Force Bot - New NES homebrew

[erockbrox | 33]

Hi, guys. I'm actually migrating over here from Nintendo Age forums. Let me know if there are any other good NES homebrew forums to check out.

So his is a very special project of mine as I've been wanting to make a NES game for a long time now and finally this dream has come true as the game is now 100% finished.

The name of the game is Force Bot and you play as a small robot who pushes crates.

Here is the title screen.

The game features a total of 128 levels. The game was made possible due to a collaboration with cppchriscpp, who created the Retro Puzzle Maker game engine. It's basically a full blown game built upon that game engine.

http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=18235

Here are some screenshots:

Here is an image of the character for sticker/box art:

I demoed the game at the Retropalooza video game convention in Texas and the result was overwhelmingly positive. There were people who beat the entire game and then asked for more. There was a diverse range of age groups who enjoyed the game from kids to adults.

 

Story: Force Bot is an advanced robot specifically designed to do one task very well... push crates. But there is a problem, his AI (artificial intelligence) chip has malfunctioned and now he needs your help to complete his duties. Lend Force Bot a helping hand as you guide him through over a 100 mind bending amazing puzzle levels pushing crates into shoots. But be aware, these levels were not meant to be solved by a mere human. Are you up for the challenge?

Instructions: The D-pad moves the player around. Press Start to restart the level. Pushing a crate into a hole removes the hole. Touching the floppy disk with no holes present wins the level.

I would like to do a physical release and a kickstarter. This would be my first kickstarter that I would put on, so I would need some help from the NES community on how to make this happen and/or advice. For instance:

- Where to get the plastic shells, PCB's, sticker labels from?
- All of the details of the box artwork, the dimensions of the artwork, if I should do cardboard boxes or plastic bit box cases
- I saw someone in another kickstarter who let another group take over European orders so that the shipping wasn't so much, how would I do international shipping
- Mass e-mail programs and such or send out the digital version

The game is definitely worth checking out and I had a blast working with Chris in making it.

 

 

Edited January 25, 2020 by erockbrox

[TylerBarnes | 184]

Very cool!! Looks great. Glad people seemed to enjoy what you created. 

Also I had no idea about this convention. I’m in dallas so not a terrible drive to make it out there. I would love to come out as a developer with my homebrew and join the fun. 

When im back at my desktop sometime this week I’ll get you some details on cart shells and labels. At least where I get them from. In short shells from China and labels from customstickermakers.com 

I can post my  file dimensions and settings I enter on their site when I’m at my desktop in a few days. 

Edited November 24, 2019 by TylerBarnes

[erockbrox | 33]

Hey thanks Tyler!

There is a retropalooza in Dallas and in Houston. This was at the Houston event, but I've heard that the Dallas event is much bigger.

 

 

 

[TylerBarnes | 184]

you are 100% right! I literally had no idea. I’m signing up for sure!

[a3quit4s | 4,140]

I hope you launch a kickstarter so I can back it!

[erockbrox | 33]

Thanks a3quit4s!

It's actually a really cool game. You gotta check it out if you love NES homebrews.

 

[Lincoln | 230]

that looks great man! good luck with your release

[Ausden | 323]

Looks great!

[dale_coop | 166]

Force Bot looks very fun!

[Deadeye | 1,600]

I might be taking the images too much at face value, but Force Bot seems to be very similar in concept to KHAN's The Incident, a robot box pushing puzzle homebrew as well.  I am not saying this to be a downer on your project, but just to point out if additional mechanics or story elements should be considered to bring diversity.  If I played Force Bot, I may have a different opinion and think the two are different enough.  Again, just bringing it up as something to consider before you go to production.  

[zi | 144]

hey- who's doing your music?!?!?

[erockbrox | 33]

7 hours ago, Deadeye said:

I might be taking the images too much at face value, but Force Bot seems to be very similar in concept to KHAN's The Incident, a robot box pushing puzzle homebrew as well.  I am not saying this to be a downer on your project, but just to point out if additional mechanics or story elements should be considered to bring diversity.  If I played Force Bot, I may have a different opinion and think the two are different enough.  Again, just bringing it up as something to consider before you go to production.  

That's a very observant observation and I was thinking that someone would make a connection between the two as both games have robots pushing around blocks. The difference between the games is that KHAN's game is more of a traditional sokoban game. To beat the level you have to push blocks onto special squares and all of the special squares have to be occupied by blocks to beat the level.

Force Bot, in contrast makes the blocks disappear when they come in contact with their special squares. There are other levels where you don't even have to push the blocks on special squares. It's unique in its own ways.

@zi The game is 100% finished including the music. The music was done by Takumi Grainger, from the Nesmaker community. But if I work on another project its always nice to have a music person on hand. So will keep you in mind! You can always send me a link to some of your previous work so I can check out some of your tunes.

Edited November 26, 2019 by erockbrox

[KHAN Games | 149]

4 minutes ago, erockbrox said:

 

@zi You can always send me a link to some of your previous work so I can check out some of your tunes.

 

I recommend checking out his music in The Incident. 

Edited November 25, 2019 by KHAN Games

[dougeff | 14]

I would buy it. This is my kind of game. (thumbs up)

[Orab Games | 97]

Looks great! Very nice work.

[fcgamer | 4,792]

For all those who keep comparing this to The Incident... please stop. Compared to what the name suggests , I was quite underwhelmed to see what the incident actually was. Way back in early nes homebrew we received a sokoban clone, wait even earlier about 1990 or so we received Porter, another box pusher. In the early 2000s there was yet another box pusher on NES / famicom.

