Creamhoven and the Evil Nooker - a saturnian tale (SNES Mode 0 homebrew announcement)

[Creamhoven]

 

Hello fellow snesters,

 

today I am proud to announce to you the development of 'Creamhoven and the Evil Nooker - a saturnian tale', a SNES homebrew that pushes the hardware limits of the console like you have never seen before. This can be achieved utilising the mode 0 discovered by Klark 'The Lion' Johnston. Thanks to our cutting edge development we are potenitally able to deliver an experience on the SNES that will paradigm shift the perception of this hardware.

 

Story

 

A humble newcomer arrives in the town of Atargaia. A quite little place at the seaside. All is well until this very newcomer named Creamhoven grows suspicious if there is something darker going on in Atargaia. Quickly he discovers that the land is being terrorized by an evil plutocrat who seeks to enslave everyone under his petty rule, with the demonic powers of this earth. At first Creamhoven tries to get by, earning enough to pay the consumer goods that were froced on him by this evil plutocrat, this evil fiend, the Evil Nooker. As Nookers demands become ever more unreasonable Creamhoven loses his ability to care for his family, especially for his little children, who are suffering from diabetes. With Evil Nooker being unwilling to concede one bit on his plan for absolute destruction of decent people, Creamhoven is left with two options. One being denying his innerself and abandoning his family. The other being overthrowing this evil reign of destruction with an unsatiable firely hunger. On his way returning natural order to the town he meets various unlikely allies, like the purple speechartist, the persian traveler, the chinese cat and of course not to be forgotten the russian bear. Will they be successful bringing brighter days to Atargaia? The answer lies in your hands. Play with power, mode 0 power!

 

Staff

 

So the basic story as well as the coverart is already done. Mode 0 research by Klark 'The Lion' Johnston is in an advanced stage and we can already see that graphics close to Castlevania Symphony of the Night are possible.

 

Quote

[...]

 

This is a [quick and dirty] mockup of how Symphony of the Night could look running on SNES using Mode 0's four overlapping parallax background layers [that I threw together in a few hours]. 0 sprites are used here other than the player, obviously, and there's actually still 120 additional colours spare that are dedicated to the sprites and would be used on the torches/candles and stuff like that too. This is simulated in GameMaker 8.1, but the number of background layers, colours per tile and total colours per layer, etc, are all accurate to SNES specs. And I've had some of my previous mockups coded to run on SNES properly, so I know this will absolutely work as intended. By comparison, here's Pigsy's work-in-progress port of Symphony of the Night for Genesis showing the same level done within Genesis' limitations (he had to use up some of the available sprites and eat into the sprites per scanline limit for the middle row of pillars):    • Castlevania: Symp...   Note: I could actually just use Mode 1 and do a version with literally PlayStation-perfect colours and three full overlapping background layers, still without using any sprites, but this test is simply to show what SNES can do with four layers of Mode 0 specifically since it allows for more [fully overlapping] parallax. Also, this is nowhere near final polished, so it could certainly look even nicer than what's shown here with a bit more time to figure out how to take full advantage of all the layers and colours properly. I think the results are pretty impressive and show that there's really a lot of untapped potential with Mode 0.

For completion of the game I want to suggest a list of
staff:

 

Engine Development:

John Carmack

 

Gameplay Design:

Shigeru Miyamoto

 

World Building:

Hideo Kojima

Original Soundtrack:
Radiohead

 

Technical Supervisor:
Klark 'The Lion' Johnston

 

Technical production:
Jeffy 'The Dragonslayer'

 

PC port:
Tanooki

 

French translation:
Roots Genoa

 

Norwegian-Cookbook-author (included in the manual):
Lord Mushroom

 

PR and Marketing:
Wayler

 

Administration:
Albert

 

Moral Support:
Creamhoven and the Dahlai Lama

 

If you as a reader are or know someone that is on this list, please engage in the necessary steps to join the development team.

 

Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas.

 

Thank you for your attention.

 

I leave you with this cutscene sketch in Mode 3.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Creamhoven

[Kirk_Johnston]

'Tis legit!

[Creamhoven]

25 minutes ago, Kirk_Johnston said:

'Tis legit!

Yup.

 

For all those who are sceptical that it is possible to make such an amazing game here are the basics of mode 0:

 

https://youtu.be/5SBEAZIfDAg&t=45s

[zzip]

Can we get a 5200 port? 

