This is the thread for discussing ideas for the CastleBoy remake.
The plan is to first create a ‘colour remake’, which is the original gameplay but with more colour and probably scaled up to fill more of the screen, and then after that decide whether to make a sequel/successor that makes full use of the Pokitto’s resources.
Please be sure to have a read through the original ideas thread:
The original uses 8x8 tiles, so you get around 16x8 tiles per 128x64 screen.
For adapting the graphics there are several options:
Using 8x8 tiles, you could fit around 27.5x22 tiles per 220x176 screen.
This would give you 4 pixels of horizontal overhang (2 each side)
This means you’d see a lot more of the map, but the graphics would be the same size as they currently are on the direct port.
Using 16x16 tiles, you could get around 13.75x11 tiles per 220x176 screen.
This would give you 12 pixels of horizontal overhang (6 each side)
This means you’d see less of the map, but the graphics would be nice and big.
Using 12x12 tiles, you could get around 18.33x14.66 tiles per 220x176 screen.
This would give you 4 pixels of horizontal overhang (2 each side) and 8 pixels of vertical overhang (4 each side)
This means you’d have larger graphics and see more of the map, but you end up with an odd amount of tile data getting shaved off
So I think the 12x12 tile approach is the most appealing because it has the best of both alternatives (see slightly more of the map and get slightly larger graphics), and the extra space could either be taken up with the UI, or a small decorative border could be added.
Speaking about tile size I join @Pharap, 12x12 seems the right spot given the resolution. However the drawback is that well… Most existing tilesets are 8x8 or 16x16 so it will be harder to find references, or “get inspired”. At the end 8x8 will be the safest for low-rez, and 16x16 the safest for high-rez.
For the player, in CastleBoy player is two tiles high and can jump two tiles high. I did a presentation about CastleBoy at my local gamedev group, the slides about design could give you some insight. You can skip the first part it’s about the Arduboy
Note that the fact the player is 2 tiles high and can jump two tiles was due to the Arduboy’s resolution which is very wide. While doing the level design I noticed that it would have been much more interesting to have a player that is 3 tiles high, yet can still jump only two tiles. I do believe this is how Super Castlevania IV works (on the SNES). I can only recommend playing this version of Castlevania, it seems to be more less what could work on the Pokitto. Moreover it’s an amazing game.
For the little story, the first Castlevania on GameBoy is the first video game I owned (with Tetris) so it is very special to me. This has been the main inspiration for CastleBoy, even if this particular version of Castlevania kind of sucks.
Oh my god! Absolutely no! I can’t even imagine to draw something like that!
It was just a joke to try the assets @jonne propose, I was very sceptic, but even at 16 color the result is very good.
Assets are really good. But probably I couldn’t even draw a pixel on that without making a mess.
If we ever need anything not already done, we’ll be in trouble with that kind of quality.