What New Game do you want developed for the Amstrad if the option was there?

[||C|-|E||]

I always thought an overhead dungeon crawler like The Legend of Zelda would work well on a CPC.

Me too... it is basically a static background with a few moving sprites and some animated tiles (for the water, and so on). Using 128 KB it could be a huge game and if we were for 512 KB it could be massive. We could make a lot of towns, different landscapes with dungeons and a very cool lore. I am also quite sure that the friend that is making the graphics for the text adventure we are working in would be very happy to collaborate in something like that, even making concepts for it  This is some of his work:

[EgoTrip]

I always thought an overhead dungeon crawler like The Legend of Zelda would work well on a CPC.

Which is more or less what my game will be. I've tried to do stuff in AGD but its really way too limited. I've got most of the game planned out, most of the graphics done (although I need someone to do bosses, and cutscenes if space allows), music is done. I just need a programmer to make it work. Ideally in 64k.

[Brian Beuken]

From wikipedia: "Gremlin Interactive's catalogue and name have since been bought up by Ian Stewart's new company Urbanscan."

Ah I hadn't realised Ian had done that, I googled around and found this
Gremlin Graphics presents: Bounder's World and the return of Super Cars |

So he owns the non licensed rights again, note that he bought them...so he's not going to allow anyone to make money off them. And also that he only owns the ones which do not involve a license.. I havn't seen him do much with the IP's though aside from bounder.

[Optimus]

I'd like to see a new racing game on the CPC.
And maybe some castloid/metroidvania.

[Joseman]

I'd like to see a new racing game on the CPC.
And maybe some castloid/metroidvania.

like lotus III? [emoji16]

[Optimus]

like lotus III?

Yeah, that would be awesome. One of my favorite classic racing games.

[Targhan]

This kind of topic is interesting in itself, but dismisses one important point, in my opinion: the motivation of the game maker! So ok, let's say to everyone wants Hard Driving 2.
Is that motivating for all the coders to know that most people will want/pay for such game, and not the other games they really wanted to code? Let's say I want to code Jet Set Willy 3. It is not motivating for me to code it now that I know that everyone want Hard Driving 2!

As long as you can pay someone to code a game, he can do it with the motivation of the money. All of us are currently only motivated by... motivation. By forcing a team to code a specific kind of game, you will get nothing but a bunch of unmotivated people after a few months, and the project will ultimately fail.

If a team wants to start a new project, maybe an idea would be to start a *small* kickstarter to get a motivational start and provide the fellow subscribers with news and receive feedback which would, hopefully, push the team forward.

Just my 2 eurocents, of course.

And like arnoldemu said, please start with a small project...

[MacDeath]

a Zelda like game may not really need more than 128k RAM provided multiloadings and use of a 720k 3"1/2 disk... but yeah, loading time can be annoying anyway.

[tastefulmrship]

And like arnoldemu said, please start with a small project...

Failing that, let's start with an existing original project and convert it to CPC. I don't know... how about this little fella? Then, maybe at a later date, the existing platformer engine could be used to get Cosmic Prison Commando done, too. (Robocop Prime would need some license removal first, I guess... but...)
Anyway, I always wanted a decent Roland game (unless someone wants to fix the scrolling on RolRopes) and GemSoft never got around to the third RolTime game.

Otherwise, we're all just going to continue contributing to this thread with our chosen game/genre of choice and nothing's going to get done. The only other thing is to ask the coder himself what game he would like (as Targhan kinda suggested above), then the rest of the creative team can get on with whatever else is required (graphics, sound, etc). The rest of us only have to dig into our pockets if we so wish to support it.

