Miniplanets (single stage demo)

[Sik]

Crosspost from SpritesMind

I've decided to release a trial version of Miniplanets (which contains stages 1-1 to 1-9). You can get it here:
http://sik.titandemo.de/megadrive/miniplanets-demo.bin

For those who don't know the game yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcOowXx7R-c

Anyway, I'm looking for feedback on the game itself (aside from "needs music badly!!", just looking for the gameplay here). Comments and spreading the word are welcome.

[Barone]

I'm so happy to see you here again, Sik!

And thanks a lot for sharing your work with us. I'll post some feedback during the weekend.

[saturndual32]

Cant try it right now, but watched the video. Seems fun, and looks impressive. Cant wait to try it!

[Guntz]

The legend returns!!

[ComradeOj]

Impressive! I just finished playing through all 9 levels.

So is the planet made of a bunch of overlapping sprites? I think it's awesome! I haven't yet figured out how to manipulate more than a few sprites at once.
I really like the way the rafts look as the move around the small planet. The whole game is really cool looking. I also like how level progression by blowing up the bombs works.

I think the planets could stand to be a bit bigger. That way it fills up more of the screen and gives the player a bigger view.

[Mad Moham]

Its great to see you back here Sik. I've kept an eye on your Youtube channel for a while now and I always found this game impressive, but now that I've played it I'm absolutely amazed, great job so far.

I honestly can't think of a way to improve it based on what I've seen so far, I love the originality of the whole project and I the technical aspects really blow me away.

Thanks for posting.

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

The legend returns!!

+1

[matteus]

It's a very nice looking game Not entirely sure how much VRAM this uses or any of the technicalities but you could almost make an overhead Mario Galaxy in this way Jumping between planets

[BladeJunker]

Pretty cool game, everything ties together nicely. Reminds me of Lolo or Castelian, little creature games.

Idk what you could add as I assume the planet size has a limit and other restrictions. Some height variation would be nice. Is there object pushing, I haven't played every level?

Could you add a Tree tile, I like the grass but it seems strange it acts as a wall or fence?

[Sik]

Yeah, the sprite limit is completely killing any improvements on the graphics aspect. I'm surprised it doesn't already overflow as-is =P (I can't make the planet bigger because then it starts showing gaps, and I can't make the sprites larger because then I run head straight into overflow, and this also forces me to keep the object count quite low...) VRAM goes awfully underused on the other hand, to the point I just crammed in the graphics for every single level (including those not in this demo).

And I did think about pushable objects early on but I never added them because I couldn't come up with a good way to prevent players from inevitably getting them stuck against a wall, and I don't want people to waste lives because they made such a dumb mistake trying to figure out the puzzle =S

So far it seems the lack of trees/fences and pushables are the only potential gameplay issues so far? (and I can't fix the former in any way, sadly)

[BladeJunker]

Yeah, the sprite limit is completely killing any improvements on the graphics aspect. I'm surprised it doesn't already overflow as-is =P (I can't make the planet bigger because then it starts showing gaps, and I can't make the sprites larger because then I run head straight into overflow, and this also forces me to keep the object count quite low...) VRAM goes awfully underused on the other hand, to the point I just crammed in the graphics for every single level (including those not in this demo).

And I did think about pushable objects early on but I never added them because I couldn't come up with a good way to prevent players from inevitably getting them stuck against a wall, and I don't want people to waste lives because they made such a dumb mistake trying to figure out the puzzle =S

So far it seems the lack of trees/fences and pushables are the only potential gameplay issues so far? (and I can't fix the former in any way, sadly)

Yeah I kind of figured this was straining the hardware to render. Would using the Sega CD help expand capabilities, not suggesting you abandon this but consider it for a future project along the same lines in engine design?

Is the wall tile not possible because the tiles have only one rotation direction? Too many parts IE. lengths and corners? I believe you but wondered what prevents it?

You could add a Grab button, hold it to grab objects and pull any direction, that would get rid of Boxxle type dead ends. Although your character doesn't really have hands.

Have you thought about making the background darker, it would make the planet pop out more? Although then the font might have to change idk.

Got to the last stage and I did waste a life looking for a door lol, game kind of has that aspect in trial and error game rule learning.

[dr apocalipsis]

That's a pretty clever concept, and very good development too.

I guess you are pretty limited on the sprite count, but could you use sprite masking or play with layer priorities to file some of the outer edges? I believe it could improve the overall presentation even more.

[LinkueiBR]

A very original and really impressive demo for the Genesis!

[moon]

Yeah, the sprite limit is completely killing any improvements on the graphics aspect. I'm surprised it doesn't already overflow as-is =P (I can't make the planet bigger because then it starts showing gaps, and I can't make the sprites larger because then I run head straight into overflow, and this also forces me to keep the object count quite low...) VRAM goes awfully underused on the other hand, to the point I just crammed in the graphics for every single level (including those not in this demo).

You could use varying sprite sizes ( include the sizes and perhaps pattern-offset in your LUT ), so that when only 8x16 / 16x8 ( or less ) of a 16x16 sprite is visible you use a smaller sprite. Obviously this does require you to have separate sprite pattern data in VRAM for each vertical size you want to use / support, but as you mentioned .. you have plenty of VRAM available Perhaps that way it would be possible to effectively scale the globe by 150% ( using 24x24 sprites as base size )?

Alternatively you could use this technique only horizontally ( so you don't need additional VRAM but still cut down on some sprite pixels per scanline ).

[kool kitty89]

With so much VRAM space free, doesn't that leave more room for animation? (be it conventional animation or dynamic tile effects, possibly to smooth out the edges of some things) I'm not saying that wouldn't take a lot of added work (in terms of actually making all those tiles) but just a suggestion on using more VRAM.

If you keep VRAM use low enough to not need DMA at all, that should also simplify the sound engine as far as Z80 ROM access goes. (or 68k access for that matter -no DMA halts screwing up timing ot blocking access at crucial times)


And nice to see you back, Sik, glad I happened to start browsing the forums again just a couple weeks prior.