itch.io

This is definitely some quality work. Nice job!

I talked to the the author a few months ago and he suggested where to look (it is possible), but I can’t find the specific chat we had - I’ll try to find the chat or just look it up.

He is active on the emudev discord if you just want to ask him directly.

Thanks for playing!

I do actually test on a real GBC, along with an analogue pocket (and yes, a GBA), using an everdrive.

Unfortunately there is no “real”, fixed palette I can go for - especially in the current era where everyone is using aftermarket screens.

I recently taught myself GLSL and started implementing shaders in the online emulators, as well as trying other, non-shader approaches.

I have an (in-progress) emulator at http://www.jmkdev.net/assets/gbtest/ that attempts to simulate a GBC screen more faithfully; you may have to enable controls and set the system to GBC instead of DMG. I’d love your take on how well that matches your GBC experience.

I also have another emulator in progress that has a slightly more complete version of the effect: https://i.imgur.com/4o7ppYv.png

But that one isn’t publicly available yet.

For anyone who’s looking to do this with current versions of GB Studio, I just posted a demo on my Itch along with a writeup of exactly where to find the variables.

For any Gameboy devs who want to do something similar, I wrote a breakdown of how this all works at:

https://www.shacknews.com/cortex/article/5213/enhancing-gameboy-games-on-the-web

Alright, it’s got the current room - and it’s at least basically functional on mobile now, defaulting to landscape to better fill a wide phone screen.

I am using a different emulator here, so I’m not sure if performance will be completely in line with playing off the main demo page.

I can do the current room. I’m not doing the link cable idea here, but I am seriously considering extra modes for the full game using that idea.

Just realized I forgot to comment here, but I have implemented a new super gameboy border that will show up in the next version - it looks a bit better than the placeholder grid I put up earlier.

And yeah, I was planning on cycling the palettes I use for pickups so that they “shine” periodically - I know at the small size they can be hard to see/identify as pickups.

I don’t know if I’ll bother for the demo but it’ll be there in the full game.

I hear you. Also 45, and while I don’t need glasses I will admit playing on a real GBC can be taxing in a way it wasn’t 30 years ago.

The slightly larger screen of an Analogue Pocket is fine.

I’ll think about how to handle this. It may be that I go with a slightly larger font, but I don’t want to go big; I was trying to avoid the massive fonts you got in games like Dragon Warrior III: https://i.imgur.com/MwAFdZO.png

Where you have to scroll text constantly. Maybe there’s a middle ground.

Thanks for trying the demo!

I will try to balance the need for tutorials better in the full game - I’m almost considering a sort of “training” room you can access from the menu for the very basic stuff - experienced players can ignore it, that way.

And yeah, I am evaluating vertical firing along with adding a crouch. Whether it’s done by allowing aiming or via an alternative weapon, you will eventually have more options in combat.

A preview option on the chameleon circuit is a good idea, and yes, it should be doable. I’ll be reworking the menus for the full game and I’ll try to incorporate that sort of affordance wherever I have an option like that.

The issue where you sometimes drop down quickly is a real one and known. It’s been surprisingly hard to track down, but it’s on the list and will be fixed.

As to your final issue - I have an Everdrive X3 and it saves on that, though I have to press the button in the cartridge to go back to the menu for it to persist - if I shut the gameboy off it just disappears.

I am also on Linux and Firefox - it runs okay here, but that’s going to be heavily dependent on hardware and how your system is set up - I’m on Wayland and KDE6 with latest Nvidia drivers.

The game itself does have a handful of screens where you can see slowdown, but not generally just by firing with no enemies present. The Observation Deck uses some complex parallax that has a performance impact, and you can see some dropped frames there while all three enemies in the room are still active. The long corridor in Medical can have some because of the AI for the sniping enemies, and the first room of medical can slow down when you approach the door to Surgery if the enemies are still alive and active.

If you don’t mind, what emulator were you using outside the browser? And does the performance of the Demo seem worse than other Gameboy Color games in that emulator?

Thanks for your comments, and I’m glad you enjoyed the demo!

