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https://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/ExtremeVolleyballInfernalLeague-SMS

Quote

Every millennium the great demon king Azmodean opens a rift to the mortal
realm to overtake it. The only way to save the world is by climbing the ranks of his
Extreme Volleyball Infernal League!

Are you game enough? For 1 or 2 players.

Rules:

The demon imposes rules somewhat different from standard volleyball. In this league, players have 5 HP of life.
When the ball touches the ground, the player on that side of the net looses life, so be careful not to miss the ball!
Items are also spawned during the game to help conquer your oponent.

After each round, you get bonus points for your remaining life (1000 per HP) and if your life gauge
is still full, a perfect +10000 bonus.

In-game Controls:

D-Pad left/right: Move player
Button 1: Jump (press a second time for an "air jump")
Button 2: Use special item
Pause: Open pause menu

Menu controls:

D-Pad: Move cursor
Button 1: Validate selection
Button 2: GO back

Credits:

Program and music: raphnet
Graphics: Volcanloup

Credits and thanks:
- devkitSMS by sverx
- Chunky Monkey font by DamienG https://damieng.com/zx-origins

A new release is available. Changes:

- Fix black screen with Master Everdrive x7

evil-1.0.3.zip (1.22 MB)

The fusion of Arcade VolleyBall, Mortal Kombat and Mario Kart! :-D

Very nice ! Very good idea, the graphics from Volcanloup are very cute, the physics of the ball is very well rendered, fast and fluid. The character, on the other hand, seems a little slow in its course from left to right.

This makes the game very difficult, hence I guess the need to resort to items in 1 player mode.

Very good entry into the competition, congratulations Raphnet !

Thank you for trying it out!

It is hard for me to judge the difficulty, I inevitably played it a lot during development... I was wondering is it too easy? haha

However I believe that even at the current speed, with practice it quickly gets easier as you learn to anticipate. Also, the moderate default speed makes you wish the next item you get is speed shoes doesn't it? :-D

I think the game is easy as it is, which is not a bad thing. Also, I feel like it's missing some sound effects, to make it sound more alive. I don't know if it's something with my emulator, but sometimes I see the same messages either if my character wins or when the enemy wins. Apart from these nitpicks, this is the entry I had the most fun with. It's very good!

BTW, is this an (huge) update of your Arcade Volleyball port?

Thank you! I'm so glad you had fun, that's a good sign for a game :-)

The winning dialog issue you spotted is an oversight in the dialog system. The whole thing needs rework... There could also be alternate sentences to make it less repetitive...

I agree about the sound effects, and in fact there should be both music and sound effects during play if possible... Unfortunately for the competition there was not enough time... I ended up just reusing the sound effects I had created for the Arcade Volleyball port... and that is the only thing (beside inspiration) the two games have in common. Everything else was done from scratch.

Good game. Nice idea! I dont like ingame have a Game boy and not a SMS or other Sega System. LOL

segarule wrote

Good game. Nice idea! I dont like ingame have a Game boy and not a SMS or other Sega System. LOL

But! It's supposed to be a demon, isn't it?

I had great fun with this. The presentation is great throughout. I especially love the trash talk of the contestants before the match.

My only gripe is that everything moves so fast that I don’t always feel like i’m in control. Nevertheless, I won the tournament on my first try ever. Is that supposed to happen?

mateusbond wrote

segarule wrote

Good game. Nice idea! I dont like ingame have a Game boy and not a SMS or other Sega System. LOL

But! It's supposed to be a demon, isn't it?

More or less considering that character is unlockable for you play with it. You can interpret it like as "Boss" with reason or one more secret partner for finish the game.

segarule wrote

I dont like ingame have a Game boy and not a SMS or other Sega System. LOL

Ah.... I admit the thought did cross my mind for a moment that this could be a bit "wrong", but more than anything I just thought this 8bitboi was a cute and funny character. I guess maybe it should not be playable (so you can only beat it to pieces!) in a future version of the game.

Kagesan wrote

My only gripe is that everything moves so fast that I don’t always feel like i’m in control. Nevertheless, I won the tournament on my first try ever. Is that supposed to happen?

I would have hoped that it took a few attempts though. I wanted to have increasing difficulty as you climb the levels of the tournament, but did not really succeed at this due to lack of time. (each character has slightly different AI behavior, but they are all pretty week at the moment)

I loved the moment, and it was when the "tower" appeared that I realised the joke you were going for here :D

This whole game is mad in the best way. I'd like to not lost most of my points by fumbling it on my own side but that's a skill issue.

Thanks raphnet for sending the forum link - not sure how I missed it. Neat idea for a game - the evil volleyball graphics are great and the physics are spot on - I'm probably in the "a bit too fast for me" camp but the game is nicely laid out with the progression up the ladder as you win games etc. and the avatars expressions and reactions are a nice touch - well done!

LOL! I like it, quite a solid game and I love the concept.

Very impressive @raphnet. I particularly admired the physics and (a bit nerdy to say!) the animations on the menu systems - it looks very polished and professional, even down to the spinning raphnet logo!

I found it a little tricky to control with a keyboard on an emulator, but I reckon if I could play it on control pads it might be on the easy side.

Agree with mateusbond about the sparse sounds - I think some light background music during gameplay would be a great addition.

Also, I really love the trash talk although would be nice to skip it with a button.

A new version (1.0.5) is now available! Here is what changed since the last version I posted in this thread:

- Add more sound effects
- Added in-game music
- Changed title/menu music
- Make the dialogs skippable by pressing a button
- Make scoring bonuses sequence skip ahead when pushing a button
- AI can now use the "sticky" item
- Fix a visual glitch after fighting the demon again or doing another competition.
- Avoid CRAM dots when fading in/out (on NTSC at least...)

ExtremeVolleyballInfernalLeague-SMS-1.0.5.zip (686.61 KB)

This game reminds me very much of the other arcade volleyball game in the homebrew section. Which was ported from the Amiga code.

retroTom wrote

This game reminds me very much of the other arcade volleyball game in the homebrew section. Which was ported from the Amiga code.

Yes! Arcade Volleyball was the inspiration! (I did that port by the way, but besides a sound effect I did not reuse code here)

The goal was to create something similar, but with nicer graphics and hopefully more fun. Compared to Arcade Volleyball, these are new elements which I hoped could help achieve this:

- Scoring system (for replayability - try to beat your own score!)
- Item system (add an element of chance and surprise to the game!)
- Trash talk and different characters (more personality!)
- Better/different physics, and "air jump" (for cool moves!)

Also, although those were not ready in time for the competition deadline:

- Music and more sound effects

Very fun game, super polished!

The physics go very fast (especially on 60hz), but that forces the player to stop and think rather than just brute-force their way through the game.

I like the banter between characters, gives the game a lot of charm.

The most recent version has cool new music and sound effects too.

I feel like the final boss could use an upgrade in terms of HP, because as it stands, it is really easy to combo, while it is on its starting spot!

Good job, this is my favourite homebrew of this year's competition!

The game is difficult...
...for me ;) (I know, I'm too old)

Very good game, full of details, animations etc... very well done and fun to play

I go back to play it again ;)

Thanks to everyone who played and gave us feedback!!

This inspired us to continue working on it, and for the past two months we have been working on version 2, which is almost ready now. Here is a quick summary of what changed:

- Added new courts and a few more songs
- Added bonus matches (challenges using the ball) for extra points
- Players now have stats (jump height and speed)
- Added an achievements system
- New unlockable character (Fast Nic)
- Improved dialogs systems (more banter!)
- Recoded the AI again (now the 3rd time) for more distinct play styles between opponents
- Updated physics and speed adjusted for a bit more control (often the ball would go way too fast - as many have observed)
- Lots of small improvements and fixes

This new version will also be available as a ROM and physical cartridge, and the PC port is coming soon on Steam!

https://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/extreme_volleyball_infernal_league/index.p...

The Steam version has integration for Achievements and High scores, and is really fun in Remote Play Together mode, if you have a friend not too many milliseconds away from you :-)

But of course playing it on a real Master System connected to a CRT is unbeatable!

playing_on_sms6.jpg (312.14 KB)

cartridges1.jpg (63.05 KB)

Cool have new improvements. And about Afterschool Adventurers Club? Why you dont submitted it to competition?
Legal que você fez melhoramentos. O que pode dizer sobre esse Afterschool Adventurers Club? Por que não submeteu na Competição?

segarule wrote

Cool have new improvements. And about Afterschool Adventurers Club? Why you dont submitted it to competition?

Simply because Afterschool Adventurers Club was (and still is!) in development and not ready. Instead we took a small break to create this Volleyball game :-)

We thought about making a simplified Afterschool Adventurers Club for the competition on, but an entry with 1.5 years of development behind it did not feel reasonable so we changed our mind...

Hello!

I just wanted to announce that version 2 is officially released!

Available from Itch.io and Steam, both versions include the .SMS ROM file for playing on the real thing.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2404230/Extreme_Volleyball_Infernal_League/
Itch.io: https://raphnet.itch.io/evil

The physical edition is slightly delayed, because we took the last minute decision of making a manual...

It has been brought to my attention version 1.0.6 (the final build from the Competition entry branch of the game) was not on smspower.org! Could an admin add it to the game page here?
https://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/ExtremeVolleyballInfernalLeague-SMS

ExtremeVolleyballInfernalLeague-SMS-1.0.6.zip (686.54 KB)

Done.

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View topic - [Coding Competition 2023] Extreme Volleyball Infernal League by raphnet

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