Red Wizard Island

[r0ber7]

Hello.

This year I made a small game for the Amiga in Blitz Basic 2. When I released the first version, I thought, I could make this game entirely for the Amiga but that would mean I'd have a select group of players and a pretty hard time battling memory/cpu problems. So I figured I would go look for a way to keep most of the original code, and be able to compile for other systems. I'm so happy I found GLBasic.

So, you play a red wizard whose homeland has been invaded by vikings. It's a platformer with some RPG elements. You can (of course) cast spells. Right now the fireball is more or less working. This is the version I  released for the Amiga:

This is the re-write which I'm currently working on:

You charge up the fireball. The longer you charge the bigger it gets (and the more damage it will do eventually).

All pixels done by myself in old-style pixeling fashion, with the exception of the glow of the fireball which I did in Gimp. Also, the stars in the background is an image I took from some website, temporarily functioning as a background.

The music will be done by a friend of mine. We're thinking of a laid back medieval tune.

Some of the things I plan to add:

- A viking chicken that poops explosive eggs (probably an endboss)
- Shops where you can buy new spells and other stuff
- Unlockable doors
- Flying around on the back of a bird
- Running around on the back of a wolf
- More spells of course!

I will update this thread to document my progress, and to keep myself motivated.

[Omadan]

Well I hope this motivates you. I Kinda like your retro game. I really enjoy the charging up - release fireball thing. Really finish this mate because I think i would play it 100%. 

[monono]

Love it! 

[matchy]

Very cool conversion. Nice graphics and gameplay. 

[Falstaff]

Yeah looks great You'll have to have birds flying over head when you're riding the platforms and stuff to shoot at like that! I like the fireball charge up mechanic too, looks fun.

I've always wondered how to handle a side-scroller like that.. I'm comfortable with grid-like tile maps, but how do you make levels for that sort of thing? Are they just a big long sprite? How do you do collision?

[blackway]

Very nice pixel art !!
Keep up the good work! 

[Nathan]

Looks really good, what platforms (systems) are you planning to release it on?
The gfx look great, and I think we can always do with more indie RPG games.

[r0ber7]

Thanks for the feedback you guys.  I will definitely finish this, although right now I have little time to work at it. I just started a new job which is taking a lot of energy, but I'm thinking of new things to add in the future anyway. Once things quiet down a bit I'll be back at it. Meanwhile doing some small pixelwork, just little stuff, postponing working out the big ideas until I have more time and energy.

Looks really good, what platforms (systems) are you planning to release it on?
The gfx look great, and I think we can always do with more indie RPG games.

I'm thinking Windows and Linux, iPhone and Android, maybe more. For the phones and so on I'll have to see which controls would work best, and I'll need my friends to test on their systems but that'll work out. Because of the way the landscape gets built it's not really a big deal to change screen resolutions (except on very big screens which make the sprites look tiny).

Yeah looks great You'll have to have birds flying over head when you're riding the platforms and stuff to shoot at like that! I like the fireball charge up mechanic too, looks fun.

I've always wondered how to handle a side-scroller like that.. I'm comfortable with grid-like tile maps, but how do you make levels for that sort of thing? Are they just a big long sprite? How do you do collision?

The enemies in the sky are in my plan, yes.

I've coded a level editor (see attachment). It's a grid, every block is 32x32 and has a TYPE which holds integers like sprite_number, solid, wall and ramp to check if it's a solid object, and what kind, and which sprite, etc. Then in-game I check collisions for all solid objects that are on screen. Some of the objects that don't need collision detection (like the background mountains) aren't 32x32. For the ramps I use ANIMCOLL, for the squares I use BOXCOLL.

All blocks are stored in an array of the block type. Drawing goes like this:

Code: (glbasic) [Select]


....._____________......
:     |           |     :
:     |           |     :
:     | visible   |     :
:     | screen    |     :
:.....|____________|....:
  /\                 /\
  |---- draw here ---|

[attachment deleted by admin]

[AMateus]

Very nice indeed

[Nathan]

I will definitely finish this, although right now I have little time to work at it.

I know the feeling, after doing a full time day job and then motivating yourself in evening to do some more "work" is quite tricky.

[Crivens]

Just get an irritating git or two to test it out during work lunchtimes. Gives you loads of motivation for a bit

Cheers

[r0ber7]

Hahaha, I'll keep that in mind.

[Nathan]

Just get an irritating git or two to test it out during work lunchtimes. Gives you loads of motivation for a bit

Cheers

+1

[r0ber7]

I had the afternoon off, so I made some barrels explode. 
Hitting a barrel with a fireball now causes it to go boom and release goodies (coins, potions). If you like things that go boom, watch me testing it out here:

I've noticed sometimes the bouncing powerups get stuck near a solid block. Will fix that on friday, won't be a big thing. Unlike the segfault I spent most of my time on today. But it in the end, that's why I like programming. Solving riddles.

[Nathan]

Wow, you have loads of objects on the go there, impressive stuff.