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by zzip

[+5-11under]

I must say, I was not expecting this... .

 

 

It's a mirecle, and a game with such positivity.

/yes, I know I'm mixing people up, on purpose

[roots.genoa]

May I recommend @Cebus Capucinis for your team's legal department?

[Creamhoven]

24 minutes ago, zzip said:

Can we get a 5200 port? 

 

The 5200 is not powerful enough and doesn't even have mode 0 I am afraid. We could, however, make an Amico port if that gets released.

17 minutes ago, 5-11under said:

I must say, I was not expecting this... .

 

 

It's a mirecle, and a game with such positivity.

/yes, I know I'm mixing people up, on purpose

I know, it is quite a daring move to go for mode 0, but Klark Jhonstons work has convinced me. It is supposed to be clean fun without nastyness, yes.

10 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

May I recommend @Cebus Capucinis for your team's legal department?

Oh, of course. We will need a sophist.

[BassGuitari]

If you can get non-Euclidean transdimensional hyperintelligence John Carmack to make a meme for Super Nintendo...

 

...well then, obviously, I'm in.

[Creamhoven]

24 minutes ago, BassGuitari said:

If you can get non-Euclidean transdimensional hyperintelligence John Carmack to make a meme for Super Nintendo...

 

...well then, obviously, I'm in.

Yes, I want to go deeper into my picks, and explain why I chose them:

 

1. John Carmack (Engine Development)

IQ tests don't work on that high of a level, but it is estimated that John Carmack has an IQ of over 300. He invented 3 dimensonal space and is able to program games for the SNES that dwarf the Neo Geo, send them into space with his selfbuilt rocket and reprogram those same games from memory. He is able to program Doom on an old tech calculator and has recently left the incompetent fools at Meta.

John Carmack is an extremely prolific programmer and he would be a great addition to our team. His name alone can sell the game and it would be excellent as a bonus. There have been many documentations and interviews of him made, not to speak of his countless press conference appreances.

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Creamhoven

[Kirk_Johnston]

Level 2: The Triple Trouble Boss Battle (also in Mode 0 with the only sprite used thus far being the player):

 

You might think this is just a joke image showing something that couldn't possibly be done on SNES in an actual game using little old Mode 0 . . .

 

Just need to give John a wee phone to code in the gameplay and off we go!

 

PS. I'll post a really crappy video of it in the lamest motion tomorrow.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[Creamhoven]

9 minutes ago, Kirk_Johnston said:

Level 2: The Triple Trouble Boss Battle (also in Mode 0 with the only sprite used thus far being the player):

 

You might think this is just a joke image showing something that couldn't possibly be done on SNES in an actual game . . .

 

Just need to give John a wee phone to code in the gameplay and off we go!

Thanks for keeping us updated on mode 0 discovery. Mode 0 has a reduced color palette yes, but you can draw backgrounds and huge sprites with individual palettes.

[Wayler]

Well, as the first order of business, I had to naturally promote myself to the role of CFO also, so I can get my marketing budget confirmed without a fuss.

 

Looking at this revolutionary gaming concept AND the aforementioned paradigm shift, I have calculated our potential market to be around 3 billion casual gamers, plus any sentient cats, dogs or raccoons. So, we must plan our marketing strategy accordingly. I’m currently in talks with all the Youtubers with megamillion subscribers from all 8 continents, that are willing to promote our effort. And we will also be partnering with McDonald’s, so make sure to include lots of subtle product placements in the game. With this setup, my projections show a 10x return on our investment.

 

 

But if we want to quadstupify our earnings (and I don’t see why we wouldn’t), I think we should consider releasing our own console for the game. After all, the way things are shaping up to be, I don’t think “Creamhoven and the Evil Nooker” can be experienced with any other console, literally. We should implement at least the smell’ovision technology for our sentient animal players and also 8 controller ports for unnecessary convoluted multiplayer options. But I’ll leave the rest for Jeffy to work out. To get the ball rolling for future games, Roots can make arrangements to get us a Bavarian grant and cheap labor. No need to tell them what our console capabilities are because it can do all the graphics and all the sounds. And all the code.

 

***

 

OK, so that was plan A. If for some unexpected reason that doesn’t work out (and I seriously can’t see why it wouldn’t as I’m known to always win), we should consider an alternative option. Plan B involves telling that we are doing all the Plan A stuff, but are not actually doing it. Instead we will be cornering the retro game market and all the gullib….fine folk on some retro forum. We need a sweet-talking spokesperson to form us a cult of said unquestioning fine folk with deep pockets. I think Klark is the right man for this job, as his glowing charisma will convince anyone.

