Pixel Poppy Pong! 0.52

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

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.

Due to using an older version of Jo-Engine, it included the .bin file in the .cue sheet. If you tried to open the game with the .cue, it wouldn't work.

I removed the .bin from the .cue, and it should work now. The game was also playable before if you opened the .iso (in emulators and on the Satiator).

There are no other changes in this release.

This is basically the final version for the contest.

I didn't have time to add much, because I re-wrote the game logic. When you hit the bombs, you get an explosion screen, lol.

There are probably still bugs (I don't recommend playing as P2 vs the P1 AI), but there were bugs in RC1 too, and this is in a better state for me to finish it (after the contest).