Sunset Land - Development Thread

[SteelRiver]

Update: Download the demo here. The game uses flash saving (for saving your progress) but not all emulators support it. I'd recommend using the latest version of Mesen or FCEU to play it:

Sunset Land Demo by Rivet Gun Games

rivet-gun-games.itch.io

Hey guys.

I've been working on this game for quite a while now and I figured it's time I posted something about it.



Sunset Land is a metroidvania (although made with the arcade platformer module) about using your ever increasing psychic abilities to blast enemies and navigate difficult platforming challenges.







The game also has a strong emphasis on world building and story. It also supports flash saving, which has already been implemented thanks to JamesNES's wonderful tutorial on the subject. Although I have a sort of rough draft of the game nearly finished, there's still a lot left to be done. There's currently no music or sound effects (still deciding whether I want to attempt this myself or hire someone more knowledgable). Also, I still need to quite a bit of play testing. Eventually, I'm hoping to release Sunset World on physical cartridges (still unsure on how to go about this) and on steam (via NESTek).



Anyway, hope you guys found this interesting. I'll continue to post more about Sunset Land in the near future.

 

[Logana]

Hey guys.

I've been working on this game for quite a while now and I figured it's time I posted something about it.

View attachment 6387

Sunset World is a metroidvania (although made with the arcade platformer module) about using your ever increasing psychic abilities to blast enemies and navigate difficult platforming challenges.

View attachment 6388

View attachment 6389

View attachment 6390

The game also has a strong emphasis on world building and story. It also supports flash saving, which has already been implemented thanks to JamesNES's wonderful tutorial on the subject. Although I have a sort of rough draft of the game nearly finished, there's still a lot left to be done. There's currently no music or sound effects (still deciding whether I want to attempt this myself or hire someone more knowledgable). Also, I still need to quite a bit of play testing. Eventually, I'm hoping to release Sunset World on physical cartridges (still unsure on how to go about this) and on steam (via NESTek).

View attachment 6391

Anyway, hope you guys found this interesting. I'll continue to post more about Sunset World in the near future.

Looks really cool, can’t wait to see

 

[LVintageNerd]

looking forward!

 

[Lord_Klump_Of_Kongo_Bongo]

WOW INCREDIBLE! - funni smash bros announcer (and me!)

 

[nes-lover]

So Cool!

 

[dale_coop]

wow, really good work. I like the colors and gfx. Keep the great work !
Can't wait to test the first demo

 

[LVintageNerd]

There's currently no music or sound effects (still deciding whether I want to attempt this myself or hire someone more knowledgable).

hey, just saying if you want music - im open atm

 

[SteelRiver]

The first demo for Sunset World is out.

Download the rom in the top post of this thread. I'd recommend using the latest version of Mesen or FCEU to play it.

The demo lets you explore the first area of the game, complete with the first town, dungeon, and a couple of optional powers to find. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback.

 

[dale_coop]

OH cool !! thanks for sharing <3

 

[SteelRiver]

I have been working on this game even though I haven't had a chance to post about it recently.

First of all, I decided to change the name to Sunset Land since there's already a game called Sunset World Online. Also, I released an updated demo on Itch.io that rebalances the difficulty a little bit and fixes some glitches. Finally finished the soundtrack for the game too. It was the first time I wrote music for a game and I had a lot of fun doing it.

More updates to come soon.

 

[SteelRiver]

Even though I haven't updated this thread in a while I'm still going to finish this game!

I've been working on improving the color pallet and the graphics for the 1st dungeon (The Lawrencetown Mineshaft) to give it a dingier feel and make it look more like a mine.


Basically it's gone from this:


To this:


I've also been working on improving the Overworld and giving the player more routes and shortcuts to take while traveling through it.

Now that I finally have a way to flash my game onto cartridges, I've been testing Sunset Land on an actual NES with a CRT TV and I've made some adjustments to sprites and background tiles so they look better on a CRT.

I've updated the demo so if any of you want to sample the new updates, just give it a download.

Finally, I'm at the point of development where I'm looking for playtesters, so I'd love to hear any feedback or watch someone's gameplay of the demo. If you'd like to playtest the full game, DM me.

 

[SteelRiver]

Made a short trailer for Sunset Land.

 

[SteelRiver]

Made some changes to Sunset Land and updated the demo today.

First off, I changed the effect for the air jump. The shockwave you create when preforming an air jump falls instead of staying in midair. This makes it easier to hit enemies with the shockwave and should make it more obvious to the player that it can be used as an attack.

Basically, it went from this:


To this:


I also changed the way the insta death spikes work since many players found them too punishing. Instead of spikes killing you in one hit and sending you back to the last checkpoint, now they only take off one heart, but you get sent back to the beginning of the room so still can't just brute force your way through. It's similar to how hazards work in Hollow Knight.

Finally, I added a sound effect for when your energy recharges.

More updates to come soon.

 

[smilehero65]

Made some changes to Sunset Land and updated the demo today.

First off, I changed the effect for the air jump. The shockwave you create when preforming an air jump falls instead of staying in midair. This makes it easier to hit enemies with the shockwave and should make it more obvious to the player that it can be used as an attack.

Basically, it went from this:
View attachment 7185

To this:
View attachment 7186

I also changed the way the insta death spikes work since many players found them too punishing. Instead of spikes killing you in one hit and sending you back to the last checkpoint, now they only take off one heart, but you get sent back to the beginning of the room so still can't just brute force your way through. It's similar to how hazards work in Hollow Knight.

Finally, I added a sound effect for when your energy recharges.

More updates to come soon.

How is this game going?

 

[SteelRiver]

Thanks for your interest.

Things have been a bit slow for the past year but I've done quite a bit to improve the artwork since I last posted here. Here are some GIFS that show how the first area looks now.




I updated the demo on the retro verse about a month ago so if you want to play the most recent version you can check that out here. I'm also trying to find the best way to distribute the game on physical cartridges once it's finished.

Sorry I haven't posted in this thread for a while (I'm really bad at self promotion) but rest assured, I do intend to finish this game.

 

[smilehero65]

Thanks for your interest.

Things have been a bit slow for the past year but I've done quite a bit to improve the artwork since I last posted here. Here are some GIFS that show how the first area looks now.

View attachment 8051View attachment 8052
View attachment 8053View attachment 8054

I updated the demo on the retro verse about a month ago so if you want to play the most recent version you can check that out here. I'm also trying to find the best way to distribute the game on physical cartridges once it's finished.

Sorry I haven't posted in this thread for a while (I'm really bad at self promotion) but rest assured, I do intend to finish this game.

Wow! I can really see the improvement! Well done and thank you for keeping me updated.

Just out of curiosity, do you have any other website apart from the Retroverse?

 

[SteelRiver]

Yeah, I have a small site for my one man studio, Rivet Gun Games. I'll be adding a page to it soon for the Byte Off entry I was working on. You can also download the Sunset Land demo on itch.io. I'm also part of another small indie dev studio called Simbryo and we've released two games on Steam.