Puyo Puyo WIP

[R0ger]

So I moved to next project. It's going to be clone of game called Puyo Puyo. It's somewhat less known outside Japan, where it's very popular till this day, and new versions are still being made (by Sega).

 

What I consider the 'classic' Puyo Pyuo is the early versions from Sega Megadrive.

 

Here is the first game, named simply Puyo Puyo: https://youtu.be/-rq3KpS__xU?t=0

 

You control two colored pieces at a time (called puyos), in way similar to tetris. If you combine 4 (or more) of the same color, the group will explode and vanish. But it's not really like tetris at all. You are not playing nice and clean to stay in the game as long as possible. It's 2 player versus game .. every time you score some points, they are converted to nuisance, or garbage pieces, which are thrown at your opponent. These can only be removed by exploding puyos touching them.

Also .. it's not just so simple as exploding groups of 4. If you explode group, and after the collapse a new group is formed and exploded, it's called a chain. And chains are rewarded in more or less exponential points bonuses. So you simply HAVE to go for chains. If you play against AI, you just need few short chains, speed is more important .. but pro players make chains longer than 10 basically every game. You also have to watch what's your opponent doing, and find the best moment to ruin his plans. So it's actually pretty deep game.

 

Example of pro players: https://youtu.be/f42ZhUKWBzs?t=6802

 

I plan to implement what's called Tsuu rules, which are based on second game of the series, Puyo Puyo Tsuu. Compared to the first game, if you explode some groups, and there is already some garbage waiting to fall into your 'well', instead of generating garbage for your opponent, garbage above your 'well' is removed. This rule is what allows for long exchanges of chains you can see in pro games. Tsuu rules are also current competition rules.

 

I don't want direct port or remake of any existing game and I don't even want to use any graphics or music.

I want the rules, and the general feel. So far I even plan to use Puyo Puyo name, even if it's Sega's property. Other community projects (like Puyo Puyo vs.) don't have problems with it, as long as it is profit free. I might change my mind though, for example to comply to Abbuc rules.

 

Here is demo from my current version, showing breaking, detection of groups, and collapsing, all the most time intensive phases.

 

 

And video (make sure to use 720p/50Hz mode): https://youtu.be/VAXHc5DWb0M?t=0

 

The character picture is based on Sega game, but it's just placeholder, to test the animation. I have most of the game logic already implemented, and the game can be somewhat played with 2 players, I'm currently working on dropping the garbage onto the opponent.

The game is still far from what I want it to be. You see, the original games are nice and cute, and rules are basically unchanged since 2nd game .. but they fail to show the depth of the game, and they wont help you at all in learning to play.

So I want my game to include training modes, and even lessons (based on tutorials from great fan site puyonexus.com).

 

The graphics mode I use is characters mode, obviously, and I use inversion and PMG to get extra colors. It's like psudo-attributes.

I fill PMGs using DLI, not DMA, so I can have only 1 byte of PMG data for each character line .. this makes manipulation the PMG data faster. Colors are picked so I can combine the colors, especially to create purple using red and blue, which merges flawlessly using PAL blending. Here are all the possible 50/50 patterns.

 

[Wilheim]

Love it!!!

[Mr Robot]

Amazing!!!

[SS]

I would love to see this come to fruition. I have long been a fan of "Puyo Puyo" since I first discovered it masquerading on the American Sega Genesis as "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine".

[R0ger]

I would love to see this come to fruition. I have long been a fan of "Puyo Puyo" since I first discovered it masquerading on the American Sega Genesis as "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine".

 

Yes ! I wanted to mentioned that one. It's basically reskinned PP1. What's interesting about it is that it has PAL variation. My focus is on PAL (though NTSC is not thrown out of window yet). Since all timing is frame based, I will have to change it. So i was thinking Sega maybe changed the timing when making PAL version, and that I can use it. But no, PAL Mean Bean Machine simply runs slower. While it's impossible to have the game frame perfect, I want to get as close to it as possible, at least so the general feeling is the same. Luckily guys at puyonexus reverse engineered most aspects of the original game.

Edited October 25, 2018 by R0ger

[Rybags]

Cool - looks a little bit like Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-move.

I used to play it in MAME a lot, and considered doing an Atari conversion.

Since it doesn't do a lot of movement - lots of stuff can be in motion but it can all be character cell based, the thought I had was to use a kernal to give more colour and move a missile which provides the aiming line.

[+MrFish]

Neat game... Looks good so far. I was actually talking about this one with NRV recently.

We were looking at the SNES version, which is probably close to the Genesis version.

 

Puyo Puyo (SNES)

 

Well... scratch that off the list...

Edited October 25, 2018 by MrFish

[kiwilove]

You may not be keen on the graphics side - but I think it could make use of animations as such - I'm not for graphics to detract from the gameplay - but think they can enhance the game and lift it - maybe equalling 16-bit versions of this game?

You don't have to design the graphics - as I'm sure there would be capable people willing to do that for you - if you so desire.

I presume the graphics animation won't take up a lot of memory - and is easy enough to add to the project?

 

There is no reason for games that are fun to play - to be able to look rather nice too?

