Ava Skye Walker's Animal Rescue Adventure (tentative) - WIP Thread

[JustinWalker]

Hey guys! I am new to NESMaker but no stranger to the world of programming and software development. As an alumni of the actual NES generation, it has always been a dream of mine to build my own NES game! In fact, my dream was to become a professional video game developer, until the technology pushed so far forward that it now takes entire teams of developers and engineers to create a single game.... That kind of took the magic out of it, for me. lol I have scripted a number of small hobby games, as well as enterprise level software solutions, mobile apps, websites, etc - however, this might be my opportunity to finally dive into the world of video game development. My daughter (Ava Skye Walker) and I decided to build a game based on her real-world hobby - rescuing and fostering lost and abandoned animals. The game mechanics are being developed, "as we go", but we have a lot of really fun stuff to pack into this game once the basic groundwork is laid out. I am hoping to master this NESMaker platform and perhaps contribute to the community knowledge base, as we progress. Thanks for allowing me to participate, and thanks to Joe Granato for blazing this trail for us!

In subsequent comments to this post, I will begin adding screen shots, videos, updates, etc, as this project slowly creeps forward. Any feedback, advice and constructive criticism is more than welcome! I hope to learn from those, who have already tread this path.

 

[JustinWalker]

I’ve been tinkering with Ava’s “home base” screen - this is her bedroom level, where she comes to drop off the animals she has saved. The actual animal screen is hidden, and will only be accessible once the player has secured the secret key (the key appears on the shelf, only after player has found the master key on the first level). The “saved animal sanctuary” will be a completely different screen, which we warp to once the player secures the key and enters the secret portal in the bedroom.

 

[JustinWalker]

Here is a brief video of the level mechanics, in action:

 

[JustinWalker]

Here is a brief video, showing the "starting zone" (which appears to be something between a Jungle and Mario lol) - subsequent zones will have more personality, but this zone is simply for us to figure out the basics of NESMaker... At the moment, it acts as a bit of a sandbox, but will also appear in the final game.

 

[JustinWalker]

Attached you will find a number of preliminary screenshots for the "Starting Zone" of this game. This is an arcade platformer, so there won't be much scrolling involved (however, there may be SOME scrolling, on SOME levels)... I have learned quite a bit since I built these screens, so I may double back and tweak them in many ways, as this project progresses.

 

[JustinWalker]

PS - HUGE shout out to Dale Coop, for the quick and easy fix on the background transparency color "issue" - I was getting flustered until I implemented his simple custom script. If anyone is having trouble with their Player sprite palette overwriting the set background transparency color, check out this link:

Dale Coop's EASY Background Transparency Issue FIX

Tonight I spent much of my time trying to optimize palettes, now that I have some basic idea of what the hell I am doing. Messed things up, for a minute, but it was worth the time because now the colors are much easier to predict and control.

 

[JustinWalker]

I cluttered up the room, a bit.

 

[Lord_Klump_Of_Kongo_Bongo]

Yo! Welcome to Nesmaker!

 

[JollyShadow]

It's looking goood!!! So many chickens

 

[Lord_Klump_Of_Kongo_Bongo]

It's looking goood!!! So many chickens

I do love chickens! they be cute

 

[JustinWalker]

It's looking goood!!! So many chickens

SOOOOO many chickens. lol I have a number of animals created, but I am using the chickens as basic testing creatures, while I figure out all the basics!

 

[JustinWalker]

 

[JustinWalker]

Every pixel of the "Desert Zone" was done in a space of 48 hours - really putting the ADHD to work, on this. lol As a result of my selected screen mode, I technically have 16 more Meta Tiles to work with, to enhance these backgrounds. Still a long way to go!

 

[JustinWalker]

... not sure why these last two screens didn't upload. So here they are.

 

[dale_coop]

Oh, nice !

 

[JustinWalker]

There may or may not be some lost animals, on the moon. lol

 

[dale_coop]

Really cool !!!