The Last UFO game - WIP.
I thought it was a good time to present you some further progress on "The Last UFO". The name by the way reminds me of the game The Last V8.
Your an alien that is trying to escape earth (plot coming).
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7msuQQ3rAFI/VhepXd26G4I/AAAAAAAACs0/jCM55iQQWZc/s1600/TheLastUFO_DemoScreens_v01.png)
Below is the example sprite sheet. Aliens have 3 frames that get flipped and has a hit state that flashes.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4X6coVseMAA/VheqtlP2h4I/AAAAAAAACtI/2mvZKlv51Ms/s1600/TLU_SpriteExamples01.png)
It was important to post this now as I have two other games that have programmers attached to them but wanted to show you what I have done so far for this game.
I have also started building the map in the program "Tiled"
As the Amstrad was the very first computer I own and enjoyed very much this project has a very special place.
P.S. Once the Amstrad Graphics/Map/Design is done, I plan to create (ZX Spectrum, C64, Amiga and then modern PC/Mac/Linux spritesets)
This is looking really great. More proper video-gamey than what I can do (I always over-complicate things). I like it a lot!
Your creature sprites look fantastic too.
Holy cow that looks great!
@invent (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1508), @Carnivac (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=50) - I wish I could pixel like you guys!
I love the border with the green and blue bubbles, awesome work.
Very nice tiles, excellent use of light. Well done!
Looks great.
I cant help, but on some screens are IMHO too many colours used.
It looks really really nice! :)
Actually, @Fessor (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1495) is right... how many colors? :o
There's 47 colours. A lot of slightly different value versions of the CPC colours in there. With those wrong ones adjusted to correct values there are 27 in total which is every colour in the CPC palette. Next problem there is many of those screens are using about 20 colours at once when 16 is the limit.
So these graphics will need some modification to be truly possible on CPC but with some careful work they shouldn't look much different than they do now.
More than 50 colours. (but 27 good ones if posterised)
The problem is more that most of the pictures use >16 colours without the score bar.
Oh man - and for a while I thought it's CPC stuff, but it's just stuff painted on a PC. :picard2:
To be honest, I also thought that the screens had 16 colors! :laugh:
I was blown away on initial sight, a little disappointed to find out it is not a Straight CPC game.
Still looking forward to it. :)
I was very curious and I converted some of the screens to the CPC and the Plus palettes. They actually look very nice and similar to the original ones!
CPC
[attachimg=1]
Plus
[attachimg=2]
:)
Hi Everyone,
Appreciated all your comments and feedback. I will address a few of the concerns :)
Firstly, here is an optimised 14 colour (just updated) image for the Egyptian level.
The only colour obvious to me (missing) is the bright red missing out of the (Jewels, Lazer shooters and player jet) but it could be brought back in.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fYoPtzG5S9c/Vhhjf9stmvI/AAAAAAAACto/Q1H8fPdnw5U/s1600/TheLastUFO_Egypt_14colours.png)
Puresox, Sorry that your disappointed. If you mean about converting this game to other platforms, that's only after the Amstrad is completed. While I have created a few other tests (eg spectrum) they won't be public for a long time. The Amstrad version is my highest priority.
||C|-|E||, I hope the above image shows 16 colours is very possible ;)
Hi TFM, I use PC (Mac) yes but for the only reason it allows me to work quicker and have lots of other files open.
The Spritesheet shown is purely showing all sprite examples in one graphic, the final game it will be split off into 16 colour optimised. The graphic was to show how much graphics is in the game so far, including the Title page that uses about 10 tiles to build up the title name.
Hope this update helps :)
The palette with white lines underneath represent colours that will more than likely be locked for each theme/level/screen.
Colours for player ship, background and menu.
The two similar greens could be reduced to one, currently the enemies use the pale version which I prefer and the saturated green for the menu Laser section.
P.S. thanks ||C|-|E|| for taking the time to creating CPC, Plus examples, interesting :) (I finally worked out a quick way of typing your name:))
You are welcome! :D
I may not be understanding the project , so hope not to offend. I get confused as to whether some of these games are PC games done in the style of Amstrad(or whatever micro it may be). Or that they are actual Amstrad running games , that will work on a CPC464 or 6128. It does look fantastic , and will be really impressed if an actual Amstrad version becomes available.
