Metro Siege: new arcade quality a500 brawler!

[masteries]

Any idea about the programming environment?

Sprite or bobs asset tools?

[Luca underdog]

wow this game rock very hard
just few questions:

there is something strange about alex, the shoulders and the trapezius muscle are not as convincing as the other characters, and the walk is a little skating, will the final version be like that too? Is the placement of the hud on another screen intended or is it an amiga limit?

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by saimon69

How many pieces can be handled max at the frame rate MS is ran?

Each character is 8-12 pieces and we can usually render 6 of them (with no frame drops). So it's max ~70 pieces. Results may vary depending on the level and size of each character.

[alpine9000]

Originally Posted by masteries

Any idea about the programming environment?

Sprite or bobs asset tools?

The game is coded mainly in C using bebbo’s gcc (modified to use vasm/vlink instead of binutils). The tools used to import art assets are custom.

I’ll let Tsak fill you in on the tools used to create the art/music.

[skyzoo73]

New Video UPDATE !!!

[ Show youtube player ]

[Lisko]

Can't wait. Good work!

[Samurai_Crow]

Exvellent!

[masteries]

Marvellous! Some of these tricks are really hard to implement on these computers,
very hard to accomplish for a 50 fps based game...

Is this a 25/30 fps game or a 50 fps one?


Edited: I answered myself:

Kamahl from sega-16 stated that:

"
This game runs at 25 FPS PAL and 30 FPS NTSC (one of the few Amiga games with NTSC support!).

EDIT: The game runs in 16 color mode, 4 colors are changed all over the place with the color and the remaining 12 are shared between sprites and the background. That is one excellent 12 color palette.
"

However, game quality... chapeau!

[ScHlAuChi]

Do you have to punch enemies in order to grab them, or can you just walk into them for a grab?

[ScHlAuChi]

Also is it possible to sign up to some email alert when the game becomes available, so one cant miss it?

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by ScHlAuChi

Do you have to punch enemies in order to grab them, or can you just walk into them for a grab?

No, it's a different move combination: forwards and fire grabs the enemy (if the enemy is within grab reach), so this can only be triggerd on purpose.

Originally Posted by ScHlAuChi

Also is it possible to sign up to some email alert when the game becomes available, so one cant miss it?

You could subscribe to Pixelgass ytube I guess, if the game is released the channel will definitely release a trailer as well. Same with Facebook. Or if you want more frequent updates BitBeamCannon's youtube or Patreon.

[ScHlAuChi]

Originally Posted by Tsak

No, it's a different move combination: forwards and fire grabs the enemy (if the enemy is within grab reach), so this can only be triggerd on purpose.

Oh I see - personally im more a fan of the way Capcom games did it where walking into an enemy triggers the grab automatically. Would it be possible to add that as an option?

You could subscribe to Pixelgass ytube I guess, if the game is released the channel will definitely release a trailer as well. Same with Facebook. Or if you want more frequent updates BitBeamCannon's youtube or Patreon.

Thanks!

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by ScHlAuChi

Oh I see - personally im more a fan of the way Capcom games did it where walking into an enemy triggers the grab automatically. Would it be possible to add that as an option?

We've already discussed that possibility in the team. Mike was negative and I also agree. Grab on touch is counter intuitive imho as you often end up having someone grabbed at the wrong place and the wrong time. And when you do want to grab an enemy you need to come way too close to him and it's not a guarantee. The system we've got now is super easy to pull off. It's also quite precise and gives full control to the player, so there's no good reason to change it.

I should also point out that it's easier said than done to have stuff like that configurable as options. The control code (and generally the whole game) is already extremely complicated and there are a ton of systems and subsystems that interact with each other in specific ways. So to do an addition like that (simple as it sounds) would require a ton of extra work.

[ScHlAuChi]

Originally Posted by Tsak

We've already discussed that possibility in the team. Mike was negative and I also agree. Grab on touch is counter intuitive imho as you often end up having someone grabbed at the wrong place and the wrong time. And when you do want to grab an enemy you need to come way too close to him and it's not a guarantee. The system we've got now is super easy to pull off. It's also quite precise and gives full control to the player, so there's no good reason to change it.

Thanks for the explanation.

I should also point out that it's easier said than done to have stuff like that configurable as options. The control code (and generally the whole game) is already extremely complicated and there are a ton of systems and subsystems that interact with each other in specific ways. So to do an addition like that (simple as it sounds) would require a ton of extra work.

