Knight Guy in Low Res World: Castle Days

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Okay...in the spoiler is another run through of the game. I was 1 second longer on this run than my previous pic I took, but the color change shows up on this run. It was fine at the beginning but then on my backtrack to get the key... right at 1:04 the color suddenly changes on the room number from the light green to white and you can see it on the snake as well as half of his body shows up with the white color as well. I believe it stays this way through the rest of the run but is corrected on a power on/off. I think I might have reset the game 2 or 3 times just prior to this run where the color change bug shows up.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[vhzc]

On 7/4/2020 at 1:17 AM, vhzc said:

Quick Update 2020 07 22

Corrects a bug in screen 30

Adds 4 screens

Changes some sprites.

 

knightguy20200722.a78 144.13 kB · 0 downloads

 

[Jinks]

That dropping boss needs a randomizer that every now and then does a quick 1/2 screen climb then back down to keep it interesting.. 

Looking better all the time!! Great work!

 

[+sramirez2008]

1 hour ago, Jinks said:

That dropping boss needs a randomizer that every now and then does a quick 1/2 screen climb then back down to keep it interesting.. 

?

[TIX]

13 hours ago, vhzc said:

Really great time.

I am already adding more screens

 

Well done man !

I really love the shading on the sprites  ? 

It makes me wanna draw some knight sprites myself..  we really miss a similar game on the 8-bit.

 

 

[+Pat Brady]

On Beta 5 I managed a 4:58, despite a few missteps, but with unexpected mutual destruction in room 38 (see 4:35-4:45 in the 1st attachment). Is that a bug? I think I saw the same thing in room 25 but don’t have that on video.

 

I got a 5:01 without any such shenanigans. I’m sure it’s possible to break 5:00 legitimately but don’t think I’m going to do it.

 

The secondary purpose of these videos is to make -^CrossBow^- seem like a master cinematographer.

 

On to Beta 6.

[+sramirez2008]

*Whew* Beta06 requires quite a bit of backtracking. Overall the game plays well. No cheap deaths, however I have come across the following minor issues, concerning the Dropping/Square Boss.
1. There are times when I strike him, and I don’t hear the sound that he makes when he reaches the floor. It almost looks like my sword is getting between him and the floor when this occurs.

2. There have times where he hits the floor and remains there for a brief period of time and his color changes to Red. Not sure if this is intentional.

 

Thanks for the Beta06.?

[vhzc]

13 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

*Whew* Beta06 requires quite a bit of backtracking. Overall the game plays well. No cheap deaths, however I have come across the following minor issues, concerning the Dropping/Square Boss.
1. There are times when I strike him, and I don’t hear the sound that he makes when he reaches the floor. It almost looks like my sword is getting between him and the floor when this occurs.

2. There have times where he hits the floor and remains there for a brief period of time and his color changes to Red. Not sure if this is intentional.

Backtracking was always in the design. The castle is planned to be passed back and forth when the game is complete, I love Metroidvania games and that is my main inspiration.

 

If you hit when it is falling it will change direction instantly and it will not reach the height in which the sound is trigger.

The color change to red was planned too, but I am not happy with the implementation, so I will re check that.

 

And as always, Thank you very much for testing, guys!

 

[+sramirez2008]

5 minutes ago, vhzc said:

Backtracking was always in the design.

Didn't mean it as a bad thing. I hope it didn't come across that way. This is one of the things I like most about the game.

 

Btw, the fire breathing dragon head looks great.?

 

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I haven't loaded up beta6 onto my mateos yet, but in looking at @bizarrostormy's videos, it appears that in emulation there are some timing differences. As an example, he is able to immediately jump over the first large column that strikes the top and immediately over the second one. I'm only able to do this when moving right to left...not left to right as there is something different in the timing there on actual hardware. 

 

My main issue with the second boss is that he needs to stay on the ground for a bit longer so you can get more than 1 hit on him at a time. He is by far the longest one thus far to get through and a real drag because of it. He simply takes too long. I hadn't attempted it, but figured the object of him was to time his drops and actually try and strike him as he moves down so you get more hits in that way. Now that I find out he will immediately go back up makes that tactic not worth trying. The semi random nature that was presented is an interesting one, but would make timed runs less accurate since his motions would change between playthroughs. Has anyone seen the odd color glitch I mentioned that was shown to happen in my last video I did above? I've never seen it in emulation, but it does it on my actual 7800. I will play more today with beta 6 and see if that is still a thing and what conditions are needed for it to trigger.

 

[vhzc]

2 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Has anyone seen the odd color glitch I mentioned that was shown to happen in my last video I did above? I've never seen it in emulation, but it does it on my actual 7800. I will play more today with beta 6 and see if that is still a thing and what conditions are needed for it to trigger.

 

 

I am trying to figure it out, but until now I am not able to replicate the issue nor discover what caused it,

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Well..playing through beta6 just now I was NOT able to reproduce this issue. I did notice though that if I press the reset switch on the title screen that the colors do change while I have the reset held down? But they look normal otherwise once the game starts.

 

One other suggestion, is that the timer should NOT start to count until a movement is made. Not sure this is possible to trigger in such a manner, but it is how most times games actually work.

 

the sound issue on the second boss as noted by @sramirez2008 has always been present and usually occurs when you've actually scored a hit on the boss before he hits the floor itself. Might be that a different sound is needed when you actually get a hit on a boss so that the player knows they are doing something as well.

 

[+Pat Brady]

4 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I haven't loaded up beta6 onto my mateos yet, but in looking at @bizarrostormy's videos, it appears that in emulation there are some timing differences. As an example, he is able to immediately jump over the first large column that strikes the top and immediately over the second one. I'm only able to do this when moving right to left...not left to right as there is something different in the timing there on actual hardware. 

