Space Raft Demo Updates ***(11/9/19)

Raftronaut

Member
(Edited)
As of 11-19 Space Raft 3.0 was thrown together for PRGE, I have been meaning to release another update for quite some time, I have been adding several advanced features to the Space Raft Game per assistance from Dale Coop (our 8 bit hero). As it stands I am very excited to show off these MAJOR improvements as a work in progress. AS always, any feedback is appreciated, this is my first DEV and I am still learning :)

View attachment SPACE RAFT 3.0.zip

New features include:

-8 directional movement added
-New tile type "Rails" added, reduces drag upon collisions around gameplay area and plays a special "grind" sfx
-Ramps! tile system has been added (not yet refined), Use is self explanatory, hit the ramp, catch some AIR!!
-Oil slick! Ice puddle, hit the Oil Slick and watch the van lose control!
-Villain has been introduced, Per his request, the band's previous bass player has come on as the Villain of the game
-Boss chambers designed! road now flashes stripes without scrolling allowing graphics bank switching in boss rooms. (further boss developments coming)
-Dialogue scenes! yes I have begun adding the beginnings of the game's story utilizing character portraits
-NEW MAZE GAME added! YES, take control of every member of Space Raft in order to defeat the jealous ex-bass player....
-NEW player sprites added to the later with unique attacks. (press B button to switch characters in single screen mode)
-NPCS added to offer further dialogue to the game
-New levels showcasing well known locations to the Milwaukee music scene.
-New End screen
-I am sure other improvements have been made and not listed and some I wish I could have made but ran out of time..

**the next update v3.xxx should include further improvements to the engine, boss fights, further story lines and the ability to skip cutscenes (sorry not coded yet in this version)

***********Original Post****************
Hello!

Rather than trying to salvage my messy previous post for space raft version 1, I decided to make a fresh post here.

Since my Byte Off submission I've been making steady improvements on the Space Raft demo.
I hope this version 2.0 proves to be a much more playable version for people who may be interested in some side scrolling van driving action.

Download Space Raft version 2.0 here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v1fqozhbm68ltun/Space Raft 2.0.zip?dl=0

*EDIT* realized I did not correct the color palettes for the dumpsters in 2.0. already corrected in this version V2.1:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5mztjkvjsveqib/Space Raft V2.1.zip?dl=0


*edit* Direct download Here :
View attachment Space Raft V2.1.zip



List of improvements are Significant:

*Graphical Updates (added second monster color palette, Organized monsters accordingly.)

*Complete Soundtrack overhaul, including further sound design and SFX's (I'd love to go into the design challenges of distilling a 10 song, 4 piece rock and roll band LP into a workable famitracker file. The biggest design challenge has been finding ways to incorporate SFX's into the dense music arrangements, perhaps that is best left for another post)

*Attempted to decrease overall difficulty (is it still too hard? previous version seemed to get players hung up right away, so I relaxed the frequency of obstacles and enemies)

*Changed traffic cones from background (instant kill) tiles to Sprites so they can be destroyed. (also does not share back ground color palette)

*Opening cinematic scene (narrative omitted from demo version)

*Hud color palette improvements

*New Sprite animations (player and monsters)

*Pause button added including charming Honk sound effect (horn sfx=my proudest moment) and screen darkening (start button)

*Monster Traffic (cars and trucks) have been scaled down to narrower sprites to prevent sprite loss/flicker

*Sprite flicker added

*Screen Transitions smoothed

*Left screen edge destroys player ......(this is used as a fix for the game breaking bug on the left screen edge present in the initial Space Raft demo, I have not been able to solve the problem, but this fix at least prevents the player from getting stuck and crashing a game session)

*self-destruct button (select button) added to combat the player screen wrap glitch mentioned above, another cheap fix for a serious problem, I decided to leave the function in for this version as I can use it for other testing purposes. (also it's kind of fun to watch the van explode on command)


Short list of improvements I would like to make to the next version:

*Solve boundshandler bug so player can touch left screen edge
*Study and implement Z-Axis so I can add ramps allowing the player to vault over obstacles.
*Add boss fights other than the stand-ins currently present. Requiring me to understand how player objects work, Hoping to organize boss monsters into a single type that trigger a "boss death" upon defeat, warping the player to a new splash screen with next level title and play a little jingle. Not quite there yet...
*Implement animated background tiles during boss fights to give the illusion of a moving road against a black background. (this is the key reason I have not done any significant boss designs yet, as I am not sure what kind of limitations animating background tiles will require and I don't want to get ahead of myself) I have already designed a tile that will appear to be moving through utilizing a simple palette swap technique, similar to what people have been doing with waterfalls etc.. I just am just not sure how to write the code to do that color swap yet.
*Adding at least one type of powerup, although unsure of what direction I would take this yet, maybe a simple spread shot.
*Add additional cutscenes between levels once bosses are finished and begin to form a narrative. Adding more cutscenes will help me utilize more of the Space Raft songs I have to insert.
*Toying with the idea of developing an acceleration mechanic. This would help slow down gameplay for inexperienced players, also would utilize the empty B button. I would either link it to the b button or write a screen flag to have some screens scrolling at 1/2 speed (maybe this could be utilized to highlight certain enemies such mini-bosses in 1/2 scroll speed) I have not decided of this is a good idea yet, or how difficult it would be to implement.
*edit Introduce 8 direction movement per CutterCross' suggestion below

-Note, most if not all of the code for these fixes came directly from forum members (thx!), I have been trying to stay diligent in studying 6502 asm, but programming logic does not come natural to me and even the basic concepts take me a lot of focus and energy to grasp (i'm learning, just at a snail's pace). On the other hand, famitracker only took me a couple of days to learn, as well as Shiru's Nes screen Tool, so my strengths are clearly on the Audio visual side of things...

I cannot thank the community here enough for helping me learn what I am doing here, in no particular order Dale Coop, Mugi, Frankengraphics have given so much to chew on and digest, even reading though other's production notes give a lot of insight into game design. AS well as the byte-off youtube reviewers and the valuable insight that provided me. Much gratitude to every one here in the community!

Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hoping to release this so I can get some constructive feedback as I set out to finish the remainder of the game. This is my first GameDev on any platform, I only got interested in the past year after getting involved with Chiptunes (space raft songs as chiptunes to share with my band as a joke, everyone found it charming so I continued) and realized how fulfilling 8 bit designs are to me. The Poetry of limitation, the heart warming visual approximations, that amazing gritty sound (!!) etc...

Hope you enjoy! Thanks for looking!

long live nes!

View: https://youtu.be/BewtVtGn0ps


******12-18-20**UPDATE *****Full version***********************************
CIB now available here: https://dustymedical.com/product/space-raft-nes/

ROM downloads available here: https://raftronaut.itch.io/space-raft-nes
********************************************************************************



Also for posterity, Here is the download to the largely broken version 1.0:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e53vahly6pqqrik/DemoSpaceRaft.zip?dl=0

*edited for errors and missing content, still not great at using message boards
 
Last edited:

Raftronaut

Member
hmm, for some reason my links do not work.

If you copy/paste this URL you can downlaod

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5mztjkvjsveqib/Space%20Raft%20V2.1.zip?dl=0
 

CutterCross

Active member
By mashing the Select button during the opening, I managed to self-destruct the van in the cutscene and warp to a different stage! Don't think that's supposed to happen... Also at the very top of the road, the projectile doesn't spawn. Guessing that's because it's overlapping the solid edge and destroying itself. Might want to change its collision box.

Not really a fan on how colliding with the top/bottom bounds of the road push you back, even if the screen isn't scrolling, and how colliding with a solid obstacle essentially locks you in place. The game could also make good use of 8-directional movement. (Which I made a post on btw!) http://www.nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2760

I liked the opening scenes, but it would be nice to have the option to skip seeing them every time you get a game over.

Music and graphics are top tier though :D
 

Raftronaut

Member
Thanks cutter!

Appreciate the feedback! I know what you are saying about the top and bottom rails stopping the momentum of the player. I thought about maybe using some sort of conveyor belt tile to minimize player slow down (or at least to be able to control it)
The select button I hope to eliminate entirely once I am able to correct the bound handler issue on the left screen edge present in version 1. Was it only the select button that caused the error during the beginning? I will look into it.....

Adding a cutscene skip button will be something I’ll be sure to implement for next version. TBH, I was so happy I got the transitions working smoothly without any graphical anomalies that I gleefully moved on to other subjects at the time...

