MAPLE FOREST!! Fox-faces return!!

unsinister

Member
I just finished Links Awakening again on my old GameBoy and was craving more. Would love to see this get finished with the 4 colour art. Then you can colour it afterwards, rerelease it as "Maple Forest DX" in a couple of years and rake in cash...
 

CMAllen

Member
I'm curious if you're doing simple tiles (no overlapping) or not. The game I've been working on uses upper and lower tile layers (with objects sandwiched between) to allow a bit of depth while still allowing for most of the speed of tiles.
 
Thanks, guys! I never played Harvest Moon on the SNES really, but I will someday. I love the art!

@CMAllen: Yeah, I'm using like ten layers, lol. So much easier and faster than making ten million tile transitions, hahah! I've got like three ground layers, then a layer for cliff faces, one for trees, etc, etc. I'm not worrying about speed with the tiles at all, heheh! =)
 

Joe Ellis

Member
I love the tone of the first town, how everythings ok, then gets darker, to be honest with the art, I think your one of those people that can make anything look good, if you've drawn it, kind of like how brilliant musicians can make the worst instrument ever sound good
 
Man, it's SPOOKY how long it's been since I last updated this thread HAPPY HALLOWEEN LOL

.....


Anyway, have some videos. A cute goat, the first dungeon's entrance, and some cave action:




I just took like a month off from this game, so it's time to get back into it, hahah. Hope you guys like this stuff! I'll be posting more soon. =)
 
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Bearman_18

Fruit Stand Deadbeat
I like how the spike pulls back and then releases. But if that's actually what's happening, wouldn't it start at max speed instead of picking up speed as it goes?

The goat is so great! It's a very cute bit of dialogue.
 
I like how the spike pulls back and then releases. But if that's actually what's happening, wouldn't it start at max speed instead of picking up speed as it goes?

The goat is so great! It's a very cute bit of dialogue.
Thanks Bearman! I'm glad you like it! =D

For the spike trap, I can think of mechanisms that would work both ways, even though only vaguely, since I'm not an engineer or anything, hahah. =')
It sounds like you're thinking of something like a spring or something that's getting compacted as the spike gets near the wall or maybe something hydraulic? Where I'm imagining something more like a rollercoaster, where the heavy spike slowly gets pulled to it's starting position by a low-gear belt drive or whatever, and it's pushed back out by falling weights or something like that. I could sketch up fake schematics for both types of things if I wanted to spend a few hours hurting my head over it, but I already have an intuitive feel on how both would work, so I won't kill myself over it, heheh. X'D

I love that you actually thought about that for me, though. It makes me feel like you actually give a đź’©đź’©đź’©đź’© about my game, so thank you very much for the rad comment - I never would've expected to have people wondering what the crazy mechanisms under my dungeon's floors looked like, at least not until after launch! Seriously cool! =D
 
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This is worth dying for, haha!

Sadly I've never touched a Gameboy in my whole life (though i used an emulator for some classy pokemon red session, which i confess i regret not buying it, augh!). I kinda get how the graphics works on typical Gameboy platforms (apart from Color since it's self-explanatory), but that's not the case. Seeing this game's getting substantial improvements at first glance (and second glance, too lazy to give it a third, it's enough to see how it is anyway), I doubt this won't be successful in future release.

I especially in awe of the goat. Posted a... short paronomasia on your status, showing how interesting it is. Maybe that's just my type, or everybody's jam. Nevertheless, it's cute!

Eh, I won't rush you, but I'm looking forward to a demo! There are several games here that met my donut-wrapped standards, such as Sock-Sock, Copycat, and you guessed it cx. It's worth trying, is it not? It is.

Watched for further updates. Will reply if you want me to, Imma progress.
 

Bearman_18

Fruit Stand Deadbeat
Where I'm imagining something more like a rollercoaster, where the heavy spike slowly gets pulled to it's starting position by a low-gear belt drive or whatever, and it's pushed back out by falling weights or something like that.
Ah, that makes sense. I won't pretend to know much about engineering myself. XD I like the spike trap. It's movements are pretty original (at least from the games I've seen).
 
So...I kind of slowed down on this game for awhile, but I started off 2020 right by finally getting back into it. I worked on this game for about twelve hours yesterday, only taking a few hours off for meals. Really happy with how much I got finished - I finally almost have this dungeon done now, and almost all of it was from yesterday's marathon work session!













Really happy with myself right now. Just got home from work, and I'm diving back into finishing this dungeon now. Gonna make 2020 a great year! =D
 
Congratulations on the marathon session. I've been telling myself that I'm going to make some actual progress this year, then you go and make me feel like a slacker two days in...

Seriously, though, this is looking excellent. Can't wait to see more.
 

cidwel

Member
Looks really good!
You have a very good sense of shading. It is not that easy for me to make things look good in just 4 colors. Love the chicken in that room
Keep up the good work! Wanna see more of this!
Totally a buy if we get this on Switch
 
Congratulations on the marathon session. I've been telling myself that I'm going to make some actual progress this year, then you go and make me feel like a slacker two days in...

Seriously, though, this is looking excellent. Can't wait to see more.
Thanks man! I'm still working, too! Feeling good this week! =)
Looks really good!
You have a very good sense of shading. It is not that easy for me to make things look good in just 4 colors. Love the chicken in that room
Keep up the good work! Wanna see more of this!
Totally a buy if we get this on Switch
Thanks, cidwel! The chicken is there to help new players/kids with block puzzles. He gives advice like "try to think a few moves ahead," and "sometimes imagining the solution to a puzzle and working backwards helps."
All the animals in my game are nice, hahah. =D

Today I finished up my game's simple lighting system!


It...looks a bit more impressive in motion! It's the easiest lighting system imaginable, but I took awhile tweaking random values and stuff to make the light flicker nicely in game.
I also added some soft lights to certain rooms to make them pop a bit more!



Simple stuff, but I'm happy with how it looks so far! =)
 
The lighting really takes from the GB aesthetics, I find. You're otherwise going pretty pure and it stands out hard.
Yeah, I decided I don't care anymore. X'D
I've been using five colors instead of four for the last few months, too. Thousands of particles on the screen at once in some places. My game changes color palettes in every area. It's like....eh.
I started making the game in the GB palette because I wanted to practice my value drawings without color getting in the way, not because I wanted to make a GB game.

The GB restrictions are as arbitrary as anything else...I think 90% of the average players (not us hardcore programmer purists) are going to appreciate a more interesting looking game over one that could run on an actual Gameboy. I did a poll on Twitter awhile back, and "ignore the GB restrictions!" won out at like 70% of the votes. :x

I definitely hear you, though. This would've felt like heresy to me a few years ago, too. It's just that the more I think about it, the more I'm like "what's the point of arbitrarily hurting the overall look of my game to pretend it's running on thirty year old hardware?"

Edit: I do like the look of clean pixels too, though...hmm...
Maybe something more subtle?


The one in the last post is definitely very in your face with it.
 
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cidwel

Member
e "what's the point of arbitrarily hurting the overall look of my game to pretend it's running on thirty year old hardware?"
The only thing I would only keep and respect is the aspect ratio of pixels. Otherwise there's nothing bad taking your own licenses IMO. You're trying to get the GB vibes, and you are still meeting this point! and the lightning example is a great way to keep the vibes while showing a better/more modern scene while helping us to get a more deep ambient.

Go for it! The illumination change really works at least for me!
 
Small update today. I regret to inform you all that I've decided to demake this game to Atari standards. Super HD Gameboy resolution graphics are just too much for me to handle right now, so this should make asset creation much easier for me, allowing the project to progress much more quickly:




Thank you all for your understanding. )':
 
Alright, sorry for totally tricking you guys. I'm actually not demaking Maple Forest into an Atari game. I'm just working on some transition/post-processing shaders!





Simple, but classic! I'm pretty happy with the look of them. I was already planning on doing some kind of water dungeon, but seeing the shader in action, I really want to do a *completely submerged,* deep ocean dungeon, now. Slow down the movement a lot, muffle the sound effects, add some creepy music and monsters, and I think it'd probably be pretty cool! =D

More stuff soon!
 
