No.8824
It's Nightmare Castle! A new fangame I made, which is actually more on the traditional side than my other works.
Link here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/wc5qwzqox28nb8x/Nightmare%20Castle1_01.zipIt's got effects, it's got puzzles, it's got treasure, and it's got a dream world for you to explore!
It's basically my side project whenever I can't work on my other games because of stress, etc. I'll update it until I'm sick of looking at it, so it'll never be done.
Here's a few things:
+This game doesn't need an RTP, just download and unpack to run
+This game's in 8 colours with AdLib sound! It's like an early PC-9801 game!
+The game's at version 1, version 2 is forthcoming
+Collect treasure to buy more effects from a randomly appearing shop
No.8826
it takes me a half hour to know how to find treasure
No.8827
>>8826I just pleyed 3 minutes and I already found one next to a non-sense text with bad grammar.
No.8839
>>8838Mishka? Mishka!
Looking forward to it
No.8840
Here's version 2:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/o1ip5j1iicoxzd5/Nightmare%20Castle%20v2.rarChangelog:
-Added new areas
-Doubled the effects for a total of 8 (including no-effect)
-Changed the way the treasure shop works. Since its appearance is random, there's no need to have the inventory randomized too. You can now choose what you want to buy
-Added new music
No.8844
I like the game's personality. It's able to be "traditional" without being a cookie-cutter fangame that unfortunately tends to glut the community. I appreciate the PC-98 homage, as well as the music. It looks great and, vitally, original so far. Looking forward to more.
Oh, and I like Ruho's design.
No.8847
I love the graphics. Those stippled pixel graphics are very PC-98 indeed. And dat synth.
I also loved the concept of finding floppy disks in your other games. Very retro, very cool.
No.8875
I have a question, here, how in the holy mother of fuck do you work so fast?
No.8876
>>8875To be honest, I have no idea what other peoples' workflow is like, but normally I spend 4-10 hours a day on my games, and I do whatever needs doing in sequential order. So if I have a world added in, it's usually complete (if it's not, there's at least a substantial amount done), I save time on making maps of smaller rooms by having one map hold many small rooms.
With this game, I'm spending less time on the palette than usual (since I'm using a fixed palette) so I guess that's a factor as well.
The only thing I don't have an accelerated workflow for is probably music, which I do either in preparation, or when I've finished an area but don't have a suitable tune.
No.8877
>>8874I can't wait.
I found a secret room here with a coin! Also, I found out that the music sometimes changes in the saleswoman's room. Random events?
No.8879
>>8877There's all kinds of permutations the dream world can take when you toss in a few random things!
Someone else was supremely lucky and got linked to the shop after picking up the sword—and yep, the music in the room is also random.
Additionally, the treasure shop owner Masha can appear in other parts of the dream world randomly.
No.8882
What's your process in composing music? I'm classically trained but have no experience in electronic music and the like, just writing notes down on paper. I want to compose music for games like this but I'm at a stump on what process I should use to go about doing this
No.8883
>>8882I wanna know this too, Mishka.
Your games probably have the most music oriented soundtracks of any Yume Nikki fangame, even koronba who is supposedly trained in music theory mostly makes short loops
Specifically what program do you use and what vst plugin do you use for those sweet sweet synths
No.8885
>>8882 >>8883
For music, I use one of several tools, depending on what I want. I use TFM for YM2203 tracks (That's what the PC-8801 and early PC-9801 used) and I use FL Studio for AdLib and SB16 music (which this game primarily uses; the PC-9801's C-Bus could accept an SB16).
You can get a free OPL2 (AdLib) or OPL3 (Soundblaster 16) wavetable MIDI soundfont if you look here:
http://www3.telus.net/anapan8/oldscardemu.htmAll of my sound effects are normally made with the TFM tracker, while the tunes are AdLib soundfonts. I can also use a tracker (Edlib, deflemask, or similar) to make sounds that the soundfont does not include. VOPM also works!
No.8886
>>8885Thank you very much, I'll be using these.
I especially like the inclusion of TFM for PC-88 and PC-98 music
No.8888
>>8886Good luck!
In other news, I'm getting really close to an update. The game's roughly 50% bigger than ver. 2.0.0 was, and I should be back with an update in 1~2 more days.
