Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: SkillGrid - new AGA game in the works  (Read 5767 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline saimoTopic starter

SkillGrid - new AGA game in the works
« on: November 07, 2017, 05:35:06 PM »
Hi all,

after about 12 years (happily) spent making games for the Commodore 64, AmigaOS 4 and other PC systems, I'm returning to the "classic" Amiga - something I've been itching to do for a long, long time. In the last 10 days or so I have created the core of a new game for standard A1200s - and that's what you can see in this video.

The game, called SPEEDGRID (working title), is going to be of the casual, score-attack type based on the catching/dodging of hexagonal cells representing various bonuses and maluses.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zl4HYAShI[/youtube]

Technical bits shown in the video:
* 3 parallax layers scrolling at a variable speed (up to 16 pixels/frame - such limit is not technical, but only to keep the game playable);
* 1 fixed layer for the HUD (and possibly other graphical effects);
* real transparencies (any color can be freely assigned an opacity value between 0 and 255);
* a 16 colors sprite + a 3 colors sprite.

Things I plan to add:
* occasional meteors zipping by;
* bosses to fight against when time expires;
* procedural generation of the middle layer graphics;
* some "special" music (if I manage);
* any other cool feature that will come to mind.

Note: the current tune is just a placeholder, and it's the fabulous tracker module "Cortouchka" by El Mobo (Frédéric Motte).
« Last Edit: December 07, 2018, 10:05:37 AM by saimo »
RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC
 

Offline saimoTopic starter

Re: SPEEDGRID - new AGA game in the works
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2017, 04:43:15 PM »
Quote from: AJCopland;832795
Nice, I couldn't get that embedded link to work for some reason but I found this one instead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zl4HYAShI

Dunno about the player, but, yes, the video you found is exactly the one I posted.
RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC
 

Offline saimoTopic starter

Re: SPEEDGRID - new AGA game in the works
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2017, 02:31:31 PM »
SPEEDGRID - PREVIEW #2

Development slowed down a bit due to work done on other projects and some real-life issues, but it didn't stop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1og-4VjkbgE&vq=hd1080

This video demonstrates the new features (in particular, the audio engine):
* 3 channels allocated dynamically for one-shot sounds;
* 1 channel allocated for the afterburner looping sound;
* variable afterburner sound frequency, depending on the ship Y speed (calculated taking into account also the scrolling);
* music cell: when caught, music kicks in; as long as music plays, the cells layer is green, meaning that the maluses do not hurt anymore (they award points, instead; the X/Y swap maluses also remove the X/Y swapping);
* music in the form of a 14 bit PCM sample, played at ~28.9 kHz;
* the new way that the BRAKE cell works (before it brought the scrolling speed to the minimun, now it halves it);
* the new BOOST cell (it doubles the scrolling speed);
* slightly different color scheme;
* other minor changes.

Notes:
* music requires two channels; while playing, the other two channels can be freely used for other sounds;
* music playback supports looping (not demonstrated in the video; will be used during bossfights);
* the afterburner sound is off while music plays to allow enjoying the music better and leaving a channel free for the more important events-related sounds;
* the afterburner sound volume is kept low so that it does not become annoying;
* the music is a temporary placeholder; it is an excerpt from Multiball by Machinae Supremacy (a cover of the Pinball Dreams tracker module by Olof Gustafsson);
* despite the high quality of the original video, the compression applied by YouTube causes the quality to degrade steadily after a key frame and until the next one is reached (I guess); anyway, when key frames are displayed and/or the scrolling isn't too fast, it is almost possible to see the actual graphics (especially in the last final seconds).
« Last Edit: December 06, 2017, 08:28:33 PM by saimo »
RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC
 

Offline saimoTopic starter

Re: SPEEDGRID - new AGA game in the works
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2017, 08:29:32 PM »
Guys, the links in the posts were correct, but for some reason the player doesn't work. Previous post fixed.
For your convenience:
 * preview #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zl4HYAShI
 * preview #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1og-4VjkbgE&vq=hd1080
RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC
 

Offline saimoTopic starter

Re: SkillGrid - new AGA game in the works
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2018, 10:09:06 AM »
For more information, please check out this other thread (somehow the discussion moved there, and I've realized it only now).
RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC