First Look at Outer Wall - Castlevania: SotN for Sega Mega Drive & Genesis - Dev Diary 20

[@Elzilcho87]

When this project finally gets finished, I’d absolutely love to get it on a cart and play it on my Megadrive.

[@piccolo1976]

So much work goes into this behind the scenes, this is really shaping up into something special, great work

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks, hopefully it'll be worth the effort

[@legendsflashback]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials indeed 💥

[@EricJacobusOfficial]

Those Medusa heads were so op, ridiculous. Looks great, this is a massive undertaking.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@zeedee3929]

So great to see you posting again. I hope you had a wonderful summer and get over that cold quickly. There is no other game that I desire more to be ported to the Genesis than Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! It has been exciting to see the progression as you have so graciously provide via these videos.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks. More to come in the next few weeks!

[@jOSE-us6ex]

Awesome work, mate, awesome work!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@dacueba-games]

Those Medusa head movements are crazy, I think I'll die before I know enough trigonometry for that... but nothing is impossible for my favourite British dev! I mean, second favourite. First is Rareware. Nothing personal.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Haha, can't compete with Rareware!

[@enricosalerno3621]

Cannot wait for this project to be completed!!!!! AMAZING!!!

[@peacefulscrimp5183]

This looks amazing 😍

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Cheers!

[@Genesis814]

It's getting better and better. Congrats, my friend.

[@ThatOldTV]

Wonderful update!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@rancyheyglades1751]

Always excited to see these videos come up! Thanks for another great post and hope you feel better soon!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Feeling much better already, thanks!

[@guillaumenunes9319]

So happy to see you back ! Hope you are in good shape.

[@darrennye2629]

Astonishing work

[@InglebardGaming]

Nice video and good to see your progress as always... even with your obviously crazy opinion about SMS Double Dragon 😁 I grew up with both systems! 😁

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Haha. I actually played through the MS Double Dragon yesterday for the first time in probably 30+ years and I actually had fun with it! I might give the 8 bit SoR games a try too, as I have never played those before.

[@videogamemusicrenditionsby7625]

Positively shocking! Well done!

[@beowulf848]

Keep up the great work, this is looking amazing!

[@knightshifter2201]

Dude this looks absolutely amazing

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Cheers!

[@yamelserna9116]

Excelente que bueno que te encuentres bien y sigas con este gran proyecto sigue así muchas felicidades

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@Myako]

So good to see you back, Mr Pigsy. This project keeps looking better and better with every new video. Congratulations!! 👏🏻💪🏻💪🏻👏🏻 Any chance for another demo ROM?

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

There will be roms released around Christmas

[@GreyMatterShades]

This keeps on looking incredible, man. Fantastic work to all involved! Hope you're enjoying getting to focus on the game a bit more while you take a break from the tutorials. Really love the background in this area!

[@stefanswiss3760]

Still so cool as always Thx

[@a.ilteriskagandag7811]

Really amazing work.

[@andersonrodrigo63]

Really impressed work! Thank you

[@igodreamer7096]

Determination, creativity and lateral thinking. My friend Pigsy just like to face those challenges, huh? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

The challenge is part of the fun!

[@brazilmugenteam]

oh Awesome work!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@MacUser2-il2cx]

Beautiful! Can't wait to see more of GG Shinobi too! I've been listening to some of the Genesis versions of the OST lately.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Alianger did a great job with the MD OST

[@BocaRetroGames]

Simply amazing

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

I honestly am so looking forward to this being completed and playing it... Lol englebard and double dragon....yeah.

[@brunch1572]

Looks great!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@ironmanTetsuoTV]

Great update, looking good!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks! More to come next month...

[@gf-zi5hr]

Great to see a new video, was actually looking through some of the older ones in anticipation. One question arises: why is your emulator footage always blurry? The pixel art pops out more when it's nice and sharp ;)

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

I'm personally not a great fan of the raw pixel look, so I use a filter. Maybe using retroarch instead of Kega would provide a nicer CRT filter though

[@oraculonerd]

Muito bom trabalho !! Parabéns

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks!

[@denraimei32]

When the world needed him the most. He returned.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

I returned as promised :)

[@MrStrangermoon]

great red colors. cape inside red can be popup color like that too. little dark red.

[@AlKenlly]

El esfuerzo y dedicación que hay detrás de este proyecto es totalmente admirable, ver SOTN en la Mega Drive se me hacia impensable pero cuando veo esto sé que de verdad no existen las cosas imposibles. *¡Muchas gracias a todos ustedes!*

[@davidbrooks2127]

This project is amazing, and you're doing a great job! Don't forget that Medusa Heads are a bleeding enemy, if you plan on implementing Dark Metamorphosis.

