Football Fever (aka - Games with smooth "1" pixel multi directional scrolling.)

[sigh]

It's been a while but I've been properly laying out the frames as shown below:







As the sprites fit into 16x16 sqaures, I can fit around 88 sprites per sheet and there is going to be a lot of them. The graphical data is going to take around 80kb uncompressed with all of it being animations as the goal, crowds and pitch lines aren't very heavy.
I currently have 3 sheets done (248 frames) which includes the run, jog, walk, sprint and skip cycle animations. These 5 locomotions are the heaviest animations in the game.
I'm now sorting out the shooting, passing, heading the ball etc anims. There are still some tests to be done with the scrolling, but I want to get these out the way first so I can put the graphic work of this game to bed so I never need to touch it ever again.

I'm also preparing to resuming work on the beat em up which is the main focus, when I get back to the UK next week.

[villain]

I'm convinced this will become a really great game. I hope I can play it on my little CPC when next wave of football fever ;-) reaches me. Probably at world cup 2018!

[||C|-|E||]

They look brilliant!

[Puresox]

Can I ask a question. regarding what style of footie game it will be like? More like Speedy Adidas or technical Emlyn Hughes? Or is this too early in development?

[sigh]

Can I ask a question. regarding what style of footie game it will be like? More like Speedy Adidas or technical Emlyn Hughes? Or is this too early in development?

Good question and it's definitely not too early in development. Questions like that need to be answered before even creation begins.

The original plan was to have it simulated which is why there are so many animations in the game.  However - as I don't actually play football games* it would be best to have a combination of simulated/technical and arcadey. I don't want it like Emlyn Hughes where headers or diving headers are overly difficult to pull off. I also don't want it like Italia 90 where your constantly doing bicycle kicks and diving headers like nobody's business.

In between the 2 is what the game need to be. I guess - think Pro evo/fifa on the CPC ?





*I'm not into football or football games (though I don't mind Bakuretsu Soccer aka "SuperShot Soccer"due to it's zany supermoves), but I enjoy the animations and AI techniques that are present in football games now. I really do think it's an amazing achievement both in programming and animations.

This makes me really want to produce a good footy game for the CPC.

However - I would be interested in what you guys who do enjoy football games think.

[EgoTrip]

The sprites look amazing, but how will you fit them all in the CPC's memory, along with all the code and AI?

[sigh]

The sprites look amazing, but how will you fit them all in the CPC's memory, along with all the code and AI?

It will be a 128kb only game. The graphics will take up around 80kb uncompressed. This also includes both teams and the flipped/mirrored sprites too, which should make the game very fast and smooth.
Some sprites like the goal keeper and would need to be compressed as they will be in a restricted area on the screen and will only need a few frames to scroll into view.

[Puresox]

Good question and it's definitely not too early in development. Questions like that need to be answered before even creation begins.

The original plan was to have it simulated which is why there are so many animations in the game.  However - as I don't actually play football games* it would be best to have a combination of simulated/technical and arcadey. I don't want it like Emlyn Hughes where headers or diving headers are overly difficult to pull off. I also don't want it like Italia 90 where your constantly doing bicycle kicks and diving headers like nobody's business.

In between the 2 is what the game need to be. I guess - think Pro evo/fifa on the CPC ?





*I'm not into football or football games (though I don't mind Bakuretsu Soccer aka "SuperShot Soccer"due to it's zany supermoves), but I enjoy the animations and AI techniques that are present in football games now. I really do think it's an amazing achievement both in programming and animations.

This makes me really want to produce a good footy game for the CPC.

However - I would be interested in what you guys who do enjoy football games think.

Yeah appreciate what your saying , the game obviously has to be envisioned at the beginning else no plan ends in a mess. I suppose I was trying to sneak out a bit of ....? Wondered if you were finding yourself compromised by issues ? Or you have pretty much got what you thought you could get  out of the machine etc.
Looking forward to some of these projects

[Puresox]

From my perspective , I enjoy footie games that you can build up the play , passing etc. I really not keen on Football games that drive you just to use one player. When you have a feeling of producing a smart bit of tactical attacking ,having to use different techniques against differing teams. Football games that give you the feeling of being a smart player .

