Hello, i've much appreciated your Rastan, the action platformers are one of my favorite retrogames, the game scrolls well, the graphics, sound and gameplay are very good.
If you are ok, i would like to contribute to improve this game, i've always liked to thoroughly test the gameplay mechanics and to appreciate the games on the purely technical side, i give you some advices, of course you are free to do what you want :
- About you : you need to create the LOGO that rappresent you (and your work) on your games, create a visual image (this must be the first thing visible on the game) with "basementApe" writing, the image can be simply static or even dinamic (start one way and end another).
>> About Rastan >>
- Increases the RAM minimum requirement for ADF version, i suggest you at least 2,5 MB >> 512 kb (OCS A500 standard) + 2 MB extended fast RAM, this will permits you to do and manage more things inside your Rastan.
- Use a more complete ver. of Scorpion Engine (Nice idea).
- Use password save system (Nice idea).
- I see the game can manage a good number of enemies simultaneouslyon the screen (Good) ..
- To improve the game experience would be important create a second color for every type of enemy, this is where the extra RAM comes in >>
you should setup a RANDOM system, which decides which of the 2 colors to use (randomly) on each type of enemy, the type and quantity of enemies on every level is the same, what changes is the color (between the 2 used) which will always be different for every enemy in each game.
Here some examples i prepared for you (to left original color, to right the second one) ..
- you should setup another RANDOM system, which decides to insert the double health on a enemy, even in this case, this happen in absolutely randomly way.
These 2 solutions (color and health variable) are VERY important to make every game unique.
- Quality jump :
the quality of jump action is CRUCIAL for a good platformer, the jump action you used for Rastan is correct >>
this jump uses 2 heights (medium/high), the jump and strike actions are completely independent, therefore in every situation one does not disturb the other (no interruption in gameplay).
But this jump action can be improved, currently is not possible to modify the jump movement, to example is not possible jump up and then move a little forward or backward, or jump forward and change direction, correcting the total range of the jump.
Currently if is performed this last movement (jump forward and then backwards), only the lower part of character moves in correct way, this is the regular jump ..
and this is what happen when i jump forward and then backwards ..
Some bugs to fix :
- i seen several cases of disappearance of enemies (without me having killed them), to example if i jump up and displayed them in part only (when they are at the top of screen) or once i met if i go back a little, to then return to where the enemy was located, he disappears into thin air.
- at this point of level 1-1 happears a black bar in the sky ..
- sometime when we are hit by an enemy, remain some strange pixels on the screen ..
First off, thanks for the comprehensive feedback! You make a lot of good points, hadn't thought of a few of those :)
- Password system is coming for sure
- I'm sorting out some incompatibilities with the latest Scorpion version, and then there's life stuff to deal with too. Hopefully I can get an update out before too long (the moving platform collision glitch in particular irks me)
- I see your point about bumping up the RAM req (nice color tweaks btw). I *might* do an AGA only version and do sth similar for that. In fact, why not? The OCS version will stay at the current req tho. Squeezing everything into those strict limits is part of the fun for me.
- High jumps are coming! Just haven't needed to put them in for level 1 so I didn't. But I will :) Not being able to change the mid-air trajectory is an arcade-thing... but we'll see. I've been taking quite a few liberties already heh
- The black line is a copper bug thingy that might be fixed in the latest SE, haven't tested yet.
Happy you like the boss! I'm real happy with how he turned out too :D
I'm glad you are using latest Scorpion Engine version (Great tool !), about moving platform issue : i'm not a programmer but last year i discussed with 2 programmers just about this problem, they have said that it's all about the -fall point-, usually the character sprite (on a platform) can protrude towards the outside to almost half its width staying above the platform, then there is the fall point where the sprite falls down.
The fact is that setup a static platform and setup a moving platform are 2 different things (^^), often there are issues on moving platform since the fall point result altered, causing the premature fall of the sprite (even with a limited overhang), don't worry, always there is a solution to it, every engine has its way to manage this, you must work whit -sensitivity- of collision (of moving platform).
I understand about your choice on RAM requirement on OCS Amiga, if a day you'll create an AGA ver. >> AGA is Powerful and full of features, surely you'll have possibilities that now you don't have (on OCS). I'm glad you liked my colored enemies, this is one of first things that i thought when i tried your Rastan.
About jump action, yes is true, usually arcade games use stiff jumps, but let me say a thing :
you are in the position to build the game, you will have to make decisions that will affect the overall quality of the game itself, currently Rastan is Nice to play but it could be even more so just Thanks to dynamic jumps, i'm sure about it.
Instead this is a thing that i discovered recently |^_^| :
it's possible strike the enemies even from behind (when they get close enough), the range of action is more limited than the frontal side ..
This is going to be good, I'll be following with interest. I also added it to my new "Gameplay of New Amiga Games from December 2024" video along with other recently released Amiga games.
