WIP Wizard's Dungeon

[gambler172]

Some examples,i found 

[BydoEmpire]

Nice, I like those!  Thanks @gambler172

[Trebor]

Purple Tentacle is not pleased...

 

 

[gambler172]

6 hours ago, Trebor said:

Purple Tentacle is not pleased...

 

 

for sure....colour can be purple ?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I suggested the color purple for the tentacle WAY back when this was still more in demo stages. But it is hard to get the color to look right considering all the different variances in 7800s and the way the colors shift as the system warms up. I think the tentacle sprite as it is now looks good and am only kinda bothered but how far apart the minotaur's eyes are. But I know we have limitations with the sprites regarding colors and the pixels available...etc.

 

[BydoEmpire]

33 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I suggested the color purple for the tentacle WAY back when this was still more in demo stages. But it is hard to get the color to look right considering all the different variances in 7800s and the way the colors shift as the system warms up. I think the tentacle sprite as it is now looks good and am only kinda bothered but how far apart the minotaur's eyes are. But I know we have limitations with the sprites regarding colors and the pixels available...etc.

 

Regardless of their eyes, don't let a big group of minotaurs corner you on level 4!  I have yet to beat the game starting from the beginning - they take your life really quick if you can't find a way around them.  That's how I've been dying.  Continuing to tweak spawn rate, health refilling, etc.  I really like the change to give you a potion if you clear a room of monsters. I made it a lot farther with that, but still challenging.

Edited April 6, 2021 by BydoEmpire

[+-^CrossBow^-]

3 minutes ago, BydoEmpire said:

Regardless of their eyes, don't let a big group of minotaurs corner you on level 4.  I have yet to beat the game starting from the beginning - they take your life really quick if you can't find a way around them.  That's how I've been dying.  Continuing to tweak spawn rate, health refilling, etc.  I really like the change to give you a potion if you clear a room of monsters. I made it a lot farther with that, but still challenging.

I hadn't reported back to you on this but the test build you sent me was quite a challenge actually? I wasn't able to level up all weapons in that test build and it took me my second try to defeat the wizard and end the game. I will have to try it from the beginning to see if I'm able to clobber him or not hehe!

 

[BydoEmpire]

I'd really like an option to continue from the start of the last level reached, but I don't think I'll have enough ROM space to do it right.  We'll see.  Sucks to get all the way to the wizard and die.

 

I was going to open some passageways in the maze so it's not quite so "linear," which would make it a lot easier to get to the gravestones, but I ran out of ROM space on that and started looking at other things. I'll keep poking at it, but if I have to choose I think a continue would be a better option.  Getting the difficulty right is always a challenge, but really important.

Edited April 6, 2021 by BydoEmpire

[+-^CrossBow^-]

55 minutes ago, BydoEmpire said:

I was going to open some passageways in the maze so it's not quite so "linear," which would make it a lot easier to get to the gravestones, but I ran out of ROM space on that and started looking at other things. I'll keep poking at it, but if I have to choose I think a continue would be a better option.  Getting the difficulty right is always a challenge, but really important.

While a continue is a good feature, most actual games back then on the Atari didn't really have this so I wouldn't miss it.

 

But, what I do think would be good if you can implement it, would be the ability to pass through all walls when a ghost so you don't have to follow the room paths out. That would make getting to grave stone sites MUCH easier. In fact it was too easy at that point, you could lessen the amount of time needed to get to one perhaps? Of is that not possible because the game is only able to track what room you are in by those passages?

 

[BydoEmpire]

Another big update this week, lots of gameplay tweaks and "quality of life" improvements.  No monster graphic tweaks yet.  I commented out some debug code and freed up enough space for a basic continue feature.  I've got the code to restore more of the game, but may or may not be able to add that. Still, I kind of like it the way it is.

 

I also made it a bit less tedious by opening up some additional walls in some rooms, and the key and map will always appear closer to your starting room.  Those are pretty important to get right away, or you end up having to backtrack a lot.  I also ensure the gravestones are spaced throughout the level so you don't end up in a situation where they're all clumped together on the opposite side of the maze from where you become a ghost.  Much better, you've always got at least one shot now.

