| |
Disthron
Account closed
Registered: Sep 2013
Posts: 21 |
Looking for C64 programmer [paid]
Hi everyone,
I've been developing a retro throw back game for the PC in the style of the Commodore 64. I'm working on a Kickstarter project to get it finished and I was thinking of having an actual Commodore 64 port as one of the stretch goals.
No one on the team has any live C64 programming experience so I'm putting the call out to people who might be interested in working with us. The artwork will have to be converted. Our artists try to stay as faithful to C64 specs as possible but little things can still slip through the cracks. Also you'll basically be on your own programming wise. If you're interested in the project please send me a PM and we can talk more about specifics.
Since this will be a stretch goal I can't guarantee this will go ahead even if we get funded. But I need to talk to someone in order to know how much it will cost, and thus how much to ask for in the stretch goal.
Thanks for reading my post.
~Disthron |
|
... 63 posts hidden. Click here to view all posts....
|
| |
chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386 |
thats not a "full time job" then. that implies sth like 8h a day, 5 days a week, ie around 150-200 hours per month. |
| |
Martin Piper
Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 722 |
Back in the day such games would be coded in a couple of months. |
| |
cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
Though the couple of months would mostly apply to the "by the numbers" action games, right? If a game contained significant R&D (simulation games, games with cinematic qualities, unique design or otherwise ambitious) it could easily be longer.
This game here isn't really complex in the basic combat gameplay, but the engine needed to support it good enough on the C64, plus the cutscene work if those are ported, could easily push it into the more "ambitious" category. |
| |
PopMilo
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 146 |
Quoting cadaver...This game here isn't really complex in the basic combat gameplay, but the engine needed to support it good enough on the C64, plus the cutscene work if those are ported, could easily push it into the more "ambitious" category.
Agreed. This is definitely one of ambitious ones.
Take a look at additional material here:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=42309.0
And here:
https://www.facebook.com/EdelinTalesPortalsofDoom
On the bright side - design, story and lots of graphics looks done. |
| |
Fungus
Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 686 |
I nominate Martin Piper, surely with his genius level of knowledge and years of experience in the industry he can whip this out for you in a couple of months.
He's already got an engine that's perfectly suited to the job, and even an excellent netcode library perfect to make this a fantastic multiplayer experience for all. |
| |
Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980 |
Interesting project. Not at all impossible technically, given enough compromise.
If money is an issue for potential "C-64 consultants", living outside of the U.S. helps. As seen in previous posts, things generally cost less in the rest of the world, but income tends to be less as well.
Disthron: I wonder, what is your motivation for such an ambitious "stretch goal"? Your original PC port is not yet finished, but would possibly be delayed while the C-64 port will still be in development. Since you and everybody in your team seem not to have any C-64 development experience, i'm assuming no C-64 specific fondness or nostalgia, except playing the games. Why do you care?
Would a C-64 port increase the popularity of the entire project so much, even if only initially via Slashdot publicity etc.? Was it a personal or strategic decision to have a C-64-ish look from the start? Why not SNES or any other classic 8-bit platform, as this type of game has been more successful on other platforms than C-64, i believe. |
| |
Disthron
Account closed
Registered: Sep 2013
Posts: 21 |
Quoting KrillWhy do you care? Would a C-64 port increase the popularity of the entire project so much,
No, in fact most people probably wouldn't even bother downloading an emulator to play the ROM..... It's just cool to have a new game on an old system. I don't know, maybe getting it to run on actual hardware makes it feel more legit? Maybe it's an affirmation that we liked these things because they WERE actually good and NOT just because they were the only thing around at the time. I don't know what it is, I just always thought it was really cool when someone comes out with a new Atari 2600 game, or a new Megadrive game.
Quoting KrillWas it a personal or strategic decision to have a C-64-ish look from the start?
It was somewhat strategic. I knew I wouldn't be able to make a AAA 3D game, and rather than make a bad 3D game I decided to try and make a good 2D one. And I've always been a fan of the pixel art aesthetic.
Also, I noticed that even though you would see mocked up screen shots and sometimes even animations of "What would X game be like on the C64".... no one seemed to actually be making any games in it's style. During the course of development, taking to people about my game I only found 1 other team who was developing a C64 style game. I mean, even the Apple 2 was getting more love than the C64 with stuff like Organ Trail. Mean while it seems NES styled games come out every other week. Not that I have anything against the NES mind you but.... I mean give some other systems a chance.
When I started considering Kickstarter for additional funding I started entertaining the idea that maybe, if we could use the artwork from the PC version we would only need to hire a programmer and we could afford an actual C64 version as well! Unfortunately the artwork would need a lot of converting and apparently the coding would be a LOT more involved than I'd initially thought.
Anyway Here's a link to the only other C64 retro through back game that I'm aware of.
http://www.indiedb.com/games/dustbowl-a-wasteland-adventure
Here's a link to a YouTube channel that likes to make video mockups of what modern games might look like on the C64.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3jjWssiCs |
| |
CreaMD
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 3057 |
That retro 64 screenshot has hires gfx (1x1pixel). I would be glad to see such GFX on c64 but it's more likely that it would look like this on Amiga. |
| |
Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980 |
Quoting DisthronAnd I've always been a fan of the pixel art aesthetic. I see. But keep in mind that making a game on an actual 8-bit platform gives you all the restrictions that were one of the main reasons for the "pixel art aesthetic" in the first place. A lot of design decisions are actually based on circumventing this or that shortcoming of the machine, also limiting the artist's degrees of freedom, but enabling creative solutions for these limitation problems.
Quoting DisthronUnfortunately the artwork would need a lot of converting and apparently the coding would be a LOT more involved than I'd initially thought. There's a lot more than coding to be done when making a good port. The converted graphics will need a graphics artist's manual touches to shine, and the music and sound effects should be made by a SID expert as well.
However, the coding part can be simplified by sharing as much code as possible among both the original PC and the C-64 ports. If the PC version is written in C, consider using a C compiler like cc65 to compile the C-64 port, and gradually replace the original C code, especially inner loops and hardware abstraction layer implementations, with hand-crafted assembly code until your performance criteria are met.
If the game's code structure is good enough from a cross-platform perspective, creating the C-64 port could be some kind of "fill in the gaps" and "optimise this" or "beautify that" problem.
This approach would likely have implications for the original PC game code, meaning compromises or simplifications will feed back into the PC code (re: amount of enemies on screen), with the aim of having both ports be as close as possible to each other.
As mentioned before, developing the game for a cartridge (=EasyFlash) would enable many things otherwise impossible, such as great amounts of animation and plenty of memory usable for unrolled loops to achieve high performance. See Prince of Persia 1.1 which is a fine example for that. |
| |
Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980 |
Thinking further about it, a cross-platform approach would have to put emphasis on the C-64 port. That also means that anything that looks and feels good on an actual C-64 should also be good enough for the PC version. Graphics manually retouched for the C-64 port could replace the original PC graphics. That requires good CRT emulation, but i see you have already started on that. Code engineered and optimized for the C-64 could also be wrapped with a thin emulation layer on the PC port, for better sharing of code. |
| Previous - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 - Next |
