Life on Earth: Reimagined for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive (a Life on Mars spin off) Kai Magazine 2023

[@akaNekete]

That huge robot and the motorcycle section looks gorgeous 😮

[@MasterLinkuei]

Tremendous❤❤❤ Kai MAGAZINE is on FIRE!!!

[@milesr4609]

Genesis still does!

[@shannonbirt9267]

Those backgrounds are amazing., the appearance of 3 - 5 layers is very well done.

[@modollaz8116]

yeah awesome parallex. Reminds of of Snatcher and even first level of Last Resort on Neo Geo

[@andore_btt]

0:55 - this boss rotation is very fluid 😮 - I can hardly believe it, Life on Earth available on Mega Drive will be sensational, I look forward to hearing the soundtrack adapted for YM2612!!!

[@Goati_]

looking like a lot of fun

[@shannonbirt9267]

Wow just noticed the shadow / highlight (transparent) lights at the motorbike part of the level , very nice touch !!

[@retrospiel]

This looks amazing! Fantastic work

[@raycastello2532]

amazing art

[@Slightly_Sadistic]

This looks amazing

[@magggg2797]

Looks great

[@edu_moonwalker]

I can feel some inspirations for this! It's looking good 👍🏻😊

[@DarkbluesEXE25]

Cyber Punk 16-Bits Akira

[@inceptional]

Totally has those vibes.

[@todesziege]

Amazing! Looking forward to this release.

[@fqnfinancas3431]

I need it. And please, don't forget the Brazilian Portuguese translation. The Mega Drive has many Brazilian fans.

[@samaeldrakul4191]

really loved the demo, hope theres more voice overs to come the intro is epic🎉 💥✊️💥🍻 Thankyou!

[@--Sama-]

This is awesome.

[@Renegaiden_]

My hopes have come to fruition 🙌 Thank you Kai Magazine

[@Don_Miguel]

Cool effects!!!!

[@cahmercier]

Top demaissssssss

[@zabustifu]

Looks nice. I've finally figured out what bothers me about the look of this game. The frames when shooting up (whether diagonally or straight up) look very weak and awkward. No one shoots like that. I think you need stronger key frames.

[@eyzmaster]

Aw man, I can't wait for this one! Loved the previous two titles you guys released! This is looking great so far!! :D

[@SEGAdude95]

life on mars is ok. But life on earth damm!!! I like it!! I like it a lot!!!!!! What an upgrade it is can't wait for the release.

[@Genesis814]

Nice. Keep going, dudes.

[@gufighter6017]

OMG 🤩

[@hopetagulos]

Wow! Impressive.... 2 players? If possible, Please.

[@mariajosemota1050]

Good graphics, sounds and animations - congratulations! I think that, I hope I'm not speaking with ignorance, creating a new select character (2 coop players) using the same sprites, just changing the colors, shouldn't take up much memory on the Mega Drive (redhead police girl or blonde and brunette, for example). Is there any way for 2 players? Please. Isn't that how they did the characters in Contra and Mario Bros on the NES, and the ninjas in Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, SNES and Sega Mega Drive? Same sprites, but almost a mere change of names and colors. Greetings.

[@kaimagazine8221]

Hi, thank you for your suggestion ^_^ The problem is a second player uses hardware sprites, a limited resource for the old consoles. The Sega Genesis/Megadrive has a total of 80 small hardware sprites, so a character uses 4 to 6 sprites for it's graphic and 6 more for it's own bullets. This means that if it uses 12 hardware sprites (out of 80) we should have to re-design the whole game so there are less enemies on screen and huge bosses should be made smaller, because we use all the 80 hardware sprites in most cases, so in order to add a second player we should have to reduce the amount of enemies and the size of some enemies, just so a very small percentage of the players can play on multiplayer. Also, the difficulty should have to be re-balanced so it is not too easy on multiplayer, and also, the story does not account for a companion/second player. Basically what I am trying to say is, this is designed to be a 1 player game, just like shinoby 2 and 3.

[@nelsonalves1067]

​@@kaimagazine8221 Hello Oscar, did you see the promotion of Life on Earth in the Mega Drive Digital Magazine? Did you like? Thanks

[@profcelsofontes]

Amazing! Terrific

[@raycastello2532]

Release forecast for which month?I love this style of game, do you have a demo or pre-order?

[@kaimagazine8221]

Thank you! We will release the game on Fall 2023 (between Setember and November). The demo is ready but we are waiting for the musician to finish his part. The pre-order will probably begin next month ^_^

[@raycastello2532]

@@kaimagazine8221 ¡Gracias!

[@modollaz8116]

@@kaimagazine8221 Take my money!

