Missing Lands

Oh you're coding in C! Wow. Really looking forward to checking this one out on hardware tomorrow \o/

Yep... I can do 6502 assembly but for that strict of a timeline, C seemed like the better option. I can do lots of fun (albeit painfully inefficient) things. The tools available are pretty mature, too. (Last LD I did, I made a gameboy game. I can't speak as highly of that toolset...)

I do kinda wish I had a Vectrex to check out your game on hardware. There are so many great older consoles out there. (But money and space are finite, sadly)

Cool! :D This is mentioned on the https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/bounceball/call-for-technological-oddities
I enjoyed playing it!

Was able to finally try this properly; great job! Very complete and attractive little NES game. Thanks a lot for making your nes-c-boilerplate repo public, might well have a bit of a play :)

The web-based version of this broke for a little bit due to negligence on my part; it's back up again. (Rom download continued to work)

I like the retro aesthetics it really reminds me of back when i used to play on my Nintendo game boy.
The feel of the game really reminds of Mario for some reason.

Definite bonus points for working on a nes, you were able to recreate the feel of the era nicely. Would have been more bonus points if you had indeed done assembly!

Thanks for the feedback both of you! I actually wrote a similar game for Gameboy the last LD I entered.

Also @kantieno, I technically wrote the nes-c-boilerplate library it's using in assembly... that counts, right? :D
(Well, okay... it's less than 100 lines of assembly. shh >_>)

In all seriousness I prefer assembly to C for the most part, but in a game jam it's just so much quicker/easier to have a high-level language.

(Update: oh hey @mentions actually do something. Neat!)

Hi cppchriscpp - I've spent quite a bit of time playing your game now, and I have to say I really like it!

The fact it's a fully complete nes game is awesome (and obviously I'm quite jealous as I didn't manage to get any sound effects or music in to mine, and yours are not only there but catchy!). There are no "cheap" moments as the enemy placements around screen transitions seem very sensible. I like the sense of progression in it, in that every level gets more difficult or gets more expansive. I would definitely say if/when you make another, some sense of player empowerment would be good (I also don't have any in my game though, so i hope you don't think I'm being too hypocritical) - it would have been good to unlock some abilities as the game went on.

The only other critiques have I think already been mentioned - the collision detection being one and the other being the rather flat movement. I haven't checked the code but do you have acceleration in this game, or is it just a flat addition to x and/or y? It might be something to consider, or of course you might just have been going for a adventures of lolo style of control.

It's a great complete game however, with lots of nice touches like the fade out and fade in, a functional pause etc. Also, it's magnificent you've released your code base - I'll definitely be checking it out.

Thanks again for making and releasing it, I've really enjoyed playing it the last few days on my NES!

Wow, thanks for that; very thorough!

I like your suggestions... they're things I always seem to leave behind (even in non-game-jam situations...) so I really should try for that next time. In particular, better/tighter collision detection, and the flat movement. Your assumption was correct - it's just flat. I've never quite gotten acceleration right, though I'll also admit I haven't tried too hard yet.

Empowerment/abilities would be awesome too - that's something I'd have to plan from the outset next time. I tend to rather like the idea of being a semi-helpless character, but at the same time... it certainly could have made later stages interesting. Something to think about, for sure.

Thanks for the feedback!

The controls were good, the graphics were very NES, and overall it's a very impressive accomplishment to make a NES compatible game in 48 hours.
Good job!

Unfortunately, I couldn't play it in my browser :pensive: , but I think it s really cool that you were able to make an NES game in just 48 hours!

Wow, I'm honestly really impressed. It played really smoothly and fluidly, and given it was only made in 48 hours for a NES, I'm quite amazed. The gameplay was fun, however I would have liked more variety (given the engine limitations however I understand why there isn't). The games difficulty was just right for my level, and it provided enough of a challenge that I wasn't just breezing through it. One complaint I do have however is that some of the environments (particularly corridors of trees) are quite small, and thus it is very to go past enemies without getting hit. Other than that this was a great feat, well done

Yeah, really impressed! Web version worked great for me, no lag at all. Loved how collecting pieces unlocked portions of the existing level. And it was definitely challenging (in a good way)! Great job!

This is awesome! basically everything I like in a nutshell -- collecting stuff, avoiding stuff, memorizing, unlocking new areas

Very impressive! The controls felt right, and the graphics/sounds were just right for the NES feel.

The only part that didn't feel very NES-like was the movement. It actually felt too fast/smooth for an NES game. That's not a complaint, because I'd prefer the faster movement. But it is something that didn't feel quite right in an NES context.

