Witch City

[cargo]

You could go for that Faxanadu look but for what it's worth I would consider giving more color to your player (maybe applying some parenting sprite techniques).

I don't like it

To be serious, it's a good work, the only thing to need changes imho is the caracter. Not its shape, but its colors. It give me a strange impression over the background. I fell like it needs something to be perfect.

I'm not sure what you mean. The character needs to be colored light in order to pop against the detailed backgrounds.

 

[jorotroid]

You could go for that Faxanadu look but for what it's worth I would consider giving more color to your player (maybe applying some parenting sprite techniques).

I don't like it

To be serious, it's a good work, the only thing to need changes imho is the caracter. Not its shape, but its colors. It give me a strange impression over the background. I fell like it needs something to be perfect.

I'm not sure what you mean. The character needs to be colored light in order to pop against the detailed backgrounds.

Thanks for the input! I'm always tinkering with the colors, so who know what I will finally end up with. That said, at this point in time I doubt that I will be able to work in the sprite layering technique given how I am budgeting my graphical resources at this time. Doing that technique would require 3 things:
-More sprites on screen: I might be able to work with that. It would make adding a flicker routine even more important.
-A palette dedicated to the additional colors: It could be workable, but would also cause other head aches. As it is designed right now, 2 of my palettes are not looking like they can change, so if I did this layering technique, that would mean I would only have 1 palette to swap around for stuff like monsters.
-CHR space to hold the extra sprites for all the different frames of animation I have: I doubt I would be able to fit it all in. I have very little GameObject graphic space left. Once I have created all the monsters for my game (a long time from now) I'll be able to see if I have the space to put additional graphics like that in the monster graphics.

So I don't know, but I wouldn't expect that at this point.

 

[jorotroid]

There are just two things I want to get done before releasing a demo: a first pass at a title screen, and do something other than have the game lock up when you die. Here is that first pass at the title screen.

I want to try something with palette swapping on the title screen, but I am too tire to figure that out right now. I feel asleep.

 

[stevenshepherd]

looks great!

 

[dark_crow_66]

Can't wait to try this one.

 

[jorotroid]

Made some slight updates to the title screen because I prefer not post an update without an image.

Also... Here it is!

Title screen: Check
Figured out what happens when we die: Check
Still want to do a million other things with and am nervous about showing things maybe too early: Check Check Check

So yeah, here is the first official demo for Witch City! It's basically the same demo I gave to Joe for Retro Game Con last weekend except for the above mentioned stuff and a couple other polishes and bug fixes (don't worry, I still left plenty of bugs for all of you to enjoy, too).

I hope you all like it and am looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks.

EDIT: I have now made a survey that I would appreciate you taking after you try the demo. It's all optional, so feel free to skip any question that may be unclear. Thanks!
https://goo.gl/forms/8vEokzcwYbTtB0lV2

 

[dale_coop]

Ooohhhh! Thank you jorotroid, will try tonight!
You made my day <3

 

[Dirk]

Cool, I can't wait to play it when I'm back at home

 

[maxmoolac]

This game is so cool. Good job yo

 

[Gazimaluke]

Tried a bit on the phone. I gonna play it on the computer in a bit. Looks great.

 

[functionalform]

i'm having oodles of fun playing this today.
it's a great combination of batman and metroid like backtracking and exploration.

 

[throwawayaccount1235]

Sweet! Nice job! I haven't killed the hand yet though

 

[CutterCross]

Hot DAMN! That was incredible!! I can't compare to this, man!

How did you pull off those pallet swaps on the Title screen?!

 

[Bucket Mouse]

When CutterCross says he can't compare to you, that means something.

This is the most polished demo we've gotten from anyone yet. You would hardly know this was made with NESMaker -- it feels like something that could've come out back in the day.

Can I offer some criticism, though? The music needs improvement. I found the squeak noises in the main theme very irritating.

 

[jorotroid]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you all are enjoying the demo.

Hot DAMN! That was incredible!! I can't compare to this, man!

Dude, you're doing awesome stuff. The Ninja Gaiden intro, slick Mega Man X style character, sick music, I could go on. I can't wait to try out your game!

How did you pull off those pallet swaps on the Title screen?!

It's sort of an experiment for making a system for executing a series of events either by some sort of trigger or by timer. When the title screen starts up, the system is in its first event where it flickers between two palettes. I had to study instances in the code where the Macro LoadBackgroundPalette was used to figure out how swap palettes. Then I generate a random number each frame to determine if the palette should swap. There is a higher chance of the palette swapping if the darker palette is in use.

Then when the player pushes start, I do one more palette change to make things go black and red, and the system goes to the next state where it draws the shadow figure and every few frames it changes the x position where it draws to make it move to the right. Meanwhile a timer is counting down and when it gets to 0, the game starts.

Can I offer some criticism, though? The music needs improvement. I found the squeak noises in the main theme very irritating.

Of course! Criticism is very welcome. That's interesting. I've had others say they liked the squeak. I should maybe try making some surveys to see if I can get some more information about what people thought about specific bits. Thank you for your perspective!

 

[Dirk]

I've had others say they liked the squeak.

I wanted to comment that I really like the squeaking very much ^^

I loved your demo! Before playing I had seen the intro screen, but I got surprised with the flashes and then everything turning black and red the monster moving in the background. Brilliant
The gameplay was great too and a lot of fun. I can't give you any feedback how to improve, because I was blown away ^^
The only thing I didn't like, was that it ended

Thank you for sharing your demo! I was looking forward to playing it for a long time

 

[jorotroid]

I've had others say they liked the squeak.

The only thing I didn't like, was that it ended

I hope to fix that bug as soon as possible . I'm glad you liked it, and thank you for your opinions!

 

[dale_coop]

Played last night. It was VERY fun! Thank you, jorotroid.
I found it difficult at first (jumping on the wall was hard) but then I got used to the controls and it was a blast!
Love the cat at the end screen <3

...can't wait to try the next level Ah ah

 

[Bucket Mouse]

I can't get past this room:



The only way to jump on the platform is to jump to the room above it first, and if you do that all the enemies reset, meaning the ones on the platform will always knock you off. I don't get it.

 

[jorotroid]

[

I can't get past this room:

Would you like a hint or the solution? I'll give you a hint for now. The enemies are on that screen to discourage you from falling back down to that screen. Everything you need to do is in the upper screen.

Played last night. It was VERY fun! Thank you, jorotroid.
I found it difficult at first (jumping on the wall was hard) but then I got used to the controls and it was a blast!
Love the cat at the end screen <3

...can't wait to try the next level Ah ah

Glad you liked it, coop!