[cpc4eva]

Just received a reply back from Phillip Oliver -

"Go right ahead and use what you like, you'll have no challenge from us, only compliments.
Happy to try and give a little advice, but I can't think it'll be that helpful.
Do check out out YouTube channel. You'll hopefully find the let's Play videos fun and informative.
All the best,
Philip"

"By all means take any ideas &  graphics from any of our old games... But make it your own. Make it unique &  come up with a new name. Re Dizzy, do Check out  http://www.yolkfolk.com

Phillip"


So I wonder if other companies would be as kind as the Oliver's ?  We can only hope 

[sigh]

I think that there are many considerations that need to be respected when trying to create a game on the CPC and being realistic is a major factor, but also a very tricky concept to adhere too. What exactly is realistic?

The reason I'm asking this is because you never know what you may learn or produce from trying out a seemingly impossible and wild idea. New techniques are more likely to be discovered when trying to achieve the ambitious even if the idea has to be scrapped due to being overambitious. As creating the beat em up game (the title of the game is "No Holds Barred", but I don't think that the poll is referring to it?) with arnoldemu as I have stated before, has had many thoughtful ideas in regards to tackling the AI, because there is a lot going on in this game. Myself - I've been stretching the animations and move sets to create something that isn't really seen much in 2d side scrolling beat em ups and we have no idea if we can fit it all in, but we wont know until we try.

The football game is another example. It's an extremely ambitious project in regards to programming as I have a huge sprite sheet consisting of those 16x16 characters animated doing things from diving headers, bicycle kicks to diving goalies, on screen referees and linesman, along with an interesting way to get pixel smooth scrolling which hasn't been tested yet.

Will it work? No idea!

Of course, I could easily cut down the amount of animations and just opt for having a hardware scroll, but it would end up like a small sprite version of Emlyn Hughes which would be neither challenging or interesting to me. I'm also unsure if it would create new ways of thinking on how concepts within graphics, sound and programming could be handled, unless it's pushed past being what would be considered realistic.

So if people do decide they want a WOW game or an Uncharted game then, it would be better to take 2 or 3 "special" elements from that game in order to produce a "feeling" of what makes that game, rather than try to squeeze everything in that game into a 2d environment.
For instance - you want Dark Souls? Name three features that you "feel" that make Dark Souls what it is. As an example lets say epic boss fights, large map and dying a lot. You could reimagine as a top down game, mode 1 graphics with a limited tileset, small extremely limited animated sprites and then for the boss fights, you could multiload them in and then go to town on the AI and graphical/animations/sound on that particular part of the game.

For me - I don't want realistic to stop people from trying and exploring new methods otherwise things will be slow to change.

[chinnyhill10]

I love people voting for a 512k game. So the 2 people with 512k expansions can play the game on real hardware and there rest of us have to suffer with a rotten old emulator.


Make a game for everyone. 64k base with a 128k enhanced version. Not a game for a few people with memory expansions.

[Joseman]

I love people voting for a 512k game. So the 2 people with 512k expansions can play the game on real hardware and there rest of us have to suffer with a rotten old emulator.


Make a game for everyone. 64k base with a 128k enhanced version. Not a game for a few people with memory expansions.

I'm not agree with this, just ask for the sales of x-mem, the sales of Symbiface II and other mem expansions, 80%-90% of actual cpc users have this expansions...

Is just silly to ask for a 64k's game nowadays, if you think that 64k's  is ok, then, you ask for a 464 version of the game, I suposse that you will not use any disc solution for the game then... and wait 10 minutes every time to load the game and 5 minutes for every level...

[||C|-|E||]

I love people voting for a 512k game. So the 2 people with 512k expansions can play the game on real hardware and there rest of us have to suffer with a rotten old emulator.


Make a game for everyone. 64k base with a 128k enhanced version. Not a game for a few people with memory expansions.

It is difficult (at least in my clumsy hands) to make a 64k game and not to use a disc drive if you really aim to create something different from what has been already made (with different I mean bigger and more complete, I do not dare to say better). Even with the text adventure we are making you can feel the difference because it means many more graphics and much richer text. You can also increase the overall speed of the things by completely skipping vector graphics. Considering the price of the expansions (I think that it is not high at all) and taking into account that any CPC can be upgraded, I guess that is quite reasonable to produce a game that at least uses 128 KB and 720 Kb disc drive.

