Omnimaga

Calculator Community => Other Calc-Related Projects and Ideas => TI Z80 => Topic started by: leafy on March 12, 2011, 12:11:39 am

Title: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 12, 2011, 12:11:39 am
I'm going to be starting a new scrolling platformer called THE SLIME.
It's just a concept now, but it's going to be a side project to Graviter. I'm working on the basic elements of the physics system at the moment.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 12, 2011, 12:15:30 am
Will you use the same engine as in Graviter? What will be the theme? Will it be more like an adventure game with enemies and power ups like Mario?
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 12, 2011, 12:35:42 am
I will use a similar engine to Graviter, but it will be more adventure-oriented rather than puzzle-oriented.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 12, 2011, 02:59:53 am
Cool to hear. We need some more of these games on calc. :D
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: ztrumpet on March 12, 2011, 12:07:56 pm
Sounds cool.  Good luck! ;D
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: aeTIos on March 12, 2011, 12:09:38 pm
wut?
This has actually like the same name as a casio rpg...
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 12, 2011, 01:25:55 pm
really? I may have to change the name, but i don't think it should be an issue since this is a ti-84 game
I'm going to work on the tilemapper first, then move onto physics elements such as walking, running, jumping, and wall-jumping.
I'm also debating using greyscale, but greyscale often doesn't go well with scrolling.
Also, if I wanted to use /256 with scrolling tilemappers, how would I do it? I thought variables only go to 256.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: squidgetx on March 12, 2011, 01:38:53 pm
Vars and other two-byte pieces go to 65535. So if you're using 256 precision, you have a range of 0-255
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 12, 2011, 03:11:27 pm
Hm. I'll try posting my results in a couple of days. If fractional movements don't work, I guess i'll have to go with a less-smooth integral movement.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: Ashbad on March 12, 2011, 03:42:28 pm
well, I actually encourage you to do simple one-pixel-at-a-time movement -- fractional movement could look really clunky, and it would be a little bit slower to do all the calculations.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 12, 2011, 10:48:55 pm
True that.
I've used a modified version of squidgetx's scrolling tilemapper, and I decided to make the menu FIRST this time. The tilemapper is reasonably fast at 15mHz.
How do you store a large tilemap (say, 40 by 40) into L1 if you're using full-byte tiles? Because it ends up being 1600 bytes and that's over L1's 768 or so byte limit?
Also, I'm modeling The Slime after Super Meat Boy, which by the way is an awesome game. It's not going to be the same at all, but much of the physics and maybe some of the sprites will be similar.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 13, 2011, 04:22:36 am
Monochrome would be fine I think. It's possible to make good looking monochrome games. Also I think the name is fine, since the other game was a RPG anyway. As for L1 I think for anything larger than L1 you need to use an arbitrary buffer in your program or split the data accross multiple safeRAM areas, such as L1, L3, L4 and L5. However that could be a bit tricky to get to work. X.x

Also please make sure the first levels are reasonably easy/medium difficulty, like in SMB for example, then increase in difficulty later, rather than starting immediately with hard levels. X.x We have to take in account not everyone can beat Kaizo style games. :P
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 13, 2011, 10:39:45 pm
Haha no worries, this will be aimed at everybody and not just "hardcore" gamers.
I'll post a screenshot as soon as I get this tile detection working.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 13, 2011, 11:33:28 pm
Cool to hear. How will be detection btw? Is it pixel-based?
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 13, 2011, 11:40:05 pm
I'm deciding between actual tile detection or back-buffer based. I think I'll go with tile detection so that I won't have to draw sprites twice.
I don't like front buffer pixel detection because you can't decide what to detect and what not to :)
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 13, 2011, 11:42:09 pm
Yeah in Supersonic ball I used the backbuffer for detection and if I used a real tilemap it would have been insanely slow. X.x

