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Anguna (WIP Homebrew) -- Feedback Wanted


gauauu

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I'm getting close to finished with my first Atari homebrew game, Anguna (a de-make of my Gameboy Advance homebrew game of the same name) At this point, the code/engine is mostly finished, and I'm working on cleaning up bugs, tweaking balance, and finishing world content (the world is about half-done). I'd love to get some feedback from folks at this point about it.

Anguna is a zelda-like action-adventure game. You start in a dungeon with nothing but a sword, but as the game progresses, you find other items (bow and arrow, lantern, boots of water walk, dynamite, etc) as well as attack and defense powerups, and can increase your health by gaining levels fighting enemies. Anguna uses a password system and optionally the SaveKey to save your progress (I'm still awaiting an official save slot for the savekey, so it's using scratch space right now). The game uses the 16K F6 bankswitching scheme.

 

anguna_2016_05_03.bin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx516McaEqo


Some important bits of advice while playing:

  • You can toggle the subscreen using the color/BW switch
  • To use the bow and arrows (after you find them), press and hold the joystick button
  • Secret doors can sometimes be opened by killing all enemies in a room, or by walking through apparently solid walls
  • Only half of the world has been created so far. There's currently no way to cross the river, or to get the armor powerup that sits in the middle of the lake. There will be 3 more dungeons, more powerups, etc.
  • You lose your experience when you die, but keep any level-ups that you gained.

I'd love your feedback. Some specific questions are:

  • How is the difficulty level?
  • Are the colors/text ok on your Atari/TV?
  • Is the Color/BW Switch too hard to use for the subscreen?
  • Did you experience any show-stopping bugs?
  • Were there any aspects that detracted from the fun?

Thanks!

If you're interested, here's the world map so far, spoilered so it doesn't give anything away.

 

 

svgtK2b.png

 

Edited by gauauu
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Going to stella this tonight! Is there an instruction manual?

Not yet, but there will be.

 

I can help you with some some space for the SaveKey/AtariVox.

Thanks, Albert! SaveKey/AtariVox is one of the least tested parts right now (I just did a real quick cursory test in Stella to see if it seemed to be working), I'm planning to hash that out more thoroughly soon.

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I just downloaded this - it looks really good! There does seem to be a problem with the status screen, however. The scan line count jumps between 3 and 314 so the image is unstable. In the debugger, it does sometimes hit 262 - 280 and the frame is stable.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Good luck!

 

John

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I just downloaded this - it looks really good! There does seem to be a problem with the status screen, however. The scan line count jumps between 3 and 314 so the image is unstable. In the debugger, it does sometimes hit 262 - 280 and the frame is stable.

Huh. I'll take a look. It's probably during the transition between the regular screen and the status screen, as as far as I can tell, it runs steady at 262 once the transition ends. Does the screen roll/glitch on your tv? (on mine, it was fine, but every TV is different I guess). I'll take a look and see if I can smooth out the transition frames.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

Edited by gauauu
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Huh. I'll take a look. It's probably during the transition between the regular screen and the status screen, as as far as I can tell, it runs steady at 262 once the transition ends. Does the screen roll/glitch on your tv? (on mine, it was fine, but every TV is different I guess). I'll take a look and see if I can smooth out the transition frames.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I haven't tried it on a real TV yet, just Stella. Stepping frame by frame when the status screen is displayed is showing an almost random scanline count. I'll drop it on my Harmony and see if I get the same issue on my CRT and let you know what I find.

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I haven't tried it on a real TV yet, just Stella. Stepping frame by frame when the status screen is displayed is showing an almost random scanline count. I'll drop it on my Harmony and see if I get the same issue on my CRT and let you know what I find.

 

Weird. You're talking about the inventory/map screen that you access with the Color/BW switch, right?

Can you let me know what version of Stella you're seeing the issue on? I can't seem to reproduce it. (I get uneven scanline counts during the transitions still, which I need to fix, but it stabilizes quickly)

 

Alternatively, if you have time that you don't mind helping me, if you could grab a screen recording of the issue, it might help me reproduce it.

 

Either way, I appreciate you testing it!

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Weird. You're talking about the inventory/map screen that you access with the Color/BW switch, right?

Can you let me know what version of Stella you're seeing the issue on? I can't seem to reproduce it. (I get uneven scanline counts during the transitions still, which I need to fix, but it stabilizes quickly)

 

Alternatively, if you have time that you don't mind helping me, if you could grab a screen recording of the issue, it might help me reproduce it.

 

Either way, I appreciate you testing it!

 

Yes - the inventory screen, on Stella 4.7 I tried it on my Harmony and it works fine (no screen rolls) but the screen it does 'shake' during the transition (same when you move to another room), but as you mentioned you'll be fixing that in a later build. :) I don't have a way to get video but if you need it I'll download some kind of recording software so you can see it happening.

 

EDIT: Here is the video Anguna-Inventory-ScreenRoll-Stella_4.7.mp4.

 

I did play it for a bit too - it's a lot of fun! I managed to get a bow and arrow, while helped immensely for the battles with the green statue looking monster (not sure what it is), and I did make it outside which was really cool!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how this game progresses... good luck and great job!

 

John

Edited by johnnywc
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Whoa, that's terrible. I don't have that issue in 3.9.3 or in 4.8_pre, but I'll see if I can grab 4.7 and reproduce it and at least see what's going on.

