Canyon Bomber clone: development thread

[+cmadruga]

This thread is intended to capture further development / programming discussions related to the original topic below. Idea is to keep technical stuff here as opposed to the main Intellivision forum.

 

 

 

[TIX]

Hey @cmadruga,  guys !

 

no new content, just spit and polish to keep the ball rolling.

 

Canyon.tsxcanyon.tmx

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by TIX

[carlsson]

So how are we doing in terms of sound and music? Do you need more jingles, longer pieces of music? I already contributed the Graf Zeppelin and I saw that First Spear contributed a piece from Liberty Bell (as used in the Monty Python's Flying Circus).

[+cmadruga]

Yes, grateful for the music!

Still need some basic sound effects, such as:

 

For each airship type (standard Biplane, blue zep, white bomber)

- bomb explosions

- engine sound

- bombs dropping

[carlsson]

Jingles for level cleared, any bonus items, game over? Sound effects of bombs and engines I'm sure someone else is even better at (not to say I'm top class when it comes to music neither).

[+cmadruga]

Sure, any music contributions are welcome ?

[+bhall408]

6 hours ago, carlsson said:

So how are we doing in terms of sound and music? Do you need more jingles, longer pieces of music? I already contributed the Graf Zeppelin and I saw that First Spear contributed a piece from Liberty Bell (as used in the Monty Python's Flying Circus).

Interesting, related, trivia from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python

 

Quote

The Python theme music is the Band of the Grenadier Guards' rendition of John Philip Sousa's "The Liberty Bell" which was first published in 1893.^[36] Under the Berne Convention's "country of origin" concept, the composition was subject to United States copyright law which states that any work first published prior to 1924 was in the public domain, owing to copyright expiration.^[37] This enabled Gilliam to co-opt the march for the series without having to make any royalty payments.^[38]

So I guess you are good to go from an IP standpoint

[carlsson]

Ok, after a bit of play testing the ROM from March 18, I have identified the following:

 

* Sound effects needed for dropping bombs, explosions, perhaps engine

* Jingles could be added for hitting the Z (Zeppelin) and M (whatever that airplane is)

* Jingle for level cleared

* Jingle for game over

 

I was wondering if shooting the fuel tanks on level 2 at least should make some difference, like adding miss attempts, perhaps a small fire but then again with everything neatly dropping down perhaps that is enough and since those items are not on every level, it would make them too uneven in difficulty.

 

Also I just realized that the music First Spear posted is not a cover of Liberty Bell / Monty Python theme song, rather an own composition which borrows the intro (first three seconds), rhythm and bass line but otherwise is his own. As it stands, it is 4 + 16*2 + 16*2 + 7 bars before it loops which obviously is too much for a jingle but might work as an alternative title music if it is rounded off at the end, or perhaps high score entry if you would have something like that.

[+cmadruga]

2 hours ago, carlsson said:

I was wondering if shooting the fuel tanks on level 2 at least should make some difference, like adding miss attempts, perhaps a small fire but then again with everything neatly dropping down perhaps that is enough and since those items are not on every level, it would make them too uneven in difficulty.

 

Funny you should mention that, I've been working on differentiated explosion patterns for fuel tanks  

 

I should have a new rom out soon. Or at a minimum a new video over the weekend.

 

[carlsson]

Three jingles arranged, one to go!

[carlsson]

First attempt. I tried to keep the jingles really short, in particular the ones for enabling the zeppelin and bomb plane.

 

canyon-jingles.bas

 

canyon-jingles.rom

[+cmadruga]

Ok, here is an updated rom.

CanyonBomba_WIP04042020.rom

 

About what changed... boy, where do I even start. So much stuff.

It should feel like a different game. If it's better or not... you guys tell me. I'm seeing what sticks.

 

Gameplay:

 

- game over condition is now based on "fuel". I threw out the "miss counter" that came from the original Canyon Bomber mechanics. Fuel is depleted at each pass, as the plane turns around.

- Implemented "targets left" counter on the upper right corner of the screen. To clear a stage, you must destroy all valid targets and make it go to zero.

Terrain tiles, tunnels and background elements do not count.

- your plane will be able to get to lower altitudes over time, except on the submarine/sea stage. Minimum altitude is partially a function of the tallest target stack left standing.

- target re-stacking logic upgraded: water will now leak and cause floods. Metal bridges should behave different when collapsing. Plus other stuff.

- tweaked white bomb (from white bomber plane) trajectory.

 

 

Graphics:

 

- color coded tiles according to their resistance to damage:

black or white = bombs will reap through them

red = resistant to bombs, will make bombs explode.

yellow = explosive elements

Only exceptions to the above are "background elements" that cannot be damaged. That includes enemy blimps for now. In future releases it should be possible to destroy those blimps.

- Implemented TIX's stages, with modifications.

- New biplane frames reflecting plane inclination up/down.

- Fuel gauge added.

- Added submarine tiles.

- New sea stage.

- Water tiles now have animation.

- Stages and sky colors are now randomized.

- Fuel tiles cause larger explosions.

 

Controls:

 

- controlling the plane should feel very different. Use left/right to maneuver the plane. Not possible to control speed directly anymore.

- all lateral buttons can be used to drop bombs now.

 

Music:

 

- title screen will play both Carlsson's and First Spear's tunes, 50% chance you will hear either one

- added Carlsson's jingles: stage clear, game over, zep activated, white bomber activated.

 

Sound effects:

 

- none yet! Help! This game needs sounds!

 

There could be more stuff... but that's what I remember for now.

 

Probably lots of bugs and glitches... please remember this is a work in progress.

On the other hand, it's free!  

 

Let me know what you think.

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by cmadruga

[+cmadruga]

Here goes a video.

 

 

[TIX]

Hey @cmadruga, wow that's a lot of changes ,

I generally like them, but I have some thoughts/suggestions:

• glad to see the dots go !
• the cheerful colors on some object, in my opinion distracts from the overall look of the game (ie the red girders/pylons, the yellow fuel tanks, ..)
• on the other hand, I love the color changes on the sky, very moody
• the little balloons should be an obstacle, maybe turn around when bump into them ?  how about using the little fighter plane to burst them with it's machine gun ?
• how about some of the ground artillery fire back at you ? I mean one slow shell per pass that you have to look out for ? of course you have to destroy them first !!
• the explosion is lacking.. have you tried the 4 frame one in my latest sheet ?
• have you implement targets that you are not supposed to hit ?

I'm judging this from the video and your description, because I don't have a working emulator, so I don't have an opinion on the gameplay.

 

Please share the latest tile data to have a look !

Edited April 5, 2020 by TIX

[+cmadruga]

Comments below:

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

• glad to see the dots go !

 

Yep, actually there are still invisible padding tiles, but the restacking logic will remove them behind the scenes.

For instance, as a metal bridge starts getting hit, it will do a pseudo integrity check to see if that bridge section should start collapsing. If so, padding starts to be removed. 

I was planning on adding some logic for cranes next. 

 

I also removed padding from background elements like balloons and buildings by excluding those elements from restacking. 

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

• the cheerful colors on some object, in my opinion distracts from the overall look of the game (ie the red girders/pylons, the yellow fuel tanks, ..)

 

Sorry to mess up the artistic vision... ?

I was not moved by aesthetics, but by a desire to visually message the impact resistance from various elements.

For instance, consider the picture below. If the player wants to hit the "M" and "Z" targets, it is easier to drop a bomb down that central shaft with the pipes. Bombs will cut through pipes like butter.

The alternative would be to try to bomb it from the sides, but then you have girders and the black/red tiles which are more impact resistant.

I'm afraid that without some kind of visual messaging, bomb explosions will just seem random. 

 

Maybe a compromise would be to use differentiated, but less distracting colors: black, white, grey.

 

 

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

• on the other hand, I love the color changes on the sky, very moody

Thanks. 

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

• the little balloons should be an obstacle, maybe turn around when bump into them ?  how about using the little fighter plane to burst them with it's machine gun ?

I'm thinking about letting the standard biplane shoot as well, that way it could hit the balloons AND any eventual enemy fighters.

I don't know about bumping against balloons or turning around, would have to think about it.

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

• how about some of the ground artillery fire back at you ? I mean one slow shell per pass that you have to look out for ? of course you have to destroy them first !!

Yes, that would be nice and I was thinking about it.

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

• the explosion is lacking.. have you tried the 4 frame one in my latest sheet ?
• have you implement targets that you are not supposed to hit ?

Those are in the queue.

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

I'm judging this from the video and your description, because I don't have a working emulator, so I don't have an opinion on the gameplay.

That one I sent you previously (for testing H.E.L.I.) is not working?

 

11 hours ago, TIX said:

• Please share the latest tile data to have a look !

 

Here it is. A few recommendations if you would like to play with tiles or the map itself:

- Ok to add new tiles to all those blank spaces you see above tile #64.

- Please do not move around what's below 64, but it's ok to improve the graphics if you wish.

- Also do not add anything between 33 and 50. The game will fill the GRAM in that range dynamically with tiles needed for each stage.

- If you produce more screens, please let at least 6 rows free at the top. Ok to put what's between 21 and 28 in that upper portion, but nothing else.

 

canyon.tmx

 

Canyon.tsx 

 

[+Black_Tiger]

I like the coloring in the latest video. I'd only potentially change the fuel bars to a gradient of the same temperature of color or to all the same color to maintain the mood of the game.

[+cmadruga]

1 hour ago, Black_Tiger said:

I like the coloring in the latest video. I'd only potentially change the fuel bars to a gradient of the same temperature of color or to all the same color to maintain the mood of the game.

Any suggestions on colors to use?

I will probably have to shift to using background colors, but it's ok.

[+Black_Tiger]

13 hours ago, cmadruga said:

Any suggestions on colors to use?

I will probably have to shift to using background colors, but it's ok.

I only had a few minutes at my computer tonight, but here's an idea using the current colors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have a handle on how everything works with the different color modes and how the foreground/background palette restrictions come into play, but if you can use the lighter yellow with the orange/amber color on the same card, I think that it would go a long way to making the non-interactive buildings in the distance clearly distinguishable from the bomb-able elements, as well as improve the city scenes aesthetically.

 

 

[+cmadruga]

Standard biplane can now shoot in addition to dropping bombs. I'm thinking about making shots ineffective against ground targets.

Enemy planes will spawn from time to time. Can't shoot them down yet.

Introduced Black_Tiger's suggested fuel gauge method.

 

 

[+Steve Jones]

Any updates or this or have you been focusing on Not Goonies?  

The speed you and Matthew come up with all these is amazing to me.

Are you doing these full time right now in lockdown days or just in spare time after work?

 

 

[+cmadruga]

No updates, but I plan on coming back to it.

I do it in my spare time, and the quarantine has definitely helped. It’s a nice distraction and I find it relaxing. Go figure!
I don’t think I’m fast and I’m not trying to be - but I appreciate the comment.