Update - 3/19 - Top-down levels' procedural generation COMPLETE!!!
FINALLY!!! I have finished the level design of a whopping 158 rooms and made an RNG routine that makes a playable set of rooms that is different each time you play! How cool is that? Also, most of the background collision actions work as intended (except the slipping on ice, which is a new block, and the spikes that hurt you). After I release the demo, I also plan on adding several floors to the randomly generated buildings, which makes them much more complex in the later levels of the game. However, my main focus now is going to be the enemies of those stages, which will hopefully be the next big set of updates after I finish the demo of REKT. And after that: DEMO TIME, and lots of level design for the platforming stages, which will mean that the game is CLOSER TO COMPLETION THAN IT EVER WAS. (Whew, I never thought I'd utter these words for this project)
TL;DR - The game now procedurally generates playable top-down levels
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Update - 1/24 - Golf complete, solid top-down tiles
Alright, I finally completed the golf minigame so I'll show you one of the hazards - the mines. My favourite is the high voltage though, but you've got to experience that one yourself when the game will be finished
Also, I implemented solid blocks on the top-down levels. So far, only the stores (which are now accessed in the game and not by pressing select) have this feature but I'll extend it to other blocks as soon as I finish the building screens
- Video below!
Update - 1/19 - Golf minigame!!!
I mentioned it a long time ago, and here it is finally!!! It's a game inspired by a minigame found in one of the warioland games and a game I used to play when I was bored in class, where I would draw a random 2-d golf course on a piece of paper and I'd roll a dice to see where the ball lands. This time though, you have to knock a My Little Pony figurine as far as possible and hope it lands on a hazard, which will net you coins, points or extra lives! Hopefully I'll have some death animations for the Brony in the next video
Update - 1/16 - Shops fully implemented
More shops!!! I finished coding these today, and they now work perfectly (Well, aside from a few items they sell that are yet to be implemented in the actual game). In the video below, I demonstrate buying 2 lives and a password with money I shamelessly added through the FCEUX Hex Editor
Update - 1/15 - Collectable coins, Super shops
Good news! I implemented a background collision detection routine on the top-down portions which only lets you collect the coins for now, but since we have it all other background collision shenanigans will be much easier to implement since it's just a matter of checking bits now
Also, I started implementing shops! Right now you can access them by pressing SELECT but they will soon only be accessible by locating them in the buildings, where they will be placed at random. But I already know you'll need to find them due to the
sexy shopkeeper cool items they will offer!
Video below
Update - 1/11 - A few rooms, jumping and punching
It's time to go to the top-down levels again!!!
This time, we have background generation with procedurally generated rooms, jumping and punching (well, knifing in this case since all weapons have different animations).
Now I simply need to add a few more rooms (we have 16 different rooms so far, but they're intended for a specific set of rooms, ones with only a door on the left) and some background collision detection, and then the fun part (AKA the enemies) should begin.
And after that, I even have some more fun features to add to those levels, so stay tuned!!! Also, the ponies do now send those very heavy balls down upon you... Yikes!
Video below
Update - 1/7 - Building rooms ready to be built
Time for a rather big update! The building levels' background drawing routine works like a charm and it's soon going to be time to build some rooms for that part.
After this, I expect to add background collision detection, as well as some randomization to those rooms. After that, I'm also going to add a few enemies to those rooms, otherwise it would be a bit too easy
Anyway, here's a pic of how a usual room will look like
Update - 12/3 - Back at it again
What?! Over a month without an update?! Well, I had a lot of work these days, plus I was programming something else, but at last, here's a new update... I gave the pony bosses a new attack! This one is only for flying ponies, which now drop a huge steel ball on you. Luckily, like the fireballs, you can send it rigt back at them!!!
Update - 10/15 - Alive and kicking
More boss updates! Yay! This time, I added a new pointer-based routine that lets the bosses have several attacks at their disposition. I also implemented the first one of these: A kick! The pony stops for a while then tries to kick you. But here's the kicker! (pun intended
) - You fly back a lot further than with the normal post-hit recoil! So be careful of the kicks when you're close to the edge of the roof. Remember, falling 50 floors is not you lives counter's favourite thing
Update - 10/13 - Ouch! That hurts!