No.8896
https://www.mediafire.com/?bgf848pbhaobn7uVersion 3.0.0 is here! Let's see what's new in this version:
-New areas and music added.
-1/3 new effects added. (one for Ruho, 3 for Tatyana. Includes No-effect.)
-Playable character Tatyana added.
-Fixed a bug where the Incandescent effect did not have its own switch
Enjoy! This is going to be the last update until after the holidays probably. It's still fairly short as fangames go, but hopefully the randomized content and utility of the effects are fun for you! *^^*
No.8898
>>8896Great! Playing now.
DEM STIPPLES
No.8899
I know it's a game for me and all, but this is a sticking point a bit.
Should I remove the random treasure shop appearances and give it a permanent home? Not everyone seems to be in love with randomly getting transported there, but the game's small and compartmentalized more than normal fangames so it's always easy to get back to where you were. Still, if it's more frustrating then charming, I'm open to removing it and adding the randomness elsewhere.
No.8900
>>8899Well, so far I haven't gotten it outside of that one place in the blue area so it hasn't really been a problem for me. Maybe if the game gets bigger it could be a bit more annoying though. But I think with how rare I've seen it happen, it would be cool to be like a rare annoyance. Like, getting sent back to square one or something.
No.8903
It's not the only randomized element in the game, but it's the one that's most random.
I guess it's not as bad as say, being woken up forcefully by an event or caught by some chaser (this game has neither of those things) and it doesn't appear in any deep-game maps. Still, I could see how someone could find it bothersome as well.
I originally made it random for convenience factor—since it happens when you connect from a map with treasure or multiple treasures on it and I thought it would be nice to have a chance to quickly offload.
No.8904
>>8903Originally I thought that place in the blue area was the actual location for it and that the place with the coin was the random event because I just happened to get the shop first. But after going back and forth a number of times it turned out I got the shop a lot less than the other place.
No.8928
Hey fellas, I've added more of the game's tracks to soundcloud. It's the two jazzy pieces that play in some of Tatyana's worlds:
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/nightmare-castle-the-libraryhttps://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/nightmare-castle-theatre No.8935
https://www.mediafire.com/?z0fhpxu2zhuo68bHere's 3.1.0. I said I'd add 2 new areas, but I only had the time for 1 (and now I'm hard at work setting up for 4.0.0)
If you've played 3.0.0, this isn't strictly necessary, but if you haven't, then get this version.
No.9001
Sorry, the update on this game's gonna be a bit late. I've gotten food poisoning twice this month and I'm just feeling blaargh…
But, I do have something:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33934572/ForumAssets/Summer%20Nights.mp3 No.9006
Geez, my game got hammered in this review:
http://rpgmaker.net/games/5820/reviews/2582/To be fair, he only seems to have played the Tatyana game, but I think that that criticism could apply to Ruho's game too (square rooms, find-the-object, etc.)
So in the update, I'll try to put more stuff in but I've kind of been at a loss as to what else I'm really supposed to add to this game. It's a personal project, sure, but I've had all these ideas for Hell Diary that I've wanted to explore lately.
No.9007
>>9006>the inability to run in an empty game like this is unforgivablemado is slow as fuck unless you get the bike after 2 fucking hours walking.
No.9009
>>9006Walking slowly and wandering, getting lost etc while trying to find certain items is somewhat an essence of games inspired by Yume Nikki. If someone finds it to be a problem, then games like that ain't for them. It's about getting immersed and staying focused on the game what is important in YN franchise (if I could call it like that) and let's just say that breezing through locations with lots, lots of stuff wouldn't really help getting immersed imo. It's funny with all reviews of any game being based on YN, that if someone rewievs it negatively, it's usually about things like spacey locations, barely few things to inteact with, getting lost, walking slow… basically things which occured in YN first and things that made us love this game. To put it simply, don't really take all reviews too seriously. Negative ones will usually talk about minuses of 'genre' - not your game alone. Just do the game the way you want to. Personally I enjoyed the game and liked your idea for it.
