Sunday 19 October 2014

C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition - Status Update #2

I'm currently at Sunspot (a shadow party for TRSAC-014), watching demo competition entries on the main screen and thought it was about time I typed up a new status update for RGCD's own 16KB C64 compo - so here it is! But before jumping straight into the entry write-ups, here's a quick word from one of our sponsors...


Remember the excellent C64 Visual Commpendium by Sam Dyer? Well, Sam has kindly offered to provide the top three winning entrants with free copies of his book! Oh, and in case you weren't aware, Sam is currently running another Kickstarter for a Commodore Amiga book with some ace rewards, so make sure you check that out!

If you missed out on the C64 volume, you can pick it up over at www.funstock.co.uk for £24.99. Ok, now on to the entries!



Competition Entry #3: P0 Snake
Developer: Antonio Savona
Status: In Progress


Antonio wrote to me today explaining that since we asked for help with the P0 Snake soundtrack he was "overwhelmed with proposals" He went on, stating that "the c64 community is just unbelievable! I got a great SID tune in the end. Too good for my game, but I'll use it anyway!" Good news then :)

Aside from that, Antonio is pretty confident that the game will be completed by the deadline, with 24 levels already complete and only polish and wrestling with compression to get the sampled speech to fit within 16KB! Good luck :)



Competition Entry #5: Falling
Developer: Wanax & Saul Cross
Status: In Progress


Saul also sent me an email advising that progress was continuing well on all three of the projects that he is involved in, yet he only sent a single screenshot, so this is really all I have to share! :) Still, I'm pretty hyped to see how Tiger Claw, Falling and Pickle's Pod Patrol turn out!



Competition Entry #6: Vovoid Attack
Developer: Achim Volkers
Status: In Progress


I have to say, Achim's Vovoid Attack is shaping up to be one of his best game releases to date, even with the 16KB limit. Now pretty much complete, the game sees you attacking enemy space stations (complete with cool intro/outro cutscenes), taking out the defence gun turrets and enemy fighters. Keeping with the steampunk theme, your goal is to collect bombs to use against each station's 'steam engine'. Yup, these mothers run by burning fossil fuel by all accounts! :D

With an amazing bass-heavy soundtrack, power-ups and superbly considered game mechanics, believe me when I say you'll be in for a real treat this Christmas! Interestingly the game is credited to Achim (RGCD), Taxim (from p1x3l.net) and mix256 (Wide Pixel Games). A very promising collaborative project!



Competition Entry #8: Honey Bee
Developer: Richard Bayliss
Status: In Progress


More positive news - Richard has almost completed work on his pollen 'em up Honey Bee! Now complete with a working front end and 16 levels, Honey Bee is a game all about collecting pollen from flowers scattered around the single screen stages whilst avoiding the other insects and scenery, then finally dropping the collected nectar back at your hive. It's a really cute and accessible little game, and one he plans to expand further post competition. With just play testing and a few final tweaks left to go, Honey Bee looks pretty much set to meet the deadline. Well done Rich!



Competition Entry #12: Penultimate Fantasy
Developer: Georg Rottensteiner
Status: In Progress


Work continues on Penultimate Fantasy, with lots of bugs fixed since the last build but plenty more to go! ;) Georg seems optimistic that the game will be complete by the deadline though, with the final month spent on the map layout, adding more enemies and balancing the game. I've played a recent build (with the players starting at level 99 to make things easier) and Georg has done a great job in capturing the feel of the classic Final Fantasy, pretty much in the same way as he did in re-imagining Zelda in his 2012 entry Wonderland. Good luck with the final push!



Competition Entry #13: Brilliant Maze
Developer: Geir Straume
Status: In Progress


Work continues on Geir Straume's Brilliant Maze, with enemy collision detection, collectable powerups and improved game logic added since the last update. The enemies are currently still 'coloured blocks', but hopefully that and the other missing features will follow soon. Hopefully it won't be long before the game comes together proper - the foundation is already pretty solid :)



Competition Entry #14: C-2048
Developer: p1x3l.net
Status: In Progress


And now for a new entry from our friends over at p1x3l.net - a new C64 version of that addictive mathematical puzzler 2048! I've not had an opportunity to play this yet, but aside from the beautiful presentation I'm interested to see how it compares to the two versions of the game already on CSDB. Looking forward to receiving further details on this one!



Competition Entry #15: Race
Developer: Steffen Görzig
Status: In Progress


And the final piece of news in this update; Steffen Görzig has recently submitted his 1-8(!) player party racer to the compo. Supporting the Protovision 4 Player Interface and the Inception 8 Joysticks Adapter, 'Race' also features full GS/PAL/NTSC compatibility and has two different game modes. Similar to Richard, Steffen is also working on a post-compo extended version of the game (the 16KB version is currently 90% done). I'm looking forward to sharing more news on this one!

So, that's all for now - time for me to get back to the party. I've not heard from all the entrants (I only sent out an email request for progress updates yesterday) but I'll try to type up another update in a couple of weeks. Great work guys!

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