Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer
- Thread starter Woogz
- Start date
Woogz
Member
(This will all be updated in the first post):
6/09/20 UPDATE:
It's been a while since I've updated this thread. A lot about this project has changed. I've been fixing game breaking bugs, glitches, graphical errors, you name it. I've revamped the graphics, effects, sounds, and added new features as well. The game title has now been renamed "Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer".
What is Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer?
Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer is a platforming autoscroller for the nes. You take control of the two main characters, Nox Francisca, and his girlfriend Veronica Mimeux, and grind your way through 6 worlds with 3 challenging levels and 1 boss each in order to stop your possessed necromancing friend Vladimir Drachovi from raising the dead and causing furthor havoc in the town of Crypton.
The game as it stands now is about 80 percent complete. All the levels have been fully designed and completed. All of them are being tweaked and tested thoroughly. The only things left to do as far as completing this project is to implement the last 2 bosses, and add the remaining cut scenes. The demo version of this game is almost complete and should be ready for the soon to be announced 2020 Byte-Off competition.
With that being said, I'd like to show off some progress gifs and show you what's going on with Ghoul Grind without spoiling too much before the competition. I guess you can consider this a sneak peak
. Here's a few new features:
(any gif with slightly changing palette colors is due to my gif recorder so please excuse that)
NEW FEATURES:
Switching between Nox and Veronica:
https://imgur.com/a/6XQO4Al
In the old versions of this game, you could originally only play as Nox, but I felt that could potentially get boring, so I added in his girlfriend as the secondary protagonist.
They control similarly, however where they differ is in the way their projectiles handle. Nox will throw axes at a nice moderate speed, while Veronica's dagger will shoot a much faster magic projectile. Depending on what situation you're in, and your timing, you must choose which will come in handy when fighting the undead.
You can switch between her and Nox using the d-pad. As you can see here in the gif, there are color coded obstacles obstructing the path that are character specific, so if you see a block only Nox can hit, you must have Nox selected and use his Axes. If you see a block that only Veronica can hit, you must use the magic projectile from Veronica's dagger.
Character Palette changing to match the time of day in level:
https://imgur.com/a/9mjqwtx
Some levels take place during different times of day or have different types of "lighting" so the character and monster palettes will reflect that. As you can see in this gif, the sun is setting and instead of the characters being the same color in the prior gif, they are now a color that matches the aesthetic of the level to really sell that time of day change. (big thanks to Dale Coop and Kasumi who helped me figure this out back on the NESmaker discord last year )
Splash Screens:
https://imgur.com/a/wvwWKvs
This one took a lot of time to figure out. Using the regular screens and a special tile that warps you to the start screen, I managed to add splash screens (with my own ghoulified NESmaker logo ) Still trying to adjust the title screen graphics so they're the correct palettes and are aligned properly, but everything seems to work fine for now. (If anyone needs help figuring out how to add extra splash screens with fades in 4.1.5 let me know and I'll see if I can make a tutorial) (Also thanks to Dale Coop once again for the palette fading AI action code he posted on the forums)
The Sweet Victory:
https://imgur.com/a/SmkKJME
Whenever you beat a level, you get a nice little victory dance from Veronica and a sigh of relief from Nox as it fades out and you enter the next level. A little fun bit of characterization.
Just for Fun, a graphical comparison with the old game:
https://imgur.com/a/Ag3sk27
The old game (on the right) used to be really simple looking, not bad, but not what I really envisioned. Getting used to the NES limitations over the past year has really help me push the limits of what I can accomplish with the limited space and colors I have to work with, and I'm really happy with how the graphics turned out so far. The sprites and tiles have much more detail than they did prior. Characters and Enemies are much more expressive than they were prior. (I took a screenshot of the old game from an older video on the NESmaker facebook page if you're wondering why the quality looks bad)
AND MUCH MORE TO COME:
Like I said, don't want to spoil too much with the game. Aside from the graphic comparison I just showed you, I only demonstrated footage from the tutorial level, and the beginning of a level in world one. The soon-to-be released demo will have cut scenes, more levels, more enemies, and a boss. Just be on the lookout.
6/09/20 UPDATE:
It's been a while since I've updated this thread. A lot about this project has changed. I've been fixing game breaking bugs, glitches, graphical errors, you name it. I've revamped the graphics, effects, sounds, and added new features as well. The game title has now been renamed "Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer".