[@alex7770_]

I think I'm the only person with life in mars on Android officially (before it was removed from the play store)

[@gloriou]

Nope I have it too I will gladly support Kai team with what I can 👍

[@manowarrior6662]

¡¡Qué guapo!!

[@rafaelsilva-zk1xn]

Amazing

[@AFourEyedGeek]

Looks great, how big is the game in terms of ROM size / total content on the ROM please?

[@zanychelly]

I would buy this also for my PS5 It looks awesome. In 4k then, would be incredible.

[@flaviatatiana1953]

It's hard believe how Genesis can do so many parallax layers! Can Kai Magazine reveal the secret?

[@kaimagazine8221]

Sprites 😁

[@anjodaharpa8757]

@@kaimagazine8221 So much and massives sprites for make this feasible, congratulations!

[@georgefenix1933]

I played Life on Mars this January and it became a Mega Drive favorite of mine. Is this a sequel/prequel?

[@kaimagazine8221]

Thank you for sharing this, I am very happy to hear that! Yes, this is a prequel, it happens 7 months before the events on Life on Mars and introduces a new character that will appear on Life on Mars 2

[@georgefenix1933]

@@kaimagazine8221 Awesome! Super excited for this new series!

[@jeanvinisurfer]

Like no início. Master, faz um de seus milagres nas vozes do samurai shodown de Mega Drive

[@malachigv]

1:05 ah, highlights. I guess they weren't in the main stages due to sprite limit concerns?

[@kaimagazine8221]

correct

[@ryzmaker11]

I've just learned about this game and as I've just said in my (rather long) comment on Retro Gamer Boy's vid, this looks and sounds stunning but please, take maximum care about the gameplay. We need more games with tight arcade-like gameplay that offer great challenge and great replay value. If you manage to deliver a good gameplay experience on top of these wonderful visuals and sounds, man, you'll have a massive winner of a game in your hands!

[@ciclistafantasmas]

Com um polimentozinho ficará no nível de Robocop

[@anjodaharpa8757]

This is Mega Drive? So much overlaps layers!

[@kaimagazine8221]

Yep! this is Megadrive ^_^

[@shannonbirt9267]

They will be using sprites in places to give the impression of more layers, eg the tall part of the towers etc , but thats all that counts is the impression and its impressive !!

[@danmakuman]

The MD can add priority to tiles, if you know what you are doing you can achieve this kind of effect. Just watch games like Thunder Force IV for example, the first stage is a great example of dynamic priority tiles to give the illusion of lots of overlaping layers. Of course there's maybe other tricks used here like the mentioned use of sprites, maybe animated tiles too.

[@EduDBrand]

Shut up and take my money!!!

[@Bubblegum_Wolf]

Will "Life on Earth" ever be released on cartridge in the future?

[@kaimagazine8221]

Do you mean the MSX version? Yes, we plan to restock our MSX games in a few months. The Sega Genesis/Megadrive version will also be released on cartridge.

[@Bubblegum_Wolf]

@@kaimagazine8221 Awesome! I'm looking forward to it.

[@felipek.165]

Where is the Switch version?

[@kaimagazine8221]

Perhaps in a very far future.

[@felipek.165]

@@kaimagazine8221Sad

[@lozoya2]

Does this come with a physical game, or is it just for the rom?

[@kaimagazine8221]

Hi, we will only sell the physical game (complete in box, with manual instructions etc) just like our previous games.

[@snipethecage7637]

Please, tell me this is true ? This is amazing. It's a realy game ?

[@kaimagazine8221]

Yes, it is true, this is our third game for the sega genesis / mega drive. We will release a playable demo soon.

[@snipethecage7637]

@@kaimagazine8221 Ho shit men, i'm waiting for many years a game like this. Run&gun style in Cyberpunk World. Dude, it's looks amazing. I'm fall in love ❤️

[@samuelperez-sr6ln]

Dans le style ultracore se sont inspiré je préfère celui ci plus maniable que ultracore

[@saeedalshaikh3799]

I'm not sure if it's the filter, but it seems lower resolution than the msx release , the soundtracks should be intact tho

[@kaimagazine8221]

Hi, the msx version is 256x212 pixels, this version is 320x224

[@inceptional]

I was just browsing around KZbin today and noticed that your level at 1:05 kinda reminds me of the level below in Rendering Ranger R2 with the the way the stars in the background and layers of buildings and other stuff look and/or are done: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ip2adWVrfpusesU Some similarly cool and impressive visual tricks going on in both games. :) PS. It's bonkers to realise that the Rendering Ranger R2 level is playing on a stock SNES running in SlowROM at 75% of the system's full CPU speed. 😲

