Another update. I have now added all the quest text (about 2.7K) , quest line (36 stages) and objectives. I need to do some formatting and editing but it's mostly there. Good news is that I still have 1.5K free . I need to add more POIs and roads but these should be at most 1K and some quality of life bits (pause, win routine, volume control). There might even be enough space for a tune...
This brings me to a quandary. As the quest is now in place releasing another development version has the potential to "spoil" it. As such there might not be another release until a fully complete Beta version is ready.
Now for interest only. My font is proportional however to reduce size I am only adding the characters that are actually used in the text. Here are the remaining characters.
font characters.png (3.27 KiB) Viewed 3656 times
Castle Defender, Untitled Dungeon Game, Night Ninja, Wordle, Waffle, Acorn Island, Beebchase, Ghostbusters
I've now added a full road network to the island. There are 90 road sections taking 270 bytes leaving 1.3k free still.
Next I want to change the tile routine slightly to remove a feature I coded that I'm not using. I also have another tile to add. After that I need to add the remaining POIs to place spawners, blueberries and scenery for interest. I have up to about 400 "spaces" available to do this depending on how much memory I want to send elsewhere.
Castle Defender, Untitled Dungeon Game, Night Ninja, Wordle, Waffle, Acorn Island, Beebchase, Ghostbusters
Brief update. I now have spawners added around the quest POIs and blueberry bushes throughout the map. POI data table is now 131 entries (393 bytes) with ~1.1k free.
I also noted that the various places that I was storing code have now more or less run into each other so I am saving a single 16,096 byte block of code data during build. This is compressed to around 10K and included in the loader code - which isn't strictly necessary but it's nice to have the loader code smaller for loading off tape
Next are some more spawners and then some scenery. Also need to add pause and volume keys, rebalance the relative sound volumes. I've then got to look at what to do with the remaining space. I can always add more scenery POIs but there is also scope for more side quests - or possibly more main quest. It would be nice to have a tune whilst you travel around. I was also toying with the idea of signposts to aid in navigation.
Castle Defender, Untitled Dungeon Game, Night Ninja, Wordle, Waffle, Acorn Island, Beebchase, Ghostbusters
I've been adding lots of POIs to the map and there are now 300 "objects". These are mostly just decoration so can remove some if I need some more room. I have just under 600 bytes free and am going to concentrate on the quality of life stuff and tune for now as this will involve a little more code and data. I can then fill up the space when it's "complete".
I've also optimised the poi search and fixed a bug with the cacheing leading to an occasional hang/corruption.
The attached version has quests disabled so you are only able to explore the island. The data and logic is present - but won't activate. There are however baddies to avoid/fight and blueberries to find. Feedback on "feel" would be appreciated.
Lastly I've been playing with "Stable Diffusion" AI to generate a title screen. Some samples attached. Any preference? I'm tending towards image 3 or image 4.
title1.png (15.75 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
title2.png (21.01 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
title3.png (26.62 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
title4.png (25.54 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
Castle Defender, Untitled Dungeon Game, Night Ninja, Wordle, Waffle, Acorn Island, Beebchase, Ghostbusters
I like 1, 3 and 4 but it’s hard to decide which is best as they are very good
*Edit
Just had a quick go and can honestly say it's looking very impressive, everything runs along smoothly and virtually no flickering under jsbeeb
One thing I did notice is that it's very easy to get lost in the world as it's massive
Game could do with a mini map or failing that if you are short on space, split the map into sectors along the lines of Excel - rows 1 to whatever, columns A - whatever and pop up something like Sector 4 : H on the press of the location key, just to give you an idea of where you are.
Arcadian wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 7:41 pm
They're all impressive, but the dithering on that last one makes it look totally unlike a typical Beeb loading screen - hence #4 would get my vote!
I’ll go with 4 as well. It really grabs your attention.
Thanks for your comments. I've settled on 4 for now.
fizgog wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 7:46 am
Game could do with a mini map or failing that if you are short on space, split the map into sectors ...
So this is something I've thought about. An on screen mini map isn't possible due to the way the screen is used. A map of the local area should be possible on a "pause" screen but I'm not sure about it as I feel that part of the game should be exploring. I also don't have the memory for a "fog of war" that only reveals the parts you've seen so any map has the potential for spoilers.
Having said that the quest line directs you in the rough direction you should be going (which becomes more vague as you progress). I have though about signposts that might help guide you around.
Castle Defender, Untitled Dungeon Game, Night Ninja, Wordle, Waffle, Acorn Island, Beebchase, Ghostbusters
Signposts may be so small that they could be easily missed, but I suppose combining them with the road system is fairly infallible.