Yikes! The ponies can now hurt you, and they're pretty tough to dispose of! Fortunately, I'll make them new patterns pretty soon so they're a bit more predictable and I'll soon implement the PonyCleaner 3000™ bazooka to shoot them easily.
The later ones won't be easy though as they'll like staying in the air while leaving little room to shoot them. It won't be so easy after all
Also, those boss fights now have a pretty good (albeit terribly written, uncommented, you know the deal) hitbox routine which makes it was easier to add new hitboxes to the boss fights, as they're going to be pretty diverse in size (Pony head/body, Bazooka rockets, Ponies' big lethal balls (That didn't sound good), lazers that will come out of their eyes and a few other nasty attacks
)
Also, as you can see in the video, there are some minor graphical updates that are all font-related in the video. The video is just below!
Update - 9/17 - More boss fights, new gameplay feature planned
As you might've noticed, I'm in the midst of a boss fight coding session. Today's added features are the fact that you and the ponies always face each other, but also that the pegasuses (Pegasi?) now have wings! Expect them to unleash some ferocious flying fighting upon you!
Also, I'm thinking of adding a new feature to the building sessions! When you go into a stairwell, the view changes to a side view inside the stairwell. As you might have noticed, there is an emergency exit inside that stairwell. In there can be one of three things: Nothing, a Bonus or a Suicide Bomber Brony. Make sure to close the door ASAP if you find the latter inside, or else your healthbar (and possibly your life counter) won't look particularly good afterwards!
I also have a video of the new boss features and a pic of the stairwell, which is done in a simplistic approach but looks pretty good IMHO!
Update - 9/15 - Enemy and Boss fight updates
After doing stuff with the level editor, I figured it would be nice to tinker with the main game too! Today I added two things!
First thing: Two of the enemies have slightly different behaviours and a bit more health. The Hasbro executives and the Bad Cosplay Bronies now fly back when they're hit and you need to respectively punch them 3 and 4 times. Don't forget a knife hit counts as 2 hits and the guns hurt even more
Second thing: Major boss fight update! You can now move in all directions and the pony is ready to move around too, just didn't get that far lol. But wait, there's more! If you jump a little too far over the building's edge, well, you and your lives counter will soon find out falling down 50 floors is not a particularly pleasant sensation
Also, time for a video. It's been a long time without one of these!
Update - 9/14 - Level Editor update, more time to program!
Time for an update again!
This time, I can finally show the first top-down level mockup. Not my best graphics but I guess they get the job done.
Also, since I'm donw with everything vacation/family related, this means it's time to go back to intense programming work! Expect more updates in the coming weeks
Pic of the level below
Update - 8/15 - Back from Japan, more programming
So I just came back from Japan! Apart from being a bit sad that I had to leave and jetlagged as f..., I finally had time to program! Today, I implemented a post-hit recoil feature in Brony Blaster, because I felt the game wasn't "NES-y" enough without it. Gotta love NES hard
Also, I started coding a level editor for the top-down portions of the game, where I need to make something around 256 levels (At least they're single-screen and they are divided into 16 "varieties", depending on how many doors are found in a room).
Here are a few pix of the new features, one being your character flying back after hitting a Brony, and the second one is the title screen of the Level Editor, which I'll carry on coding in the next few days/weeks
Update - 6/12 - New tiles!
It's about time since the last update! Anyway, I was focusing on smaller project these days since I got a little burned on Brony Blaster, but I've been working on it too from time to time. Most of it was polishing the sidescrolling levels, and with that come 3 new tiles: The indestructible spring, which sends your character flying very high, the one-jump spring, which does the same except it breaks (And gives you a whopping 10 points when it does!) and the s00per sp@@ky one-hit kill skull block which, well, kills you in one hit. I added them to the first level, essentially replacing the breakable blocks which quite frankly wouldn't be used in the final game. Also, expect some very assholish later levels with these in the game now
- I've already got a few level ideas that would make the level designers at Rare and Tecmo shiver
Video below
Update - 4/23 - Boss fight video
Video time again! As you can see the boss fights got a bit better since the last time: The status bar actually works, including the boss's healthbar! As for the boss himself, not much has changed except he can be hurt by your baseball bat. Headshots deal more damage and give more points than bodyshots, but they are harder to acheive. Also, as in the old versions, the ponies fly off the building when they are dead
Update - 4/10 - Déjà vu?
