Gluppy Rangers

NeoBenj

Member
Hello guys,

It's always a big step forward, when someone have to reveal their project.
As many of you, making game with Nesmaker is a labor. A labor of love. :)

I started using Nesmaker last February.
Understanding the engine, Nes graphical limitations, following tutorials, learning 6502asm (I am still learning),
rewriting thousand of line of codes from modules to fit my design ideas. (and size limitation)

So, after months of coding, here is a first overview of my first Nesmaker game.
Started the 5th of july 2019. :) Entirely graphically rebooted at Christmas.


Name:
Gluppy Rangers and The Lost Seasons (tentative)

Genre:
Top-view puzzle action (no scrolling screen)

Players:
1 or 2 simultaneous (cooperative game play)

Synopsis:
An evil spirit cursed the four seasons, resulting to an imminent climate change crisis.
Lennon and Ashley, 2 agents from the Gluppy Rangers Agency are send for investigation.

Base.jpg


WORLD:
World: 6+ Areas (20+ screens each) with multipassing.
Enemies: 5+ per area.
Boss: 1+ per area.


CHARACTERS:
2 characters with their own collision and inventory system. (the biggest burden of this project)

Lennon
-Slow but Higher HP
-Unique Visual
-Unique Base Color

Ashley
-Fast but Lower HP
-Unique Visual
-Unique Base Color

Both Characters can:
*Navigate in 8 directions

*Shoot different type of projectiles:
-Some are free and infinite (low range&damage)
-Some requires to eat fruit first
-Some are unlocked by defeating a boss (but consume 'mana')

*Change their own color to use a special ability, once unlocked (Megaman Style)
-Offensive (Shooting Through walls, Boomerang, Timed-Bomb, etc.)
-Defensive/Navigation (Immune to special status effects, passing through same color ingredients etc.)
-Each power have its own damage matrix, to respond to strength and weaknesses of enemies (Megaman Style)
-Players cannot chose the same power at the same time (incentive to cooperative gameplay)
-Player DOES share the same "ManaBar" (Coop Economy)


Tornado.jpg
Gameplay Inspirations goes to:

*70% - Pocky and Rocky (Action Shooting) https://youtu.be/U-WMk7KBnHk?t=27
*30% - Gooftroop (Puzzles)https://youtu.be/1do-dEsM644?t=230

Systems Inspiration goes to:
*Megaman series (Damage System, Power Unlocks, Color Swapping) https://youtu.be/xEK_ZfhEfG4?t=5
*Megaman 4 (Level branching)
*Zelda 4 Sword (Cooperative gameplay)
Pow.jpg
 

NeoBenj

Member
Where I'm at:

Here is a post I will update as the game dev goes. :roll:

You will notice that the code part is almost done for the whole game .
I think I already reached the code size limit 10 times during the past 3 months. :D

Rewriting code to simplify it and dividing the code size was the real struggle of the past weeks.
Specifically supporting 2-players inventory/power/priority was a real pain.
Also, 6 months old code usually look like shit, as I learned many new ways to create features in asm.


SYSTEMS FEATURE:
Title Screen
Code (100%)
Graphics (60%)

Character Selection Screen
Code (90%)
Graphics (60%)

Intermission Screen
Code (90%)
Graphics (20%)

Character Inventory System
Code (100%)
Visual - Icons (80%)

Powers System
Code - Character Color Swap (100%)
Code - Damage Matrix system (80%)
Code - Mana deplation (50%)


Status effect tiles:
Code - "Confusion" tile (100%)
Code - "Poisonned" tile (100%)
Code - "4-ways Conveyer" (100%)
Code - "Sliding" (100%)
Code - "Slippery" (100%)


ADDITIONAL VISUAL FEATURES:
FX (impact, death, spawn)
Code (80%)
Visual (50%)


Cycling/Animated Tiles
Code (100%)

FadeOut Triggers
Code (100%)


SOUND:
Music (0%) waiting for next NesMaker version with Famistudio support)
SFX (0%) waiting for next NesMaker version with Famistudio support)



WORLD/LEVEL DESIGN
World 1
Level Design (80%)
Enemies (80%)
Boss (80%)

Special Tile Code (100%)

World 2
Level Design (30%)
Enemies (0%)
Boss (0%)

Special Tile Code (100%)

World 3
Level Design (30%)
Enemies (0%)
Boss (0%)

Special Tile Code (100%)

World 4
Level Design (0%)
Enemies (0%)
Boss (0%)

Special Tile Code (100%)

World 5
Level Design (0%)
Enemies (0%)
Boss (0%)

Special Tile Code (100%)

World 6
Level Design (0%)
Enemies (0%)
Boss (0%)

Special Tile Code (100%)
 

red moon

Member
This looks great so far, I cant wait to play even an early version. Maybe you could put up some GIFS or a short video soon!
 

NeoBenj

Member
Thank you guys for the comments.
It's always tricky to determine when to show stuffs.
But I kind of feel confident to talk more about it.

This weekend, I mainly worked on specificity of my World 1.

About my tiles. You never have enough tile! :lol:
Currently playing with screentype and screenflag I was able to multiply greatly the number of tiles I can juggle with.
I have currently 33 tiles I can play with. :p

This week, the World 1 Special tile. The ConfusionTile
I had a Confusion tile to make player controls dizzy.

GluppyR_ConfTiles200209.gif

The trigger makes the followings:
-Switching the main background colors (Bushes becomes yellow-ish)
-Added a 2-frames white flash on screen (not very visible on the gif i suppose)
-I rearranged a 2colors and 3colors cycling piece of code to make cycling speed switchable on trigger.
-I created of a "confusion" tiling repeating pattern assign to my 3color cycling palette.
-Accelerated the color cycling on trigger (for a "dramatic effect")
-Disable the whole effect on another trigger.

I think it creates a cool effect (hope the gif is self explantatory).
Of course assets are still WIP. But I like the effect so far. :D

I also re-did my TitleScreen and Character selection. (Fully fonctional but temp visual to foresee space, sprites limitations etc.) ;)
GluppyR_CharacterSelection20200902.jpg
 

NeoBenj

Member
This week I focused on:
-The Boss battle of World 1 (Almost complete but need to polish visual)
-Layout of World one (Need to finish an alternate path).
-Added houses in game so you can interact with people.
GluppyR_InsideHouses20201602.jpg
I first went for a Zelda2 house approach, but find out the perspective of an earthbound-like was a better fit.

Trying to keep a good pace on production, to offer a demo asap.
 

red moon

Member
love the interior detail the wallpaper is a really nice touch and your use of color palettes gives your game a very distinct look!
 

Dirk

Member
Really cool! I love the character in the character selection screen. Your game looks really professional.
I wonder how the confusing tile effect would look on a real CRT.
 

NeoBenj

Member
Thank you guys for your comments.
As we all know, it's not easy to keep a game fun and good looking. :D
The game was really becoming run and gun-ish. So bringing back dialogues will hopefully bring a touch of humor too.
And also trying to have a light narrative for the game too.

dale_coop said:
I love your world!
I plan of having very distinct worlds and to keep the game colorful. :)
So more worlds and characters to come. :)

red moon said:
love the interior detail the wallpaper is a really nice touch and your use of color palettes gives your game a very distinct look!
Haha, well, most games are going with a brick aspect in most NesGame.
So I tried to have something different (even if it reminds me of my grandma ugly wallpaper) :D
Well, I am trying to go as far as possible from the Medieval/Heroic fantasy theme.

Dirk said:
Really cool! I love the character in the character selection screen. Your game looks really professional.
Well... the characters in the selection screen are a placeholder to secure space, positioning etc.
It will be replaced with portraits of the 2 protagonists (hopefully you will love them too).
And thank you for the nice comment about the look of the game. It means a lot. :)

Dirk said:
I wonder how the confusing tile effect would look on a real CRT.
For the confusing effect on CRT.... well.... I don't know yet. We will see if I need to adjust something.
Testing many stuffs like flashes, color swapping full screen at high speed, I admit I sometimes felt the maximum human eyes can tolerate. :D
I want to avoid a Pokemon epileptic episode if I can. :D So thanks for your concern.
 

