Insidia: Platform game 68k

[AMIGASYSTEM]

I have searched the forum and I have not found any reviews for this game:

http://aminet.net/package/game/jump/insidia

[ Show youtube player ]

*** Introduction ***

Insidia is a story about a traveller who makes an emergency landing
to a dark and strange planet in order to fix his ship.
The main goal of Insidia is to find 9 repair kits and fix your ship.


*** Requirements ***

- 1 MB Chip, 1.5 MB Fast RAM (8 colors version)
- 2 MB Chip, 2 MB Fast RAM (16 colors version)
- OCS/ECS/AGA


*** Controls ***

- Joystick
- Keyboard (arrow keys)

Insidia was originally released as a flash game in 2010 by Game Pirate.
I decided to make conversion using the great tool - Backbone.

[Predseda]

AWESOME! I will add it to Lemonamiga tonight in a special update. How do I activate teleports and Information signs? Fire / ctrl /space has no effect.

And maybe I found a bug.

[Predseda]

After I collected item in this location, my hero doesnt respond to controls anymore and keeps walking left to the wall forever. I can only jump up.

EDIT: wtf... the game keeps walking left even after restart, in both version. Must have something to do with my comp then.

[DanyPPC]

Nice !

[DamienD]

Wow, that looks really cool indeed

Thanks for posting it Carlo

[Predseda]

The game seems to be unfinished. There are features and special items missing that are important for progress. I am going to ask the author.

[DamienD]

Yeah

Only played for a minute... when compared to the YouTube video of the Flash game:

• the information parts are not displayed once you walk over them.
• the save points don't work.
• <M> doesn't bring up a map.
• <T> doesn't transport you back to the ship.

Also items are different; for example in the Amiga port you actually get a life here, in the Flash game this item gives you higher jump.



...it's a good start but the game isn't finished and should be considered a beta really.

[Predseda]

Email sent.

[Tsak]

Guys, Backbone cannot realistically be setup to accomodate most of the features of this game. The list includes pickups that add abilities, saving, maps, extra keys and many other things. Backbone is really too limited in the stuff you can program it to do, much like Amiga game engines like Reality (though it's a bit more varied) and half of the options included with the program do not work or are partially implemented.

I think a better contender for an experience closer to the original would be RedPill.
Other than that nice try

[Predseda]

The game contains outro screens, but doesnt contain some features, that would allow the game to be completed (namely High jump). So I sent an email to its author if he can explain details.

[Tsak]

Cool
Just saying (from my experience) that Backbone can only do certain stuff. F.e. the list of collectables you can add are limited to score points, energy/life, weapon(s)... and that's about it. You can also add fake items which work as door levers or can be "interacted" (means they trigger an one time cutscene or message) but nothing else that can change the behaviour of the player character.

Theoretically Backbone can be augmented with additional programming but none I know has gone that far (exceptions here are Erik's Blitz menu additions to the Lila and TOG2 projects).

[nobody]

I played that game and finished in flash version long ago. backbone can't do metroidvanias meaning acquire abilities to progress more. only redpill can do this game but it has much higher requirements than backbone the last time I checked.

PS I did a game some time ago in backbone and runs well on my A500+ with ACA500+ 21 mhz. Redpill won't even start on my Amiga lol

[Predseda]

Maybe Amiga version is adjusted (simplified) somehow and can be completed by different way. Lets wait for the answer.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Maybe Amiga version is adjusted (simplified) somehow and can be completed by different way. Lets wait for the answer.

I don't think so; I got stuck here as I mistimed the jump:



If there was an actual "increased jump" attribute in the Amiga version then I would have been able to get out... but this wasn't available where it should have been, and the item was changed to an extra life instead.

Ok, I could restart the game and make sure I was more successful with my timings but...

If you watch the YouTube video; there are places that you just can't get to without the "double jump" attribute being picked up later in the game.

...and as Tsak has already said; not possible to implement features like this when using Backbone unfortunately

[nobody]

there is a workaround.
add an event that adds a tile that let's you go past the high jump point. We -that have struggled to make games with that editor- are imaginative persons.

[redblade]

Thanks for the recommendation. Looks like a nice game.

[Gzegzolka]

Looks cool, hope You will make it

[Aladin]

Thank you

WHDLG

[Leon]

@Predseda

In regard to your email:

Backbone is very limited, it does not offer features such as: double jump, walk/run, savings, hot keys (T - teleport, M - map) and more.
I know this is a pity but Redpill is not better choice. In places where a double jump is needed, I added a rope so you can not get stuck.
The whole game is one a huge map (220x150 blocks!) with a huge number of objects. Sometimes it will freeze the player for a "few" seconds (tested on WinUAE).

Backbone has a lot of bugs, even a simple thing like changing the default Topaz font can cause a memory leak (1Mb/minute) so I left the topaz font on the top panel.
Even the score points (Collected Toolboxes) are not reset after the death of the player. The only way was exit game after losing all lives by adding a second menu.

Instead of letters:J (Jump),D (Double jump),S (Speed),W (Walljump) I could only add extra lives (L) for beginners.

The original game was designed for a static screen, unfortunately Backbone offers only scrolling screen.
We have two options: "Slide Vertical Scrolling", "Chunky Vertical Scrolling".
SVS displays 2 lines of blocks under the player, CVS displays 3 lines of blocks under the player, still not enough...
Why is it so important? The player must know where he falls before jumping. See the picture below.



The original game uses a 640x480 resolution and variable color palette for each screen (see photo).
There are no black tiles or even tiles for 1st and 2nd background.
All 3 backgrounds are ordinary 640x480 transparent pictures uses the same pattern.

Backbone has a limited number of tiles so I had to create a seamless texture instead of 1st and 2nd plan.
I also created my own set of block for easier transfer of screens.



I reduced the color palette to make the game work faster on slower hardware.
The game in 16 colors works too on 1MB Chip if the mod: "LevelMusic_insidia.mod" is replaced by another (smaller).

As I am not a musician, I have converted the entire soundtrack to 8SVX 5512 Hz (mono) and cut it to pieces,
then I joined it in one module using Protracker. As a bonus I've included "source" - you just need to copy to the Backbone folder.

[Leon]

Backbone has many limitations as:
- no AGA support and games used 32 colors work to slow
- maximum 10 animated tiles on the screen
- maximum 60 objects (items, enemies) per level
If we use all 60 objects per level, our enemies will not be able to shoot (lack of free objects).
We have to collect an object (live, energy, item) and release one space.

In the original Insidia game there are more than 240 animated fans.
If we wanted to use them as objects in the game, we can use only 60. What about the rest of them?
If we save fans as an "animated tiles" we can use innumerable amount of them on the screen but only 10 can be animated.
And the next problem of "animated tiles" can have up to 4 frames but fan has originally 9...

Many added options in Backbone do not work properly like "auto scroll".
If we set for example Right (Speed 2 Pixels per Frame) and during the game the player moves faster than "auto scroll" the scrolling of the screen is not smooth.
If we add the option "Push Player Also?" it stops the horizontal collision with blocks.
And how to create a new game without even ramps, which I need for my other conversion (Nutmeg).
But after all I am happy what I achieve due to many limitations.

We need a new engine to make games like GDevelop or use a hollywood for that.



My next conversion shows how colorful the Backbone game can be:

http://amigafans.exec.pl/eng/games.htm#nutmeg

Enjoy!

BTW. I would like to add some music to the Nutmeg game before upload it on aminet. So let me know what you think about it.