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View topic - [Coding competition 2020] Heroes Against Demons by ichigobankai, Polaria Poyon

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[Coding competition 2020] Heroes Against Demons by ichigobankai, Polaria Poyon
Post Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:50 am
https://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/HeroesAgainstDemons-SMS



Quote
The demonic Death's army has invaded the kingdom of Amalore!
Armed with their courage, who of the 3 sacred guardians will be able to push evil back out of the country?

* A match-3 game in a heroic fantasy world!
* 10 monsters and 3 heroes
* Soundtrack by Polaria Poyon

Button 1: exchange items
Button 2: change the cursor's orientation

Tips:
* You can reload the grid against 500 gold by pressing Button 1 + Button 2
* A little help will blink after 6 seconds
* Try to match potions (boosters) first then other objects

Made with :
Bmp2Tiles (Maxim)
Emulicious (Calindro)
Meka (Bock)
PSGlib (Sverx)
Deflemask
Photoshop
Python
Sdcc
Wla-Dx


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Post Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:51 pm
A classic concept, beautifully implemented. Graphics and music are as expected, which means in the case of you two that they are top-notch, of course. There's quite some challenge involved, too, so the game keeps you motivated for quite some time. If you ask me, it's the best entry this year, hands down.
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Post Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:52 pm
What a great game.
Really, there are no limits for you, excellent game and music.
I can not finish the game yet, last enemy is too hard and of course with the 3 continues; let´s see next days. My favourite player is Hunter, I feel very confortable playing with him and makes a easy begining, but I prefer Crusader to try to defeat the game, you are at the same level with enemies.
The other player, the lady, is too weak and the game is very difficult to me with this character, starting with 0 of atack and defense makes a really hard journey.
Of course I tried to make a small cheat pausing the game and with more time decide my next moves but the screen changes to black and white and do not help me nothing do that, only you can win honestly. The details like that are incredible, too much work making this game.
This game makes me at 100% while I´m playing it, the strategic is very important, in short for the duel you are playing, medium to decide what upgrades you need later and in large to be well upgraded for last enemy. In my opinion a few more margin to colect money and will help you to distract a few of the strategics, the line is very thin to win, and will helps to reduce the concentration of player a few moments will help for the hard journey.
The cyclop is my favourite enemy, but all the sprites for characters and objects are really nice.
Congratulations for the great job and had a great valuable replay, this a masterpiece without doubts.
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Post Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 4:23 pm
Thank for all your kind words guys!

Some luck is also required to finish the game^^
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Post Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 9:22 pm
Finally I complete the game with Crusader and 2 continues used.
I used a mountain of luck to defeat Death but finally I do it.
It is a great game and be sure I will replay it to finish without continue and try the other 2 players. This is a Masterpiece, THANKS
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Post Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 9:45 pm
Hey thanks for all the kind words about the music, I'm glad you all enjoyed it! I had a blast and ichigo was great to work with. I've been looking through all the different entries and theres lots of talent being poured into these projects! It's great to see that theres still a dedicated scene for the Sega master system. ❤
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Post Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 9:16 am
It's not my type of game, but I really liked it! You have to be reactive and the music energizes the fight, well done!
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Post Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 11:51 pm
Amazing game and awesome music, congrats to you both; I've finished it a few times already and wish it had a kabillion levels or so. Been playing it with Emulicious and movement seems too sensitive sometimes; I don't know if it's the keyboard. Found a bug, though -- try pressing PAUSE on the shop screen. Great entry nonetheless!
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Post Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:32 am
My bad, i thought the pause button was fixed before submitting the entry...
(works on Meka but not on Emulicious)

I'll fix this as soon as possible !

Edit.
I've fixed it (stupid reti instead of retn...), i'm waiting a response from Maxim to edit my entry.

Edit2. v1.01 added.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 6:54 pm
I really enjoy playing this game. Graphics and music are top notch!

I've just a minor remark: It took a bit of getting used to the controls. It's a bit annoying that I cannot move/rotate the cursor while blocks are falling down. I understand that I cannot swap blocks while blocks are falling down but why can't I move the cursor?

I also noticed something that might be a bug or maybe it's intentional?:
When booster potions are matched while a booster is already active the newly matched booster potions are ignored. I would have expected that it at least sets the booster duration to the number of matched potions.