 

is there sound on the actual game?

Yeah, for some reason my screen recording software failed to pick up the sound (I blame the weird Linux sound system). No music, but simple noises for attacking, etc.

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Would it be possible to get a damage bar for the enemies?

 

I considered it at one point, but it got bumped as I was trying to pack everything in. I'll reconsider putting it in if I have any rom space left at the end. (Either way, thanks for the suggestion!)

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Yes - the inventory screen, on Stella 4.7

 

I just tried it on 4.7.2 on linux, and didn't see it there either. I think I'm going to chalk it up to some weird fluke for now, unless someone else sees the same issue.

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I experienced a number of glitches that I don't remember experiencing in the previous .bin. I am playing on a television with a Harmony cart. I've played a few games and taken some notes, but really still need to spend more time with it.

 

The most noticeable and consistent problem was the transition between screens in the forest. It was very choppy with almost every screen. This did not happen that I noticed inside the dungeon.

 

I did NOT have any problems with the status screen.

 

I had a hard time using the sword when I had arrows. I kept shooting arrows on accident when I was trying to save them for later. I don't remember having this problem in the previous version and I remember it working well before.

 

I got stuck in a wall once, (in a room with a rock in the center, entering from above, forest) and I had an unexpected game over another time, (touching a white bat by the river).

 

The combat is less frustrating for me than before, but I guess i still do not find the combat very fun. If there is going to be as many enemies and fighting as there is i feel like those mechanics should be improved and it should be a highlight of the experience. .. The dragon boss was an exception for me, fun and gratifying combat.

 

Most of the sprites are okay for me, but the blobs in the dungeon are not as effective for me as the other characters. I'm not sure how you could improve those graphics without changing them to something other than blobs.

 

I think it would be cool to experiment with some of the colors in the game.

 

.. In the video and also in the status screen it looks like there are more areas to explore that I haven't found yet. I'm looking forward to finding those.

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I've had no problems with the status screen with stella. It happened to me where a bat got stuck in the wall or near the doorway, but that hasn't happened with my character.

 

I have had a bit of a hard time going between sword & arrow. It could just be me.

 

I am getting better at the combat, but I find the angle the sword/dagger comes out at to be less than intuitive. I would prefer it more if it came out waist level. My 2 cents :)

 

Thanks for a great game! I am enjoying it :)

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The most noticeable and consistent problem was the transition between screens in the forest. It was very choppy with almost every screen.

I'm not sure what the difference is, but I'll take a look. I noticed this on my harmony as well.

 

 

I had a hard time using the sword when I had arrows. I kept shooting arrows on accident when I was trying to save them for later. I don't remember having this problem in the previous version and I remember it working well before.

I have had a bit of a hard time going between sword & arrow. It could just be me.

Do you think that a longer delay between the button press and using an arrow would be preferable? This would make it harder to fire it off accidentally, but slower to shoot arrows when you really want to.

 

 

I got stuck in a wall once, (in a room with a rock in the center, entering from above, forest)

I'll see if I can find and fix this.

 

The combat is less frustrating for me than before, but I guess i still do not find the combat very fun. If there is going to be as many enemies and fighting as there is i feel like those mechanics should be improved and it should be a highlight of the experience. .. The dragon boss was an exception for me, fun and gratifying combat.

Is it the difficulty in making contact with your sword that's frustrating? Or do you think it's some other aspect?

 

.. In the video and also in the status screen it looks like there are more areas to explore that I haven't found yet. I'm looking forward to finding those.

Everything in the video should be available to find, but the map shows areas that aren't finished yet.

 

 

I am getting better at the combat, but I find the angle the sword/dagger comes out at to be less than intuitive. I would prefer it more if it came out waist level. My 2 cents :)

I'll think about this. It might make the combat easier, although I'll probably need to change some animations slightly to make it look ok.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

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Maybe you could add some kind of Collision Prevention so the player will smoothly slide along the walls. Example:

 

attachicon.gifex_sprite_with_collision_prevention.bin

Oh man, I was afraid someone would suggest this, thanks RT ;-)

 

I played with a number of ideas related to this. I'm short enough on processor time each frame that I haven't wanted to go back and add the computation to do predictive collision prevention. I eventually settled on what I have now, which is: once a collision occurs, alternate moving only the X and Y component each frame (until no more collisions occur), so that you don't get stuck on "sticky" walls, but you do still get slowed down (you only successfully move every other frame in this case). It prevents the horrible sticky walls, but isn't quite as nice as proper collision prevention. I'm going to leave it for now, but I'll keep it in mind if I have time/space once I've added the rest of the world content. (Either way, thanks for the suggestion!)

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Tried it on my Harmony and did not experience any issues with the subscreen.

 

Did experience the choppiness throughout the forest screens, which was already mentioned. In addition, I got stuck in a lake (please see pic below). I eventually killed the bat but could not get free from the lake.

 

Also ended up on a screen with a few snakes and noticed that one snake was kind of stuck on the left edge of the screen. I was able to walk over the right edge of the screen and kill that snake, as if the screen wrapped around.

 

Won't comment on the colors, as I need a new CRT. Overall, I like the level of difficulty and am enjoying the game play.

 

Thanks. :)

 

post-21941-0-42704600-1462469219_thumb.jpg

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