The Curse of The Pharoah (WIP)

[crazylegsjones]

My first level of the game. Not bad for a newbie. Still having issues with tile types not loading properly, and a few animations not working properly, but will get fixed as I learn more. Still a LONG ways from being done as a whole. Lots more to learn! Using this thread as a dev update on the games progress, without hopefully giving away too many secrets, lol!

 

[JamesTall2024]

Good level

 

[EdwardBatkins]

Love the Ancient Egypt motif and the color harmony in your sprites. The papyrus plants are a nice detail, too. And like Kid Icarus or Metroid, the black background doesn't feel empty, it just works.

 

[gamed000d]

Beautiful, I hope one day that i can reach your level of skill

 

[crazylegsjones]

If anyone is interested, I threw up a demo in the Retroverse if you want to try it out. Still many bugs to work out, but just looking for some feedback, and maybe some cool ideas i could incorporate to make this even better!

Curse Of The Pharaoh

Someone has broken into the tombs, unleashing the Curse of the Pharoah. Join the new Pharaoh on his quest throughout Upper and Lower Egypt, battling wildlife and unexpected things in order to get to the tombs and seal them back up. Development Notes: Going to implement a weapon switch system...

theretroverse.com

 

[crazylegsjones]

Working on some more levels that will incorporate daytime scenes.

 

[EdwardBatkins]

I played the demo and it looks like it's coming along well! I hope you don't think I'm a jerk if I did a little unsolicited design remix on your hero. Feel free to use it if you like—and if you're not offended.

 

[crazylegsjones]

The sandals are a nice touch. I might steal that. More fitting for the time period/style.

 

[EdwardBatkins]

Sandals are the preferred footwear for running, jumping, climbing, and dealing with venomous snakes.

 

[crazylegsjones]

Adding in map transition levels and secondary maps for each city which = more levels to play. Also playing around with the daytime theme a bit for some more flavor on a few levels.

 

[TheRetroBro]

This is great for someone just starting out! TONS of potential. Good chatting in the discord!

 

[JamesTall2024]

I will play this game

 

[crazylegsjones]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been a lot going on personally that had to come first, so haven't had time to work on this.

Will be diving back in soon.

Really trying to get the mechanics down so I can focus on level design, sound and art, but the weapon switch system has my brain for a loop. Currently have the weapons set up as user variables, to where 0 means weapon hasn't been acquired, 1 means weapon is acquired but not equipped and 2 is weapon is acquired and equipped.

Tried finding a breakdown of how the weapons unlocked system works in the adventure module, but is a lot to unpack. And not a lot of direction on why and how it works. Maybe I just wait for Baardbi to make a video tutorial, lol!

Anyways, any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[JamesNES]

I'm not sure the weapons unlocked system in the adventure module is fully implemented to start with. You can use a variable like weaponsUnlocked to represent 8 different weapon unlocks, each bit determining whether that weapon is unlocked. So AND #%00000001 being non-zero means weapon 1 is unlocked, #%00000010 non zero means weapon 2 is unlocked etc. Then just have a currentWeapon variable.

To unlock a weapon, when the player picks something up or something, you just

LDA weaponsUnlocked 
ORA #%00000001 ;;Unlock first weapon
STA weaponsUnlocked

So instead of looking at the variable/byte as number from 0 to 255, you're looking at it as 8 flags.

;;Check if weapon 1 is unlocked 
LDA weaponsUnlocked 
AND #%00000001
BEQ +notUnlocked
   ;;Is unlocked 
  LDA #$01
  STA currentWeapon 
+notUnlocked

;;Check if weapon 3 is unlocked 
LDA weaponsUnlocked 
AND #%00000100
BEQ +notUnlocked 
   ;;Is unlocked 
   LDA #$03
   STA currentWeapon 
+notUnlocked

Some of these bits have special branch instructions just for them, like the top most bit:

;;Check if weapon 8 is unlocked (same as AND #%10000000, BEQ)
LDA weaponsUnlocked 
BPL +notUnlocked 
  ; ;Is unlocked 
  LDA #$08 
  STA currentWeapon 
+notUnlocked

So for things where that bit is being tested a lot, you can use that instead. Saves an AND operation.

 

[crazylegsjones]

Thanks, that actually makes a lot more sense than having in individual variable for each weapon. The way you explained it put it into better perspective. I'll mess around with the few weapons I currently have implemented and see what I can make happen.

Once I get that working, then it's a matter of updating the Sprite HUD to each weapon when it's changed as well as palette change to match the weapon chosen.

Let me chew on this a bit and I'll come back here if I have any other questions!

 

[crazylegsjones]

Hey all,

Just letting everyone here know that I haven't abandoned this project. Just had ALOT of things going on personally with family/myself to where I had to focus on that instead. Will be jumping back in very soon. I also will be taking the core story of this game in a very different direction. It will be a small part of a much larger and greater storyline that I have been working on and am very excited about. Stay tuned... Hopefully not for too long, lol.

 

[crazylegsjones]

Enter Player One. A teenage kid in the 90's that discovers an old game console in the local thrift store. Little does he know that there is a deep power in the console that sucks him in and turns the player into the main character of the game. He must defeat the game in order to leave, and discovers many deep secrets within this console that he must unlock. A quest to discover more of these games in the world in order to find out what's hiding deep within the console. The Player must search these worlds for these games, and defeat them all in order to unlock the consoles greatest mystery....

 

[mileco]

Enter Player One. A teenage kid in the 90's that discovers an old game console in the local thrift store. Little does he know that there is a deep power in the console that sucks him in and turns the player into the main character of the game. He must defeat the game in order to leave, and discovers many deep secrets within this console that he must unlock. A quest to discover more of these games in the world in order to find out what's hiding deep within the console. The Player must search these worlds for these games, and defeat them all in order to unlock the consoles greatest mystery....

Awesome! How do you make slow tiles?