Start off small: Releasing a commercial Amiga title under Psytronik

[Tsak]

Great work guys!

In general I agree with most comments regarding the C64 scene compared to the Amiga one. Fragmentation, how difficult it is to create games in each platform, the need to form teams for an optimal result, public's ultra-high expectations from each project and -of course- the number of users and active developers in each scene all contribute one way or another to the situation of Amigaland today.

I personally feel though that this trend is changing, slowly perhaps but it is happening without a doubt. Today EAB is booming with interest for new Amiga games, new projects are popping up every now and then, new teams are forming, teams that had their debute title released in previous years are following up with development of new ones, dorment members are becoming active and in general there is some impressive mobility we haven't seen in many, many years. This was not the case at all f.e. between 2000-2011 and the almost complete game making stagnation of that era.

So, my thumbs up to Galahad for his initiative! It's about time for the old wizards who know the art by heart to step up!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by nobody

Yes i did most of the visuals that you see at that game.

That's great, and I hope your other concepts you can work with alpine9000 too! The shooter looked really nice

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Right before anyone gets ahead of themselves, no, I haven't secured a deal to release an Amiga game under the Psytronik label.

However, they are happy to publish Amiga titles, but currently don't have any.

They offer digital download, physical release, and a super deluxe type of physical release for the purists.

Now I understand that trying to get something off the ground is tricky, but i'm of the mind that if we were to start off small, the want to do something bigger and better would surely follow.

I had a great response to calls for music and graphics when I did Where Time Stood Still and Starquake (still happening folks).

I had more music than I could possibly want, and when it came to graphics, plenty of willing volunteers with the skills to match the musicians.

So i've looked at Psytroniks output, and Barnsley Badger caught my eye.

I'm not suggesting a conversion of that game, but a game in that style that technically is easily achievable, relatively simple to code, and a tried and tested formula of game (Dizzy, Impossamole, Rick Dangerous minus the unfair traps) that is generally still liked, and more than anything, is achievable.

My thoughts are thus:

1). 1 disk game
2). A500 1meg minimum spec
3). Dizzy flick screen style game
4). 32 or 64 EHB graphics
5). Music and SFX at the same time, so all mods must be 3 channel except music playing outside of the main game.
6). minimum 100 screens of gameplay

Thoughts please ladies and gentlemen.

I'm getting a little sick of seeing the C64 getting release after release, and the Amiga gets some scraps every now and again.

There is so much talent on this forum, it STUNS me that better use hasn't been made of it.

And no references to Thimbleweed Park thanks, lets keep the discussions to something that IS easily achievable and less adventurous in the time stakes.

I am interested in drawing at least one between-levels introduction picture
And I suggest TSAK to create a palette! He is a master in that, we used to have a lot of discussion about it.

[Apollo]

@Galahad:
Where do you see yourself in this project: are you going to manage and add code to it?
Community effort (which means as much volunteers as possible) or a smaller group of ppl (like Phx suggested) ?
IMHO a smaller group of ppl leads to a higher chance that this will be ever finished.

[KONEY]

I bought some titles from Psytronik (knight'n'grail <3) so thumbs up for your initiative!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Apollo

@Galahad:
Where do you see yourself in this project: are you going to manage and add code to it?
Community effort (which means as much volunteers as possible) or a smaller group of ppl (like Phx suggested) ?
IMHO a smaller group of ppl leads to a higher chance that this will be ever finished.

Its going to be a small project, with a small team (assuming people want to contribute of course, I make no assumptions).

some of these C64 flip screen/single screen games have over 100 screens, which I think is plenty doable.

My plan is to code it myself, and get get graphics and music from others.

Once Starquake is out the way and released, then i'm going to sound people out with my idea, and see if anyone wants to contribute.

I've already coded the map editor, just need to add collision artifacts, but its 98% done.

The plan is to have one musician for the entire project to have a consistent
style/theme throughout, and one graphics artist for the main game, and maybe one other for stuff outside of the game, but obviously if the graphics artist is up for all of it, then only one will be needed.

I think if this works and works quickly, then it will be inspiring to others to try their hand at it.

