New Game! WINTER FORTRESS

[Phano]

I've been working on this for the past several months. It's not 100% done, but it's about where I want it.

 

Six pesky little penguin chicks have run off and gotten themselves lost in the mysterious ruins. You are the only one brave enough to rescue them! Smash away the iceblocks with your snowballs. To roll a snowball, hold the fire button and walk around the screen. Release the button to throw it. But be careful, this ice is so cold, you will be frozen solid if you touch it! To make matters worse, all this activity has activated the old sentries. They will track your position and start rebuilding the fortress. Take them out with a snowball. If you save six chics without getting frozen you earn an extra penguin.

 

Right difficulty toggles flashing effects and B/W toggles NTSC and PAL60.

 

I still need to adjust the startimg positions for each level and some of the colors in later levels don't make a lot of sense. The code is an uncommented mess, so proceed with caution.

 

Thanks for playing!

WinterFortress_ROM_0.5.bin

WinterFortress_SOURCE_0.5.bas

[TrekMD]

Cool, I've downloaded it to try it out.

[onemoretime]

Looks promising, though I was unable to melt any blocks

[Greenfuzz]

Is there a screenshot or video available?

[Phano]

Cool, I've downloaded it to try it out.

Thannnnnk yoooooou

 

 

Looks promising, though I was unable to melt any blocks

Ah! Sorry, I should have mentioned that the smallest snowball wont break any blocks!

 

 

Is there a screenshot or video available?

When I get home later I'll take a few screenshots. I realized I should have before posting but I was in a hurry. :U

[StanJr]

I'm having trouble rolling snowballs. I can start one (press the button) and then I can move, but only in certain directions and the controls seem to sometimes reverse (press down to face up). So I have the best luck rolling snowballs in one direction only. I've never been able to roll in more than two of the four possible directions. Is that intended?

[StanJr]

Also getting some control issues. If I start rolling a ball facing right and I press up (first I have no idea if I will be facing up or down), if I am close to the ice, I will sometimes turn into the ice and lose a life. The sprite seems to pivot based on the location of the snowball. Is this intentional? It makes getting the fifth penguin very difficult because of the confines. maybe I'm just not very good?

[StanJr]

This is what I mean. Facing right, then I pressed DOWN and turned into the ice and died, facing up...

[Phano]

This is what I mean. Facing right, then I pressed DOWN and turned into the ice and died, facing up...

Hmm, the idea is that the penguin needs to move around the snowball. So if you start a snowball facing right, pressing down will make the penguin face upwards and pressing up will make the penguin face downwards. This should happen every time, regardless of where the ice is. Think of it as where you want the penguin to end up in relation to the snowball rather than where you want the penguin to be facing. So if you are faving up and want to push the ball to the left, you need to press right. So you need to think ahead of how you want to position yourself. Eventually I want to compile a manual with diagrams that will help explain it.

 

It was much worse than this, in that the snowball would remain in the same location and the penguin would orbit around it, rather than both the ball and penguin rotating around a common focus. I feel that if the ball just snapped to the direction you want to go it would negate most of rhe difficulty. I'm not sure what this says about the general design of the game....

 

Thanks so much for playing in any case!

[StanJr]

Ok, that explanation of the controls makes much more sense now. I'll give it another go. So far I have been able to rescue 9 penguins! How does the difficulty increase after the first 6?

[Arenafoot]

Looks promising, though I was unable to melt any blocks

same here.......

[Phano]

Ok, that explanation of the controls makes much more sense now. I'll give it another go. So far I have been able to rescue 9 penguins! How does the difficulty increase after the first 6?

The enemy shows up and puts blocks down on a shorter timer, but I haven't gotten the timing just right yet!

[StanJr]

Is it possible to have the penguins trapped on the left, right, or bottom of the screen in addition to the top? I have worked out a pretty good pattern system for the 6 screens and as long as I have mastery of the controls, I can rescue penguins reliably.

[Phano]

Is it possible to have the penguins trapped on the left, right, or bottom of the screen in addition to the top? I have worked out a pretty good pattern system for the 6 screens and as long as I have mastery of the controls, I can rescue penguins reliably.

That's an interesting idea. There would need to be some kind of indicator of which edge of the screen to work towards. I still have missle0 free so that could probably be used. In the meantime I did make the starting location for the enemy somewhat randomish, but so far only on the bottom of the screen. This breaks up the pattern but only a little bit. I need to play around with it showing up from the sides and top.

[StanJr]

May not even need the indicator, just clear to a wall and see if it's open, if not, then move to the next. Would up the challenge. Or maybe if you hit the wrong wall that triggers an enemy to spawn.

 

With the ice and the penguins and all has all the same feels as Pengo, and I like the rescue aspect and the extra life after rescuing 6.

 

Is there any room to vary the screen layouts beyond the initial 6?