Bio Force Ape Developer's Journal

[ProgrammingAce]

Well, i think most people have figured out that there is a Bio Force Ape homebrew in production. A demo was released a few weeks ago, you can find it in the link at the bottom of the post.

We've gotten a lot of requests from people as to how the game is coming along and what is going to be included. We're not ready to discuss all that right now, but we thought it might be fun to show off a bit of what's going on behind the scenes.

To give an idea of where the game is right now, 4 of the boss fights have been completed and are playable from start to finish, 5 of the cut scenes are in place, the "level engine" is complete, and 98% of the graphics are in place and final. The game is sitting at 8,765 lines of code right now, I estimate it will be over 10,000 by the time it's complete. We're not prepared to discuss the game's progress much beyond that, we want to leave some things a surprise.

I thought it might be fun to post some of the notes from my notebook without any explanation as to what they mean.






Link to the demo rom: http://programmingace.com/downloads/BioForceApeDemo.nes

[PapaStu]

I bet you used ink laced with Dur Butter didn't you?

I demand to see the min/max's for his fart attack! I must know how many apples one has to eat to shoot pixelation out of their butt!

[Gameguy]

ProgrammingAce, are you paulB812?

[Oobgarm]

I can assure you, he is not.

[MachineGex]

I may have missed it, but is there going to be a "cart" release of this game?
If so, I want to pre-signup for the pre-release signup list.

[jcalder8]

I may have missed it, but is there going to be a "cart" release of this game?
If so, I want to pre-signup for the pre-release signup list.

Well I pre-signup for the pre-release special edition release

[Bratwurst]

I may have missed it, but is there going to be a "cart" release of this game?
If so, I want to pre-signup for the pre-release signup list.

A cartridge release with color booklet and box is planned.

As I admitted in an earlier thread, I'm PaulB812. I'm doing the graphics for this homebrew, so it must be authentic!

The method we're using to draw characters on screen breaks down each sprite into 8x8 pixel tiles, in the demo it's not apparent if you look at the character data but in the final build there is some serious efficiency going on.



The ape character is 4 tiles high by 2 tiles wide, but you can see that part of his head is 'recycled' in a running animation frame, making him occupy 30 tile slots between standing and running. However, if we reuse his legs, the lizard man enemy here ends up only occupying 14 tile slots, once again incorporating one frame that recycles the head of another.

[GrandAmChandler]

ProgrammingAce, are you paulB812?

No, Garry Shandling is.