Look what's coming next! The only different thing is that the boss fights will be horizontal instead of vertical. Here's a first glimpse of the new boss fights!
Right now, you and the ponies can only move back and forth (and you can even jump!), but if you remember the old boss fights, you can expect way better fights later on
Update - 4/8 - Top-down procedural generation and map working
After a rather idiotic April Fools' joke, the top-down phases are starting to work as they should! Right now, the newest addition is a working RNG to procedurally generate doors! It works surprisingly well as I've had levels where the rooms were really close together and others where they were quite spaced out. Also, the map works perfectly well now! As far as map stuff goes, I need to add the "better" map (The one mentioned in the pic) which looks like a blueprint and has all rooms in the building, with different tiles for rooms you haven't visited.
As for the rest of the top-down segments, I only need to design the actual rooms complete with enemies and background. There are also going to be shops in the buildings where you can buy stuff with the money you get in the platforming segments (And that enemies will drop in the buildings segments). Other enemy drops will include health, weapon upgrades (which will be rather uncommon) as well as bomb parts you have to pick up to get more time (Because the building will blow up if you take too long). Those will be more common. Enemies include fanmade ponies, Triggered Tumblrinas that love MLP as well as fat fedora-wearing bronies who throw their bad fanfics and fanart at you. As for the backgrounds, the RNG is going to select between a certain number of rooms to put in the building. Those are nowhere near completion though - For now, enjoy the map and existing RNG!
tl;dr Maps! Procedural generation! Everyone loves'em! Pic below
Update - 4/1 - Level editing contest!
Check it out! I had this idea for quite some time and I believe I even mentioned it a few times. So check this link out and discuss all contest-related stuff here. You may even make some levels for fun and post'em on the thred! Link here -
http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess...
Update - 3/27 - Doors 'n Scores
Here's a few new things for today. I started implementing doors into the top-down section and I'm working on maps as of now. I also added the high score feature so you can actually see scores when you get a game over and when you choose to do so at the main menu. I even added a few minor things such as having dead enemies fly behind the status bar. Vid below
Update - 3/9 - Zelda-like levels started
This time, it's official, the Zelda-like portions are started. So far, you can only move Pete around but it's something I guess, more like a proof of concept than anything...
However, I also updated the water effects (No, I totally did not change the level variable in the hex editor and I totally did not input a password just to show off my 6502 magic trick )
Here's a little video for ya
Update - 3/5 - Video of cutscene, Zelda-like levels ready to be coded!
Video time! It's been a long time since the last vid so here's a new one with an actual working cutscene
The graphics for the following phase are about done but there's still a lot of work to be done... However everything is ready for the programming of these levels and we shoud get our first screenshots of them next week!
Update - 2/28 - Cutscenes!
Yup, cutscenes just came back looking better than ever! It's all background now with an IRQ split in the middle so the text can be in a separate bank, which allows for the 8x16 font since I like 8x16 fonts so much
Update - 2/10 - Debug screen almost done, minor fixes
Remember my debug screen? Well here's an almost finished version which only lacks one feature... The ability to debug! At least it looks cool for now
Also, I fixed a small glitch that would cause a lot of slowdown and make the game almost unplayable when you had too much money on you. So instead of
pulling a Bernie Sanders restricting the money in favour of cheaper stuff, I managed to come up with a much more convenient fix - You can now get as rich as Donald Trump. Hopefully it will only be the money (2016 campaign jokes = check!)
Here's a pic of the latest updates to the debug screen.
Update - 1/30 - Debug/Cheat screen, and more than 3 colours per attribute?!
Here's a first sneak peek into the cheat screen. Can you find this screen when the game is going to be finished? Don't worry, it's gonna be well-hidden in the final release - For now, it's gonna be used to better access certain parts of the game and debug stuff. There's also gonna be a sound test (I'm looking at you, Zi) on that screen so you get to hear Zi's cool tunes he'll compose for the game - Also, remember that gradient effect from the December 21st update? - Welp, I made a version that uses the background as you can see here with a simple attribute trick which makes good use of nametables and scrolling.
