WizardBone

hahah that is a good point though. If it were real life you would be able to open a can one hand, with your gun ready to fire in the other. I like how everyone brings up good points and melts my brain how I will do this in the end.

Do you mean make animations of him walking backon and front on? I could, indeed, but I have no idea if it would fit. The character is made from two sprites. So that would require 8 or something more sprites for extra animations, but the controller would accept it no problem. bank limitation is tight. But its a thought. I would love that. I was obsessed with Contra and similar type games growing up. The influence is probably obvious hehe.

ahahah I know. My head is such a mess of it all, using the ideas to form a better picture. OK, so you mean, the button has to be pressed when you wanna collect an item(performs its action), the game would have to know when the player was on top of garbage. AND the button is also used to fire the gun as expected. THE PROBLEM would be you might walk on top of an item while trying to shoot an enemy? haha I sound dumb af., just wanna get the whole idea clear. BUT my answer, your problem would never exist actually. So your solution would work, this is because, if you play the game you will notice, each screen has two sprites for an enemy or items to pick. There is no screen where a monster is on screen as well as a item to collect. (that would have to be 3 sprites + sprites) BESIDE one screen, the eyeball will come with a bag, which can be worked around. Your theory would work now I think! if i got it right this time lol

This is also true. And makes me curious how it would be done. I'm not sure it's what you are thinking, but it could be possible the button fires as you would expect. But it would also be possible to trigger the animations if you are "ontop" of or "touching" the garbage items only. And depending if it's a garbagecan or bag it would use the proper sprite. That one would require a decent amount of time playing around, but it's an idea. I could be way off what you are talking about, feel free to correct my thinking lol main goal of this entire topic is to wrap my head about the best solutions Edit: As a game play example, the button is used for firing. It doesn't matter what animation is used when you wanna shoot because they are all designed to shoot. So you could be walking, shooting the gun. But if you walk into a bag, you can still shoot, but the game will switch the sprite to his crouch for a split second. standing back up when the items is collected. An automatic, game-controlled crouch when he touches items might be best way to say it lol I suck at explaining things

Sweet! I assume it's what people were talking about they would like to see. Not sure how else I would do it. Is it similar to what you were thinking for controls? (minus the new bugs lol) I found it better for battle, actually I found it to make the battle more of a challenge for some reason, even though you got more movement. So that's fine with me. It feels nicer, but I miss the animations lol Gonna have to suck it up and find another purpose for them somehow or use the free'd rom space for something else. Glad you like it better though.

I know I said I wouldn't do any update until later. But since I started this topic the "walking" topic is driving me crazy haha. so I opened up the game and had a look inside.to see what could be done just now. I made a couple changes to the controller, and those changes have a butterfly effect, it breaks other things, so ignore those lol. For now look at the walking without crouch and aim. Does that feel more natural? I find it interesting you can still collect garbage if you go DOWN over the bags. And open up a garbagecan if you go UPWARd, then downward again to collect the bag inside. This all would have to be redone, but interesting how it still kinda works out Let me know if this is any better. NewControl.bas.bin

This is the reason I added going up and down. It feels VERY limited when only going linear. Mostly because the sprites are doubled, they take up more space on the screen. Kinda feels like half the size of a normal game. :/ But the comments on this topic are confirming I dunno what I will end up doing. haha I have the same thoughts as everyone all in one lollll I was thinking exploration would be the next step. But now I'm thinking that figuring out a new control system might come first now lol Seems to be the biggest issue. I think every way I will do it will have some type of issue, because he has so many functions. Edit: here thinking. it IS possible to have best of both worlds. While on the street he cannot crouch or aim upward. Use it for walking, and the button for firing. And when you go inside a building you will not be able to walk up and down, because the interiors are linear left to right. So there u use crouch and aim. Maybe that would be super weird, not sure. Just a thought. You would have to shoot that garbage cans open on the street, instead of opening them with the up direction. (It was done like this first actually)

Hey guys just seen the convo lol You could do it, just bring a timer into it so it counts if you are holding the fire button down or not. But that might get weird as well. It would fire off missiles while you hold it down waiting for the second action. I think. Edit: Maybe not so weird, depends if you can separate the tap, like said above. Hmmmm dunno now. For me, I feel like all the problems disappear when you stop walking up and down. Davy wasn't designed to do that haha first It was only walking left and right, aim up at things above you and crouch for things below your bullet line. Walking up and down the road might be what fools everything up.

Thank you for the words and time playing Splendednut! Feel free to leave any thoughts on things missing or needed fixing. Might be stuff I'm unaware of.

The pressing up HAS to stay as far as i'm concerned. Opening up the lids to the garbage is super cute hehe I'm a sucker for lil things like that.

Hhmm this is my problem. The first build of the game was walking left to right and the crouch was for ducking to shoot and avoid bullets. I sometimes feel like the real question is, do you need to walk up and down on the road, but it's main intention was so you have more area to run around in. I personally have no issue but I am also used it. I think what i'd like to know is how it feels with the joystick. MY atari is currently in another part of the country haha There are times I play the game and imagine it without pressing down to crouch and the animations give me that "missing of something" feel. OH my haha Glad I'm giving myself time to let it soup in my brains. Gonna have to make a final decision by the time I get back into it.