[@douglasnevesf15]

Simplesmente maravilhoso seu trabalho, meus parabéns, não é nada fácil esse trabalho árduo mas com certeza será gratificante pra você amigo!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks! It's a lot of effort, but is ultimately very rewarding!

[@whopoder]

É muito legal acompanhar o desenvolvimento. Além de curtir, a gente tem uma boa noção do porquê de certas coisas. Grato!

[@Patrickillian]

Está ficando bonito 😊

[@marlinwindaria2695]

Wicked! 🎃 Keep it up! 👍

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Will do!

[@knightshifter2201]

Hopefully when this project is done I can buy a copy for myself.

[@AlkalimanOG]

Cool to see

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks, it's good to be able to show everyone

[@KaskelotenZebbe]

It looks really cool having the moon and the clouds in the background, it's as if a third background layer is used. It may be easier if you make your levels in Tiled and then just dump it as a .png. You won't be able to paste the tiles with an incorrect offset then.

[@kilizero1979]

this project is cool ♥️

[@CineSalvaje]

Great work

[@modollaz8116]

Looks amazing as always but I think the colour of the outer bricks should be darker than it's current choice.

[@dacueba-games]

Bro is such a Pokémon fan he has his computer say Sun and Moon instead of days and months 😔✊

[@samaeldrakul4191]

phenominal! it looks amazing 🎉❤

[@HellTantrumbull]

Seeing all these ports happening for the Genesis I'm surprised no one is porting the nes versions of Ninja Gaiden games, Castlevania 1-3, Contra and several others to the system.

[@zabustifu]

I am surprised *you* are not doing it. 😇

[@HellTantrumbull]

@@zabustifu Because I'm a comic book character creator and not a game programmer. 👍

[@zabustifu]

​@@HellTantrumbull​​ Ah, my bad. Then I am surprised you have not created the comic characters I am thinking of. 🤭 Seriously though, there are a few dozens of Genesis projects being worked on, and an unlimited amount of possible projects. So I am not actually surprised that all of the ambitious or obscure ports I'd like to exist are not being worked on.

[@Neetso]

For the golden Medusa head, maybe you can use one of the yellow tones as the brightest tone of the hair as well. It might blend well with the darker green tones from the palette, and you would have a slightly different tone for each Medusa. :)

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Pyron's already working on improved versions :)

[@CarBitGTSaxen]

can't wait for this

[@lupinchao]

色彩搭配很不错😊

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

谢谢！

[@gustavolopez6247]

Youre a Hero 💪

[@polynektar]

amazing!

[@robintst]

If I saw that many Medusa heads coming at me at once I'd jump in the pit myself.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Haha, me too!

[@TheRealSparkster]

Anymore tutorials lately btw it looks incredible and so any puting music into game?

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Tutorials will come early next year

[@TheRealSparkster]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials K

[@JamesDatWork]

This is as always amazing. But I did wonder, would this project have been easier for the SNES? Isn't it slightly more graphically advanced than the Genesis?

[@BrunoSXS]

Sorry, haven´t seen the whole video yet (nor the entire series) But am curious, how are you going to deal with storage constraints? I think the biggest game we have as a homebrew/hack was UMK trilogy on the megadrive... while that game is much smaller in scope it is still fairly big for a megadrive game. What are your thoughts on storage, you think it will be a problem? Is it a problem now?

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

SGDK supports bank switching, so that shouldn't be an issue

[@GreyMatterShades]

To expand a bit on what Pigsy said, bank switching allows megadrive games to be much larger than original cartridges were, and is supported in emulators. The only issue it could cause is if someone wants to load the final ROM onto an older Everdrive or a cheap Everdrive knockoff cart to play on their megadrive. You'd probably need a Mega SD or an Everdrive 7 or better to play the game on original hardware, I'd guess. Any other carts just wouldn't have the memory to load a ROM that big. I've been thinking of ways to get around that and release a game that's playable on more basic flash carts, and the only option I can think of would be to release a version of the game that's spread over multiple ROMs, with a password system that matches between them. So say there's 7 levels in the game but only 4 of them will fit in a standard ROM. When you beat the fourth level, you'd get a screen with a message saying "load [ROM 2] and enter password: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx." Then you could load the second ROM (which has levels 5-7) and enter the password to start at the 5th level with the correct health/items/etc. from your playthrough.

