Shadows of Death : Amstrad CPC Game Project !

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 21:04, 24 February 21

Shadows of death

(Sorry for my very perfectible English because I am French. Thank you!)

That night, Billy should have died and eat the dandelions at the root ...
It must be said that his drugs and his adulterated Whiskey had once again led him to presume of his abilities.
Although he was used to fighting, the bad boy he was should never have survived after the wrench punch he took in the face. But he was like that, Billy... underneath his delicate golden hair was actually hiding a veritable bad boy that nothing seemed to alter or even just the enamel.
Looks like the only chance there is for the villain.
However, tonight he was going to have to deal with something darker and tougher than him ...
Death, in all its stubbornness, had not finished with this rascal.
By some insolent luck, Billy had thus escaped his fate, but death had no intention of stopping there. Thirsty for revenge, she now claims her due: a soul even darker than the underworld to add to her image already steeped in unfathomable darkness.
Tonight, Billy will not come home... he will have to face his demons to the point of exhaustion: a final fight that will confront him with the distorted shadows that have come to seek him and drag him into limbo.
How long can he resist the demonic forces?
For Billy, every second of survival will now be won with the strength of fists and feet.

You play as Billy, a thug who must fight relentlessly and eliminate the shadows that attack him to stay alive at all costs. The game takes place as a "kill count challenge", the goal of which is to defeat as many enemies as possible in a single life while being careful of the traps that dot the screen (fixed, no scrolling). The action takes root in the heart of a dark alley and ends when the hero dies.
Fight or die!

Listen, look! Programmers from all walks of life, Billy needs you!

For the past few days, I've been trying to produce the graphics for a hypothetical game for the Amstrad CPC. Created in Mode 0, each sprite, animation and decor strictly respects the graphic constraints of the machine. The question now is to know if it will be possible to really exploit them in a game that will neither be slow nor too greedy in RAM ... because it must be said that the sprites display a size a little unusual for a CPC!

But a game is also a programmer (or more) ... And programming is something that I have a lot more trouble with, alas. : P

So I decided to make all the graphic material that I have produced so far available immediately so that anyone can embark on the adventure of programming, whatever it is! Assembler, Basic, C ++, OpenBor, Unity (!?!), Amstrad, Amiga, PC, Windows, Mac, etc, etc, etc ...: EVERYTHING is allowed, the holy grail obviously being to see the birth of a version CPC.

You can download sprites, backgrounds, a title screen, a model, animations and playable demos on the official project page: http://amigamuseum.emu-france.info/Fichiers/sites/SOTD_site/SOTD.html

For information, several other types of enemies, traps and settings are being studied: they will be revealed and added to the official page as they are created.

Good luck everyone and a plethora of Shadows of Death versions to flourish!

If this project interests you, do not hesitate to contact me by email at titan.42 @ free.fr

https://youtu.be/qUspSaDNoCo

TotO · 22:03, 24 February 21

The french version was perfect for cpcwiki.europe

XeNoMoRPH · 08:12, 25 February 21

Hi @TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) , welcome to cpcwiki !! , these graphics are amazing, as always

eto · 08:28, 25 February 21

Awesome graphics!

And it's fun watching the video as with that music, it's like in the 90s in a Disco, there's always one big guy dancing like crazy

What did you use to create the video and the animations?

Sykobee (Briggsy) · 10:48, 25 February 21

Great graphics!

Big character (and a real game might have others) would use memory, so it would have to be a 128KB game (or ROM) at least (what does the sprite sheet look like, in terms of full MODE 0 screen count?)

XeNoMoRPH · 10:55, 25 February 21

Here is a sprite test in a real CPC , coded by @abalore

https://vimeo.com/515625626

Gryzor · 14:37, 25 February 21

Really pretty! Shall we stop waiting for SFII now?

Animalgril987 · 17:37, 25 February 21

Quote from: TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) on 21:04, 24 February 21(Sorry for my very perfectible English because I am French. Thank you!)

Hi Titan, your English is better than that of a lot of Brits that I know

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 18:19, 25 February 21

Hi everybody !

@XeNoMoRPH : Thank you for your compliments ! I think I recognize your avatar, hehe!

@eto : This is the video of the playable demo for PC (Windows). It can be downloaded from the official project page. It is towards this type of result that I would like to strive on Amstrad CPC ... if it is possible! : P
Regarding the drawings and the animations, I use the MULTIPAINT software under Windows which allows to draw in pixels with the constraints of MODE 0 of the CPC.

@Sykobee (Briggsy) : Here is an excerpt from my current sprite board. It will be enriched over the creations of characters.

