Author Topic: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon  (Read 13253 times)

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Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #15 on: November 09, 2021, 11:38:13 am »
PROGRESS UPDATE:

First playthrough complete!  Most of the bugs have been squashed, and I think the game is mostly fair.  Here's what's next before I release an "early build" for final testing.

Saving games to appvars, plus a system to make sure a player can't save too often
A second playthrough to make sure everything works perfectly
Making the game's manual
A list of 12 bugs / items for polishing which are not worth listing here

Hopefully an early build will be ready within two weeks.

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2021, 06:08:43 am »
Small, relatively unimpressive  ;D ::)  screenshot as proof of progress.  You can save games by going to this tunnel to recover your full health, and there are now rocks / bushes in the main hub to blck your way and make it more clear which world you should go to.



Still on track to get a beta out within a week, although being ill caused a small delay.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #17 on: November 18, 2021, 01:40:57 pm »
I love those graphics. :) By the way, is the fade-in/out effect generated with grayscale or do you change the contrast? On some calculators the screen darkness is different than other hardware revisions or models, so the best thing would be to make sure the fade-out effect starts at the current screen contrast value and that fade-in returns to that value, rather than returning to a fixed value set by the game. One of my old calc RPGs is unplayable on a TI-84+ from 2011 because the screen is too dark to see anything.

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #18 on: November 18, 2021, 11:41:21 pm »
I love those graphics. :) By the way, is the fade-in/out effect generated with grayscale or do you change the contrast? On some calculators the screen darkness is different than other hardware revisions or models, so the best thing would be to make sure the fade-out effect starts at the current screen contrast value and that fade-in returns to that value, rather than returning to a fixed value set by the game. One of my old calc RPGs is unplayable on a TI-84+ from 2011 because the screen is too dark to see anything.

Yes, I thought the same, so the game currently fades-in and fades-out using the player's current screen contrast value.  I only have an emulator, however, so hopefully nothing unexpected pops up on a real calculator.   ;D

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #19 on: November 21, 2021, 08:59:59 am »
Second test-run complete!  I had to fix a lot of bugs that occurred from moving between levels, so I need to give it one more playthrough, but since this can be done in "invincibility mode," it shouldn't take long.

I also have to finalize the game's PDF manual.

Hopefully an early release build will be ready within three days!

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #20 on: November 24, 2021, 07:21:42 pm »
I didn't get to try this yet, but the next time I get on my 84+ this is the first game I load in. :)

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #21 on: December 12, 2021, 11:46:17 am »
Well, I thought the game was pretty much complete, but something was bothering me.  After level 6 there are no more "face 3 enemies at once," which is part of the challenge of the game and how you can use what you've learned.  I couldn't think about how to implement this because of several factors (including Megan's role as a helper), but now I can fix this.

I haven't received a single message about bugs or balance changes, so if all goes well, I'm going to officially release this the end of January 2022.  Here's a list of what I plan to change between now and then for those who are curious:

MAJOR CHANGES:
* Give Megan a stronger attack, but using it outside of emergencies or groups of enemies is disadvantageous
* Add groups of three enemies to levels 9, 10 and 11

MINOR CHANGES:
* Don't force Megan to always be the first to attack.  This can be the player's choice.  By forcing Megan to attack first, I found some frustration trying to take down shields with proton weapons.
* Make the enemies in levels 9, 10 and 11 a little weaker.  I'm okay with "farming" for money, but I felt it was getting ridiculous by level 9.
* Add an additional teleporter to level 1, further removing the frustration of not being allowed to save wherever you want
* Add another "automatic save point" to level 10
* Make it so that an enemy will launch a second attack after temporarily disabling a player or after being allowed to "dodge" again.  This means making a few enemies weaker to compensate.
* Take new screenshots (of course!!)
« Last Edit: December 14, 2021, 01:18:21 am by Hot_Dog »

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #22 on: December 21, 2021, 03:55:38 am »
I've given the game a third test run, and I think I'm happy with the results:

* I added three new enemies and some enemy groups to levels 8,9,10 and 11
* Megan has a decent weapon she can fire if need-be
* Weapons are much cheaper, but to offset this, it takes longer to level up.  This also solves a gripe I had of 2-hit enemies that could have been stronger.
* In spite of what the manual says, your team can no longer "gain up" on an enemy when you face groups of enemies.  This throws in a little more strategy and careful planning.
* Some enemies can now do two combined attacks.
* Better random-number routine
* Bombs can now only stun 50% of the time, but they have more attack power to compensate.
* The term "ray shield" is now "ray screen" to avoid confusion with normal shields.
* More bug fixes
* You can see how much strength your shields have, helping you to remember when you need to equip a new shield.

