Pyra Non-port game idea suggestions.

[JDTAY]

Been working on coding this one Monster Rancher ripoff in C++ and SDL2 to play on my Pyra when I can finally afford one, probably at the end of the year. Thought it might be good to see what kind of games other people want to play though so I could possibly work on those.

Note: All my games come with crappy programmer graphics, procedurally generated sound effects, and awful MIDI + soundfont music. *shrug*

 

[Citizen_Lurker]

A Robotron clone perhaps? Sounds like it wouldn't be too hard to develop plus it would really put those nubs to work

 

[JDTAY]

Don't have any playing experience with Robotron, but there are some very thorough descriptions of the game on the web from what I can see. I could try putting my own spin on it.

Gotta come up with the most important part first though: a dumb joke title. Perhaps "Spring Break 3017: Los Robos Locos", wherein you must fight off waves of drunken killer robots in Cancun after an unscrupulous college student pours tequila into their fuel tanks as a practical joke?

Sorry about that, I just liked the way robo rhymed with loco.
[doublepost=1486817420,1486816936][/doublepost]Whoops, turns out robo means robbery in Spanish. Now I gotta think up a whole new dumb joke title.
[doublepost=1486819656][/doublepost]Okay, so now I'm trying to decide between "Bot Swatter 3017: No Ifs, Ands, or Bots" and "Robot Bikini Beach Party of Doom 3017: Breasts vs. Bots".

It mostly depends on how offensive you guys think the second one is. >_>

 

[Citizen_Lurker]

I like them both, the second one is fine by me (although you could've also just changed the Robos Locos to the Robotos Locos to avoid ambiguity).

 

[JDTAY]

How about "Spring Break 3017: Breasts vs. Bots", and I incorporate the setting and backstory I originally came up with?

Aw yeah, this is all coming together now.

Edit: One last thing though, 3017 or 2084, so people get the Robotron connection more? I feel like using 2084 might verge on infringement though.

 

[Citizen_Lurker]

That sounds good to me!
Yeah, I wouldn't recommend using 2084 either. I would settle for 3017 (or binary 2084 = 100000100100 if you're really crazy).

 

[kuru]

Rabidtron 2083 - Mechanized Mad Manglers

 

[Urben]

How about this song as the main theme? The title of the song should fit to your ideas

Spoiler

 

[JDTAY]

I've been looking at screens trying to get a handle on Robotron's resolution and ratios, and it turns out there are many different ones because it was released on so many platforms. So I say screw it, I'll make up my own darn ratios.

360p resolution, 360 by 320 box/playfield in the middle, score and lives in the 20 at the top, wave number in the 20 at the bottom, and with the leftover 140 by 360 on each side, some background art, maybe scoring info too. Sprites can be 20 by 20, but most won't use the full 20 width.

 

[levi]

So the playarea (including score and wave number) will only take up the middle third of the screen? That seems an odd design decision - could you make a mockup soon so that we can get a better feel of that decision (if I've even decoded your numbers correctly).

As you identified, Robotron doesn't really have a defined aspect ratio and resolution. Rebotron 2048 was 4:3, probably VGA with 32 pixel borders, but IIRC Smash TV had bigger borders. I say consider the whole 720p resolution and lay things out as aesthetics define. Then scale up the icons if you think the playarea is too big (though there really are no hard and fast rules here, so I expect you'll need a playtest with scratch graphics to really have any idea). I might suggest considering putting score and wave on left and right to make the playarea more square though.

 

[JDTAY]

Well, I plan on upscaling 2x, that's why I chose 360p. So a 360 by 320 playfield in the middle will take up more than half the width of the screen when scaled, not just a third. I could widen it even more, but like you said, I wanted to keep the playfield squarish.

I'm going for a "retro" look. >_>
[doublepost=1486933675,1486923676][/doublepost]Hey guys, tell me what you think of my four playable characters, Anne, Sasha, Erika, and Nina.

Stick with this art style or go full 720p? Be careful what you wish for, my crappy programmer graphics look just as bad no matter what resolution I work with.

Man, the more I post here, the more I realize I like talking about development more than doing it. It's a habit I need to kick. I completed like a third of the engine for my Monster Rancher ripoff last month, but I've been doing jack this month. I wonder what changed.
[doublepost=1486939803][/doublepost]I've been thinking it over, and I think I know why I'm having trouble with getting things done. Won't be able to fix said problem until Tuesday though. I think I'll just continue with research and planning until then.

 

[levi]

Regarding your player characters, why not a black character?

 

[JDTAY]

Sasha is supposed to be black.

Man, I didn't think my programmer graphics were that bad. Maybe I need to put some research into that. >_>

 

[levi]

Heh, I wondered that. The peroxide and hair relaxers combo is a top hair tip for those in the know

 

[JDTAY]

Hmmm, according to my latest round of research, that hairstyle is possible, but people with relaxers and coloring are supposed to avoid excessive heat, like for example, the heat of a beach full of drunken killer robots in Cancun circa 3017.

Maybe I'll just put in her backstory that she applies moisturizing conditioner between every wave of drunken killer robots. *shrug*

 

[FBnil]

Am I the only person who remembers when months long uptime was a badge of honor? How often are you people rebooting that it's a design consideration.

I thought that never was real. the "uptime" command gives also the CPU usage for 15 5 and 1 minute, hence, gives you information about CPU load.

Stick with this art style or go full 720p?

Others have used the same amount of pixels to do the same, but see how expressive they are:

Don't go the sub-pixel art route either, for example:

That takes too much time. Concentrate on the code with simple stickfigures. Then ask somebody to do the graphics.

A way to give the illusion the player is more than the stickfigure is a detailed image of the head with expressions, or select a detailed character, but use the stickfigure in the game, something like this:

http://orig07.deviantart.net/c9d2/f/2016/122/9/b/pixel_characters_by_kunomeh-da114rs.gif

 

[levi]

FWIW, needing to patch kernel bugs probably is what did over uptime in the end.

 

[sulu]

Regarding your player characters, why not a black character?

You missed Sabrina! She's right there, between Erika and Nina.

@JDTAY:
You should probably change the background color!

 

[JDTAY]

Well, I spent an hour on the game a while ago. Did some preliminary designs for the first three enemies, then finally got to actual coding. So far all my program does is activate SDL2, create the window and renderer, load my graphics as textures, then pause for five seconds and quit. It took me longer than it should have considering all I had to do for the most part was copy and paste code from my Monster Rancher knockoff.

Next I'll implement rendering and random enemy placement, then after I iron that out, I'll put in actual input.

 

[JDTAY]

Quick question, I hear filepaths are different on Windows and Linux. Best way to account for this? I'm currently programming and testing on a Windows laptop, but I wanna make sure my code is Linux compatible for you guys and for when I finally get a Pyra. I noticed SDL2 does have an SDL_GetPlatform function, so at least I know how to detect the platform and call appropriate code accordingly.

Knowing my luck, I bet there's a bunch of other stuff to account for that I'm not even aware of yet.