I guess it's about time I started a thread specifically about DK Jr. Remix.
I've already been working on it a few months but up until now it has mostly been the long, long, boring stuff... creating working code, sorting all the technical stuff, framework... bug fixes... bug fixes.. bug fixes... I've stopped counting, and I've stopped even taking note of all the bugs that I fixed now. Then also fixing up the frustrating issues in the original gameplay and making the difficulty progress more smoothly and fairly.
After that was a lot of reworking to allow expanding the game. Everything in the original game was pretty much originally programmed to do exactly one thing, work exactly one way. Consider it hard-coded / hard-wired. So I set out to make it more flexible, work more like a game engine. I'm still not finished with that, but I've done a lot to make new screens possible now.
I was getting discouraged about a month ago, so I figured I had to add *one* new stage early, just to give me some kind of instant-gratification -- actual signs of progress. So the first new stage was just a new vines/snapjaws stage. Of course the blue snapjaws had no awareness of their surroundings (their motions are hard coded to follow one set of paths.) so I figured it'd be good to make a new type of snapjaw that's like a blue but with the ability to detect platforms below them and decide which way to go on their own. There's a limited set of colors I can choose from for sprites, but one choice worked and the new snapjaws are purple. I sort of think of them as something Q*bert-like... when they go down, they go either left or right at the next floor, then go down again, then left or right again.. A bit like a cross between a blue and a red snapjaw, so purple actually works.
Then it was back to fixing bugs, fixing issues, fixing limitations.. then expanding functions and features. I started adding a 2nd new stage but for every one thing I wanted to add I had to rewrite a dozen routines to allow it. So it was long again.. But I finally fit another point where yes, the stage idea is finally workable. It's not exactly what I originally had in mind, but hey, it's still pretty cool. I can move the springboard, have two of them, give the moving platforms new motions, different speeds and have more of them as well. I can give entirely new paths to the birds. I can move Mario and DK to different locations, even flip the animations so they can be on the other side of the screen. Nice. I think the fun/interesting part of the project is finally starting.