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Hello, i've much appreciated your Rastan, the action platformers are one of my favorite retrogames, the game scrolls well, the graphics, sound and gameplay are very good.
If you are ok, i would like to contribute to improve this game, i've always liked to thoroughly test the gameplay mechanics and to appreciate the games on the purely technical side, i give you some advices, of course you are free to do what you want :
- About you : you need to create the LOGO that rappresent you (and your work) on your games, create a visual image (this must be the first thing visible on the game) with "basementApe" writing, the image can be simply static or even dinamic (start one way and end another).
>> About Rastan >>
- Increases the RAM minimum requirement for ADF version, i suggest you at least 2,5 MB >> 512 kb (OCS A500 standard) + 2 MB extended fast RAM, this will permits you to do and manage more things inside your Rastan.
- Use a more complete ver. of Scorpion Engine (Nice idea).
- Use password save system (Nice idea).
- I see the game can manage a good number of enemies simultaneously on the screen (Good) ..
- To improve the game experience would be important create a second color for every type of enemy, this is where the extra RAM comes in >>
you should setup a RANDOM system, which decides which of the 2 colors to use (randomly) on each type of enemy, the type and quantity of enemies on every level is the same, what changes is the color (between the 2 used) which will always be different for every enemy in each game.
Here some examples i prepared for you (to left original color, to right the second one) ..
- you should setup another RANDOM system, which decides to insert the double health on a enemy, even in this case, this happen in absolutely randomly way.
These 2 solutions (color and health variable) are VERY important to make every game unique.
- Quality jump :
the quality of jump action is CRUCIAL for a good platformer, the jump action you used for Rastan is correct >>
this jump uses 2 heights (medium/high), the jump and strike actions are completely independent, therefore in every situation one does not disturb the other (no interruption in gameplay).
But this jump action can be improved, currently is not possible to modify the jump movement, to example is not possible jump up and then move a little forward or backward, or jump forward and change direction, correcting the total range of the jump.
Currently if is performed this last movement (jump forward and then backwards), only the lower part of character moves in correct way, this is the regular jump ..
and this is what happen when i jump forward and then backwards ..
Some bugs to fix :
- i seen several cases of disappearance of enemies (without me having killed them), to example if i jump up and displayed them in part only (when they are at the top of screen) or once i met if i go back a little, to then return to where the enemy was located, he disappears into thin air.
- at this point of level 1-1 happears a black bar in the sky ..
- sometime when we are hit by an enemy, remain some strange pixels on the screen ..
I LIKED the first Boss (^.^] ..
First off, thanks for the comprehensive feedback! You make a lot of good points, hadn't thought of a few of those :)
- Password system is coming for sure
- I'm sorting out some incompatibilities with the latest Scorpion version, and then there's life stuff to deal with too. Hopefully I can get an update out before too long (the moving platform collision glitch in particular irks me)
- I see your point about bumping up the RAM req (nice color tweaks btw). I *might* do an AGA only version and do sth similar for that. In fact, why not? The OCS version will stay at the current req tho. Squeezing everything into those strict limits is part of the fun for me.
- High jumps are coming! Just haven't needed to put them in for level 1 so I didn't. But I will :) Not being able to change the mid-air trajectory is an arcade-thing... but we'll see. I've been taking quite a few liberties already heh
- The black line is a copper bug thingy that might be fixed in the latest SE, haven't tested yet.
Happy you like the boss! I'm real happy with how he turned out too :D
I'm glad you are using latest Scorpion Engine version (Great tool !), about moving platform issue : i'm not a programmer but last year i discussed with 2 programmers just about this problem, they have said that it's all about the -fall point-, usually the character sprite (on a platform) can protrude towards the outside to almost half its width staying above the platform, then there is the fall point where the sprite falls down.
The fact is that setup a static platform and setup a moving platform are 2 different things (^^), often there are issues on moving platform since the fall point result altered, causing the premature fall of the sprite (even with a limited overhang), don't worry, always there is a solution to it, every engine has its way to manage this, you must work whit -sensitivity- of collision (of moving platform).
I understand about your choice on RAM requirement on OCS Amiga, if a day you'll create an AGA ver. >> AGA is Powerful and full of features, surely you'll have possibilities that now you don't have (on OCS). I'm glad you liked my colored enemies, this is one of first things that i thought when i tried your Rastan.
About jump action, yes is true, usually arcade games use stiff jumps, but let me say a thing :
you are in the position to build the game, you will have to make decisions that will affect the overall quality of the game itself, currently Rastan is Nice to play but it could be even more so just Thanks to dynamic jumps, i'm sure about it.
Instead this is a thing that i discovered recently |^_^| :
it's possible strike the enemies even from behind (when they get close enough), the range of action is more limited than the frontal side ..
This is going to be good, I'll be following with interest. I also added it to my new "Gameplay of New Amiga Games from December 2024" video along with other recently released Amiga games.