Also 8 directional movement will likely be coming as well. It’s been on my list for a bit. Just haven’t gotten around to it because I worried about the state of my collisions in general, I worried that if I added a greater degree of movement to the player there would be more opportunity to get hung up on object edges. Though very much an item I would ideally like to add to my list of improvements. I am going to edit my list to include this item!

Really appreciate the feedback! I really appreciate the compliment on the music and visuals, you do such great work in both categories, it means a lot to me to get your reassurance :)

Thanks for playing !!!
 

Raftronaut

Member
Thanks cutter!

Appreciate the feedback! I know what you are saying about the top and bottom rails stopping the momentum of the player. I thought about maybe using some sort of conveyor belt tile to minimize player slow down (or at least to be able to control it)
The select button I hope to eliminate entirely once I am able to correct the bound handler issue on the left screen edge present in version 1. Was it only the select button that caused the error during the beginning?

Adding a cutscene skip will be something I’ll be sure to implement for next version.

Also 8 directional movement will likely be coming as well. It’s been on my list for a bit. Just haven’t gotten around to it!

Really appreciate the feedback! These types of constructive criticisms are the most helpful. Thank you!
 

Raftronaut

Member
Carts 2.jpg
I made some DIY labels for my prototype mapper 30 carts. Currently using these to pass around to my friends for feedback. I should have used a full color printer and then laminated them, but these will do for now, much better than the original masking tape labels!
 

Raftronaut

Member
CutterCross said:
The game could also make good use of 8-directional movement. (Which I made a post on btw!) http://www.nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2760

Cutter! You were 100% correct on this, I just added 8 way movement this morning and the controls feel infinitely more natural. Obstacles are easier to avoid which decreases the overall difficulty (which is great). I wasn't sure 8 way would add that much, but I feel like it really opened things up, the playfield feels far less clasutrophobic.. Knowing how much of a drastic improvement this was I would've put it much farther up on my priority list.

Thanks for pointing it out :)
 

CutterCross

Active member
Raftronaut said:
Cutter! You were 100% correct on this, I just added 8 way movement this morning and the controls feel infinitely more natural. Obstacles are easier to avoid which decreases the overall difficulty (which is great). I wasn't sure 8 way would add that much, but I feel like it really opened things up, the playfield feels far less clasutrophobic.. Knowing how much of a drastic improvement this was I would've put it much farther up on my priority list.

Thanks for pointing it out :)

Awesome ;) glad that helped you out!
 

Raftronaut

Member
CutterCross said:
Not really a fan on how colliding with the top/bottom bounds of the road push you back, even if the screen isn't scrolling, and how colliding with a solid obstacle essentially locks you in place.

This particular issue has been driving me nuts since I started with the project. I am really no closer to understanding the "sticky" solid tiles and why it is happening.

Cutter, would you have any advice on solution to this issue? I've been looking into the tile collisions scripts to understand why touching a solid tile would halt player movement entirely until the player pushes away from the solid surface... it happens regardless if the screen is scrolling or not.

I am not even certain I am looking in the correct place.. Could it be something happening in the player movement script?

i'm a little lost currently
 

Raftronaut

Member
CutterCross said:
Not really a fan on how colliding with the top/bottom bounds of the road push you back, even if the screen isn't scrolling, and how colliding with a solid obstacle essentially locks you in place.

I am working with Dale on this particular issue of the solid tiles being "sticky" in a separate thread.

The top and bottom now have "rails" that the player is able to press into without halting player momentum.
Seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuRPZbnKiJc

it's just a test screen (dont pay attention to the hud colors )
 

Dirk

Member
Absolutely great intro and presentation! Although this is not normally my kind of genre I had a lot of fun playing your game. Can't wait to try it with your added tweaks.
The only problem I had was to get a good feel for the hit box of the car, so sometimes I wouldn't catch the burgers or crash into obstacles.
 

Raftronaut

Member
Dirk said:
Absolutely great intro and presentation! Although this is not normally my kind of genre I had a lot of fun playing your game. Can't wait to try it with your added tweaks.
The only problem I had was to get a good feel for the hit box of the car, so sometimes I wouldn't catch the burgers or crash into obstacles.


