Super Castlevania 3

[obreck2]

On the side of MKF I've been working on a remake of Castlevania 3.

This will be a chronicles/rebirth type remake, with remixed level design and content, but same general story and players. It will be roughly the same size as the original CV3.

Here's a demo video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjM9lm7lkps

Planned Features:

- Expanded gameplay for the 4 characters. Trevor for example has many of the CV4 gameplay mechanics.

- A dynamic difficulty system allowing for laughable easy, unenjoyably hard, and choices in between. (Already partially added).

- A broad range of content and concepts from the general CV series being adapted, though the main look of the game is planned somewhat old-school 16 bit.

I'm working on polishing things up for a public demo, but might still be a full days. Among other things I'm adding options for game help and speedy door transitions.

Credits:

Obreck2: Coder, project founder

Russell Cox: Title Screen music remix composer

Ultimate Gamer: Made the video

Mew/Del: consultants. Mew planning new stage atm.

Konami: Castlevania series creators, copyright holders

"A whole big list of sprite artists/rippers I still need to type up": Will have this ready for the first public demo release. Includes several of you TsR members.

SOME SCREENSHOTS:

[Maxim]

This looks really interesting. What Engine are you using?

[Deathbringer]

What will the button layout be like?

[PrettyNier]

Looks interesting.

I don't like the idea of the difficulty being that variable, though; I think you should keep it relatively close to the original.

It's also important to remember that... you're adding in new abilities, new functions; don't forget to adapt the landscape and the enemy capabilities to these abilities. Otherwise, you'll just be mimicking everything that's wrong with the latter portable installments.

[OSM]

This is looking really good. Can't wait to see more. Very awesome to see the CV4 mechanics in this, I loved multi whipping so much in that game.

[obreck2]

What will the button layout be like?

Attack button, Jump button, Subitem button, and special button (moonwalk toggle for Trevor).

[PrettyNier]

Any plans on updating enemy or level design to accomodate for the new abilities that Trevor has?

[Del]

It won't be a "straight remake", it will be more like a revamped version of CV3, many enemies/bosses won't behave exactly like they did, and yes, the gameplay/enemies will be balanced. I already tested the game, and trust me, it feels like a legitimate CV game made by Konami itself.

He isn't using any known engines at all, he' using Game Maker 8, he made the engine from scratch.

And the difficulty system is nice as well, you can play "normal" if you want to stick to the original, but players that want a challenge would like to try harder, or baddies will like easy. It's all good.

Oh and the buttons can be configured by yourself too.

[PrettyNier]

He isn't using any known engines at all, he' using Game Maker 8, he made the engine from scratch.

that's not really from "scratch" tbph, if it were genuinely from scratch it would be C++
not that I'm hating on him for using it or anything, i use the program myself, but "scratch" is a little misleading in this regard. and I don't know of anyone using pre-existing engines made in game maker for their games (although I'm sure it happens). thats just pathetic.


it would be pretty cool to see some whip swinging ala CV4 in the light house level (after the ghost ship (maybe even in the ghost ship?)).

[MoneyMan]

He isn't using any known engines at all, he' using Game Maker 8, he made the engine from scratch.

that's not really from "scratch" tbph, if it were genuinely from scratch it would be C++
not that I'm hating on him for using it or anything, i use the program myself, but "scratch" is a little misleading in this regard. and I don't know of anyone using pre-existing engines made in game maker for their games (although I'm sure it happens). thats just pathetic.


it would be pretty cool to see some whip swinging ala CV4 in the light house level (after the ghost ship (maybe even in the ghost ship?)).

if you mean like after you whip you can swing it around he said that wouldnt be included, way too complex to code

[obreck2]

He isn't using any known engines at all, he' using Game Maker 8, he made the engine from scratch.

that's not really from "scratch" tbph, if it were genuinely from scratch it would be C++
not that I'm hating on him for using it or anything, i use the program myself, but "scratch" is a little misleading in this regard. and I don't know of anyone using pre-existing engines made in game maker for their games (although I'm sure it happens). thats just pathetic.


it would be pretty cool to see some whip swinging ala CV4 in the light house level (after the ghost ship (maybe even in the ghost ship?)).

if you mean like after you whip you can swing it around he said that wouldnt be included, way too complex to code

Well I meant the whip brandish would be too complex to implement. Being able to swing from the CV4 bat rings is plausable, but its too early to know if it will be applied or not.

[Nystre]

It'd be really nice to see bat rings in this if you do decide to add them! You'd probably have to drastically alter some of the level design to fit them in, but it would be nice nonetheless.

[obreck2]

Alright, Public demo is up: http://www.sendspace.com/file/w2s8n7

A dev source release may come later.

Feel free to make videos or distribute.

EDIT: Here is the dev source file. You will need the public download files to use it:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/b3u9mm

[Ton]

I saw this the other day on Youtube and was pretty impressed. Can't wait to see the other characters in action.

[Mr. L]

This project is awesome! I showed this to my friend, who's two favorite games of all time are Super Castlevania 4 and Castlevania 3, and he pretty much did a backflip right then and there. If I may give some feedback regarding color theory...

You've chosen to use quite dark backgrounds. This is understandable considering that the Castlevania games have a gothic horror setting, but I feel you might've gone a little overboard and it causes the backgrounds to sort of blend together. Using brighter colors to offset the dark ones would lead to sharper looking backgrounds that pop out more. Another issue is Alucard. Because of the dark backgrounds combined with the retro CV3 makeover you've given him, he very easily gets lost amidst the dark colors of the background. Again, using brighter colors would definitely make him pop out more. Because Trevor's color scheme is rather bright, he doesn't have this issue, but Alucard's mostly black look is just difficult to keep track of.

I'd strongly recommend at least modifying Alucard's colors so that he's more visible, and to try to keep color theory and the way various color elements will look combined with each other, and not simply how cool they may look in a vacuum.