Working through problems - memory management, with beer...
over 9 years ago – Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 08:37:59 PM

A few weeks ago I posted a backer-only look at a current little problem, and how it would lead to me having to confront the most vile, abhorrent part of programming for the NES.......memory management.

And since, it proved to be the disaster I feared.  Here's a breakdown on how even the simplest problems lead to weeks of code tweaking when the game is this far along and this complex.

Oh...and there is beer.

Google Hangout Tonight!
over 9 years ago – Sun, Dec 18, 2016 at 03:56:56 PM

As stated in the last update, I'll be making some time for a google hangout tonight in about a half hour, 6-8pm EST (give or take...balancing caring for a newborn over here too!)

You can join me here around 6!  

https://hangouts.google.com/call/4ggtq5hntfhqhfkxxbhiccipdie

Joe

Premiere, Preorder, and Preview!
over 9 years ago – Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 02:58:19 PM

The Premiere: 

So it is no longer a nebulous hypothetical...a large gathering of people inside of a movie theater have now seen the film.  It is real, and it has permeated into the world.  And oh, what a night this first screening was!  I will illustrate with a few images...

The film was met with laughs, cheers, a few tears, and overall, tremendous critical reception thus far.  I'm humbled and overwhelmed by the positive feedback and the number of............

Pre-Orders:

.......... that have already come in from those who attended.  Sort of in the cover of night, we launched the pre-order page on the site, www.TheNew8bitHeroes.com.  Now, anyone who may have missed out can order the game (three versions) or the film.

Now what is important for YOU as Kickstarter backers to understand...if you are interested in adding new things to your pledge (like say you got the movie, but not the game, etc), do not pre-order it.  We will be using a service called backerkit which will allow you to upgrade your pledge.  The pre-order page is for anyone who may have missed the Kickstarter, and is interested in a copy of the game or the film.  

Also, if you, say, did get the game, but now see the trifecta, and just have to have the special edition wood grain cartridge, there will be an opportunity to upgrade your pledge on Backerkit as well...again, I repeat...if you are a backer, you do not need to use the pre-order...it is for people who have not yet put in an order.  If new items become available (t-shirts, posters, lunchboxes, action figures, trapper keepers, whatever) that weren't part of the original kickstarter but are available for pre-order, I promise to let you know!  

Speaking of - now that it's real, I'm sure you're asking the question of when can you expect rewards for backing this campaign.  I don't want to give false expectations or promises that I can not absolutely keep.  So what I will say is this:

1) We are currently working on bonus material for the BluRay.  We have some choices to make there, too, as 7tb of footage is a lot to comb through a second time!  But fortunately, since it can be much more rough around the edges, it should go a lot faster.  Expect extended interviews, and very *possibly* a special surprise for all of my Zelda fans out there.  We are doing this around our travels to show the film at various conventions and festivals (check the website to see if any are coming around your area, we'd love to meet you!).  So, as predicted, we anticipate this to ship by the holidays.  The only thing that may prevent that is in the unlikely scenario that we are seriously talking to a distributor.  But if that's the case...man, it would be a good problem to have!

2) As for the game....the game release date is a constant moving target.  The challenges are deep - the primary being bug testing.  We have worked hard to make a very dense NES experience.  We have a 2.5d world, that looks at first like a zelda game, but actually has a z coordinate, so there is jumping and platforming.  As a result, we deal with depth.  Your player has melee weapons and a projectile weapon with spells that behave differently and have different screen effects.  We have a mode where the player can invoke different melodies with his lute to create different screen effects.  There are 512 screens, a fairly complex narrative to squeeze into limited space...just...a LOT of memory management.  This is awesome, as it makes for a very rich NES experience, however that also makes it very time consuming to bug test every scenario.  And this isn't a situation where we can patch bugs with a digital download.  So before we send you the copies of our opus...we have a LOT of things to make sure are working just right, and even then, a lot of testing to make sure they're *working* from a game player's immersion perspective.  You all have been very patient.  And as people who did see the film can attest, the documentary will explain a lot of the frustration.

Another thing extending the length of this is making the engine complementary to the development tools, which have to be developed right along side...as we tweak one, changes have to be made to the other to account for the tweak.  So we're not just bug testing the game, we also have to bug test the tool, and then bug test their ability to work together!

But in the long run, we know it will be worth it, because...................