What is Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer?
Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer is a platforming autoscroller for the nes. You take control of the two main characters, Nox Francisca, and his girlfriend Veronica Mimeux, and grind your way through 6 worlds with 3 challenging levels and 1 boss each in order to stop your possessed necromancing friend Vladimir Drachovi from raising the dead and causing furthor havoc in the town of Crypton.
The game as it stands now is about 80 percent complete. All the levels have been fully designed and completed. All of them are being tweaked and tested thoroughly. The only things left to do as far as completing this project is to implement the last 2 bosses, and add the remaining cut scenes. The demo version of this game is almost complete and should be ready for the soon to be announced 2020 Byte-Off competition.
With that being said, I'd like to show off some progress gifs and show you what's going on with Ghoul Grind without spoiling too much before the competition. I guess you can consider this a sneak peak
. Here's a few new features:(any gif with slightly changing palette colors is due to my gif recorder so please excuse that)
NEW FEATURES:
Switching between Nox and Veronica:
https://imgur.com/a/6XQO4Al
In the old versions of this game, you could originally only play as Nox, but I felt that could potentially get boring, so I added in his girlfriend as the secondary protagonist.
They control similarly, however where they differ is in the way their projectiles handle. Nox will throw axes at a nice moderate speed, while Veronica's dagger will shoot a much faster magic projectile. Depending on what situation you're in, and your timing, you must choose which will come in handy when fighting the undead.
You can switch between her and Nox using the d-pad. As you can see here in the gif, there are color coded obstacles obstructing the path that are character specific, so if you see a block only Nox can hit, you must have Nox selected and use his Axes. If you see a block that only Veronica can hit, you must use the magic projectile from Veronica's dagger.
Character Palette changing to match the time of day in level:
https://imgur.com/a/9mjqwtx
Some levels take place during different times of day or have different types of "lighting" so the character and monster palettes will reflect that. As you can see in this gif, the sun is setting and instead of the characters being the same color in the prior gif, they are now a color that matches the aesthetic of the level to really sell that time of day change. (big thanks to Dale Coop and Kasumi who helped me figure this out back on the NESmaker discord last year
)Splash Screens:
https://imgur.com/a/wvwWKvs
This one took a lot of time to figure out. Using the regular screens and a special tile that warps you to the start screen, I managed to add splash screens (with my own ghoulified NESmaker logo
) Still trying to adjust the title screen graphics so they're the correct palettes and are aligned properly, but everything seems to work fine for now. (If anyone needs help figuring out how to add extra splash screens with fades in 4.1.5 let me know and I'll see if I can make a tutorial) (Also thanks to Dale Coop once again for the palette fading AI action code he posted on the forums)The Sweet Victory:
https://imgur.com/a/SmkKJME
Whenever you beat a level, you get a nice little victory dance from Veronica and a sigh of relief from Nox as it fades out and you enter the next level. A little fun bit of characterization.
Just for Fun, a graphical comparison with the old game:
https://imgur.com/a/Ag3sk27
The old game (on the right) used to be really simple looking, not bad, but not what I really envisioned. Getting used to the NES limitations over the past year has really help me push the limits of what I can accomplish with the limited space and colors I have to work with, and I'm really happy with how the graphics turned out so far. The sprites and tiles have much more detail than they did prior. Characters and Enemies are much more expressive than they were prior. (I took a screenshot of the old game from an older video on the NESmaker facebook page if you're wondering why the quality looks bad)
AND MUCH MORE TO COME:
Like I said, don't want to spoil too much with the game. Aside from the graphic comparison I just showed you, I only demonstrated footage from the tutorial level, and the beginning of a level in world one. The soon-to-be released demo will have cut scenes, more levels, more enemies, and a boss. Just be on the lookout.
CutterCross
Active member
Damn that's one polished game this is becoming. Definitely interested in seeing this progress!
Woogz
Member
Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer Official Trailer:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOtMDu6wLhI&feature=youtu.be
JollyShadow
Active member
Looking Great!
5kids2feed
Well-known member
The demo was really great! Can't wait to play the full thing! Fantastic job!
Woogz
Member
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1640415401/ghoul-grind-night-of-the-necromancer
Kickstarter is live!
Kickstarter is live!
