some of these things, I will circle back to later.
Attachments
westcoastvagabond
Member
The outdoor backgrounds already look great, and by contrast the plain darkness on the statue rooms really makes the statue pop.
If inside is a cavern or such, I see a lot of games re-use the ground/wall tiles in a darker, shaded color for a background.
Other than that, I'd say it already looks solid!
If inside is a cavern or such, I see a lot of games re-use the ground/wall tiles in a darker, shaded color for a background.
Other than that, I'd say it already looks solid!
red moon
Member
Thanks Dale and Woogz, I appreciate it!
And thanks Vagabond; the statue rooms did not have as many options since the statue itself takes up so many tiles but I ended up really liking the simplicity and the fact that the focus is on the statue itself since there are no other interesting objects in competition with it.
And I will experiment with a cave room section since there is so much negative space in that tile set in particular. I may try to make a mini-cave within a cave? Something that is dark and subtle!
If anyone has any good examples of making the best of negative space please let me know!
And thanks Vagabond; the statue rooms did not have as many options since the statue itself takes up so many tiles but I ended up really liking the simplicity and the fact that the focus is on the statue itself since there are no other interesting objects in competition with it.
And I will experiment with a cave room section since there is so much negative space in that tile set in particular. I may try to make a mini-cave within a cave? Something that is dark and subtle!
If anyone has any good examples of making the best of negative space please let me know!
red moon
Member
It's been almost a week since I posted an update and I wanted to share what I am working on with Mark of the Beast at present. I have most of the base game mechanics working now, with melee and enemy drops functioning (thank you Dale) and I am currently setting up the projectile that will require some special scripting since you will have melee and a projectile to attack with.
Once that is done, you'll be able to run, jump, attack, shoot, pickup health, pickup treasure, pickup enemy drops, climb and duck... which is enough for me to begin layout on the levels. I will do a 1st pass on sound fx and music too just to have those in place and clear out the sounds left over from the platform module.
Other than that, I have been experimenting with a town tile set. I want to have a couple screens of ruined and intact towns the player passes through. I'm putting my mock up here for everyone to see. I created the small houses first then i've been cutting them into 16x16 pieces to create a sheet. It still has a ways to go at this point.
In addition, I've been organizing my environment tiles to be more exacting with what I want to use and grouping enemies onto sheets for import into the editor. I am leaving 3 slots per enemy for animations, so far I've only animated the ghoul; 20 more to go!
Once I get the projectile in, I will add some custom sound and share another video!
Thanks for looking and all the help so far!
Once that is done, you'll be able to run, jump, attack, shoot, pickup health, pickup treasure, pickup enemy drops, climb and duck... which is enough for me to begin layout on the levels. I will do a 1st pass on sound fx and music too just to have those in place and clear out the sounds left over from the platform module.
Other than that, I have been experimenting with a town tile set. I want to have a couple screens of ruined and intact towns the player passes through. I'm putting my mock up here for everyone to see. I created the small houses first then i've been cutting them into 16x16 pieces to create a sheet. It still has a ways to go at this point.
In addition, I've been organizing my environment tiles to be more exacting with what I want to use and grouping enemies onto sheets for import into the editor. I am leaving 3 slots per enemy for animations, so far I've only animated the ghoul; 20 more to go!
Once I get the projectile in, I will add some custom sound and share another video!
Thanks for looking and all the help so far!
Attachments
fjamesfernandez
Member
Nice art style coming along here. keep it up.
red moon
Member
Thank you Fernandez! I hope to go back to the earlier art pieces and update them as I get through the bulk of the levels and enemies. Thankfully, this is going to be rather long demo and not a full design. I want enough visual variation to keep it interesting along with some enemy behavior variation that is yet to be determined.
I'm keeping an eye out for NesMaker 5 to see if its more suited to what I want to try next.
I'm keeping an eye out for NesMaker 5 to see if its more suited to what I want to try next.
red moon
Member
Its' been over a week since I updated. I've been doing some little things here and there to add more context to the test space which is feeling more substantial at this point. I also added a new tileset...a pit for the player to start in. You are supposed to this blood beast man-creature that was given life to cleanse the lands so I wanted something more fitting to that idea. I also created a water/boat/dock tileset so you can move across to other inaccessible areas later on.
I have a couple of videos where I move quickly to gt through many of the screens. You can move, climb, attack, shoot, duck, break objects,move through secret walls, fall down pits and talk to NPC's. My next pass will be hooking up the projectile to be given only when you find the crystal underground (although I will be replacing this with the big statue) and experimenting with AI to get them floating randomly (thanks for the script Dale!) and shooting. After that, I'll start testing crows that fly off screen, villagers that throw knives at you and I am going to start looking into jumping.
The sounds fx and music are in place but i will be replacing all of that toward the end when I have a better idea of what i want the sound to be.
Thanks for all the help and support so far!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHYW2c7O3zg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yucrrw_9E20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-VxzyJFJ4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWPUaDlqir4
https://youtu.be/dDo2Shs75FI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Dm4euooxA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SABkg_DY2E
I have a couple of videos where I move quickly to gt through many of the screens. You can move, climb, attack, shoot, duck, break objects,move through secret walls, fall down pits and talk to NPC's. My next pass will be hooking up the projectile to be given only when you find the crystal underground (although I will be replacing this with the big statue) and experimenting with AI to get them floating randomly (thanks for the script Dale!) and shooting. After that, I'll start testing crows that fly off screen, villagers that throw knives at you and I am going to start looking into jumping.
The sounds fx and music are in place but i will be replacing all of that toward the end when I have a better idea of what i want the sound to be.
Thanks for all the help and support so far!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHYW2c7O3zg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yucrrw_9E20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-VxzyJFJ4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWPUaDlqir4
https://youtu.be/dDo2Shs75FI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Dm4euooxA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SABkg_DY2E
