Wurlde - Game Development Forum

Want to talks about games you like, would like to see developed on the Oric, it's here.
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Twilighte
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Wurlde - Game Development Forum

Post by Twilighte »

Yes, i have finally started to develop Wurlde again, after many years of leaving it on that dusty shelf.


Gameplay
The game is an Arcade Adventure in a similar vein to Targhan on the Amiga or Wrath of a Demon on the C64.

However this will be a totally original game and only available for the Oric.

Graphics
The main window will hold the arcade platform style game and you will control the hero with complete freedom of movements like running, jumping and stuff.

The top part of the screen is the information panel showing time of day, pockets, health, mana and Map areas.

The bottom part of the screen is the text and menu window with your companion gremlin to guide you on your quests.

It features full colour graphics using the original split-line technique where odd lines hold background graphics and even lines hold sprite graphics.

Sound
In game sound effects will consist of natural sounds(Birdsong, waves on the shore, wind) with incidental music for cut sequences.
The music for the title will be freeform, or that is the hope.

System
Wurlde will be Disc Based and Oric Atmos Only (For the time being).
It will utilise the top 16K to the full.
The top 16K of memory will hold the code and graphics for each game screen which will be loaded from disc.

Development
Currently i have Chema on board with this project and Dbug has helped alot.

Resources
The original Page still exists for this game(Storyline and screenshots) and is still relevant..
http://twilighte.oric.org/twinew/wurlde.htm

Dbug has kindly provided a wiki for reference material here..
http://wiki.defence-force.org/doku.php? ... urlde:main
And yes, the windmill vein does turn! :D

Many of the original Screens will be used plus some nice new ones.
To this end the following links provide some game screen tasters.
http://twilighte.oric.org/twinew/wgal.htm
http://twilighte.oric.org/twinew/wgal2.htm

Image

We also have the Wurlde Music Forum in this forum channel.
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Twilighte
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Post by Twilighte »

Just a quick update to say that i have now got DSKBuilder working with Wurlde. That means completely universal disk based and full 64K!

The first screen is nearly done. i have worked on this solidly in order to discover and solve as many issues with the SSC module format.
Now it works, at least with the first SSC module, just another 34 to go!
As well as a number of cut scenes and sequences for travelling around wurlde and the inside of castles, inns and cave systems.
I also need to start work on the menu system(like buying things at the market or entering an inn to gain lodging or rumours) soon.

There is no doubting this is a challenging project, but now i have the first screen working i don't see a real reason why it cannot be completed by 2010 :P

I start my 5 week radiotherapy session this afternoon, i will be in London until Friday or maybe longer. I hope to occupy my spare time with this project.

Wish me luck. :P
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Post by Chema »

Best wishes Twilighte! and good luck indeed...

For what I already saw, this will be the most advanced and incredible game ever seen on an Oric!

And 2010 is not so far away :)

Cheers
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Twilighte
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Post by Twilighte »

And 2010 is not so far away

oh.. you're right, then make it 2020 :P
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Symoon
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Post by Symoon »

Hey Twi,

Good luck with everything.
You meant in 2020 hours ? 85 days left ! :)
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Twilighte
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Post by Twilighte »

So good to hear from you Symoon.
Currently sitting in my bedroom at St Thomas's Hospital Hotel trying to think how to animate flying fish for the next screen in Wurlde.Taxing stuff, i have the big limitation of only being able to use the 'odd' lines of display but can be coloured every row but each fish must be only a few pixels in size or else they will look out of proportion to the size of the hero.

Currently listening to "The Calling" by Santana

Each fish creates bubbles on the surface of the water just before it flies up out of the water in an arc formation and then dives again.
Not sure whether to show the bubbles as rising to the water surface or just show some animated pixels on the surface.
As always with these challenges it is best to try one technique and if it is good enough perfect it or turn to a different technique. The important thing is to get atleast one idea working on screen.


The intention here is that when the fish is at maximum height and the hero is in the right position, he may catch and pocket the fish :P

Incidentally, i am using Vista on this laptop (it came with it) and a combination of dosbox and euphoric but i notice (much to my disappointment) that in euphoric debug mode the key F2 repeats indefinately which makes stepping through the code impossible! :(
Fortunately i have been able to track down bugs in the source code so far.
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Twilighte
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Post by Twilighte »

Three demos are now available. All three display 4 dots centre screen on disk boot. Press any key to continue to game.

