Miniplanets (single stage demo)

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Sik
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Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by Sik » Sat Nov 07, 2015 2:24 am

I've decided to release a trial version of Miniplanets (which contains stages 1-1 to 1-9). You can get it here:
http://sik.titandemo.de/megadrive/miniplanets-demo.bin

For those who don't know the game yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcOowXx7R-c

Anyway, I'm looking for feedback on the game itself (aside from "needs music badly!!", just looking for the gameplay here). Comments and spreading the word are welcome.
Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick".

orlanrod
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by orlanrod » Sat Nov 07, 2015 6:18 am

Sweet pseudo 3D effect with the planet! I can't even wrap my head around how you did it.

As for the gameplay, it feels like a solid arcade type game in my opinion. The moving platforms are a bit tricky though, but not cheap.
I almost beat 1-4, but the timer ran out. Will try to see if i can beat the demo.

Liking it so far! 8)

alko
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by alko » Sat Nov 07, 2015 8:35 pm

Nice graphics.
Image

Sik
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by Sik » Sun Nov 08, 2015 8:04 pm

orlanrod wrote:Sweet pseudo 3D effect with the planet! I can't even wrap my head around how you did it.
48KB ((8×8)×(16×16)×3 bytes) look-up table. Yeah, really.

8×8 = number of sprites per planet
16×16 = number of possible fine scroll (subtile) positions
3 = X coordinate, Y coordinate, sort order

(yeah, the sprites are presorted in the look-up table so I avoid having that in the globe rendering altogether)
orlanrod wrote:The moving platforms are a bit tricky though, but not cheap.
My laziness meant there's some hitbox margin beyond them actually. Don't rely on it though because it's not that reliable, but it's bound to save you quite often on edge cases (no pun intended... maybe).
Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick".

nolddor
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by nolddor » Tue Nov 10, 2015 6:32 pm

Apart from the music which is obvious,...
IMO you can improve the game changing the scroll (it's to slow and it doesn't fit very well) of the title screen for blinking stars or a faster scroll.
Also in stage 1-9 the key counter in the hud should be replace for a diamond.


** A new feature could be ... Add warp to differents planets in a single stage helps to expand the level and the gameplay because although is very impressive a planet per stage is too limited.

The game is astonishing! Pseudo-3D is really amazing. Congratulations!

haroldoop
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by haroldoop » Tue Nov 10, 2015 10:53 pm

Great game, very creative idea.

MrTamk1s
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by MrTamk1s » Thu Nov 12, 2015 5:23 pm

Was very fun to play, and innovative idea! Looking forward to more levels. Really liked the switch/explosive puzzle gimmick, and how it changed the level geometry.

Other than the obvious missing music, you could be able to improve the game by adding the ability to freely rotate the planet while paused, in order to scan the level for where to goto. Also, any possibility in creating an in-game level editor, or perhaps adding a Mega Everdrive feature to save/load custom levels? That would make the game perfect!
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Sik
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by Sik » Sat Nov 14, 2015 7:54 pm

MrTamk1s wrote:Also, any possibility in creating an in-game level editor, or perhaps adding a Mega Everdrive feature to save/load custom levels?
Then people who want the game on its own cartridge can't use that.

We seriously need to come up with a way to save large amounts of data that doesn't involve an expensive flashcart or forcing the memory to stay within the cartridge... (an addenum mentions a RAM drive that goes into the joypad ports but it's not documented beyond its device ID, and I have no idea what this thing is either)
Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick".

MrTamk1s
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by MrTamk1s » Wed Nov 18, 2015 12:38 am

Then people who want the game on its own cartridge can't use that.
Doh!
We seriously need to come up with a way to save large amounts of data that doesn't involve an expensive flashcart or forcing the memory to stay within the cartridge... (an addenum mentions a RAM drive that goes into the joypad ports but it's not documented beyond its device ID, and I have no idea what this thing is either)
(Yeah I know, it's expensive, but sure wish more homebrew developers would utilize the MED's ssf-ex format potential. I myself only have the EDMD.)

