Sky Centurion! 4k bB game (Playable demo posted 06/16/24)

[LatchKeyKid]

I've had a couple of ideas rattling around my head since joining the forum in various stages of preproduction with the first one that made it out being my RONIN samurai themed game.   The second that I've been working on somewhat concurrently is Sky Centurion!... my take on a scifi game (in the gameplay vein of the classic 2600 Superman game) where you fly around helping and defending the general populace of Cloud City.   As a member of the Sky Legion, your centurion is a sworn protector of your city and are given an advanced suit of power armor to help you in your task.   I'm planning on having enemies to shoot as well as civilians to save/protect/help with various tasks on a multiscreen/multilevel city.   Inspirations for this would be the aformentioned Superman for the 2600, vhzc's excellent homebrew asthetic game style and sprites, the Rocketeer and Iron Man, and a certain little blue bomber on another platform.    Unlike RONIN which is open ended in terms of its final scope (levels, enemies, ROM size, etc), this project is definitely more constrained as I want it to fit into the original 4k restraints of the 2600 just to see what a new programmer can accomplish with the help of modern tools like bB. 

 

 

Since that will require a fair amount of sprites for enemies/NPCs/objects/your character, I decided that it might be better to use the multisprite kernel instead of the standard one since it both allows for multiple sprites (hence the name!) as well as automatically handles flicker.  It was tempting to use the latter given that it can scroll the playfields but the sprite limitations were quite limiting since I'd have to manage flicker myself to get more than one non-player sprite and I definitely need several onscreen at the same time.  I've been working on this concurrently with RONIN for a couple weeks and decided to post to see what folks thought of the flicker at it's worst.   I've disabled the trees in the demo below as I'll never place an NPC on the same scanlines as a virtual terrain sprite but the flicker does kick in frequently as the lighter color of the centurion is a virtual sprite as is the object (wrench) and the NPC (the little helicopter guy).   Is this an acceptable amount of flicker?  You can pick up the wrench with the joystick fire button and bring it over to the helicopter guy for the maximum amount of flicker.   This will be probably the most common and worst case example of it in game so I figured I'd post the file and ask if this is acceptable.  I don't have a PAL version ready yet but I do expect one once I get the gameplay more finalized.  Feel free to test it out on a variety of hardware as I'm interested to hear folks thoughts on the flicker both on modern and hopefully CRT displays.

centurion flicker demo.bas.bin

Edited June 17 by LatchKeyKid

[alfredtdk]

Very good, I liked the look of the hero with that blue glasses similar to that of Scott Summers, Cyclops from the X-Men. The flickering is visually tolerable, even after purchasing the virtual sprites tool. I thought that yellow thing was an alien running through the city and not a helicopter.

[LatchKeyKid]

Thanks!  It's the flicker that I'm most worried about as I never know how bad it'll look on other devices though admittedly there isn't much I can do about it regardless.   The little yellow guy is supposed to be like the main character like in H.E.R.O. but wearing a bulky suit for it.   The blades aren't spinning because it's broken, lol.    I do plan on having aliens though as enemies.

[+Living Room Arcade]

I love the concept!  As a kid, I always loved Superman on the Atari 2600 and always kind of wished they would have made more games like that one.  Hey, your game might even end up having LESS flicker than Superman lol!  Will be following this project with interest!  

Edited June 7 by Living Room Arcade

[LatchKeyKid]

Thanks.  Yeah, I noticed alot of flicker in streams on youtube but sometimes the difference in video capture rates can magnify that so wasn't sure how much of it is seen in real life (and especially on a CRT back in the day).   I can only speak to what I see with my homebrew and the Random Terrain multisprite example program(s) which is the reason I wanted more feedback on how bad it is with my project.

[LatchKeyKid]

A bit more progress on this 4k homebrew this week in that I mostly coded botht the enemy spawn and firing as well as the player firing but both need bugs worked out next.   In order to fit the code for that, I took out one of the two almost empty playfields that I was planning on using both in game and as the default ending screen PF but I was short on ROM space.    Even at this point, I've only got about 48 bytes or so left and I still want to add some sound (there currently is none) as well as some short code for an alternate simple hard mode, alternate costume for the character, and inbuilt PAL specifications within the same ROM so I've got to prune some other ideas (and even existing code already in there probably).   I was planning initially to have the scoreboard be an onscreen HUD/indicator of where the next object is (above/below, left/right) compared with your current position but there is no way I'd be able to fit that code in.  As is, I may have to move some sprite data into there to instead replace the arrow markers to reclaim that ROM space for use in the main game.   Here's a quick screenshot of the current build warts and all.

 

I had initially hoped to use one of the virtual sprites as a large repeated "terrain" sprite to add some color and variety to the grey playfield buildings but I'd have to trim alot in order to make that happen so I'm not sure if that'll be in the cards for a 4k game.

 

[LatchKeyKid]

Well, I've got some more game elements added and the space is definitely running incredibly low (<100 bytes) of the 4k that I want to fit the game into even after trimming some elements.  I removed the arrow markers on the bottom that would normally have indicated where the NPC that you're trying to help (by bringing the appropriate objective to them) to instead use that space for some sprite elements for the main character instead in addition to simplifying firing to just left/right instead of the 8 directions initially planned and coded.   I plan to randomize the NPC location just like the objective for the next 30 seconds next but for now you can bring the indicated objective to any NPC instead which will then change color to indicate the successful overlap.   I also hope to incorporate a timer boost for killing the enemies but for now it just removes them from the current screen so they don't keep shooting at you with its homing missile.  I added differing end levels of completion based on the time it took as well as your final health and changed up the colors of the main character (with the blue/light blue color scheme still available as a difficulty switch cosmetic option instead so it's still there).    Assuming I can fit those in there, my next goal would be figuring out if there is enough room to add a trio of very simple sounds (one note or two at the most) for things like picking up the objective, getting bonus points, enemy spawns and firing, and player character firing but I suspect that I may have to trim other elements to fit that all in frankly.   I'm not sure what might be the best thing to cut to be honest but I may get rid of the single "empty" playfield that makes up two of the top levels as I had initially hoped to have a boss battle up there but obviously there is zero chance that I'd be able to fit that in at my skill level.

 

Centurion v0.5 demo.bin

[+Living Room Arcade]

I really like the concept of flying around in a city environment in your jet pack suit and shooting enemies.  I think this game will be so much fun when it's finished.  Looking forward to the next update!  

[LatchKeyKid]

21 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

I really like the concept of flying around in a city environment in your jet pack suit and shooting enemies.  I think this game will be so much fun when it's finished.  Looking forward to the next update!  

 

Thanks again!   I am a bit concerned that it won't be fun and visually I was hoping for more but maybe someday I'll make an 8k version with all the bells and whistles I originally wanted.   In the meantime, I'll be trying to focus on trimming bloat where I can (like an extra check here or there when not necessary) so I can have enough room to add some sound.