Another way to go is with obvious, clear distinctions in the map layout and clear, corresponding directions, eg. "the north-west mountain area", "the pine trees to the east of here", "the well by the lake in the woods to the south", etc. Maybe make the directions absolute (rather than relative) and have "quest posts" located around the map which remind you what you're supposed to be doing by bringing up your last instruction window again - or having a key to do this.
Re the titlepic? I'd vote for 1 or 4. 4 looks fantastic, but 1 seems to better encapsulate the feel of the game to me.
This version has signposts. Both the map plot and signposts are quite expensive space wise so I think I will only be able to put one of them in. The map code is worth about 10 signs and I'll probably look to have about 15 signs over the whole map. At this point I am unconvinced about the map and am tending towards the signs. At the moment there are only a few signs to the south of the starting area.
Also added volume controls and background tune enable/disable on f1 and f2 respectively. There is no background tune at the moment so it plays the opening tune repeatedly so this is disabled by default. The background tune also stops playing if there is a spawner or monster active.
ChrisB wrote: ↑Mon Dec 12, 2022 7:42 am
I've been adding lots of POIs to the map and there are now 300 "objects". These are mostly just decoration so can remove some if I need some more room. I have just under 600 bytes free and am going to concentrate on the quality of life stuff and tune for now as this will involve a little more code and data. I can then fill up the space when it's "complete".
I've also optimised the poi search and fixed a bug with the cacheing leading to an occasional hang/corruption.
The attached version has quests disabled so you are only able to explore the island. The data and logic is present - but won't activate. There are however baddies to avoid/fight and blueberries to find. Feedback on "feel" would be appreciated.
land.ssd
Lastly I've been playing with "Stable Diffusion" AI to generate a title screen. Some samples attached. Any preference? I'm tending towards image 3 or image 4.
title1.pngtitle2.pngtitle3.pngtitle4.png
I'm ashamed to say that I've only now downloaded your game, to have a look. What an amazing job! Screen 4 - which you've subsequently gone with - is by far the best.
You've done some great sprite work - doing repeating tiles with a limited colour palette is hard work, but the landscape is loaded with subtle details to give it that extra sense of adventure. The smooth scrolling is the complete opposite of JCB Digger, really slick.
I have only one minor, minor niggle - a missing comma from the story text - I would say a comma is required after the word 'Exhausted'.
Great work so far
-- Stephen Scott, Digital Media Muckerupper
Games: Androidz Redux, Headcase Hotel, Polymer Picker www.sassquad.net
Would a kind of radar that is always in say the top right that just has your position and no other data be of any use?
If you EOR you, quest targets/spawners/user poing(s)/... could be added, but I guess that would depend on the cost.
Updated version attached with sixteen signposts spread throughout the island. Pause map has been removed for space reasons. There are some tweaks that will need to happen to signpost locations and possibly text but this is more or less final. Thanks for the thoughts about minimap Tricky. That would be quite expensive in terms of time given the way the data is stored and that it would need replotting every movement frame so I don't think it's practical.
New version for boxing day . New in this version is a background tune - this pauses and carries on when bad guys are on screen. (F2 to disable tune, F1 to change volume). Feedback appreciated.
Minor bug fixes to volume code, and changes to make intro screen show capitals for defined keys. Also fixed a hang bug if monsters were off screen in certain circumstances.
This version contains the first part of the quest - the game is not completable but will give a flavour of the game. There are some pois that are in the incorrect places and a couple of signs I'd like to make more verbose. I also need to look at the win condition to ensure that works correctly. There's a little balance work to do.
However apart from the above the game is nearly there. At the moment I have 74 bytes free which will be filled with sign information and any left over will be used for more POIs around the map.
Again - the quest line in this build is truncated. Changes for this version as follows:
I have been through the points of interest and tidied them up (where they were in the wrong places or had wrong backgrounds etc.).
I've also added a couple more mountain ranges.
Some of the signs have been made more verbose and some of the quest texts have been slightly reworked.
I have also added a win tune and condition (which was missing previously ).
I have defaulted the loader to ZX:/ to be more "beeb friendly" - keys are still definable.
Lastly I looked back through the code and made some efficiencies to save around 60 bytes so I still have 59 bytes free even though there is more data in this version.
Feedback on the starting number of hearts is appreciated. With just one it's a single mistake and you have to start again which is quite harsh - although this is early game. However if there are two then when you get the first blueberry bush activated then you won't be able to "use" it.
ChrisB wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:52 pm
Feedback on the starting number of hearts is appreciated. With just one it's a single mistake and you have to start again which is quite harsh - although this is early game. However if there are two then when you get the first blueberry bush activated then you won't be able to "use" it.