 

Not quite immediately. Moving left to right I pause briefly, about a tenth of a second, before jumping over the first column. Without that pause I hit the first column. Pause too long and I hit the second column. Moving right to left I wait longer, possibly unnecessarily.

 

Which reminds me: it’s almost a different game when playing for time. Since I figured out the timing on those screens with the columns, I have had few problems there. But room 6, the one with 2 innocuous-looking stationary torches? I must time my jumps precisely to pass without stopping, and I died there many times. Brilliant design.

 

I agree that the second boss is the least fun part of the game. What does the red flash signify? It seems like it happens when you hit him exactly when he hits the ground. Maybe loosen the timing on that and allow multiple hits in that case.

 

Can’t wait to try out Beta 6.

Edited July 23, 2020 by bizarrostormy

[+sramirez2008]

@-^CrossBow^- @bizarrostormy can’t wait to see you guys speed run through Beta06.

[+sramirez2008]

3 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

the timer should NOT start to count until a movement is made

Hope this can be implemented.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

We'll be playing Knight Guy in Low Res World: Castle Days on tomorrow's (Fri Jul 24) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• E.X.O. (2020 Exclusive WIP Premiere | 7800) by Lewis Hill (@Muddyfunster)
• Knight Guy in Low Res World: Castle Days (2020 WIP | 7800) by Vladimir Zuñiga (@vhzc)
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2002) by Adam Thornton

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew

[vhzc]

 

[+sramirez2008]

@vhzc Room 47 looks great. Can't wait to see it in motion on my CRT.?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

23 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

@-^CrossBow^- @bizarrostormy can’t wait to see you guys speed run through Beta06.

I have been trying and also trying some of the new speed tactics that @bizarrostormy is able to do on actual hardware. I've been using the first boss as a gauge for overall quickness. The fastest on actual hardware I'm able to get to the sword to start to take out the first boss is :39 on the counter. I've gotten close to :38 but I think that has more to do with how quickly I start running to the left just after pressing reset to activate the first button more than anything in regards to reaction time.

 

I've managed to actually only be able to get through Beta 6 twice. But, keep in mind, that is avoiding extra potions and hearts. So my run thru is trying to do it on the initial set of lives you are given or I guess what we would call in the Shmup world as 1CCing it.

 

I think my fastest time so far isn't that quick but I've managed to complete Beta 6 at 6:53 on the timer. I did find a nice easy way to avoid some of the needed slowdown on the backtracking towards the end but it isn't the easiest to pull off initially and I usually lose a life trying to pull it off. But I would say around 6:35 is likely possible on Beta 6 with very accurate timing and no deaths. Not sure I'm still young enough to do that however so my 6:53 I've managed for now is pretty okay by me LOL!

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by -^CrossBow^-
Added pic I meant to attach to this earlier.

[+sramirez2008]

2 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Not sure I'm still young enough to do that however so my 6:53 I've managed for now is pretty okay by me LOL!

Priceless!?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

BTW...I wanted to mention it again. By far the largest time sink in this game is that second boss. I've occasionally managed to get two hits on him when he hits the ground, but it is very rare when this happens. Maybe 2 or 3 times at most during an encounter with him. So if he can't be made to stay on the ground longer so that more than a single hit can be made on him, then he needs to have his hitpoints reduced so that it doesn't take 3 - 4x longer to take him out as the others.

 

I've also not been able to recreate the glitch that @bizarrostormy is able to do on the 3rd boss where he was hitting him at the same time as him moved launching Knight Guy across the screen and killing the boss quickly at the expense of a life doing so. So I've not been able to take him out quickly and just stick to the same routine I've been using on him with 5 hits...jump out of the way...5hits...etc.

 

Another room I've not found a quick straight way through is the dragon head room. I know everything operates the same way everytime you initially enter a room but it doesn't seem like there is a way to just jet through this one and you have to wait some time for the right moments to jump through the vertical ball launcher. However, it is nice that the ball launcher doesn't go any further than the ladder so it is a safe zone to stay in that lower left for the right time to jump over and through there. Coming back the other way, is easier however...hehe.

 

[+Pat Brady]

20 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

@-^CrossBow^- @bizarrostormy can’t wait to see you guys speed run through Beta06.

I don’t know if I’m up for it. It was fun but took a long time to nail all of the screens in a single run.

[+sramirez2008]

8 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

However, it is nice that the ball launcher doesn't go any further than the ladder so it is a safe zone to stay in that lower left

Without the safe zone, this would be a brutal room.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 hour ago, bizarrostormy said:

I don’t know if I’m up for it. It was fun but took a long time to nail all of the screens in a single run.

I've yet to get through B6 without dying at least once and usually twice. Again my first best run of B6 was 6:53 as shown above. I've now found a few more places where I can really shave off some time. As an example, I can routinely get the sword right at :37 into the game on actual hardware. I've done what I would estimate was a :36.5 but can only guess since we don't have tenths of on this timer.

 

It took me way longer than I want to admit, but I just completed my fastest run of B6 clocking in at 6:16. I know this can be shaved even quicker as I died twice in this run having to redo those sections of course. But...yeah. 

 

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

18 hours ago, vhzc said:

 

 

This looks awesome, but need some animation frames on the main water as well to at least show something with the small waterfall going into it.

 

Now...about that second boss. If we can't get him to stay on the ground a tad longer, then at least reduce his hit points from 15 to 10. Because he takes about :45 on that time to take out if you only manage a single hit per drop. Again, I've managed to score 2 hits in a drop on him a few times but haven't figured out exactly how it is pulled off.