[sigh]

From my perspective , I enjoy footie games that you can build up the play , passing etc. I really not keen on Football games that drive you just to use one player. When you have a feeling of producing a smart bit of tactical attacking ,having to use different techniques against differing teams. Football games that give you the feeling of being a smart player .

That's what I would like to see too. I would like it to look like a proper football match if you were just to watch it. I think that these latest football games on the present consoles achieve this, because of how much you can see of the pitch. This gives you a lot of options on where to pass the ball. The 8 bit football games usually had larger sprites and a small playing field. Emlyn Hughes is and example of this.

[Puresox]

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I know this is for Atari ST , but I think it is an interesting vid on Football games. Plus always feel the ST is a 16bit kindred spirit of the Amstrad.


[EDIT Please use the YouTube button to embed your videos]

[Carnivius]

I know this is for Atari ST , but I think it is an interesting vid on Football games. Plus always feel the ST is a 16bit kindred spirit of the Amstrad.

Oh I dunno.  I often felt my Amiga was as prone to almost as many lazy ports of ST games as my CPC was with Speccy ports.

Loving these fluid wide-pixel football sprites, Sigh.

[Xyphoe]

With the amount of graphics involved and how long it will take to code, I suggest keeping it as fun and simple as possible.

As I think I suggested ages ago in this topic, take a look Tecmo World Cup 90, it's not a complicated game but huge fun to play.

But great great work so far!!

I can't tell you how excited I am to potentially see a new footy game on the CPC... as a huge footy game fan I do feel the CPC doesn't have a real standout game. The best ones all have their downsides... eg Emlyn Hughes (my favourite) is too slow and looks drab as it's downside.

[sigh]

With the amount of graphics involved and how long it will take to code, I suggest keeping it as fun and simple as possible.

As I think I suggested ages ago in this topic, take a look Tecmo World Cup 90, it's not a complicated game but huge fun to play.

But great great work so far!!

I can't tell you how excited I am to potentially see a new footy game on the CPC... as a huge footy game fan I do feel the CPC doesn't have a real standout game. The best ones all have their downsides... eg Emlyn Hughes (my favourite) is too slow and looks drab as it's downside.

AHH! It wasn't Italia 90 - I actually meant the game your talking about - Tecmo World Cup 90.
I enjoyed the game in the arcades when I was a kid, but it doesn't really feel like football to me, though it was fun to play. I definitely wouldn't like it to be that arcadey. I think that something in between this and Emlyn Hughes would strike a good balance.

[villain]

Any progress made? I'm still curious. Very curious.

[sigh]

Any progress made? I'm still curious. Very curious.

Excellent timing as I've been working on this one for the past few weeks!

I've actually been finishing laying out all the sprites on the sheets and there are 695 frames of animation so far.
I have to layout 1 more goal keeper animation (everything was already animated; just not put onto sheets) and then I have to layout the referee and linesman sprites. I think I may have double up on some of the frames, but i think that the sprite animations will amount to around 750 frames.
As they are 16x16 sprites, they take up around 80kb in graphics.

I'm hoping to get it finished this month along with the goalpost scrolling animation test which would be great, as that will mean I would have finished 2 projects this year (a comic book and the artwork/animation for this football game) making my long checklist of projects a little shorter.

Then it will be the hard task of finding a programmer/s for it. Not going to be easy, as sport games with lots of players need a lot of crazy AI routines.

[sigh]

Also - one more thing. I may have mentioned it before, but this thread is quite large to read through.

What do people think of having the option to play as the referee and linesmen? I was thinking that it could be some sort of mini game where you had to make decisions on whether the tackles where fouls or not, or whether the ball was in play or had crossed the goal line properly, or whether there was a handball (executed by a playing pressing the direction of a tackle to early) or time wasting (is that a thing?) or diving.
You would then be given a percentage at the end showing what you got right and what you got wrong. The percentage will show how much control you had in the game, with a low percentage meaning that you had lost control of the game.