Update - 1/11 - Technical stuff, music
First update of 2016! And it's not that impressive unfortunately - Basically I did a few improvements to the game engine so it can handle 5 enemies at once instead of only 3, which makes my life easier at some points. I also implemented Famitone for the first time ever, so expect much better sound quality! There might be a little slowdown because of the increased number of enemies and because of the music, but I didn't really notice anything during my testplays. Now I should stop being lazy and do the top down zelda-like levels!
"FG" in the URL!!! It's a sign!)
Update - 12/21 - Resumed development!!!
Part 1 of my exams is done, and I finally have a nice little break to do more pleasent things. Like everything related to my programming stuff, it's been exactly one month since my last update on Brony Blaster!!! Welp, here's a demo effect for you guys. It's the screen that pops up when you finish a level! Basically, I'm giving a finger to NES colour limitations. Enjoy a 10 colour font and 12 colour flshing spinny bars! Complete with a little space over it to put some text and a "FAR OUT" message inspired by Ultimate Stuntman of all games
Also, I may or may not work on a little surprise for you guys! Stay tuned for the next update
Update - 11/22 - Engine almost complete (WITH DOWNLOADABLE TEST ROM!!!)
YIPPEE!!! The platforming engine is finally complete!!! Everything works as it should! The crates might get a little update in the final release, but everything that I need to have a working engine is here. Weapons are gotten right from the crates as of now, but in the final release, there are going to be weapon icons that will jump out of the crates for you to collect. This feature will add other bonuses as well (Bags of money, health and even 1-ups). I haven't decided how I'm going to implement this (Mostly ratios we're talking about here), but those are not needed yet. So sit back, relax, load this on your PowerPak (or emulator) and... ENJOY!
I know it's just a test level for the platforming part, but it's a LOT of work just to get this to work (3 months!) - and this is just the beginning. If you press select on the title screen, you can check out what I'm going to work on next, and if you hold select while the level starts, you'll get a fun surprise! The ROM is available at this Dropbox link right here ->
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com...
Update - 11/21 - Engine almost complete
That's right folks, the platforming engine is nearing completion!!! I worked on this game like crazy this week, so much in fact that I barely had time to play any games (Just Power Punch 2, which I needed to test). I just need to add 2 more weapons (Which are both guns AND are both partially implemented, should be easy) and weapon icon sprites for upgrades (Currently, all crates upgrade your weapon to a knife), as well as some collision detection for the enemies. Other than that, everything's in the engine already, and the only thing to do afterwards is levels... But don't get too excited yet, I still need to program a top-down mode (Inside of buildings), and redo the pony boss fights, which shouldn't be too hard, as well as some other gamemodes (Final boss and the golf minigame), so I still have a lot to do, but a lot is already DONE, too
I have a video for this update, and the complete engine with a playable ROM and a video should be available next week
From here on, I will update the ROMs once halfway through the next gamemode programming (so you can at least finish the level), and then once when the engine is done. This means 5 or 6 more ROMs await you (plus the next one in a week or so). After that, it's just gonna be level design, and final release
Update - 11/18 - Important routines complete
This could be one of the most important updates so far, since I just completed 2 very important routines: The enemy placement and the status bar routines. Basically, I can place enemies where I want now and everything (even the health and weapons) is shown in the status bar. I just need to do a few more things (Programming a few enemies for which I needed the enemy placement routine, adding weapons and health) and the platformer engine will be COMPLETE! Right about now it's pretty close to completion (80% complete I'd say), so it's definitely going to be amazing to have a platformer engine complete
No video this time, just a pic... The video AND new ROM will come out when the engine will be complete, which should be around December. As always, feel free to comment on this thread, I really appreciate it
PS: Try holding SELECT when going into the level in the upcoming test ROM
Update - 11/7 - Another round of enemies
As you might have guessed, my main focus these days are enemies. Well, turns out I finally started implementing animations and enemy behaviours
This time, I have a little video to show you with the updates. Tell me what you think of it
Update - 11/3 - Enemy stuff again
I was kinda busy this week, so I didn't do much on Brony Blaster. However, I implemented 3 small but important features to the game. The first one is making enemies actually die and not just making them disappear off the screen. The second one is to have object specific data implemented, so everything that's related to whether objects are pulled by the gravity, killable, lethal, etc. is now bit-controlled and sticked into a single byte per enemy (Meaning I can have 8 different object specifications in on byte of data!). And, last but definitely not least, I implemented a flickering routine that's 100% homemade and 100% more convenient, meaning it takes way less space and frame time than before! I'm not going to post a video this time, but I have a nice picture where you punch that fedora-wearing brony I've been wanting to be able to actually punch for a long time.
