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General Category => Games => Topic started by: keith56 on 03:47, 30 December 16

Title: Chibi Akumas (チビ悪魔) - Episode 1: Invasion
Post by: keith56 on 03:47, 30 December 16
Game Updated 2017/01/21!
Now supports 64K machines - game should also be a bit faster on 128k - so this upgrade should help everyone!

New! 'Box art kit' up for download to make your own boxed copy - I won't sell this! you have to do it yourself!

(http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/www.chibiakumas.com/download/Photo3b.jpg)(http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/Photo3b.jpg)

Introduction:

Chibiko didn't get any presents from Santa this year... in fact, in the last year she's been killed by
God, banished from hell, and reincarnated as the enemy of all mankind -so it's pretty likely she will
never get in his good books again!

Still, she can always do without that 'gotta-buy-it' plush doll, and the coal is always useful for
burning 'leftovers'

What's a whole lot less welcome is the strange monsters that have been lurking around the
mountains lately - and now they are infesting HER castle!

Join Chibiko in her unholy battle against the invasion of badly drawn, cliche and generally uninspired
enemies, pummel your way through 4 levels of brainless firepower crazy action - and unleash hell on
the 4 end level boss enemies!

This game is free! you can get it here:

http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/ (http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/)

it's also open source, so use the code for your own stuff if you want

See the gameplay on youtube!: https://youtu.be/qtMgpII24ZA (https://youtu.be/qtMgpII24ZA)

*** WARNING ***
This game is satire, it contains religious references, 'graphic' 4 color violece, bad language and
general bad behavior - This game should not be played by those under 15, or people who cannot
differentiate between acceptable behavior in fiction and reality. I do not endorse any of the actions
portrayed in this game - it's just a silly bit of fun.

If you think this game may offend you - it probably will - please play something else!

Please use at your own risk! This is my first Assembly game, so there will be bugs in it!

Hope you enjoy it!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: Dizrythmia on 08:59, 30 December 16
I've been eagerly awaiting this one  :D
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: Skunkfish on 10:36, 30 December 16
Looks like some fantastic use of Mode 1 there, I'm assuming that is the Plus version in the video judging from the player sprite?
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: mahlemiut on 10:41, 30 December 16
Deathsmiles is easier!  ???  I guess that why you get 20 credits. :)

Also, runs well in MAME. ;)
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: Targhan on 12:30, 30 December 16
Ok... Played it and... finished it (in "normal" mode)! With a highscore of 2035 ("F") :).

There is a tremendous amount of work on this game. A lot of details everywhere. Horizontal, vertical scrolling, rasters, flickering, many many sprites. The way you handle all this is quite bold!
I think the graphics are quite good, and the humor is refreshing.

Some things that bothered me a bit:
- It is hard to know when you get hit. It's as if the bullets don't really affect the player (no flickering on the character as when the player hits another monster), so many times I died without knowing why.
- The sound of the player's bullet is a bit strange :).

Well done!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: VincentGR on 15:52, 30 December 16
Dear Lord!!! This is awesome.
Thank you.
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: Morri on 20:45, 30 December 16
Great! Great!! GREAT GAME!!!  8)
I've just won the game but had to go EASY and 255 lives (used about 30 of them).
So much going on but super enjoyable. When I get the chance I'll put it on my HxC and play it on my 6128.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: Puresox on 23:12, 30 December 16
The download, I presume requires unzipping and ready to go on Winape!?
Oh and appreciate the work and keeping the scene thriving , And it is thriving at the moment!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 04:10, 31 December 16
Very very nice job!  :D I was playing today in my modded 464 Plus and it looks awesome. If found some bugs, though. Sadly, the computer froze one time and refused to detect that the floppy 1 was in the unit in another occasion (after dying in the first stage it tried to reload the main menu and kept asking me for floppy 1). When it froze, if was just after redefining the keys, the whole screen went green and the computer engaged the tape deck, same as if you try to load a tape from Basic.

This particular machine is atypical though: a 464 Plus upgraded to 6128 Plus by me with X-MEM, X-MASS, Albireo, C4CPC and a HxC (your game was loaded from the HxC). It could be really difficult to debug and probably I am the only one finding problems because of my setup.