Those both look awesome! Excited for the idea of a submerged temple.

I gotta admit though, I think the effects are a little overwhelming. The first one kind of hurts my eyes... The water one isn't as bad, but still maybe a little too much distortion to be comfortable. If you're set on the transition shader though, that's fine, just please include a graphics option for a simpler transition. Keep up the good work!
 

O.Stogden

Member
Yeah, the room transition is definitely a little hard on the eyes. There's a lot of pixels moving around, it perhaps zooms in a little too much? I guess that's what it's doing.

The water one is pretty nice, but I think with you working on a limited number of pixels, you can noticeably see each pixel move on the "waves" and it feels distracting, a little smoothing out would be nice here, but I get that's probably not the aesthetic you're going for. And for all I know, when the games in motion and you're actually playing it, you might not focus so much on the effect.

Either way it looks cool. :)
 
Thanks for the input, guys.
The pixelation transition is:
1.) Only going to be used like twice during the entire game for special areas/scenes, the same way most SNES games used it.
2.) Going to get softer looking, because I still need to have it fade to black so that it can change palettes between scenes. I thought it looked a bit harsh too, but was like "eh, it's only going to be used a few times, so whatever."
Looking back at LttP, the screen fading to black actually makes the effect much smoother looking. Good catch, guys!

The water shader I just programmed up and took a gif of with the first random values I plugged in. When I actually use it in game, I'll set a few keys on the keyboard to allow me to tweak values in real time while the game is playing. I actually like the way it looks now, but I'm sure I can get it better looking if I adjust it while it's actually running instead of guessing at values, hahah! After I mess with it for awhile, I'll probably look back at this gif and go "oh yeah, this one is too much," too. Hard to tell sometimes when your nose is against the drawing board.

Thanks for the honesty, friends! Fresh eyes are always helpful and appreciated! =D
 

RujiK

Member
The grass animation looks really nice. Definitely adds some life to the scenery.

The underwater effect reminds me of bomberman:


And I also agree that the pixelized transition is a little too "Noisy" for my taste, but I can see it working as long as it's used sparingly.

Grass is the coolest.
 
Definitely like the water shader, although at first glance my impression was "room filled with gas" rather than "room underwater" - which is in no way a knock against it, just, I don't know, another idea, I guess? Maybe that's just me. Either way, I'd add air bubbles coming from the character along with the slower movement and muffled sound effects.

Excellent work, as usual.
 

kupo15

Member
Alright, sorry for totally tricking you guys. I'm actually not demaking Maple Forest into an Atari game. I'm just working on some transition/post-processing shaders!


Simple, but classic! I'm pretty happy with the look of them. I was already planning on doing some kind of water dungeon, but seeing the shader in action, I really want to do a *completely submerged,* deep ocean dungeon, now. Slow down the movement a lot, muffle the sound effects, add some creepy music and monsters, and I think it'd probably be pretty cool! =D

More stuff soon!
Darn I was duped! xP Make sure you use the POST DRAW event!! hehe good stuff xD
 
@RujiK: Thanks, man! The grass took the longest, even though it's the "quietest" effect. I'm going to show it off a lot more in tomorrow's update, though. =D
And yeah, the pixelation is a bit noisy. I'll adjust it for the final game, for sure. Probably a slower transition, and smaller pixels for the expanded part.

@HeWhoShallNotBeNamed: Thank you! And yep, all the effects you mentioned will be of course added to the finished game; it takes a lot more to sell the illusion of being underwater than some blue tinting and a wavy screen, heheh. Bubbles, waving plant life, slow and heavy movement, muffled sounds, etc, etc will all add up for the finished one to make something believable!

@kupo15: Post Draw is lame af. I do all of my drawing in the create event of an object I spawn every step, duh. ;D

@CMAllen: I thought about doing this, but then I realized I wasn't RujiK, and I don't feel like taking a month to work it out. X'D
It is a very good idea though, and it's one I'm considering. I have vague idea of how I might do it, but it's something I'd only try toward the very end of the game's development. I think the visual pay off compared to more obvious things like bubbles and stuff would be pretty small considering how long it'd probably take me to work it out. I'm not exactly a shader expert, heheh. :' )

Anyway, tonight I'm torturing myself with drawing. Working on some thorn vines to block the player's path:



Having some trouble getting the vertical ones to look 3D, but I'm sure I'll get them decent looking by the end of the day.