3) ..............The Mystic Searches S.T.A.G.E. (screen tool and game engine), essentially the first equivalent of a NES Game Maker program, is deep into development.  It began as a utilitarian tool that would allow us to design Mystic Searches...all of the tedious or terribly time consuming parts of our process we began to handle through a modern tool that would output the correct data...monster/player animation and attributes, screen design, collision tables, color palette handling...so many things.  That, coupled with the actual game engine for Mystic Searches (which handles a lot of the things like memory management and the banks, screen transitions, all of the movement code, collision detection code, input handling...the core of the engine for this adventure game), it ends up existing as the foundation for a very cool NES Game Making program.  We've pushed it a little bit so that we have one-click deployment to our custom emulator (you build a level, you hit one button, you're testing it in the emulator) and once you have it the way you like it, a few more clicks and it's on a cartridge, ready for play in real hardware.  All of this with zero coding experience (though experienced users will also have full access to the ASM language and can change the code as well).  

In short - we have made "the NES Game Maker".  

Now, at this moment, it is geared very much towards our game, but we'd like to expand it to make it as diverse as possible.  This is not as easy as it is to do for a modern system because of the strict memory management issues, but...we want YOU, who still love the NES, to be able to tell your own stories, on a cartridge...for your own personal use, as a promo for what it is that you do, to sell...whatever.  So, in order to push this tool as far as we can and make it able to create as diverse of games as possible, we will be launching crowd funding campaign to make this tool as strong as possible.  Fortunately, this will fall mostly on Josh, our tool developer, while I continue to finish Mystic Searches.

For those that pledged for the developer's reward tier, YOU ARE ALREADY GETTING THIS.  But for everyone else who is interested in making your OWN NES game, you'll definitely want to check this out.  I will be doing some cool demos in the next few weeks!

Thank you:

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know how awesome the premiere went, and it was all because of your collective support.  I will continue to update everyone with updates from our travels, more info about the game, and other related announcements.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions!

At long last, details about release!
over 9 years ago – Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 02:17:12 PM

Hoorah!  Lift your glasses in celebration!  The New 8-bit Heroes documentary is in its final phases of post production!  Its premiere is a mere 3 1/2 weeks away!  And we are about to hit the road to bring it to various cities and events in the weeks that follow.

I wanted to provide everyone with a list of where you can catch us and/or the film.  In some cities, we are currently slated to panel and workshop at conventions and conferences, but are attempting to line up theater showings of the film in all of them if it is possible.  Here's where you can catch us this fall:

Sept 3rd: Miami, FL

This Saturday, I have been invited to panel at Hero Hype in Miami.  At my booth, I will be demoing our screen tool, giving people early glimpses of Mystic Searches, and paneling to discuss The New 8-bit Heroes film.  I hope to see some familiar faces while down that way!  More info about Hero Hype can be found here: http://www.herohype.com/home.html

Sept 5th: Atlanta, GA

Truly humbled to be a part of DragonCon this year.  On Monday, I will be hosting a panel all about NES development, our journey to create a new NES game, and showing some behind the scenes and 'director's cut' footage from The New 8-bit Heroes documentary.  Info about DragonCon can be found here: http://www.dragoncon.org

**Sept 24th: Sarasota, FL - PREMIERE PARTY**

On Saturday, September 24th, we will be hosting a premiere event for The New 8-bit Heroes at Lakewood Ranch Cinemas .  So many people in our humble hometown contributed to the project in some way that I wouldn't feel right premiering the film anywhere else.  We'll be partnering with Ed's Tavern next to the theater for an evening of 8-bit debauchery.  We will be showing snippets of Mystic Searches, our development tools, and The First United Church of Nintendo will be on hand with consoles!  There is limited seating for this event, and tickets are currently available via Eventbrite on our website at www.TheNew8bitHeroes.com.

Oct 8th: Fort Walton Beach, FL

We have a booth and be paneling at the Emerald Coast Con.  We are currently also looking into a showing of the film at a theater in the general area while in town.  We are looking forward to hanging with fellow home brewer Kevin Hanley of KHAN games, and meeting up with our tool developer who lives outside of Pensacola.  The event's info is here: http://emeraldcon.com

Oct 15th: Wallingford, CT

We will be paneling and have a booth at the RetroWorld Expo.  We are also potentially doing a theatrical showing of the film in that area as well.  We are very excited to bring the project to our fans and friends in the northeast, and look forward to giving everyone in CT a chance to demo our development tools and test out the game.  Info on RetroWorld Expo can be fond here: http://retroworldexpo.com

Oct 22nd: Portland, OR

Yes!  A triumphant return to the Pacific Northwest!  Besides having a booth and paneling, the film will play in Portland Retro Gaming Expo's Classic Tetris World Championship arena on Saturday evening starting at 7:00 PM.  Info can be found here: http://www.retrogamingexpo.com