Anyway, awesome job!  :D
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: keith56 on 07:04, 31 December 16
Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 04:10, 31 December 16
Very very nice job!  :D I was playing today in my modded 464 Plus and it looks awesome. If found some bugs, though. Sadly, the computer froze one time and refused to detect that the floppy 1 was in the unit in another occasion (after dying in the first stage it tried to reload the main menu and kept asking me for floppy 1). When it froze, if was just after redefining the keys, the whole screen went green and the computer engaged the tape deck, same as if you try to load a tape from Basic.
Anyway, awesome job!  :D


I had a similar issue on my 6128 PLUS, I was sending some bad OUT's during the raster colors, which were messing my HxC disk on drive 2 - it worked fine on my 6128 non plus - I thought I had it fixed on my release version but your description sounds very similar!- I will recheck my code - and I need to read up on the CPC hardware - the rastercolor code was based on stuff copied from CPCWIKI - and I would be lying if I said I completely understood it - I think some bugs crept in!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: fgbrain on 11:27, 31 December 16
Like Targhan said, its almost impossible to know when you are hit - there's no indication for this.
The bullets that hit your character just keep on moving instead of getting removed off screen.
That's my main complain because this fact decreases playability a lot.

Otherwise, a really impressive game considering its a first try...
Well done keith56!!!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) - Out now!
Post by: keith56 on 08:53, 02 January 17
I have trimmed some empty space from the files, and recompiled a new 'Single Disk' version of the game

No content has been removed, and you can play the whole game (with intro) without swapping discs

you will need Parados and a HxC or similar drive to play it on a real CPC

The download is available on the game's website:

http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/ (http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/)

I've had a few requests for a CPR version of the game,  Note: I am unable to make a cartridge version at this time... as far as I can tell the 'NoCart' compiler cannot work with such large disks - the game requires 128K anyway, so it would not work on GX4000 - I do plan to make a 64K version of the game, however the graphics will be inferior (no sprite animation, backgrounds movement less smooth)- Whether on an classic machine or PLUS - you will want 128k of memory to get the best from this game

Update - Crash bug found :-(
I have found some bugs in the CPC+ code which may cause crashes  - I am testing a new version which hopefully fixes these bugs and will release it as soon as I am happy it is stable
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: keith56 on 05:24, 07 January 17
A new 'bugfix' version of Chibi Akuma(s) has been released today - I have updated all the archives with the new version, and the old versions are also still available

What's changed:
1. Bugfix in disk load code which will have caused CPC+ crashes (I think this is what caused ||C|-|E|| 's crashes)
2. Bugfix in intro animation which may have caused crashes
3. Speedup(?) there were a few HALT ops in the game loop to stabilize the graphics - I decided to favor speed instead, so they are removed - also tweaked Raster code slightly which will make it quicker, but its so slight it may not be noticable
4. 3rd disk no longer exists - game now only takes 2 standard disk sides! no content was removed, I tidied up the sprite files to remove some blank space.

sorry, Still no 64k support, I need to get the game stable before making the code more complex!

Sourcecode for new version is also uploaded

Download links are the same:
http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/ (http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/)

If you want the oldversions Ill keep them here:
http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/oldversions/ (http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/oldversions/)
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: XeNoMoRPH on 08:54, 07 January 17
Thx for this update :)
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: keith56 on 13:35, 08 January 17
Bump to show off my new box/label/manual art! you can download it from the website, and print your own 'official' box!

(http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/Photo3b.jpg)
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: keith56 on 12:43, 17 January 17
As a bit of a teaser, HERE are some videos of the soon to be released version of Chibi Akuma(s)!

Here's the game running on a 464
(https://youtu.be/ozvsl54GJHU)
[/url]

Here is the 464 Plus version
(https://youtu.be/nJT1kMBlHjc)
[/url]

Just to be clear, the new version runs on ALL CPC's, it adjusts its functions to the capabilities of your system - I've worked hard on optimizing and debugging the code - so I'm hoping this version will be very slightly faster than the old '128k only' version

The new version should be out in a few days!