Hey kdgarris thanks for checking it out! The controls not being obvious seem to be a common theme among comments here. Going to have to seriously look into it! thanks for letting me know your experience!

Oh sick Neotokeo, that's cool you shared what someone was saying in the group. It's great feedback that I appreciate. Each one of those points are valid and need to be further looked into when I start again. Needing to restart on first screen and not title screen is a must, I couldn't agree more. Hopefully it kills some flicker. It's a battle lol. I am aware of the Blob flipping to the 999990, he sucks so many points he breaks himself:P I played with it a couple times, no idea why he keeps doing it. Great you saw it, so I know it'snot just me it happens too lol Thank you for testing it out Fehér

im 99% sure I've seen your game before?? is there a post or video about it? that looks awesome as well! In that case, it will look cool,, cuz yours does lol. Is there a bin I can try sometime? also hell yeahhh do a contra type boss, your game would suit it well!

I agree there, I like having one life a well. Run and gun for your life!!! loll

YESSS, do you know of any that have them? I'd like to see how it looks on vcs.

Thank you nanochess! Happy you like my trash loll

Well thank you cimmerian! You guys are really cool man. I'm glad you like the sprites. They were the reason I wanted to make the game honestly. How do you feel the crouch if you don't mind me asking. I still agree with a comment above, it's not really necessary but fits nicely with the aiming.

You know, you keep triggering interesting ideas. lol When you say fly up to shoot it's head it made me think of something. Remember contra? how the bosses body was the background and it's head or arms would be like moving sprites to destroy. I can totally see flying on a jetpack and making a huge monster that way. It would be HUGE like a building as you say. HMM

That is an interesting topic I'd like to talk about as time goes on. I'm glad you brought it up. An overall goal is indeed needed. As of now he is cruising the city picking up trash and blasting. But something like saving humans is a good idea. Maybe sometimes they are locked in a cage, which is why you would need to find colored keys maybe? I once had a thought the trash monsters kidnapped his kids, so he has to find them haha. Who knows! rescuing humans is also a good one. Maybe both? There are other project files, perhaps I will throw them up here on the topic one day. They are lil sections of ideas I was working out. One idea was reusing his garbage can as a jet pack. It works good enough, just didn't have anywhere to add it in yet. What happens is instead of walking left and right, it gave you the option to fly upward to get on top of a buildings. The main issue is limitation. So man ideas that may never all fit ! Thanks for bringing up saving humans, I like that! might be able to work it in : ). Edit: there is also a thing not included yet but worked out-ish. Sometimes when you open a can, a monster will pop out. So it's not always a safe bet to open them hehe

Jinroh, Thank you for playing! I glad you like the art, I am more artist then programmer I think? so I have been wondering if the gameplay was too simple or not. Anything you would do differently? Exploration is the next big step. I think it would make it more interesting and make the city seem bigger :)

Stanjr, the walking TV is a MONSTER in all senses lolll The highest score I've gotten was something like 5000, and then as you said WHAM! instant death before you get a chance to run away or shoot at him. It's really unfair to the player, And makes me really angry when I am doing good haha It needs to be changed in time.Maybe make him a lil slower, only take halflife, and make sure he can NOT pop up like he does before you get to react. THAT MONSTER! trashure is a hilarious word. Can I use it for the game? perhaps use it in the manual when all is said and done? Also, you nailed it, inside is where I want different power-ups, and trashure to pick up, stronger bad dudes (maybe a mini boss or something?) I really appreciate you actually playing it with real effort! gives me more reason to look forward to continue! Thank for your feedback man! BTW I just got home from wok, sorry for the late reply.

Bahaha the naked lady. She was gonna be a hologram type thing inside a building. Haven't started on going inside places yet. Not sure her purpose, right now for your viewing Edit: I seen your edit so now I reply same way , I sell it short because I know people are professionals here. And the guts of it are horrible. and buggy bug bug. It's far from complete so I figured it's better to tell people up front it's far from perfect, instead of working it up to be what it's not. That kinda thing rubs people the wrong way. By the time fall comes around I will be itching to get at it. I might before, dunno. But for now my brain needs a rest and work on other hobbies. IF you ever think of ways to improve between now and then, drop a line. There is no goal, just gonna go until I run out of rom space. I personally think I took on to much for my first game, here's to hoping it works out.

oh sweet! glad you like the sprites. They are the best part for me. Game play s lacking mostly. That's good to know the health is appealing to a player! It wasn't planned. I was having issues trying to get a health bar on top, and davy was standing next to a garbage can at the time and got the idea, so I thought it was cool enough and caused less flicker lol.

Cool! glad you tried it out. I googled Alien Storm, it looks amazing. And I have to agree now I see it! nice call. I feel you on walking over trash bit. It's always a consideration to change sometime. The game was FIRST written so you could walking left right only, you couldn't go up and down on the road, more platform styled. so the crouch was needed for avoiding enemy bullets, now it's just a pick up and kinda avoid a bullet if lucky lol