Vastus
- Thread starter vasge_
- Start date
vasge_
New member
Demo incoming!!
View attachment Vastus-0.1.nes.zip
Here it is, on Sunday as promised! I'm pretty happy with how it's shaping out to be. I'm excited to hear everyone's opinions on it, as well as what kinds of bugs you all will find (I know there are plenty!!)
These are the ones I found while testing it:
-Melee weapon doesn't follow player while jumping/walking: I have tried out a few parenting scripts I found here on the forum, but they were all a bit too unstable; they work well, but bring about some new glitches, like spawning enemies at the same spot as the player character, or even flinging you across the screen (!)
-Crouching is purely aesthetic, it doesn't change your hitbox at all. (That makes the boss fight a little harder than intended...)
-When you die, the music stops playing.
-Textbox at the last screen alters the colors of some nearby bricks.
-When you respawn, if you die you'll still spawn back at the checkpoint.
-Checkpoint tile randomly changes its color when you pass through it. I might draw a graphic for it, though, so I guess that won't be an issue down the line.
Please do let me know what you all think!!
View attachment Vastus-0.1.nes.zip
Here it is, on Sunday as promised! I'm pretty happy with how it's shaping out to be. I'm excited to hear everyone's opinions on it, as well as what kinds of bugs you all will find (I know there are plenty!!)
These are the ones I found while testing it:
-Melee weapon doesn't follow player while jumping/walking: I have tried out a few parenting scripts I found here on the forum, but they were all a bit too unstable; they work well, but bring about some new glitches, like spawning enemies at the same spot as the player character, or even flinging you across the screen (!)
-Crouching is purely aesthetic, it doesn't change your hitbox at all. (That makes the boss fight a little harder than intended...)
-When you die, the music stops playing.
-Textbox at the last screen alters the colors of some nearby bricks.
-When you respawn, if you die you'll still spawn back at the checkpoint.
-Checkpoint tile randomly changes its color when you pass through it. I might draw a graphic for it, though, so I guess that won't be an issue down the line.
Please do let me know what you all think!!
red moon
Member
I played through last night and it was awesome!
I really like the overall vibe to what you have so far. The colors and the music really made it seem thrilling.
I am excited to see what more you do going forward and like the personality of the enemies. That sad fish boss was hard to kill! The Seahorse behind it would sometimes throw 2 fireballs in succession which threw me off when I was trying to jump over them. I did hit the depressed fish many times but was not sure if I could kill him or not.
Really fun so far. You put that together very quickly!
I really like the overall vibe to what you have so far. The colors and the music really made it seem thrilling.
I am excited to see what more you do going forward and like the personality of the enemies. That sad fish boss was hard to kill! The Seahorse behind it would sometimes throw 2 fireballs in succession which threw me off when I was trying to jump over them. I did hit the depressed fish many times but was not sure if I could kill him or not.
Really fun so far. You put that together very quickly!
Dirk
Member
Thank you for sharing your awesome demo! I've just finished it and want to share some points and thoughts:
Things I liked
Bugs I did encounter
Your demo looks really promising. I'm not sure if there is some code somewhere in the forums that allows you to disable the upper points of the bounding box so that you can actually dodge projectiles. My foggy memory tells me there is, but I can't guarantee it.
Things I liked
- Font: Stylish and cool
- Statues: Capture the style of ancient statues really well!
- Crouching: Awesome that you can crouch and attack while crouching
- Colours: I really dig your choice of colour palettes! I'm a fan of purple and orange so that's huge plus for me ^^
Bugs I did encounter
- Only those you mentioned in your post
- Well, maybe this: You can skip the end boss by jumping over the enemies and walking to the next room. You could block the right side of the screen until the boss is defeated.
Your demo looks really promising. I'm not sure if there is some code somewhere in the forums that allows you to disable the upper points of the bounding box so that you can actually dodge projectiles. My foggy memory tells me there is, but I can't guarantee it.
vasge_
New member
red moon said:
Thanks for playing!! And yeah, designing the boss fight was a bit hard: I would either end up with it super easy, or really difficult! And the two fireballs in succession is actually because the blobfish shoots them as well! In the end, I do think that it was a bit much... I’m thinking of maybe replacing the seahorse statue with an eel, so that you can at least get rid of the eel and make the fight easier
Dirk
Member
vasge_ said:
This effect reminded me a bit of jorotroid's cool game Witch City. There you can get a boomerang. It would be fun if your character could shoot her claw like a boomerang, maybe as an upgrade later in the game. I don't know if that's something you'd like your character to do as it would change the whole game dynamic.
vasge_
New member
Dirk said:
I have been thinking about other weapons as well, I'm just not totally sure how I would like to have them implemented... I was thinking: I could either have a Megaman-style weapon selection system, or something like Castlevania where you always have your main weapon, but also subweapons. Not too sure on which direction to go to, though.
red moon
Member
Interesting, let me know which way you lean!