[@StaticTV80]

No one here cares about old snes games, this is about the genesis go somewhere else with that nonsense you snes wad.😐

[@inceptional]

OK, how in the hell are you faking three overlapping layers and more right at the start there. It's clearly a trick using sprites in some places along with possible layer priority shifting and the obvious row/line scrolling, but I still can't work it out exactly. That's a very convincing illusion that the Genesis is showing way more than two overlapping background layers. I have to say that it's extremely impressive on a technical level, and visually pretty cool too. Whenever I see stuff like this on Genesis though, I just think, then what in the living Christ could these people do with the actual three and even four background layers on SNES, plus the sprites, and even some window/shape masks too, on top of the far more colours and proper multi-coloured transparency and the like. . . . Edit: OK, I think I've figure it out: The orange background buildings and two rows of mid-level blue buildings are all on the same layer with some row scrolling applied, except any parts that obviously stick up from the horizontally scrolling building sections, which are done with sprites. The buildings, walls, cars and crates in the foreground are on the one layer. The rain is sprites. Interesting, because, if that's correct, that means the same could be done on SNES with two layers and sprites too, possibly even in Mode 0 if the colours used in each background section and tile aren't that high, which would still leave two layers to spare. And it could certainly be done in Mode 1 with one background layer to spare. Shame I can't program for SNES to test this myself. I could probably mock it up in GameMaker 8.1 to show how it would be done on SNES mind you. Not that I'm gonna. Just thinking out loud. Regardless, this is some seriously good use of the options you have available to you and working within a system's limitations and indeed playing to its strengths. Great stuff. Seeing stuff like this on Genesis and trying to figure out how it's done is great for me learning how to create the illusion of more with less, which will hopefully come in useful when making my own SNES game(s) down the line. :)

[@kaimagazine8221]

"Edit: OK, I think I've figure it out: The orange background buildings and two rows of mid-level blue buildings are all on the same layer with some row scrolling applied, except any parts that obviously stick up from the horizontally scrolling building sections, which are done with sprites. The buildings, walls and cars in the foreground are on the one layer. The rain is sprites." Exactly, you nailed it ^_^ But the bike stage with 11 different scroll layers is a completelly different story. Have you figured that one? ^_^

[@inceptional]

@@kaimagazine8221 I'll have a wee look. . . .

[@inceptional]

OK, here's my guess: Stars and big orange buildings at top use the two main layers, with the taller orange building in-between being sprites. Blue buildings in the middle use both the layers too, with layer priority switching down the screen creating the illusion of more than two overlapping layers, similar to the effect in Thunder Force IV's Trite level's clouds. And there's sprites used again there to do some of the taller blue buildings too. The spotlings and street lamps are a mix of sprites and shadow/highlight mode for a lovely effect of them actually lighting up the scene with a cone of light. Stuff like the road and I think it's water behind it is some row/line scrolling on one of the main background layers. And some nice use of spare sprites to create some hovercrafts flying by in the sky that adds more to effect of parallax. Something like that? :D Your stuff actually reminds me of some of the tests I've done for SNES, but I've not got around to using sprites fully in the backgrounds for additional layering and parallax for the most part yet, so it's really just a bunch of background layering, priority switching and row/line scrolling trickery for now: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6rVgHaEhsiSqNU kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXTMhHh5ncydeZY

[@kaimagazine8221]

Ok, not bad, it could be done as you say but considering the particular sprite limitations of the Genesis sprites that would create filckering when actual enemies fill the game-play area and also would create a massive shortage of sprites conditioning the amount of enemies to a low amount, causing it to be a very empty level and boring to play. This is why we didn't use sprites for the BLUE buildings in this stage (Iwe did for the first stage, you are correct there). The big orange buildings and all the blue buildings are the 2 scroll layers moving at different horizontal speeds. Stars are sprites. The 2 tall, darker and farther orange buildings are sprites (the sprite limit and amount of sprite pixels limit only applies horizontally, the stars are just a bunch of scattered pixels, and the tall but thin far buildings are not wide, so no big issue). The "sea" and road are 5 horizontal parallax socrolls indeed as you said. Also, the light beams and the road lights are highlight sprites as you said. Not bad! But we went this direction I described in order to be able to have lots of free sprites and to avoid to have too many sprites and sprite pixels (that's a thing as well) in the same horizontal line, and also have enough free sprites to be able to fill the screen with enemies. I can assure you it was not easy, but we did it! ^_^

[@inceptional]

@@kaimagazine8221 Yeah, I have no doubt it took a load of work just to plan how to get out of the available graphical elements what you have achieved, never mind get all that working in a solid looking game. It's very impressive stuff.