Feature 11 - Pharaohs Return (C64)

[Lazycow]

So many great pictures! What a motivation-boost. I am working at my limit here and it was so hard for me to push the pixels a bit further. At least I like the result now. I wanted to concentrate on the tiles, so no raster splits this time. (They do not help much in this pic, anyway)


@PypeBros: Rounded edges, changed top-hilights, no roots climbing up. (thx for that one) Although, I like everything about Arachne's mockups, I couldn't fit these vines in there.

@Helm: These dark dithered patches are excellent. Especially the brown version; the blue area looks a bit like an underwater scenario. I tried to implement such patches: Hires blocks in the inside area, and multi color wide pixels in the outside area. I am not sure about the green dither. Your green blocks look better, but they are also more noisy. I also have the same feeling about my green leaves in the outside area.

@Carnivac: Hey, the blocks inside are hires, but do not have single pixels. So what does your pixel-eye detector say here? I didn't like single hires pixels on the C64, they always caused some color distortion on my TV. I guess that is why the C64 font has double pixels.


Here's a variation of the hero: Cyan shirt, brighter shoes and red outline. That works well in "the cave", but might cause some issues in other mockups.

@ptoing: I think the maps allow full height sprites up to 19-20 pixels. (reserving 1-2 pixels for the running bounce) With your big helmet, he looks even smaller. But I like the helmet. The hero could maybe start without hat and this could be a powerup.

@bladeJunker: The hires pixels are there with or without raster splits These splits just add 1 or 2 extra colors. I don't think this is a big deal, because the game would need splits anyway to show more than 8 sprites.

@Grimsane: I like the big-head-hero, too. But I shrunk his head because of the running animation. But this is a different story. Anyway, the head-size is not final... Cool overall outfit!

Adam: Wow, I also tried to darken his other side, but failed. This sprite is awesome!

[BladeJunker]

Wow that is looking awesome, its improved greatly since the start. I like the idea of the Hat acting as a powerup, perhaps that's why Indy never leaves it behind?

@bladeJunker: The hires pixels are there with or without raster splits These splits just add 1 or 2 extra colors. I don't think this is a big deal, because the game would need splits anyway to show more than 8 sprites.

Right, the two scales of pixel coexist by default, duh on my part since the VIC-20 can do the same thing. The C64 is deeper technical well than I had thought, I should take a swing at it with some pixel so I can understand it better.

[PypeBros]

But I like the helmet. The hero could maybe start without hat and this could be a powerup.

*BUY*  b^_^

[Lazycow]

Another mockup... No raster splits, no reverse mode, ... Kind of a sunken building, tried to draw sand and 2 levels of background. The blue rocks should be more in the back than the brown walls. Not sure about the color composition. The sand does like the yellow bricks very much, does it? Also, the sand has the same color as the scorpions, that's not good. Couldn't place it there. 

About the hat: Yes, this hat is very important in digging out treasures. So maybe it could be a powerup without any functionality. It drops down sometimes, and then some time later, the hat flies by again... Whatever... 

[ptoing]

What? How does that work as far as colours goes?

At the top it says Black is BG, Brown is MC1 and light B. MC2.
How then can you have Yellow, light B., and Blue in the same blocks. Also in the sand bits you have orange, which is not a valid colour there either. Back to the drawing board

[Lazycow]

Oops, yes... No orange as block color. Mehh... so there's red sand now, which does not make me very happy. Maybe I should sacrifice a global color for the sand. Yellow blocks should be fixed now, I used the block color for the hilight and the dark color. Saw that trick on some Turrican screenshots...

Also tried to use 2 layers of backgrounds in the 2nd mockup: dark grey and dark brown has background blocks and the red blocks for a 2nd layer behind. The red blocks could also be used for some parallax scrolling, if the game would have scrolling.

[PypeBros]

Oops, yes... No orange as block color. Mehh... so there's red sand now, which does not make me very happy.

How about using orange as MC1 and have yellow+orange, orange+red and red+black sands, then ?

used the block color for the hilight and the dark color. Saw that trick on some Turrican screenshots...

Yep. That works well

Any inspiration for the nasty elevators and the randomly-triggering traps ?

[Lazycow]

loading screen in "petscii" (scnr)


This time, I tried to add more depth to the building. (not sure about the black shadow on the topleft)
Also, I included a split again to get the light brown for the sand.

Interestingly, most of the blocks in this picture only have two colors per block, so it could also use the "extended background color mode" instead of the multicolor mode, to get hires graphics. But I am to lazy to check it out now. Most of the times, multicolor looks better, doesn't it?

PypeBros: Hm... Yes, the screens could show some traps, indeed. Some spikes popping up out of the ground?

I am not sure if I like the elevators from Pharaoh's Curse that much. They work very well for the fast paced gameplay, but the logic behind them is a bit... well... Did the Pharaohs really have elevators that day? But how could you get up again? (There's no problem to go down) Some moving blocks maybe. Like the big block in the 2nd mockup and the blue block at the bottom in this picture here.

[PypeBros]

I was more thinking at those things that spit from the ground, like in this video


As for the elevators, their role in the gameplay is obvious. They could be some visible part of a sophisticated machinery. Afaik, egyptian people were fond of mechanisms/machinery that can be thought as the act of gods by their opponents.

(lol on the petscii screen -- reminds me of that animated oric screen by some moderator)

it could also use the "extended background color mode" instead of the multicolor mode, to get hires graphics

I'm absolutely not convinced you need hi-res graphics here. It's going pretty well right now and if you keep embracing the limits rather than fighting against them, I'm not afraid.

not sure about the black shadow on the topleft

darkblue instead ?
Anyway, it would look better if the top block was a bit wider on the left so that the shadow was horizontal all the way long.

[ptoing]

Interestingly, most of the blocks in this picture only have two colors per block, so it could also use the "extended background color mode" instead of the multicolor mode, to get hires graphics. But I am to lazy to check it out now. Most of the times, multicolor looks better, doesn't it?

Whether it looks better depends. The thing with ECM is that while you get 4 times more possible bg colours you get only a quarter or tiles in memory. 64 instead of 256.