How do I compile the new version into an NES format? Or if I need to ask I probably shouldn't be messing with it right?
You'd need cc65 installed. I'm using v2.18, but the newer versions should work the same. In Windows you might as well install Windows Subsystem For Linux and use "make". But if you wanted to do it manually, or create a batch file, there's only four commands in the makefile. They're in reverse order. cc65 goes from slaughter.c to slaughter.s, ca65 goes from slaughter.s to slaughter.o, ca65 goes from reset.s to reset.o, and ld65 combines the .o files into slaughter.nes.
... I forgot to include a ROM in the update, didn't I. Lemme fix that real quick.
I got the ROM file thanks!
A new level! Yay! And more polish :)
Ok. I've tried a few times to get into this version but I'm having trouble. The new red and green gradients are pretty disorienting for me. I used to be able to navigate everything pretty well but now for me it's too much visual noise to quickly discern surroundings. I liked it a lot more the way it was before with the sky being one color so it contrasts better with the terrain and enemies. I'm really excited to play a new map but I just can't tell what's going on.
Do the enemies melt or something now? I feel like they change shape when I'm firing at them.
I didn't do anything with the editor really. It looked neat though.
The sky was always a gradient, it's just upside-down and higher-contrast now. One of those things was on purpose. (On a possibly unrelated note: guess I shouldn't use green and red as distinct global colors, for the sake of colorblindness.) Tile graphics are likely to get another overhaul before any sort of proper release.
The level's the same, it just has a roof. I added ceilings for performance. It limits draw distance. This was a terrible idea for about three weeks, but now I'm pretty sure it's faster overall. Where it's not, well, I need better levels. That's why the editor is different. Right now I'm trying to compress savegames to where I can call them "passwords" with a straight face. Then people can share levels.
There's mild complexity in how ceilings work, where floors are allowed to stick through them. That's probably less confusing than where red walls also have red ceilings, because again, I do need to make better levels.
Enemies are animated now! Which admittedly looks so-so at current speeds. They're timed with the global vblank counter, which naively cycles every four seconds, so at some point I'll add another byte that only increments every fourth vblank or something. That should make the various bouncing and shifting look much better. Crank the overclocking in Mesen for an idea of what they're supposed to be doing.
But the blue guys do emerge from the floor when you first look at them. That was weirdly easy to implement. Kind of a zombie gimmick, applied to them for now because they're the right height for it. There will eventually be more enemy types, if only because an "invisible" spectre-style monster would also be weirdly easy to implement. It'll change the palette.