Good to know! I actually intend it to be a little on the tough side, but hopefully not as hateful as Ghouls and Ghosts for example. I may keep the power up progression fairly forgiving in that case.
There is something compelling about the refection mechanics. I wish I could say I knew what I was doing at the start, but it just turned out that way!
Does anything stand out to you that could be tweaked or adjusted? Is it too easy or too hard? It's hard to get a good impression of the overall difficulty from just one level, of course.
This game already has so much style and charm! Fall Forest is a place I want to visit in real life, which is something I think all levels should aspire to do. My only suggestion is that the orange pumpkins are a little hard to see against the similarly colored leaves. But this is a small detail. I look forward to the full release!
There are plenty around! I haven't talked to any yet myself because I don't have a game to show off but I know there are publishers that will pay royalties on units sold. Check out Ferrante Crafts and Incube8. Those are two I can think of off hand. :3
Ok so, I have no experience with the hardware, playing or developing, but the music in this game has convinced me, I think, that maybe it's time to look into it! It's so lovely and appropriate to the theme.
Ah, I see! As for other ideas, it might be fun to explore inputting imformatiom from the outside world. I think there was already a GB fish finder of all things but what if things like temperature, sound and light sensors could dictate what happens in the game world?
This is so cool! I always skim past the communication section of the programming manual, nor do I know much of anything reguarding ROM hacking and patching. How did you isolate the vibrate signal?
I've already been working on a Gameboy game. It's a maze crawler, and the maze engine is already mostly working and I have just started writing the combat routines. I sort of lost momentum however, so this is a good excuse to try to get something done.
So what I hope to have by the end of the jam is a short, one maze demo with a simplified random encounter system in place. Combat will be top-down, turn based affairs. Enemies will need to be placed in the battle arena and respond to player actions. Dispatching all enemies will return the game state to the maze loop.
We'll see what I end up with and good luck to all entrants! Feel free to share your own goals. :D
I have some trouble balancing difficulty. I did intend for it to be challenging, but I don't like games that actively try to frustrate the player. I need to work on that!
Atari sound effects are kind of engrained in my brain! All the same, I played around with some of the jumping values. I set the control register to a more pure waveform so that should be easier on the ears.
I was hoping the top of the flower looked dangerous enough not to try to jump on it. Thinking about it now, they probably do in Mario Bros. because they have teeth! Wonky collisions not withstanding, everything else can be jumped on. Sometimes the bee and ghost are weird though.
The horniness was definitely toned down for this one compared to my last attempt... but I have a thing for inter species stuff so it's enough for me. ;D The sperm and egg is interesting though, and would make a unique Atari game!
The only reason I didn't release the source code is that it's a hot, uncommented mess and didn't think anyone would get much out of it. I was going to wait until someone asked! I put it up now. While I do know assembly language (just the z80 and I'm brushing up on 6502 for c64 stuff) I used a BASIC compiler called Batari BASIC. The Atari 2600 was never meant to do the things it does, and the programmer needs to do some crazy stuff just to get it to display anything. The compiler takes care of all of that, but you still need to consider the limitations, like only having around 27 bytes of RAM to work with and only two sprites.
Forgive my rambling; I do appreciate the feedback!
This is a very well crafted game, especially regarding introducing new enemies(?) in a way that helps the player learn.
If I were to add one thing , it would be to select the next stage with the enter key, so I wouldn't have to take my hand off to use the mouse. Take my hand of the keyboard, I mean. ;D
Oddly enough, I understand these old machines so much better than modern engines. Though, I will admit I used a BASIC compiler for this one because the Atari is kind of bonkers.
I was just talking to someone about how Atari games can be difficult to figure out without the manual or a page explaining the goal. With the way I set this up, I can't have a text screen, but I may be able to squeeze in "collect all six strawberries" in the width of the two sprites I have to work with.
I was wondering if it would be too hard if I send the player back so far. The ghost and bat used to just send you back to the start of the cave. Also, now that I've been away from it a bit, that bat is way too aggressive. I might experiment with the numbers a little more.
And here's to much more Atari in the future! I recommend Tunnel Runner and Dragon Stomper.