NeoBenj

Member
Hello guys,

This week... well... I was starting to use FamiStudio. :geek:
I have the feeling I restart everything from scratch... it's a different world, really.
A new program, a new set of skills, a whole ocean of things to discover. :roll:
It was a very fun week, with not much to show visually.

I mainly, worked on
-Musics
-Code improvement (an everyday battle against memory limit). :twisted:
-Collectible spawning logic. (Spawn different items based on difficulty and actual inventory status).
-Power cost matrix.
-Dialogue branching.
-Boss fight.
-Cinematic and auto dialogues based on timers
-Fade to black transition.

Only visually thing I did, was reworking the "Dash Attack".
GluppyR_Dash20200229.gif
It was originally designed as an projectile reflector used for puzzle.
But it was too defensive (not fun) :lol: and overall I was lacking a "navigation power", so I combined both.

Next, I need to:
-Implement a first BGM and SFX (I feel that, at first, it will suck soo much :D)
-Fix bug in the UI when updating 2 values at the same time for 2 players (I do not know (yet) how the HUD code works).
-Work on damage matrix (Strength and Weakness of enemy against each powers).
-Polish a basic Gameflow from launch to win screen.

It's starting to be a game, I feel it. :)
 

Dirk

Member
NeoBenj said:
Well... the characters in the selection screen are a placeholder to secure space, positioning etc.
It will be replaced with portraits of the 2 protagonists (hopefully you will love them too).
And thank you for the nice comment about the look of the game. It means a lot. :)

I'm certain they'll be great :)

The Dash Attack looks really nice (poor butterflies though :D ). Looks like your game will be a lot of fun ^^
 

nick_public

New member
WOW! This looks fantastic! I mean it really looks professional, great work i'm sure it took a lot of it. Please let us know when we can play a demo of it :)
 

NeoBenj

Member
Long time not posting on the project. But far from being lazy.
Made the decision to not wait for the new version for polishing the game.
Being not sure how compatible script will be, I continued adding new stuffs.

I cleaned the damage matrix system. Allowing to have strength and weakness for enemies, against player weapon.

I also worked on what I called "Giants". Basically very large monsters made of tiles. (I am keeping it as a surprise for now ;) )

I also started a first implementation of the world map.
GluppyR_WorldMap20200316.gif
Making a special screen with 16x16 tiles is a nightmare. But I did it.
Funny thing too, is I actually only used 3 palettes for this Screen, keeping the 4th one for color cycling tiles.
Working with constraints forces you to be "imaginative", I guess.
It is still work in progress, planning to improve the overall graphic of the screen.

What do you think about the screen?
That's it pretty much it for today!
 

Dirk

Member
Wow, this screen really gives the illusion of more than 3 palettes being displayed.
I try to do more tiles with only 2 colours so I can use the third one more effective and "trick" the player into believing there are more colours.
Previously I used 3 colours for my clouds, but I think 2 are enough, like your screenshot demonstrates.
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
NeoBenj said:
What do you think about the screen?

Superbe ! This screen is great! definitely feels that you used more colors and palettes than you actually did.
Also, I am very interested in your "Giants". I hope we can see (or test?) it soon.
Anyway, congrats, awesome work!
 

NeoBenj

Member
Hey there,
It's been almost a month.
Well, it seems the Pandemic actually affected greatly my availability for my NesGame.
Weird, but I have way more work to do with the Pandemic going on. :)
I saw many many demos coming up recently, and I hope to make some free time for completing my project too!

I mainly worked on some basic stuff such as:
Water effect
GluppyR_Water20200407.gif
Energy Gauge for Boss battles
GluppyR_BossGauge_20200407.jpg




And a lot of code rewriting to save space. :)
That's it. Hope to continue this weekend (mainly on sound) to offer a demo soon.

Thanks for the support!
 
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