User avatar
Mixel

Posted Thu Jan 14, 2021 2:42 am

Hello everyone.. I've been posting bits around twitter and so on but thought I'd make a thread here, and over on EAB. I expect I'll get slightly different flavours of feedback in each place.

It's a platform game for (powerful) OCS Amigas that I'm making in Scorpion Engine. Earok has been so helpful. I'm making things in ways I'd not have thought possible a few years ago, the fact that they're happening on the
Amiga is just the icing on the cake!
title.jpg

It has a project page here..

NOTE: Everything shown here is very subject to change.


The blue barge, where the story starts..
bb.png

The status bar is unlikely to look like this in the final version.
manhole.png

Looks like you're going to have to go through the sewers!
crap.png

That's not looking good!
fish.png
Mandatory jumping fish. (I also have drips and rats, and I'm in the process of adding snails and bats. And zombies, and slime monsters, centipedes, ghosts, frogs, etc!)

Anyway.. I'll keep this thread posted with any significant new developments. :D

There's something of a FAQ on the project page but anticipating a couple of those questions here..

What's the gameplay like?
The player handling is very similar to Turrican's. The initial hand to hand combat is like SOTB (low kicks and high punches) - but there's a lot more combat stuff left to be implemented for later in the game.

What are the levels like?
The levels are complex. I’m leaning into exploration in a big way. There are also much smaller, “hand drawn” story levels that serve as cutscenes, hub areas, etc. (like the bar above) branching paths, a world map (mostly drawn - just starting to implement that now.) etc. A typical level will involve some exploration, often a key to unlock a door, and tons of hidden things.

Why "powerful" OCS systems
I'm making it in EHB currently, which is demanding, and potentially stupid, but for the people with fast machines (and emulators) it's something unique. I have tentative plans to build it in this form, then further optimise, reduce colour count, basically make a low spec version if that is possible without losing too much. It runs great on the A3000 profile in WinUAE. It runs smooth on A1200+Fast RAM, it also runs perfectly (currently) on my A1200/030.. I'll try to keep it under control.

For people with A500 etc, it runs if you have 2MB currently. But it runs like ass without a faster cpu. I'll see about fixing that for you eventually. :| (This is entirely my fault, and not a scorpion performance issue, I'm asking a lot of it, and a number of people have advised against some of the choices I'm making, lol. I'm loving the process so I'm going to carry on until I run until hurdles that force me to rethink things.)

When can I play this?
Not sure. I'm concentrating on making enough for a "prologue" short game/demo. That part I'd like to complete in 1st quarter '21. Then, whatever happens there will at least be a short game for the Amiga community to play with.

Am I still working on that other game?
Yes, I alternate between the projects, but I'm on a roll with this one right now. I don't have a functioning Amiga build of the VN, as I'm leading that on PC/Mac, but when that's done it won't be anywhere near as demanding, it should run on all Amigas, I would think! (maybe requiring 1MB) Here's a link to that game's project page too!

Anyway that's enough for now, I'm really enjoying working on this and I hope someone eventually gets even a fraction of that when they eventually play it! Any feedback welcome and I hope you're all well. :)

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:21 am

This is SO exciting! I wonder why your images are all broken up above? I've seen some of your posts on Twitter. Can't wait to see more! Looks really cool.

User avatar
Mixel

Posted Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:52 pm

intric8 wrote:
Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:21 am
This is SO exciting! I wonder why your images are all broken up above? I've seen some of your posts on Twitter. Can't wait to see more! Looks really cool.
Thankyou! Hmm, they seem okay here, hopefully a temperary glitch and ok now? (possibly my server freaked out at a spike in traffic.. eek)

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:53 pm

How very awesome this looks. I am loving the screens and the concept. My A1200 is probably just fast enough, LOL.

Thanks for sharing and for sure looking forward to seeing it progress.

User avatar
Mixel

Posted Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:39 pm

Zippy Zapp wrote:
Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:53 pm
How very awesome this looks. I am loving the screens and the concept. My A1200 is probably just fast enough, LOL.

Thanks for sharing and for sure looking forward to seeing it progress.
Thankyou so much!

Wow what an odd day this has been.. I wasn't sure what to expect but it definitely wasnt so many sites picking up on it almost instantaneously. :o no pressure or anything, hahaha.

Today I got the world map to (sort of) start working. I can't decide whether to give you joystick control or defer the choice to dialogue options.. I think control as it will allow you to sort of tour and get a little info on places you can't visit yet.
worldmap.gif

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:07 pm

Oh weird now all of the images are working. Looking very nice!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:09 pm

This is what I saw on Desktop. Not sure what's going on.
Screen Shot 2021-01-14 at 7.09.04 PM.png


UPDATE:

I simply downloaded all of your images locally and uploaded them to the post/site directly, then placed them as inline images. All's well!
I can see why there's been so much chatter and excitement. Looking very, very cool, Mixel.

User avatar
Mixel

Posted Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:11 am

intric8 wrote:
Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:09 pm
This is what I saw on Desktop. Not sure what's going on.

UPDATE:

I simply downloaded all of your images locally and uploaded them to the post/site directly, then placed them as inline images. All's well!
I can see why there's been so much chatter and excitement. Looking very, very cool, Mixel.
Ty! Hmm! Maybe it’s a browser security setting stopping linked images from being shown when they’re hosted on non SSL sites.. if you can see the images in the desktop browser on The EAB thread that would support that theory?

If you can see those I’ll know to host from one of my SSL’d domains, to stop it from happening to anyone else in future. 😁

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Jan 15, 2021 11:36 am

if you can see the images in the desktop browser on The EAB thread
I do see those, yes. Either way, no worries. Glad I had a way to get around it. Have a nice weekend!

User avatar
fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Sat Jan 16, 2021 5:11 pm

Looking fab Mixel. So if this needs a beefier Amiga to run I am interested to know why you went with OCS and not say AGA? This scorpion engine sounds interesting, can you fill us in more on it?





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