OH, and despite what I said in my last thread, I've decided to maintain 64K support for Episode 2 - so you won't need 128k for my future games! - I've done a lot of work on the game engine, and I'm pretty sure I can do everything I want in the future and keep a cut down version for 64k users

Limitations of the 64K version:
1. Enemies have no animation and background sprites move more Jerkily (sorry, there was no way to have 2 12k banks of sprites - when 32k of ram is used by the screen buffers!)
2. Longer load times - the game has to do some Juggling on 64k to make room for the firmware
3. 'Loading' screens (Ingame ones - boot Loadscreen is there!) removed and 'Continue' screen simplified - no point Loading a Loading screen
4. uses system font rather than custom one - Not as nice, but not much difference

All other gameplay is the same! All levels present, Gamespeed should be identical, All Plus features work on 64k!!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: villain on 12:47, 17 January 17
Quote from: keith56 on 12:43, 17 January 17
Just to be clear, the new version runs on ALL CPC's, it adjusts its functions to the capabilities of your system - I've worked hard on optimizing and debugging the code - so I'm hoping this version will be very slightly faster than the old '128k only' version

Thanks for your efforts. Very cool.
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: kawickboy on 12:55, 17 January 17
I haven't played it yet but the 464+ shows that a massive work has been done.
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: Skunkfish on 13:57, 17 January 17
Your efforts to go the extra mile and support all CPC machines are really commendable. I can't think of many (any?) CPC games that have that level of adaptation to support and take advantage of CPC variants...

Thanks and well done! :D
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: trocoloco on 19:38, 17 January 17
No CPC was left behind! your effort is very much appreciated =)
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/07
Post by: keith56 on 11:34, 20 January 17
I've uploaded the 6128, and 6128 plus versions as well, for completeness

6128
(https://youtu.be/Dc4EXu-QNWc)
[/url]
6128 Plus
(https://youtu.be/GL-hd1R8LkM)
[/url]



Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21
Post by: keith56 on 00:41, 21 January 17
Bumping this thread to announce the release of the new 64k compatible version (1.06) - this version supports all CPC systems, 464-6128, and uses PLUS sprites on 464+ or 6128+

It should also be slightly faster than the last version, so 128k users should upgrade too.

As always, the new version is available free, at:
http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/ (http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/)

Source-code archive has also been updated.

Please report any crashes to me, but otherwise this will be the last release of Chibi Akuma(s) Episode 1 - I want to move on and start work on 'Episode 2'.

Japanese site info:
レトロゲーム「チビ悪魔」の日本語のサイトは:[size=78%]http://www.chibiakuma.com/download/ (http://www.chibiakuma.com/download/)[/size]
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: Gryzor on 10:29, 24 January 17
I edited your post to embed the videos.


After playing this, even though hell shooters are definitely not my cup of tea (hmmmmm), I can say it's pretty awesome. Not only do I keep going, firing left and right while laughing maniacally, but also the aesthetics of it is really unique. Congrats!!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: Skunkfish on 11:26, 24 January 17
Not my normal type of game either, but I've been enjoying it in the past week or so. I've resisted the temptation to switch to 'Easy' mode so far, but I may have to at some point!

The bosses I've seen are fantastically done, the second one is as hard as nails!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: keith56 on 10:17, 01 February 17
Quote from: Skunkfish on 11:26, 24 January 17
The bosses I've seen are fantastically done, the second one is as hard as nails!

Please tell me if you figure out a valid tactic for Boss 2! I recording some videos the other day, and was being made to look useless at my own game!

the 3rd boss USED to be a lot harder, during the attack stage with the blade it was near impossible to avoid getting hit, but I changed the 'hitzone' of the character later, to make it smaller so you could weave between the bullets better, and now the 3rd boss is 'over easy'

Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: keith56 on 23:01, 23 February 17
I'm reliably informed that Chibi Akuma(s) has been reviewd in the new issue (165) of Retro Gamer Magazine!

You can buy the magazine here:
https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/magazines/retro-gamer-issue-165-4847.html

Now I just have to wait a week for my copy to arrive in Japan so I can see it in print!!!


