Code a game comp - 8-BIT WARS - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019

[Derron]

Variations might come from ... pheeww... rounding errors or use JPEGs for whatever-reason ;-) (bad excuse).

I just wanted to try to "allow" for variations to not sound too harsh/strict. But as you softened the rule now ... it does no longer matter (PS: you could have done that some days earlier - before I spend some minutes to adjust the colors of my sprites ;-)).


@ googling
Dunno, think the rules were on page 1 but the topic already on "page >1" so I was no longer aware that you even provided one - also the other one provided the "text variant" of the colors so I did not have to sample it in a painting programme (as I also define the colors in code - to allow "code wise" palette restrictions). Also I was knowing that I could adjust the colors later on so I thought I better start doing something and fitting it in later. And as said - after some days I never thought the palette would be "wrong" (albeit it did not look like a c64 shot).


@ voting
Think those people who are used to "the machines color palette" and see "impossible colors" will somehow put that into their voting points - willently or "instinctively". And those who do not matter about such things vote unbiased regarding "palettes". Same for sound effects, inputs (remember I use a "mouse" which not everybody had), resolution tricks, sprite count, ...

It's just that now there was the discussion about colors - and some people are aware of the "softening" and that there are (possible) entries around which utilize an altered palette. Nonetheless it does not matter - people vote (more or less) biased in all votings ("friends", "favorite genres", ...). Still most of the times just the "best to-play/enjoyable game" will win so - no worries.


bye
Ron

[johnno56]

When i look at that image is (as far as i can see) it is 256x177. I cannot resolve the resolution with that screen shot. What am i missing?

You're not taking into account the black surrounding and that the width would be double to look normal on a PC.

I'd say that's a screen shot from an emulator running the CPC in 16 colour full overscan mode ( 384×272 is how it'd be represented on a PC ). The game in reality would have been in 192×272 ( if running in overscan mode ) but when a PC is emulating the screen then what you see is double the resolution width, hence the total dimension of the image provided.

Most games were 160x200 ( double width pixels to fit 320x200 ) and I doubt many games used the full screen trick. You can if you want

Being an ex-owner of an Amstrad CPC464 I can tell you that there was a reason for the "border" (which is configurable) around the main image. In those days, either the monitor or other external screen, were CRT's. These screens had the natural side effect of the 'limits' of the display slightly blurring. So, as to attempt to keep the game image as clear as possible, constrict the image to the centre of the screen. If memory serves correctly I think the C64 was similar...

Well... that's my bit of trivia for today...

J

[iWasAdam]

Well, I've been all over my graphics and palettes to make sure they comply  Odd minor display errors may be present, but hopefully not!

But I can fully understand if people have taken a different route

[Qube]

@ googling
Dunno, think the rules were on page 1 but the topic already on "page >1" so I was no longer aware that you even provided one

Take a look at the very first post about rules and limits. Is that the part you missed? - in fact to even know that you can pick the C64 you'd have already passed one section about the palette. Didn't know?

[Derron]

With the head full of "anger" about "oaarghh another retro compo" one can miss things. or ... or ... or it must be the age. First signs of lost hair means my brains are no longer cultivating them as good as they did before. Pardonnez-moi :-)


bye
Ron

[MrmediamanX]

I know I'm safe, I had to use qube's pallet and the MS paint copy/paste technique.
IE:  open the "Qubes pallet" in ms paint, open a blank ms paint canvas in another window then use the select tool and the colors you want to use from the chosen pallet and copy/paste to the blank canvas then .... start painting using the dropper to select your chosen colors.
easy peasy.

even when I needed to edit a few of my sprites/images the technique still worked.
My major conflict was how many colors of the chosen pallet could be used per image/sprite....C64 in my case.
With alittle ... or a lot of R&D and a few 'urika' moments and useful feedback [props to jonza] I learn't a few useful methods to achieve the right look within the color limit's allowed per image/sprite.
yellow-ish and black being used as the global colors + the single sprite color + the transparent color[not important] on a double layered sprite with its own selected sprite color[from the chosen pallet]. the static image's are different story though.

[3DzForMe]

Mspaint is what I'm comfy with, but I couldn't Load a user defined pallette. I like your way of skinning the cat using the colour dropper/picker, wish I'd thought of that. Then when I started to use Gimp, with Qubes pallette (not another one from else where) I came across the issue Blitz3D wasn't displaying my lovingly crafted images, exported from Gimp as a PNG. Much head scratching resolved the issue by using a black image underneath my Gimpy efforts. Now, I suspect it's something to do with alpha channels and translucency, but I really didn't envisage phaffing so much to produce low Rez graphics. Still got coding / logic issues to resolve and the clock keeps ticking. Doesn't help that I got selected for a promotion interview tomorrow at work, more ironing and stuff prevents cracking on with my Big Dark Adventure. So, if it transpires that I contravene the pallette, it's coz I haven't had time to fully understand/ RTF Gimp Manual, it's a hefty tome.