Update - 10/27 - Another video - this time it's enemies
And another update for you guys. Today's update consists of enemies which are finally starting to get implemented! Hopefully the next update will fix all smaller annoyances and make them less static
Update - 10/24 - Progress with menus
Made a little progress with the menus, you can now see every menu screen written for now. All variables work, those were the hardest to implement.
I did a few graphic changes in the main game, too. All can be seen in the video below.
Update - 10/20 - Obligatory demo effects
What's bored Vec to do? Add pointless demo effects to his stupid homebrews of course! Here's a pic of what it looks like. It's composed of IRQs, $2001 and $2006/$2005 writes and assembly magic. You'll see it in action when I implement menus. Our professional FG Software team is currently working hard to implement those. Also, main character can punch. Weapon upgrades and he's good to go!
Update - 10/11 - Playable ROM! Finally
Since I won't post an update next week, might as well make the wait more tolerable by showing you an actual ROM of the new version of Brony Blaster. You can play through the first level and that's basically it for now Also, push select at the title screen to see the incomplete bonus game ROM available as a download
at the bottom of this post (newbrony.nes) at this link since attachements decided to hate me again ->
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com...
Update - 10/9 - Background collision detection! Plus now you can see the whole level
The title of this update says it all, the main character is getting closer to the finish, and you can finally see the whole level on this video
Update - 10/5 - Main character, bonus game and level ideas
Video time! Basically, I got the playble character code up and running (pun intended), and I'm pretty happy with it. Now I need to implement background collision detection (Yikes!) and we're ready to see the enemies. Then you can see in the little video that there is now a WIP minigame in the game, inspired by the golf minigame in Wario Land 3. All the sprites (and some of the best parallax scrolling on the NES ) are ready, now I need to actually program game behaviour (Re-Yikes!). But that should be the least of my worries as the inside of the buildings is going to be inspired by Zelda and of course Fortified Zone for the Game Boy, with more fedora-wearing bronies, so stay tuned for that. Anyway, go grab some popcorn and watch the little video I made for ya.
Update - 9/26 - Scrolling and other stuff
Oooooh, the screen has changed! That's because I finally implemented scrolling. The attributes were a pain in the ass as always, but it's finally done and I can now focus on other aspects of the game. Speaking of these, I added the hero of the game, Pete Bradley the Brony Blaster, to the entity list. As you can see he's busy jumping over a bottomless pit in front of some huge buildings. Also, you can now PAUSE the game ! Best feature ever
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Update - 9/20 - Levels again, but also enemies
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So it turns out I had to change the compression scheme in my level editor since a basic RLE wouldn't be compressed enough... Well, it is now done and here's a first glimpse into a level in the actual game. You can tell it's the actual game by the IRQ-based status bar (Hasta luego, sprite zero) and that it features an idiotic-looking, fedora-wearing Brony that just found out he's gonna get blasted soon in the game. Of course you want to blast him right Don't let him "brohoof" you.
Update - 9/10- It's done and ready to use!
Level editor is finally done, and I'm currently implementing the levels I made with it to the actual game. Next news is hopefully going to be about the new enemy AI I have in the works. Let's just say there's gonna be evil Bronies wearing fedoras trying to kill you with those so-called "brohoofs" and other wacky stuff that happens in my games. Video below.
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Update - 9/7 - Level editor enhanced
Well, I just got the level editor to actually work (Previous pic was a mockup), and here's what outside levels will look like.