I'm quite happy once the game is written to speak to some of the d-Bug chaps to see about maybe getting them to do the ST release, and releasing map editors and stuff to encourage others to do something.

[kamelito]

Like Mickaël Pointier?
Kamelito

[PortuguesePilot]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

(...)

I think if this works and works quickly, then it will be inspiring to others to try their hand at it.

I'm quite happy once the game is written to speak to some of the d-Bug chaps to see about maybe getting them to do the ST release, and releasing map editors and stuff to encourage others to do something.

This, right here, is the right attitude. It may well work as the metaphorical "kick in the butt" that I have spoken of in other discussions regarding this issue. I wish you all the luck with this one. And cheers for actually doing it.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by kamelito

Like Mickaël Pointier?

That's the scener Dbug, he is not involved in the group D-Bug.

[rare_j]

Take a look at Pentacorn Quest for the Spectrum. It's a short flip screen game but well designed and packed with charm and the graphics controls and music are spot on.
You can finish it in half an hour. It is well worth looking at for an example of something that is short but really works.

[nobody]

Originally Posted by rare_j

Take a look at Pentacorn Quest for the Spectrum. It's a short flip screen game but well designed and packed with charm and the graphics controls and music are spot on.
You can finish it in half an hour. It is well worth looking at for an example of something that is short but really works.

23 colors. (drawn from scratch)

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by nobody

23 colors. (drawn from scratch)

That looks pretty good.

Did you do it on Amiga?

[nobody]

Grafx2 on PC, but colors are 4bit range (2^4), same with Amiga 500.

[carrion]

@nobody
good job.

I totally support Gallahad idea. More than that. I even started some efforts to build my own tools and test my workflow. I plan to start some game development after I finish my current project.
In past few months I've been teaching myself Blitz basic and I think I'm somewhat ready to start small game project. Will of coz use a lot of Asm in it.
So far I build a tilemap engine (with basic collision detection). I'll update you when I have anything worth showing (September I guess).

@Gallahad
Why build new tile map editor? I used Tiled (cross platform) which exports maps to csv. I then add dc.w to csv file (each line) and include it in my source (or even "build" binary file of it in asm-one)

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by carrion

@nobody
good job.

I totally support Gallahad idea. More than that. I even started some efforts to build my own tools and test my workflow. I plan to start some game development after I finish my current project.
In past few months I've been teaching myself Blitz basic and I think I'm somewhat ready to start small game project. Will of coz use a lot of Asm in it.
So far I build a tilemap engine (with basic collision detection). I'll update you when I have anything worth showing (September I guess).

@Gallahad
Why build new tile map editor? I used Tiled (cross platform) which exports maps to csv. I then add dc.w to csv file (each line) and include it in my source (or even "build" binary file of it in asm-one)

Why not, that way I have total control over the process and any bugs are of my own making and not anyone elses.

If this were 1988 all over again, i'd no doubt have to write my own, so its good experience and it took a day to do.

[ross]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

If this were 1988 all over again, i'd no doubt have to write my own, so its good experience and it took a day to do.

Awesome years.
We need a time machine...

I'm with you for own tools write.
Now is all about mental exercise


ross

[kamelito]

Tools embedded directly within the game make it easier to develop it.
Kamelito

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

That looks pretty good.

Did you do it on Amiga?

Thanks to Nobody for converting those graphics you did into .IFF and sorting the blocks, here is what my Mapeditor looks like currently.

[smila]

Interesting read.
I've worked on a lot of c64 games released by Psytronik, here's my thoughts.

1) keep your team small - 1 artist, 1 programmer, 1 audio person ( any more than that and the risk of disagreements/ quiting the project is high.
2) start with something small and fairly simple - don't try and create shadow of the beast for a first release as the chances of people losing interest is high.
3) let 1 person design the game or again the chance of disagreements/ quiting the project is high.
4) Don't let the community steer your project, I've seen this happen to so many projects and most of them never get finished. stick to the team.

Kenz who runs psytronik is a top bloke and always goes above and beyond to make your release look great.
Here's some of our c64 releases-



Anyhoo thats just my thoughts.
Good luck

[michaelz]

This sounds like a great initiative. I would be very interested in a follow-up on how the project is going.