(http://www.chibiakumas.com/download/retrogamer165_2b.jpg)
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: Puresox on 23:31, 23 February 17
Just had my first go at Chibi, and here are my impressions . Really enjoyed the style the ability to shoot in both directions is a cool mechanic , which not often seen on cpc ,(maybe Forgotten Worlds ,closest?) It is a game that I can see me wanting to come back too on occasion. My only gripe is in relation to the movement/control  , It annoys me for some reason that the vertical movement is at a slower rate to that of horizontal movement . I find it really off putting , I find it similar to 'Warhawk(Or one of the other vertical shooters). 
I sorry to belly ache about it , and respect the effort gone into it . Just offering my perspective . Is there a reason for this dynamic?Or is it a case of the game being restricted by machine limitations?


Oh and it would be satisfying to get a reaction sound or flash when an enemy  or your own player gets hit . I think when you do not fully know if you are having a damaging effect , you lose something .

Despite my moans I genuinely think the game is really decent , and pretty refreshing . The cpc does get far too many flick screen games churned out , which are great when they offer new idea's to the genre . but can get samey . To get a shooter with plenty of personality to it is great news. cheers
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: Puresox on 23:51, 23 February 17
, the game is starting to really impress me as I get to see some of its features. I haven't read your webpage on it ,is this an original idea or is it a conversion , of an existing game? It is a great first game .


It is a little too heavy on the bullet hell ,for me , I don't think it would lose too much in the gameplay if it had a little less in the density of the bullets , Not sure if it would massively help keep the game from chugging . Maybe difficulty setting toggle .
Lol this is my running commentary of my first impressions of the game btw
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: keith56 on 00:01, 24 February 17
Quote from: Puresox on 23:51, 23 February 17
the game is starting to really impress me as I get to see some of its features. I haven't read your webpage on it ,is this an original idea or is it a conversion , of an existing game? It is a great first game .

The game is inspired by 'Death Smiles' and 'Cotton' - but the levels, and characters are all original - some of the enemies in the game are clearly spoofs of other things (Like the monty python killer rabbit)

I'm working on the sequel as we speak (Episode 2: Confrontation) - it will have 5 all new levels, enemies and boss battles, the game engine has been upgraded for better sprites, animation and slightly better background graphics (they eat the CPU power, so I can't do much!)

The game will allow to players to play simultaniously, and there will be a second playable character - as well as some other strange characters which will come 'along for the ride'

I'm aiming for a summer release, but there's a ton of work to do before I get there - so I don't want to show anything or say too much at this stage!


Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: Puresox on 00:10, 24 February 17
I look forward to seeing your ideas . I am intrigued as to what developments we will get . Although I hope that you branch out from bullet hell .Definitely talented at game design bud !
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: Puresox on 01:43, 24 February 17
What other games have you made on other systems Keith? I wouldn't mind checking them out .
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: keith56 on 08:34, 25 February 17
Quote from: Puresox on 01:43, 24 February 17
What other games have you made on other systems Keith? I wouldn't mind checking them out .

Most of my development has been tools and things for my own use or work - I've not really done any games work since my childhood, until recently, I've focused a lot on studying Japanese in my spare time, and only recenly came back to development as a hobby

I did an Iphone game a couple of years back , which I've put online - if you can get it to compile, it's all yours!
http://www.benkyoustudio.com/Blog/SpaceHockeyIphoneGame/
It was based on the game of the old Amstrad Action type in.

'benkyoustudio' is a language study tool - it's not a game in any real sense

I wrote a dance game a long time ago, but I can't distribute that because it was written with MP3's I don't have rights to - and needed a special dance mat and webcam to play anyway.

Chibi Akumas Ep2 is another bullet hell game I'm affraid - I scaled back my plan for Chibi Akumas because I was worried I was taking too much on, so Ep2 is the 'second half' of the game if you will - after that's done I will branch out to other non shooter game types, though I plan to keep using the same characters.

