Homebrew: AXE 1.0 Released (la1n, 2014)

[la1n]

Hack and slash game for Atari 2600 / VCS. Defeat the upcoming waves! Beware of the enemies with different behaviours! You can slash them, if they don't slash you, otherwise you die! And: Go over the screen borders to escape!

 

Runs on Stella or on intellicart (tested). Source-Code included but don't look at it or you will be slashed to hell! And it is concept: No fancy rainbow stuff - should be a game style from 2014.

 

Enjoy and let's do retro!

 

Greetings to all coders out there

 

t00cg@la1n

 

More infos in the info.txt

AXE_100.zip

[la1n]

Development Comments and earlier versions you find here on atariages:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/220764-axe-hacknslash-homebrew-game/

[godzillajoe]

Fix it and release 1.1. This one's pretty awful. Sorry.

[+Gemintronic]

It's a good start! Two things:

 

* Starting at the far right makes to near invincible.

* The reset switch doesn't work (or hasn't been implemented)

 

It seems pretty barren for a 1.0 release.

[godzillajoe]

Loon is much more diplomatic

[la1n]

will look into the bug and the reset. thanks for this feedback.

 

but: 'barren' is concept. simple gamemechanics. i will not change the graphics. this is a game in the style of 2014 and not 1983. otherwise i would use rainbow effects, linecolors. and of course it is assembler - that is the approach.

 

t00cg

[GroovyBee]

Interesting! I had a quick play and here are my thoughts on the game, as it stands :-

 

- The game doesn't let the player know how well they are doing. How about having the wave number on screen while you play? Then at least you know that you got further in the game than the last time you played.

- How about adding an on screen countdown timer so that you know how long the current wave is going to last?

- Maybe add a bigger multi-hit boss every few waves to add to the challenge.

- I'm not sure if its a bug but when my avatar was attacked by two enemies very close together I always died after killing the first one.

- It needs the equivalent of a high score display so you can aim for something to beat. Maybe display the highest wave number the player achieved on the title page too.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Necron99]

I rather like the visual and gameplay style of the game, but I agree with GroovyBee on most of his points.

 

on my first play through, I was confused because it didn't seem to be going anywhere. adding points/wave number sure would've eliminated that confusion.

 

keep it up! looking forward to more from this!

[la1n]

hi together, thanks for the input.

 

i will try to implement the one or other point. the most important problem seems to see progress/waves. i tried to work there without points/waves numbers and took background colors but seems to be too strange and too visual. so i will see how to implement progress now. but first i have to 'finish' the intellivision game i work on (score, level and lifes are in it there .-)

 

till soon

 

t00cg@la1n

[DT Kofoed]

After beating a certain number of waves, did I just turn into a CASTLE? Did I win? That was confusing.

 

I dig the color changes to mark the waves, but I do think more variety in the enemies will go a long way in terms of player perception of the game.

[+cmart604]

hi together, thanks for the input.

 

i will try to implement the one or other point. the most important problem seems to see progress/waves. i tried to work there without points/waves numbers and took background colors but seems to be too strange and too visual. so i will see how to implement progress now. but first i have to 'finish' the intellivision game i work on (score, level and lifes are in it there .-)

 

till soon

 

t00cg@la1n

Intellivision game? Do tell.

[la1n]

"After beating a certain number of waves, did I just turn into a CASTLE? Did I win? That was confusing."

# castle at the end

the visual style is there not yet very good .-( this should be a statue/figure = you have won the game. but you are right i have to change this or create the manual and describe there the whole.

 

sorry about the castle .-)

[la1n]

Intellivision game? Do tell.

 

i am on a simple version of the flash game squares (2). the gamemechanics are simple but effective. very clever motivation cycle (stay way and take risk to collect points).

 

i will call it square! the gamemechanis is there, there are levels and it is ok. but at the moment it is so ugly .-) i have to change a lot - it is not ugly like AXE .-) but more from the colors. and i don't know yet if i wanna make it more 2014 style (squares) or more 1983 with bugs, heros etc. or perhaps both things.

 

but - no joke - the last 4 days i looked into vectrex programming and i don't know if i make now first a vectrex game before making a beta of square! .-)

 

but square! will be there in about a month or so.

[GroovyBee]

i am on a simple version of the flash game squares (2). the gamemechanics are simple but effective. very clever motivation cycle (stay way and take risk to collect points).

Plays like a version of Fast Food but everything comes at you in 4 directions and you only get one life. Will this be a game on a multi-game cart or a standalone game?

[la1n]

a little bit like fast food but with enemies .-)

 

#multicard

at the moment my problem is just to find a usb/multicart to test it on a real maschine. it looks like i have to make everytime a real version in us (eprom service) and than test it. and the rest (publishing) is a nice to have .-) = i don't know yet - i am open for everything.

Edited May 5, 2014 by la1n