More Castlevania Info

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DaMadFiddler
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More Castlevania Info

Post by DaMadFiddler »

I've decided to publicly release my project proposal for the game. Please note that this was drafted before I had anyone working with me on the project, so any part of it may be subject to change.

I am very thankful to Rusty for his volunteering to work on the game engine, and WillSams for offering us server space for a website when we are ready. I would also like to thank my housemates (although they probably won't see this) for helping me create sound effects and for providing voices. My dream is to have this be a group effort by and for Castlevania fans, so I'm interested to see anything [even if it's just thoughts or ideas] that the community has to offer. Hopefully, by the end of this, we'll have something that was fun and worthwhile to create and even moreso to play.

But anyway, here is the project proposal I initially wrote up to outline my idea:



CASTLEVANIA: NOCTURNE OF THE RESTLESS DREAMER
GAME CONCEPT AND DESIGN OUTLINE
Version 00x

[please note that this outline presumes the reader is familiar with and/or has played "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" for Sony PlayStation]



PRESENTATION

The game introduction will consist of either still images overlaid with backstory text, or ingame-rendered cutscenes (depending on time, disk space, and what we end up feeling like doing when we get there). The title screen will be a still image. Menus will be similar to those of the original game, with some modifications made to item selection (see "Gameplay")

Music will be the same score as Symphony of the Night, but new recordings based on notation obtained from MIDI conversions released in public forums. Sound effects will all be re-recorded or taken from free, public archives. Similarly, still art such as backdrops, textures, title/credit screens, and any necessary pseudosprites, will either be created for this project or pulled from free archives.

The game map will be based on the official dungeon map of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, with all of the same locations, puzzles, bosses, and items. Room layouts and locations will be slightly modified to take advantage of a 3-dimensional environment, while attempting to preserve all the action, plot and puzzle aspects of the original game. Each set of rooms ("area") will be stored as a separate map, to reduce individual load-times and to save RAM space. Some enemies and/or special weapons may have to be modified, replaced or removed for system resource and practicality reasons.



GRAPHICS

Gameplay will progress in a partially free-moving, third-person 3D environment, with the camera chasing or trailing the character. Character, enemies, and large furniture/structures will be skinned 3D models; other items such as weapons, pick-ups, and room decorations/environmental aspects may be 3D models or pseudosprites, depending on what turns out to be practical. Alucard's cape will be palette-shifted based on what cape he has equipped, and his hand will contain the weapon he has equipped (pseudosprite, most likely).

Special effects will include some basic lighting techniques (some dark areas, and flicker effects). Things that will be included if engine practicality allows include transparent and/or distortion-effect water, light-sourcing with simple reflections, simple fog, moving bent-texture ("clothing") effect for Alucard's cape [even a more rudimentary implementation of this, as in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver would be all right], and advanced shadows. (Well, as long as we're dreaming, I might as well throw in flame effects and metallic surfaces :-P).

The in-game menu will be text-based with graphical backdrops and a still-image character profile. It will include character statistics and various equipment sub-menus (see Gameplay).

Still image artwork will be a combination of hand-drawn and digitally modified images created exclusively for this game.

The accessible in-game map (probably one of the last things to be implemented) will consist of a simple, block-based 3D structure with free rotation (like a simpler version of the Metroid Prime map, or somewhat similar to the Castlevania PS2 map).

All of this is subject to change, as most of it depends heavily on game engine capabilities.



SOUND

All game sound will be in a straight waveform format, so it just has to be called and played through a sound channel without tinkering with synthesizers or environmental effects. It will most likely have looping stereo music files with either monaural or ingame-panned sound effects. It may also be possible to make the music CD audio tracks that the program simply plays and repeats to save CPU power, but this might adversely affect disc access activity.

Sound effects, music, and cutscene/story voiceovers are all being recorded specifically for this game, based on (but not using any part of) their counterparts in the original SotN.



CONTROL

The game will utilize the standard Dreamcast control pad. Either non-onscreen player statistics (strength, defense, luck, intelligence, gold) or a side-view minimap will be displayed on the VMU screen during gameplay, if appropriate code can be found to implement this. (Again, probably one of the last things to be done). The game is for one player only, and thus only utilizes controller port A. Games will be saved to the VMU.