I have a similar thing going on with Mark of the Beast. I am using the select button to change forms so that is taken up and I recently made a throw-able explosive weapon that the player finds in a statue room but it will either need to become a random dead enemy drop (alongside the projectile that is thrown) or I will have to use the start button and then an inventory screen that allows the player to select weapons.
I have a similar thing going on with Mark of the Beast. I am using the select button to change forms so that is taken up and I recently made a throw-able explosive weapon that the player finds in a statue room but it will either need to become a random dead enemy drop (alongside the projectile that is thrown) or I will have to use the start button and then an inventory screen that allows the player to select weapons.
vasge_
New member
Hi all! Hope you've been having a great weekend 
Here's a quick update to Vastus:
After everything went smoothly with the demo, it's time to start with some actual level design! My concept for the full game is inspired by Kid Icarus, in where you start all the way at the bottom of the Underworld and climb your way to the top: I'm doing something similar, except that you start off at the deepest chamber in the temple, and must get your way out to the top.
The character statue in the center is the Sea Deity this temple is dedicated to. I want to iterate and refine some other designs later on, though, so its subject to change.
Lmk what you think!
Here's a quick update to Vastus:
After everything went smoothly with the demo, it's time to start with some actual level design! My concept for the full game is inspired by Kid Icarus, in where you start all the way at the bottom of the Underworld and climb your way to the top: I'm doing something similar, except that you start off at the deepest chamber in the temple, and must get your way out to the top.
The character statue in the center is the Sea Deity this temple is dedicated to. I want to iterate and refine some other designs later on, though, so its subject to change.
Lmk what you think!
Dirk
Member
Hi, thanks again for sharing. I have some feedback. I love, love, love the colors you've used, I love how the highlights work on the statue and how the statue gets engulfed in shadows. I think you used your palette really well, it adds so much depth and dimension to the visuals of your game. It almost doesn't feel like an NES game anymore ^^
I also like that you don't censor the chest. The only thing... visually I don't really understand the crotch section. Is the statue supposed to be hermaphrodite, because that looks like a penis to me XD
I also like that you don't censor the chest. The only thing... visually I don't really understand the crotch section. Is the statue supposed to be hermaphrodite, because that looks like a penis to me XD
vasge_
New member
Hi Dirk! Thanks, I actually went on so many iterations of the color palette before I landed on this one, so I’m glad to hear that I ended up getting it right
Yep, that’s basically it... I had Satan’s design from Devilman in mind. The idea is that as a Deity, they are supposed to be “perfect”, hence characteristics of both sexes.
Dirk said:
Yep, that’s basically it... I had Satan’s design from Devilman in mind. The idea is that as a Deity, they are supposed to be “perfect”, hence characteristics of both sexes.
Dirk
Member
Ah, great, so my anatomy knowledge wasn't as rusty as I had thought ^^
This reminds me of my written Matura exam in English ("secondary school exit exam or 'maturity diploma' in various countries" -- Wikipedia). I wrote a text about teachers in the future. Technology was so advanced, that teachers would constantly be changing their colour of skin and their sexes so they wouldn't be biased. With constantly I mean every second. Also their skin colour would change in patches so a quarter of a teacher's face would be white, another one Asian, another one African and so on.
Thinking of it... a bit like Michael Jackson's music video for "Black Or White", just not uniform.
vasge_ said:
This reminds me of my written Matura exam in English ("secondary school exit exam or 'maturity diploma' in various countries" -- Wikipedia). I wrote a text about teachers in the future. Technology was so advanced, that teachers would constantly be changing their colour of skin and their sexes so they wouldn't be biased. With constantly I mean every second. Also their skin colour would change in patches so a quarter of a teacher's face would be white, another one Asian, another one African and so on.
Thinking of it... a bit like Michael Jackson's music video for "Black Or White", just not uniform.