[COMPLETED] Game Panic 3 - NOW WITH DEMO ROM!!

[+Gemintronic]

Game Panic 3 is a "Game & Watch" inspired sequel to Game Panic.  If you wanna try the early demo ROM please read the instructions below.  My games can be confusing and weird

 

 

DEMO INTSTRUCTIONS

A new batch of games arrived at Retro Tower only to be incorrectly delivered to random floors! Corral the carts whilst avoiding invaders and dodging death. When enemies warp in they pause and can be safely avoided. Crouch to avoid flying foes. Grab Guess Boxes to meet your quota too (always a surprise inside!). Elevators open and close intermittently. A clever retro enthusiast can climb up ladders and even vines when needed. Some ladders are one way. When enough carts/guess boxes are collected the player is placed far left or right on the elevator and moved to a new set of 5 floors. Contact with invaders, roving skulls or running out of time loses a life. Run out of lives and it’s game over.

 

SCREEN LAYOUT

Guide your player through 5 floors of fun top center. Lives are displayed as carts bottom left. The count down bar is located bottom right. Current score is centered below the play area. When all lives are lost the current score is displayed in blue while the high score color cycles.

 

GAME CONTROLS

Continue by pressing FIRE at title or game over

Move horizontally via LEFT and RIGHT

Move vertically on elevators and climbable surfaces via UP and DOWN

Duck for cover on floors via DOWN. Does not work on climbable surfaces

Reboot clearing score using the RESET button

A or B switch to PRO sets the quota of carts from 3 (easy) to 6 (hard)

 

SCORING

50 points per cart collected

10-100 points randomly from guess boxes

 

HELPFUL HINTS

* You skip every other space compared to enemies. This allows you to bypass them with timing.

* Elevators are safe but can push you out.

* When enemies warp in they are grey and harmless. Use this time to position yourself.

* If a climbable surface does not extend out of the top of the floor then you cannot climb back down it.

* Avoid long hallways with no vertical egress as the elevators can close while enemies encroach.

* When clearing a level watch the bottom far left and right sides as you may start at either end.

* Crouching can avoid flying invaders but watch out for their intermittent lightning strikes.

* Cheat warp into next level in early demo via FIRE

 

EARLY DEMO (Not feature complete or bug free)

gp3earlydemo.bin

 

[vcsrocks]

I guess the question is... when can we play it

 

[+Gemintronic]

Changed gears from a previous game idea to a sequel to Game Panic LCD. 

 

Going to try for vertical as well as horizontal movement this time.

[+Gemintronic]

My previous attempts at Game Panic 3 involved a huge table for correcting sprite sizes and used up all available variables.  This time I'm focusing on simplicity and minimal variable use.

 

This is a test level that helped me figure out the spacing for movement.  The player (and everything else) moves in 16 pixel steps.  If the player collides with the playfield then we assume he's on a ladder and can move up or down a floor.  The elevators to the side are something I'm still pondering.  Either use them as, er, elevators or automatic chutes to the next area.

 

 

[+Gemintronic]

Added more to the controls and animations.  The character now has a 2 frame walking animation and can't move out of bounds.  When you step onto an available elevator he stands facing forward.  Seriously thought about just using the ball for an elevator floor but I want to reserve that resource for clever-er things.

 

Modified the 6lives_statusbar mini kernel so that it uses a static color instead of an extra variable.  Also, integrated the assembly hack to color the background.  That hack had to be inserted in a particular section as otherwise it clobbered player/playfield collision.  I like that the mini kernel HMOVE bar is almost hidden with the playfield bottom being black.

 

So far the game is using one counter variable as well as one boolean flag to state which direction the player is facing (and thus change REFP0 properly).

 

My previous attempt at Game Panic 3 used up aaaaaaall the variables keeping track of 5 monsters and their attributes. An upcoming challenge is to get monsters moving and shifting between floors without gorging on variables again.

 

[+Gemintronic]

Monsters/Items now move across the playfield.  Decided the "Guess" bonus object only moves in the direction that makes the question mark legible.

 

When all the things have moved off screen they re-position and shuffle floors.  There is a pause before relaunch when they stop and turn gray.

 

Elevators now open and close on a timer.  You get kicked out of the elevator when they close.  This is a gameplay mechanic similar to the first Game Panic.

 

In other news I blew through the 4k.  It's now a 32k ROM game.  4k ROM games are usually less expensive to produce so I'm bummed.

 

[+Gemintronic]

The game is playing, er, more game-like as of late.  Snatch 3 carts (6 in hard mode) or guess boxes to reach the next level.  Enemies can take your life and knock you back to the elevator.  The timer ticks down.  Four different levels so far.

 

There's an animation of you moving down the elevator to the next level.  Uses 4 playfields to make it look like you're moving down 5 floors.

 

[+Gemintronic]

Early demo ROM is available in the first post.  NOT feature complete or bug free.

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/329568-wip-game-panic-3-now-with-demo-rom/

 

Any feedback or possible bugs please tell me about it.  Super thanks!!!

 

[+swlovinist]

Great work!   Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses.  

[Fort Apocalypse]

This is really great! I keep going in the elevator to different places. It's like being in a strange dream!

 

The expanse, suspense, and imaginative world are better than most modern games to me!

Edited April 11, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing the Exclusive WIP Update of Game Panic 3 on tomorrow's stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us!

 

Fri Apr 22 @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day

WATCH: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

Games:

• Hellway: 2 Players Edition (2022 Exclusive Final Build | 2600) by Octavio Pinho Bokel @Octavio Pinho Bokel
• Game Panic 3 (2022 Exclusive Final Build | 2600) by Jason Santuci @Gemintronic

 (WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR BEST QUALITY)

 

 

 

[+Gemintronic]

I just figured out I need to change the topic title from WIP to COMPLETE.

 

The ROM ZeroPage Homebrew plays is the full version.  Differences from the demo include:

 

* 16 hand crafted level designs.  The further you go the more get revealed.

* Couch Compliant GOLD (Hold FIRE 10+ seconds to reset.  Joystick for mode change)

* Expert Mode - Reduced time and increased cart/guess box quota

[+swlovinist]

Here is the deluxe release of this game and new video