Next step is to include said level in the actual ROM with the soon-to-be built-in compression routine
And they say a picture is worth a thousand words, here's 6000 words for you in the link below.
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Update - 9/5 - Level editor, and new level mockup
A HUGE LEVEL EDITOR
"BRONY BLASTER"
IS APPROACHING FAST!!!
Yes folks, finally some progress is being done, as I got a basic level editor working for the new version of Brony Blaster. Also, I decided to switch all the enemies to a newer, much better method of handling them (an entity system). Expect new stuff coming soon. There are going to be levels outside the buildings, more action-oriented, and levels inside the buildings, more puzzle-oriented (Think Bill&Ted for Game Boy, a game I quite enjoy, but with the flaws fixed). This is a pic of the outside levels. You can see I got a bit better at graphics when you compare it to the first BB levels However, I still decided to keep some stuff I liked.
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Update - 7/3 - Development hell is fading away
I need to make a few drastic changes to the levels, but I finally found a clever way to make the game work. It's going to imply that I port it to the MMC3, but the end result is going to be better than I initially thought.
Here's a reworked titlescreen for the new version
I should be back in August (Going to Japan for 5 weeks now) with more news about this one, and of course the long awaited Godzilla Level 2
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Update - 3/27 - Still working on it!
Even though I had lots to do because of the Commie Killer release, I still managed to work on Blaster a little bit.
I made the starfield look even better, and I started adding enemies to the game (Even though the enemies are at Alpha 0.01 state of development)...
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Update - 3/5 - New playable ROM goodness!
The ROM
at the bottom of this thread BELOW (Seems like NA attachemts/forum edits hate me today(It's the 5th time I edit this $%@& )) has been updated with a new one featuring a test level. The basic features of the levels do work, but there is a lot to be programmed still (Ladder climbing for example, which only works so-so). If you want to skip the level and the cutscene, set the number of players to two (Two player mode not implemented yet) so you get the good old pony fights
Let me know if you like the platforming. By the way, speaking of platforming levels, there is going to be a level design contest soon where you can have your own level in the game. I'll update the thread when it will be up, so don't miss on it!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com...
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Update - 3/1 - Finally made progress!!!
Cutscenes o'plenty, and a WORKING BACKGROUND COLLISION DETECTION ROUTINE!!! About damn time! Now I just need to reprogram some stuff and I'm ready to add the enemies - the Bronies
Le Cutscene has arrived
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Update - 2/13 - Friday the 13th homebrew video
I'll let the video speak for itself
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Update - 2/8 - Sample level hype!!!
Got the level drawing routine working!!! Huzzah! Here's a little sample level mockup to give you an idea of how the game is going to look like and play. Still, I have to program the playing engine, and that's obviously the hardest part of the programming. I'll keep you informed
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Update - 2/7 - Homemade compression
Today's update is mostly technical stuff, but it's really awesome for the platformer parts since this RLE compression routine saves a LOT of space in the ROM... Which means "Expect more levels". Besides that, it also provides better metatile use so that's also good for the platformer parts
Here's a little pic to show you how much I compressed a screen (On the top - before | On the bottom - After)
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Here's a little game I was programming this week. I didn't do much on Deal or no deal because of this, and I was supposed to resume this game today, but since I wanted to polish a few things on BB (parallax scrolling and sprite tricks), DonD was left unchanged this week. Don't worry, next week is going to be the (hopefully) FINAL *cheers and applause* DonD development week
But since this is a different game, we'll now focus on this one, shall we? The story is that MLP got cancelled and bronies are going mad, rioting all over the world. They have taken over buildings and you have to free them. The game is going to be a platformer but for now it's more of a boss rush than anything else, but still gives you an idea of the game... Use A to jump, B to attack and arrow keys to move (Duh!) Start pauses the game (Re-Duh!).
This game is not meant to be taken seriously, it's just a joke.
Features:
8x16 Font! (In certain parts of the game only)
Colorful starfield!
True-to-life graphics!
Huge enemies!
Unlimited continues!
MMC1 mapper to allow larger memory!
Download demo below (NOW FIXED FOR REAL HARDWARE (Hopefully)
Feedback is welcome (And don't ask for LEs right away)
