Feeling remotivated and energized today after a great night with a special lady, so been working my butt off on my game 'Hero - Celestial Force', the fangame/sequel to 'Hero' by the genius that is Ultimortal.
When playing a game I love those little features. The things that maybe aren't essential to gameplay but make it more appealing without getting in the way. Simple things like, for example, how in 'Castlevania - Symphony of the Night' if you stand still long enough with the fairy familiar, she'll sit on your shoulder, and if you suddenly dash she gets knocked off. Not important at all to the game but a nice lil extra that shows the developers just enjoyed doing it. Anyways I been sorta doing that, adding lil bits, and coming up with ideas for more and just writing them down to do them later after the more crucial parts. It's fun and if I'm enjoying making the game then hopefully the players will enjoy playing it… and if not, then screw them, I had fun anyways. :)Here's a lil screenshot of the game in action. Chase has got herself up behind a rock block in that corner and is about to push it down upon the unsuspecting rocket lizard trooper down there rather than take him on directly. I'll likely add a sprite for the trooper when he detects a rock or crate above him and react to it in several ways, either paralyzed with fear and just gets hit by it, try to move out of the way, or simply aim his launcher up and try to destroy it in time. It's all easy enough to do. :)
Are there little lines all down the picture?
If so, awesome.Yeah those are the scanlines set a 50% for the arcadey look. They can be configured and switched off in the video options menu.
Yeah I always liked the scanlines option in ZSNES, certainly a good addition. Funny to see that this game was also (initially) inspired by the Ultimortal's B&W Hero game :)
Is that a Metroid-styled minmap on the top in the middle?Anyhoo, looks great!I love your old-school style sprite work!
Cool interlacing.
Do you use a strict palette to create the sprites?
As in like the SNES palette or something?Kenon: Yes, I'm using the custom NES emulator palette known as the RealityC palette. I found it a couple years ago and use it on NES emulators as I like it's color range and is closest to how my real NES/TV look. I chose this to practice using a preset palette and experimenting with different color ramps with just the colors available. Am using NES screensize and NSF music format too, though not NES sprite/tile limitations. Think of it as NES Plus.
This is the palette sheet.Heh, right. Same thing then. Originally started out with what was basically a copy of Hero and then just started to upgrade it all with graphics simulating a slightly later era and many more gameplay features. I think Ulti's Hero is a great starting point because it's so simple but very playable.
I talk to Ultimortal often on MSN and discuss story and character points with him too as, while I'm not using any of his characters directly, it's still set in the same universe (though many centuries later) and I don't want to contradict anything about his original game.Guess that means Hero - CF and Vanguard are related in spirit :PDamn, man. You make me want to burn… er… delete my pathetic attempts at pixel art. Love the scanlines, love the interface, love the aesthetic in general, and most of all love the fact that it is a fangame/sequel to one of my favorite games ever.
Hero… what an incredible game. It amazes me that something so simple can end up being so engaging and inspiring. Actually, I'm gonna go play that game right now.