TIC-80

forty_sham

TIC-80 Website
This isn't mine, but was something I was introduced to on the old forum. I thought it was cool so I thought I'd bring discussion of it here.

Basically, TIC-80 is a fantasy computer used for making games in a retro style. It is available on various platforms, including the web, GNU/Linux, Android, Windows, MacOS, and more, and it supports multiple programming languages, including (but not limited to) Lua, Javascript, and Moonscript. TIC-80 is somewhat similar to PICO-8, but unlike the latter program, TIC-80 is free and open source, being licensed under the permissive MIT license.

I made an account on the website, where users of the program can share their creations, and I made a simple game using the Lua mode. I'm currently working on another game, though I don't know when that will be finished and uploaded.

The old forum discussion which introduced me to this program can be found here.

(NOTE: The user who posted the old forum thread was banned due to a dispute not related to this subject. DO NOT discuss the banning here. I'm only bringing this up in order to clarify that this thread is being posted because I liked the program discussed in the thread and not as an endorsement of the user who posted it. Hopefully you understand that. Stay on topic and DO NOT derail this into anything heated.)

Anyways, feedback would be appreciated.

(ADDED NOTE: You know, I realized that maybe I should have put the engine tag on this, but oh well. There's already three tags on it at this point, though.)

TPW

Nice find :).

About your game: I like the basic idea, but I think the controls/pacing needs some tuning. Maybe it is me, but I found it hardly possible to precisely control the jellyfish, and the obstacles dropped down so fast that you can hardly react deliberately. Would try to slow down the movement a lot and the drop down a bit. If possible, get somebody to play it with you and finetune it with him - as you (as dev) are bound to invest much time in testplaying, you will often tend to overtune the difficulty. Happens to me all the time as well.

Modanung

Then it might get boring. Instead you could start slow and speed up gradually towards the humanly impossible.

forty_sham

@TPW @Modanung Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into tweaking some stuff. Maybe I could also make a settings thing that can toggle aspects affecting difficulty or something like that. Could be an interesting experiment.

forty_sham

Updates regarding the game: no changes have been made to the gameplay yet, but I've decided to add some stuff to the comments inside the game's code labeling it as version 1.0, indicating that updates will be coming in the future. Also, I'll be creating a repository on Codeberg for the game and I think I'll put the original version (before adding the update comments) on the Internet Archive at some point.

Elouin

The game looks fun, but as the others already stated, it feels just a little to fast. ^^

I really like the idea of the tic-8 and am always amazed by what people create with those. Games like celeste came up via something like this if i am not mistaken.

forty_sham

Update 1.1 of Jelly the Not-Fish is out. This update makes the normal mode of playing slower so things are not as difficult. The old superspeed way of playing is still available to play by toggling "Crazy Classic" mode. Also, the game can be paused, the plankton are now animated, Jelly's "hitbox" or whatever has been improved, and also Jelly's moving borders were slightly expanded. There are also some other slight bits that have been changed, but these will be listed in a changelog file which will be part of the upcoming Codeberg repository for this game, which will store the current and past versions of the game. Stay tuned for that.

I've had some plans to implement sound effects into the game, but that will be saved for a future update. Future updates might also include more modes of playing. @Modanung's suggestion of making it so that the game gets progressively harder sounds interesting, though I hadn't ended up implementing that in this new update. Maybe I will implement it in the future. For now, what matters is that the game is less ridiculously hard by default.

UPDATE: The Codeberg repository is now out!

forty_sham

Jelly the Not-Fish 1.2 is out!

This version adds sound effects, makes the normal difficulty slightly more difficult, and also adds a menu for toggling difficulties and sounds.

I might try to get more experimental in later updates. For now, this is a decent improvement over the last version. The sound effects should help add more life to the game.

This version can be found alongside the older versions and a more detailed changelog in the Codeberg repository. It can also be played as a WebAssembly game on Newgrounds (the Newgrounds version was originally uploaded during the 1.1 era, but it has now been updated to the latest version.)

Modanung

Love the name of the game. :)

Shelly's a not-fish too! Maybe they could be friends?
To have both as playable characters - and to avoid the damsel in distress cliché - the player could save Shelly to unlock Shelly and then rescue Jelly to unlock Jelly.

🔃

forty_sham

Modanung Love the name of the game. :)

Thanks.

Modanung Shelly's a not-fish too! Maybe they could be friends?

Maybe, but who is Shelly?

Modanung

forty_sham Shelly's just some shellfish living alongside jellyfish, that came to mind based on the game's title. A third playable character could be Cathy the not-fish (catfish). Each character could have their own ability and - with it - play style. Speaking in terms of RPG classes, it would make sense to make the shellfish most knight-like since it has a carapace, the jellyfish nimble like a rogue, and the catfish would make a great wizard.

forty_sham

Modanung Shelly's just some shellfish living alongside jellyfish, that came to mind based on the game's title. A third playable character could be Cathy the not-fish (catfish). Each character could have their own ability and - with it - play style.

Interesting idea. I might experiment with this at some point. Not sure when exactly that'll happen, but I'll definitely consider this. In addition to this, I've been considering adding new items to the game, and I also want to add music of some sort.

Technopeasant

I am not very good at it. 😄

I would make a Libregamewiki article but it seems to be down at the moment.

Peter

Technopeasant It's up again. :)

forty_sham

I've been busy with some other stuff in life, so I haven't really done a lot in terms of developing Jelly the Not-Fish lately. I do want to get back into it though.

Looking through the game's spritesheet, I found a smaller earlier version of Jelly's sprite. Maybe I could rework that into something at some point.

I also do want to implement ideas that others have suggested in some form or another, but as of now I haven't really done any of that yet. I will keep thinking about that stuff though.

I should also note that I might want to make a separate thread for Jelly the Not-Fish's development at some point as I want this thread to be about TIC-80 in general and not just one specific game developed in it. I kind of feel like the past handful of posts have kind of been going in a certain direction so that's why I bring this up.

Also, I have another TIC-80 game I'm developing which I might eventually share things from. Maybe I might share some screenshots in the Post a Screenshot thread. Stay tuned for that.

Peter

Do I understand it correctly that the cartridge file is system independent?
I read that maps can have 1920 x 1088 but the display only 240 x 136. Does that simply mean a map is bigger than the "screen"?
It seems to support bare metal. Can I boot TIC-80 from an (U)EFI PC?

sndein

Peter Do I understand it correctly that the cartridge file is system independent?

Yep, the idea behind these fantasy consoles is that they work similar to emulators of real old console so .tic files are like roms for those.

I read that maps can have 1920 x 1088 but the display only 240 x 136. Does that simply mean a map is bigger than the "screen"?

Yes, maps are used for example to hold level graphics, once again similar to how vram works in those old consoles. You can then have the screen scroll across them. A good example is the game Balmung (which is amazing btw) The whole island the game plays on is just one large 1920x1088 map.

It seems to support bare metal. Can I boot TIC-80 from an (U)EFI PC?

News to me but looking it up I could only find a port like that for Raspberry Pi.