MSXdev22 #31 Lilly's Saga - The Stones of Evergreen

Okay, this is impressive (I've missed forum thread). So this makes two smooth-scrolling platformers in this year?

Incredible job!!! Congratulations for the authors! Thank you very much for share your work with scene

Wow! A "must have" for me!!

Great entry indeed, well done! And yes, this deserves to be played on a real system or a better emulator

What a nice surprise

And there we are. We have submitted the game to MSXdev :-O

We have already announced that the game will come in two versions. One "Download version" and one "Physical version". We never actually stated that the Download version would be free, until now. Free is GOOD and more people will be able to experience the game. I hope that as many as possible are able to play on a real MSX. It is really a cooler and a smoother experience.

Now, we are preparing the real thing too. It will of course be **something else** to have a great looking, physical box on the shelf. (--And for those not in posession of large MegaFlashROMs, this will be the way to play on a real MSX).

In the mean time, enjoy the game! I've spent every available free time on this game during the last 2.5 years, and the other developers have put in a fair share of work as well(!) I hope it's a nice addition to the MSX2 games collection.

@Manuel: Sacred Valley. It scrolls horizonally smoothly, but in 8px increments vertically as far as I can tell.

Thanks all! Very nice to hear what you think.

Note: If you use openmsx, you must use openmsx18, as earlier versions will not render music correctly in Lilly's case (waits between outs to the music chip are pruned to the absolute minimum in this game).

This is a very great MSXdev comtest this year! And MSX2 games are incredible! SO MUCH MSX LOVE! Amazing!

Tremendous and nice surprise! We finally have a platform game worthy of the name on MSX.

If I understand the version correctly, the premium version that is sold MSX Cartridge Shop has just the saving game support in addition. I'm right?

ok, book a cart for me ;-)

Any update about loading the ROM? Which device are you using guys? I've tried several configs with Sofarun and MGLOCM and didn't work. I'm really looking forward to trying the game on the Zemmix, instead of using the emulator.

I agree, this year the MSXDev has a reaaally impressive level. The jury has a very hard job.

P.D.: solved. Both Sofarun and MGLOCM identifies the ROM as ASCII8, but really is ASCII16. Force this mapper and it works.

Amazing game and very polished in detail!!

As said above the free version doesn't have game save. I think the premium version save on a sector of its FlashRom.

I see now, thanks. What about a password system for the digital version?

Physical copy for me for sure!!

The digital version is the msxdev-version. I’m not planning to add more features to this. The Premium OTOH, is not 100% set in stone.

@tfh A cluster of MSXs!

I suposse that this could be the problem with Carnivore2, it's not working with Sofarun. In Zemmix I can confirm that setting manually the mapper to ASCII16, works fine with Sofarun.

Waiting feedback from users with GR8Net, SDMapper and Flashjack

The problem is probably the fact that the ROM is simply too large. The carnivore 2 only has 1 MBtye of mapped ram. Maybe you can use it by flashing the special made 2/4 MByte flashfiles for sofarun.

Yeah... I like my MSX setup. Quite happy with it actually!

really impressive game !...

So I am trying to put the game on the GR8NET serial flash, so I can run it using the net MEGAROM option (paragraph 9.5 of the GR8NET manual). Since you can only load 1MB at the same time, I've split up the rom intro 512K parts. I noticed the ROM is not aligned to 1216 KB or 1536 KB. Not sure yet if that will be a problem.

Anyways, I've loaded the MEGAROM.BIN to the serial flash, but whenever I want to flash part 1 with _FLUPDATE(74) I get an "Illegal Function call". I've booted the GR8NET with [cursordown] pressed, so it boots in mapper mode 0.

Has anyone any experience on this? Not sure what I am doing wrong.

Edit: I've send Eugeny a mail. I think the parts need to have some kind of header.

I did not even get the example (Aleste) to run. When you activate the MEGAROM.BIN firmware _NETRECFG(..) and boot, it says 5 is the konami mapper type. And then it tells me "Image does not start with ROM signature, will not be started". Also the manual states there is a _NETMEGAROM() command at some point, but neither the default firmware nor the MEGAROM.BIN version seems to support it.

Nevertheless, it seems there is some utility missing creating the parts.

I flashed it successfully to my MFRSCCSD+ using the command:
OPFXSD LILLY.ROM /A16
When using auto-detect, it does not work.

I have encountered a problem with the SX-2.
Using mglocm.com /f (to force ASCII16) the game starts, but in world 1-2, at the cloud platforms that go up and down, they move badly and the character goes on tilt..

I think the OCMs have timing issues. I also see the screensplit on the middle of the screen on my SX1+ (assumed this is the one to duplicate the black border sprites).

It's not really annoying nor breaks anything on the SX1+ at least. Even on the turbo speeds nothing seems to break.

I should try the latest firmware released

Submit a bug report to KdL, he's probably interested in looking at this to improve OCM emulation.

Looking forward to take some time to play Lilly's Saga! It was nice to follow development, and it is looking great!

I've been playing Lillys Saga a bit and it is incredibly good ! Greetings for the musics and for the polished graphics, I love the intro and the scrolling effects with parallax, very well done !

Where and when can I order my copy (Cartdidge)?

Pre-orders will start later. Talking to suppliers of HW now. And BTW: MSXdev rules are this:

* After submitting an entry, it cannot be published outside MSXdev during the run of the contest.

So, we cannot release the cart now anyway.

Make sure you spot all those bonus-rooms, yeah? Did you? You will get faster to an extra life, you know --200 coins = extra life.

Excellent game, with loads of nice hidden bonus levels!
I found a spelling error, after the third gem has been found, the text "are we finally seing the end?"
(or something simila). Should be seeing . Maybe it can be fixed before it's released on physical cartridges.

Thanks!
Will fix this for the physical version, but likely I will release an update with a few fixes to the msxdev-version too. Haven’t had many reports from players though.

Great game,
Very polished, slick presentation and probably the best FM music ever.

Unfortunately, I might not be that good at it.
I seem to be stuck on world 2-1?
At the right there is a wall with a ladder I can't reach. And the magical wings don't help neither.
Any hints?

Also is it a bug that I can die if I jump-glide to left from one of the floating islands in that field? I glide to the left, hit an invisible wall for a while and once I continue gliding to the left I get a "hit the bottom of the play area" dead sequence...

Thanks! Awesome feedback!

Wolf is subtle. Bengy-bengy would be less so: Do you know how most bonus rooms are entered?

Not really a bug. It’s just a fatal consequence of going somewhere you are not intended to, and then finally you fall out of screen and into the abyss

Finding all the extra bonus rooms when you come back after completing the game a first time would be 'replay value'. If it simply blocks me from progressing in the game it can't be called 'replay', right?

It’s just like in Mario when you pull down when on top of a tube. Did you try that some of places?

Made. This game really is a gem. The end demo could have been a bit longer, but that's about the only point of criticism. Thank you for this wonderful game with this excellent music. 100% professional.

I gave Wolf some feedback on IRC. If you're interested, here's a relevant part of the conversion. Note that it's mostly criticism feedback, but it doesn't mean I don't like the game

The camera is a bit slow sometimes, so you can't see much ahead
keeps things exciting

"follow the white dots" and I see a single pixel at the top of the screen
yes, jump towards any white pixel
it's a hint pixel
how to reach...
there are some insane puzzles here and there, often you just need to jump around, hoping for hidden [?] bricks

It was not clear to me that the black flag can be picked up.

It's a bit odd that button B is pause. I'd expect 'hold item' or 'run' in good mario fashion
The game play is really smooth though :-)
you don't 'hold' items, you just have them
and there's no run speed, just one kind of moving speed, unless you are in the water without shoes
Clearing a level doesn't save?
damn, I keep pressing the B button by accident
I can't reach the chest in level 1-3, not even via the high level cannonball
Couldn't find out how to reach all these chests in level 4-1 either :S
well, good night Great entry :-)

I hope to have time to play a lot more later. I also plugged the game with several streamers who like MSX.

Thanks, sure I'd like to know. But obviously I have made some design decisions which are based on a bunch of different arguments which isn't obvious to everyone. You just have to take these rules for what they are

Well, not sure if I agree with "insane"

This thingy is not important for the progress. It was meant as a nice bonus for those who found it. I was aware that it was obscure, so I even showed it in videos prior to release. People like extra points. People like hidden (non-blocking) stuff. If you are not a typical explorer type of player, then, once you stressed through the game once, just to complete it, you might want to go back and explore and find all the hidden stuff in the game?

Early on I made a design decision that this game should be possible to play 100% with a joystick. Hence, save on B, hence menus with marker, hence save-games interface and no password-codes.

You have limited save-game slots. And in the free version you only have one. It is a design decision that you don't overwrite the single slot automatically each time you level. It's kind of bad if you were on level 3-4 with 6 lives, and once you get to level 4-1 and save with no extra lives. It should be your call to save. In this case, I would try to make level 3-4 with less loss of lives, and then save on 4-1.

I really, really hope that people don't manage all the puzzles and find all the hidden stuff on first try. Then I have failed miserably on game play.

Thanks.

Ok. As normal, the result is a combination of gameplay design and technical restrictions/compromise. So, this will not be changed in this game. In fact, **nothing** about gameplay and game-mechanics will change in this game at this point.

This is what we have Manuel, and this is what you get (at the start of every level), a non-intrusive, non-blocking message :

Yes. Ok. But that changes the whole gameplay and level design. So, no, not in my game. All games can't be similar, anyway.

Wow.. this is just stunning. Congratulations for the crew, my hats off to you. I'm currently on vacation, but couldn't resist playing a bit on webmsx on my phone for goodness sake (on the balcony with my morning coffee) and I really appreciate the pace and flow of the game. Absolutely fantastic. I've found a few hidden things, and so far it's not too hard to find.
The one criticism I have is one I share with Manuel, when you turn around the camera should (I feel at least) make a fast swoop to keep up. Now I find myself waiting for the screen to catch up as I'm afraid I run into something I couldn't see in advance. It interferes with the flow of the game.

But again, wow guys, just wow.

The audio isn't accurate in blueMSX anyway, better use openMSX or TRT (tm).

Lilly's Saga just got yet another shiny new patch-version

Bugfixes and polish. Download this and replace your old ROM to get a better experience.
https://www.msxdev.org/2022/10/05/msxdev22-31-lillys-saga-th...

Several polish and stability fixes included (see changes.txt), but worth mentioning is:
* Fixed: Bossroom - Sprites got messed up if game was paused in bossroom. Reported by ducasp on MRC
* Fixed: Crate state/pos got messed up on rezz if player was killed in the midst of moving the crate. Reported by ducasp on MRC
* Fixed: Chest appearance being broken if a crate was moved over it (level fix). Reported by ducasp on MRC
* Fixed: Disabled ability to pause the game during transition/autopilot to prevent state-bugs.

Happy gaming!