Archetype: Perseus

WillElm

New member
Here's a quick look at my scrolling action platformer. There's a ton of work to do, I'll lay out the roadmap and address a few other things below the video. I officially started work on this project in March, when I got NESMaker. I worked until late May, then put it down for several months- until maybe 2 weeks ago.

[media]https://youtu.be/EQBtFP1bZuU[/media]

Video Notes

*At the end of the video, it warps to an empty screen. I'm still trying to figure that whole thing out. I think the NPCs throw it off somehow.
*You can't attack until you talk to the dead guy on the bridge. Much of this will change.

Artwork and aesthetics

Most of the artwork is placeholder of course. The limited pallet is tough, what looks good might not contrast well as you move around the screen! I might go full grayscale. It's starting to get off the ground though. I have a whole other really cool tileset not shown in the video, but most of the sprites aren't good yet. The character was originally a crusader knight guy because I was thinking Ghosts 'n Goblins or Castlevania. I started gravitating toward mythology. At first, it was sort of an excuse to not be super creative with the art but still have something to build off of (first time with pixel art). It also helps that it comes with many built in monsters. However, as these things go, my mind started racing with ideas and I wanted to try to weave references from specific myths into the gameplay itself. I'd also like to include cutscenes to actually tell a story.

Gameplay

It's an action platformer. You progress from level to level fighting monsters and beating bosses. The platforming is punctuated by scrolling shmup levels where you're pegasus (or maybe you're Perseus riding Pegasus).

Current Features

*Attack with your sword (B), jump (A), duck (down)
*unlock the ability to heal one heart (START to heal)
*unlock the ability to throw your bomb subweapon (UP+B)
*unlock the ability to throw a spear (UP+B)
*Select subweapon with SELECT
*The monsters you see in the video plus a few more. I just made a stalactite that falls on you when you run under it.
*Shmup mode!

Future character abilities (hopefully)

*the first main boss (probably level 2 boss) will be Medusa. After you beat her you will unlock the ability to pull her head out and petrify your enemies to use them as platforms. This is also when you will see a pegasus level for the first time.
*I think I want some kind of backdash ability, like Alucard. This character is slow, which I want, but I also want some kind of mobility enhancement.

Roadmap/to do list

*Art work. Main priority now is character sprites and animations for Perseus and Pegasus.
*Music and sound. I'm pretty experienced with trackers. The limitations here are tough though. I managed to make some cool tracks just playing around but they're way too cheery.
*learning more .asm. I really need to work on understanding the object collision script.


PerseusArhetype.PNG

Forest.PNG

Cave.PNG
 

Dirk

Member
The Pegasus level took my by surprise, I love the idea! I also love the background silhouettes and how you used black in your grass and dirt tiles.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of your progress :)
 

WillElm

New member
Dirk said:
The Pegasus level took my by surprise, I love the idea! I also love the background silhouettes and how you used black in your grass and dirt tiles.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of your progress :)

Thanks for the feedback, I'm trying to come up with an interesting cavern tileset that uses the same idea. I got the idea from looking at Terraria.
 

red moon

Member
wow this is great, i love the theme and the visual style!
i did not expect the pegasus either, what a great surprise.

Great work and i loved seeing the sub weapon in use and the look of the wolves, they actually look like real white wolves! I tried to add a wolf to mark and maybe i should have gone another tile longer, mine looks a bit stubby...these look natural.
can’t wait to see more.
 

WillElm

New member
[/quote]
dale_coop said:
WillElm, it looks very very interesting! Will try it during my holidays :)

Thanks again Dale. I'm hoping to have a full 3 level demo posted by the new year, since I have 2 weeks off.

Great work and i loved seeing the sub weapon in use and the look of the wolves, they actually look like real white wolves! I tried to add a wolf to mark and maybe i should have gone another tile longer, mine looks a bit stubby...these look natural.

Thanks. I like the look but I need to fix the back leg animation. I like the size as well, the only problem is that it looks weird in game even with sprite cycling.
 

WillElm

New member
I replaced my player object artwork and I really like it so far. It's twice as tall, but the same width.

One problem: now it behaves weirdly when jumping into the side of a solid tile. It'll "snap" me up or down, allowing me to jump up ot platforms that I shouldn't be able to jump up to. I can probably avoid this problem through level design and changing my jump height and stuff, but I'm wondering if this is a common problem with a known fix.


SpriteSheet.PNG
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Humm... I think I encountered that issue at some point in one project, don't remember why and how I "fixed" it.
 

WillElm

New member
red moon said:
I like the new character sprite, can you post a video of him moving?

No problem. He needs a little work. I'm gonna scoot the head dress back a little to more closely resemble sculptures of the mythical heroes instead of Spartans. Also gonna work on the color pallet and de-goof the animation a little. I also wanna clean up the cape a little and do some animations with it, like when he jumps and ducks.

You can see I haven't quite worked out the crouch attack yet but It's coming along. I saw your thread on it but I don't think it works for my project.

[media]https://youtu.be/9UWORw_dzb0[/media]
 

red moon

Member
Nice! it great to see it in action and I am looking forward to the final version with the tweaks that you mentioned!
 
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