Oct 29th: Columbus, OH

With so much of the NES homebrew community being located in that area, we are very happy to be invited to panel and showcase the film, Mystic Searches, and our development tools at GDEX '16.  Info can be found here: https://www.thegdex.com

Nov 2nd: Baltimore, MD

We will be hosting a special screening at the Charles Theater in Baltimore, MD.  Many of the musicians on the soundtrack for this film are Baltimore native and part of the music community I was once a part of.  I'm excited to return to show them what I've been working on the last few years.  I'm not sure how early tickets will go on sale, but you can check the Charles's website here: www.TheCharles.com

Nov 3rd: Brooklyn, NY

There will be a theatrical screening of The New 8-bit Heroes in Brooklyn, NY at the Williamsburg Cinemas.  Their website is here: http://www.williamsburgcinemas.com

Nov 5th: Syracuse, NY

We will be making RetroGameCon in Syracuse the official release party for Mystic Searches.  While quantity of cartridges available may depend on production time, people will be able to experience Mystic Searches in its finished form for the first time.  More info about RetroGameCone can be found here: http://retrogamecon.com  

Nov 6th: New Hartford, NY

This will be a very special event for me.  This is the proverbial *homecoming* show.  There is an odd sort of significance of showing this film at the Marquee Cinemas in New Hartford.  You see, when I was growing up, they didn't exist.  In their space was deep woods and swampland...that woods and swampland was the very area where me and my friends would adventure through and make up the fantasy stories that were the backbone of our game ideas.  So interestingly enough, the film will be shown in the same geographic space where this project started almost 30 years ago.  I'm not sure when tickets will be available, but you can check the Marque Cinema site here for info: http://www.marqueecinemas.com/location/26188/Orchard-14 

Nov 12: Orlando, FL

FreePlay Florida will be the last of our touring events this fall.  At this event, for the first time at any of these conventions, all major creatives involved in Mystic Searches will be on hand to discuss the game, the film, their role, and what it has been like to bring a new NES game to life.  More info can be found here: http://wp.freeplayflorida.com

So there is our current tour schedule.  We are also working to slide in a Los Angeles and a Dallas date, add theatrical showings in the cities mentioned above, and are involved with private events at colleges and workshops at retro game stores.  Of course, we are also courting digital distribution options for both he film and the game, as well as trying to get our ducks in a row with pre-orders and add-ons for Kickstarter backers, and will keep you informed on your multiple ways to experience the many facets of this project.

What you all may be asking is when will rewards start being delivered.  My goal is to have all rewards shipping for the holidays.  That plan is contingent on production, of course...we can't quite be fully responsible for any delays that may crop up on that end, but we are extremely excited to finally be unleashing this on the world.

Which brings me to the next point.  As some of you may have read or saw in past updates, we have spent a lot of precious time developing a design tool that has much more easily allowed us to snap together deep, complex adventure games for the NES.  We intend to make this available to the public.  It is one of the main deliverables that those who pledged for the developers pack will get to enjoy (along with in depth from scratch tutorials and necessary hardware peripherals to make it happen).  

While showing this off at various conventions, it became immediately apparent that this tool was something that people really wanted...a tool that would let them tell their own stories and create their own NES experiences.  Up to now, the tool has been rather utilitarian for our own needs.  We'd like to bring on our tool developer full time to work in tandem with me to make the tool more versatile and as robust as possible , and plan to launch a Kickstarter in the fall to help make this happen.  So for those of you still holding on to your own visions of creating a NES adventure game...be on the look out for information about the Mystic Searches STAGE (Screen Tool And Game Engine)!  

In the meantime, for those that love to support other awesome nerd projects, friends of the project KinSoul Studio are in their final hours of a fun tabletop fantasy game called Alkemia: Destiny's Recipe.  They are extremely close to their goal, and entering the final weekend.  If you're nerdy table top gamers like we are and like original fantasy content, give them a boost and help them see their project realized!  It can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/827090433/alkemia-destinys-recipe-0

As always, feel free to hit me up with questions, comments, or any enthusiasm you may want to share!

Love you all!

Joe G

Anyone curious about the tools we're using to develop for the NES?
over 9 years ago – Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 05:43:11 PM

Making an NES game is not just about developing the game itself, but is often about building tools that can automate time consuming (read: virtually impossible in their impracticality) processes. 

Here is a long, LONG, bourbon fueled exploration into the evolution of tools that we've created to develop the world of Mystic Searches.  The amount of effort in collaboration with Josh Fallon that went into developing the tools is significant, and the tools themselves make the game creation process rather quick and fun...like playing Sim City.

If you do see this post, sound off in the comments and let me know what you think...I never know who sees these :-)