I'll be back tomorrow with the vines, and with a really HOT gif for you guys. The kids might say it's "lit." hahahah. :'D

it's fire : \
 
Alright, here's some fire for you guys! Sorry the gif is choppy. My computer is too slow to record gifs correctly, so they all end up at like 20fps....please donate to my eventual kickstarter, lol
Anyway, here you go:



Cooking slimes with burning grass! They try to run away, BUT THEY'RE TOO SLOW. Really fun! :'D
The slimes make great popping/cooking noises as they take fire damage, too. It's very satisfying. I'll post a video as soon as I find a computer I can record videos on, hahah.

Hope you guys enjoy. Sloooowly working toward getting a demo out for you, so you can cook your own monsters. More soon! =)
 
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Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Looks fantastic! I love the way the flamethrower effect looks... hell, I think the entire thing just looks gorgeous and has so many lovely little details. :) I think I'd spend more time just playing around and burning stuff than I would actually deving if I made this...

PS: For GIFs, have you tried using LICECap? I find it incredibly lightweight and makes great gifs. https://www.cockos.com/licecap/
(of course, you could always try my GIFCam asset too... ;) ).
 

RujiK

Member


The animated grass is the best looking part of your game though. What a pity that fox ruined it.

One suggestion though, the fire does not stand out enough against the grass in my opinion:


At a glance, I would just think I'm looking at grass. Since fire is dangerous, I would recommend making it more obvious. Maybe make it flash or something? The flame-thrower looks rad though.
 
Looks fantastic! I love the way the flamethrower effect looks... hell, I think the entire thing just looks gorgeous and has so many lovely little details. :) I think I'd spend more time just playing around and burning stuff than I would actually deving if I made this...
Thanks, Nocturne! Glad you like it! My "development" time is 80% screwing around with what I make. I keep telling myself that means I'm making something fun, but there's a good chance I'm also just extremely lazy. :')
Either way, I've got some more cool little things coming up that I've been messing with. This game has been coming together lately! =D

PS: For GIFs, have you tried using LICECap? I find it incredibly lightweight and makes great gifs. https://www.cockos.com/licecap/
(of course, you could always try my GIFCam asset too... ;) ).
Ahhh, awesome, thank you. I'll check them out for sure. It'd be nice to be able to post some gifs that aren't missing 2/3rds of the frames, hahah!

The animated grass is the best looking part of your game though. What a pity that fox ruined it.
Thanks, man! Don't worry about the grass, though. It is the circle of grass life. It grows and animates so that it may burn and drop rupees gems for the player. ;D
And you haven't even seen the grass animate correctly, yet! All these gifs are dropping frames everywhere. It really does look nice, I think. It all autotiles when you cut it, too, so it's very satisfying while you're actually playing. You can cut pictures into it, hahah!

At a glance, I would just think I'm looking at grass. Since fire is dangerous, I would recommend making it more obvious. Maybe make it flash or something?
Nah, if it's a little hard to tell in the gif above, it's only because it's skipping frames. When the game is running at 60fps, it's super obvious where the fire is. Each flame does do a little white flash when it starts up, like you're suggesting. =D
 
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That's just incredible. Far Cry: Link's Awakening. Can you only burn grass (and popping slimes), or can you catch trees on fire, too? Because it looks like there were a few places where the trees should have caught but didn't.

My "development" time is 80% screwing around with what I make. I keep telling myself that means I'm making something fun, but there's a good chance I'm also just extremely lazy.
I do the same thing. When I figured out how to do a day/night cycle, I spent far too much time just watching the lights in my little placeholder art village come on at dusk and go off again in the morning. But I've heard that Alexey Pajitnov kept postponing adding things like accelerating parts and scoring to Tetris because he couldn't stop playing the game, so I guess that's okay.
 
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