At some point I need to say "It's balanced enough.  It needs to get released."  But I found a rather critical bug.  I'm hoping this bug is just the result of wabbitemu going out of its mind after how many times I reloaded the app without saving leaving the game first.  In any case, I guess I need to test this game one more time, because I can't release it on TiCalc.org -- or on Cemetech for that matter -- if that bug isn't fixed.

EDIT: DJ Omnimaga, don't misunderstand me! Take your time!  The above is directed at myself -- at some point I need to say "Enough coding.  Enough new graphics.  The game's fine now."
« Last Edit: December 21, 2021, 05:02:50 am by Hot_Dog »

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #23 on: December 24, 2021, 01:28:55 pm »
What I can say is that this game is quite polished so far and you have polished it even more with this update I am sure (although I haven't gotten very far yet). :) Hopefully the bug can be fixed without too much hassle. Sometimes bugs take a while to figure out >.<

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #24 on: December 24, 2021, 10:11:54 pm »
What I can say is that this game is quite polished so far and you have polished it even more with this update I am sure (although I haven't gotten very far yet). :) Hopefully the bug can be fixed without too much hassle. Sometimes bugs take a while to figure out >.<

Thanks for the feedback  :)  It's encouraging to hear that the game is quite polished  :)

Thankfully, the bug is a quick fix.  It was a stack overflow bug, and the solution is quite simple.  I hope to have the "almost finished" product uploaded by next week.

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #25 on: January 10, 2022, 01:18:31 am »
The game's official release date will be January 31st!  (By "official," I mean that it will be released on ticalc.org and will no longer be considered "early-release.")

Apart from optimization and more spit-and-polish, here are some things I've changed:

* The very last level looks better now, with adjusted graphics and map layout.  Compared to my other levels, the last level looked rushed and unpolished, and it didn't look like it was at "night."
* One of your character's weapons can now damage 2 or 3 enemies at once, good for when you face groups of enemies.
* There are a couple of places in the game where your characters' health will be restored when you're about to face a "surprise" boss or a tough group of enemies.  The game will tell you that you're back to full health.

I think the last thing is to clean up the first level, since I found a few places where the transition from "metal" floors to "wooden" floors is somewhat ugly.  But I'm always finding some other things to adjust!  Come rain or shine, the game will be "officially" released on the 31st!

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #26 on: January 31, 2022, 06:17:51 am »
Well, I was planning on releasing this game by this time, but I've decided it would make sense to release both this and the CE version at the same time.

Yes, I've changed my mind!  I'm porting this to the CE too.  This is because it's actually not as hard as I thought it would be.  To save time and preserve the sprite art aesthetics, I'm just using my old assets, but with colour.  What you see in the animated (but unpolished) screen shot is a 96x64 screen stretched to 3x its size.





Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #27 on: January 31, 2022, 06:25:01 am »
Woah this looks pretty cool and I like how it still looks true to the monochrome version. :)

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #28 on: February 02, 2022, 01:40:39 am »


The "fight background" (the image behind the enemy you're currently facing) was / is a super easy feature to implement, so I'll add it to the 83+/84+ SE version too.

Admittingly, there's too much brown, so I'll take some inspiration from "DOOM" and add some blue / green carpets in some areas.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon
« Reply #29 on: February 02, 2022, 05:51:21 am »
Personally the preservation of the original resolution is my favorite thing for CE games (this is what I planned to to on the CE if I remade Reuben Quest 1 and 2 using grosged's sprite libs for TI-BASIC programmers). It makes it easier to port games and the style remains true to the original monochrome game.

Good job so far. :)