Re: ZX Spectrum Game Development Noob Questions
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2019 12:33 am
Once more, many, many thanks to everyone for all the tips and info! What an uplifting welcome to the Speccy scene! I've been checking out a lot of ZX Spectrum homebrew game-videos the last couple of days, and I must say what fantastic, fun & beautiful games there seem to be popping up for it!
Wow, thanks for the extensive info about the different AGD versions Alessandro! I was thinking about using C first, but AGD really gets me excited. I'd need to play around with it some and see how it feels. I'm thinking about MPAGD because of the convenience being able to use a mouse / gui, but there's certainly a charm running AGDx natively (even on an emulator). I think I'll start with doing some pixel art while letting all the thoughts and info settle in.
I don't know yet how many "user defined characters" / "blocks" and sprites you can have in AGD or on a spectrum (yet), but when I look at your games there seems to be a lot of graphics already in the intro picture, intro menu and then the game itself. Are all those parts "separate games" and new graphics are loaded into ram inbetween? Or perhaps the intro screen and the intro menu is one "game", and then as you said, subsequent levels are also loaded as separate games?
Btw. I thought I saw someone write somewhere that there would be some AY music collection that you can use for your games? Has someone heard of something like that?
Wow, thanks for the extensive info about the different AGD versions Alessandro! I was thinking about using C first, but AGD really gets me excited. I'd need to play around with it some and see how it feels. I'm thinking about MPAGD because of the convenience being able to use a mouse / gui, but there's certainly a charm running AGDx natively (even on an emulator). I think I'll start with doing some pixel art while letting all the thoughts and info settle in.
That sounds like a great idea! Do the newer speccys still have the beeper although they have the AY?Alessandro wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 9:34 am My games, for instance, usually have beeper sound effects and AY background music.
I'm trying to think of how to not make myself guilty of this. As an artsy-fartsy type I many times appreciate the graphics/pixel art and the music the most In games. I do love some C programming too although I'm not that great at it, however I have to force myself to try and be interested in game design and level design I kinda like "generic platformers", haha.
Thanks for all the tips! Data compression is still a very "advanced topic" for me. I have to take things one step at a time I think. I've done some small games and C programming for 8-bit systems over the years, and even more than before lately, but I've avoided compression so far A loader with a loading screen would definitaly be on the list for my game, but let's see how far in the future that still is with too many 'retrodev' projects started from before, a day job, small kids etc.Alessandro wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 3:12 pm
Data compression will be extremely useful if you plan to take advantage of the 128K and later models' extra RAM. Keep in mind that AGD and its derivates are meant to create stand-alone titles that can run on a 48K, but you can author a multi-level game by creating each level as a single distinct game. Most of the times I employed ZX7, a very good and versatile tool made by Einar Saukas. Sometimes I also used Exomizer, which yields slightly higher compression ratios but it's not as fast or flexible as ZX7.
As for tape management, you can, at least for the beginning, stay with the Spectrum ROM loading routines. Custom loaders add extra flair and are useful for people who like to load their games on physical hardware, even from their PCs, but they are not necessary nowadays. That said, I went as far as creating a turbo custom loader myself.
I don't know yet how many "user defined characters" / "blocks" and sprites you can have in AGD or on a spectrum (yet), but when I look at your games there seems to be a lot of graphics already in the intro picture, intro menu and then the game itself. Are all those parts "separate games" and new graphics are loaded into ram inbetween? Or perhaps the intro screen and the intro menu is one "game", and then as you said, subsequent levels are also loaded as separate games?
Btw. I thought I saw someone write somewhere that there would be some AY music collection that you can use for your games? Has someone heard of something like that?