Great game. Amazed you were able to knock out a complete (and fun!) NES game in 48 hours.

Making something for the NES in 48 hours that is actually playable is no small feat. I thought the level difficulty scaled fairly well, and the graphics and sound were decent for a NES game. In some of the later levels I felt that there was maybe a little too much backtracking. Overall, great job!

I'm not really aware of how difficult it is to make a game for the NES. But even without that in mind, the game is still fun to play and complete.

This reminds me of my own LD 37 game, but mine was written in HTML5.

I like the run button... save me a lot of time.

And the fact that it's NES is also nice too.

And you need to make the collision detection to enemies a bit smaller, but I guess you know that.

Thanks for the feedback to everyone.

And yeah.. I know I need to tighten up the collision boxes. It was on my to-do list and somehow got dropped. I even had extra time at the end - I could have done it.

I'm debating making a post-jam version with changes like that, some color fixes (it doesn't look that great on the real console; the greens bleed together a lot) figure out how to do movement with acceleration, potential level tweaks/abilities, etc... people seemed to really like this one so it might be worth the time.

...Wow! I love how this is really an NES game! I'm impressed that you got that working in such a short time frame! The music was a bit repetitive, but that was only after four levels or so. Great work!

This game gets an automatic +1 to everything for being a NES-game!

There is a really good Zelda vibe to the simple graphics. One thing that would have make them sparkle even more is if the ground ha a few swatches of en alternate tile, to break the repetition a bit. And perhaps softer backgrground colours to make sprites pop out more.

To be honest, I'm a bit too young to enjoy the fact that it's a NES game :P However I can really praise you for all the code you've written in 48 hours. I don't know what kind of tools you had at your disposal, but making something like this in a weekend seems, at least to me, as something truly amazing! And the game itself is pretty interesting and I think it preserves the charm of the older, simpler games. Great job!:D

Programming for the NES sounds like a pain. And I complain about WebGL!

The game itself is pretty fun, if a bit repetitive.

If nothing else you get bonus points for doing an actual NES game :) But the game is actually rather nice on its own too.

Impressive. A difficult target for the compo. Love the enemy designs :)

Very impressive that you made a NES game. The sound effects and music work great, as do the controls! The graphics are alright but could use a bit more of a cohesive design, the crap[ED: crab!] sprites are great though

@neontropics Agreed on the graphical thing - graphics just aren't one of my strong suits. The crab and skeleton actually came out alright. The rest... well, those are the crap sprites :sweat_smile:

@ cppchriscpp: haha I meant to say crab there. totally not a freudian slip :)

I figured - the typo just made me laugh! No worries

Awesome game, there was no quack!

Just to let you know, for web version of NES ROMS I am super happy with em-fceux. It is fceux compiled with emscripten, a nice web interface and a GPL license allowing you to tweak it for your open-source projects. So it shows great performance in Firefox, Chrome, Edge, it is as compatible as fceux with roms formats (it is fceux) and it even has a CRT shader!

@sgadrat - I really like em-fceux, except it has an odd bug on the Windows machines I've used it on, where the right key is always pressed. That's kind of a dealbreaker for me.

It's extremely smooth otherwise, and I haven't spent much time looking at it yet. If I can figure that out and either submit a patch (or fix an issue with my system) I'll likely switch over. I just don't feel comfortable directing people to an emulator I can't 100% support.

Thanks for the feedback!

This worked absolutely fine for me, great fun and nice and nostalgic. Still humming that tune! Well done, great entry :smiley:

Great to see people still making NES games!
Solid gameplay and great music!

This is _very_ cool, the idea of coding a game that would actually runs on a real NES is not something I can _imagine_ taking on under LD Compo time constraints. The actual game concept and design is quite fun, too! It'd be cool to see a slightly expanded version with more levels and possibly an additional verb for the player (not sure what it would be, just, some other interaction available to create additional depth).

Anyway, as I said, very, _very_ cool entry.

EDIT: Actually, regarding movement and collision detection, you may want to consider looking at the way The Legend of Zelda handles the issue, given their similarities. Troy Gilbert has a [great article](http://troygilbert.com/deconstructing-zelda/movement-mechanics/) on the subject that I referenced in a few previous LDs when I made my own zelda-ish games.

@philomory I'd never seen that article before - that's incredibly cool. I might want to consider that one day, though figuring it out in the 48 hour window of one of these might be too much. Still, that's a different and unique way to think about it. Thanks!

Cute little game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1o2f-9mGRU