DiMono wrote:
First of all, that palm device looks cool, and if it does 320x480 you should be able to get a 38x32 screen on there with little trouble, other than perhaps visibility. I don't want to think about how small the squares will be on a screen smaller than that of a GB Advance. If I ever get a palm device, I'll find one that's compatible with your DROD port.
Actually, the visibility isn't all that bad, according to a guy I asked to test it. The screen on the Zodiac is actually quite large. It's 3.8"
(diagonal), as opposed to GBA SP's measly 2.9"
.
In order to fit the standard 38x32 rooms, I'd have to sqish the tiles from 14x14 pixels down to 10x10. To get an idea of what it'll look like, here's a scaled down picture. Keep in mind this'll be on a 3.8"
screen, and that the tiles will be either redone or fixed up (I just quickly resize the original picture in Photoshop).
This is how it'd look if the tiles weren't downsampled (kept the original 14x14). This way, I can have rooms up to 32x22 tiles big, if I were to leave no space for a HUD (IE. place everything on top of the level instead, like they do in FPS games; although this would create unnecessary view-blocking problems).
http://members.rogers.com/shurcool/Zodiac_DROD_original_size.jpg
ErikH2000 wrote:
You know, I wish somebody would make a DROD variant. It is cool to see DROD on other platforms, but there is a lot of room for a different kind of game that has some of the same elements. DROD with 4-way scrolling. DROD with line-of-sight lighting. DROD with lasers and deflectors. DROD with multiple stories in one level. Multi-player DROD.
I'm really intrigued by that idea and wanna do something new. I might as well try it. Have you heard of a game called Nethack? It's an RPG of some sort, originally ASCII-based (now they made graphical extensions), and it encorporates line-of-sight quite nicely. When you enter a room, it gradually reveals tiles as you go in. Something like this may work in DROD, or it may not. The levels will need to be made specifically with this in mind.
Multiplayer? Sounds like a great idea (especially since Zodiac comes equipped with Bluetooth, enabling up to 8 devices to interconnect), but not without things to consider. How will the turn-based-movement thing work? Will one have to wait for the other player(s) to make their move, or will each move independantly? The levels, once again, will have to be made for more than one palyer.
In the end, these new concepts may work out to enhance the old DROD gameplay, but incorporating them will take a fair bit amount of time and resources. So I'll think about this once I get closer to completion. As of now, I'm still waiting for them to resolve international shipping (it's US-only ATM) so I can get the device. So I'm working on my other little PC game, with a quite unique gameplay, and not without its fair share of gameplay-design problems/uncertainties.
Trust me, nothing's worse than a lack of imagination when you're trying to make (vs. port) a new kind game.
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Thanks,
shurcooL
). most importantly, it has a 320x480 screen, allowing me to easily make my level much more larger (by 1.5x). oh, and it also has a built in analog joystick controller, plus 4 big buttons... that's much better than the 6 that a standard Palm has (need 8 buttons just for the movement - or, in this case, a joystick).
looks that way. 
wrote:
