The Heart of Salamanderland (development)

[reidrac]

Hi!

I have started a new project: The Heart of Salamanderland (working title, but my younger boy is writing the script so it is likely to stay; not sure if Salamander land are two words actually ).

An platformer with some basic puzzles with a few screens to explore, and things to do in them

Targeting 64K in a single load, but I'm not 100% sure at this point because it is possible I'm not using the right engine (what a surprise!), but hopefully I'll be able to cram enough content for a nice game.

You cannot view this attachment.

A video of what I have so far:

https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111462110851691559

I've been reading the fantasy books my Brandon Mull (Fablehaven and Dragonwatch), and I love the mood so the main character is more Patton Burgess than Indiana Jones; although there's obviously a whip (like in Castlevania; *hint* *hint*).

I'm excited and looking forward to see where I go with this one. I tend to update on my Mastodon account (left Twitter/X or whatever name the space Karen is using now), and I'll post here as I see things take shape.

[ervin]

That looks very cool.
You've crammed a lot of personality into those sprites!

[XeNoMoRPH]

I love the title and theme of the game

[Gryzor]

Oh yay! A new reidrac title! (speaking of titles, keep it as one word, sounds more quirky and 80s-like  )

[Shaun M. Neary]

Oh nice one Juan! I've killed many hours playing some of your games (especially Dawn Of Kernel)

Love that you target 64k users as well (I'm primarily a 464 user who still loads from tape (via TZXDuino to save my tape deck!)

Looking forward to seeing this come to fruition!
Good to see the kids are getting into the 'family business'

S.

[reidrac]

Slow-ish progress, but progress nonetheless!

For example, levers: https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111511831246220485

Still WIP, of course.

I spent a couple of days implementing "the ultimate meta-tiles map renderer" and it works great, saving a lot of space (about a 73% of the space used by 4-bit per tile, both cases using compression on top of that). Meta-tiles tend to make the level design harder, but with meta-tiles of variable size isn't that bad, actually.

More to come!

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Interested in your meta-tiles implementation, I always like reading about space-saving techniques.

[reidrac]

Interested in your meta-tiles implementation, I always like reading about space-saving techniques.

I wrote about it some time ago: https://www.usebox.net/jjm/blog/encoding-schemes-for-map-data/

The information regarding meta-tiles is the same, the difference is that now I use variable size tiles. You have a tilemap, as in fixed size tiles, but the meta-tile information includes width and height and a variable number of tiles.

For example: 1, 2, 10, 11 is a meta-tile of width 1 and height 2 tiles, and the tiles are 10 and 12.

And that's it, really. You can define as many meta-tiles as you want, and the bigger the meta tiles, the more savings you'll have when compressing the map data.

Then I made a script to generate images from a meta-tiles definition so it is easier to compose the maps using tiled.

[Nich]

Slow-ish progress, but progress nonetheless!

For example, levers: https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111511831246220485

Is it just me, or does the protagonist look really angry and annoyed about something?

[reidrac]

Slow-ish progress, but progress nonetheless!

For example, levers: https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111511831246220485

Is it just me, or does the protagonist look really angry and annoyed about something?

It is you, Nich.

[reidrac]

I didn't know if I was going to let the player character crouch because, you know, memory constraints. But then my son asked but, shouldn't he be able to crouch?.

So yep. Can't whip when crouching, which... doesn't look too bad? I'll think about it. Memory is scarce, but crouching adds to the level design.

https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111530325411747056

[eto]

That looks amazing! 

I think it's quite logical that you can't whip when you crouch. And it could add a nice touch to the level design, where you have to properly plan your actions.

[reidrac]

That looks amazing!

I think it's quite logical that you can't whip when you crouch. And it could add a nice touch to the level design, where you have to properly plan your actions.

Thank you!

There isn't much space so there is not a lot of difference between crouching and standing. Less than a 33%

It looks OK as it is, and I'm running out of memory, so yep!

[Shaun M. Neary]

Slow-ish progress, but progress nonetheless!

For example, levers: https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111511831246220485

Is it just me, or does the protagonist look really angry and annoyed about something?

It's not just you. I can see it as well.

Like a ticket inspector who's pissed off after catching the guy who hopped on the bus without paying! 
Ticket Please!

(Sorry Juan, now you'll see it and won't be able to unsee it!)

[reidrac]

(Sorry Juan, now you'll see it and won't be able to unsee it!)

No, it is not But you can see whatever you want, of course.

The character is based on Patton Burgess from Fairhaven lore, born in 1850. He showcases a mustache typical of early 1900s.

On a 8 by 24 pixel sprite, what do you expect?

I guess when the loading screen is done, it will be clearer what I tried to draw

[reidrac]

Added a demon enemy.

You cannot view this attachment.

A short video:

https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111550598979735050

So that's 5 enemy types so far, and I'm short of memory already (a bit over 8.5K). There's a placeholder for the music and effects already, but say I need around 7K for the map... it is going to be tight!

I may try to squeeze in another enemy type as long as is not expensive, but I'm getting to the end of the road.

The alternative would be moving to Kitsune's Curse engine, and that would give me back around 10K; with the downside that is slower (less things moving on screen). I am going continue until I run out of RAM and then, if it is clear the game is too small, I can swap engines.

[reidrac]

Quick update

I have been making changes all week, adding functionality, polishing and fixing bugs, and always over 9K free.

Today I added a new enemy and we are under 9K now Which is expected!

I have placeholder for tiles, music and effects, so that means we are getting to the end of the road (yes, I know I said it before, but this time is true ).

I'm about to start with the level design and we'll see then how much is left for "extras".

Short video showing the last enemy (and the new HUD, and a few other new things I guess): https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111620608111244509

[reidrac]

Levers code revisited (finished?)

This should have been easier, but this last week has been complicated.

Anyway; I had levers mostly working, but not really because it didn't show the effect resulting from activating the levers. Now it does

If the effect is in the same screen, well... that was easy (not trivial mind, because the double buffer). And now if the effect is on a different screen, you get to see what screen and what was the result!

Short video on masto: https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111715257112040553

[reidrac]

And now with sound effects!

https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111722751388114690

[Anthony Flack]

It seems to have a touch of Montezuma's Revenge about it, which is a game I always liked. Looks like another winner; I'm looking forward to it!

[reidrac]

A bit slow progress, but getting there.

You cannot view this attachment.

When I finish this tileset, I think I have all I need to start with the level design!

[reidrac]

Cleaned the tileset, this is starting to look good (if I say so myself).

https://social.sdf.org/@reidrac/111920914254987596

The idea is to use the mountains as a small introduction to get to the entry of the dungeon where most of the game will be played. I'm still undecided, but likely to be a map and a key to enter the thing.

[Gryzor]

Very cute, and also I like the fact that you got your own distinct style. 

[reidrac]

Very cute, and also I like the fact that you got your own distinct style.

Thank you!

Having my style is something I can't really avoid; I see some people have mentioned already that "it looks similar to some of his previous games". Well, OK. Either that or I stop making games

[VincentGR]

It's nice to have your own identity, this also means quality.
I think that we all agree that we recognize game developers of the past from a single 10x10 screenshot block, right?