Flight of a Dragon

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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Jubatian wrote:(I wish to have at least 8 or 10 levels, and that by my estimations will eat away the remaining space, I very much planned it through all the way: there is no such thing like "premature optimization" here. It is a design requirement to get it fit...).
That is really incredible for that many levels to be in the realm of possibilities. Surely everything is extremely efficient for that to even be a consideration, so hats off to you on that. I am quite sure more than a few people around here are eagerly awaiting to see how FoaD progresses :ugeek:
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uze6666
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by uze6666 »

Jubatian wrote:Back to FoaD: I like it that way, to use only ROM, it may be nice for some people to have it without the need to build the SD interface. Maybe after I completed it, I could design a "special edition" using the full 64K (no bootloader) with some bonus material such as some intro sequence. But first I will have to see how it works out within the 60K which is still a lot of design (mostly enemies, levels, some interaction fixes and enhancements, delicate stuff affecting the overall playability and fun factor of the game).
I can relate! For some odd reason, I'm stubborn to try to pack as much as possible in the 60K limit and not depend on anything else. Though I can totally appreciate what Lee has made with Alter Ego and Cunning's T2K. A 64K version sound *really cool* for those "hardcore" uzeboxers with the hardware to flash it. Could motivate some to get an ISP programmer and get out of their confort zone in order to flash their chip! :P
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Jubatian
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by Jubatian »

A small progress report then.

Since I do many things relating to Uzebox (most notably designing and coding video modes), FoaD fell a little back, however occasionally I do bits of work on it. I polished the game mechanics relating to the dragon's fire, fixed up minor things, and started designing some new enemies. I won't likely publish these until I have the complete game finished, just like for the UCC: it will be more fun if it appears all of sudden :)

Alec: Nice idea for the ISP, of course first I will release the 60K version, then I will think about what I could do with that 4096 extra bytes. It may be nice in particular for an arcade release with some fitting extra material.
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L4rry
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by L4rry »

Damn these yellow pixel dicks relentlessly trying to murder my dragon while he's attempting to escape. I'm just trying to pull his weight up the ledge and he's still getting it in the back. Even stretching his neck, desperately trying to see what's over the ledge and scramble to get there :( It's heart breaking. It doesn't help that the animation is so smooth it reminds me of my cats.

I don't care how many extra cycles you can save to make my shitty game seem smooth in mode 3, I'd rather you make sure that my favorite green dragon survives for a few more levels!

I'm super impressed with the potential of this game. I actually feel emotionally engaged. And it's all to do with your animation, character and game design.

Well done man!
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L4rry
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by L4rry »

Am I right in saying that the intention is here to have the dragon start off oppressed (underground and desperate) then progressing to above ground and then spreading it's 'wings' eventually if you will. So going from survival to action? With all the potential game play in between?
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L4rry
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by L4rry »

So essentially going from 'flight' (surviving) to 'flight' (dominating) ?
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Jubatian
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by Jubatian »

L4rry wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2017 12:48 am(...)
So essentially going from 'flight' (surviving) to 'flight' (dominating) ?
Huh, thanks for the kind words on this! :)

I am actually working on the game, but as you can see, I am doing a huge lot of things on Uzebox, and also a lot of other non-Uzebox things (such as trying to polish up a novel for publishing, and this weekend volunteering on a narrow-gauge railway), so naturally it experiences some delay.

It is challenging to balance the quantity of graphics assets, enemy types (including the code running them), game content, and then putting all that together hoping to keep it just below the 60K limit while completing the story in my mind.

The first level in the final will be easier (and I already made slight changes in the game's mechanics, the dragon's abilities to make things playing smoother), difficulty gradually increasing until the end of the game. I will try to not make the finished game too difficult as by the nature of it and with the AVR's limitations it will likely offer about 10-15 minutes of gameplay in a speed-run. So once you figure it out, you would be able to make attempts with speed-running, improving your score (which is challenging especially due to the penalties for killing people, so you have to consider carefully who you need to kill to progress faster or with less losses, and who should be rather left alive being evaded with an appropriate move).

Cats? By the way that's by no accident, the running animation was actually modeled after a cheetah's motions!

The "Flight of a Dragon" title is something I especially like due to the ambiguous interpretation, sure :)
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by Artcfox »

Jubatian wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2017 7:21 am It is challenging to balance the quantity of graphics assets, enemy types (including the code running them), game content, and then putting all that together hoping to keep it just below the 60K limit while completing the story in my mind.
I thought you made that video mode so it could read from the SD card for the levels. Are you not going to be using the SD card at all for storing the levels, or were you just talking about the assets that need to remain in the flash space?
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Jubatian
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by Jubatian »

Artcfox wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:20 amI thought you made that video mode so it could read from the SD card for the levels. Are you not going to be using the SD card at all for storing the levels, or were you just talking about the assets that need to remain in the flash space?
There will be no SD management in this, I especially want it to stick to the minimum hardware resouces an Uzebox game may demand. Mode 74 itself was designed so it can load from SD during the video frame if it is narrower (in FoaD there is no time for this, I planned that for my Outcasts game idea, but that will likely be an SPI RAM game), but that code is optional (compile time flag). FoaD currently has exactly, literally zero bytes of RAM free, and the levels are stored in ROM. There is no way to make room for level data in RAM, this game was designed from the start with minimum Uzebox hardware components in mind.
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Artcfox
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Re: Flight of a Dragon

Post by Artcfox »

Jubatian wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:54 am
Artcfox wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:20 amI thought you made that video mode so it could read from the SD card for the levels. Are you not going to be using the SD card at all for storing the levels, or were you just talking about the assets that need to remain in the flash space?
There will be no SD management in this, I especially want it to stick to the minimum hardware resouces an Uzebox game may demand. Mode 74 itself was designed so it can load from SD during the video frame if it is narrower (in FoaD there is no time for this, I planned that for my Outcasts game idea, but that will likely be an SPI RAM game), but that code is optional (compile time flag). FoaD currently has exactly, literally zero bytes of RAM free, and the levels are stored in ROM. There is no way to make room for level data in RAM, this game was designed from the start with minimum Uzebox hardware components in mind.
Cool. :)
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