Thank you guys for all the kind words!!
(and for the other kind of "kind" too - just ignore that)
If you have any kind of questions about this little thing, just fire away here. I will definitely check this tread, because of just how awesome your reaction was!
So, to address the more common questions...
1. The game DOES run on a stock A500 exactly how it does in WinUAE - if you watch my presentation closely, you'll see that I restarted the demo just because it was running too fast (it does in WinUAE in non-cycle-exact modes). The point of the presentation was just to give a few tricks away and not to show the game, so there was no actual hardware used. But if you ask anyone attending Decrunch 2049 party, they would confirm that it runs indeed because I gave a stealthy show there.
2. Don't compliment me on the art. All the graphics are converted from FreeDoom, which thankfully is covered by BSD license and I can focus on coding. Level design is done by me, because it has to adhere to the engine limitations.
3. This will be a "doom clone", so don't expect Doom port from this project. In no close point in the future the engine will be able to handle complexity of Doom maps. So, instead it's much better to design maps that allow acceptable gameplay (10+ FPS) on a A500 1MB and make a fresh thing. On the other hand, this also allows having features NOT present in Doom - like sliding doors, which are already implemented. But multi-floor buildings would also be something I'd love to have down the road.
4. The performance so far is roughly:
- 10-14 FPS - A500+1MB
- 24-25 FPS - stock A1200
- 30 FPS - A600 with Furia
But the A500 performance is the king here. Every possible optimization that could improve the framerate on A500 is a clear win for me, even if it would cripple the remaining configs somehow. Stronger configs have good FPS games already, and I really want to fill the A500 gap.
5. The demo features so far:
- 3 different ceiling heights + sky,
- 2 light levels (this is really a trick - I change textures and floor/ceil colors),
- angled walls,
- flat floor and fixed camera height,
- 4 weapons (pistol, shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher),
- 3 types of monsters (shotgunner, chaingunner, flying monster),
- large map with keycards and (sliding) doors,
6. The fixed camera height is a limitation allowing several optimization tricks. In worst case scenario, the camera will move vertically in fixed steps - after all, moving camera is the same as moving rest of the map up and down. In best case - I'll figure a clever way to get around this. Right now, having limited number of possible drawing heights allowed me to bring performance to acceptable levels and focus on making a playable demo from what I got. We don't want just an another tech demo with no gameplay, right?
But this is clearly a point I'll have to go back to.
7. Last, but definitely not least - I have not released binary so far. I have already spent a better half of the year on that and pretty burned my motivation by this point. But there is still SO much work ahead, so I'm still thinking about how to get the best motivational boost from what I have so far. Right now I'm considering releasing this (and any regular updates I make from this point) via Patreon and/or itch.io, but got kind of stuck in the decision because of how it would limit the availability, on the other hand. I'm already at the point where I can barely look at this code, so something should be done about that. In any case, community modding will be a big point in the process, so everybody interested could have as much fun as possible even with unfinished product, while, at the same time, helping me.
In any case, feel free to ask and comment here as much as you like!
Thanks,
KK/Altair