 

With that done, we will be printing ten tons of empty cardboard boxes for the “Creamhoven and the Evil Nooker” limited physical editions. I have recruited our local daycare to craft us unique paraphernalia to go with every box. So a serious collector will have to buy at least 100 boxes to ensure getting all the variants. According to my projections, plan B will also result in a 10x return for our investment.

 

So keep up the good work all. In the next coming weeks and months, I will be busy setting up PR branches all over the world. The first destinations will be the Bahamas, Hawaii and Florida. Later we will be expanding to Fiji and Aruba and my presence is vital in all of them.

[Creamhoven]

1 hour ago, Wayler said:

Well, as the first order of business, I had to naturally promote myself to the role of CFO also, so I can get my marketing budget confirmed without a fuss.

 

Looking at this revolutionary gaming concept AND the aforementioned paradigm shift, I have calculated our potential market to be around 3 billion casual gamers,

Wayler, you are a genious!

1 hour ago, Wayler said:

plus any sentient cats, dogs or raccoons. So, we must plan our marketing strategy accordingly. I’m currently in talks with all the Youtubers with megamillion subscribers from all 8 continents, that are willing to promote our effort. And we will also be partnering with McDonald’s, so make sure to include lots of subtle product placements in the game. With this setup, my projections show a 10x return on our investment.

That is good. I am going to send this to John Carmack.

1 hour ago, Wayler said:

 

 

But if we want to quadstupify our earnings (and I don’t see why we wouldn’t), I think we should consider releasing our own console for the game. After all, the way things are shaping up to be, I don’t think “Creamhoven and the Evil Nooker” can be experienced with any other console, literally. We should implement at least the smell’ovision technology for our sentient animal players and also 8 controller ports for unnecessary convoluted multiplayer options.

That is taking local multiplayer to the next level. But how are we supposed to realise mode 0 on anything but the SNES?

1 hour ago, Wayler said:

But I’ll leave the rest for Jeffy to work out. To get the ball rolling for future games, Roots can make arrangements to get us a Bavarian grant and cheap labor. No need to tell them what our console capabilities are because it can do all the graphics and all the sounds. And all the code.

 

***

 

OK, so that was plan A. If for some unexpected reason that doesn’t work out (and I seriously can’t see why it wouldn’t as I’m known to always win), we should consider an alternative option. Plan B involves telling that we are doing all the Plan A stuff, but are not actually doing it. Instead we will be cornering the retro game market and all the gullib….fine folk on some retro forum. We need a sweet-talking spokesperson to form us a cult of said unquestioning fine folk with deep pockets. I think Klark is the right man for this job, as his glowing charisma will convince anyone.

 

So are we going to do a kickstarter or what?

1 hour ago, Wayler said:

 

With that done, we will be printing ten tons of empty cardboard boxes for the “Creamhoven and the Evil Nooker” limited physical editions. I have recruited our local daycare to craft us unique paraphernalia to go with every box. So a serious collector will have to buy at least 100 boxes to ensure getting all the variants. According to my projections, plan B will also result in a 10x return for our investment.

What is the safer option?

1 hour ago, Wayler said:

So keep up the good work all. In the next coming weeks and months, I will be busy setting up PR branches all over the world. The first destinations will be the Bahamas, Hawaii and Florida. Later we will be expanding to Fiji and Aruba and my presence is vital in all of them.

That sounds nice.

[Wayler]

2 hours ago, Creamhoven said:

how are we supposed to realise mode 0 on anything but the SNES?

Our focus is on mode $, everything else is meaningless

 

2 hours ago, Creamhoven said:

So are we going to do a kickstarter or what?

Oh no no no, we absolute won't do any crowdfunding. It is imperative that we also share this fact loudly with our target audience of 3 billion gamers. It must be made crystal clear that we won't, never ever, use crowdfunding.

Instead we will start collecting funds through an investment campaign on Despotism. It is a place where a group of people will give us money and we make promises of doing something with that money. More details to follow in a few weeks or so.

 

2 hours ago, Creamhoven said:

What is the safer option?

