20 replies to this topic

[Beefster]

For those of you who are following the pony thread and #ponyville, you probably already know about this. For those of you who aren't, here's your announcement.

This is a pony-themed Dr Mario clone. The biggest difference: viruses are replaced with parasprites. Otherwise, the mechanics are essentially the same. I'm using Javascript and Jaws (a canvas game library) to make this beast.

It will feature online versus (eventually). Later on, I might add some extra mechanical features such as different pills and mechanically different characters. The "vanilla" mode will always be available.

So... Progress...

I have the parasprite placement algorithm finished. It's black-box reverse-engineered from the GBA port of the NES version: (In laymen's terms, I imitated what I saw to the best of my ability, with quite a bit of guessing)


FIRST OFFICIAL BETA RELEASE!
Download: Mediafire

It's the basic playable version. Nothing flashy yet.

Known Issues:
- Control will occasionally (and spontaneously) freeze up, forcing a refresh. If you can find a way to consistently reproduce this buggy behavior, let me know.
- Input will carry over between javascript alerts. This is a limitation with Jaws which will be avoided when I set up pause and round-end game states.

Edited by Beefster, 29 February 2012 - 02:11 AM.

[Moosh]

This is both amazing and what the hell at the same time...No clue what drove you to do this, but I salute you!

[Link128]

Why not replace the pills with musical notes ?

[Neppy]

Haha, parasprites! Sweet! Looks really interesting, Beefster! Well, Link128, that's a mighty good idea about the music notes, since that's how they were taken care of!

[Beefster]

But then what about how they stick together? (I also thought of musical instruments, but that would be awkward too.)

I'll give the notes a try. I'm not quite sure how grouping will work, but I'll see what I can do.
If you want to give it a shot, the grid size is 28x28 and the "pills" are 24x24. (The extra 2 pixels on edges is for connections.) The spritesheet is layed out with each row as a color (blue, red, yellow) and each entry in the row as a different shape (@ < > ^ V ) Please use vector graphics, then convert them to png.

Edited by Beefster, 04 February 2012 - 12:36 PM.

[Geoffrey]

It should be called "Doctor Whooves".

[Beefster]

But it's not about time travel... Even "Nurse Redheart" works better than that.

TRY AGAIN!

EDIT: I've got the core mechanics programmed. except for automatic falling (I've been using the down key for testing purposes) for active pills and the win/lose conditions.

Next milestone: combos, effects, and scoring.

Edited by Beefster, 06 February 2012 - 01:38 AM.

[Beefster]

As I mentioned, I have the core mechanics programmed.

I'm looking for some contribution to this project.
I mostly need musical talent, but certain graphics would be nice.

What I'm looking for in music:
- Remixes of Dr. Mario themes in the style of Pinkie Pie's Parasprite Polka (Particularly Fever and Chill, but Cough (AKA Cube) and Sneeze (AKA QueQue) remixes would be cool too)
- A title theme of some sort
- (while not technically music) sound bites from various characters for victory, defeat, combos (giving and receiving), and round start quotes (Such as Pinkie Pie saying "CATCH ME, RARITY!" when she's matching Rarity)

In graphics:
- A pill replacement in the three colors, preferably also available in vector format to make editing easier.
- Animated portraits for the Mane 6, Spike, and Discord (particularly: passive, giving combos, getting hit by combos, victory, and defeat.)
- Backgrounds and a "pill" border

EDIT: there is a basic playable version here

Edited by Beefster, 06 February 2012 - 11:49 PM.

[Geoffrey]

Okay...so I feel like this is perfect timing. Yesterday, I was assigned an open project in Digital Art. I'll see what I can do with creating those images,--although the animation may be a bit difficult, but we'll see--and I'll get school credit for it.

Do you want the character portraits to be in the same little box-area that they were in Doctor Mario? and chucking pills or whatever their replacement will be? (I'm not a veteran player; I played it today for the first time for contrast.)

I probably will not specifically look for sound-bites, but I'll grab any good ones that I find.

Despite literally being the basics, the demo was good; it shows progress.


Time to see if that sketching talent translates to Photoshop.

[Beefster]

Don't worry too much about portrait size right now, because I'm honestly not sure myself. I can always resize and scale as necessary...

The portraits will probably be in the upper-right corner, yes.

[Shane]

This blows Pokemon, Zelda, and Mario out of the water. Ponies FTW!

(okay so I lied, but this is cool)

[Radien]

I have the parasprite placement algorithm finished. It's black-box reverse-engineered from the GBA port of the NES version:

I wonder how many people here know what "black-box reverse-engineered" means?... Because I know enough to understand the phrase... but so often, I use the term "black box" and no one knows what I'm talking about.

It should be called "Doctor Whooves".

THIS.

Although, since Dr. Whooves isn't a "physician," to bring it all together you'd need some fanart of Dr. Whooves wearing a white labcoat and a stethoscope.

[Beefster]

I made a bit of progress today. I implemented the scoring system. I gave it my own personal twist where horizontal lines score 50% more points because they're 20% cooler. (but it's otherwise based on Dr. Mario's scoring method.)

The code is actually there for combos; they just don't do anything yet.

[Radien]

I made a bit of progress today. I implemented the scoring system. I gave it my own personal twist where horizontal lines score 50% more points because they're 20% cooler. (but it's otherwise based on Dr. Mario's scoring method.)

That's a great idea! It might sound more appropriate if it were a 20% bonus, but for better gameplay, 50% sounds just right.

I enjoy it when a game rewards you for doing something fancy that is optional, especially if it affects. For instance, Grandia III gives you an EXP boost if you complete a battle without taking damage. Previous Grandia games only gave you different victory music when that happened. It was a nice addition.

[Geoffrey]

So my Digital Art teacher said "neigh" to the ponies. Blegh. But I still went ahead and attempted making some character animations--each frame looked good, but the animation sucks. I could go ahead and make still images for you, if you want; but my animation is so terrible that I've surrendered.

Also, Radien, you're a brony? For whatever reason, that makes life seem about 20% cooler.