Forums

Sega Master System / Mark III / Game Gear
SG-1000 / SC-3000 / SF-7000 / OMV
Home - Forums - Games - Scans - Maps - Cheats - Credits
Music - Videos - Development - Hacks - Translations - Homebrew

View topic - [Coding Competition 2022] Knights of the Square by hang-on

Reply to topic

Rate this entry!

1 (Terrible) 0% 0%
2 0% 0%
3 0% 0%
4 0% 0%
5 0% 0%
6 13% 13%
7 17% 17%
8 34% 34%
9 26% 26%
10 (Excellent) 8% 8%
This poll has expired.
Author Message
  • Site Admin
  • Joined: 19 Oct 1999
  • Posts: 14682
  • Location: London
Reply with quote
[Coding Competition 2022] Knights of the Square by hang-on
Post Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2022 10:11 am
https://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/KnightsOfTheSquare-SMS

Quote
Knights of the Square
The Mega Cartridge.

Prologue
One day on the SMS-Power forums...

[hang-on] Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 11:30 am: "I have uploaded my work in progress game to the homebrew section: http://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/Blockquest-SMS. I have a weakness for Capcom's arcade classic Knights of the Round. Some day in the far future I hope to be able to create a cute/square 8-bit version/transformation for the SMS."

[Kagesan] Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:52 pm: "@hang-on: Great mockup. I really love your style and the boxy little characters. "Knights of the Square" they are."

A couple of years overdue (is this the far future?), it is finally here: Knights of the Square, as foretold by Kagesan. Over the years, it lost some of it's original "blockyness" though. This little demo presents a tentative answer to the question "What if Capcom's classic was a single-plane kung-fu-like game, with cute characters"? Something like Knights of the Round vs. Black Belt.

Knights of the Square owes everything to the SMS-Power community. From Maxim's tutorials, Bock's and Calindro's Emulators, sverx's psglib to all the resources, friendly advice and encouragement on the forums over the years. Haroldo-OK's framework and tools for Dragonblaster has been a major inspiration for this particular demo.

Story
Enemy forces advance on the Eastern borders. Villages on fire. Mayhem and chaos. You are King Arthur of the Legends. Wielder of the mythical sword Excalibur. Engage the enemy head on as you reclaim the lands!

Controls
D-pad: Move Arthur around.
Button 1: Sword Slash.
Button 2: Jump.
Pause Button: Pause.

Gameplay
Advance through the sidescrolling levels. You will encounter three types of enemies: Soldiers, swordmen and a huge, axe-wielding knight known as Scorn (the boss). The soldier can be taken out with a quick sword slash. The sword man is tricky - look for a way to avoid his sword as he moves around the screen.

Pick up various treasures for bonus points, and food items to replenish your health bar. Remaining time is converted to bonus points when the chapter is completed.

Features
This demo contains the first chapter ("Village on Fire") which ends with a boss fight. I have used surt's excellent art as the base for the background graphics, and added a few tiles of my own.

The following modifiers apply :)
- Cover art included = + 20% awesomeness!
- Source code (ultra fast z80 spaghetti) included = + 256% awesomeness!

Under the hood
* Emulicious (Calindro)
* bmp2tile (Maxim)
* psglib (sverx)
* Beastlands 2D art (surt)
* 2D animated knight
* Flamboyant font (damieng)
* Deflemask (delek)
* Screen fading (Kagesan)
* Random number (SMS-Power)
* How to Write Spectrum Games (Jonathan Cauldwell)
* WLA-DX assembler (Ville Helin)
* Knights of the Round sheet music (euphoniumguy)
* Pixel Platform Sprite Sheets (MoDsama)
* VS Code
* GIMP
* Aseprite
* Pixaki
* Tiled Map Editor

SEGA: The Challenge Will Always be There!


  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 07 Mar 2021
  • Posts: 55
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:39 pm
Very cool hang-on !

The characters really well done. Of the map at the beginning of the level until the boss at the end: There is a really good base, it's really promising.

I understand the kung-fu type concept but it's almost a shame to limit yourself to a single plane, as the characters are tiny (and cute!) a small platform side would bring a lot.
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 23 Mar 2013
  • Posts: 611
  • Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 9:07 pm
Thanks a lot for the feedback, Guy. I'm glad you appreciate the style and cuteness - so do I :) I tend to agree with you: Platforms could be a nice addition. But then again - (in theory) it would come closer to Wonderboy in Monster Land.

I originally set out to do something inspired by Black Belt and Vigilante, mostly because I enjoy those games (especially Black Belt) very much. I have attached some of the graphics I made at an earlier state, where the game had a much more 'serious' tone. Now that xfixium has made the superb Golden Axe editor, I feel that the best way to get Knights of the Round to the SMS, might be using that editor and the Golden Axe engine.
Mockup 2 3.png (5.06 KB)
Mockup 2 3.png
Arthur walking.png (1.9 KB)
Arthur walking.png
Untitled 6.png (13.5 KB)
Untitled 6.png
Arthut.png (3.58 KB)
Arthut.png

  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 04 Oct 2019
  • Posts: 74
  • Location: Brazil
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 1:19 pm
I like the idea of a medieval side scroller with the gameplay similar to Black Belt. But not Vigilante. I hate those enemies leeching your health just by touching your character!
My concern with the Golden Axe engine is that the choppy/sluggish gameplay needs some serious improvement. If someone can make it close to the Mega Drive version, then it will be superb!

And your game is very good. It is a pity the demo is too short. I wanted to play more. =)
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 12 Oct 2015
  • Posts: 183
  • Location: Ireland
Reply with quote
Very nice work
Post Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 8:57 pm
Wow really like this game hang-on : the intro music is really cool and the in play game is super funky. But only problem is I find those little dudes attack really fast and hard to kill accurately so I am getting pummelled a lot. Those "ducks" are tricky too - I don't think you can kill them face-to-face when their knife is facing you so I jump but they about face super quick when I land and stab me...! I found that I can lower the speed and give myself a better fighting chance but then I lose that cool music groove.

Some slight suggestions : in the "map" screen - I'd like to get going so a fire1 and skip option could be good to get you into the action quicker. Oh, and some check points or unlimited continues would be aweseome [or even some kind of temporary invincibility or something] if you are thinking of adding to the game... some nice way to get further in the game... until then will have to keep practicising :)

PS: thanks for including link to your Github source code repo oh and that reference to making ZX Spectrum games - will have to check that out...
Very nice work!
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 12 Aug 2021
  • Posts: 73
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 11:49 pm
The game is fun, I like it, and the presentation is quite clean too!

I agree that the little sword guys may be a little bit too difficult to attack without getting hit. After trying a number of times to find the pattern, I decided to either tank the hit and attack them after, or try to despawn them by luring them to in the right side of the screen (I am not sure if you wanted that !)

Overall, great job!

I look forward to more of this game :)
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 01 Feb 2014
  • Posts: 844
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 10:28 am
I love it. The presentation, the music, everything. The relentless assault of the enemies constantly keeps you on your toes. Luckily, the game is quite generous with health refills.

I was a bit surprised that the boss could kill me with a single hit, though. That seems a bit harsh for a first boss.
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 23 Mar 2013
  • Posts: 611
  • Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 11:05 am
Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I'm glad you like the game :)

After I have played eruiz's Green Beret, I think that a good compromise between no platforms (the current state of my game) and full platforming (like Wonderboy) could be something along the lines of Green Beret, Shinobi, Bad Dudes, Hokuto no Ken, etc., with occasional vertical platforms, so the action can take place on multiple vertical levels.

The swordmen are indeed tricky. A little too much for first level enemies, I think. They have a counter being decremented, and everytime it is zero, the swordman reorients himself to face the player. This will indeed enable the player to trick him to wander off at the sides of the screen (that is intentional). If you find the right spots to jump over him on the middle of the screen, you will have good time to slash his back before he can turn to face you. There is nothing random about his pattern, so once you figure him out, it is less of a problem. Of course a valid strategy is also to tank his damage and hope for health replenishment. :)

StevePro: Good luck woth Jonathan Cauldwell's book. Kagesan pointed me to it some years ago, and it is really a nice inspiration for z80 assembler-based approaches to development. It is also a little "punk-rock" in the sense that instead of building complex sprite handlers and game objects, you just code in the stuff and see the immediate response on the screen. For me, that is a very enjoyable experience...

The boss should not be able to one-hit kill you!?! His axe deals 2 damage, his body deals 1...
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 25 Jul 2007
  • Posts: 716
  • Location: Melbourne, Australia
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 11:56 am
The first level is fucking brutal, those little purple-haired shits kept shanking me in the knees.

In the end, the easiest strategy was simply to jump over all the enemies until the final boss (playing it kind of like a barrel jumping game).
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 23 Mar 2013
  • Posts: 611
  • Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Reply with quote
Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 12:16 pm
Jumping over the enemies is certainly a valid strategy - but you will miss out on the points for killing them. To be honest, I wish the purple guys would run a little slower. They run 2 pixels per frame. The swordmen move 1 pixel - and so does the scrolling. I think Maxim's playtest video for the compo illustrates more or less the expected gameplay for a player's first attempts at the game.

Thanks for trying out my game :)
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
  • Joined: 28 Jan 2017
  • Posts: 540
  • Location: Málaga, Spain
Reply with quote
Good game!
Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 1:40 pm
Hi!

Really good graphics (mainly I liked the sprite animations) and the music is ok.

Simple gameplay but effective, It's something like a mix between kungfu master and the msx version of back to future but with swords. Also remember chikichiki boys (capcom) playing this game.

I liked the technical factor of having to jump and gain the back of the armed enemies. Maybe could be interesting to kill all enemies jumping over them also. Something like mario (or back to future again).

A shame not to have more stages, I hope to see a longer game in the future, with caverns, deserts and more odd sites. Using primary concepts with a simple, straightforward design. Would love it!

p.d. I also see interesting the kind of games which mix genres. Like green beret (a mix of a platformer and an action game), Iron Horse, the Konami TMNT or Simpsons (with shmups concepts along the game) or MrHeli, by example.
  View user's profile Send private message
  • Joined: 12 Oct 2015
  • Posts: 183
  • Location: Ireland
Reply with quote
Finished the demo
Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 6:24 pm
After reading all the different strategies offered by the community I completed the demo OK and see a nice Easter egg at the end i.e. the waving flag - really nice touch!
  View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Reply to topic



Back to the top of this page

Back to SMS Power!