 

I'm all for various puzzle games to be done for the A8 hardware - which tend to be playable over the long term.

 

Harvey

[R0ger]

You don't understand. I don't want to use original graphics because of copyright reasons. That does not mean there won't be any graphics or animation. There will have to be compromised, but not really that much.

The plan is for the ge to look good, don't worry ! Now if I succeed or not is different matter :-)

[emkay]

Ipressive.

I hope, some fitting music will be done for it.

[SS]

I don't want to use original graphics because of copyright reasons.

Honestly, unless you are planning to sell this game at a profit, I don't think that there is much need to be concerned about copyright. Fan productions released without profit to the community are generally overlooked. I would very much like to see this released as "Puyo Puyo" and with the classic graphics intact.

Edited October 25, 2018 by SS

[_The Doctor__]

no one says an anonymous fan sprite hack version couldn't mysteriously appear with said gphx... official release of game followed by crazy good other version no one knows where it came form

 

It's looking good either way...

[R0ger]

Thing is you never know with the copyrights. It's typically not the problem. But it might become one overnight. If only thing I use is name of the game, I can change it easily. If its complete graphics, I can't change it easily.

Also I don't really want to port any of those games specifically. I want new training modes and lessons. I might want to use different screen size. Of course the colors and other graphics limitation are very different. All these things complicate porting the graphics.

I could understand that people knowing the original well might miss the original characters. But then Atari is mostly new audience, so it won't be that painful. Also I'm pretty sure I wouldn't fit all of them.

And I don't even see point in making exact copies of games from other platforms. It just doesn't seem like fun. I think about this as brand new Puyo Puyo game, just done on 8bit Atari, because it's great platform.

Who knows, maybe we can settle for some classic characters DLC :-)

[R0ger]

no one says an anonymous fan sprite hack version couldn't mysteriously appear with said gphx... official release of game followed by crazy good other version no one knows where it came form

 

It's looking good either way...

 

Wait, do you suggest mine version won't be crazy good ?

I myself can't say for sure. I can do some basic anime fan-art. But this will require tons, and character design, and animation, and adapt everything into low-fi graphics. But that's the challenge, isn't it !?

[_The Doctor__]

lol, I love what you are doing, just trying to find a way around those pesky legal worries.... if indeed such a thing might exist.

[Mr Robot]

I'd rather the graphics were unique to the Atari version, you have more freedom in your development that way, you can make it truly your own creation.

[gorgh]

looking great R0ger! keep it up!

[Yautja]

Hi,

 

Any news on this project, so far?

 

- Y - 

[_The Doctor__]

On 11/10/2020 at 9:40 PM, Yautja said:

Hi,

 

Any news on this project, so far?

 

- Y - 

inquiring minds want to know!

[R0ger]

Sure sure .. totally not dead. Totally number 1 project. Still there was not much progress in 2020.

[+MrFish]

@VinsCool says:

 

Puyo Puyo - Sticker (NTSC).xex

 

[VinsCool]

2 hours ago, MrFish said:

@VinsCool says:

 

Puyo Puyo - Sticker (NTSC).xex 5.61 kB · 3 downloads

 

Well...

On 10/24/2018 at 7:51 PM, R0ger said:

I don't want direct port or remake of any existing game and I don't even want to use any graphics or music.

So that probably broke the rule in the OP  

By the way this is not actually my cover, it was arranged by a friend of mine going by the name SuperJet Spade, I only edited their .rmt module to work the way I wanted in my own RMT patch

I did, however, arrange the same tune before on a different system  

 

I also arranged a different tune, also on a different system

 

That being said, a faithful PoKEY recreation of the soundtrack is more than possible

[+MrFish]

On 10/24/2018 at 7:51 PM, R0ger said:

I don't want direct port or remake of any existing game and I don't even want to use any graphics or music.

 

56 minutes ago, VinsCool said:

So that probably broke the rule in the OP  

 

I guess I never read the preamble to this thread. I thought he was aiming at a straight port, as shown by the work done so far.

 

In that case, NRV and I will have to scratch that back on our list; since we were interested in doing a straight port.

 

On 10/24/2018 at 10:34 PM, MrFish said:

Neat game... Looks good so far. I was actually talking about this one with NRV recently.

We were looking at the SNES version, which is probably close to the Genesis version.

 

Puyo Puyo (SNES)

 

Well... scratch that off the list...

 

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, VinsCool said:

By the way this is not actually my cover, it was arranged by a friend of mine going by the name SuperJet Spade, I only edited their .rmt module to work the way I wanted in my own RMT patch

 

I like how your friend's arrangement uses a low E on the bass part. It makes some nice sounding chords on the A1 section of the tune -- with the higher chords vamping against it.

 

Edited July 8, 2021 by MrFish

[R0ger]

Really neat. But it's not new, right ? I think I've heard it already.

 

Anyway I indeed don't work on direct remake. I don't really see much point in direct remakes without any added value.

Also I certainly wouldn't go for the first Puyo Puyo. The game got lot better in second instalment, and those rules are used till today in new Sega games.

 

My idea is those current competition rules, and lot of lessons and training modes to hook new players.