[@pablopena1474]

Could The shadow/highlight mode be used to represent the color transition from the inner parts of the tower to the outers parts in a more reallistic way? I think the colour transition in the current form is a bit rude (too fast) and the curvature of the tower can not be well appreciated. Fantastic work anyway. I am looking forward to more videos of this amazing project.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Unfortunately, that would require using a background layer for the S&H, which would mean the cloud/moon background would have to be deleted

[@pablopena1474]

Then, i would suggest a less dark color for the inner parts of the tower in orden to reduce the excesive contrast with outers parts. Thanks for your explanation regarding s/h mode

[@pablopena1474]

Only one more question. Are the same 4 palletes of 16 colors used for the whole game or are they changed among stages or screens? Thanks you so much

[@anjodaharpa8757]

Yep, colors can be changed along stages or screens, even midscreen.@@pablopena1474

[@GreyMatterShades]

@@pablopena1474 As I understand it, palettes can be edited in a number of ways using code. Different palettes can be used for different stages/screens, but also colours within palettes can be changed between frames, or even as a frame is being drawn to the screen (you can give instructions to change colours once x number of pixel lines have been drawn to the screen, so that the colours in an image change part way down the screen). As for the colours in the scene, the abrupt transition could be caused by either not having enough spaces available in the colour palettes (I'm assuming many colour spots have to be reserved for character/enemy sprites). It could also be a result of the overall limited colour selection on the Genesis/MD (512 total colour possibilities, with some colours seeming to be underrepresented).

[@kevinbuchanan67]

The outer wall theme is the best track from SOTN, and this looks really great

[@youssoufarsawi9028]

what is yiur budget for for level tiles ?

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Whatever can fit into VRAM!

[@RHTORAS]

very nice work and very nice games... wish you could do for snes too or mayebe make a tutorial on what software you use and how you do so...but in deep... Thanks! Keep up!

[@Cephlin]

Let’s goooooo

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Gooooo!

[@kdm7820]

Great work! What is the music in the last part of the video?

[@romulino]

By the way, you can run the game frame by frame in retroarch too.

[@osalsichaodoamorpower2889]

I think the best solution for people to learn to program would be to insert characters like Alucard into other horror-themed games. Like in Castlevania Bloodlines!

[@lancelnce]

Nice!

[@nickelarcade6934]

It’s crazy what we gamers take for granted. Just a simple thing like the Medusa heads takes so much work in coding and design. Well done. 👍🏻

[@guifes10]

Hey Pigsy. How do you debug?

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

I'll probably be doing a tutorial on that next year, but for now KLog_U1() is the function you want to use

[@guifes10]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials Thanks for the tip! I was wondering if there was some way to get actual debugger setup.

[@slightlytwistedagain]

A small nitpick of mine about this background section of the castle is that it's convex instead of concave, giving a feeling that you're now outside the castle instead of in it. It has nothing to do with Pyron's work, who has done a stellar job of porting it over to the Mega Drive, but it is something I cannot unsee. This might be the best time to fix artist mistakes, but then comes the question if you should considering this is supposed to be a faithful port and that there might be people who enjoy this blunder by the original artists. Some food for thought. :P

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

It looks ok to me. The line of the bricks dips in the centre and also gets darker, which I think gives it the correct perspective. The other tower areas of the castle are the same I think

[@slightlytwistedagain]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials Its not just that, the brick should be larger at the edges than the centre. I've drawn an example of a concave brick wall, but KZbin's auto censors are really good at blocking links.

[@henfjo]

Have you planned on adding mega-cd support?

[@phillipfaile3122]

I've been thinking this for a while. Will this version have any Saturn version elements? Either stages, or Richter & Maria?

[@EverScrolls]

I just found this, will it allow for the Sega CD Add On to plug in CD Music as an option?

[@GoldScale57]

When I was working on a Castlevania fan project I pulled sprites from the later DS games using DSVEdit as they reuse the sprites from SOTN and RoB very often. Some things might be missing or slightly different however. Minotaur, for example has fewer sprites due to being the common enemy version instead of the boss version in later games. Werewolf has all his sprites leftover on the sheet despite some being unused in later games I think. Even though most sheets from SOTN are already ripped getting what you can from DSVEdit and darkFunction lets you see how the sprites are assembled, get an idea of the animation timing, as well some hitbox data. Might not be 100% accurate to SOTN but its fine in my case and better than eyeballing these things imo. Its kind of a pain to figure out which enemies are reused in which of the DS games I'll admit.

[@denraimei32]

I'm not sure if you heard the news. Someone by the name of Frogbull is developing a SEGA Saturn port of Metal Gear Solid.