Have you tried playing the game with 'easy difficulty' in the settings - it should reduce the fire rate of the enemies to make the game a bit less crazy - Please let me know if this helped any

Testing the levels during design takes a long time, so I can't make two versions for regular and bullet hell, but I can tweak the game engine a bit to reduce fire rates or fire spread, or use more conventional hizones  - after EP2 is done and dusted, I could look at releasing a special version which radically changes the gameplay mechanics of player life, hitzones and enemy bullet spread, but for now I have to focus on getting one version tested and released!
Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: keith56 on 23:38, 03 April 17
Novabug has done a great Youtube video review / Playthrough of Chibi Akumas on youtube.

it covers the first 3 levels of the game played on the CPC Plus model with a great commentry, so please take a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmyTYkDTp4A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmyTYkDTp4A)

Title: Re: Chibi Akuma(s) (チビ悪魔) Updated 2017/01/21 - now supports 464!
Post by: keith56 on 13:05, 11 July 17
Hello everyone!

As the new game will be coming out soon, I plan to do a 'Lets Play' video of Chibi Akumas Episode 1 - which will be uploaded to youtube in a few weeks.

In the narration I will do my best to describe various technical factors of how the game engine works, and how I developed it.

If anyone has any questions about the game they would like answering, please leave them below, or message me, and I will try to answer them in the video

Thanks,

Keith
Title: Re: Chibi Akumas (チビ悪魔) - Episode 1: Invasion
Post by: Joseman on 22:30, 01 October 17
Hi @keith56 (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1886)

I managed to end today Chibi Akumas ep1, i suck at bullet hell games, i used almost 20 credits!!!. Still F on the scoring system.

Great big bosses (i like the humour of the second cowcash-boss).

Love the aquatic level, i really love the colors of my CPC  and this game is a mode 1 - raster - color party.

On the last boss is just ridiculous the amount of bullets on the screen... ¿what game has the record on CPC btw?

It works superb from the M4.

ONLY 1 thing as someone said before, sometimes is difficult to know if you are hitting an enemy because there is no sign that you are shooting correctly at him.

The game overall clearly says the love that you put on the making of it, the presentation, the jokes, that weird atmosphere with the graphics and colors...

I only can say that i'll wait for EP2 and see the improvements on the engine!

Keep working on games on our beloved CPC please, i'm glad that coders like you put this amount of effort and love in our machine!.
Title: Re: Chibi Akumas (チビ悪魔) - Episode 1: Invasion
Post by: keith56 on 09:05, 02 October 17

The scoring system is a joke, you can only get an F - there's no code to give a different score!
There is one "You won the game" message, 4 "You got a new highscore" messages, and 4 "You didn't get a new highscore" - the last 4 being the most insulting!


The last boss had 1020 bullets, I believe Dragon Attack was coded around 256 (like the other levels of chibi akumas) so it may be the record!


There still isn't a visible 'bullet hit' effect in the new game - I will try to add it for the upgraded versions, but it's too late for Ep2 - I've only got about 30 bytes of free space for new code too - so it'll be a struggle, but I will try to solve this for you.

In the short term. I'm looking to bring my existing two games to the MSX and Spectrum, but after that any new games would be developed for all three systems - I'm not moving away from the CPC as my main development system - quite the contrary, I'm using WinApe as a compiler for MSX/Speccy code because I've not found a compiler that does a better job, and the MSX/ZX do not have debuggers as easy to use as Winape, so CPC will certainly be my primary platform for the
foreseeable future!
Title: Re: Chibi Akumas (チビ悪魔) - Episode 1: Invasion
Post by: guh on 12:55, 02 October 17
Hi,
Is it compatible with a GX4000 (using C4CPC card) ?
Title: Re: Chibi Akumas (チビ悪魔) - Episode 1: Invasion
Post by: keith56 on 13:33, 02 October 17
Quote from: guh on 12:55, 02 October 17
Hi,
Is it compatible with a GX4000 (using C4CPC card) ?

Last time I tried it was not possible, the game disk is 360k - twice the size of a normal CPC floppy, and the C4CPC cart converter could not work with these disks... so unless the converter has been converted to support larger parados disks, then it can't be played on C4CPC.

The game really needs 128k to be played at it's best anyway, so I can't say a lack of GX4000 support is something that concerns me. For your reference, the new game is twice as big again, and has extra features for 256k system, but will still work on machines with only 64k
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