 

I also never really liked that you're a wizard, but you used a bow and sword.  The bow is now a psychic energy blast spell, and the sword is always a lightning spell.  Still needs some tweaking, especially the lightning, but I think it's better.  The scrolls you pick up have an icon for which spell you're finding (see instructions).

 

Finally, I fixed a bunch of minor bugs and annoyances.

 

I tested various combinations of continuing, dying, continuing, restarting... probably needs more testing though.  I was able to finish the game from level one.  I beat the final wizard with 11hp left - it was close!  

 

2021/04/10
- first pass at continue game option
- additional n/s/e/w passages to starting room & rooms w/ gravestones to open the map more (less trudging through the tundra)
- restore more health after ghost resurrection depending on dungeon level
- changed swords to lightning spell
- changed bow to energy wave spell
- space out grave rooms across the level so they don't get clumped together

- key and map always appear closer to the starting room
- turning down spawn chance on levels 2 & 3
- tweaking enemy movement and collision checking vs. walls
- fixed total_rooms_visited getting reset each level
- mummies no longer randomly give diamonds
- updated gfx to account for new weapons
- allow projectiles to go through all objects (items + treasures)
- don't show potions on map w/ magic items
- fixed coins getting repositioned after pausing
- no gates on some special item rooms in 1st level

- [Apr 11 update ] fixed bug where you couldn't use buttons 1+2 to pause while in ghost mode

 

wizards_dungeon_7800_manual-0.3.pdf

wizd_210411.bas.a78

Edited April 11, 2021 by BydoEmpire

[BydoEmpire]

(note that I updated yesterday's binary with a quick bug fix).

 

1st pass of a label.  I need to do something "maze-y" in the background, but so far so good.

[+GoldLeader]

1 hour ago, BydoEmpire said:

(note that I updated yesterday's binary with a quick bug fix).

 

1st pass of a label.  I need to do something "maze-y" in the background, but so far so good.

 

It's kinda busy.   I think you should add some nudity...Really pump the gas...Gotta sell some carts!  Hahahaa!

[Jinks]

4 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

 

It's kinda busy.   I think you should add some nudity...Really pump the gas...Gotta sell some carts!  Hahahaa!

 

[BydoEmpire]

Mostly fixing bugs that @-^CrossBow^- found .

 

2021/04/15
- fixed not being able to use buttons to pause when a ghost
- added second tree to wizard room to prevent lightning exploit
- weapon firing rate tweaks, not sure if it's better though, need to play test some more...
- using 2 digits for health instead of 6

- fixed bad display of "total rooms visited" on end game screen
- added tiles for showing weapon levels in pause, but not ROM space in code to draw them (yet)
 

wizd_210415.bas.a78

[BydoEmpire]

Took a half day off of work today.  Everyone wins.  I added the weapon levels to the pause screen.  I'm not currently showing the magic bolt on the pause screen, so not sure how to handle that one. I'll think of something. Now I'm going to go drink a beer and watch Star Trek.

 

wizd_210416.bas.a78

[+-^CrossBow^-]

13 minutes ago, BydoEmpire said:

Took a half day off of work today.  Everyone wins.  I added the weapon levels to the pause screen.  I'm not currently showing the magic bolt on the pause screen, so not sure how to handle that one. I'll think of something. Now I'm going to go drink a beer and watch Star Trek.

 

wizd_210416.bas.a78 48.13 kB · 0 downloads

Awesome! Both on adding in the weapon levels on the pause screen and drinking beer while watching Star Trek! I've been going through the Star Wars movies again myself. Trek will likely follow after that.

