The Adventures of Moron van der Slut – Escape from Castro Castro

Textured free-roaming 3D graphics, a first on MSX! Combined with classic maze traversal and oldskool dexterity based gameplay, we trust many people will like this.

TNI is looking for pixel graphics artists to join our team!

(PS: this game does not seem to have bugs )

The framerate is good but the game looks ugly.
Probably the texture is too much detailed for the resolution you have choosen.
Moreover playbility would improve a lot by adding a goal spot (in the map at least!).
I know the problem of dealing with textures in this kind of games, but if the framerate was the goal, maybe simpler textures, even flat colors, would have worked much better with some elements like:

0) a starting spot and a goal spot as textures on walls: they can be also simple doors;
1) some sort of variation on walls (even flat colors, if not textures, could work): this allows the player to keep track of where he/she is in the maze;
2) some sort of shadowing: the same wall has to look darker or lighter according to the direction it faces;
3) avoid bricks if you cannot cope with them at closer distance: less detailed textures scale better when zoomed;

ARTRAG :

The framerate is good but the game looks ugly.

Thanks… TNI is looking for a pixel artist, because we don’t have one.

Moreover playbility would improve a lot by adding a goal spot (in the map at least!).

You mean it would become easier to play…
Remember this is a prison escape game, since when do you know the exit in a prison that was built as a maze?!

Also, the radar is not a map but a radar, the compass is not a direction indicator but a compass.

You should be happy there are even walls on the radar, because part of the team didn’t want to include them, because it makes the game easier.

0) a starting spot and a goal spot as textures on walls: they can be also simple doors;

You haven’t played it a lot, have you? Start and finish are rarely near a wall.

1) some sort of variation on walls (even flat colors, if not textures, could work): this allows the player to keep track of where he/she is in the maze;

Lack of variation is caused purely by the lack of a graphics artists in the team.

2) some sort of shadowing: the same wall has to look darker or lighter according to the direction it faces;

Now I know you haven’t played it at all. This shadowing is included in the game, even in level 1.

3) avoid bricks if you cannot cope with them at closer distance: less detailed textures scale better when zoomed;

The texturing code is not perfect, but it’s fast. Again, bricks were chosen because:
1. it’s a prison
2. lack of graphics artist
3. it’s a PRISON

GuyveR800 :

The texturing code is not perfect, but it’s fast. Again, bricks were chosen because:
1. it’s a prison
2. lack of graphics artist
3. it’s a PRISON

Most prisons have concrete walls, not bricks

Prisoner :

Most prisons have concrete walls, not bricks

CITATION NEEDED. Dunno why you’re not using your own (nick)name, but maybe it’s because you’re being a smartass.

However, on the night of the deadline, there was a documentary about Castro Castro prison on Dutch TV. I was happy to see the prison does indeed look like a maze with many buildings, open spaces and small alleyways, but I also saw most walls were covered in pastel colored plaster.

Originally I had depth-shaded walls without texture, but I chose to use texturing because that had not been done in an MSX game before.

Perhaps pastel plasterwork would’ve been more realistic, but I have news for you: the prison also doesn’t really have energy barriers…