All these pieces of work have my utmost respect whatever the case maybe.
Hi Puresox.
No offense taken :)
Would like it to be on real hardware such as CPC464 or 6128, I don't have hardware at the moment or the space, although I do keep looking out for a 6128 to buy locally.
I'm entertaining the thought of crowd funding to pay for a programmer, musician and costs to produce on tape/disc but this is later down the track.
Quote from: invent on 23:57, 09 October 15
The two similar greens could be reduced to one, currently the enemies use the pale version which I prefer and the saturated green for the menu Laser section.
On real Hardware they are so near together that a difference is very hard to recognize. You can also define one additional colour as on the picture only inks 0 to 14 are used.
concerning palette :
if you replace bright Magenta with Purple, it gets a little more redish.
You use bright green and pastel green, which doesn't offer good contrast and is quite unusable.
If you replace bright yellow by pastel yellow, you can then go into dark green - any medium green - pastel yellow gradiant.
Sea green can offer a nice variant to both pastel/bright green or Cyan.
otherwise, Love the tiles.
I would love to see a Plus version of this game, movement could probably be really soft and great :) . I mean, the normal CPC could move those sprites very happily, but a Plus version would be very cool.
Hi MacDeath,
Thats a good suggestion with the Magenta/Purple, I have updated the image above. :)
Removed the pastel green, I agree.
re-added the Jet with a Purple pixel.
I'll experiment more with your other suggestions but keen to keep the Bright Yellow on the bricks to keep that goldish look.
Now 14 colours :)
||C|-|E|| Can you point me in the right direction to see what you mean. eg videos especially if you know one of a CPC and Plus example. About to look now for more info.
I can say that I would expect the enemy sprites and the game to be very similar to "The Covenant" on the CPC. That game had no more than two enemies.
It is not so easy to compare, side by side, the same CPC and Plus game and see proper differences, but this is more for historic reasons. However, the Plus had a few nice games (very few) that show its capabilities. One of them is Pang, were the sprites move really really smooth:
[AMSTRAD GX4000] Pang (Gameplay Run-through) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orIiTwUDOh0)
Problem is that pluses are not so popular. Back in time the machine did not sell well at all and nowadays they are expensive to buy :)
Thanks for showing Pang, yes certainly looks very smooth.
Dunno if it's relevant but I was shown this video some time ago in regards to smooth movement on regular CPC and this is running in overscan for a bigger than usual screen.
Quote from: Carnivac on 13:21, 10 October 15
Dunno if it's relevant but I was shown this video some time ago in regards to smooth movement on regular CPC and this is running in overscan for a bigger than usual screen.
SyX the master! :)
Love those screens. Pure pixel pr0n, so I'm anxious for more :)
UWOL? Never finished game.... Arrrrgggg...
Will it be finished one day? Don't know if Syx is already working on it.
Been looking forward to that game for a long time, is it too good to become reality??
I can tell you that the game development was stopped long time ago.
Yes, sadly, they had a disagreement. The GFX are really nice though!
That is tragic , it really was looking like a quality piece of work :doh:
Quote from: McKlain on 21:41, 10 October 15
I can tell you that the game development was stopped long time ago.
Shame it didn't get completed. Has anyone tried to contact the individuals? Looks like the game engine has great potential.
DadMan made the the excellent graphics! :)
Quote from: arnoldemu on 08:38, 11 October 15
DadMan made the the excellent graphics! :)
thanks Arnoldemu - The same person who did the excellent Teodoro game ;)
QuoteHi MacDeath,
Thats a good suggestion with the Magenta/Purple, I have updated the image above. :)
Removed the pastel green, I agree.
re-added the Jet with a Purple pixel.
I'll experiment more with your other suggestions but keen to keep the Bright Yellow on the bricks to keep that goldish look.
Now 14 colours :)
Yeah, love to discuss palettes... lol...
Never hesitate to use pastel Yellow as it is a more mixed colour so actually compatible in more gradiants and hues shifts...
straight colours (all basic ones, in dark and bright) are a bit "pure"...
then you have the pastels variants (added colours inside) and what I call hybrids ones (like orange...) which may allow to shift from one hue to another...