@Gryzor : Thank you !

@Animalgril987 : Thank you very much. But I have to confess that I also find a big help in Google Translate, hehe!

Animalgril987 · 19:29, 25 February 21

@TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) . That's what I use if I need to speak French

( although, I did learn French in school, but that was back in the 70's

)

demoniak · 19:36, 25 February 21

Just for fun : http://ldeplanque.free.fr/Divers/TestWalk.sna

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 20:23, 26 February 21

Thank you Ludovic !

N'hésites pas à aller plus loin dans le développement car c'est déjà très prometteur.

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 20:40, 26 February 21

Celestino Fernandez (Abalore) made available the sources of his demo: http://amigamuseum.emu-france.info/Fichiers/sites/SOTD/Demos/bigdude_Celestino_Fernandez_Sources.zip

Notice to those who would like to try the programming experience.

JayBlood · 09:05, 27 February 21

Hey, Eric. Nice to see you here.

Great project.

Already see your graphX job on FB.

JayLeGraisseux aka JayBlood.

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 15:55, 06 March 21

Hi !
I am happy to present two new backgrounds for my game Shadows of Death:

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 11:57, 07 March 21

And here is the 4th level :

ComSoft6128 · 12:15, 07 March 21

These are first class!

andycadley · 14:26, 07 March 21

They look great. Are they just straight up bitmaps or have they been constructed from smaller tiles? I'm guessing the former as there is a lot of nuance in them.

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 22:37, 07 March 21

Yes, it's Bitmap.

Gryzor · 09:52, 08 March 21

Glorious palette...

sigh · 22:07, 08 March 21

Congrats on the new project.

As you already have the backgrounds and sprites, you should definitely create the HUD (if there is one) so you have a good idea of where it will fit on the screen.

Also, something that is really helpful to a programmer(and yourself), is to produce an animated demo of the game so that they can see how it plays.
I always do this. It can take ages to do, but it will help you see any gameplay flaws and iron out any gameplay features that you might come across that may not fit your game. This also will help the programmer see exactly what the end result is supposed to look like and that way they can set out what areas they want to tackle first. Make sure to include the menu screen to show how the game transitions from that screen to the game screen and also, show a full complete level from beginning to end.

Another reason for the demo is that it helps you lockdown the game more confidently and reduces too much "feature creep". You may find that you may want to add one or two things or tweak the gameplay slightly during and after the demo, but it drastically reduces the chance of that happening too much.

XeNoMoRPH · 11:45, 12 March 21

https://youtu.be/j_UTXUK5M7Q

Gryzor · 11:53, 12 March 21

STEAM page?

menegator · 18:14, 13 March 21

While this game genre is not my cup of team the graphics are simply stunning.

TITAN (Eric Cubizolle) · 16:26, 02 April 21

"Shadows of Death": BETA v0.3!

A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure to present you an Amstrad CPC style fighting game that we are developing, Kimono (Programming), Pulsophonic (Music) and myself (graphics / concept).
At the end of this presentation, we released a small playable OpenBor demo.

While I haven't communicated since, we haven't rested on our laurels ... quite the contrary!

Working hard every day on its development, we have managed to produce a new and highly enriched version of our game ... which we are proud to bring to you today!

On the new menu:
- New combat and movement skills for Billy (who can now run, launch an attack while running, curl into a ball or use various weapons.).
- New, even more interactive decor elements.
- The possibility, for a second player, to take part in the fight simultaneously by playing the cat.
- A 5th closing stage with his boss and his dedicated music.
- New forms of shadows to fight.
- Items to collect (1Up, Energy, temporary invulnerability, coins...).
- Some inter-level illustrations (intro, outro, boss announcement).
- New voice dubs and sound effects specially created for the game.
- Introduction of an ITEM SHOP (not yet fully functional, but already present)
- And many more...

In short, the best is still to try this demo for yourself!
You can therefore download it here: http://amigamuseum.emu-france.info/Fichiers/sites/SOTD/Demos/Shadows%20of%20Death%20(OpenBor).zip

For information, this is an Openbor version for Windows. It uses a graphic material that fully respects the constraints of Amstrad (Mode 0, 16 colors, 160x200) and foreshadows what a real CPC version could render.

The project web page is accessible via this address: http://amigamuseum.emu-france.info/Fichiers/sites/SOTD_site/SOTD.html

All that's left for me to do now is wish you luck in Billy's fight against his own demons.... And don't hesitate to redo the decor for each level.

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Shadows of Death : Amstrad CPC Game Project !