Just a thought.

[villain]

What do people think of having the option to play as the referee and linesmen? I was thinking that it could be some sort of mini game where you had to make decisions on whether the tackles where fouls or not, or whether the ball was in play or had crossed the goal line properly, or whether there was a handball (executed by a playing pressing the direction of a tackle to early) or time wasting (is that a thing?) or diving.
You would then be given a percentage at the end showing what you got right and what you got wrong. The percentage will show how much control you had in the game, with a low percentage meaning that you had lost control of the game.

This would be a really innovative concept and I would use it for sure -  but I think there will already be a lot of work to do "only" for the normal football game. And that's what I've been waiting for on CPC since 1987. :-)

Concerning different options... Maybe it could also be an interesting one to be able to act as a physiotherapist of the swedish women team. 

[seanb]

Seeing as how utterly hopeless I am at football games to be the referee would be the only way I'll be able to play it.

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

As a mini-game that could be cool.


80KB of graphics is a lot though! How will that be squeezed into memory for a normal disk load game?

[sigh]

As a mini-game that could be cool.


80KB of graphics is a lot though! How will that be squeezed into memory for a normal disk load game?

80KB is uncompressed, but there will be instances when some animations/frames could be compressed like the referee, linesman and maybe the goal keeper.
Also - 80KB include both teams but they would still need code for mirroring the sprites, but there will only be one goalkeeper. There are also the skin colours too which is very important for the game.
As the scrolling method is approached in a different way, it may be able to set up the screen for 16KB instead of using 32KB, though that may or may not involve sprite flickering. As the game is heavily animated, I can always remove frames from many of the animations.

It's better for me to animate and get everything in that I would want and remove as necessary when running into memory problems. If this does need to happen, then there will be a list of priority animations with the animations on the top of the list, being the most important and should be left alone such as
the run, walk, jog, skip and sprints, as these are the animations that will give the game a simulated feel. The the pass, shoot, tackle and sliding tackle would be next. After that it would be the diving headers, bicycle kick, goalkeeper etc.

We'll see...

[roudoudou]

We'll see...

Any news since last year?

[sigh]

Hi guys/gals,

The sprites have all been laid out. I have also finished the last animation which is the medic:


So this is it in terms of animations. Everything has been completed and put onto sheets with the correct timings. The only thing for me to do now on the game screen, is the HUD which will be the scoreboard, team names, players name who scored(If I can fit it) and the clock.

I will need to work on the design for "Referee mode". This will basically be a simple game where you referee a match. You will be pitted against "Goal Line Technology" and will have to make the correct decisions regarding fouls, offsides, penalties, fake dives etc. When you make a decision, play will stop and a menu will be displayed showing the referee decision "icons". You will pick one that you think best matches the offence. If you are correct, your rating will go up. If incorrect, your rating will go down. At the end of the game, you will be awarded a rank from NOVICE to MASTER REF.

With the front end of the game, it will have the five following selections:

1) Single Player game
a) Casual
b) Season
c) Tournament(Euro Cup/World Cup/African Nations/Olympics)

2) 2 player Co-op Game
a) Casual
b) Season
c) Tournament(Euro Cup/World Cup/African Nations/Olympics)

3) Vs game
a) Casual
b) Goalie - Manual/Auto
b) Referee - Manual/Auto (3 player game)

4) Mini Games:
a) Referee mode
b) Penalty Shoot out.

5) Edit Team(s)
a) Gender - Male/Female/Mixed
b) Edit Team name
c) Edit Player names
d) Edit colours

6) Options:
a) Timer
b) Difficulty
c) Handball On/Off
d) Diving On/Off
e) Replays On/Off

The main game will have to be loaded separately from the front end due to the size.

[villain]

Very glad to see that it's still alive. Hoping for a release until the Euro 2020.

[Lazy Dude]

Well this all looks exiting.Meantime it's time to go raid the tape collection and see how my footie games are doing .