4 x Basketball

Four games of basketball in one!

I'm back from NESDEV 2022 with another weird auto-sports mechanic....this time with basketball! In 4xbasketball its all about quickly reading the four concurrent matches on screen, deciding when to intercede, and optimizing your offensive actions to gain the most points.

Gameplay

• All basketball players for both teams are controlled by the A.I.
• Gameplay occurs on a single screen.
• Players interact with the game by selecting matches and making offensive actions (pass or shoot).
• Whoever has the most combined points by the end of time--wins!
• Each side on each court has the following AI-controlled players:
  • 1 x Guard 
  • 1 x Forward

Specifications

• NROM
• 1 or 2 player

Thx for the feedback!

Nice raster effects!

Free scrolling and 8-way motion on the player avatar--impressive for a NES jam!

That title screen is pretty great! Also, thought having various ship load outs was cool too.

What a pair--Austen + NES platforming! I like the theming including the quill attack. The jump feels a little floaty, but the rest of the movement felt good (e.g. stairs which can be super hard to get right).

Solid art and everything is packaged together nicely. I had a heck of a time dodging those birds! I do wish there was more traction when moving on the ground though.

Level 2 really ramped the difficulty for me! Polished & fun. Collecting the gems is satisfying.

Super polished! It's neat how the palette swaps + music changes add so much for the various arenas.

Solid schmup mechanics :)

Having an enemy health bar for the boss would be a good addition. Makes the end of the level more dramatic and exciting.

Nice work.

It's a Gábor Csupó fever-dream!

Differentiating between power-ups and baddies can be a bit tricky even once I learned the shapes of the power-ups and who'd drop 'em. I like the trade-off decisions you have to make between firing at enemies and avoiding them to build your energy/shield/13th dimensional flux/whatever...

I do enjoy imagining a cyborg crow shooting across a room latching onto house plants and walls. CAW-CAW!

I like the drama of the lead up to the last crystal which seems to always be a 1-way ticket jump. I think it'd be fun if you played that up more. Maybe that last crystal pulses or an aura appears around it to build anticipation once you've collected all the other crystals.

By the same token, I want more of a payoff once I make the jump to get the final crystal; maybe something like a slight pause so I can enjoy my victory for a bit before the trials of the next level. Or the crystal could fly around me and then off-screen.

That sparkle animation on the carts really steps it up!

Good ramp in difficulty. I especially like the puzzles you designed that involved manipulating crates to control your ice slides.

Cool theme for a NES puzzle maker game and a solid music track!

To improve game-play I recommend adding an extra constraint to level completion. Something like:

* Get all the gasoline before time runs out.

* Get all the gasoline in as few moves as possible.

* Get more gasoline than an enemy AI.

I'm not able to duplicate this issue in 1 vs. CPU using Mesen emu. What emulator or physical system are you playing on? And what mode 1 vs. CPU, 1 vs 1, or 2 vs 2?

Note: I tested a bit on an AVS (to make sure my simple sprite0 raster effect didn't blowup), but didn't have enough controllers to test 4 player mode on actual hardware. So player beware! Also, I'd love to hear if you do get a 4-player couch coop game going with this!

Thanks for sharing this!

Got the promote action working. This turns players into elite players who:

• Run faster w/ and w/o the ball.
• Less likely to lose the ball when they have it.
• More likely to steal the ball
• No longer pass  the ball,  only dribble and shoot.
• Goalies if promoted are immune to sleep.

HUD logic working, on to the remaining actions!

My TODO list before some player testing:

• 4 working actions (music-box, poke, promote, TNT)
• Game timer. (changed my mind, going to run without this for now, might revisit later)
• Scoreboard.
• Simple title screen.
• Post goal celebration.
• Look into cute ghosts for the player cursors.
• Unique player cursors for players 3 & 4.

My overall TODO:

• SFX + music.
• Game over screen.
• Ghost AI (1-3 player modes).
• Maybe a fun spooky shimmering raster effect for the title screen.
• Maybe AI difficulty settings.

Showed this pic on twitter a few days ago. Been trying to debug the current AI before I add the remainder of the special actions. After that will likely tackle the HUD elements (scoreboard, player actions with timers, etc)

Working on the music box today. Places all players within ~18 px to sleep for 5 seconds. A couple bugs as you can see....

Manifest ability prototype pictured. Originally was thinking players would mash a button, but holding down I think is better. Will likely have to tweak the strength of the effect. Right now just enough displacement happens to influence the direction of the ball, but players can still catch up so you can't run-away lead the ball to the goal.

Basic offensive & defensive AI working. Will probably keep it simple and bet on fun complexity from player's meddling. If that isn't fun, then will revisit the AI. One thing I do want to change is the vertical defensive wall that forms. So maybe space that out a bit with random displacements.

Supernatural Soccer: Mini

Influence soccer matches with your supernatural powers!

Game-play

• All soccer players for both teams are controlled by the A.I.
• Game-play occurs on a single screen soccer field.
• You interact with the game by moving your cursor icon across the field of play and pressing buttons.
• Hitting select changes your selected ability.
• You as the player have abilities (listed in the Abilities section) to change the course of the match.
• All abilities have a recharge timer. This timer is longer the more powerful the ability.
• Interactive non-game-play elements surrounding the field of play:
  • Clicking fans in the stands will cause them to stand. Thus players can create a "wave" scenario.
  • Clicking stadium lights will turn them on and off.
  • As a soccer player nears the opposing teams goal, the crowd's cheering grows in volume.
• Each side has the following AI-controlled soccer players: 

  
  

  • 1 x Goalie 
  • 2 x Defenders
  • 2 x Wingers 
  • 1 x Striker (maybe not if we have too many actors on the field)

Specifications

• NROM

Abilities

Lightning

• Recharge duration - medium length.
• A rope of lightning starts from the top of the screen and strikes down to the field.
• Implemented with multiple sprites stacked vertically.
• When the lightning strikes it should push the screen down and then the screen should bounce back to lend impact.
• Maybe leave a blast radius effect for a few frames.
• Knocks down nearby players and pushes the ball if nearby in a random direction.

Gust

• Recharge duration - short length.
• A gust of wind (shown by blowing leaves like in SMB) starts at the edge of the screen and blows across the field vertically or horizontally.
• Implemented with animated sprites blowing in a cylindrical pattern.
• Pushes all soccer players or balls in the path of the gust towards the direction of the gust.

Earthquake

• Recharge duration - single-use.
• An earthquake shakes the field of play, knocks down all soccer players, and causes the ball to fly in random directions.
• Implemented with screen shake + sprite animations (players fall)

Boundary

• Recharge duration - short length.
• A vertical line divides the field and players cannot cross it only the ball.
• Could be implemented using sprites or background updates.

Manifest

• Recharge duration - instantaneous.
• Clicking near the ball causes the ball to veer towards that direction. Can be countered by other players also manifesting.

Poke

• Recharge duration - short length.
• Clicking on one of your team members causes them to re-evaluate their current action.

Music Box

• Recharge duration - medium length.
• A music box spawns on the field and plays a lullaby causing **all** nearby players to fall asleep for a time.

Decoy

• Recharge duration - medium length.
• A decoy appears on the field and distracts any nearby players.

Badge

• Recharge duration - long length.
• A badge is placed on one of your players and that player is "promoted" to an elite status. This player's abilities are now improved!

https://dullahan-software.itch.io/nebs-n-debs