Control scheme will either be fixed, or have two or three fixed presets. Preliminary control scheme is as follows:

-Analog stick: move Alucard [direction based, as in Mario or Castlevania PS2; not turn-and-move Resident Evil style]; stick has two levels of sensitivity: walk (0-50% pressure) and run (51-100%)

-D-pad: LEFT/RIGHT- rotate camera; UP- set zoom (toggle between "close" and "far" distance presets) DOWN- activate Transformation (assignable in in-game menu)

-A button: jump, double-jump (once upgrade is earned), high-jump (when pressed while blocking, once upgrade is earned), confirm selection (in menu)

-B button: use sub-weapon (axe, boomerang, cross, holy book, etc.), cancel/back (go up one level) in menu system

-X button: attack with equipped weapon

-Y button: backdash (slide backwards while facing same direction)

-L trigger: call up map screen (pauses gameplay), exit map screen (resume play)

-R trigger: simultaneously duck & block (if a shield is equipped); action persists while trigger is held, character returns to neutral state once trigger is released

-START button: call up in-game menu (pauses gameplay), exit in-game menu



GAMEPLAY

Game progresses as a realtime action-adventure title. All gameplay aspects will be as close as possible to their Symphony of the Night counterparts, with the same enemies, attacks, manuevers (minus the ground slide) and tasks to perform. The actual feel of the controls [but NOT the gameplay] should be somewhat akin to the Castlevania games for N64, although this game will most likely not feature target locking (may be too complicated...but might be feasible for sub-weapons, based on auto-aim functions).

There will most likely be several omissions from Symphony of the Night, due mainly to how difficult and/or time consuming they would be to implement. Candidates for omission include: some enemy variations; a few special items (ie. some sword variants); ground-sliding; ability to play as other characters; single-use weapons (Magic Missile, etc.); spells (will most likely either be omitted, or must be bought and equipped...3D controls do not interpret well for the original spell system); familiars (or, if these are kept in, will probably be limited to just the bat). Serious thought will also have to be put into the issue of how to handle the inverted castle.

Items, such as weapons, money, hearts, potions, etc. are picked up simply by walking or moving through them (polygon collision).

The in-game menu consists of a two-layer system. The first layer is called up when the player presses START during gameplay. This layer consists of the Main Menu, with a still-image backdrop, a list of current character statistics, and a still-image profile of Alucard [graphical mock-ups will be available soon]. Menu items in the main menu lead to the second layer:

-Weapons: list of all currently owned main weapons (X-button attacks). A text box will give a brief description of the weapon highlighted, and two text boxes on the side will show current character statistics, and statistics if this weapon were equipped. A cursor moves between the different items on the list; pressing A on a selection equips it. Pressing B returns to the previous menu.

-Shields: same as Weapons, except for Shields (held out with R-trigger).

-Body: contains four body-slots: Clothing (for a suit or armor), Head, Arms, Legs. Similar to Weapons submenu. List contains all items from four body-slots, and equipping an item automatically assigns it to the proper slot.

-Items: all instant-use and other miscellaneous items Alucard collects. Contains Hint Cards (do not have a Use function, but in-menu text description states what they say), potions, mana prisms, etc. Pressing A on a highlighted item instantly uses it.

-Relics: shows ability upgrades that Alucard has collected. Essentially a list of On/Off switches.

-Transform: assigns which animal Alucard will transform into (Bat, Mist, or Wolf) when the user presses DOWN on the D-pad. Only transformations that have been collected via Relics may be assigned. [If spells are implemented, these will probably become another option on the Transform assignable key].

Transformations may be difficult, but are important to the puzzle-based nature of the game. The wolf may be omitted, but the bat and the mist should be implemented. Both the bat and the mist can move freely in three dimensions, with Jump (A) serving as Up [vertical+] and Block (R) serving as Down [vertical-].

