185 replies to this topic

[Byte Knight]

Hi guys,

I've been working on my next Adventure game for the last few months, and I think it's gotten to the point where it's actually kind of fun to play.  Created with the DPC+ kernel (you'll need the latest version of Stella to play), it's preliminarily called "Epic Adventure".

It's an entirely new Adventure game built from the ground-up featuring 32 rooms / mazes with all-new items and enemies (see picture below).  It's kind of a mixture of Adventure and Lord of the Rings.  The goal of the game is "the usual" - get the golden chalice back to your home castle.  But first, you must kill the Dragon in order for the chalice to appear in one of three places - the Wizard's Castle, the Dragon's Castle, or the Troll's Cave.



Some new features:
• upgraded graphics
• new torch lighting effect
• one skeleton key to open all castles
• staff for long-range attacks
• amulet makes you invisible to enemies
• you can make the hawk drop objects by sniping him with the staff (if you're quick enough)
• the hawk will sometimes pick you up if you don't have any items, and you can control his x-axis while flying.
• when you're in the same room as the palintir, you'll move at half-speed.

Screenshots:




Still to be done:
• add sounds / AtariVox support
• death animations
• gate animations
• better ending
• title screen with music
• add randomized Level 3
• add logo at bottom of screen
• add boss - the Evil Magician himself!
• add Easter Egg

If anyone has any special interest in doing the above, please feel free to contribute!

The demo is Level 1 of the game, with all of the items nonrandomized and easy to find in or near your home castle.  Test it out and let me know what you think!

 epicadv1.bin   32K   359 downloads

Latest version (Levels 1-3) as of 9/25/11:

 epicadv22.bin   32K   530 downloads

Special thanks:
Pac-Man-Red - nice Canadian who created all of the graphics.
RevEng - another nice Canadian who helped me figure out DPC+.
Random Terrain - batari Basic games would not be possible without his manual!
batari - all hail The Creator!

Edited by Byte Knight, Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:58 PM.

[ScumSoft]

Pretty nice!
There are some screen wrapping issues where carrying an object to the side of the screen and then dying, causes the object to be placed on the next screen over sometimes in an inaccessible location.
The Cave Troll also saw me while invisible, as I was carrying the amulet and thus ran into the afore mentioned issue.

I <3 adventure games!

[TrekMD]

Wow!  Very nice!

[RevEng]

Really nice job, Byte Knight! I especially like the double-sized enemies, alternate objects, and the flickery mazes.

[gambler172]

Hi B K
Wow,this looks amazing.Even better than your last game.Let me know,if you plan a release.
Sure,i would take one.....
greetings Walter

[Byte Knight]

ScumSoft, on Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:08 AM, said:

Pretty nice!
There are some screen wrapping issues where carrying an object to the side of the screen and then dying, causes the object to be placed on the next screen over sometimes in an inaccessible location.
The Cave Troll also saw me while invisible, as I was carrying the amulet and thus ran into the afore mentioned issue.

I <3 adventure games!

Hey Scumsoft,

Thanks for trying it out!  Which object were you having problems with?  The ring acts as a magnet so there shouldn't be any inaccessible locations (unless you're at the very top or bottom of the map - I haven't fixed that yet...).  If it's the ring itself, hold down the button to "attract" it to you.

When you have the amulet, an enemy will still kill you if it happens to run into you, which was probably the case when the Cave Troll got you.  You're invisible, not invincible!

Todd

BTW - great job on EggVenture!  Very unique and fun.

Edited by Byte Knight, Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:06 PM.

[Byte Knight]

gambler172, on Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:14 AM, said:

Hi B K
Wow,this looks amazing.Even better than your last game.Let me know,if you plan a release.
Sure,i would take one.....
greetings Walter

Hey Walter,

If it ever makes it to cart, you'll get the first copy just like last time!

Todd

[NML32]

Nice job, it look great.

I really look forward to seeing it on cart.

[bomberpunk]

i love everything about this except the title. the word "epic" is overused as dumb slang these days.

[ntavio]

Looks fantastic Todd!  I especially like the winged dragon.

[moycon]

Wow this is looking GREAT!  
The HUGE characters are really cool.
Put me down for a cart if it ever gets released!

[Master Phruby]

Wow! This is great. You really topped yourself with this one. That winged dragon is amazing!

[jeffgamer]

Me too...I'd love to buy a cart if you release one!  :-)

[Byte Knight]

bomberpunk, on Sun Jul 17, 2011 8:52 PM, said:

i love everything about this except the title. the word "epic" is overused as dumb slang these days.

