New Dr Mario Clone: Moving Day

Thread in 'Discussion' started by Boxes_DC, 22 Dec 2019.

  1. I've been working on a game for the Dream On 2019 competition (Dreamcast homebrew), "Moving Day". Its not fully done yet, but its in a state where I'm happy to do an initial release. This game is a Dr Mario clone, but with a new skin and it adds a few extra features :D In this game you have a room instead of a bottle, boxes instead of pills, and "stuff" instead of viruses. The idea is you're moving out of home and need to pack up all your stuff. The red stuff/clothes go into the red box, the green stuff/edibles go into the green box and the blue stuff/tech goes into the blue boxes. My goal is to make this very accurate to how Dr Mario works, including timings. So if you notice something thats off, please tell me :)

    [​IMG]

    For those not familiar with Dr Mario, its a combination of Tetris + Connect 4 where you need to line up your pieces in 4 of the same colour to clear stuff. You win if you pack up all your stuff and you lose if you "Top out" (Can't spawn a new box anymore). The number of stuff is directly related to your chosen "Level" (In my version its "Level * 4". In Dr Mario its "(Level * 4) + 4")

    Download:

    I'll be regularly releasing new builds over the next few days so remember to check in for new downloads!

    v0.1

    http://www.mediafire.com/file/vxyq8rseksyjo4i/Moving_Day.zip/file

    v0.2
    This version has the following changes:
    - When paused the game now shows who paused it
    - The player's controller (eg. P1 or P2.L) now appears next to their board
    - Sometimes trash was falling early
    - Fixed bad bug where players 2 - 8 had glitchy boards that often caused a crash
    - Fixed some oversights in Twin Stick support
    https://www.mediafire.com/file/4hsxvsvp ... 2.zip/file

    v0.3
    This version adds in:
    -All the menu's except for [TBA] (Currently hid it to avoid confusion)
    - Twinstick art made by my friend JamoHTP
    - Pre-game menus for single and multiplayer allowing you to choose your team, starting level, speed and preset (Press Start in multiplayer to "Split" a controller)
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/49vme42zj3aoye0/Moving_Day_v0.3.zip/file


    v0.3.1
    This version is mostly a bugfix build. Also when you pause the game, it now hides all the boxes/stuff so you can't spam pause to get an advantage. Also tidied up the single player HUD to display on left and right on board as well as the current level.
    http://www.mediafire.com/file/7ag190r3u0c63ew/Moving_Day_v0.3.1.zip/file

    Why Dreamcast?
    The Dreamcast is a games console made in 1998. Its comparable to the PS2. I've been making homebrew on it for a few years now since imo its easier to get graphics code running there as opposed to stuff like OpenGL on PC. Dreamcast games are "cdi"s which are kinda like "iso"s. I recommend using the "REDREAM" emulator to play since it is very easy to setup and use (Windows, Mac, Linux and a single executable)

    This initial build contains:
    - Hz select screen (If not using VGA so you can still play on 50Hz-only TVs)
    - Intro sequence (Dream On, Core software used, Made by Me)
    - Main menu (Only Singleplayer, Multiplayer and Credits work right now)
    - Credits Screen
    - Singleplayer games (From level 1 to 22)
    - Multiplayer games with up to 8 players :)B);):biggrin::D>:(:sneaky::hmm:
    - (To be clear its only local multiplayer. I'd love to have online support but idk how to do that especially with the modem)
    - Twin Stick support
    - Pausing (Only 2 pauses per controller for multiplayer but unlimitted for solo)

    Right now every player in multiplayer is forced to use level 10 at "slow" speed and singleplayer is level 1 at slow speed. In the next build I'll add extra menus for people to choose what they want.

    Future features:
    - Different HUD for singleplayer (To show level and other details more clearly)
    - Score system
    - Combo clear animation
    - AI opponents
    - Sound/Music
    - Those extra menus
    - Settings (Disable trash, extra rotations, win conditions, etc)
    - Savefile for those settings and high score
    - A "story" slide before the singleplayer game
    - Something after you beat singleplayer
    - "Best of X" games for multiplayer
    - The controls menu
    - Keyboard support (Idk yet after learning of the potential limitations)
    - [TBA] ;)

    PRESETS:

    Since there is currently no controls page, I'll list here what they are. In future versions you will be able to choose from a list of control presets for your preference. But for the time being in singleplayer you use "GAMEPAD, 1P, 0" or "TWINSTICK, 0" if you're using a twinstick (A special controller for the Dreamcast). Right now the number of players you see in multiplayer is equal to the number of controllers plugged in x2 and your preset is "0 and 2" for gamepad and "0 and 3" for twinstick. So two people share the controller (One half each)

    GAMEPAD
    1P
    0 = DPAD-Movement + A-to-rotate
    1 = DPAD-Movement + B-to-rotate
    2 = DPAD-Movement + R-to-rotate
    3 = All-DPAD
    2P
    0 = DPAD-Movement + L-to-rotate
    1 = All-DPAD
    0 = Face-Buttons-Movement + R-to-rotate
    1 = Face-Buttons

    Twinstick (DPAD1 is left stick. DPAD2 is right stick)
    0 = DPAD1-Movement + X-to-rotate (Trigger)
    1 = DPAD1-Movement + Y-to-rotate (Button)
    2 = All-DPAD1
    3 = DPAD2-Movement + A-to-rotate (Trigger)
    4 = DPAD2-Movement + B-to-rotate (Button)
    5 = All-DPAD2

    Other:
    There are a few features that have been implemented, but haven't been able to fully test because either I'm not good enough or its too hard to control 2 players at once as one person. Here's the lsit of potential iffy features. They should all be fine, but if you notice an issue or bug please tell me so I can fix it:

    - Trash mode (When you receive a combo from an opponent). If you get 2+ combos in a turn you'll spawn that number of single boxes on an enemy board. I know this works for combos of 2, but what about 3 and 4? Also if you do 5+ does it only spawn a max of 4 as expected?
    - If trash spawns where you already have a box, it should replace it
    - Intersecting combos (Previously had issues with this, but it should be fine now)
    - Does the player's box fall too fast?

    Lastly:
    I want to give thanks to the entire Dreamcast community otherwise I wouldn't be here and wouldn't have gotten this far on my own. I also want to thank you guys, the people at tetrisconcept.org! Especially this thread https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/dr-mario-virus-placement.2037 . They uncovered a lot of the technical details of how the NES Dr Mario works including how the initial bottle/viruses/stuff was generated (I would never have been able to correctly figure that one out).

    Now, go play!
     
    Last edited: 31 Dec 2019
  2. v0.2 is live. Adds a few minor things and patches a major bug for multiplayer
     
  3. v0.3 is out! Main feature is all the menus have now been implemented.
     

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