technically it’s playerunknown’s monster
15 Likes
Here’s a gamedev quick question:
If I want to do some low-res low-poly 3D modeling for the purpose of creating pre-rendered sprites for a project, what is the easiest, cheapest tool to learn and produce with?
I understand the answer to this might be “don’t,” but I’ve got an idea for a game and have decided this is the right aesthetic, even though I don’t know how to make such things.
Blender is pretty good these days and the next few versions should tidy up some of the most egregious interface problems. Blender Guru makes the best tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice
2 Likes
Blender is better than GIMP at being a free alternative by a mile.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s a good breakdown of the best implementation I’ve seen of this style:
Although it’s obvious in that game when they switch between filtered 3D and hand-drawn sprites, they’re consistent in their use and get fluid animation out of the 3D, subverting what is sometimes a weakness of 2D flipboards.
3 Likes
Yeah Blender is smart. Depending on your rendering technique and shaders and post processing of this stuff, you might also do well with MagicaVoxel. There’s also Probuilder built right into Unity.
Oh, to circle back to Blender - IDK if this is what you’re looking to do, but:
1 Like
Hello and well met!
I enjoyed the first season of netflix Castlevania and I wish to acquaint myself a bit more with the games. I have only played a couple of hours of Circle of the Moon, which I enjoyed, but the gba emulator i was using got finicky and I abandoned it. Could you kindly suggest another dipping point into the series? Assume my emulation potential to be fair.
Also, do you know of any scholarly work (any field) done on game box illustration, particularly of the 80s? SB threads count.
Many thanks!
please play x68000 castlevania and also rondo of blood
(if x68000 emulation is something you don’t feel like dipping into, it also got ported to ps1 as castlevania chronicles)
1 Like
Castlevania has been remarkably even in quality over the series lifetime – mostly the nature of the experience has evolved, so there are a lot of good entry points:
- SotN introduced Metroid and RPG elements and has high production values, so I’d recommend that one first
- For beefy clunky NES platforming, try Castlevania 3 Japanese edition (Akumajou Densetsu). I recommend the Japanese one because it has a much better sound chip and because the difficulty level is more balanced (easier – the US version is for masochists). Some people swear by the level design of the first NES Castlevania and others like the curiously obscure proto-RPG design of Castlevania 2, but I personally recommend Castlevania 3.
- In GBA/DS, I have a soft spot for Aria of Sorrow, which IMO has the best artwork and overall game flow so it’s just a relentlessly pleasant experience
- Rondo of Blood and Castlevania 4 are kind of hybrids with linear levels but more flexible mechanics and 16-bit artwork. I don’t care as much for them because I like more opinionated experiences but they’re still really good
- Note that Circle of the Moon is a black sheep by a one-off dev team featuring bland, repetitive artwork, but a cool focus on more open exploration of a vast world, and mechanical abuse of card synergies. Every other Castlevania you play will feel very different
4 Likes
also, this year’s Bloodstained demake thing is:
- one of very few NES revivals that actually nails the original console limitations and only deviates in sensible quality-of-life ways, unlike something like shovel knight
- one of the only inti creates releases that doesn’t outstay its welcome and is fairly tight
- a fairly direct (and very good!) follow-on to Castlevania 3 (which I never liked as much as 1 myself). it’s just nonlinear enough and just cruel enough and the music is great.
most of the GBA/DS ones after Circle are too easy and too anime for my tastes, and Circle is, yeah, unfortunately really bland after the richness of Symphony.
also, most people will rate Rondo way above 4, which is a pretty neat curio that often feels like an SNES tech demo and is one of the more playable games in the whole series but isn’t as tight as any of them
castlevania 1 and rondo for sure
and then sotn if you like that kind of thing
1 Like
yeah rondo, sotn and x68k/chronicles are the best and bloodstained is a better cv3 without the name
This is probably irrelevant but the plot of the Netflix show is the characters of castlevania 3 but the details are only expanded on in sotn
1 Like
CV1 is also one of the few games that got ported from the NES to every other 8-bit computer rather than vice versa and every one of the ports is terrible
1 Like
But are any of them as terrible as Mega Man for DOS
7 Likes
I love how even that “press fire” announces itself preemptively as “we’re going to have a problem here”
I also love how this video somehow has the perfect try-and-repeat comic timing of a road runner cartoon
6 Likes
Simon looks like Sinead O’Connor in this
gotta defeat Catholicism once and for all
5 Likes
If they’re talking about the palette RAM, then apparently you can use CXK5864BSP-10L (they also list XLJ6265AF-10SL or BR6265BF-10SL never mind, I don’t think those are applicable to the AES). Unfortunately these are some old-ass components, so Digikey doesn’t have them, and I can’t vouch for the site linked. You can also try eBay. Do you solder?
You can try getting a quote from the sites listed here, as well.
1 Like
How the hell did nobody recommend Bloodlines. Like Bloodlines is brutal as fuck (don’t feel bad about looking up some passwords if you run out of lives and continues) but is the best game in the series outside of Rondo.
Castlevania 3 is good, but I feel like 1 is a lot tighter and prefer it.
I think all the exploratory ones are pretty good, although I haven’t spent enough time with Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow. I’m a freak who likes all of the DS ones more than Symphony of the Night.
But please pleas please play Bloodlines. It’s tough as nails but it’s such a unique and interesting game. Maybe not as your first 'Vania, but definitely once you’ve tried like, CV1 for a bit.
3 Likes
No one’s played Bloodlines because it was on the Genesis 
It’s good tho
3 Likes