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Tenebra - New minimalist puzzle game


Haplo

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I'm very pleased to share Tenebra, my first NES game. I originally developed it for the Commodore 64 home computer and later ported it to other systems, including the NES. The ZX Spectrum version won the best puzzle game category in the 2022 Planet Sinclair's game of the year awards.

Play Tenebra

Grab a copy of the ROM from https://h4plo.itch.io/tenebra. It's free to download (name your own price).

About

Tenebra is an atmospheric minimalist puzzle game, with greyscale rogue-like aesthetics. 

Story

Guide the hapless protagonist to the exit. Poor guy is afraid of darkness and refuses to walk in the dark areas.

Move flickering torches around the map, push lights on rails, find keys to doors, light up cold braziers, pass through archways that collapse behind you, find oil puddles to make your torches brighter, squeeze through cracks in broken walls, fix broken rails with a hammer, illuminate the sensors to open the exits... do whatever it takes to get out of there!

Features

  • 31 unique levels
  • Game mechanics are introduced as you progress through the game
  • Minimalist design and sound FX
  • Password system to return to the level you last played
  • Light flicker toggle
  • PAL and NTSC support

Development

Coded in 6502 assembly, assembled with 64tass, aided by MESSEN emulator and debugging tools.

Screenshots

  spacer.png

Video (Spoiler warning!)

Watch this video, containing the first eight levels, for a preview of the game (or if you need a hint).

 

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Thanks checking it out and for the and encouragement! 

22 hours ago, Sumez said:

That's a really fun idea!

Hope to give it more of a real go later on. Great job.

16 hours ago, neodolphino said:

Thanks for posting!!

I'd like to hear what you think once you have a chance to look into it further.

16 hours ago, Scrobins said:

What a great idea! Are you interested in a physical release? We might be able to help!

A physical release sounds exciting. I would be interested as long as the community is interested in the game. Is there a place for a game like Tenebra in the NES physical homebrew lineup?

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16 hours ago, Haplo said:

 Is there a place for a game like Tenebra in the NES physical homebrew lineup?

I think that your idea is really cool, I'm just wondering if you went with the "minimalist" approach for artistic reasons or due to time constraints or maybe due to lack of programming experience on the NES?  The reason I ask is because I think your game would sell really well and be highly regarded if you fleshed it out up to the standards of NES game quality.  For example, forboding background dungeon music, full colour graphics with flickering torches and torchlight and nice sound effects would make your game a must-own on the NES.  You could even add a cool story and/or cut scenes and whatnot.

TLDR - I guess what I'm trying to say is: excellent idea, and I hope you (or someone else?) will grab the torch and run with it...  And yeah, pun fully intended... 😛

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When it comes to the NES, there's nothing to having more colorful graphics that demands more programming experience, it's more a question of putting the work into the assets. But keep in mind this was made for the C64, not the NES.

Personally I think the look of the game is fantastic, and the restraint gives it a unique look that's unlike any other NES game. I'd imagine the style is probably either to ensure the game being easily ported among its four different platforms (including speccy!), or to facilitate quicker gameplay results requiring less of a time sink working on graphics, or a good mix of them both, which I can only respect!

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On 2/12/2023 at 1:48 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

I think that your idea is really cool, I'm just wondering if you went with the "minimalist" approach for artistic reasons or due to time constraints or maybe due to lack of programming experience on the NES?  The reason I ask is because I think your game would sell really well and be highly regarded if you fleshed it out up to the standards of NES game quality.  For example, forboding background dungeon music, full colour graphics with flickering torches and torchlight and nice sound effects would make your game a must-own on the NES.  You could even add a cool story and/or cut scenes and whatnot.

TLDR - I guess what I'm trying to say is: excellent idea, and I hope you (or someone else?) will grab the torch and run with it...  And yeah, pun fully intended... 😛

Good question! The concept I had in the making of Tenebra was to make a game in an opressive, dark dungeon where you can only see the faintest flicker of a torch, and the rest is darkness.

It is an intentional design decision in a way, as it's otherwise hard to visually build that kind of atmosphere in an 8-bit platform. 

The grayscale palette was the obvious choice to represent light and darkness - the NES light flicker is probably one of the most polished ones because I could take advantage of both the colours and the intensity (compared to other systems where only the colour can be set, or systems like the ZX Spectrum where the greyscale palette is comprised of black, white and one shade of grey).

Then again, that kind of aesthetic is very unlike any other NES game I've seen - they are a lot brigheter and more colourful than Tenebra.  

As for the sound, it's not a surprise that I'm not a musician - my chiptune abilities are restricted to sound effects. It's intriguing to think what it could sound like. 

2 hours ago, Sumez said:

When it comes to the NES, there's nothing to having more colorful graphics that demands more programming experience, it's more a question of putting the work into the assets. But keep in mind this was made for the C64, not the NES.

Personally I think the look of the game is fantastic, and the restraint gives it a unique look that's unlike any other NES game. I'd imagine the style is probably either to ensure the game being easily ported among its four different platforms (including speccy!), or to facilitate quicker gameplay results requiring less of a time sink working on graphics, or a good mix of them both, which I can only respect!

Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback, and glad you enjoyed the look and gameplay.

It is true that the game across platforms share most assets, and a lot of work went into the puzzle and level design, which means I need to stick to the same number of tiles (or characters) without having to re-work every level. 

When I first started this project I didn't really think of releasing it across multiple platforms... that's something that happened organically. The Z80 version was a complete rewrite of the 6502 version, and the NES version, being the latest one, benefited from a few interface improvements over the c64 version.

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