SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

 https://theonemagos.itch.io/roadpocalypse

Hello! I've made significant progress the past few months on my game. Hoping to stir up some interest before the Demo release later this year. Thank you to all who have followed me on Discord from the beginning and have shared helpful advice. Let me know what you think! I will be happy to answer any questions.

For those who know nothing about this project, its a love letter to 80's post apocalyptic media and games. I've tried to also stay faithful to the retro aesthetic as much as possible.

The game runs in a terminal window and uses 1-bit mono TTF characters as sprites. This means ultra low requirements and a unique aesthetic that is distinctly retro. I've been working on this almost 3 years so I am excited to show it off.

I made a post awhile ago here about my Ascii games, but I think it needed a new thread as this version has more to show off including new companions and a preview of the Vehicular combat.

Interesting approach - good luck with it.

Be prepared for ... only a few (but then enthusiastic) users. DOS/Terminal games are a niche - and only some games there have a relatively huge fan base.



bye
Ron

That is some awesome pixel work.

Quote from: blinkok on May 25, 2023, 22:53:01That is some awesome pixel work.

Thanks! I figured if the art can only be 1-bit better make the most of it.

Quote from: Derron on May 24, 2023, 08:55:53Interesting approach - good luck with it.

Be prepared for ... only a few (but then enthusiastic) users. DOS/Terminal games are a niche - and only some games there have a relatively huge fan base.



bye
Ron

Even though it is a Terminal game, it looks more like something that would have been on an 8-bit computer but polished to a very high degree with animation, sound and music. Graphically I can achieve results about what a ZxSpectrum could do. It's a hard sell and certainly a niche I agree. But I don't think nostalgia/retro infused games are waning in popularity anytime soon.

Looks like a great retro-style game. I assume it will run under DosBox. Looking forward to the demo version

Quote from: Retro on May 28, 2023, 15:51:03Looks like a great retro-style game. I assume it will run under DosBox. Looking forward to the demo version

It actually runs in Windows using the CMD Terminal. It just has a high level of fakery making it look and function like a real Ms-Dos environment. All of the retro music was created using real Dos software and samples from a real Roland Mt-32.

So what you get is a modern Dos like game but without the crutch or technical tomfoolery of actually coding a Dos game in 2023. hehe!

Seems original for modern indie games being developed nowadays! Congratulations!

Preview of a character companion in my upcoming game. Her name is Taylor and one of many planned companions to travel the wasteland with.


All characters are professionally rendered before being reworked into 1-bit pixel art.

Here are a few screens from my upcoming game. I just finished the SETUP utility which formats the cmd Terminal for the game. This is the Ascii compliant version shown. But if you install the GameFont you will see a test of the 1bit sprites displayed in the Terminal Config. If anyone wants to try it out message me. The interactive Demo is coming next, but its a few months away still. Feedback is appreciated. 🙂







It's easiest to reach me over Discord.

Looks still good - of course the thumbnails make it easier to "see" than in full screen (as the chars and the spacing get scaled down to almost "pixels").


langauge.



Why are these font using some kind of "kerning" or glyph advancement? Some character seem to be aligned oddly:
"F" is right aligned (check FONT), A too (GAME) and so on.
The white rectangle around the image (on this screenshot) shows varying "line widths" - I think this is because of the non-integer-scale of the original window? (aka canvas is upscaled in a way that pixels not 2x or 3x but mayb 2.5x).


Despite that: good to read you are still on it (coding wise). What are your experiences with the last game, did it well, how was it received?



bye
Ron

The setup program is still using the older font file, which has alignment issues. It took a lot of trial and error to come up font file that had the look of classic pixely Dos fonts, but also supported my need to line up certain characters side by side to form graphical sprites. When I first started this venture I had no idea how coordinate system affected the glyphs.

This is actually the same game, the Ascii art is just a placeholder until all the custom glyphs are imported. I am working to maintain Ascii compatibility for anyone that whats the true old-school experience.

@MagosDomina >> not sure what kind of gameplay your game will have.

but if you need some inspiration for environments / events / stories,

i stumbled on this some months ago :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_Warrior

and you can read the game-books here :
https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books

QuoteFreeway Warrior
Highway Holocaust
Slaughter Mountain Run
The Omega Zone
California Countdown