Oh I´m aware that it isnt necesarily easy - Im a longtime gamedev (almost 20 years) myself

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by ScHlAuChi

Oh I´m aware that it isnt necesarily easy - Im a longtime gamedev (almost 20 years) myself

Cool, then you know exactly what I mean

Personally -and to be honest- I never expected such complexity from the project. I mean we could have gone for a more barebones approach with many of the systems involved and it would still be pretty acceptable for the platform. Full kudos here goes to Mike for pushing the envelope and (most of all) Alex for making this all possible.

[d4rk3lf]

Originally Posted by Tsak

We've already discussed that possibility in the team. Mike was negative and I also agree. Grab on touch is counter intuitive imho as you often end up having someone grabbed at the wrong place and the wrong time. And when you do want to grab an enemy you need to come way too close to him and it's not a guarantee. The system we've got now is super easy to pull off. It's also quite precise and gives full control to the player, so there's no good reason to change it.

hmm... honestly... dunno mate.
I personally played a lot of beat 'em ups, and got very far (near the end) in majority of them, with just one credit.
I don't recall I ever grabbed "wrong" person... I mean.. I probably did... but the thing with grab move, is when you throw that opponent, you are practically invincible for a short period of time, so it doesn't really matter whom you grab, as long as you immediately throw them on to the others.

I know it's too late to change now, and I hope I'll get used fast, to "direction plus fire" for grabbing.
I probably will.

Originally Posted by Tsak

I never expected such complexity from the project. I mean we could have gone for a more barebones approach with many of the systems involved and it would still be pretty acceptable for the platform. Full kudos here goes to Mike for pushing the envelope and (most of all) Alex for making this all possible.

Even without that crazy good looking parallax and all the various effects, what you guys did, is stunning for A500 hardware.
There's nothing like it on A500.

Since the engine is so powerful, I wonder if it could be used for conversion of Captain Commando, that it seems to have, similar sized sprites.

[ScHlAuChi]

The question is also, what does "Direction+Fire" actually mean?
If you move your character with the stick/pad and you press fire while you move - will that trigger a punch, or will that trigger a grab if youre close to an enemy?
Or do you have to recenter the stick/pad before you do Fire+Direction to trigger it?
How does it differentiate between an attack and a grab?

Walking into enemies to trigger a grab is also a pretty elegant way to solve the problem of sprite clipping/sorting that can happen in such games.

@Tsak Do you guys have Discord or an IRC channel?

[Tsak]

You need to press forwards and fire simultaneously to trigger the grab move (and I say 'forwards' here because it depends on where you look). If you have direction pressed already and you press fire it will punch instead, so yes, recenter (or let go) before to get the grab. This move slides the character a few pixels forwards while he has his arms extended and doesn't require to have an enemy close (in which case you'll grab nothing of course).

Also note not all playable characters have grab moves. Kim (the female character) has a different set of abilities (which makes sense since she's quite short and not as powerful).

Originally Posted by ScHlAuChi

Walking into enemies to trigger a grab is also a pretty elegant way to solve the problem of sprite clipping/sorting that can happen in such games.

Sprite clipping? What do you mean? I'm not aware we ever had any such problem (nor I can imagine any technical reasons). Z-ordering works effortlessly here, with or without grab.

Originally Posted by ScHlAuChi

@Tsak Do you guys have Discord or an IRC channel?

No, not for this project. I've got Discord for other projects but all are private and used for dev only.

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

hmm... honestly... dunno mate.
I personally played a lot of beat 'em ups, and got very far (near the end) in majority of them, with just one credit.
I don't recall I ever grabbed "wrong" person... I mean.. I probably did... but the thing with grab move, is when you throw that opponent, you are practically invincible for a short period of time, so it doesn't really matter whom you grab, as long as you immediately throw them on to the others.

I'm not implying that auto grab poses any serious problem. I mean in the heat of battle and while you attack frantically, it won't make much of a difference. It's just a different approach, giving more control to the player in regards to his moveset is not a bad idea overal. This way you can use this skill consiously and strategically instead of leaving it to luck and pure button mashing.

Originally Posted by d4rk3lf

I know it's too late to change now, and I hope I'll get used fast, to "direction plus fire" for grabbing.
I probably will.

You most definitely will

[skyzoo73]

August public video update
for Metro Siege and Daemon Claw

[ Show youtube player ]

[malko]

Thanks for the video
Really interesting idea are raised (movie advert, citizens, etc.). Do like that a "parc" level is planned. Green is cool