The first demo is of the original Map02, but this time starting on last screen (The wrong way round, sorry).
Cursor keys to move around and Left ctrl key is the Action key, Left Shift key is item control key and in combination with Up can pickup items on ground (Shown with glint), Down (drop items held) and Left/Right to cycle thru the items you have collected.
Pressing Shift whilst an object is falling will collect the item.
Each screen will be a separate game but for now, only the far right 2 screens have subgames in them.
No time to discuss each game, try it and see if you can work them out.

http://www.defence-force.org/ftp/forum/ ... omap02.zip

Next is the second demo of Wurlde, based on Map01 (Map02 was done a while ago). Alot has changed since then and this is the latest stuff.
Cursor keys to run around, loads of bugs, especially going beyond the market square in Sassubree town. :P

http://www.defence-force.org/ftp/forum/ ... dedemo.zip

Currently working on character interaction. A single screen will always be displayed after entering the market, an Inn or a building that will show the hero and occupants, and allow you to interact with them.

http://www.defence-force.org/ftp/forum/ ... harsel.zip

Keys are cursor left and right to switch between characters, up and down to move through options. No further menus, options or game are available in this demo.
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Post by TheSpider »

Wow Twi!!
I know I have been away from the Oric scene for a little bit, but I am always impressed how you just keep on going!
Wurlde looks and plays fantastic.

I would love to try some of Barton's fish stew!

Hoping and praying that all did go well with the radiotherapy.
Peter (TheSpider) Paterson
A Scotsman in Kentucky
http://thespider.oric.org
http://mintspider.blogspot.com
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Post by Twilighte »

Thanks Spider, treatment did go well and have taken an extra week off (immediately after treatment) to recover, though still feeling tired and sore.

However that Wurlde work was done during treatment (the odd moments i got).
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Post by Symoon »

Hi all, hi Twilighte,

Sorry for the lack of feedback these days, busy as always but still around.
Twilight, your demos ROCK!
This clearly reminds me of Prince of Persia, except it seems there will be some adventure in it, which is much better for the old player I am now ;-)

I know it's too early for a bug report, but just in case: there's a small problem with the re-drawing of the character when he's in front of the windmill and a key is being pressed (and holded).

Now, I have to hurry finishing Space 99 before Wurlde is released :wink:

Take care of yourself and keep up the good work Twilighte.
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Post by Twilighte »

I did'nt notice that particular issue, but i do know there are some issues with drawing the hero.
The sprite flickers alot when running and his motion is not perfect (he appears to shunt forward suddenly when running).

I will attempt to use a screenbuffer before rendering to the screen. This should elimanate the screen flicker.

I may also modify the hero sprites to fix the shunting issue.

The problem with the windmill is that regardless which way we do it, the windmill vanes will always collide and interfere with the Hero graphic since both lye on the same alt screen rows.

However i plan to make this a sub game. When the hero initially approaches from the right, he will have to time his run so that he avoids each vane.
Later in the game, the direction of wind will change which will send the windmill vanes the opposite way allowing the hero to get past this screen from the left!
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Post by Twilighte »

This next version of the character select section may seem like a slightly backward step but has been neccesary to expand the depth of the character interactions and greatly improve the smoothness of the screen rendering.

The original version deleted the contents of each window before drawing the new text. This next (and final) version always erases to the end of the row or window so avoiding flicker and speeding up the rendering.

Rumours and character interaction text has also been exported to the SSC modules, which means a much greater depth and size of interactions.

The backward step is that most options are currently disabled until i recode them to link to the SSC modules.

http://www.defence-force.org/ftp/forum/ ... arsel2.zip
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Post by Twilighte »

This next version now links the character selector to the main game in map1. When you visit a screen with a building in it (apart from Fort) you can press UP to enter the building and meet the occupants. Normal functionality in Character selector as previous demos but press escape from options to return to game.
Some faces are wrong. Still lots of bugs so don't report them yet, however leave feedback of what you like and dislike about the game and perhaps what you would like to see. Looking for ideas here. :)

1) Fixed bug in Kissing widow where hero appears mid screen and corrupts game thereon.
2) text rich descriptions of locations and on entering establishments.
3) Updated infopanel (Top scoreboard) to allign graphics
4) Radically changed character set. Thanks to Chevron

http://www.defence-force.org/ftp/forum/ ... edemo2.zip

And remember guys, at the start when you see the four dots press any key to proceed. :)
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Post by Twilighte »

Apologies for absence, so much in Wurlde to do and so much done between the last message and now.

I have done a fair amount of internal restructuring and another map has been converted with some effects such as smoke, swarms and Distant village lights.
I have also done a little bit to the first cut-scene.

I have found a friend who is willing to write some of the storylines, quests and do some proof reading (my spelling is sometimes atrocous as i am unable to spell atrocous). :P

I have also cracked how to do the enemies the hero will meet on the way. 8)

No screenshots for next map, i want to keep going alot more before releasing more demos. :wink:
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Post by Symoon »

Hi Twilighte, glad to hear you carry on the work !
No much time here to test the recent games (apologies to you and Chema), so much to do with our orics, or our life :)
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