[Homebrew] Lucky Penguin

[macbee]

Hello!
I'd like to announce a new NES homebrew project. It's a puzzle game called Lucky Penguin.



Lukasz Kur (from recent Oliver Twins NES releases) is the programmer and I'm doing the graphics.
My favorite thing about the visuals is that I'm using flickering on backgrounds (to create illusion of more shades/colors on screen). But you can turn off this effect in case you want a traditional NES look.

Flicker ON vs. Flicker OFF:


I think that all graphics and sounds are already finished. But there's still things to be tested/adjusted related to programming. All screenshots are still WIP - but I think they're already very close to their final version. Feel free to ask any questions about this project. Hope you like it!

[Ghegs]

I am intrigued.

What does the fortunate penguin need to do? I see four four-leaf clovers (?) in the screenshot, as well as a green cube, so I'm guessing those are somehow important.

Is this going to be a physical release or just a rom file?

[macbee]

I am intrigued.

What does the fortunate penguin need to do? I see four four-leaf clovers (?) in the screenshot, as well as a green cube, so I'm guessing those are somehow important.

Is this going to be a physical release or just a rom file?

Penguin needs to get all clovers, as fast as he can. First levels are easy - but it will become a harder task in later stages.
The green cube is just decorative.

We're trying to release the final game as a cartridge. Let's see what happens!

[Ghegs]

Physical NES cartridge, I assume?

When can we see a gameplay video? And when are you planning to release the game?

[fcgamer]

I am intrigued.

What does the fortunate penguin need to do? I see four four-leaf clovers (?) in the screenshot, as well as a green cube, so I'm guessing those are somehow important.

Is this going to be a physical release or just a rom file?

Penguin needs to get all clovers, as fast as he can. First levels are easy - but it will become a harder task in later stages.
The green cube is just decorative.

We're trying to release the final game as a cartridge. Let's see what happens!

60 pins or 72 pins version? 

[macbee]

Physical NES cartridge, I assume?

When can we see a gameplay video? And when are you planning to release the game?

All publishers I know only sells games in 72-pin carts (but I'd love to see a 60-pin version as well - if anyone knows how, I'm interested).

We still have to finish stuff for final game, so I don't know yet when it will be released, sorry!

Demo was released right now: http://volvosoftware.com/heavy/Lucky%20Penguin%20Demo.zip
Have fun!

[Ghegs]

Oh, a demo's even better than a video, great! Played through it just now.

Nice surprise with the voice samples. The graphics are good too, very suitable for this sort of thing. The flickering looked a bit weird on Nestopia, so I opted to turn it off.

The first screenshot left me a bit confused where the challenge comes from, I thought you'd have to push things around or evade enemies to get at the clovers, but instead it comes from the sliding factor - once the penguin takes a step, he'll keep going into that direction until he hits something. Simple, but can be good. But is it enough to carry through the whole game, or will other mechanics be introduced?

Not sure how I feel about the lives and time limit. The game already has passwords for each level (a very good thing, plus points for that), so the player is in no danger of losing any progress. Lives and the timer will just occasionally force the player to start the current stage over. To me personally, the perfect puzzle game (of this type) is one where I can just look at the stage, figure it out in my head (go there, push that, flip that--no wait, then I'll get stuck--flip it the other way, go around, push that over there...etc) and then execute my master plan. On Famicom Solomon's Key 2 is a great example of this, and the Lolo titles as well to a lesser degree.

The score counter also seemed superfluous. You get points for collecting clovers, a bit more when you collect several in rapid succession, a time bonus for finishing a stage and that seemed to be it. Do you get anything for reaching a certain score threshold? Extra lives are unnecessary, thanks to the things mentioned above. I absolutely understand playing games for score, but these types of puzzle games aren't really suited for it. Or the score mechanics would need to be more complex to make it more meaningful.

I'm a big fan of these types of puzzle games (Sokoban is basically a perfect puzzle game in my opinion), so I'm looking forward to see how this develops. I'm hoping to see a Famicom cart release, but I understand the market in the west heavily favors NES releases, so I'll be content with that.

