Prototypes and proofs of concepts
138These are some of the things I've worked on on my own since releasing Akumanor Escape DX, most of which were made using Construct 2, some were just testing out mechanics and concepts, others were meant to become full games but were put on-hold or dropped for reasons which will be explained below, in order of appearance they are:
0:00 - Amiga style puzzle platformer
This was the first thing I tried making after releasing AEDX, I'd been interested on mimicking the Amiga's specs for a while, but they're incredibly complex and require A TON of planning if I wanna make the most out of it. I planned on sticking with 1 directional and 1 button gameplay, and the button would be used to jump, so I'd design the entire game around just moving around and jumping, one of the planned actions was pushing blocks, but I didn't manage to implement it so I put this project on-hold to try and make something easier (which ended up never getting done).
1:18 - Fake Mode 7 map
This was merely a test of an idea I had a long time ago for a way to implement a Zelda ALTTP-like map on a game system with no Mode 7 support, basically the idea was to already draw the map laid out in a trapezoid shape and then use H-blank interrupts to skew the map when it moves horizontally, and stretch it vertically when it moves vertically. This is possible on PCE, Mega Drive, GB/C, NES, SMS, among others.
2:19 - Mode 7 Plugin
I've been dabbling with this C2 plugin for a really long time, but it's incredibly difficult to work with, everything is trial and error, this is the first time I've managed to get some collision detection working, which is what I'm testing out in this clip, but it's far from perfect, and I gave up when I realised I had no idea how to put other objects on the Mode 7 tracks, like hazards or other racers. This was made entirely using place-holder assets, the racer is Pastel from Konami Krazy Racers, and the track is the GBA version of Mario Circuit 1 from Super Mario Kart.
4:08 - GBC 1st person Dungeon Crawler
Before I started working on the original version of Akumanor Escape for GBJAM7 last year, a friend of mine and I tried making a 1st person dungeon crawler RPG mimicking GB specs. We realised that was biting way more than we could chew for a 1 week game jam, so I decided to take the remaining 4 days to make a platformer, but I never gave up on the idea of the dungeon crawler, so I decided to try and get it done on my own this year, only for GBC this time around. It was an incredibly gruelling task to get this much done, and when I realised that I'd still have to make an entire RPG on top of it, which I DEFINITELY didn't have what it took to accomplish, I decided to put the project on-hold indefinitely.
5:04 PCE CD Rhythm Game (with HuVideo playback)
Rhythm games are my favourite genre right now, I can't get enough of them! So I wanted to make one for one of my favourite systems from a time before they were really a thing as we know them. The PCE could totally handle a rhythm game, it really shouldn't be too hard, the real challenge would be whether or not we can get video playback alongside it, and after extensive talks with a friend of mine who's a PCE programmer we've established that it's very much possible, and with a simple trick we can even get it to fill most of the screen! Furthermore, it doesn't even require the Arcade Card, it can be done with the regular Super CD! (It's at 10 fps though) Sadly this will probably never be a thing because, firstly, I don't have what it takes to compose, let alone license a worthy soundtrack, nevermind making music videos for it, secondly, even if I did, who's gonna play this? I wouldn't be surprised if I was the only person who's interested in a PCE CD rhythm game...
Anyway, the music video is taken from Bang Dream Season 2 Episode 13, it was used as a place-holder to test out the game's mechanics.
5:53 - PCE platformer
Basically I just wanted to see how many moves I could cram on a D-pad and 2 buttons. I used place-holder sprites cuz I have no idea what to make with this, only the moveset, and it's not even complete... The project is on hold, it will probably become a full game at one point, I just have to figure out what to do with it...
6:38 - GB studio 2 tests
I was really excited for GB studio 2 not only because would it support the GBC, but also cuz it'd become possible to make games in more genres! Sadly I may have expected too much from the program, as it's really not built to do the kinds of things I'd want to do with the GBC... Even just trying to move multiple sprites together wielded extremely flawed results... I think I'll just stick with Construct 2 for now...
The BGM you hear is a PCE cover of the Dress Design Room theme from the PriPara games on 3DS. I made it cuz I needed something easy and cute for this video...