Good luck whatever you decide.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 14, 2011, 02:46:10 am
Okay, I am debating using half-byte tilemapping or full byte. Full byte will be more a problem but can allow for a much larger tileset ,which is generally a good thing with platformers. Half-byte will be slightly slower but easier to handle with free RAM and will allow for larger maps.
Which should I go with?
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 14, 2011, 04:00:40 am
I would personally go with full bytes, unless you plan to have loads and loads of massive levels. Otherwise you could go with half-bytes I guess. If you only plan to use 16 tiles per map, you could simply switch between palettes of 16 tiles. I would personally test out first, in case it gets too slow for a platformer.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 14, 2011, 04:01:57 am
What's the largest square tilemap that L1 could support in full-byte? Would it be floor(sqrt(768))? Or whatever bytes L1 has?
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: sjasogun1 on March 14, 2011, 05:10:35 am
I just noticed this, the names are really similar :P But my game is an RPG and yours is going to be a platformer from the look of it. I'm curious to see some screenshots, especially of the wall-jumping! Too bad I don't own a TI-calc though...
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 14, 2011, 06:48:14 pm
Hm, maybe I will use the front buffer, just because it's so convenient xD
and fast, too.
@Squidgetx How do you account for when the pixels are off the screen? You use a for loop for hit detection, but what if the pixels aren't on the screen when the for loop reaches it, or do you just set a terminal velocity?
EDIT: Oh wait, I get it.
EDIT2: I'll use the tile detection method from Graviter but the tilemapper from squidgetx's sand land, I guess.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 15, 2011, 01:13:13 am
Alright, I got a rudimentary menu system in place and i got my tile-checking working. I'm going to make mine differ from squid's in that when the tilmeapper reaches the edge the sprite moves rather than the map.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 15, 2011, 08:16:54 pm
Aw right, I got it working. Time to get walljumping in, then moving to specialized tiles!
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 16, 2011, 10:51:43 pm
Okay, wall-jumping and some cool new elements have been implemented!
Screenshots soon.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: Darl181 on March 17, 2011, 01:31:11 am
Cool, can't wait to see what this looks like ;D
So, just to clarify, it's a smoothscrolling physics platformer?
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 17, 2011, 01:56:27 am
Indeed it is. Although im going light on the physics to boost platforming elements.
So far ive got teleporters, keys and doors, boost tiles, wall jumping, and coveyer belts.
Also, another epic death animation in the works.
and its all fairly fast in 15mhz mode. Its pretty fast even in 6.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: Darl181 on March 17, 2011, 02:01:52 am
So, wall jumping is like bouncing off the wall, or the ability to jump back and forth up a pair of parallel walls?
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 17, 2011, 02:08:08 am
Both (youll see when i post my screenie) i cant do it now because only my friend has the cable.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: Compynerd255 on March 17, 2011, 11:15:38 am
Sounds like you're making some pretty cool progress on this game. I can't wait to see a screenie of it.

I just want to get this clear. So, The Slime is just the name of your character in an adventure platformer? That's totally okay if it is, but I clicked on the forum thinking you were making a game with a fluid, ameoba-like slime in a platform game. That would be a cool project for someone to make.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: shmibs on March 17, 2011, 03:08:23 pm
this sounds rather interesting, leafiness.
if you're having trouble fitting everything into RAM i would suggest using full byte tiles, which allow for greater variety and are faster than half-byte, and storing your maps in a temporary appvar that is deleted upon exiting. it may take up a bit more prog-RAM, but i doubt your platformer engine will be larger than 16kb max(if it's really ridiculous), leaving you room to work with.

good luck!
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 17, 2011, 10:07:22 pm
I'll be keeping the scrolling tilemapper, but the sprites will change radically over the course of development.

(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/thelim.gif)

(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/menu.gif)

Controls: 2nd or up to jump, hold alpha to run, left/right arrow keys to move around.

EDIT: The entire source has been posted for those who want to take a gander at it.
The subroutines (movement, tilemapping) are all in ASLIMESR and the object routines (portal, keys) are in ASLMOBJR.

Note that this game is still pretty darn buggy. Especially the portals.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 17, 2011, 11:28:04 pm
I'm thinking of using the same engine to port the Mighty Jill Off to the calc.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: leafy on March 18, 2011, 03:17:49 pm
Mods the slime is being discontinued; the engine is being revamped to be used in another project i'm working on. Feel free to delete this thread.
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: Builderboy on March 18, 2011, 03:43:03 pm
Nah we don't delete threads, we just keep them in the forums so anybody who wants to read it can have access to it :)
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: JosJuice on March 18, 2011, 03:46:56 pm
Nah we don't delete threads, we just keep them in the forums so anybody who wants to read it can have access to it :)
A lock, maybe?
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: Builderboy on March 18, 2011, 03:48:13 pm
Well this is leafiness's thread so I believe he can lock it if he wants to :)
Title: Re: The Slime
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 23, 2011, 04:06:01 pm
I'm sorry to hear this is dead. Glad this spawned another project, though. ALso this one seems pretty fast. Maybe someone could try making a Sonic game but without the sonic physics for the calc? (Supersonic Ball style maybe)

(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3651.0;attach=2014;image)