[@raycastello2532]

wow

[@DezorianGuy]

Good to know you're still at it! Thank you for this project! That's a brilliant idea to add a hard mode and maybe some other improvements like more (palette swapped) enemies or even unique monsters (created by the fans or from other megadrive/snes titles). Make it the biggest Castlevania with the biggest variety of enemies. Maybe even reserve the idea for someone else (or you) to bring it all to PS1 to expand even more with the added processing power and color palette of the PS1. All the best wishes from Ukraine and Germany!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

It's going to take a long time, but I'll continue chipping away at it. Working on the game is just a normal part of my life routine at this point :)

[@DezorianGuy]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials Do you have a Discord or are you colaborating with other people on this project? Is this a one man project or are people actively helping you too (apart from providing you assets here and there)? If not, why not?

[@volo870]

Ha-ha! Please code occasional surprise swarm of Medusa heads spawning for some reason. Should be funny. Also, since they are all bunched up - it shall be reasonably easy to avoid them, unlike normally, when you jump over one to run into another.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Good idea! Maybe I could have a secret, cursed hidden weapon someone, and if you decided to pick it up the Medusa swarm will come for you

[@fthprodphoto-video5357]

Awesome work ! Don’t forget to backup your work ;) 😅

[@NecrelKitsune]

Have you thought about doing this on the Sega CD? You could possibly fit the whole game with modifications into the CD. Or it could be a CD+cart game

[@halsaufschneider1446]

Amazing work, just have to state the obvious. Although, im german so i have to "complain" a bit, i guess thats the right word. When making the graphical "pixelated" assets, i should be made with a CRT filter in mind. Just to ensure everything will look pefect as an endresult. Maybe it can even help reducing file/asset size a bit.

[@apap1586]

This Kool. There are a lot of games that should have made it to the Genesis. Particularly arcade games. The original Shinobi. Bad dudes, Rastan, Ninja Gaiden ,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

The is an unfinished Shinobi port, which will hopefully be completed some day. Any of the rest would be good too!

[@apap1586]

@@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials yeah I would love to see these games on Genesis. Lots great arcade games back in 88, 89 and 90 that we never got. I know about the Ninja Gaiden game but I was hoping for the Arcade Port.

[@watercat1248]

why you don't use the same Sprite with different color palette ? For the Medusa head one teknic I have see to use a in video analysis for Sega Genesis it's too use the same Sprite and Chenge the color palette One other teknic I have see in the order to save memory it's wean the have the same tail but mirror instead to be new tail it's the same that it's mirror for system in the order to save memory But you may I already know that

[@mrnicktoyou]

Covid lockdowns were the best thing to happen to Sega retro games and remakes like this. I feel like people started doing this as they had nothing else to do.

[@patrickhawthorneLS]

If you finish this project,i will buy three copies off you for me,my friend and my brother I am all for contribution to you and the artists working with you and would love to see more from you as a team in the future (preferably) if you can dabble with sega saturn !!!!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks for the support! I'm definitely interested in Sega Saturn dev in the future. I'll be releasing this for free once it's finished (and there will be some demo roms just before Christmas). If you want to support my work then you can join the Patreon (Pyron and Inglebard has one too). All the best

[@BocaRetroGames]

It starting to look more and more like the GBA castlevania games. Amazing

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

Thanks. It was looking more like the GBA games with the old "blue outline" Alucard, haha

[@NintenData]

why u dont add more artist to help you speed up!? ego??

[@ramgladore]

So much work going into a game you won't be able to sell. You should repurpose this and create a new game to sell.

[@NickEnlowe]

SMS Double Dragon, despite having two players at once, has worse music and stage design than the NES version. I respect someone who is willing to tell the truth on that, because it's not a popular opinion, but it is the correct one.

[@AkeruzHacks]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/opvGaquZg5KCd7s

[@sc192i]

Hate to be that guy but I wish he’d stop starting new projects and close off the open ones … he’s going a great job but I would love to see (for example) Sunset Riders Arcade released as that look great too, but it’s been a long time coming 😟 … yup, I’m a A Hole, I get that

[@dannyd4339]

When people have too much free time on their hands so they do stupid shit like this

[@zabustifu]

You mean like posting such hateful comments?

[@dannyd4339]

@zabustifu at least my, "hateful comment" that hurt your little fragile feelings, didn't take months or maybe a year of my life to do. Now that's sad

[@zabustifu]

@@dannyd4339 Why would it hurt my feelings? I'm not the author. That guy has a cool hobby. It sounds like you badly need one yourself.

[@miltiadiskoutsokeras9189]

Brilliant. Only the music betrays immediately this is not the original. Ok you can see the difference after a while, but it is really close considering the difference in hardware. A Mega CD port could help a lot on the music!

[@PigsysRetroGameDevTutorials]

I really like the MD OST, but will eventually produce a CD version once the base version is finished (including other Mega CD features, such as improved sfx). There are lots of nice remixes out there that would be nice to include

[@UltraRonin79]

Absolutely unreal. This is insanely great work.

[@pabloignacioscaletta]

Nice!