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Brick Rick (Development)

Started by reidrac, 11:42, 21 June 20

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reidrac

11:42, 21 June 20 Last Edit: 12:19, 21 June 20 by reidrac
I've started working on a new CPC game that I'm calling Brick Rick.

It is still very WIP and I'm not 100% sure about the gameplay and pretty much anything, really.

TBH, I prefer to open a dev thread when I have a better defined plan, because I hate when I start working on something and for whatever reason it gets cancelled; but I've been posting bits on Twitter and there's interest to have a thread here. Please bear with me as I find out what is this about!

[attach=1,msg188508]
[attach=2,msg188508]

What I do know is that I'd love to make a single screen arcade platformer in the vibe of Magica, specially after all the things I've learnt about the genre since I made Magica. Something quick and clean that I can finish in 3 to 4 months.

It will fit in 64K with no expansions and will support both cassette and disk (M4 compatible).

We will see how it goes. I'm making some early decisions that I may regret later; and I hope I won't get stuck like happened with Kitsune's Curse (although I finished that one, so it isn't too bad I guess!).

I will update this thread as I see fit (you know may have more frequent updates on my Twitter account).
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

ervin

#1
12:13, 21 June 20
That is a very charming main character!
Really looking forward to following the progress on this one.

GUNHED

#2
15:22, 21 June 20
Quote from: reidrac on 11:42, 21 June 20
I've started working on a new CPC game that I'm calling Brick Rick.
Rick the Prick  :laugh:  Video and GFX (especially sprite) looks great!  :)
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reidrac

#3
15:39, 21 June 20
I had some time after lunch and I added the first alien.

It is WIP, I didn't have time to finish it; but at least you can see it moving.

https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1274713394617204737

I run a test with 6 enemies and there's slow down. The sprites are 8x24 instead of the 8x16 I used in Magica, and the engine uses "mini-buffers" (that saves memory, but is less performant).

Is not a big issue, but the gameplay hast to support that. I plan to add more platforming and interaction with the screen, closer to what I did in Night Knight than to Magica.

Anyway; this was a good session. I have the next week off, so I may have some extra time to work on the game.
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

SkulleateR

#4
23:02, 21 June 20
The main character looks a bit like P.P. Hammer :D I love the look  8)

Gryzor

#5
07:49, 22 June 20
Excellent-looking alien baddies. Amazing how much detail and character you can add with a few pixels!

Why is he throwing potatoes at them? :D

reidrac

#6
08:12, 22 June 20
Quote from: Gryzor on 07:49, 22 June 20
Excellent-looking alien baddies. Amazing how much detail and character you can add with a few pixels!

Why is he throwing potatoes at them? :D

Well, that's a brick! We need moar pixels! :D
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Gryzor

#7
08:23, 22 June 20
Oh, the titular bricks :D

Skunkfish

#8
08:31, 22 June 20
They look like bricks to me! Although admittedly, I've not seen a Greek potato in a while...
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

reidrac

#9
15:41, 22 June 20 Last Edit: 15:44, 22 June 20 by reidrac
I had some time after lunch and I implemented the enemy dizzy behaviour, including the tricky bits like gravity.

https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1275076326991425538

I can see that when there are a couple of enemies dizzy, the speed goes down a bit (it needs to draw extra sprites of 8x8). I think I can improve that; but for now, this is a good prototype.
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Skunkfish

#10
14:35, 23 June 20
It definitely brings about thoughts of Magica, seeing the dazed enemies.
But will the method of 'finishing them off' as it were, be different? In my mind, I just saw a button that causes a flood of cement to flow down the screen, killing all dazed enemies....
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

reidrac

#11
15:03, 23 June 20
Quote from: Skunkfish on 14:35, 23 June 20
It definitely brings about thoughts of Magica, seeing the dazed enemies.
But will the method of 'finishing them off' as it were, be different? In my mind, I just saw a button that causes a flood of cement to flow down the screen, killing all dazed enemies....

Sounds cool!

It'll be similar to Magica: stun, kick, aaaand... you'll see. Not potions this time, the mechanic will be slightly different but in spirit is the same type of game.
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

reidrac

#12
14:56, 25 June 20
Quick update

I'm on holidays this week, so I have some extra time for gamedev.

