Silhouette Threat - WIP AGA Action Game - Would love some coding help

[lionagony]

Just uploaded a new version of the demo that fixes a few bugs https://lionagony.itch.io/silhouette-threat-aga-amiga

[ransom1122]

I couldn't see any noticable changes?

[ Show youtube player ]

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

I couldn't see any noticable changes?

[ Show youtube player ]

I just limited the number of umbrella shots and made them destroy themselves earlier because someone was able to crash the old version by just spamming the shoot button, especially with the 3 way powerup. There was also a bug where if you were killed when ducking sometimes you respawned still in the ducking position. Hopefully both of those are fixed now. Thanks for playing it again and making the video.

[ransom1122]

That's some good update notes. Nice one

[lionagony]

Just doing my bi-weekly update on here:

Putting out the demo above was interesting. The main thing I learned is that getting the difficulty right is one of the trickiest parts. Some people had a hard time at the very beginning while others were able to beat the level very quickly. Still working on level 2 and going to try and make the difficulty escalate more gradually.

I have most of the resources for Level 2 drawn (some from my daughter, some I'm touching up from AI.) Not a Microsoft fan but surprised that Copilot in Windows is actually pretty good for doing pixel art. Another challenge is getting everything into 64 colors, I thought that would be plenty but I've realized a jungle has a lot of variations of green

Nothing to show today but I hope to maybe put out a demo of the second level by the time of the next update in two weeks. Thanks to those who have tried the first level, hope you'll like the second.

[lionagony]

Major update - A demo of the second level is now available. This one is autoscrolling so the gameplay differs from the first level. It also contains 6 layers of simulated parallax scrolling, something I always wanted to see in an Amiga game. Would love to hear any constructive critiques.

You can download the new demo here https://lionagony.itch.io/silhouette-threat-aga-amiga

[zzbylu]

Small gameplay:
[ Show youtube player ]

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by zzbylu

Small gameplay:
[ Show youtube player ]

Thank you for doing that and so quick! People complained in the video that the background was scrolling the wrong way so I have now uploaded the new version that scrolls properly.

[vulture]

very nice!

[jotd]

Originally Posted by lionagony

Major update - A demo of the second level is now available. This one is autoscrolling so the gameplay differs from the first level. It also contains 6 layers of simulated parallax scrolling, something I always wanted to see in an Amiga game. Would love to hear any constructive critiques.

You can download the new demo here https://lionagony.itch.io/silhouette-threat-aga-amiga

Would be nice to know how this is done ? blitter ? dual playfield + palette tricks?


Now the criticism:


- background trees don't smooth scroll, they seem to scroll 16 pixels by 16 pixels
- background scrolling is also backwards. The character is going left, but the trees are going the opposite direction

[AmyMor]

friend what happens to those trees in the background? it's completely unnatural...

[acidbottle]

@jotd: being scorpion engine and 64 colour, I presume it will be AGA parallax scrolling with 256px wide sprite wrapping around the screen.

@lion: If you are having any issue with the scrolling effect, me or earok or practically anyone on the Scorp discord would be happy to take a look and fix it just give me a PM on there if you would like me to take a look.

[lionagony]

I have fixed the scrolling and made a new video of the game here [ Show youtube player ]

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by jotd

- background trees don't smooth scroll, they seem to scroll 16 pixels by 16 pixels

It is because of technical reasons. The game is made in Scorpion Engine which doesn't support dual playfield yet so I have used 2 layers of 4 64 pixel wide AGA sprites for the background. Each layer of sprites is a 32 frame animation. There isn't enough memory with just 2MB to have more frames than that because they are all full screen. So to reduce the stuttering I have made them quicker so it's not as noticeable. I could make the background scroll really fast and that would look smoothest or really slow and that would look least smooth, I tried to find a compromise and I think when you are actually playing the game and not watching a video of it you don't notice the jumpiness as much.

- background scrolling is also backwards. The character is going left, but the trees are going the opposite direction

I have fixed that and posted a new video above.

[acidbottle]

Thats cool, is going in the right direction now!

The critics are right though about the 16pix shift on the parallax. IF that is a design choice then that is cool but if you want it to move more smoothly then that can be fixed to.

*edit I just seen your edit lol

It might well be that the 2mb is not quite enough to move 2 layers but it might be possible with some optimizing and tricks. I think if you can make it smoother you really really should. just my 2 cents tho.

[lionagony]

Originally Posted by acidbottle

@lion: If you are having any issue with the scrolling effect, me or earok or practically anyone on the Scorp discord would be happy to take a look and fix it just give me a PM on there if you would like me to take a look.

Thanks for the offer. I was able to fix it. It's funny after having worked on it for months now I never even noticed it was going the wrong way and thought it looked good. It was the first comment on Youtube though and it baffles me that I never realized it

[acidbottle]

well no worries, really interesting concept and do like the artstyle.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by lionagony

Thanks for the offer. I was able to fix it. It's funny after having worked on it for months now I never even noticed it was going the wrong way and thought it looked good. It was the first comment on Youtube though and it baffles me that I never realized it

Could be worse: think if the game was released,in a cartridge, like a certain SNES Jim Power, than IMO had to create terms like "in 3D" to justify the fact they did screw up the parallax and did not realize until the last minute... ^^
[ Show youtube player ]