Adventure module challenges

RadJunk

Administrator
Staff member
For those of you who feel confident with your awesome NESmaking skills and are looking for a challenge to test your brain and bend the module to fit your will....

Here are some logical *next step* challenges. There is no single way to do these things, so if you figure out good tricks, make sure to share a video showing them off, and let the community know how you accomplished them!

1) Boss Room (difficulty : easy)
Make a room that locks you in with monster blocks until you defeat the big bad...you can't proceed until you've been victorious in your battle!

2) Big boss! (difficulty : easy)
Make a big monster using tile graphics with a small interactive area that uses actual objects. Use monster blocks for the tile types to make the whole monster go away when you defeat him!

3) Signs (difficulty : easy)
Very simple. Make a graphic for a sign as a background tile, but use an invisible NPC type monster placed in front of it so a user can "read the sign".

4) Ammo/Magic Meter (difficulty : medium)
You've learned a bit about working with hud variables. Make a new variable for ammo or magic. Make it so that you can only shoot while this meter has a value greater than zero. Additionally, you'll need to find a way to refill this meter, so you'll have to make an ammo powerup as well.

5) New weapons (difficulty : medium-hard)
Make powerups that give your player different weapons. We won't even worry about *changing* the weapons once you get them...think more like Contra, where you get different guns when you pick up a projectile, or Castlevania where you have use of different items after colliding with them.

6) Shops (difficulty : hard)
Make some sort of shop system. Be able to use collected currency to purchase things...keys, health, a weapon...whatever. There is no single way to do this. There are many ways to do this. So this might get interesting to see how you approach it!
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
jsherman said:
Here's a challenge... How do I tell my wife I want to spend all weekend making a game that accomplishes all this? :D

Arggg.... my wife too, she will not be very happy about that.
What is the deadline fro submission? ;)
 
dale_coop said:
jsherman said:
Here's a challenge... How do I tell my wife I want to spend all weekend making a game that accomplishes all this? :D

Arggg.... my wife too, she will not be very happy about that.
What is the deadline fro submission? ;)

Dale I've already seen you do some of these in your beta games. You got this easy.
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Ahah, all this seem completely doable (already have ideas how to do). As I wrote on the FB post, and I mean it , the most challenging part for me will be to find the time to do that ;)
 

TurtleRescueNES

Active member
To quote Marvel's Collector: "One down, five to go!"

Starting off easy. Hopefully I can find some more time later. :)
 

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TurtleRescueNES

Active member
The boss challenge using monster block times was very easy, especially since I have already built my racoon boss similarly in prior versions.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/5Qqj6JcZ14A

There are a few bugs that are visible if you watch the video. One thing that is not a bug is the raccoon's arms are invulnerable to the hero's shell attack due to solid collision. That's okay since it encourages the player to use the melee weapon instead.

But one thing that I need to figure out is what happens if the player fails to pick up the boss prize, as shown in the video. That could result in a soft lock where the player is unable to proceed. I could leave a key in the triggered state, but then that leaves the potential for unlimited keys.

I also intend the player to start with 3 hearts, but heart pickups can allow more. If you pay attention to the video, that technically happens, but the HUD doesn't show the 4th heart filled. But it is counted when the player gets his first hit.

Thinking more about the first challenge where the player is locked in the boss battle, I can see how that could be done with warp tiles to bring you into a locked room, but I am not sure how to lock a "door" behind a player that simply walks into a room ala Zelda 1 without a solid collision.

I'd love to figure out the magic meter challenge as that was always my intent for my game. My hero flings seashells that he collects, but has limited ammunition, much like Zelda 1 with rupees being both currency and arrow ammunition. I'm confident the answer is out there, but haven't found how to properly tweak that code.
 

SeaFoodAndButter

New member
Well, I'm a rookie, but I think I should qualify for one of these easy challenges.

"3) Signs (difficulty : easy)
Very simple. Make a graphic for a sign as a background tile, but use an invisible NPC type monster placed in front of it so a user can "read the sign".

I did not make a "sign" but I did make a door, which should suffice. I staged an invisible monster in front that will initiate dialogue if you press "b".

Does this at least qualify me for coming through on a basic challenge? Come on, throw me a bone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qLTru2lzCI&feature=youtu.be
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
SeaFoodAndButter said:
I did not make a "sign" but I did make a door, which should suffice. I staged an invisible monster in front that will initiate dialogue if you press "b".
Does this at least qualify me for coming through on a basic challenge? Come on, throw me a bone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qLTru2lzCI&feature=youtu.be

Of course, you can, it's perfect!
The challenge is to learn/manipulate the concepts... so (I think, maybe wrong), if you made any NPC monster looking like "a background tile" that help the player to find his way, you're in ;)
 

RadJunk

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah the idea here is to get you guys thinking outside of the box and synthesizing info outside of the direct tutorial :)
 
Adjusted the code to make it so the projectile is a different sprite and changes depending on the direction the player is facing. Did this for my guy throwing a spear since it looks different horizontal vs. vertical.
 

