I'm a dad, new mega drive game, and other things not worth creating a new topic

[Diego]

Sometimes I just want to come here and say stuff like "hah, how about those biscotti biscuits, eh? Tried for the first time and my mind was blown into a million tiny biscobits. They're pretty good! also, I'm a dad now. anyway, bye" But I feel a new topic would be too strong, and I'm not yet sold on the Discord. I was an avid IRC user in the past (where I met my current wife, btw) but even so discord still doesn't work for me, I don't know.

So yeah, I am a dad now! that is actually a thing. He looks like me and is very tiny and I love him. Also, the easiest personality to raise a child I've ever seen! this is baby easy mode, for sure. He barely screams and cries and just generally makes my life happier. The day before he was born I was super insecure and afraid. Would I love him? would I raise him well? as soon as I held him I knew that if anything happened to him I would murder an entire football team with my bare hands and then kill myself. As grim as that sounds this is actually a good thing.

Also, a good use for this topic is for all of us to dump our TDM-unrelated game dev projects! I decided to make a game for the SEGA Mega Drive (Genesis for the Americans). It's a grid platformer akin to Flashback, prince of persia, blackthorne and others. I reject the term "cinematic platformer"; I think it's silly. But, brushing aside nostalgia, the only things I like about those games is the animation, obviously, and the grid snapping. There is potential for strategic gameplay in grid-based games and I think those games I mentioned should have focused less on precision platforming and more on semi puzzle gameplay. So I'm making it a stealth game! I don't think Mega Drive has any of those yet.

Having some fun with debug logs:

 

I have currently 4 game dev projects, which I cycle through periodically, but this is my main obsession right now. 

 

[grayman]

Congratulations on becoming a Dad!!!

It's one of the most wonderful things that can happen to you.

Be forewarned, though. It happens again when your son becomes a Dad. (Or your daughter a Mother.) During these Virus days, you cherish every picture of these special people that comes your way. Or, if they live close by, every time you get together.

Enjoy!!

[Diego]

Thanks! Yeah, the pandemic is making things harder for us  It's just the two of us taking care of a newborn and maintaining the apartment, all the time every day, no external help whatsoever. My wife is also a very social person so the isolation hits her particularly hard. 

I look forward to become a grandpa!

[STiFU]

Congrats on your kid!!  This is a major live change, well worth of a new thread!!!

For all other stuff, we have this one:

 

[Diego]

Hah! It already exists! I'm going to move my little game project there. When I sit on my PC.

[Destined]

Congratulations! I agree with the others that this is great news and very well worth a new thread I wish you and your family all the best.

[STiFU]

12 hours ago, Diego said:

So yeah, I am a dad now! that is actually a thing. He looks like me and is very tiny and I love him. Also, the easiest personality to raise a child I've ever seen! this is baby easy mode, for sure. He barely screams and cries and just generally makes my life happier. The day before he was born I was super insecure and afraid. Would I love him? would I raise him well? as soon as I held him I knew that if anything happened to him I would murder an entire football team with my bare hands and then kill myself. As grim as that sounds this is actually a good thing.

I totally get that. Those little shits make you feel things!  When my son was born last year, there were quite a few complications. After 23 hours of labor and his heart-rate constantly going up and down, he was finally born by c-section. It was the most intense and stressfull experience of my life!! We spent the night in the hospital as a famility, but I couldn't get any sleep at all, because that poor guy was crying all the time except when he had skin contant with one of us. However, I was so afraid of "sudden infant death" that I made sure I was awake all the time, when he was laying on me, just to be sure nothing could happen to him. Thankfully, me and my woman managed to relax the day after that... Still, I'll never forget how I felt that night!

[kano]

I always wondered if a fan could port Doom to the Genesis. Someone did it with Wolfenstein 3D and it looks pretty damn good. Even the music is there! Snes had Doom, but Genesis users got kinda shafted. Snes had official Wolfenstein 3D as well, though it was thoroughly censored, real, real bad.

Anyway, you can kinda sorta play Doom on a Genesis with a 32X, but it is pretty terrible. No music, low FPS, tiny window. Something you might expect from a version of the game running natively on the Genesis hardware, but 32X brought more goodies to the table, which naturally enhances one's expectations of how Doom should play in such an environment.

 

Of course the thing about cartridge based systems is that someone can always build an augmented cart with extra processors and memory inside, which is how yet another fan got Wolfenstein 3D to run better on the Gameboy Color than it did on the GBA! Also, there was a fan project (I think) to port Quake to the GBA, which would have been absolutely insane.

[jaxa]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/analogue-pockets-fpga-fueled-features-revealed-200-pre-order-on-aug-3/

[kano]

Here's the fan-made Genesis version of W3D. If you spent as much time playing the original version of this game, you'll notice how different the music is in this version, since the synth chip in the Genesis is different from that of a PC.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by kano

[Diego]

There's a guy working on a raytracer for the mega drive. He pops up on the SGDK discord server every now and then. His seems more advanced than wolfenstein, with slopes and levels, but I think it's not going to have texturing.

 

[revelator]

congratz

[Diego]

Guys. Turns out having a kid is a lot more work than I anticipated. And I anticipated it would be the most exhaustive thing in my life, just to give you an idea. I'm a little thrown off by the fact I created this topic almost 5 years ago. I missed five seasonal visits to this forum!

 

That megadrive project actually became a kickstarter campaign. Which is struggling, and probably won't succeed. I'm not throwing the towel yet. Currently working on a demo to spruce up the campaign. I'm quite proud of the trailer!

Anyway, I'm just taking a look at all your projects and updates!

 

[datiswous]

I'm not sure why you choose the Mega drive as a platform for a new game. Seems like a dead platform, no?

Nevermind

Edited June 20 by datiswous

[Diego]

There's a pretty active dev scene for retro consoles. And they can sell well, as long as you also offer them on modern platforms. Personally, I like the console and I like the self imposed limitations. I find them creatively stimulating.

Work on the demo has been soul crushing. I wasn't going to make one, because I thought it wouldn't need it. But seeing the launch flop I decided I had to make one. But it's a lot of work for such small amount of time. Implemented a bunch of new systems while designing the thing and I didn't even get to make the tilesets yet. (I have some half done I can use)

 

[SeriousToni]

I feel you on the time loss. My son was born too in 2020 and since then I struggled with the same loss of freetime and still the wonderful joy he brings every day.

I barely managed to update my old FM but it feels wonderful if you can accomplish something with the short amount if time given.

[Diego]

2020 too? haha I have a four year old as well. It's a whole different life. It gets easier, and we get a little more efficient too.

 

EDIT:
just released a playable prototype, if anyone wants to check it out

https://diegzumillo.itch.io/the-eldritch-monarch

Edited June 24 by Diego

[Destined]

I also feel you. I used to be a regular here in the forums, but since my son was born in 2022, it basically grunded to halt, although I still get the mails on threads that I wrote in.

Ironically, your post in June about not having time got me back here and got me motivated to try and use some of my precious spare time to get some progress on the map I started years ago. I still have not been able to finish a map and want to change that, as long long as the community here is still active

[datiswous]

7 minutes ago, Destined said:

Ironically, your post in June about not having time got me back here

We missed you. Welcome back!