[P]

I just played it through too, a very nice and good looking game. Flickering looks good on Mesen (NTSC-filter enabled), I haven't tried it on a real Famicom though. It's good that you can turn it off though, in case it looks bad on certain TV-sets.

I also love these kind of puzzle games, and am actually making one myself for Famicom (although I got stuck and haven't touched the project for a long time now).

I agree with Ghegs about lives and score (the time limit is OK in my book though). It feels like lives and score in the first Eggerland (MSX). A score that is more based on how many moves you do would feel better rather than based on time.

[macbee]

Oh, a demo's even better than a video, great! Played through it just now.

Nice surprise with the voice samples. The graphics are good too, very suitable for this sort of thing. The flickering looked a bit weird on Nestopia, so I opted to turn it off.

Thanks for your feedback!
I'm glad you liked graphics and my silly Penguin voice =D

Flickering should work fine on Nestopia. It's the emulator I've used to record gameplay of demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i6bDMH4PaM

The first screenshot left me a bit confused where the challenge comes from, I thought you'd have to push things around or evade enemies to get at the clovers, but instead it comes from the sliding factor - once the penguin takes a step, he'll keep going into that direction until he hits something. Simple, but can be good. But is it enough to carry through the whole game, or will other mechanics be introduced?

Not sure how I feel about the lives and time limit. The game already has passwords for each level (a very good thing, plus points for that), so the player is in no danger of losing any progress. Lives and the timer will just occasionally force the player to start the current stage over. To me personally, the perfect puzzle game (of this type) is one where I can just look at the stage, figure it out in my head (go there, push that, flip that--no wait, then I'll get stuck--flip it the other way, go around, push that over there...etc) and then execute my master plan. On Famicom Solomon's Key 2 is a great example of this, and the Lolo titles as well to a lesser degree.

The score counter also seemed superfluous. You get points for collecting clovers, a bit more when you collect several in rapid succession, a time bonus for finishing a stage and that seemed to be it. Do you get anything for reaching a certain score threshold? Extra lives are unnecessary, thanks to the things mentioned above. I absolutely understand playing games for score, but these types of puzzle games aren't really suited for it. Or the score mechanics would need to be more complex to make it more meaningful.

I'm a big fan of these types of puzzle games (Sokoban is basically a perfect puzzle game in my opinion), so I'm looking forward to see how this develops. I'm hoping to see a Famicom cart release, but I understand the market in the west heavily favors NES releases, so I'll be content with that.

The goal here isn't finish the game - but finish it with as many points you can make.
You have many lives and passwords to train over and over, but (at least to me) the fun here is when you're already familiar with levels and play the game from start to finish as fast as possible,

Thanks again for your opinions!

I just played it through too, a very nice and good looking game. Flickering looks good on Mesen (NTSC-filter enabled), I haven't tried it on a real Famicom though. It's good that you can turn it off though, in case it looks bad on certain TV-sets.

I also love these kind of puzzle games, and am actually making one myself for Famicom (although I got stuck and haven't touched the project for a long time now).

I agree with Ghegs about lives and score (the time limit is OK in my book though). It feels like lives and score in the first Eggerland (MSX). A score that is more based on how many moves you do would feel better rather than based on time.

Thanks P!
I think my explanation above can fit for you comments as well!

[satoshi_matrix]

What mapper are you going to be using?

[macbee]

What mapper are you going to be using?

Unrom - mapper 2

[P]

Regarding a 60-pin release. Have you contacted Infiniteneslives? He states that he got Famicom cart shells on his homepage but I can't see that he is selling any 60-pin boards yet.

[macbee]

Regarding a 60-pin release. Have you contacted Infiniteneslives? He states that he got Famicom cart shells on his homepage but I can't see that he is selling any 60-pin boards yet.

Not yet - but I'll try to contact them.
A blue famicom cart for Lucky Penguin would be very nice! =D

[L___E___T]

 



I would definitely pre-order for a Famicom version   Game looks really great but not interested in a NES cart myself.

[P]

Yeah a lot of people here would probably be mostly interested in a 60-pin version. Since you almost have a complete game, I think it would be enough to convince Paul at Infiniteneslives to complete the 60-pin versions of his INL UNROM boards.