Hey Dirk! Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to play my game :)

Very happy to hear that you enjoyed it thus far, especially in that it is not normally the genre you like. That is encouraging as I had intended it to be a fun jaunt meant to show off my songwriting (albeit reduced to 8bit) rather than a traditionally punishing shmup.

The tweaks abound! I have a bunch of new changes coming soon. I plan releasing gameplay demos in increments so I can get feedback before I start to finish the remainder of the game design. I.E. new level designs for later levels, additional cut scenes (with text) and Boss fights.

I hope you stick around to check out some of the coming revisions and improved collisions mechanics :) The hit boxes has been an ongoing struggle on the project as I had been dealing with a pretty significant game-breaking collisions issues earlier (see my broken byte-off submission). Choosing a smaller hit box for player minimized issues concerning glitches on the screen edge (screen edge currently destroys player, a temp fix, more on this later) and solid object collisions at the time, so the odd hitboxes are a bit of a remnant of that. The projectile and character hitboxes should hopefully be resolved in the next update after Dale's "roller" tiles get implemented as the defacto solid collision.

Thanks for checking it out! Again, very grateful for the feedback :)
 

Dirk

Member
Yes, I really enjoyed. It also made me think of a music video I used to watch religiously in the early 2000s, because I loved its pixel graphics.

Teddybears STHLM - Rock'n Roll Highschool

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTX2p22CWs[/media]

I will definitely continue to play your demos :)

I had some hitbox issues in my game too, I know the pain ;-)
My hope is that I'll learn how to code ASM and make changes to the collision routines and I would love to make the hitbox of my character toggleable so he can crouch.
 

Raftronaut

Member
Dirk said:
Yes, I really enjoyed. It also made me think of a music video I used to watch religiously in the early 2000s, because I loved its pixel graphics.

Teddybears STHLM - Rock'n Roll Highschool

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTX2p22CWs[/media]

I will definitely continue to play your demos :)

I had some hitbox issues in my game too, I know the pain ;-)
My hope is that I'll learn how to code ASM and make changes to the collision routines and I would love to make the hitbox of my character toggleable so he can crouch.


ah, That is a fun video! It's funny, I went to Vince Lombardi junior high school which is the same name of the school they blew up in the Ramones' Rock n'Roll High school film. Consequently my friends and I were all big Ramones fans so it really meant a lot to us :)
 

red moon

Member
can’t wait to play this through tonight once i’m home. i really enjoying reading the detailed changes and improvements you had posted over time and the fixes that were implemented!
 

red moon

Member
I had a great time playing, the intro was amazing. Great work overall, the sound and groove of the game was really well executed. I enjoyed the light boss concept as well and I believe I made it to the 3rd section (right after the night driving)
It took me a little bit of time to realize slowing down or backing into the left of the screen would cause me to explode!
 

Raftronaut

Member
red moon said:
I had a great time playing, the intro was amazing. Great work overall, the sound and groove of the game was really well executed. I enjoyed the light boss concept as well and I believe I made it to the 3rd section (right after the night driving)
It took me a little bit of time to realize slowing down or backing into the left of the screen would cause me to explode!

Hey Red, Just seeing this now! I'm stoked you had a good time with it ;) I sincerely appreciate the feedback.

Since my last Demo update there have been a TON of positive changes that I hope to share, most of the game engine is built now but I first have to reassemble the game itself before I can show off the new features (better boss rooms, sound improvements, new tile types and a very special mini-game). Hopefully with the coming updates you'll see the improvements made on the things you mentioned, also with things that may have been an issue for your play through. The collisions and gameplay have been overhauled and everything is seemingly working much better. Progress progress progress!

The left screen edge is a persistent bug that is present in the shooter module, without the killer screen edge the bug has the potential to break the game, forcing the player to restart the console. Unfortunately debugging the screen edge on scrolling screens is above my experience level at the moment, so the "killer edge" will have to do for now as I work on other things within my control...
..Fun Fact, I added the self destruct (select) button in case the character gets stuck in the screen edge (simply losing a life instead of resetting the console, allowing testing or gameplay to continue) and decided to leave it after I put in the temporary "edge killer" so I could further test sound effects and the death animation.. It will be sad day when I actually have to remove it before the game is released.. it has been so helpful so far.. sweet sweet self destruct button ...lol

Thanks so much for taking the time to play!
 
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