TurtleRescueNES

Active member
Thanks to Dale's help, I've accomplished challenge #4.

On my own, I was able to figure out how to decrease myMoney each time I used my projectile weapon (going for a Zelda rupee/arrow functionality) and was able to update the HUD, but I couldn't quite get how to properly code the conditional check to see if the player has money to use in the first place. Dale came in to save the day!
 

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dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Nice, jsherman!
<3 that turtle


PS: I am stuck with the #5 since last week... I make progress but no good results yet.
 

Rob Burrito

New member
on the boss room challenge: i can make a room i warp to have the monster tiles in place, or make the last two tiles of the previous screen warp me two tiles over to not get stuck. while it works i don't think it's the best way. did anyone figure out any other methods? two pages in i dont think there will be any spoiler alerts on discussing challenge solutions haha. for a game boss it's just not dramatic.

i tried making a NPC in a triggered room as the un-trigger for the boss room. i know he would just reappear when it was cleared again, but there's a bunch of ways to handle that. the goal was added drama and to interject some story (and to get you away from all walls) in the boss room. in my game it was the guy you pissed off earlier by opening the door he had been working on his whole life. back again! but upon entering the room in the triggered state, the monster tiles still set in place with some strange results. i'm guessing setting a monster tile to begin in a triggered room is what did that. i tried looking at the code for handling monster locks and trigger checks but have no idea what to change there.

changing screen states from day to night might work there for boss rooms, but again was out of my abilities. it seems just putting a NPC in the triggered state of the monster tile room froze things up as well. works for key triggered rooms, but the monster tiles seemed to be causing an issue. would like to see what everyone else came up with for this!
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
I am still finishing my challenge demo.
But I used the warp technique.
I would love to have a real boss room a la TrollBurner, but... could not figure how to make it.
So I made as you said, some warp tiles... that end my player in a closed Boss Room (so he can't escape, Ahah :p)
 

TurtleRescueNES

Active member
Rob Burrito said:
on the boss room challenge: i can make a room i warp to have the monster tiles in place, or make the last two tiles of the previous screen warp me two tiles over to not get stuck. while it works i don't think it's the best way. did anyone figure out any other methods? two pages in i dont think there will be any spoiler alerts on discussing challenge solutions haha. for a game boss it's just not dramatic.

i tried making a NPC in a triggered room as the un-trigger for the boss room. i know he would just reappear when it was cleared again, but there's a bunch of ways to handle that. the goal was added drama and to interject some story (and to get you away from all walls) in the boss room. in my game it was the guy you pissed off earlier by opening the door he had been working on his whole life. back again! but upon entering the room in the triggered state, the monster tiles still set in place with some strange results. i'm guessing setting a monster tile to begin in a triggered room is what did that. i tried looking at the code for handling monster locks and trigger checks but have no idea what to change there.

changing screen states from day to night might work there for boss rooms, but again was out of my abilities. it seems just putting a NPC in the triggered state of the monster tile room froze things up as well. works for key triggered rooms, but the monster tiles seemed to be causing an issue. would like to see what everyone else came up with for this!

I have no ideas for being trapped in a boss room other than warp tiles. I'd like the dramatic effect of a door closing behind you, but I don't see how that's possible without a solid tile collision.

I do have a boss room with a NPC, but the trigger is on the boss itself, not the NPC. If you watch the NESMaker Platformer tutorial video, about 4 minutes in, you see Austin playing against the raccoon boss, and in the same room able to talk to a turtle.

Or you're welcome to download a demo of my game here and play for yourself. :)
http://www.nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=112&start=40
 

dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
I finished my demo, accomplished all the challenges. Here's the video: https://youtu.be/HDjjLxmoGlk
I attached the .nes ROM too.

) Boss Room
I made it simple, a room where you got warped in... no escape, until you defeat it!

2) Big boss!
Some tiles and 2 monsters...



3) Signs
Made "computer Sign" (NPCS disguised as tiles) :)

4) Ammo/Magic Meter
All the weapons on my game need "power", you need to refill (when you take a charge pickup)

5) New weapons
In addition to the simple projectile, I added a "dash" system... you can use it to pass through monsters without damage, and though death tiles too.
And sort of fireball projectiles that are more powerful than simple projectiles.

6) Shops
I use the NPC system... I hijacked it: if the npc has a value (used the "health" property), so I compare with the value of "myMoney".
If not enough I change the textstring to another one. If enough, the NPCS gives the item/weapon.

 

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