Still happy to be coding in Speccy Rez again... And I've proved my Amiga still compiles code from over 2 decades ago. I'm sure that wouldn't have happened without this compo, cheers

[MrmediamanX]

when loading an image blitz3d considers black to a masked color[transparent] by default ... there's code out there to allow a custom masked color but the easiest way around that issue is to use the [off black] trick.

alternatively you could use 'drawblock' which draws the loaded image as is, but requires you to know the drawing order.
[ie] the text will appear under the drawn block image if the order is text then draw block image during your main draw loop.
from what I learnt at least.

[STEVIE G]

Does anyone have the RGB values for the C64 palette Qube posted?  I think I took them from the wikipedia page which I assumed was correct but maybe not it seems ..

[MrmediamanX]

black - RGB:[0,0,0] HSV:[0,0,0] Hex: 000000 
white - RGB:[255,255,255] HSV:[0,0,100] Hex: FFFFFF
Red - RGB:[146,74,64] HSV:[7,56,57] Hex: 924A40
light blue - RGB:[132,197,204] HSV:[185,35,80] Hex: 84C5CC
purple - RGB:[147,81,182] HSV:[279,55,71] Hex: 9351B6
green - RGB:[114,177,75] HSV:[97,57,69] Hex: 72B14B
dark blue - RGB:[72,58,170] HSV:[247,65,66] Hex: 483AAA
yellow - RGB:[213,223,24] HSV:[66,44,87] Hex: D5DF7C
light brown - RGB:[153,105,45] HSV:[33,70,60] Hex: 99692D
dark brown - RGB:[103,82,0] HSV:[47,100,40] Hex: 675200
pink - RGB:[193,129,120] HSV:[7,37,75] Hex: C18178
dark grey - RGB:[96,96,96] HSV:[0,0,73] Hex: 606060
mid grey - RGB:[138,138,138] HSV:[0,0,54] Hex: 8A8A8A
light green - RGB:[179,236,145] HSV:[97,38,92] Hex: B3EC91
light purple - RGB:[134,122,222] HSV:[247,45,87] Hex: 867ADE
light grey - RGB:[179,179,179] HSV:[0,0,70] Hex: B3B3B3

doneski ... I used the color editor and dropper tool along with Qube's pallet in paint.net in order to obtain the color values.
so it should be pin point accurate. 

[Xerra]

This is my very first competition. My favourite language is Basic, SDLBasic actually... I am not a programmer or an online gamer but enjoy tinkering with Basic. I was given the link to this competition from one of the members on the RCBasic forum. I was hesitant in competing because of my programming skills, or lack of it... lol

I started looking for other entries (just to see what I am up against) but, one week from the closing date, I haven't found any. Several postings on this site indicated expressions of interest, but I haven't seen any entries, as yet. I suppose I should ask if I'm in the right place to start with.... Maybe I have made a mistake?

not sure anyone actually answered your question as it might have got buried in the great syntax colour debate :-)

Anyway, there's around 13 entries or so currently for the competition - assuming they all get over the line. If you check the Worklogs sub-forum then you will see what people are up to in the seperate threads. Apart from the odd exception, you probably won't find any completed games actually being posted online until the final day - Sunday, 31st March. Mostly people are still beavering away right up until the last couple of hours. Certainly always been that way for me and my current game looks like no exception.

[Qube]

I started looking for other entries (just to see what I am up against) but, one week from the closing date, I haven't found any. Several postings on this site indicated expressions of interest, but I haven't seen any entries, as yet. I suppose I should ask if I'm in the right place to start with.... Maybe I have made a mistake?

Yup, you're in the right place. Most post progress of their game comp progress in the Worklogs section.

[johnno56]

Cool... Thanks or the link... I have seen some of the entries... *sigh* Now I wish I hadn't.. lol These guys (generic) are 'really' good. I'm afraid that my "tinkering" will not even come close to the concepts that these guys have discarded into their trash....

Obviously "tinkering" is not going to cut it. I need to do something to help my chances in the future...

You have been a great help and I will continue to watch as the competition evolves....

J

[Xerra]

Cool... Thanks or the link... I have seen some of the entries... *sigh* Now I wish I hadn't.. lol These guys (generic) are 'really' good. I'm afraid that my "tinkering" will not even come close to the concepts that these guys have discarded into their trash....

Obviously "tinkering" is not going to cut it. I need to do something to help my chances in the future...

You have been a great help and I will continue to watch as the competition evolves....

J

Give us a bit of info about your general coding level, what system you're using to code with. You'd be surprised just how much help the guys here can be. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all. If you can make a game and finish it within a competition deadline then never mind if you don't think it's worthy and just submit it anyway. Nobody is going to roast you. All you'll get is helpful advice.

If you're completely new to making games then try using Gamemaker Studio like I do. Still a lot of work to do with that but it's a lot quicker to get what you want up on screen than doing it hardcore right from the start.

Another important thing to think about is don't be too critical of your work sometimes. I've done that and submitted games that I've not been that happy with but have gone down very well. Envahi, my first competition entry, is a good example of that. I almost didn't submit it because the level of some of the other games were so good but it did ok in the end. The test is to see if you ever return to a game to just play it maybe a few months after you've finished working on it. I'm definitely going to write a sequel to that one, one day.

[Qube]

Envahi, my first competition entry

\o/ Fun game \o/