 

[MathematicalBro]

I read through the manual. Here is some (highly!) unsolicited feedback:

• Found it odd to see a "Weapons, Items and Treasures" section followed by a "Weapons" section and an "Items" section. Should the original section be called "Pick-ups" or similar? Should "Weapons" and "Items" be subsections instead?
• "the Wizard's tower" -- Should "wizard" be capitalized?
• "parish" -> "perish"
• "Eventually if you survive" -> add comma after "Eventually"
• "last level you got to" -> "last level you've reached"
• "while collecting weapons, treasures and magical weapons." "weapons" and "magical weapons" feels redundant.
• Should the Main Menu have its own section after "How to Play?" Seems like the main menu details are split up into a portion before "How to Play" and a portion after "How to Play"
• Is "L/R" common terminology? Or is it usually written out?
• "They gates" -> "the gates"
• "Finding another of each to increase its power" - Rewrite that paragraph for clarity.
• "Magical Artifacts" vs "Magic Items" - Too similar of names... Are they the same thing?
• "maxim health" -> "maximum health"
• "cuts the time gates are active in half" -> "halves the duration that gates are active"
• "this will set up better" -> "this will prepare you better"
• Move the spoilers out of the Items grid to keep them a better secret for those not wanting to see.

[MathematicalBro]

When I tried playing the game, button 2 would switch the weapon and warp me to a different room. Is there some debug code turned on?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

16 hours ago, MathematicalBro said:

When I tried playing the game, button 2 would switch the weapon and warp me to a different room. Is there some debug code turned on?

I haven't yet played the latest binary, but that was a debug tool he had enabled in other non release builds he had me try. Sounds like it got slipped back in. Guess I should try and spend some time soon to play this ehh?

 

BTW good suggestions on the manual. I've not even looked through that yet as I figured others like yourself would catch things.

 

[BydoEmpire]

18 hours ago, MathematicalBro said:

When I tried playing the game, button 2 would switch the weapon and warp me to a different room. Is there some debug code turned on?

D'oh, i thought I had turned debug off.  Thanks also for the manual suggestions, I appreciate the feedback.  The manual definitely needs editing and refinement... those were pretty embarrassing! One of these days I'm going to flesh out the story, too.  I have some ideas, and I love some of the classic games that had a more detailed story in the manual (like the Apshai and D&D Gold Box series).

 

Binary attached that turns off the 'cycle rooms' debug.  Sorry about that.  I've also updated the manual.

wizd_210418.bas.a78

wizards_dungeon_7800_manual-0.4.pdf

Edited April 18, 2021 by BydoEmpire

[MathematicalBro]

Thank you for the new build. It seems to be working as expected.

 

The only issues I've noticed have been the player movement. It appears that the vertical velocity of the character is significantly slower than the horizontal velocity. Additionally, it appears that the diagonal velocity is the sum of both vertical and horizontal velocities . This makes it so moving diagonally is optimal, which feels odd (i.e. the hypotenuse of the right triangle is greater than the other sides). I don't know if this is common, but I would expect horizontal, vertical, and diagonal velocities to all be (approximately) equal.

[BydoEmpire]

Yeah, definitely a common problem, I just have H & V velocities per frame.  If you move diagonally it's the sum.  The disproportionate diagonal speed was called out in ZPH's first twitch stream, too, it's on a "TODO" list I've conveniently managed to ignore up until now.   The slower horizontal than vertical velocity is interesting - I'm so used to the way it is I hadn't really even noticed.  That's definitely easy to fix.  Thanks for getting it back on my radar.  Hard to see the forest from the trees at this stage.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I had noticed that issue as well but like you I start to play this so much that I get used to it and it isn't really an issue at some point. To clarify, the Horizontal movement is quicker than the straight vertical movements. Like @MathematicalBro mentioned, I've actually moved diagonally whenever possible for up/down situations just because it is quicker.

 

Fixing to load up the latest bin now finally to my DF cart to see if I can give it a spin soon.

 

[BydoEmpire]

Updated movement speeds so horizontal and vertical are the same.  Not enough rom space left to make diagonals consistent with that... at least in the easy, obvious way.  

wizd_210424.bas.a78

[Blues_Bloody]

Here is some label artwork I am currently working on for this rad game: