[FANGAME][FINISHED] - Kirbyvania

[Yal]

I'm pretty sure your average 1-post user won't drop something like this on you, but I didn't notice there was a forum until this monday :P Finally, yet a place to waste my time on!


Kirbyvania

Dracula, the demented nightmare, is back again! The people will dream nothing by nightmares and the monsters gets nastier than ever... Who's going to fix this issue, if not Kirby?



A game emulating the feeling of the first three Castlevania games for the NES, Kirbyvania features unique gameplay: you can do everything Simon Belmont can, but also everything Kirby can. Flying? Inhaling enemies trough walls? Spitting them out at other enemies? Gotcha. With whip in hand and a great supply of sub-weapons to collect and master, you have millions of different playstyles to choose from in your path to Dracula's table.

And did I mention the delicious particle and darkness effects?



===============================================================
Downloads:

Download from BOX.Net (V 1.3)
Page on the YYG(Like Youtube, but for games made with Game Maker) (V 1.3)


===============================================================
Controls:

Z - Jump
X - Use whip
C - Inhale enemy (down to swallow), use absorbed ability
Space - Discard current ability
Arrow - Move (up to fly)
Shift - Inhale enemy (can be used even when you have an ability)

Enter - Pause
F4 - Toggle fullscreen
Esc - System Pause (use this to quit or go to the title screen)

===============================================================
Game Version: 1.3
Made in:Game Maker 6.1 Pro (converted so that it will run on Vista)
Screen size: 480x272 (does not change screen resolution)
Filesize: 3 205 Kilobyte, plus 10 KB's worth of readme files.
Genre \ Subgenres: Platform \ Platform Action \ Gauntlet Action
Framerate: 60
Fangame: Yes
Internal Gamepad system: No
Creates files to save data: Yes, highscore and settings
Number of levels: 18 (6x3)
Number of bosses: 7
Number of difficulty settings: 3

===============================================================


===============================================================


Content:

Block 1 - Entrance
Music: Vampire Killer
Boss: Gigant Bat
Block 2 - Graveyard
Music: Shatterhand - Refinery stage
Boss: Whispy Woods
Block 3 - Waterway
Music: Ristar - Lost Palace (round 2-2)
Boss: White Dragon
Block 4 - Castle Walls
Music: F-Zero (SNES): Fire Field theme
Boss: Kracko
Block 5 - Great Hall
Music: Shatterhand - Silo Stage
Boss: MetaKnight
Block 6 - Clock Tower
Music: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: Normal Battle
Boss: Dededeath
Boss: Dracula

===============================================================
Gameplay video (kinda outdated):

===============================================================
Changelog:

Full Version 1.2================
-Added a new subweapon.
-Darkness effect is polished, using real gradients instead of the current junk.
-Particle effects added for more or less everything, I've taken care to not make them stand out too much yet still increase the appeal of the game.
-ESC won't immediately quit the game; rather it now also gives you the options to resume and restart the game.
-An options screen have been added, enabling you to e.g. turn off default fullscreen and the darkness Night Effect and set desired game volume.
-An intro sequence has been added right after the Disclaimer/Presented By Yal screen. This can be skipped by pressing Enter or Space.
-The game now comes zipped with Credits and Readme files accompanying it rather than being a raw EXE.
-A new cheat has been added.

Previous versions:

Spoiler

Demo 6==========================
- Fixed graphical glitches from version 5 (I managed to do it within 48 hours ^_^)
- Subweapon tinkering: Fireball now splits when it is destroyed, making its hitbox slightly bigger. Beam is fired faster (so that it gets to the relevant part of the screen faster) and deals more damage per hit.
- Fixed exploit: Now it's impossible to push Kracko off-screen and having him stop there.
- Now points earned for the boss-defeat orb is increased the more HP you have left.
- Minor level design improvements: in particular the Bone Pillar at the end of 3-1 now has candles around it to avoid the cheap fireballs in your face as you approach them.

Demo 5==========================
- The entire Great Hall block (Block 5) is complete, featuring classical Castlevania White Dragons (don't confuse them with the improperly named boss in block 3) and... Scarfy. Ends with a pure epic battle against Meta Knight.
- Rewrote the darkness effect from scratch, making it more efficient. Now the game shan't lag on modern desktop computers anymore. Plus the effects look way cooler than before too. This has also forced me to change the title screen layout a bit - the EFFECTS:OFF/LOW/HIGH/VERY HIGH menu has been replaced with a NIGHT: ON/OFF menu.
- Remade Kirby's inhale system. Now you will always inhale the closest enemy, and your inhale range is also increased a bit, most notably vertically. You cannot inhale hearts anymore.
- Kirby won't lose all horizontal momentum when flying and scraping against the ceiling.
- Whip animation has been made faster, but some frames has been repeated to make the animation have the same actual duration. This lead to a little graphical glitch with Kirby's stage win pose (who stops on the wrong subimage), but hopefully I'll be able to fix that within 48 hours.
- Kracko will now flash when he's charging up his attack. This makes the battle a bit less cheap.

Demo 4==========================
- The entire Castle Walls block (Block 4) is complete, having you facing Kabu, Masher and eventually the stage boss Kracko.
- It's now possible to pause the game.
- There's now an option to change sound volume.
- Subweapon balance tinkering: Holy Water and Beam deals more damage (1 more point per hit). Blade hits twice as often (gives enemy shorter mercy invincibility). Hopefully these sub-weapons are a bit better balanced now.
- Added the new ability Fork. Can be stolen from Mashers.


Demo 3==========================
- Block 3, the Waterway is now complete! Including the boss.
- Holy Water will now spout three fireballs instead of one - mainly because the knockback that previously pushed enemies out of the fire before they took significant damage.
- Revised soundtrack. Now the Graveyard has a new theme (from Shatterhand) as well as the boss battles. I've also stopped limiting the soundtrack to Castlevania music.
- A certain cheat code has been added.
- There's now a Very Low effect setting that turn off the darkness effect entirely.
- Tinkered a bit with the stage clear bonus points (time x80, hearts x1500). Still not satisfied.

===============================================================
Kirby series are copyrighted by HAL Laboratiories and Castlevania are copyrighted by Konami. This game is a fangame, not sold for money or any other profit, and neither HAL nor Konami is affiliated with it.
===============================================================
Edited for BBCode problems. Some sites uses ""s around arguments; TSR apparently doesn't.

[Dazz]

This is actually pretty cool, but bizarre. I think it runs a bit "too smooth" - and things go too quickly. Also the back shadow thing is kind of annoying, and you can see the edge of the mask that displays it.

The abilities are pretty cool though.

I know it's a very minor bug, but I don't know how I did it - I got to the first boss, beat him, but died at the same time... But I got to go to the next level. I don't know how I managed to kill him at the same time as dying - I believe I attacked him and fell on one of the ball things. I think at that point I should have technically lost.

Also, that verticle falling level was a bit... Pointless. I kind of just ignored everything and drop past it all. Half the time I wasn't actually able to see myself because I was falling so much.

[Yal]

I think it runs a bit "too smooth" - and things go too quickly.

Intentional. I'm not really trying to emulate the hardware restrictions of a NES game. In fact, I've found the problem with both Kirby's Adventure and the Castlevania series (1, 2, 3, and Super 4) being slow and choppy movement. That's also the main reason there's no stairways in this game. Because they suck.

Also the back shadow thing is kind of annoying, and you can see the edge of the mask that displays it.

The light effect? I'm trying to fix the square edge glitch (man, you spotted it -_-) and the darkness can be turned off altogether from the Options if it's not desired. It's mainly there to make noobs drool.

I know it's a very minor bug, but I don't know how I did it - I got to the first boss, beat him, but died at the same time...

Also intentional. Given the choice to surprise and annoy the player, I choose the former.

Also, that verticle falling level was a bit... Pointless.

Well, depends on your playing style. Personally, I found it a hilarious novelty with a downwards scrolling level (nodody does that), and there was a limit to screen scrolling, meaning that going to fast down would kill you. But so many players complained about "being punished for being too good" that I had to unlimit the view scoll speed again.

[Rosencrantz]

You totally should have done an undead Whispy.

Like, you know how dead trees look? Do that for Whispy.

This looks like a cool game, I'll give it a try sometime~

[Cobalt Blue]

hell, i'll do that undead whispy

[Yal]

Its a pretty good game , I have played this.

Well, you obviously should play a game before you say it's good. -'_'-

You totally should have done an undead Whispy.

hell, i'll do that undead whispy

Main reason I didn't was my spriting skills that I wanted all of the foreground sprites to have an uniform Kirby style; partially to don't scare gamers off until addicted. Which they should be around Block-5. I'd done multiple custom sprites, such as the old bat sprite you've never seen (or the custom Dracula sprites), but they simply didn't blend in properly.
Perhaps in the upcoming sequel... since this is the first mashup of this kind, I didn't want to go too far from either game (making this more Kirby than Castlevania). But I will likely go towards more grimness and goth in the next game, I actually plan to try to make it SNES-styled instead of NES.

[TomGuycott]

URGH, Dracula I haaaate you!

This game was actually a lot of fun (I haven't beaten Dracula yet as of writing this though. T_T I lost ALL my lives at him after dying only twice the whole game). It plays a little TOO fast paced for a Kirby or Castlevania game, but in its own right it's still legitimately fun to play. I was afraid I wasn't going to like the music when I saw that it was from so much different stuff, but at least they all sounded like they COULD have come from the same game if you never heard any of those tunes before.

Here are some suggestions for sequel ideas, since I've been brimming with these ideas all day:

Features:
-More playable characters
-More Kirby powers
-More levels and bosses
-16 bit graphics not completely necessary, but welcome
-More bosses that combine elements of both Castlevania and Kirby

Playable Character Ideas:
-Meta Knight based on Alucard (SotN)
-Knuckle Joe or Bio Spark OR Bandanna Waddle Dee based on Grant DaNasty
-Ado (Kirby's Dreamland 3) or Daroach (Squeak Squad) based on Sypha

Enemy Ideas:
-Poppy Bros Marionette
-Mariel (Creepy KD3 enemy)
-Tedhaun (Actual ghost enemy)
-Meta Knight's Axe Minion (for Axe power)
-Bronto Burt Medusa Head
-Broom Hatter (That flies on its broom)
-Blipper Merman
-Meta Knight's Mace Minion (As a Giant Armor kind of enemy)
-Big Sword enemy (As a Giant Armor kind of enemy)
-Squishy Cthulu
-Cook Kawasaki Jiang Shi

Boss Ideas:
-Rotten Whispy (Decaying old tree with KD3 evil face. Drops pumpkins, skulls, scary stuff)
-Kracko Legion (Made of dead bodies instead of clouds. Maybe has the Kracko's Revenge eye)
-Giant Bat Marx (Maybe have real bat wings instead of the crystal ones, even though those are cool)
-Cycloptic Bonkers or Storo (Since the Cyclops in Castlevania 3 used a hammer too)
-Wham Bam Rock Golem (Give him an actual golem body instead of disembodied hands)
-Drawcia (Evil painter like Brauner in Portrait of Ruin)
-Lololo and Lalala (A ghost pair of dancers like in CV4)
-Mr. Frosty Frankenstein with Waddle Dee Igor
-Dark Matter Blackmore (Swordsman form on the ground with a giant Dark Matter shadow)

[Yal]

...Drops pumpkins...

This. Suggestion. Is. Awesome. Going into the game for sure!

I think I'd want to have Ado and Dededee in the sequel as playable characters, and MetaKnight is of course a must-have.

I can't really comment on the other ones right now, since I haven't played most of the games you're referring to (entire log right now: KDL 1, K64, C1, C2, C:HoD). But I'll be sure to do some more research before I start on the sequel. (And I really want to expand my collection of portable Castlevania too anyway)