Dragon's Descent - Action/Roguelike for the 7800 (ported from the 2600)

[+Karl G]

I think the movement is the same as on the 2600 version - you have to remember that your dragon has momentum.

[DragonGrafx-16]

I think the movement is the same as on the 2600 version - you have to remember that your dragon has momentum.

I've noticed that the movement is much more manageable with a dpad than it was with a joystick. With a dpad you can tap to make shorter movements with far less effort.

[Revontuli]

Thanks for everyone's feedback!

 

Here's a video of the first three levels, up to the midboss.

 

There are four more levels after this in the default (non-infinite non-random) mode, with more enemy types and a final boss on level 7. If you play infinite/random mode you potentially have thousands of levels. To say nothing of a hidden boss and easter egg.

The controls are meant to be a little floaty, but I'll do a little more testing. While moving can be tricky, I've been able to do some cool maneuvering with some practice. I admit I still haven't tried with a genuine 7800 joystick, I'm mainly just testing the keyboard for the moment.

I'm on the fence as to whether to adjust things or see if people can get the hang of controlling the dragon as they continue to play the game - there are some dynamics at this current acceleration and speed that I like, that might be hard to re-capture if I change the controls. There's a tension of wanting to charge forward versus carefully sneaking into a new room that I like, but I need to see how well this plays on various d-pads and joysticks.

All that said, some advice for those who keep hitting walls or are otherwise stumbling with the controls:

-Running blindly into a room is asking for disaster. If you know the maze, you -can- race through the rooms rather quickly, but exploring new territory requires care.

-The default setting has a treasure room you can't miss - try collecting a heart to give yourself some more hit points as you get used to the game.

-When entering a room with a straight route to the other side, you -do- have enough time to run through a spawning enemy without getting hit if you're bold enough. You can touch or even pass through the enemies as long as they're still materializing. You can see me do that once or twice in the video (check around 0:36-0:41 in the video).

-You can move, turn behind you, and fire while moving in your original direction if you're nimble enough.

-On a related note: one can be strategic about enemy spawn points - They're always close to entrances, and you have a little lead time to get out of the way. If you hear the spawn noise, and an enemy appears under you, you do have time to move clear, so hurry and get out the way! You should also have enough time to turn and blast 'em as they appear! The Masque in particular might seem sneaky about spawning at first, but it's pretty easy to manipulate (you can see me doing so a few times in the video, like around 1:49).

-Backtracking and coming back to a room is a valid tactic (see around 2:26-2:32 in the video) if you suddenly find yourself ambushed by a spawning enemy (or one that's just annoying) - just keep in mind there's a soft time limit (bad things start happening if you stay on a single level for too long), so it's not a good idea to do this too much.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Revontuli

[AtariBrian]

Wow great job . Love the look of your dragon and everything else really . Also really like the music . Would love to also hear what synth could do for pokey sound ! Could the mid boss speed up and or change patterns as you get closer to killing him ?

[sodarun]

Love it

[Jinks]

This looks really cool.

It is amazing more coders are doing 7800 stuff. Thanks to 7800 basic..

Edited June 15, 2019 by Jinks

[Jinks]

Can more music be brought in every 3 or 4 levels? Sounds like a metal guitar solo/melody part. Maybe some different weapons that sound different when fired?

What happens when you touch the walls?

I am very excited for this game. The 7800 needs more of these types of games for sure as it has none like it.

[+sramirez2008]

Wow this looks great Has anyone tried adding this to a Mateos cart? If so, is the .48K extension the right one to use with this ROM? - Thanks.

[+TrekMD]

That is looking awesome!

[Revontuli]

A new build today: DragonsDescent_6_15_2019.a78 I added an "Easy Mode" where the walls are non-lethal!  Or rather, a "Hard Mode" that uses the original 2600 design of lethal walls.  I know some folks have found the controls tricky to handle, but this might make the control scheme easier to manage as you learn.  It should still be considered practice for the hard more, though 😁

 

Right now I'm giving a 70,000 point "bonus" for choosing hard mode - really, just a way to add a "7" to the front of the score and show a score was made using Hard Mode or Easy Mode (you'll have to play long and well to change that 7 in either mode!).  It's hacky, and I'm still thinking about ways to differentiate the scores without changing a whole lot more of the game, but hopefully this will work for now. 

 

As a side note, I've had the high score crash when trying to add 700,000 to make the 7 the first digit, so it's the second digit for now.  

 

P.S. Hey, cool new forum!

[gambler172]

made it to level 3 😁

[+Trebor]

Wow, this is impressive.  The animation of the dragon and the enemies is wonderfully done.  I really enjoy listening to what was accomplishment with TIA.  The background melody is a pleasure, and love that it doesn't become broken up, or momentarily paused, when the sound effects are heard.  This game overall is captivating and engaging; great job!

 

Gameplay, some issues have been mentioned:

 

It was not an easy start or break-in for newbies.  The walls of death could have been a deal breaker for some to enjoy this game.  The latest version providing an 'Easy' mode is an excellent alternative to the real challenge as well as a way to capture, engross, and encourage a larger audience to play (longer).

 

I've grown to like the controls.  At first, I felt it may be a bit too loose; however, that was with the walls of death couple with my first few games.  Several games later, I learned to adjust and have better control and judgement (usually).  Perhaps though, a Fast Dragon (Default) / Slow Dragon (Alternative) option-setting can be entertained.  Not necessarily cutting its speed in half, but maybe 2/3 or 3/4 of the default fast.