After running some stress tests with my mini-buffer engine; it can't handle what I need in this game (well, not even Magica engine using a big-ass buffer could! These sprites are 8x24!). This was expected anyway and I was planning to adjust the game play accordingly; but it is a bit slower than I was hoping for :(

So I run some numbers and I wrote a "simple" engine using a back-buffer by hardware. It is very clean, and because I use 160 x 176 pixels in this game, Magica's engine wouldn't use less memory (and it would be a bit slower).

Besides, Magica's engine feels now a bit outdated :D I mean, I know better now than in 2016, and the mini-buffer engine is way easier to use in comparison. So I have a new engine that will be used in Brick Rick (and any other small-ish 64K games, or 128K games). It is full featured and "beta" for now, but all works fine (apparently hah!).

The mini-buffer engine is still good (used in Dawn of Kernel and Kitsune's Curse), I don't plan to retire it; in case I make another mid-size 64K game.

According to my numbers, now the game has to fit in 31232 bytes (compared with the 46080 bytes of Kitsune's Curse, it is A LOT). In this type of game I don't think it will be an issue, I can include a good number of enemies and screens; I just need to be creative with compression and encoding the screens.

Anyway; I'm going to slow down a bit now and continue with the actual game. Putting together an engine in 2+ days has been a blast!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

reidrac

#13
14:27, 26 June 20
Implemented stun + kick (like in Magica, but there's no "collect" at the end).

https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1276506874511310851

The idea is that you have to clean up the level to move to the next one, and in this one the enemies will respawn. So you'll have to kill n enemies before moving to the next level.

I think, at least. Still WIP!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Skunkfish

#14
11:14, 27 June 20
So the aliens can knock each other out?
I like it, I hope that will stay!  :P
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

reidrac

#15
12:36, 27 June 20
Quote from: Skunkfish on 11:14, 27 June 20
So the aliens can knock each other out?
I like it, I hope that will stay!  :P

Magica also had those chains. IMHO it is an important part of this type of game.
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

reidrac

#16
15:44, 27 June 20
Today I had less time than usual, but managed to add the "vanishing" effect.

https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1276888240923049985

Which is not a lot, but every little step counts :)
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Skunkfish

#17
07:01, 28 June 20 Last Edit: 07:07, 28 June 20 by Skunkfish
Quote from: reidrac on 12:36, 27 June 20
Magica also had those chains. IMHO it is an important part of this type of game.
Ah I thought the alien had done it just by jumping... I see now that he had in fact been hit by another spinning alien as he jumped!
I do remember the chains from Magica, it's not been that long :)


To quote myself:
'The clever part is how you use,
The booted enemies to snooze,
Other foes with whom they touch,
Master this, it will help much...'
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

reidrac

#18
20:40, 30 June 20 Last Edit: 20:52, 30 June 20 by reidrac
Quick update!

The player can die and the stage cycle is complete (inc. enemy respawn). This is looking good!

https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1278050472503529482

I still need to decide how to implement the "time out" case. After Magica and Night Knight I don't like removing a life to reset the clock, so I may go full Bubble Bobble leaving the clock on zero and adding a invulnerable enemy that will chase the player.

After that: power ups!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Gryzor

#19
09:01, 01 July 20
So, so cute! (what's not cute: the changes that Twitter did...)

Skunkfish

#20
09:21, 01 July 20
I love the dying sprite! (I'm sure I'll be seeing it a lot)
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

reidrac

#21
09:01, 04 July 20
Quick update!

Implemented the "time monster".

https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1279324064985812992

Instead of removing a life when the time gets to zero, this monster will appear and chase the player. Which adds to the gameplay and you can still complete the stage without penalty (although no time bonus, of course).

Also if you loose a life when the time is 0, the clock will reset and the monster will go away. This is to avoid immediately loosing two lives if you are killed by an enemy just before the time runs out, which I found a bit borderline unfair in Magica and Night Knight.

Next stop: power ups!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Skunkfish

#22
09:30, 04 July 20
It looks suitably terrifying!  :o I like it!
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

Gryzor

#23
11:35, 04 July 20
That was a great element in Bubble Bobble, still great now. And it looks great!

reidrac

#24
08:22, 05 July 20
Pick ups done!

https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1279674475651436547

There are always memory constrains so for now I've settled on three pick ups:

  • coffee: score
  • sand clock: reset time
  • dynamite: stun all enemies on screen

May add more later, but these three cover the basics, so for now I think it is OK.

This is looking good. Adding enemies, level design and (probably) improving the stage compression will take me a while, but being optimistic I could see a release by September.
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.
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