Thursday 21 January 2016

C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition - Status Update #3

What? We're into the third week of the year already? Where the hell has the time gone? Sure, we've been busy here at RGCD HQ, but I can guarantee that our competition entrants have been busier! Let's see what they've achieved in the past seven days...



Competition Entry #1: Alienator
(Developer: Georg Rottensteiner - Status: In Development)


Well! What do you know? I guess my previous post about Georg withdrawing from the compo must have made him feel bad or something because... he's back! "Looks like with the deadline extension I feel to have to keep participating. Thinking hard about what to do I came up with something very simple. Let’s see if I can make it fun!"

At a guess I'd say that Alienator looks to be something of a Space Invaders clone, but knowing Georg I'd be surprised if there wasn't some clever twist thrown into the mechanics. Good luck!



Competition Entry #3: Escape from Area 64
(Developer: Christian Gleinser - Status: In Development)


Christian has also been in touch this week to share a screenshot of his entry and some brief information. "The current title is Escape from Area 64, but I'm not sure that the name will be kept. It's a maze game with randomly generated mazes, and you control two Alien guys who are trying to escape from an underground bunker."

Well, colour me intrigued! It's not clear if both aliens are controlled by one player (or if it is a two player game), but I'm sure that will be made clearer as the game's development progresses. Anyway, I like the old school vibe that Escape from Area 64 has going for it!



Competition Entry #4: Creepy Crawlers
(Developer: P1X3L.net - Status: In Development)


Ah! My bad. Since receiving the above screenshot I've corrected the title of the game to Creepy Crawlers. At a guess I reckon it's some sort of arcade-style Centipede or Galaga game - but if there's one thing for sure about P1X3L.net, it's that we should expect the unexpected. Looking forward to it guys!



Competition Entry #7: Platman
(Developer: Saul Cross & Andrea Schincaglia - Status: Complete! Awaiting Final Submission)


Just a one-line email from Andrea this week, but it was a positive one! "Platman is complete, all functions are available now!" - So, that leaves me just waiting for the game to arrive in my inbox :)



Competition Entry #8: QWAK
(Developer: Saul Cross & Daniel Hotop - Status: In Development)


Finally some fresh screen shots and more promising news! Daniel writes, "Here are three screen shots, I was hoping to get the other 'looks' in for you but not yet. I've been working on fixing and optimising the code and data, the code is a lot better now and smaller but I might start running into raster time issues. I've worked on graphics compression and char compression and the packed game is currently a healthy 8.12K."



Competition Entry #9: Blap N Bash Revisited
(Developer: Richard Bayliss - Status: Complete & Submitted!)


No real changes since the last time I wrote other than this game is now officially complete and submitted! Well done Richard!



Competition Entry #10: Circle 64
(Developer: P-a Bäckström - Status: In Development)


As I hoped, my last post prompted P-a Bäckström to get in touch and introduce his entry. "My kids recently tricked me into installing this really stupid and annoying game called 'Circle' on my phone, and I just couldn't stop playing. Circle is really super-hard and impossible. 20 points one time, 3 points the next time around. So, what to do if you can't beat the darn game? Well, make your own clone of course!"

"I started fooling around with some code, and got more and more things in place. Then I remembered your compo and thought what the heck. The idea of having it on an actual cartridge sounded great. Being a cartridge based game and all, my thoughts went back to the old days. The vision is (for now at least) that the game will have the looks of an old Atari 2600 game, yet being a clone of a fairly popular and new 'app'. Meaning somewhat blocky gfx but with smooth transitions, gameplay and sporting 'real' physics."

"As far as I can tell, the physics and gameplay are working really well. My kids approve at least ;) And it had me fixing a bug in the Mac OS X port of VICE too! The extended deadline is all for good. It will give me more time to polish, and introduce some demo-like effects where suitable ;)"


And until next time, that is all!

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