Force Bot looks fun. For those saying it's just a copy of The Incident, well the Incident occurred at least three times before the release version, lol

[KHAN Games | 149]

18 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

For all those who keep comparing this to The Incident... please stop. Compared to what the name suggests , I was quite underwhelmed to see what the incident actually was. Way back in early nes homebrew we received a sokoban clone, wait even earlier about 1990 or so we received Porter, another box pusher. In the early 2000s there was yet another box pusher on NES / famicom.

Force Bot looks fun. For those saying it's just a copy of The Incident, well the Incident occurred at least three times before the release version, lol

It wouldn't be an Incident thread if you didn't make an appearance and trash it. Thanks for showing up!

What about Force Bot makes it look fun that is absent from The Incident? I'm dying to know, because from what I can tell, the only difference is the blocks disappear instead of stay there when they reach their home, making it easier?

(And full disclosure, I'm not trying to bash Force Bot. I'll definitely be backing it when the time comes. Just here to call fcgamer out for being a bag of douche.)

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

Always up for a block-pusher puzzle.

Looks good!

[Deadeye | 1,600]

@fcgamer I am the only one who brought up the observation.  Quite a leap from one person bringing it up, to all those who keep comparing this to The Incident.   I think you jumped the gun too soon.  I might have been the only one to ever bring this up.  And you took the opportunity to bash another game.  Keep the conversation at hand, Force Bot.   

[ookii_risu | 206]

Looks good!

[fcgamer | 4,792]

5 hours ago, Deadeye said:

@fcgamer I am the only one who brought up the observation.  Quite a leap from one person bringing it up, to all those who keep comparing this to The Incident.   I think you jumped the gun too soon.  I might have been the only one to ever bring this up.  And you took the opportunity to bash another game.  Keep the conversation at hand, Force Bot.   

@Deadeye You are right that if you're the only one who's brought it up, then I might be jumping the gun a bit on the topic. For that, I'd like to apologize.

That being said, I'm not trying to insult or bash The Incident despite what the author may think. The situation about that game though, imo, has always been that in isolation, the name makes it out to be some exciting action game or spy game or something, whereas in reality it's a box pusher. 

This leads into another point of mine, it appears to me that all of these games are close in concept to (or could even be considered as) Sokoban clones.

[fcgamer | 4,792]

6 hours ago, KHAN Games said:

It wouldn't be an Incident thread if you didn't make an appearance and trash it. Thanks for showing up!

What about Force Bot makes it look fun that is absent from The Incident? I'm dying to know, because from what I can tell, the only difference is the blocks disappear instead of stay there when they reach their home, making it easier?

(And full disclosure, I'm not trying to bash Force Bot. I'll definitely be backing it when the time comes. Just here to call fcgamer out for being a bag of douche.)

@KHAN Games Honestly, please just let everything go. I didn't trash your game here, and on other threads I've even stated that I'd like to give it a go at some point. I have said again and again though that compared to the image conjured up by the name, the game itself seems pretty tame. If I made a game titles Terror Strike and then it was just  solitaire or minesweeper derivative,I think I'd receive a similar reaction at least from one or two people.

I hope that we can agree to disagree on my opinion, and that you can at least see where I'm coming from, and that I'm not trying to spew venom, so we can move past this .

[Scrobins | 1,748]

@fcgamer you say you aren't trying to trash Kevin's game...yet you keep cutting it down and telling him to stop defending himself. For someone who accuses others of being elitist as much as you, you're being a pompous ass.

[erockbrox | 33]

Wow, I really appreciate all the attention guys.

Hopefully if I explain the origin of the game a little more it will clear things up a little bit.

Force Bot was originally going to be a game running on the SNES. It was supposed to be in the style of an NES game even though running on a more superior system. He originally threw a wrench as a weapon attack, but I was having some problems with the coding and was stuck. Here is a screenshot:

 

I've been wanting to make a NES homebrew for a while now and actually tried out NESmaker, but found the learning curve too difficult to master. Still feeling the itch to make a NES game I then found a NES programmer (cppchriscpp) who created a small block pushing game engine. I've created block pushing puzzles in the past for other projects so I felt that this game engine was right up my alley.

 

When it came time to insert the graphics for this new NES game, I just pulled the art assets from the original Force Bot game that was intended for the SNES. In other words, I was taking assets from one project and porting them over to another project. It just so happens to be, by pure coincidence, that this is a robot block pushing game and that there is another NES homebrew out there, which also features a robot pushing around blocks too.

I think once you play Force Bot, the similarities with a more traditional sokoban game will fade. You might think that because its a block pusher that its all be done before, but this game engine is unique and that resulted in some unique properties and mechanics. In fact there are weird and strange things that I'm doing with this game engine that I don't even think the programmer ever thought of or imagined. Think limited resources drives innovation. 

Force Bot is more of a fast pace puzzle logic game and while your main job is to push blocks down holes, there are other levels where there are no holes and your only goal is to get to the floppy disk. Oppps.... I forgot to mention, once all blocks have been pushed into their holes the floppy disk is the tile which wins the level and advances you onto the next level.

I must say that I'm pretty happy with out the game turned out and if the game does well I would like to talk with the programmer about advancing the game engine to allow for another NES game in the future.

Edited November 27, 2019 by erockbrox

[Scrobins | 1,748]

I look forward to backing your Kickstarter!