 

Enemy spawning is an issue.  It may have not been mentioned if the issue occurs once in a blue moon.  However, the issue is pretty prevalent, even at the beginning, first level and just a couple of screens in.  I wanted to make a much longer gameplay capture video, when this happened:

 

 

 

Ignoring the detection being a tad sensitive, but technically accurate, since the tip of the dragon's tail did hit the wall when I pressed downward just before the first life hit occurred, what transpired after, regarding the enemy literally spawning on top of the dragon and not even allowing a chance to breath, is a bit much and cheap.

 

Two schools of thought for this: 

1.  Have enemies spawn always at least x-distance away from a player, never on top of the dragon.  Adjacent to the dragon is fine.

Or/And

2.  A longer invincibility window when the dragon respawns (Additional ~2-3 seconds).

 

Again, overall fantastic; an excellent job. Somewhat small issue aside, this is already a pretty well-polished game. 

 

Thank you for sharing it with the community!

[DracIsBack]

love it!

[Jinks]

I downloaded this to my concerto after warming my cart up there is no crashes and sometimes a slowdown that orrects itself. I made it to level 6 and died. Very cool game. I wish you could shoot vertically. The controls are perfect. Lots of surprises to be found... A must play for any 8 bit gamer..

[Revontuli]

8 hours ago, Trebor said:

regarding the enemy literally spawning on top of the dragon and not even allowing a chance to breath, is a bit much and cheap

Good news!  I finally added in a check that makes sure the enemies won't spawn top of you!  I figured out a fairly elegant way to do it that works for both the 2600 and 7800, and managed to squeeze out the bytes I needed for the former.  I'll be uploading the 2600 update to its own thread soon, after I'm done with initial tests.  As with any fast update, let me know if anything's broken.

 

New build here: DragonsDescent_6_16_2019.a78

 

The exception for spawning on the player is The Masque - that's kind of its thing, but that particular enemy doesn't appear until a few levels in. 

 

I'll be adding updated builds to the original post once the new forum update settles, for now folks will need to read the most recent post for updates.

Edited June 16, 2019 by Revontuli

[DragonGrafx-16]

If this gets put on a cart... I'll buy another 7800 to play it.

[+Trebor]

1 hour ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

If When this gets put on a cart... I'll buy another 7800 to play it.

FTFY 😉

 

Congrats on the upcoming console purchase. 😁

[Jinks]

I moved my 7800 to the main living room as of now. Too many cool games to play.. this was 1 of the games that pushed it over the edge. 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Jinks

[+Trebor]

Ran into an issue while playing on the latest build (6 16 2019).  While trying to pass through the north exit, the creature at the bottom was sticking below the south exit, and the game detected it as a hit collision at the north exit.

 

I've uploaded another 'Unlisted' video.  The aforementioned can be seen [email protected] seconds mark:

 

 

Here are some still captures too:

 

 

 

 

 

[Revontuli]

3 hours ago, Trebor said:

While trying to pass through the north exit, the creature at the bottom was sticking below the south exit, and the game detected it as a hit collision at the north exit

[EDIT:] Ok, I think I fixed it. Try a new build here:  DragonsDescent_6_17_2019.a78

[EDIT Original text:]

Thanks for the bug report and video - I thought I had taken care of this bug but it looks like I'll have to do a targeted test to fully fix it.  I'll try and have a new build up within the next few days unless this bug is nastier than I think, I need to see how my week goes.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Revontuli

[Revontuli]

Latest build here: DragonsDescent_6_17_2019b.a78

[EDIT] Latest latest build here 😝: DragonsDescent_6_17_2019c.a78

 

Another quick update with a few bug fixes involving the boss music and drawing the final boss.

[EDIT] and a minor collision fix that I didn't get to when fixing the wraparound bug

 

I'm curious if anyone has been able to test the high score/save key stuff yet - I don't have the proper hardware (yet) and currently cannot test these features at the moment, and I've had the high score screen hang a few times as I've been coding, so I'm curious how it fares with other folks.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Revontuli

[+Trebor]

1 hour ago, Revontuli said:

Latest build here: DragonsDescent_6_17_2019b.a78

[EDIT] Latest latest build here 😝: DragonsDescent_6_17_2019c.a78

 

Another quick update with a few bug fixes involving the boss music and drawing the final boss.

[EDIT] and a minor collision fix that I didn't get to when fixing the wraparound bug

 

I'm curious if anyone has been able to test the high score/save key stuff yet - I don't have the proper hardware (yet) and currently cannot test these features at the moment, and I've had the high score screen hang a few times as I've been coding, so I'm curious how it fares with other folks.

 

Thanks for the updates.  I intend to test the high score feature (via AtariVox), sometime this week or next.

[+Trebor]

Unfortunately, under "6_17_2019c" build the issue is still present.

Some screen captures for reference are below as well as an unlisted video. 

The issue can been seen ~1:30 mark.

It seems the enemy remains on the next screen, as a leftover from the prior, before the just entered room is completely drawn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Revontuli]

15 hours ago, Trebor said:

Unfortunately, under "6_17_2019c" build the issue is still present.

Here is a new build, I hope -this- fixes it: DragonsDescent_6_19_2019b.a78

 

Hopefully that should correct things.  I did a few little cosmetic changes as well (enemy dragon fire should look like yours, instead of the round "shot" bosses and Janus Guards use). 

 

The bug testing/reporting is very much appreciated - If you want, I can PM you a build that spawns stationary enemies at the boundaries.  You might want to try in easy mode as well, to make sure you're not hitting the wall instead of an enemy when transitioning between screens.  I wasn't able to reproduce the bug with these most recent builds, but with differences between emulators and setups, there could easily be something I'm missing.

Edited June 19, 2019 by Revontuli

[gambler172]

On 6/18/2019 at 1:25 AM, Trebor said:

 

Thanks for the updates.  I intend to test the high score feature (via AtariVox), sometime this week or next.

Hi Trebor

 

will check with savekey at weekend....more soon 

 

greetings Walter