Of course it doesn't always work well...
but can allow extra hues gradiants or extra subtility... or even more contrasts.
every thing with green inside will lack contrast : the greens/cyan/yellow have quite low contrast between the bright and pastel... but you can do more subtle gradiants like green going into pastel cyan or yellow.
You can also skip the bright Cyan/Yellow/Green for one of the hybrid ones (Lime = yellow+green, seagreen = cyan+green).
in those cases, the hybrid hue would add extra contrast not in luminosity but because of the hue shift.
ex :
= dark yellow - bright yellow - pastel yellow : the contrast between bright and pastel is not good/visible.
but : dark yellow - Lime - Pastel yellow : this is more sibttle, actually can pass for both green or yellow gradiant, and you may see more differences between the "bright" (Lime) and Pastel hue.
= same with cyan and sea green...
=Dark Green - bright green - pastel yellow work quite well too.
Most pastel variants are less saturated so they can mix with more colours than bright pure variants.
the Mauve = blue+ purple enable a very nice gradiant with pastel blue indeed.
and of course you can ALWAYS use Black and White as extremes in a gradiants.
Else, you can't get many long gradiants with the CPC palette, only ones working well are very classical and overly used (yet valid and usefull) the Dark Red to pastel yellow and dark blue to pastel cyan...
BTW you can also always aim for 4 colours with Black - dark/medium colour - pastel/bright colour - white for most graphical elements (small gems)
True Grey ("white"... lol) is somewhat hard to mix (to me... some manage it) beside B&W of course as a pure gradiant's hue, because it is too medium in everything.
Then you can use dithered surfaces as well.
etc.
I tried a few recolours on the tilesheet, not to critisize or tell it is better, just some tryouts for the fun.
I found out the colours you used on your png pictures are not quite... into precise CPC theoric palette.
what colours did you used ?
CPC Palette - CPCWiki (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/CPC_Palette)
Video modes - CPCWiki (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Video_modes)
you can posterize into 3/3/3 so it does theoric CPC palette... or use 0/128/255 values (or even 0/127/255... can't really even the "half" value of a CPC, but we often assume to use the 128...)
QuoteThere's 47 colours. A lot of slightly different value versions of the CPC colours in there. With those wrong ones adjusted to correct values there are 27 in total which is every colour in the CPC palette. Next problem there is many of those screens are using about 20 colours at once when 16 is the limit.
So these graphics will need some modification to be truly possible on CPC but with some careful work they shouldn't look much different than they do now.
QuoteMore than 50 colours. (but 27 good ones if posterised)
The problem is more that most of the pictures use >16 colours without the score bar.
damn, forgot it was already told...
"Tile" applications are not always precise in the palettes. gotta check the palette options.
Modern computers in true colours would often forget that... some things need "limited colours" instead of "true colours"...
Hi MacDeath,
I use the https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/AmstradCPC_palette.png (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/AmstradCPC_palette.png) palette as reference but when you talk about colours I use the other link that describes the colours, very handy.
You make very good points that will take some moments to sink in but I will certainly relook how I use the colours, for right or wrong :)
Always appreciate time taken from yourself and others to fine tune and improve elements. As I reduce the palette for each themed level map, I will see what I can do to either vary or fine tune :)
@macdeath Nice palette ramps though strangely missing that the darkest blue can work with purple and that purple can work with the grey too. :)
yeah, I didn't tried to do proper longs on this one, was mostly to show the CYAN/GREEN/Yellow ones (short or not)
I think I will do some ramps like those with a bit more method and more complete... or not.
Dear @Carnivac (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=50) :
i would really like that you publish your ramps and tricks.
::)
I quite fail to include grey in anything... compared to C64, on CPC it doesn't work well or... not as easily.
same with the Magentas... hard to find Magenta in nature, lol...
But you always do it so well. :'(
BTW those ramps (the ones I post) are not very varied, but I try to get straight ones with slight subtility.
The basic and straight (dark-bright-pastel) Green/cyan/yellow would not work well IMO unless you use the Lime or Seagreen or Skyblue at some points.
Also on CPC as the 16 inks limitation stays quite a limitation (or even worse in Mode1... lol) and as the pixels are big, may not be able to try to use too many colours in a huge gradiant... unless you aim at a big full screen picture I guess.
That's the beauty of it : to manage to get soemthing not looking toooo cartoonish.
