Do you think this way really wins over, lets say doing a
screen rather like "Commando", or like Erik Mooneys
demo?
Even before I saw Erik's demo, I had planned something very similar and was
totally into it. But the more I planned, the more stuff I found that I
didn't like... There would have to be flicker sometimes anyway. It
wouldn't be horrible flicker, but it would be more noticeable than the
flicker in my kernal. Also the placement of trees/rocks/walls is rather
limited, so to create boundaries in the game you'd have to rely on
playfield or some other method. And in Erik's demo the playfield is
reflected which means no scrolling world, although an asymmetric playfield
version may be possible.
To me, 10x10 is pretty decent -- especially with scrolling. Have you tried
David's 9x9 scrolling playfield RPG demo?
http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/199907/msg00016.html
I think it feels nice, and mine's pretty much the same with 10x10 and more
detailed graphics. Aside from the smaller on-screen area, mine looks about
as good as the early Ultimas. Initially I thought the main drawback to my
method would be flicker, but I really can barely even tell that it's
flickering on a real TV -- and I've tried it on two different TVs. I asked
my girlfriend if she thought the flicker looked bad, and she said "what
flicker?" It does rely on careful tile design though. I designed a brick
pattern that flickered horribly. You have to avoid lots of 1 pixel thin
horizontal lines.
Hm... just thoughts, I hope it doesn't sound too
disencouraging...
No, I appreciate your comments. That's why I posted it now before I get
into the game design.
-Paul
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