The overall, continuous castle is area-based. Each "area," or set of rooms, is a map, with links to other "areas" or map files denoted by closed wooden doors, and rooms within a continuous area connected by open doorways (unless a special barrier is in place, which can be implemented as a standard DOOM-style sliding door). Here's what might get tricky: only enemies within the current room are active. Enemies will not pursue or attack you from room to room, but once you leave a room, they will respawn. Going through a closed wooden door (a "map-link" door) fades the screen to black and loads the new area, placing the player in front of the corresponding map-link in the new map. This seems the easiest on system resources, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement all these hundreds of map linking calls; again, this is all very engine-dependent speculation.

The main attack button uses Alucard's equipped melee weapon (generally some form of sword or rod), which he swings, and deals appropriate damage to any enemies it collides with. Using DOOM again as an example, this can be implemented similarly to the unarmed attack...wereas the sub-weapon (axe, knife, etc.) has limited ammunition--it uses a pre-set # of hearts (ammo) to fire one shot per button-press. This would be more like the gunshots (except in the case of the Holy Book, which circles the player's character). Blocking (R) prevents any movement from taking place, but cancels any damage dealt from an attack originating in the 90-degree pyramidal radius in front of the character. (X) and (B) attacks can still be performed while blocking, but during the attack animation, the shield does not register against enemy attacks.

Some map changes will be implemented to simplify the coding and map-design process. For example, some individual puzzles or barriers may be changed to accomodate the differences between the 2D and 3D game engines. Also, some more complex map sequences (such as the boatman's trip across the underground lake) may either be simplified or turned into a cutscene to reduce unnecessary mapping headaches.

Saving the game can only be performed in designated save-rooms. Saved data includes what items are in the inventory; character level, amount of experience, and statistics; what items are equipped; which bosses have been defeated; which plot-points have taken place (such as the dialogues between Alucard and Maria); and which areas of the map have been visited. Hitpoints, magic points, and hearts (ammo) will all be restored to maximum. Thus, loading and saving games may very well be a lengthy process and take up considerable VMU space.



PUBLICITY & AVAILABILITY

A public website is to be established, once codework on the game has begun. The website will showcase game concepts, still art, music tracks, character/enemy renderings (still images of such), a text comparison to the original "Symphony of the Night," and other promotional materials. A playable engine test may also be released later on.

The game will be released as a downloadable disc image on the aforementioned website. This image will also be offered to DC Homebrew (http://homebrew.dcemulation.org) for permanent hosting. Printable CD inserts and a disc label will also be made available for download.



WHAT I CAN CONTRIBUTE

I can create all of the still artwork (title screens, character plaques, backdrop images, etc.), along with some other flat graphic images (textures, pseudosprites, "set decorations" ie. pictures on the wall, etc). I can also provide the sound effects, recorded music, and voice recordings for cutscenes. If given visual tools (read: not code or script based), I can create some of the character models and maps as time permits. I have a CD burner and a Dreamcast, and thus can test compiled code. I am also willing to create and maintain the homepage for such a project.



WHAT I CANNOT CONTRIBUTE

I do not have the necessary skills or experience to build a game engine, and I am very doubtful in my current abilities to successfully modify an existing one. I have no real experience with Dreamcast-specific work, so I cannot do the necessary work in getting compatible graphics, sound, controller, and VMU functions; however, I am actively seeking people to work on these aspects. In other words: I can handle as much of the game-design aspect as I need to, but I need people to work on the programming aspect of this project. 3D modellers/texture artists, and skilled people in the fields of Dreamcast sound manipulation and control/VMU issues would also be appreciated.



~Ian Walker
Literature major
[formerly music]
and DC enthusiast,
UC Santa Cruz
Midgey34
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Post by Midgey34 »

Wow I can't believe I just read that whole thing. Anyway it sounds like you have an excellent basis set for the game and it sounds promising. At the moment I can't help you with any of the coding or modeling issues as I barely can do any 3D and the only languages I know are BASIC, minimal C/C++, and am currently learning TI-83+ ASM (z80). I wish you luck on your project and look forward to whatever becomes of it. Good luck! :D
Remember, the quickest way to a girl's bed is through her parents. Have sex with them and you're in.
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