In the end the costs for "Restore Health" exploded (see screenshot) which prevented me from continuing the game. Did I do something wrong that made the costs go up that high? :(

In any case, you produced a fantastic game that would easily have been released as an official game back in the days. Great work! :)

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Post Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 9:01 pm
Hi Calindro, thanks for your advices.

I've make a little update (see v1.02), so now you can move and change orientation when blocks are falling (or reordering) but can not swap them.
It's only blocked during explosion/items matching.

Fixed the shop (player level was too high... so price's pointer was not on a "good" value)

Fixed also the boosters, if you already have a booster, a new one will replace only if time is bigger.

I'm working a little bit on it (checking for a little physical release)
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:29 pm
During these days I´ve been playing this game hard.
Finally I finished with Crusader and Hunter without continue but with the Wizard the difficult is really high for me, always Cyclops defeats me. My last strategy is get all atack possible in the 4 first stages but I fail, in the past I tried equivalent atack and defense with no luck.
For me the game has a very high revaluable play and I always enjoy playing it. Please do not answer about my wrong strategic I will discover how to beat the game with Wizard without continue, I hope.
If finally appears a physical release I will be very happy with a copy from the developer if he feels confortable make a deal with me, in other case I underestand, and no problem with that, in both cases thanks for making another great game and the enjoy time.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:41 pm
ichigobankai wrote
I've make a little update (see v1.02), so now you can move and change orientation when blocks are falling (or reordering) but can not swap them.
It's only blocked during explosion/items matching.

There's some artifact going on now to the left of the screen, mostly; could it be a side effect of this change?

ichigobankai wrote
Fixed the shop (player level was too high... so price's pointer was not on a "good" value)

Kept me wondering why such specific value if it was on purpose... but it wasn't, afterall.

ichigobankai wrote
I'm working a little bit on it (checking for a little physical release)

Sounds awesome!
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:49 pm
ichigobankai wrote
Hi Calindro, thanks for your advices.

I've make a little update (see v1.02), so now you can move and change orientation when blocks are falling (or reordering) but can not swap them.
It's only blocked during explosion/items matching.

Fixed the shop (player level was too high... so price's pointer was not on a "good" value)

Fixed also the boosters, if you already have a booster, a new one will replace only if time is bigger.

I'm working a little bit on it (checking for a little physical release)

Hi Ichigobankai,

thanks a lot for the improvements! Controls feel a lot smoother now, well done! :)
Also thanks for fixing the boosters.

Unfortunately, with this update some graphical glitches (as mentioned by Melanogaster) got introduced by accessing the VDP to quickly during active display.

Few things I haven't figured out yet about the game:
What happens when the bar at the bottom of the screen is filled?
Do bombs deal damage in general or based on the blocks they erase?
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:50 am
Feel so stupid... i've only quickly tested this on Meka where i've disabled sprite flickering to play Dead Gunner ^^
So i will fix this today AND take some time to verify it correctly, this time.
Sorry guys.

---

So for items "bombs" and "shield" (as they are linked) :
Shield protect you from the next aligned bombs. A small icon appear in the top/left of your character. Next aligned bombs will be reverted to your enemy.
If you do not have the icon, next aligned bombs will hurt you.

Bombs deal only "general" damage.
But boosters also affect the bomb's power !
(boosters affect "nearly" everything, hearts, gold, attacks... only shield is not affected)

---

The bar on the bottom is an XP bar.
Once filled It will give to your character a +1pt on the stat of his predilection :
* Magic for the Wizard
* Attack and Defense (alternately) for the Crusader
* Attack for the Hunter

When reach level 9 (maximum), it will give you gold

---

Edit. Uploaded v1.03
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 9:53 am
This is without a doubt my absolute favorite this year. My girlfriend also loves it very much. She just finished the game with every character.
With some added story intro+outro and a few more enemies this could have easily been a full price release back then.
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 9:44 pm
Thanks !

Quote
With some added story intro+outro and a few more enemies this could have easily been a full price release back then.


That's exactly on what i'm working on ^^

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Post Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 9:56 pm
Nice, we are really looking forward to that!
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 2:16 pm
I tryied this game the last one of all because I am usually not very comfortable with this kind of games but after 1 minute I have found myself playing it without rest.

I really belive this is the best game of all.

Thank you for your time and effort with this game.