[Lazy Dude]

well this is certainly one lively topic!

I will go have a long think before casting my vote.

I imagine that if the results are conclusive enough, any coders that are exited or feel happy to tackle one of the leading results could declare an interest in it  and perhaps share their vision before committing untold hours etc...

I don't see that there should be any big rush at this early stage to make plans etc, as everything is non commital at the moment.
Lets just see whats on peoples minds .......

[TotO]

I'm not agree with this, just ask for the sales of x-mem, the sales of Symbiface II and other mem expansions, 80%-90% of actual cpc users have this expansions...

Exactly. 
By the way, peoples who only want 464 tapes programs are mostly nostalgic players and finally don't care about new games. 
Earing tape loading during 2mn to show the splash screen is enough... They reset after and not play, because it's too long! 
Others don't understand technical limitations and always dream about impossible things and finally draw mockups for PC fakes. 

[chinnyhill10]

I'm not agree with this, just ask for the sales of x-mem, the sales of Symbiface II and other mem expansions, 80%-90% of actual cpc users have this expansions...

Is just silly to ask for a 64k's game nowadays, if you think that 64k's  is ok, then, you ask for a 464 version of the game, I suposse that you will not use any disc solution for the game then... and wait 10 minutes every time to load the game and 5 minutes for every level...

Do you have any proof that 90% of CPC owners have a memory expansion or did you just pull this figure out of the air.

[TFM]

Exactly. 
By the way, peoples who only want 464 tapes programs are mostly nostalgic players and finally don't care about new games. 
Earing tape loading during 2mn to show the splash screen is enough... They reset after and not play, because it's too long! 
Others don't understand technical limitations and always dream about impossible things and finally draw mockups for PC fakes. 

Eventually somebody got the balls to point it out! 

[chinnyhill10]

I've read this thread in disbelief. Basically it appears all some people want is to produce games for setups only a few hardcore CPC owners own.


Fair enough but it will do nothing for the community other than keep a few fanboys happy in their bedrooms with expansions hanging out of the back of their CPC's.


To actually say 464 owners are only interested in nostalgia and don't play games is grossly offensive. Such comments make me ashamed to be a CPC user. Not everyone can afford a 6128, not everyone can afford memory expansions or has the knowledge to acquire or use them. Not everyone is a CPC fanboy posting on an exclusive forum with super pimped up CPC at their disposal.


If you want to make a game for just you, then go ahead. If you want to make a game which everyone can enjoy then think again.


It's far more of a technical achievement to program something for all but can still take advantage of improved hardware than just to program a game only a few people can run.


I've said my piece. I'm going to a darkened room to lie down.

[tastefulmrship]

It's far more of a technical achievement to program something for all but can still take advantage of improved hardware than just to program a game only a few people can run.

This. 100%.

[Puresox]

Personally ,I think the project should aim for a game that is manageable, seeing as though there are many factors that have not been tried before on the Amstrad scene, I don't think anyway. Keep it simple for the starters , as a proof of concept.  If the project is too complex , it will fall on its face and I imagine that'll be the end of it.

[Lazy Dude]

I agree. And lets not forget, new friendships will be formed in the process so if the first small project goes well other things may occur after.

[TFM]

Not everyone can afford a 6128, not everyone can afford memory expansions

Are you kidding? An X-MEM is only 30 Euros. Even if you have no job and life from salvation army, then this is less than 10% of your monthly income. How much money do you spend for other things? 30 Euro is too much? Really?

[TotO]

Do you have any proof that 90% of CPC owners have a memory expansion or did you just pull this figure out of the air.

I have the proof than at less 120 single peoples own 512K RAM to use on a real CPC, TODAY. (all emulators users have 512K RAM too...)
Do you have the proff than more than 10 users have only 64K and don't want more? 

[Joseman]

here in spain i go to sites called "rastro" i've bought docens of 6128 for 5 euros each one, you are relly kidding right?