The full game is going to have a few more movement options, though I’m still experimenting with how much to do as far as aiming - being able to aim changes how you deal with enemy encounters, so I’m seeing what works there on both sides of that.

And yes, I know what you mean about it not being clear where the scene transitions are as in Docking. This happens on some vertical rooms due to some early decisions I made in structuring the demo, but it shouldn’t be a problem in the full game.

I’ve added shipping to Canada, Australia, and most of western Europe. Sorry about that.

Sorry, I’ve never done this before and set the physical releases for US only to keep things simple - but I’ll see what I can do for the international audience; I don’t mean to exclude anyone.

The digital version should be available in any area.

Interesting. It does help, thank you.

I’ll have to think about what might cause that.

Thanks for trying the demo and thanks for the bug report.

It may be that the caps lock key on your keyboard got hit - the emulator the web embed uses apparently differentiates between capital and lower case letters.

One other user also reported not being able to shoot after a certain point on the web build, and the caps lock key was all I could see that might cause that.

I’ll add a note to the instructions when I push the next update.

Oh, I think I figured it out - if you have caps lock on, the Z/X keys don’t register.

Maybe you pressed that? I should make a note in the instructions…

Hm. I can’t seem to replicate that - how were you playing it? Was it via the web embed?

This crashed for me. I don’t feel comfortable rating it without seeing how it played.

I wasn’t able to figure out what to do other than avoiding the doll.

This is solid, like a slightly simpler pixel dungeon.

If you implemented WASD or arrow key navigation I could see myself losing some real time to this.

This is a solid start. You’d need to adjust the speed and density of things to really make it tight, but I had fun with what you’ve got.

This could be the basis for a solid twin stick shooter.

I would reduce the cooldown on the hammer; as is you use it so infrequently it just never became muscle memory.

Since things getting past you is a major part of it maybe eventually build up some passive defenses?

It’s an interesting concept, but in practice I couldn’t keep up with both retrieving soldiers and doing work on the bottom screen.

I might focus on just the bottom action, maybe do wounded pick up and the like with an idle mechanic like cookie clicker?

Pretty solid VS type game for the time you put in.

You could develop it into something more.

Well, just for presentation stuff, I might suggest communicating more outside the game - stuff like posting the controls on the game page - I like to know how to play before I start something up.

The ‘how to play’ screen in game is fine, you did good there.

Also your web build doesn’t work if not full screened and there may be other issues - just a bit of text to let people know the state there would be helpful.

Congrats on completing your first game!

The game would benefit from a smaller collision box. As is it gets fairly frustrating after the third level or so.

The core gameplay is fun and kinetic, especially once you get the powerup to recharge dash on a kill.

I might suggest trying a twin-stick control scheme.

Thanks, submitted.

Here’s my late entry: https://jmkdev.itch.io/noble-blood

I don't have a problem with it, as long as credited.

I'm not going to for this one, but I imagine using AI as a starting point for art is going to become very common, especially for time-sensitive jams.

Everyone starts somewhere. You'll do fine!

Can I ask what hardware and browser you were trying it on? 

Definitely much better - though Otto may be too forgiving now. I know, it's a rough balance :)

I might suggest slowing the robot's projectiles a bit so you can reasonably dodge them - right now I tend to shoot them from a distance as the projectiles are almost hitscan.

This is great. I might recommend twin stick controls - movement on the left stick, aiming/orientation on the right. Some of the puzzles that require you to shoot a specific wall with just a little space to move around are tricky for the wrong reasons.

Awesome to see pinball on here! I definitely recognize the more sparse layout from the earlier electromechanical pinball games, though I will say the layout of the bumpers and flippers makes it feel like I have very little control over the ball - the flippers almost seem to be angled to make them ineffective. 

But you should totally take this engine and do some other boards!

Nice. I seriously considered doing Pitfall, too! 

I have an ultrawide monitor and I think it may have cut off some of the UI - I couldn't exit the options menu. But I did eventually get through and find a Golden Brian.

I'd be down for more Asteroids, but this seems unfinished - or maybe it's just something about deployment on Itch.io's page - the window is smaller than you seemed to intend.

Also, the asteroids appear to be immune to fire - I could shoot ships, but not rocks.