I am very interested in a physical release too.
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 2:18 pm
Lots of great comments so not much more to add here. FWIW I found the controls a little getting used to.
BTW the screen change on pressing Pause has a nice effect... not sure if anyone mentioned that :)
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 3:59 pm
Thanks for all your nice comments!

I've just finished the 1st intro image.
When finished, I'll contact Polaria to make some music ;)

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 12:50 pm
Woaw, that's a really impressive entry. Like everyone else, I think this could be an actual commercial release from the 90's. The game is fun to play, it is very beautiful, and feels very polished and "complete". I'm looking forward the physical release, and congrats on all the hard work you have made on this project! :)
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:19 am
this is absolutely not my kind of game, but it's totally well done and polished so I agree this is among the best entries *ever*
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2020 5:04 pm
Physical copy pleaaaase !
The game is just great !!
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Post Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 6:41 pm
Very good!
I played through the end with all 3 characters.

The only suggestions I have would be to:

1) Tweak the controls slightly by adding a little more wait / debounce time on the cursor orientation change. As it is I often find the orientation changing twice unless I really focus on only tapping the button.

2) Maybe pause the boost timer while the pieces are rotating into place. I found the timer running out while I was in the process of making a match several times. Perhaps only pause the timer if there's less than 1 second and the pieces are in the process of being swapped.

3) A few more enemies / story / polish on the presentation, and maybe an extra music track or 2. Looks like you're working on that already, but I thought I'd mention it.

Overall great game!!
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Post Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:51 am
Thanks for your ideas Raccoon Lad!
(i've added them in the game ;) )
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Post Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 10:21 am
Link to the physical edition !

https://www.smspower.org/forums/17951-HeroesAgainstDemonsPhysicalEdition
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Post Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 3:34 pm
Congratulations on the reception to this game, it looks and sounds incredible... It's just a slight shame to me that it doesn't seem to run on a Mega Drive.

Great job all around nevertheless though.
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Post Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 3:43 pm
bumtree wrote
Congratulations on the reception to this game, it looks and sounds incredible... It's just a slight shame to me that it doesn't seem to run on a Mega Drive.


elaborate on this, I'm sure it can be fixed.
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Post Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 5:51 pm
Ah sorry yes -

Using an Everdrive X5 on a Model 1 Pal Mega Drive (run at NTSC and PAL speeds) it boots to a dark red screen.
Heroes.jpg (156.46 KB)
Heroes.jpg

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Post Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 6:28 pm
Hi Bumtree.
Just tested on my pal MD1 with my cheap chinese everdrive and unfortunately no problem here.

Dumb question ;
Did you load the .sms file or the .zip ?
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Post Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 7:25 pm
Fair question - and yes, it's definitely the 128K SMS file.

I don't think previous revisions of the game booted up either and have also confirmed there's nothing up with my sd card.

I guess it might help to confirm the revision of the Mega Drive? I'm not sure what to think other than something might be up with my hardware - but I haven't found this non-booting issue with other SMS titles (aside from those already expected not to work on a Mega Drive).

Edit - this is probably complete overkill but I might as well make use of these diagnostic ROMs :

SMS Test Suite states in its hardware tests section:

JPN: NO
VDP: 315-5313
TV: 60HZ (NTSC)
Media Enable: NO
Z80 type: NMOS


Sik's MD Version Check states:

Version is 0
Region is America
Sega CD Present
No 32X

Comrade OJ's Genesis RAM test confirms that the 68K, VRAM and Z80 are functioning correctly.
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 2:21 am
hello
i've just discovered the game and i'm enjoying it a lot, but i have a problem.
it works without issue on my pc with kega, but if i try it on another machine using picodrive i can't pass the character select screen, it automaticaly backs to the start screen.
is it a compatibility problem from the emulator itselft or do i need to configure something ?
(i realise it may be a candid question but, eh, i don't know much about how this work, i just play the games :P )


also i would like to know, will the rom files for the game gear version be available at some point or will it stay as a limited physical edition only ?

thanks (for the game and any answer) ;)
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 5:42 am
Hi!
Its a little protection.
Remove any checksum correction on your emulator and it will work ;)
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 4:17 pm
great,
now... would you have any idea how to do that, if it's not to much of a bother ?
i found litteraly nothing...
there is no option to do so in the emulator's interface
i've checked the cfg and found no line about checksum
and a google search proved infructuous (apparently nobody bothers with picodrive... the most i could find is a program to "fix" checksum which i expect will corrupt your rom since it's protected)
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