XSpelunker (new MSXDev'17 entry)

Even if we are supposed to avoid any bias towards entries, it needs to be said that you, mister santiontanon, are a genius and that we feel honoured that you'd submit this brilliant creation to the contest.

A general announcement: we are still working hard to move the contest, and so all its content, to a more reliable server. We'll keep everyone posted. Please don't worry; this year's edition will be a blast, if you, MSX developers, will help us to present interesting content.
We take planning and setting up the contest very seriously, and hope to welcome many a great and interesting contributions this year.
With kind regards,
MSXdev Team

Wow, another gem!
I've only seen the video so far, but looking very good/impressive!
You're really treating us well man..! (and outdoing yourself?) ;-)

Any interest in developing this game into a full-fledged big adventure / exploring game (beyond the extent/limits of MSXdev)? It seems a lot of ingredients are already there!

Something that might improve the experience / cool to implement already: make the piranha splashes sound softer when you're not near / they're not in screen.

Two thumbs up!

Haven't played it yet -- I've only watched the video -- but wow! It looks really good. I don't usually like games with procedurally generated levels, if I'm being honest (I mostly feel like the human touch is lost from levels that aren't carefully designed by an actual person), but for an MSX game, it's actually impressive just to be able to generate levels this complex -- and if the video is any indication, the levels feel very naturally designed, eschewing the randomness you usually get with procedural generation in favor of more organic, logical structures and designs.

The gameplay itself looks quite fun and engaging, too, with very appealing visuals and music.

You continue to impress, man!

-Tom

Thanks!

@ren: definitively! I plan to take a break of MSX developing for a few months (my next project is a browser game). But I would like to do sequels to at least Tales of Popolon and this one (if you beat it, you'll see that the story is already set up for the sequel ). I've tried to fit all my games to 32KB ROMs just for fun. But if I do sequels, I'll definitively go for at least 64KB ROMs, to fit more content! As for Piranha splashes, definitively (and done! if you redownload the ROM )

@Hydragon: That'd be awesome!

@wyrdwad: I basically used the same algorithm that Spelunky uses: authoring big chunks manually, and then the algorithm mixes and matches. In that way, it still looks kind of "hand designed" The down side is that after you play a few games, you start recognizing the patterns...

@-mk-: Thanks!

edit: as expected, I now only have exactly 1 byte left in the ROM, so, I really need to spend some time optimizing space even more if I want to fit a few new features I've in mind

Very awesome, it looks absolutely fantastic!

It looks like MSXDev’17 is getting quite a turnout after all!

I also wanted to contribute something, but it’s looking like I decided that a little too late and won’t be able to finish in time. Here’s to hoping the “freestyle” category will also be available next year!