What about splitting the hearts up into quarters or halves, so when you get hit it takes a bit of your heart away, that's if you can fit additional heart graphics into the game to do it
Additional, but you may be tight on space
If you do make it 4 hits to take away a heart, you can then give the enemies different strengths, so standard take 1 quarter, stronger takes half, even stronger takes 3 quarters and big boss takes a full heart
fizgog wrote: ↑Mon Jan 02, 2023 9:43 pm
What about splitting the hearts up into quarters or halves, so when you get hit it takes a bit of your heart away, that's if you can fit additional heart graphics into the game to do it
Thanks for that - I had considered halves - but hadn't had the corresponding thought about increased monster damage. However it sounds like a good idea. Half graphics should be relatively easy and not take much more space (it's logic rather than data) - I'll have a look.
Castle Defender, Untitled Dungeon Game, Night Ninja, Wordle, Waffle, Acorn Island, Beebchase, Ghostbusters
Thanks for this Chris, finally got round to playing on the real beeb. It's really nice + smooth. IMO it's one of those games that benefits from using a good old rf cable into a crt, to blur some of that lovely stippling. Hope that's not sacriledge!
@tnash - The graphics were originally converted from a tileset that I received as part of a bundle. I keep wondering about an "improved" colour set for NULA machines with some slightly more subtle colours.
Attached is a version with hearts gained or lost in halves (or multiples of those) with higher level monsters doing more damage.
hearts.png (1.64 KiB) Viewed 2418 times
I've gone for 1.5 initial hearts at the moment. This gives you two monster hit's grace for the starting area but only one hit (or less...) for monsters a bit further afield.
Doing this made me rearrange the plotting routine for the status bar and actually simplified it (which was also applies to the spells). I was being "clever" with blanking the space after the icons but a more brute force approach of clearing the entire area then re-plotting is simpler. Consequently the free space actually went up slightly after implementing this - even with the extra damage logic.
Having said that I've now added more blueberry bushes and a couple of other bits to the map which has used some space and I'm now on 48 bytes free. Once I'm at release candidate stage I'll fill any remaining space with more points of interest. There are now 17 bushes scattered around the island which means there is plenty of health if you can find them - assuming that they are activated....
Quick update that allows signposts to be viewed more than once (there was a hardcoded value checked against that broke when I changes the signpost quest value - changed to constant.) Also a couple of missed poi corrections.
New release. This is getting very close to final release - the next release might contain the full quest line as a beta test. For the moment this one doesn't. If anyone has any feedback of anything that needs fixing/changing I'd really appreciate it.
Updates as follows:
Fixed a crash bug when quest text was displayed at a certain screen offset.
Fixed a screen (and possibly more) corruption when spells got near the edge of the screen.
Updated the increase total health quest to give some player health as well.
Increased the number of monster and active spawners that can be on screen at once.
Changed the name of a couple of signposts.
Added more quest points for a late stage quest.
Reduced spawner overall health (you won't be able to kill them in this version as you can't progress through the quest line enough)
New version with NULA support. Includes a new title screen version and updated game colours (see below). I am detecting the NULA For the purposes of the title screen by attempting to issue *VNRESET and if successful will load a more colourful title screen. Is there a better way? I don't have real hardware to test this on although it appears to work in b2 and B-em.
The game itself simply sends the new palette information without performing any checks so will give new colours even if the ROM isn't present. I've updated the spell colours to use colours in the range 8-16 to allow more colourful spells whilst maintaining compatibility with the non nula version. This also allows me to keep a single version of the game file. The NULA palette definitions are all done as part of the loader so don't take space in the main game.
Lastly I've removed the main water tile - which was simply zeros - and replaced it with some logic in the code. This means that there are now 53 bytes free. New version attached.
Original (left) and new (right) colours. I've gone variation rather than wholesale recoIour. If someone wants to suggest a "better" colour set feel free.
Castle Defender, Untitled Dungeon Game, Night Ninja, Wordle, Waffle, Acorn Island, Beebchase, Ghostbusters
Very nice Chris, especially the loader screen, looking forward to playing it.
I’m currently defining the palette after the relocation code so it can be left behind as I wasn’t sure were the best place to put it.
I’d also liked to know if there is a simple way of detecting the new NULA if anyone else knows
. I need to add more POIs and roads but these should be at most 1K and some quality of life bits (pause, win routine, volume control). There might even be enough space for a tune...
. New in this version is a background tune - this pauses and carries on when bad guys are on screen. (F2 to disable tune, F1 to change volume). Feedback appreciated.
).