Project: Zarc's Bizarre Journey Home
| Project Started: |
1st August, 2008 |
Last Update: |
28th April, 2009 |
| Project Owner: |
 frankodragon |
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| Project Type: |
Adventure-Shooting |
Project Progress: |
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| Project Overview |
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This is a game I've been working on all summer long and it still needs a lot of work. Zarc's Bizarre Journey Home takes place right after 'Aleena's Adventure'. This time, the main character is one of the baddies, Zarc-a young but dangerous Soldier Dog in hopes to find a way out of a large valley. His dad decided to sneak off in a hot-air balloon while Zarc was sleeping leaving him to fend in a strange part of the world.
The game I wanted to feel like the classic Zelda but with a few twists- one, being you're the bad guy and two, there's no princess to rescue. You just hope to get out and give your father a piece of your mind when you return home.
The overworld is pretty large so far and I did some touch-ups on graphics. Certain enemies need to have more variety in movements. The main enemies are a strange bunch of pigs. Who knows why they are there or what they want-but later on you might find out. Your only weapon is the spell wand with an unlimited supply of magic balls. I'm working on several power-ups to the wand to make enemies more beatable.
Dungeons, caves, etc. Some are modeled like Zelda, others are just one large plane filled with obstacles and enemies. Like the overworld, they also need more work and detail. Impassable gates are there to keep Zarc from moving onto other regions of the valley until he defeats a Boss. Once Zarc has a key he can move on freely to the next area.
One odd characteristic in the game is you have to be nice to the ones who'll help you. Fire balls at them and you'll suffer damage yourself. I haven't really thought about up-ing the HP after destroying a Boss. I'm thinking more of terms of a shoot-and-survive style game besides being an adventure.
Another thing I'm utilizing is my cartoon art towards the story. Whenever you come up to the villagers, cave dwellers, etc you'll see their response along with a drawing of them next to it. Zarc himself is a character of my graphic novels.
I'd like to have two versions of the game-one being a freeware version, the other with more dungeons and more overworld to explore, along with one of my graphic novels as a pack-in on the same cd-rom. I was also thinking of designing some mini-arcade games but so far it's basically trying to make the main game
look better and playable.
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Great concept!
By: Carnivorous id
On: 11th Nov 08, 23:43:09
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Final Update
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Posted 28th Apr 09, by frankodragon
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This will be the last update for Zarc BJH until releasing this beast. I've been watching a lot of YouTube reviews of bad video games including the worst-'Action 52' for the NES and I've learned what not to make in games like these. If it breaks other peoples' sanity, then it's not worth even releasing it.
I have been testing the game and adding small stuff here and there to the original quest. The second quest, in which a password must be purchased, I've been working hard on creating more enemies, dungeons, places and characters. So far, I've been pushing the software near it's limits, so again, if you are not patient during loading times, this game is not for you.
One other thing many probably won't like are the graphics. They are original but I usually do a better job on pencil and paper. I really don't like spending a lot of time detailing enemies and bosses. Music is original but it does take up a lot of file space-even if it's .ogg format. Most sound effects are also original except for a very few.
I want just about everything to be from scratch. I tried my own movement engine but I figure many won't like how Zarc will bounce off obstacles. The shooting bones has a very weird effect at times. Whenever you shoot one way, then change direction, the bones will immediately follow. I've tried ways to stop this bug but so far I just left it at that.
It's been over one year since the game's been started so I have spent a lot of time getting things to work right and even spending some time making other small surprises. I just hope I don't get too involved in making too much of a good thing.
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Two Versions of Zarc
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Posted 11th Dec 08, by frankodragon
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1 Comment
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There was a small snag in the controls of the game. For some reason, the space bar which originally was the 'shoot' function also served as the 'load' button. I don't know how this happened but I had to change it to 'Shift.' Sorry. I know some of you prefer to use the space bar instead of 'Shift' but this was a conflict that made the game unplayable.
I'm having seconds thoughts against making an interactive map. This being due to the numerous amount of active objects just in the overworld field. And I do mean -numerous-. I hate to say this, but some of you might not like this game, not because of the game itself, but it does take time to load between frames. Of course those who played on the Commodore 64 probably know the feeling of waiting back then too. I did try the HWA version and still the game loads slow. The gameplay however is smooth and there are no slowdowns.
A few weeks ago, I cranked out tunes. These are all original. Most of the sound effects are also original made from altering my voice. Either you're going to laugh at the effects or turn the sound off.
The Extended Version of the game with extra dungeons, characters and more enemies is in the works as well as some additional tweaks to the freeware version. The extended version will need to be unlocked with a password to continue onward after completing the original part of the game. There will be small fee for the password.
BTW, for those who are interested in the graphic novels based on the games you can jump over http://frankodragon.deviantart.com
They're also created by me.
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Still at it!
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Posted 11th Nov 08, by frankodragon
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It's been a while since the last update but here's what's going on so far: I've added more characters-good and bad- to the huge playfield; more areas such as dungeons and the huge Pig Prince's Palace which is a WIP. I haven't made a map yet so I wonder if there are any tutorials of making an interactive map? The playfield (overworld) can only have up 20,000 objects and so far it has about 12-13K objects so far. Luckily I used the HWA version so there is hardly any slowdown. I haven't tested this on a slower machine but I have a feeling it will be slow on those who do have 500MHz or lower.
I think some will get a kick whenever an enemy is defeated-has it's own "ARRGH" sound while others probably would want to turn the sound off. Speaking of sound, I've also composed a few tunes which unfortunately takes up space even in .Ogg format so the file itself will be about 40MB.
I've added several mini-games although they aren't -perfect- The collision detection on one isn't so great and I don't want to spend more time on just the mini games alone.
I can stress the overworld field map is -big- and more is being added to it, little by little. If all goes well, I'd like to publish an 'expanded quest' version for a small fee. But so far that's in it's early stages.
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Bacon Anyone?
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Posted 6th Sep 08, by frankodragon
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2 Comments
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Just before I mention what's going on so far, I like to thank those who comment on ideas and things to either improve on and those who like the game so far.
The main enemies are evil pigs. Lots of them. Oh sure, there are other enemies like giant skunks, worms and walking horses armed with spears but pigs dominate the world map. To make it bizarre, hence the title of this work, there are even blue and yellow pigs. Sorry, no green hams here. If you don't like shooting magic bones at pigs, then look elsewhere. That's not a typo. Instead of magic balls, I've tweaked the balls into blue bones.
I'm adding animations to the enemies when they are shot. It looks a lot better than just have them disappear. This will take time as there are plenty of enemies both overworld and under.
I'm trying to avoid large open fields. For instance, I'm adding trees to make a large maze-like forest. Walking in a large open area makes the player walk aimlessly. I've yet to add more obstacles in deserts and wintry wastelands.
Some of you like the cartoony drawings of the NPC's so I've decided to make more places for Zarc to visit. Whenever he bumps into a resident, a card appears with his or her mug shot. I've even animated the mouths and sometimes the eyes of the NPCs. I don't know if it's wise to add voices because it would add to the file size of the game. So far it's over 12MB, and I've yet to add a soundtrack.
Changes in power-ups. Besides changing the magic balls into bones, I added a gigantic fire hydrant (not native to the valley but still interesting, nonetheless) that falls onto enemies. You are given several attempts to clear out a "screen" of enemies on the overworld map.
The biggest task yet is still the overworld map. I'm still working on it adding enemies, power-ups, secret areas, etc. I'm just trying to make things interesting. When the brain juices start flowing then I'll maybe put something interesting in a spot.
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