No.9010
I do think he sort of had a point about the map design—I didn't spend much time on it and as a result a lot of areas are in a rough state. I was more worried about the comments on the assets, since this was actually one of the most technically challenging projects for me in that respect. It's monumentally difficult to have areas stand out as unique places when you only have the same 8 colours to work with.
It's funny you mention making it for me, since I originally started this project just for myself. Still, I'm pretty happy that other people enjoy the look and feel as much as I enjoyed making it.
No.9155
>>9007The bike effect is piss easy to find what the hell
No.9156
>>9155True, I usually get it within 5 minutes of starting the game.
In this game, the speed effect is also relatively easy to find, you just have to look around a little bit.
No.9244
I think I'm going to can this game. I've done all the work I can on it and I haven't felt like fixing it or adding new things. So sorry folks, but this game's done.
No.9248
>>9244Aw man, I actually really liked it, especially the fun music. It made the game have a very up-beat feel which is so rare in fangames.
No.9249
>>9248Also I liked how it made me think I was playing a dos game in the wolfenstein era.
No.9250
Well I might pick it back up in the future, but for now I'm tapped out on it. It's hard to cancel my games completely; they have a habit of rising from the dead.
No.9251
I'm also not through with DOS music yet either (I recently got some new tools for more faithful reproduction of classic styles)
No.9308
I made hi-fi rearrangements of some of Nightmare Castle's music:
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/lost-entrance(Partially Hell Diary's "Entrance" and Nightmare Castle's "Lost Dream Temple"
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/nightmare-castle-biomechanical(A remake of the Snatcher area's theme)
No.9383
>>9308Biomechanical is pretty amazing, and it was one of my favorite songs from the original game so I appreciate you making this.
No.9432
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/monochrome-inchun-arrangementI recently did Monochrome Inchun's theme. This is what it'd probably sound like in Hell Diary.
No.9433
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/the-boardwalk-arrangementI just did the tune for the boardwalk area in Tatyana's scenario.
No.9447
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/dream-templeNext up is Dream Temple! And I have some good news for anyone who liked Ruho and the graphic style of this game, just wait a bit.
No.9708
I used a mapping trick to make a crude Line of Sight effect.
I'm also doing the music with the OPN chip (including the SSG component) so it should sound more faithful to a PC-9801:
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/opn-bgm-3 No.9710
>>9708That rhythm doesn't sound like third SSG channel. Is it FM?
No.9711
>>9708That looks really really nice.
good to hear from you Mishka ilu
No.9712
Thanks guys, it feels good to have inspiration again!
>>9710The bass and percussion are FM, and so is one of the low melody channels (the EP/organ). The SSG channels all play a 3-note chord until the last bit of the loop, where the 3rd SSG channel plays an accompaniment. I'll probably work on it a little and extend it a bit so the listener doesn't have to wait for it to loop to hear the SSG melody.
No.9713
Combining the SSG and FM used to be a weak point for me, so I avoided it and went for OPL-style FM-only chips. But now I've picked up some new techniques to deal with the SSG and make it play nicer with the FM.
No.9714
>>9712>>9713Oh, I see. So, you're using 3 FM voices, one for rhythm/drums, one for bass, and one for EP/organ, then the SSG with a looped melody, right? I see, I see.
However, it's always recommended to attach third SSG channel to drums, use chn1 and 2 with detune for a plus to the FM voices or accompaniment, and the FM for the intense voices. Of course every song is different and you can actually try different things, but this is basically what you can start doing to get used to OPN-like chipsets. That, or go with the LFO and mix the EG's to make it smoother.
There's also the mix of SSG3 and FM drums if you wanna give it a try.
About the OPL chipsets, I do not recommend that, because no NEC PC had ever used OPL as far as I know. Not even k68 or FMtowns.
No.9715
>>9714Actually, there were two C-bus add-in cards that used OPL series chips. The Sound Orchestra was an OPL2 implementation (though it also had a YM2203 so it was two chips) and there was an SB16 for C-bus (I used the SB16's default GM instruments when I composed the first soundtrack.)
