Pixel Poppy Pong!

Pixel Poppy Pong! 0.66 RC

  • Author Author nando
  • Creation date Creation date
The biggest changes here are bug fixes and game balancing tweaks. Also, characters are unlockable (you have to play story mode). And there are sound effects!

I've turned off 3-4 player in battle mode since that isn't finished. Story mode is maybe 50% done. Items are not enabled but I made some progress there too.

The UI has been improved a little to show your score multiplier. If you can keep it at *99 (the max), you can definitely place #1 on the scoreboard in story mode, but it is difficult to do so..

There is one bug I haven't fixed and I think it mainly affects analog controllers - basically, the collision detection goes crazy if you play the game for a long time. pressing pause or changing the analog controller switch to digital and back seemed to fix it. please let me know if you hit this bug!
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In my haste (and exhaustion from travelling) I missed other states where the player could cheat by hitting the ball before the game starts. that should be fixed in all cases now.
Tails of Saturn immediately broke the game in his youtube video, by timing the attack/shield just right when the ball is dropped (immediately scoring, and thus winning without actually playing).

this release fixes that bug. no other changes/updates (yet)
I'll update this later, but basically it's around 60% complete - playable, but not finished.

The focus is on the story mode, and 2 player battle. The rest of Story mode and 3-4 player battle will be worked on after the competition deadline.

issues:
  • items are not implemented
  • 3-4 player battle mode "works" but you can't finish (2 player is fine)
  • some placeholder music (and missing music)
  • placeholder sound effects
This is for testing only - gameplay loop is only about 10% implemented. I do expect to be pretty close to 100% by April 11.

Also, all of the sound effects are placeholders, and there will be more music.

From the readme:

Pixel Poppy Pong v0.52​

Supports:​

  • Analog input with the Saturn 3D pad
  • Multi-tap (up to 4 players)
  • Save backup cart

Emulation:​

Pixel Poppy Pong is designed for use on real hardware, utilizing special effects with non-interlaced high resolution graphics.​
It plays best on a physical Saturn with a CRT. However, emulators have been tested, see below.​
  • Mednafen: all effects supported
    • Retroarch (it's Mednafen, basically)
  • Yabause/Yabasanshiro forks:
    • Kronos 2.7: runs at 30fps, mosaic not supported, CD audio issues
    • All other forks of Yabause/YabaSanshiro: completely broken, don't even try
  • SSF R33: broken, don't try. Resolution is wrong, runs too fast, (maybe older versions are better?)
  • Nova 0.70: playable, runs at 50fps (Nova thinks it's PAL?), mosaic not supported, (fixed in a future release?)
    • Earlier versions: Broken, don't try
Game options have been added to make emulators more useable (such as turning off the Mosaic effects).​

Inputs:​

  • D-Pad/analog input:
    • move your player
  • A/C
    • options select
  • B
    • back/cancel
  • Z
    • change game state (debug mode only)

Options:​

  • Debug mode: you want this on
  • Debug display: you probably want this off
  • Mesh Transparency: turn off if using emulators
  • Mosaic Effect: turn off if using an emulator other than Mednafen
  • Use RTC: Uses internal clock for background color and other special effects
  • Analog Adjustment: adjust input sensitivity for the 3D control pad.

Gameplay (~10% complete):​

  • Classic Pong:
    • basic 2 player back and forth, without special items
  • Story Mode:
    • Single player, battle through the list of 10 characters
    • Special items and moves
    • Unlockable characters
  • VS Battle:
    • 2-4 player battle mode.
    • Special items and moves
    • Play as unlocked characters
  • Note: AI will automatically take control over other players if nobody has selected them.
Still working on it - lots left to go, but this one has animations for at least some of the objects in the game.

From the changelog:
-Slowed down some of the AI ball physics
-Animations on some items, the paws, and the ending (not all completed yet)
-Created looping animation function due to limitations with the Jo Engine version
-Most graphics are now 8-bit color using a single palette (faster loading)

I skipped a version because using the Jo Engine animation for a 32 frame loop made the loading times really, really long.
-Fixed some collision issues.
-Fixed the message code at the end of the game, animated the hearts.
-other balance improvements
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Just a couple more tweaks:

-Added a few more messages.
-tied the message timer to the item sprite drawing, so you can see what you hit and
it doesn't immediately re-draw a new item.
This has a lot of bug fixes. RC3 was playable, but it had a lot of issues with game states and balancing.

I'm not expecting this to be used for the contest, but if you actually want to play the game, this is the version you should use (or a newer one if it is available).

From the change log:

-Fixed a bunch of game state bugs.
-Did a lot of playtesting & balancing
-Added messages for the items
-The pause menu now shows the controls if you hold A, and the rules if you hold B.
Fixed a game state bug that could sometimes happen which would prevent you from starting the next match, which would prevent you from being able to complete the game.
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