Re: [stella] Role-Playing Game Development

Subject: Re: [stella] Role-Playing Game Development
From: emooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Erik Mooney)
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 03:40:36 GMT
>Here is the basic playfield for an RPG I'm working on.  The layout is very
>much like Ultima IV, although the grid is 9x9 rather than 11x11, and the
>status info on the right will consist only of triple P0 graphics.

It's very difficult to make the 2600 display different stuff side-by-side.
I'd suggest making the viewport wider - either fullscreen, or narrowed
somewhat so you can use a reflected playfield and not use PF0 - so you can
use all the objects for the game graphics, and putting status and stuff on
the top or bottom.

>Colour coding is used to indicate the type of terrain, and P1 graphics show
>spot detail (castles, towns, bridges, ships, pursuing creatures, etc.).
>Feedback would be appreciated, and any suggestions.  Dungeons will be
>represented in a similar fashion.

I also played around with an RPG kernel a while back... check it out if
you want, it's in the archives at
http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/9708/msg00099.html .  (you'd
need to uudecode it from there).  I relied much more heavily on player
graphics and NUSIZ for graphics, allowing only a simple reflected
playfield.  I left room for status at the top, though I never got around
to coding any of it.

Whatever approach you take, try very hard to have your engine be able to
change sprite colors every one or two scanlines.  It helps the graphics
tremendously - compare the level of detail in your sprites, vs mine that
almost (okay, not really :) look like an NES.

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