And yeah I noticed that technique that's common with the SSG channels, but I wasn't able to make a really good drum as easily as with the third FM channel so I decided to just use the third FM channel. If I were emulating OPNA I'd just use ADPCM percussion ^^"
No.9716
>>9714Also the x68000 and FM Towns aren't NEC, the x68000 is from Sharp (successor to the X1) and the FM Towns is from Fujitsu Micro (successor to the FM-77). The chips in these were also FM-only, with the x68000 having an OPM chip and the FM Towns having an OPN2 (though it was paired with 8-channel PCM hardware from Sega IIRC)
No.9721
>>9716I know sharp's x68k and FMtowns aren't from NEC and how their soundboard were made, lol, that's why I said >Not even they used OPL.
It's true they were FM-only (though x68k DID have OPNA), but the difference is on the number of operators, which leads to a more complex wave after choosing the algorithm, so they're actually closer to the OPN family than to OPL.
About the cards, while it's valid from an electronic point of view, they were basically expansions of voices as, for example, analog output. Or like adding another RAM card is an "expansion" of the memory you've got, so it isn't like they had OPL chipsets, nor they're usually associated, though I see your point.
I mainly recommended you to use SSG3 for drums because specifically OPN had only 3 FM voices, and, unless you've got a valid point and it is actually necessary (Or if you're planning to use DAC), it's a complete waste of a voice if only used for drums. In that song you linked, for example, it is actually ok, because it isn't FM-extensive, but you may want in the future go with something more powerful and intense, so it will be a complication. Of course there's always the option of actually not going that way and then this advice is shit.
About the OPNA ADPCM channel, you will have to lurk in the dark depths of the japanese internet to find a converter to use 16-bit PCM and interpolate it to 4-bit unsigned ADPCM files, then you will be able to use it.
But that's actually a lot of trouble, so I think it should be better to go with the natural PCM drums YM2608 comes with, since they're ok and they don't sound bad. For example, this file an arrange I'm making of "Retribution for the Eternal Night" from Touhou 8, where the drums are the default PCM rhythm channel's drums.
https://www.mediafire.com/?sw0me6iro8sabawI myself didn't try converting ADPCM yet but it's something I've wanted to try for quite a time now. Having rhythm + PCM drums' support is one of the best combinations in FMsynth music, and since flash flash flash I've wanted to at least have a spare file like that for my personal use.
No.10120
I did yet another re-arrangement of "Biomechanical". This time I wasn't afraid to change a whole bunch of stuff.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33934572/ForumAssets/Biomechanical.mp3This will be put into a project of mine, and it is related to Nightmare Castle (and I mean Nightmare Castle, not the current ghost of a project wearing its corpse)
Unfortunately I'll be very busy with work in March, but afterwards I should have some caps up of what I'm working on.
No.10121
That was me just now, forgot I last posted/visited before clearing my history ^^"
No.10495
Hey everyone, the graphics from
Nightmare Castle and
Ruho Plus are now available for free non-commercial use in your own games:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/tgwrotp398fu1dy/Nightmare_Castle_Graphics.zipYou can use these in any engine you like, though the assets are set up for VX/Ace.
No.10535
Nightmare Castle had some unused music that I intended to use in areas I never made. So I decided to transcribe one of them to SiON/SiOPM MML for
real YM2203 playback (like something a PC-8801 actually had), and I think it sounds more energetic than the SB16 GM original:
https://mmltalks.appspot.com/m/LbQelIt's ANC14_88 in the game files. If you plug this into VisualMML or record from here, you're free to use the track for any purpose as long as you credit me for the score.
No.10536
>>10535>>10535
>I ceased developing the game before I could use it, though.Wait, did you abandon this project? Mishka no ;_;
No.10537
>>10536>Abandoned?Yes and no. I kind of liked the original and I think some of the ideas had potential. I definitely, definitely want to do a PC-88/98 tribute again, but next time it'll be better.
Nightmare Castle's locations and some of the characters are being added to
Amihailu in Dreamland, too, with updated graphics, layouts, and music. So while technically it no longer exists as a standalone project (hence why I released all the materials for free) that doesn't mean the good ideas from it has to go to waste.
No.11188
I've re-orchestrated the track that plays in the Red Temple area to be more in line with my current professional work:
https://soundcloud.com/mishkahd/nightmare-castle-red-temple-orchestrated No.12679
Man, Noyemi fucking off is still funny when I remember how it happened.