Not do derail the topic, but did you ever find a way to transfer data from a Genesis game to the Sega CD's internal BRAM memory, in a Mode 1-like fashion? I remember seeing this option in Project MD to transfer the save from the cart to what I am assuming was meant to be the Sega CD's internal BRAM storage, but IIRC, not sure if you ever found out how, since the feature did not work. Such feature would allow saving of some game data to the internal BRAM, and then copying it to a external BRAM cart with larger memory for those who have one. (Sega CD and BRAM carts much cheaper than MED)

Image

As for allowing the data to be stored off the cartridge without MED, perhaps writing MD code and PC software to data transfer to/from each other for long term storage exploiting audio for data transmission? (It's a crazy idea, but for smaller amounts of save game data, could be viable.)
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Sik
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by Sik » Wed Nov 18, 2015 2:39 am

The problem with BRAM is that I could never figure out the filesystem's format in the first place (trust me, I tried - I still have no idea what the hell they're doing to encode those filenames, let alone the format for the file entries). Unless somebody figures out how the filesystem works there's no way to do anything with it. (and yeah, transferring to the back-up cartridges was the original intention of that feature in Project MD)

Dunno, I was wondering if somebody could wire up a serial EEPROM as a dongle to connect in a joypad port or something =P
MrTamk1s wrote:(Yeah I know, it's expensive, but sure wish more homebrew developers would utilize the MED's ssf-ex format potential. I myself only have the EDMD.)
Somebody find a way to add it cheaply to a ROM-based cartridge as a mapper and I may consider that. (if we can get an emulator support it) Pretty sure we can throw away the SD card and USB support, so that leaves the mapper (trivial) and multiply hardware (not sure how trivial but hey I could probably put it to good use ~_^).
Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick".

MrTamk1s
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by MrTamk1s » Thu Nov 19, 2015 11:05 pm

Sik wrote:Unless somebody figures out how the filesystem works there's no way to do anything with it
Somebody recently figured most of it out :). The only issue would be to figure out how to handle internal BRAM via Mode 1, but that should be relatively easy via SCD BIOS calls I think. If technically possible to achieve with Mode 1, it should open a big door for the homebrew community for an easy to use, universal save data storage device.
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Sik
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by Sik » Thu Dec 03, 2015 2:16 pm

MrTamk1s wrote:Somebody recently figured most of it out :). The only issue would be to figure out how to handle internal BRAM via Mode 1, but that should be relatively easy via SCD BIOS calls I think. If technically possible to achieve with Mode 1, it should open a big door for the homebrew community for an easy to use, universal save data storage device.
The actual mode 1 loads the BIOS so that's a no-brainer. With the faked mode 1 (i.e. booting the Sega CD hardware youself) you can just decompress the BIOS yourself and use the BIOS. But the fun is in handling the filesystem on your own =P (so you don't have to rely on the BIOS and can exploit unused bits - and more importantly, somebody could make a dumbed down Sega "CD" that only contains the relevant parts for BRAM).

I'd still prefer something that's more portable than a full-blown Sega CD though...
Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick".

Morden
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by Morden » Fri May 19, 2017 9:46 pm

Excuse me for bumping an old thread, but whatever happened to Miniplanets? I did see a comment from Watermelon expressing some interest in publishing it a while back. I re-played the demo today and after a quick search I did not find it published anywhere. I hope it's still coming out!

SegaTim
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by SegaTim » Fri May 19, 2017 11:29 pm

Morden, it message to hyip? =)
This game is out several days ago - http://playonretro.com/store/es/home/52 ... panol.html
Buy it for 32.99€ + shipping.

Sik
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Re: Miniplanets (single stage demo)

Post by Sik » Sat May 20, 2017 7:53 am

And you're also late because it already sold out. Waiting for next batch.
(EDIT: oh, they're doing preorders for next batch already)

Anyway, for just the ROM (no cartridge) there's this too:
https://sik.itch.io/miniplanets
https://github.com/sikthehedgehog/miniplanets

Also I had completely forgotten this thread existed (・~・)
Sik is pronounced as "seek", not as "sick".

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