Goals for the week
- get email happening on subliminor.com and set up a mailing list form
- Keep reading Relph – I need to get through more of it
- Keep developing updated graphics – begin with the character, then the setting… with a view to then creating a new prototype that has all my own assets in it
Main thing:
Read – write – make
its been a week of getting new toys, wasting time getting wordpress apps and email to behave as well as learning a lot about how link moves aroubd on screen – sliding mainly it seems…
Mon
read
- mockup chars – hair styles
- two frame anim…
- how i wanted to change scope of overworld – and why i didnt…
Mockup character
- who are we? well, to start with, its me – this will be changeable later – perhaps with a built-in avatar editor…
HAIR – I do like how Links hat flops from side to side – wondering how I can get some kind of side to side movement like that…
Interesting look at Links Awakening sprite sheets and backgrounds –
Link – 32 individual frames (16×16 each)
Overworld tiles
Seems to me that, and this is going to sound obvious – there is a lot more emphasis on the look and feel and diversity in the link character sprites. Again, the game deisngers are working with a list of priorities in terms of what matters most, then go down the line from there – the ground is not as important – even better when you can throw a few small animations to distract from how basic it is – and keep in mind, this was on a screen that was 45.5 × 41.5 mm (which is tiny, relative to current phones etc.) so
I need to remember this: they were not designed to be played on mobile screens – let alone on a huge tv!
Some toys arrived today:
GB Operator: https://www.epilogue.co/product/gb-operator
It is possible to add saves BACK onto the cart too. Cool!
Super Gameboy 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy
But, i just found out the hard way that yes, they can wipe your save games – https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916396-super-nintendo/68745352. It’s a think apparently… Soooo, luckily I hadn’t gotten that far – but I think using the GB Operator to backup my cart save games is a very good idea – and it looks like they can be added back in case things go awry. Now I know…
So, the SGB2 fits nicely into the Super Famicom – I think because they are both for the japanese market, they are the same format, which is good. And of course GB carts are region free. Up to the point when I realised my game was wiped, it was very cool seeing Links Awakening on the TV via the Super Famicom, and being able to play it with the controller was interesting. Good times! And may rabit holes to venture down!
Tue
its also about game feel
look at the video about nes mario – and the one from kristian – game feel – and frame by frame on video plus looking at which sprite is being ised
its as much about the graphics as the feel – possobly more about the feel…
how link is slid – into a scene – through a door – not sure what its called here – the puppeting…
Need to think about how I am representing myself – and maintaining the balance between what is practical in an 8 bit game, and what is somethibg that is still meaningful.
Links movement in Links Awakening
Walking – for each animation frame, the sprite is moved 8 pixels in the same frame
When he changes direction, he firstly slides on a diagonal towards the new direction for 3 frames (while the frame sequence of the first direction continues – e.g. if its still playing its 8, it continues…) – upon going to the new direction, the frame number keeps going – e.g. if, the final frame of the diagonal move down is the first frame of a new seies of 8, then when it gets to the new direction, it continues from that number, so it will play 7 frames of the new direction, thus completing its set of 8. You can see what happens when you are walking through grass – ans you get a ‘grass’ frame as part of the walking, and it comes across into the next screen with you as you transition, but then is cleared when you start mving again…
hitting the edgoe of a screen – the char freezes for 11 frames – the anim cycle of freezes too… the screen slides across, with link – until it gets half way across – then, link is pushed 8 pixels into the next scene – this happens some what exponentially…
interestingly, sometimes link is moved 16 pixels across – and starts the transition at the beginning of being at the edge of the screen…
also, specifically, the hit box of link – which seems to be in the feet and leg area (perhaps the lower 8 px when moving down? – to be confirmed!)
when sliding, how many pixels does it move?
do a diagram of this with terms in it and measurements – use aesprite and make a diagram
the pausing of link as e hits the side of the screen is not consisten – perhaps it is to do with what needs to be loaded into memory to display the next screen?
heading LEFT
- 2 pixels off screen – stops for 5, 8, 5, 12 frames – then begins transition
- back ground slides 4 pixels per frame for a total 40 frames (120 pixels)
- link slides 16 pixels over all, but in a sequnce of frames, 1 pixel at a time
- 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2
- and, continues on from the current 8 frame aniamtion loop he was up to…
heading RIGHT
- 1 pixels off screen – stops for 8 frames – then begins transition
- back ground slides 4 pixels per frame for a total 40 frames (120 pixels)
- link slides 16 pixels over all, but in a sequnce of frames, 1 pixel at a time
- 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2
- and, continues on from the current 8 frame aniamtion loop he was up to…
heading DOWN
- 3 pixels off screen (overlaps interface) – stops for 3 frames – then begins transition
- back ground slides 4 pixels per frame for a total 40 frames (120 pixels)
- link slides 16 pixels over all, but in a sequnce of frames, 1 pixel at a time
- 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2
- and, continues on from the current 8 frame aniamtion loop he was up to…
heading UP
- 4 pixels off screen – stops for 4 frames – then begins transition
- back ground slides 4 pixels per frame for a total 40 frames (120 pixels)
- link slides 16 pixels over all, but in a sequnce of frames, 1 pixel at a time
- 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 2
- and, continues on from the current 8 frame aniamtion loop he was up to…
Ok, so it seems that the things that apparently change the patterns are possibly to do with how the emulator frame rate is syncing with screen capture, and frames are possibly being dropped or skipped – also, it sems that sometimes if things from the next screen are loading into memory, link pauses for a few extra frames – that’s my theory anyway, based on not much, but that’s probably what I would do if I was using a cpu that was designed for air conditioners…
Wed
One more toy arrived today!
GB USB 64M Smart Card:
Ok, these are basically just about made of solid unobtainium, but tehy are the best apparently – except they don’t make them any more, so basically the only place that have them is one online store…
https://truechiptilldeath.com/blog/2010/01/23/review-usb-64m-smart-card/
Project work 2
I continued working on investigating the screen recordings of link’s movement today – see above for the notes…
Thu
Faffing around with wordpress app and email…
Ok, this week there has also been a fair amount of fluffing about getting subliminor.com on the wordpress app on my phone – after LOTS of tooing and froing, it the solution was to change permalinks from ‘plain’ to ‘Post name’. I have NO IDEA what that means, but it worked. Happy days! NOW to get teh email set up. This has all taken WAY longer than I thought…
Project work 3
I continued working on investigating the screen recordings of link’s movement today – see above for the notes…
Fri
Project work 3 –
do the variius sampes –
sqr – 12% – 25% – 50% – 75%
wav
noise – type 1 – type 2
develop proof of concept #2 – graphics – PhD – proof of concept 2 and Inspo – include Game Feel (Swink, 2009) as well…
- map ‘zones’
- ocean – intertidal
- beach
- dunes
- tree zone 1 – fringe
- tree zone 2 – forest
- These are all about transition – and are changeable – on the cusp – edge of becoming – but also operate within a predictable set of rules
I got email going now too!
Character
feet and walk cycle –
Sat
- Finish off tasks or, if done – start another task…
- Have done a bunch of sketching of haor and heads. Good times So, just trying out different ideas and seeing what I can come up with.
Sun
A quick catch up session