Space Phoenix

Lother

Member
Here's my personnal project I had in mind for quite some time.

Test_Space_Pheonix_Title.png


Space Pheonix will be a shoot'em up game where you have exactly 1 hour and 40 minutes to destroy an interstellar weapon before it destroys Earth.


The main thing about this game will be how each level will be organized in two phases:

>The first one is a farming phase where you'll power up your character. It will end when the player decides.

>In the second phase you fight the boss of the current level.


Trying to do a sort of bullet hell game on the NES will be a interesting challenge.
 

Lother

Member
Here's an early test for the backgrounds:

Test_Space_Pheonix_Decor03.png


The next one is the cloudy background but with a few modifications so it looks like a forest.

Test_Space_Pheonix_Decor04.png


Here's a few screens from the How to play menu (some things are still WIP so feedback and tips are welcome):

Test_Space_Pheonix_How_To02.png


Test_Space_Pheonix_How_To03.png


Test_Space_Pheonix_How_To04.png
 

Kasumi

New member
I just realized you may want to know some things. So in this image:
Test_Space_Pheonix_How_To04.png

You have your HUD to the left and right of the screen. Assuming you want scrolling, having the HUD there would usually make it scroll with the level in the middle like this:
5AhUdMA.gif

Unless the HUD were entirely sprites. But even if it were entirely 8x16 sprites, the bar on the right would be 13 sprites, the time would be 4, the bar on the left would be 22 sprites, and the icon beneath the bar would be 6. That's 45 of the 64 sprites that can be on screen at once just for the HUD. Mega Man's HUD is a bit similar, but is WAY smaller, so it uses only seven 8x8 sprites. Any part of the HUD that's not sprites would scroll with the level.

Basically you can divide the background into vertical sections that scroll independently fairly easily. (Think Kirby's Adventure's HUD, Super Mario Bros. 3's HUD.) You cannot divide the background into horizontal sections that scroll independently without very careful work. Battletoads sort of does it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPd9TzBFc4

But if those independently scrolling edges weren't a repeating pattern, it wouldn't have really worked and the HUD is not a repeating pattern. The only way I can think of to make something similar work for keeping the HUD static while the NES scrolls would, quite ironically, make it difficult to update the level for scrolling too.

Anyway, all of that assumes you did have scrolling in mind. If you didn't, you're fine. If you did, you either need to make your HUD use way fewer sprites, or be horizontal to use the background.

Edit: I guess it's also possible the How to Play screens have simply magnified the HUD and they'd be smaller in game. But still consider sprite count for it, especially for a bullet hell game.
 

Lother

Member
Indeed Kasumi, I am still doing researches on that aspect.

So here's what I have right now.

Test_Space_Pheonix_Decor05.png


The left part will be sprites and for the right part, only the bar (not visible on the image) will be a sprite. Saving a lot of sprites on the process.

I think I will reduce the size of the bottom left square so it does only use four 8x8 sprites instead of 8 and will be included with the sprites of the weapon indicator.
 

Lother

Member
Now here's an example of a boss screen, which will be fixed. (no scrolling) Saving sprites for more interesting patterns.

Test_Space_Pheonix_Decor06.png


For some attacks like big lasers, I've planned to use the background tiles for that.
 

Lother

Member
Here's a new background with the final version of the HUD.

Test_Space_Pheonix_Decor07.png


The right side will have an horizontal bar going from top to bottom to indicate the time left to finish the game and on the left side the big square will be part of the sprite showing the equipped spell.

You can also see the first type of ennemy planned for this game with its four frames of animation and the pickup for levelling up your spells.
 

Lother

Member
I have reworked the previously shown boss screen in order to make it look more like an actual game screen.

Test_Space_Pheonix_Decor08.png


The blue bullets will act as a sort of energy wall, and will be travelling back and forth between the two spire really fast, lightening the sprite count.

And since it was done with NES Screen Tool, I was limited to four palettes.
 

Lother

Member
And some details on that project right now:

Since I have backed NES Maker but didn't choose any of the tiers giving access to the beta, I can only work right now by doing concept arts and backgrounds.

It is really likely that I will need somebody who knows how to create NES Music and sounds, because I am really bad at this.

Game balance will be critical for that game; it has to be beatable in under 1 hour and 30 minutes and it should be challenging but not effing impossible.

There will be no life system, because it will make the game far too hard.

There will be 7 levels with their boss and one final level which will be only the final boss (with maybe two or three stages).

The first level should be beatable in under 1 minute. The second under two or three minutes, and so on... And the final boss should last roughly 15~20 minutes.
 
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