Mark of the Beast

red moon

Member
Thank you WillElm, still a ways to go, but it wont be long before I feel good about sharing a playable version!
 

red moon

Member
Hello everyone, I spent about a week making some additional adjustments on the final boss and sub boss areas of the game, then I took a break to work on an instruction booklet to go with the demo release which is really close to complete. I had originally planned on a simple black and white manual with pixel art taken from the game, but it evolved into little color renderings as I moved forward with it. I will be doing a cover at some point for the book as well, these are the interior pages. I'd like to evolve this into a full title over the next year but want to wait and see what changes are coming for nesmaker.

Let me know what you all think and if you see any spelling/syntax issues, please let me know!

Next week I plan on concentrating solely on famitracking and making boss music, sub boss music and some additional sounds.

Thanks again for all the help...

(UPDATE - i REMOVED THIS MASSIVE FILE TO POST A LOWER LES VERSION IN PIECES)
 

WillElm

New member
It looks great. the only thing i noticed is that it points to the B button and says "press A to jump".

the character art and map, wow.
 

red moon

Member
Thanks Woogz and Willelm, I really appreciate it! and good catch on the buttons, they are both off.

I actually did the concepts after the game art which is reverse in most cases; but it may have gone faster because of that!
 

Mugi

Member
the glossary has a typo in it, it says that page 19 is "the world of NORR" but the world is named NOOR everywhere else.
 

red moon

Member
Thanks for pointing that one out Mugi!
I just found a typo in the Hunter description that I fixed as well.. "can not" which should be "cannot"
 

red moon

Member
I adjusted the image to reflect the changes.
In case anyone is curious, I made this simple manual outline beforehand so I had a bit of a template to work with. It changed a bit since this as you can see...

Thanks to Dale, I had considered doing a manual if I added more to the game at a later date, but realized after he asked about it that it would be helpful for people playing the demo as well.
 

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red moon

Member
I never did show the updated final boss area...I know this is a bit of a spoiler, but i wanted to show the difference between the old and the new. I added spikes, some floating boss buddies, changed the projectile and its size to make it more difficult and changed the weird head to a maw.
 

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red moon

Member
just a quick update... I've been spending a couple days on new music and may post that here later. In addition, I did get the starting player sprite setup and in game. This is the form you start with before you find the relic that turns you into the Blood Beast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyX8BqdVxnM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VREI9KdFM2U
 

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dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Also, I noticed that your screen transitions look a little "garbage-ish" sometimes...
I think you can easily fix that, modify the HandleScreenLoads.asm (in your "System" sub-folder), around line 9, replace those lines:
Code:
	LDA #$00
	STA soft2001
With those ones:
Code:
	LDA #$00
	STA $2001
	STA soft2001
 

red moon

Member
Thanks Dale! I hope to experiment more with the next demo...whatever that may be!

I do like the pale green and blue highlights, reminds me of old haunted house rides!
And this is a fantastic little bit of code you have here thank you!
 

red moon

Member
Hello,
Its been a little while. I have been doing lots of little tweaks over the past few weeks and Dale has been helping with all manner of things!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QyinxtB7OIFjGqmU_-scnfQzmGDVZYo1
I am finally at a point where I am comfortable sharing the Mark of the Beast demo!

It took a little over 4 months to reach this point and I will continue to fix and add things over the coming weeks. I would love to get some feedback from those of you that play the demo.
This would really help me improve the demo as it stands and what sort of features/improvements could go into the full game. The areas I need feedback are:

DIFFICULTY:
LEVEL DESIGN:
TOTAL TIME TO REACH THE FINAL BOSS:

Thank you, any feedback and bugs are helpful.

The list below consists of areas of the game I did not get a chance to address for the demo but hope to incorporate into the full game!

⦁ 2 way scrolling (right/left, with ladders to travel up and down)
⦁ Changing your form without rebuilding the screen
When it comes to changing to the Beast form, it is best to do it when you are in a screen with no enemies (since defeated enemies will respawn) or when you first enter a new screen!

Also, I want to figure out a way to keep these objects from respawning every time you re-enter a previously explored screen-

⦁ Treasures
⦁ Breakable blocks
⦁ Plants/Torches
⦁ Bosses

Be sure to look over the manual and search for hidden rooms and passages! Collecting treasure and earning extra lives is necessary to make it all the way to the end!

I want to take a minute to thank everyone who has been supportive, and especially Dale for offering his time to help me with many aspects of the gameplay and functionality.

If anyone has any ideas of how to keep tiles from repawning, please let me know! I would love to keep the treasures and breakable blocks from coming back!
 

red moon

Member
I have removed and will be reposing the instructions here in smaller pieces for faster loading.
 

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red moon

Member
I updated the demo I placed up last night (I had grabbed the wrong one) For anyone that downloaded, please delete and replace with the updated file here. thank you!
 
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