The title isn't set in stone, and ideally I'd like to call it "Adventure III" but I'm sure there are legal issues with that...

Todd

[Byte Knight]

Master Phruby, on Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:38 PM, said:

Wow! This is great. You really topped yourself with this one. That winged dragon is amazing!

Yeah, the winged dragon really turned out well.  There is no better 8-bit artist out there than Pac-Man-Red!

Todd

[Pioneer4x4]

I will check this out as well.

[GroovyBee]

Byte Knight, on Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:53 AM, said:

There is no better 8-bit artist out there than Pac-Man-Red!

There are quite a few good artists on AA including (in no particular order) espire8, sh3-rg, nonner242, Nathan Strum, PAC-MAN-RED and several others I've forgotten (apologies for that ).

[Bill Loguidice]

Looks great!

[abaudrand]

very nice. great graphics. (yet the playfield is not stable on my PAL system). wait for more!!!

Edited by abaudrand, Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:03 AM.

[Byte Knight]

GroovyBee, on Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:09 AM, said:

There are quite a few good artists on AA including (in no particular order) espire8, sh3-rg, nonner242, Nathan Strum, PAC-MAN-RED and several others I've forgotten (apologies for that ).

Ok, how about there is no better 8-bit artist that shares so freely in this forum as Pac-Man-Red?

[GroovyBee]

Byte Knight, on Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:15 PM, said:

Ok, how about there is no better 8-bit artist that shares so freely in this forum as Pac-Man-Red?

Hmmm... I've worked with several different artists on my projects and I honestly couldn't pick the best. They've all done a fantastic job.

[atari5200dude82]

Looks awesome TODD. Really cool and awesome graphics. Put me down also when you put it on cart. Good work. Is it  also going to be complete in the box.  

Edited by atari5200dude82, Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:26 PM.

[Philsan]

Byte Knight, on Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:15 PM, said:

GroovyBee, on Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:09 AM, said:

There are quite a few good artists on AA including (in no particular order) espire8, sh3-rg, nonner242, Nathan Strum, PAC-MAN-RED and several others I've forgotten (apologies for that ).

Ok, how about there is no better 8-bit artist that shares so freely in this forum as Pac-Man-Red?

I agree with Todd.
There are a few good artist but PAC-MAN-RED shares sprites in his thread giving us inspirations to program new games.
When I asked him to convert Rocky Horror Show sprites he has done it quickly even thought I was not sure to make the game (I have done a little demo so far, DPC+ opens new horizons).
Therefore for me Illya is #1.

[ScumSoft]

Byte Knight, on Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:45 PM, said:

ScumSoft, on Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:08 AM, said:

Pretty nice!
There are some screen wrapping issues where carrying an object to the side of the screen and then dying, causes the object to be placed on the next screen over sometimes in an inaccessible location.
The Cave Troll also saw me while invisible, as I was carrying the amulet and thus ran into the afore mentioned issue.

I <3 adventure games!

Hey Scumsoft,

Thanks for trying it out!  Which object were you having problems with?  The ring acts as a magnet so there shouldn't be any inaccessible locations (unless you're at the very top or bottom of the map - I haven't fixed that yet...).  If it's the ring itself, hold down the button to "attract" it to you.

When you have the amulet, an enemy will still kill you if it happens to run into you, which was probably the case when the Cave Troll got you.  You're invisible, not immortal!

Todd

BTW - great job on EggVenture!  Very unique and fun.

Thanks, still working on EggVenture. Release testing has shown a few things that need redone in the game, so it's still not quite finished yet

I should have taken a screenshot of what happened, I was up one screen from the starting castle holding the amulet, the amulet was at the bottom of the screen so it wasn't shown, then the Cave Troll appeared and killed me. After respawning the amulet was in the top left of the castle screen. I'm not sure if this is a required item or if it shows up again somewhere. But this is the gist of the bug, if it's really even that.

[Edit]
I would also like to credit PAC-MAN-RED for his shown efforts here. Many of us can't do great sprite art like his and really appreciate the fact that he has released so many quality sprites for everyone to freely use. All he asked in return is that he gets credited for his work, which most of us will gladly do. EggVenture uses his Spider and Bat sprites, I did the rest and it shows. His look far more animated and detailed than mine do.

PAC-MAN-RED's sprites are very pleasant to look at, so well done scripting them into your game!

Edited by ScumSoft, Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:16 PM.

[Godzilla]

wow this looks great, can't wait to see where it goes!