Classic games would screw the graphics by applying CPC palette into straight C64 graphics, or using far too straight Hues gradiants
Basically they would put the long RED-Yellow (orange) or the long Blue-cyan (via skyblue) + B&W&G...
by working with more smaller gradiants, with some hybrids here and there, I guess you can get great things.
I quite like the DarkCyan - SeaGreen - pastel Cyan... really a nice cold Cyan one.
Same in Yellow (with Lime), to me this makes for better Cyan or Yellow gradiants in 3 tones.
Basically all the medium ("bright") colours are the one to always screew the graphics into an overly primary coloured thing.
I always feel they are the ones to be avoided unless some specific elements (big red blood...) or assumed cartoonish graphics of course.
Otherwise, some element may want some "warmth" (Bright)... others not (pastel)... can really gets subtle.
especially in Mode1... no more than one in the palette !
A quick update :)
It's been bugging me that I haven't updated this project for a while.
Over time since the last update I have been working away on a little more of "The Last UFO" :)
A few things have been resolved such as the player and enemy reaction.
That is the bullets from both are homing which will simplify the gameplay.
Hope you enjoy the update, sorry its been so long.
Examples of drawings to pixels.
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ew8Icx0-6_U/Vyx3B2XQxyI/AAAAAAAAEEY/JCiPTMz1OxUYxdeSo3O1-mf80ez8l9QrQCLcB/s1600/TheLastUFO_May001c.png)
the updated sprite sheet.
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cd9hYoSWnD0/Vyx1Lnsdi7I/AAAAAAAAEEM/X2_vWFj3FxEXkWRj0cs-PcQTr5xSVK_3ACLcB/s1600/TheLastUFO_May001a.png)
The example of pencil drawings of enemies.
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KEHNghJKeHM/VyxyFyOfQ0I/AAAAAAAAED4/nKbQt-1xlMEjvdgd8OPX2c04q-tYnfr_QCLcB/s1600/TheLastUFO_MaySketches001.png)
An example of the converted 16 colour Egyptian level
(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JeBRuf2JHEI/VyxzZZWOVpI/AAAAAAAAEEA/hcGOZ5FlpMEao3FR5TWs0A0tz6BuVM3dgCLcB/s1600/TheLastUFO_May001b.png)
Oh wow. Everything looks really nice - the screens, the sprites, the drawings... thanks for sharing!
It's time to kickstart (ok thats probably a bad word) this game again, this time it's worth actually setting a deadline.
All graphics, maps completed by this year :)
Will post some new graphics in this thread soon and possibly some questions before I attempt to get all maps completed.
Egypt (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m3yfX4-foPg/Woqogrm5YdI/AAAAAAAAL4k/dyaxEnc8dII632mAIGIucg_TURZDkIwSQCLcBGAs/s1600/TheLastUFO_Map_info001.png)Map completed :)
Please click the link above, didn't want to break the forum posting with large image.
I have a question.
Now that I have completed the first theme "Egypt", I need to get some sort of idea how much memory I have left to do other levels.
The main bulk of new graphics would be in new enemies "eg Enemies_Egypt.png" and new theme tiles eg"Lvl_Tiles_Egypt.png" are the two current files used for Egypt.
This map has 120 screens (plus the spacer screens). The tiles used are shown.
-Key
- Doorlock
- Treasure (shows treasure to collect for all other levels - that is im aiming for 5 other themed maps)
- Enemies (3 or 4 per theme)
- Player ship (includes bullets, jets, disappear sprite and bullet collectable)
- Enemy_laser
Target machine is the Amstrad CPC 464 (64K)
I would like to have music and sound effects but am unsure how to budget my ratio of memory, any tips or suggestions would be dearly appreciated.
"The Covenant" game is possibly the closest game comparison if you see it on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe35Msm7Y-8) for example.
QuoteI would like to have music and sound effects but am unsure how to budget my ratio of memory, any tips or suggestions would be dearly appreciated.
If you're using Arkos Tracker 2 for the music/sfx, count 2-3kb for the player and sound effects maximum, plus the music (2-5kb in average, for one song). The lightweight player is already available if you want to make a test.
Thankyou Targhan, Very useful information.
I might possibly have a musician who is currently working on an Amiga game with me currently (ProXima 3)
Knowing what some of the tools people use is certainly very handy.