What is with all these specific questions anyway? It is like you don't believe in our vision! If you weren't a member of our team of 600 combined minutes of industry experience, I might mistake you for an untalented jealous gatekeeping. I might have to rethink my commitment to this endeavour. But after the worldwide PR tour of course.

 

[Cebus Capucinis]

I'm really glad an idea like this is on the launchpad and I'm excited to help with the one remaining thing: that the rocket ship just needs fuel.

[+5-11under]

26 minutes ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

I'm really glad an idea like this is on the launchpad and I'm excited to help with the one remaining thing: that the rocket ship just needs fuel.

"Natural" gas?

[zzip]

6 hours ago, Wayler said:

OK, so that was plan A. If for some unexpected reason that doesn’t work out (and I seriously can’t see why it wouldn’t as I’m known to always win), we should consider an alternative option. Plan B involves telling that we are doing all the Plan A stuff, but are not actually doing it. Instead we will be cornering the retro game market and all the gullib….fine folk on some retro forum. We need a sweet-talking spokesperson to form us a cult of said unquestioning fine folk with deep pockets. I think Klark is the right man for this job, as his glowing charisma will convince anyone.

May I suggest Plan C?   Plan C is do none of that and instead invest company resources in my new ill-advised crypto currency?   You will get in on the ground floor, and as you can see from the graph below, everything is set for massive growth that is literally off the charts!

 

 

As the chart shows, not even the sky is the limit with this scheme plan!    The only that could possibly go wrong is if it turns out the Earth was flat all along.   Not likely, but I have to disclose all the potential downsides in the spirit of transparency.

[+5-11under]

5 minutes ago, zzip said:

May I suggest Plan C?   Plan C is do none of that and instead invest company resources in my new ill-advised crypto currency?   You will get in on the ground floor, and as you can see from the graph below, everything is set for massive growth that is literally off the charts!

 

 

As the chart shows, not even the sky is the limit with this scheme plan!    The only that could possibly go wrong is if it turns out the Earth was flat all along.   Not likely, but I have to disclose all the potential downsides in the spirit of transparency.

I fixed the picture for you:

[Kirk_Johnston]

I knew eventually all the latent passion would come through. Nothing can stop a great idea when pure passion and unbridled sanity are driving it!

Edited May 23, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[zzip]

8 minutes ago, 5-11under said:

I fixed the picture for you:

That's silly!   The planets in the solar system don't have their names floating beneath them in English text!  (Either that or I need to get my telescope fixed)  This edit only makes my scheme plan look unrealistic.    Why would you assume that an unnamed ringed planet is automatically Saturn and not Uranus?   Why assume it's a planet at all?   Most likely it's an alien mothership that traveled vast distances to admire the genius of my scheme plan!

[+5-11under]

4 minutes ago, zzip said:

That's silly!   The planets in the solar system don't have their names floating beneath them in English text!  (Either that or I need to get my telescope fixed)  This edit only makes my scheme plan look unrealistic.    Why would you assume that an unnamed ringed planet is automatically Saturn and not Uranus?   Why assume it's a planet at all?   Most likely it's an alien mothership that traveled vast distances to admire the genius of my scheme plan!

I never said the original was Saturn. You seem to be assuming that I assumed it was Saturn.

[zzip]

27 minutes ago, 5-11under said:

I never said the original was Saturn. You seem to be assuming that I assumed it was Saturn.

The thread's title planted the idea of Saturn in your head.   If anyone is able to resist such subliminal powers of suggestion, I would be amezed!

  Amezed I tell ya!

 

[Creamhoven]

I understand that there alot of anticipation when it comes to the profits such a product can potentially bring. It is, however, first and foremost  about the artistical vision and the tech that is discovered by Klark 'The Lion' Johnston.

 

Here is the sprite of the playable character.

[Kirk_Johnston]

And here are some of the bosses surrounding the brave player and a scared Sonic cowering in the dirt (uses Mode 0 with the scenery using one background layer and three bosses using the other layers, plus a couple of sprites for Alucard and Sonic):

 

Good times!

Edited May 23, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[Creamhoven]

26 minutes ago, Kirk_Johnston said:

And here are some of the bosses surrounding the brave player and a scared Sonic cowering in the dirt (uses Mode 0 with the scenery using one background layer and three bosses using the other layers, plus a couple of sprites for Alucard and Sonic):

 

Good times!

This is great! I have tried to make a title screen but I dont have enough understanding of the hardware and dont know what tools are best for SNES art so consider this a sketch: