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Hello everybody,

Once upon a time some random dev wanted to make a game for his favorite childhood console...
Luckily there was another guy named svrex that make an awesome tool named devkitSMS :)

I never posted about on my game on this forum but here it comes.

This is StygianQuest, You can call it a PuzzleGame but disguised as an RPG.

"The quest for salvation is about to begin. Dive into the deep dark dungeon of the styx and try to reveal all the secrets."

The main core of the game is almost finished ( around 95% )
There will be a total of 10 chapters of 10 boards
For now it is translated into English and French.

Check some of my youtube videos if you want to see some gameplay :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGbDQrCgc2E

For thoses who want to try the game you can download the latest release here :
https://www.danara.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/StygianQuest-006.zip

Feel free to play and comment.
Every feedback is welcome !

Thank you all

Screen0.png (13.98 KB)

Screen3.png (15.01 KB)

Screen4.png (17.36 KB)

Cool! Nice to see so many RPGs coming to the SMS at the same time.

It looks great, congrats!

Looking good! This will obviously be a high quality addition to our library. The graphics are awesome, palette is perfect. Gameplay is great, though maybe a bit too easy at the start. So far I played until just before the first boss.

Some suggestions:

Reset button doesn't work. Kind of a pain to power the system off and back on. On the same subject, since the game doesn't really need a pause button, pause could be used to turn bgm off and on, if the final release features music.

Sometimes button 1 advances dialogue and button 2 does nothing, sometimes 1 does nothing and 2 advances dialogue. In my opinion both buttons should always work for advancing dialogue.

Sometimes you end up playing a game of where's waldo to find your character after climbing stairs. Maybe have the player sprite flash/flicker for a couple seconds.

If possible, an intermediate step to the background animations would be nice.

I've seen Revo play this game through its development. Great concept and gameplay. It gets better with every iteration. Great job!

badnest wrote

Reset button doesn't work. Kind of a pain to power the system off and back on. On the same subject, since the game doesn't really need a pause button, pause could be used to turn bgm off and on, if the final release features music.

In fact, there will be a settings panel option to turn on/off BGM and SFX. I don't know why the reset button don't work (?) I will look into it.

badnest wrote

Sometimes button 1 advances dialogue and button 2 does nothing, sometimes 1 does nothing and 2 advances dialogue. In my opinion both buttons should always work for advancing dialogue.

Yes you are right, I never really paid attention but It would be better to have only one button.

badnest wrote

Sometimes you end up playing a game of where's waldo to find your character after climbing stairs. Maybe have the player sprite flash/flicker for a couple seconds.

YES ! I'm aware of this problem, and I'm working on it.

badnest wrote

If possible, an intermediate step to the background animations would be nice.

Could be nice of course, but this is almost impossible due to code architecture. And the main reason : I love it like that, I want it to have an old school look and feel. 2 frame animation is what I want.

badnest wrote

Looking good! This will obviously be a high quality addition to our library. The graphics are awesome, palette is perfect. Gameplay is great, though maybe a bit too easy at the start. So far I played until just before the first boss.

Thank you for all your suggestions ! :)
PS : Too easy at the start is great, I have more concerne about too hard at the end :s

xfixium wrote

I've seen Revo play this game through its development. Great concept and gameplay. It gets better with every iteration. Great job!

Thanks a lot ^^

Naarshakta wrote

In fact, there will be a settings panel option to turn on/off BGM and SFX. I don't know why the reset button don't work (?) I will look into it.

Yeah, my suggestion for the pause button was just so music could be turned off in the middle of the gameplay to answer the phone or something (or if the player gets tired of the music and wants some silence, without returning to the title screen).

For reset, you need to test bit 4 of input port 1 and reset accordingly, since in the SMS reset is treated as a controller button.

Looking forward to this game, good luck!

The artwork for this is beautiful, lotta detail to it. Gameplay looks fun too, sort of reminds me of Chip's Challenge in some ways and I really loved playing that game back when I was a kid.

Looking forward to seeing it finished, would like to add it to my FC3000 retro handheld. Any plans for FM music?

great work so far! :)

Regarding the reset button, it's just a regular button - and it's not even present on the SMS II...

But you can read that just like any other button, for instance with

if (SMS_getKeysStatus() & RESET_KEY)

and do something when pressed - for instance get back to the start of the level?

just remember not to use it for anything important, as said it's there only on the 'first revision' SMS

sverx wrote

if (SMS_getKeysStatus() & RESET_KEY)

Ok ! I don't know what I will do but for now I will make it a real reset button :p

kaportza wrote

The artwork for this is beautiful, lotta detail to it. Gameplay looks fun too, sort of reminds me of Chip's Challenge in some ways and I really loved playing that game back when I was a kid.

Thank you !

Author	Message
Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	[WIP] Stygian Quest Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 3:49 pm Last edited by Naarshakta on Fri Mar 08, 2024 1:08 pm; edited 1 time in total
Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	Hello everybody, Once upon a time some random dev wanted to make a game for his favorite childhood console... Luckily there was another guy named svrex that make an awesome tool named devkitSMS :) I never posted about on my game on this forum but here it comes. This is StygianQuest, You can call it a PuzzleGame but disguised as an RPG. "The quest for salvation is about to begin. Dive into the deep dark dungeon of the styx and try to reveal all the secrets." The main core of the game is almost finished ( around 95% ) There will be a total of 10 chapters of 10 boards For now it is translated into English and French. Check some of my youtube videos if you want to see some gameplay : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGbDQrCgc2E For thoses who want to try the game you can download the latest release here : https://www.danara.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/StygianQuest-006.zip Feel free to play and comment. Every feedback is welcome ! Thank you all Screen0.png (13.98 KB) Screen3.png (15.01 KB) Screen4.png (17.36 KB)

mateusbond Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 135 Location: Brazil	Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 10:35 pm
	Cool! Nice to see so many RPGs coming to the SMS at the same time.

kusfo Joined: 29 Mar 2012 Posts: 904 Location: Spain	Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2023 8:39 am
kusfo Joined: 29 Mar 2012 Posts: 904 Location: Spain	It looks great, congrats!

badnest Joined: 26 Aug 2022 Posts: 22	Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2023 2:22 pm
badnest Joined: 26 Aug 2022 Posts: 22	Looking good! This will obviously be a high quality addition to our library. The graphics are awesome, palette is perfect. Gameplay is great, though maybe a bit too easy at the start. So far I played until just before the first boss. Some suggestions: Reset button doesn't work. Kind of a pain to power the system off and back on. On the same subject, since the game doesn't really need a pause button, pause could be used to turn bgm off and on, if the final release features music. Sometimes button 1 advances dialogue and button 2 does nothing, sometimes 1 does nothing and 2 advances dialogue. In my opinion both buttons should always work for advancing dialogue. Sometimes you end up playing a game of where's waldo to find your character after climbing stairs. Maybe have the player sprite flash/flicker for a couple seconds. If possible, an intermediate step to the background animations would be nice.

xfixium Joined: 18 Jul 2020 Posts: 392	Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2023 6:19 pm
xfixium Joined: 18 Jul 2020 Posts: 392	I've seen Revo play this game through its development. Great concept and gameplay. It gets better with every iteration. Great job!

Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2023 8:20 am
Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	badnest wrote Reset button doesn't work. Kind of a pain to power the system off and back on. On the same subject, since the game doesn't really need a pause button, pause could be used to turn bgm off and on, if the final release features music. In fact, there will be a settings panel option to turn on/off BGM and SFX. I don't know why the reset button don't work (?) I will look into it. badnest wrote Sometimes button 1 advances dialogue and button 2 does nothing, sometimes 1 does nothing and 2 advances dialogue. In my opinion both buttons should always work for advancing dialogue. Yes you are right, I never really paid attention but It would be better to have only one button. badnest wrote Sometimes you end up playing a game of where's waldo to find your character after climbing stairs. Maybe have the player sprite flash/flicker for a couple seconds. YES ! I'm aware of this problem, and I'm working on it. badnest wrote If possible, an intermediate step to the background animations would be nice. Could be nice of course, but this is almost impossible due to code architecture. And the main reason : I love it like that, I want it to have an old school look and feel. 2 frame animation is what I want. badnest wrote Looking good! This will obviously be a high quality addition to our library. The graphics are awesome, palette is perfect. Gameplay is great, though maybe a bit too easy at the start. So far I played until just before the first boss. Thank you for all your suggestions ! :) PS : Too easy at the start is great, I have more concerne about too hard at the end :s

Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2023 8:29 am
Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	xfixium wrote I've seen Revo play this game through its development. Great concept and gameplay. It gets better with every iteration. Great job! Thanks a lot ^^

badnest Joined: 26 Aug 2022 Posts: 22	Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2023 1:34 pm
badnest Joined: 26 Aug 2022 Posts: 22	Naarshakta wrote In fact, there will be a settings panel option to turn on/off BGM and SFX. I don't know why the reset button don't work (?) I will look into it. Yeah, my suggestion for the pause button was just so music could be turned off in the middle of the gameplay to answer the phone or something (or if the player gets tired of the music and wants some silence, without returning to the title screen). For reset, you need to test bit 4 of input port 1 and reset accordingly, since in the SMS reset is treated as a controller button. Looking forward to this game, good luck!

kaportza Joined: 14 Sep 2018 Posts: 52 Location: Earth	Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 12:43 am
kaportza Joined: 14 Sep 2018 Posts: 52 Location: Earth	The artwork for this is beautiful, lotta detail to it. Gameplay looks fun too, sort of reminds me of Chip's Challenge in some ways and I really loved playing that game back when I was a kid. Looking forward to seeing it finished, would like to add it to my FC3000 retro handheld. Any plans for FM music?

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3967 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 11:31 am
	great work so far! :) Regarding the reset button, it's just a regular button - and it's not even present on the SMS II... But you can read that just like any other button, for instance with if (SMS_getKeysStatus() & RESET_KEY) and do something when pressed - for instance get back to the start of the level? just remember not to use it for anything important, as said it's there only on the 'first revision' SMS

Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 1:43 pm
Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	sverx wrote if (SMS_getKeysStatus() & RESET_KEY) Ok ! I don't know what I will do but for now I will make it a real reset button :p

Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 1:46 pm
Naarshakta Joined: 27 Apr 2021 Posts: 41	kaportza wrote The artwork for this is beautiful, lotta detail to it. Gameplay looks fun too, sort of reminds me of Chip's Challenge in some ways and I really loved playing that game back when I was a kid. Thank you !

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