Monster Bath Games

Maker of Deathwish Enforcers Special ED,
GuardGrave & Super Battle Princess Madelyn.

WIP: BPM spin off, Legend of the Cursed Blade & Buddy Cops!
AKA: DMM069

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

Forgot to lock the z axis 🤣🤣🤣

WIP of the in stage intro for Episode 1 of Legend of the Cursed Blade 😬🫡

#gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@yoshinokentarou @dameyan You are too kind 🙏 Thank you!!

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

Thanks! I never minded it at all, I just found some of the tile maps absolutely empty for what the scenario was supposed to be. But I've always loved the art in the game.

The trees just weren't translating well from the arcade. Too contrast heavy on the Sega. So I drew new trees and added a multilayered sky in that area. They looked like wisps of smoke coming from the ground because of the color downgrade.

I changed none of the sprite art aside of color where I needed to. I think I had to remove one color from Rick as I needed it for the hud and that was it.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

It's a dark game where the tiles are concerned. Most of the colors do not exist on the system. A lot of dithering where the gradients are vs the arcade. There are also a lot of overlapping layers. I'm pretty sure the arcade hits well over 500 colors on screen most of the time.

In some of the stages the shadow mode helps a lot. It kills off the vivid, contrast heavy colors.

But yeah most of the stages have gone through at least 5 color revisions and/or touch ups.

Stage 1 there wasn't enough vram to keep all of the background tiles either - only the first level is like this. They layers are very tricky. Some foreground stuff had to be cut but not much.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@linaofmbgames @Inglebard4 It was a good game. I wouldn't have even cared about it but because of all the negativity towards it, it was shoved down my throat. I watched videos and it actually looked like a good game.

Then I played the crap out of it :) I am a sucky wizard.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@thesegaguru Thanks! I'm trying :)

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

For the people who don't understand that other people are actually completely capable of multitasking (aka a rant):

Here are some shots of Mega Splatterhouse that were taken between Oct and April of this year.

The game is at least 75% complete. I've posted some of these shots before, but for some reason if I don't post a video people think I've quit the project. I haven't. It's on hold while I prep my own ***4*** games for Tokyo Game Show. The last time I touched it was a week ago to fix bugs that came in with the new version of Scorpion Engine.

You can currently finish the game but level 5 and 6 need to be completed AI wise. The art is all completed. I've recolored things lord knows how many times. I've reprogrammed things a few times. I've been working with one of the world speed runners of the game every couple of month for testing to make sure the controls feel right.

You'll notice the last picture has properly colored hearts for health in the hud. That was one of the updates that was added into Scorpion Engine a couple of months ago. Issues with shadow/highlight mode needed to be fixed. Those are the other shots you see. I'm now able to do the hud they way it was intended without making strange compromises in the game.

I do a lot of bug testing back and forth with the creator of Scorpion Engine to make sure I can squeeze every last bit of color and power out of the MD. I'm not just slapping the game together. I'm trying to make it as good as I possibly can on the hardware.

The initial demo of Splatterhouse has none of the physics and the sliding jump is 100% incorrect. Things like that are all fixed now.

I've redrawn the entire tile map from scratch for level 3 over a year ago because the trees didn't look like trees to me once I brought them over to the MD's limited palette. I've added details some of the house areas where the tile maps were just too empty for what was going on in the house (the walls are a little too clean).

The thing that takes the most time though with any of these ports but especially this one: I have no design docs to code from. I have to record each stage, each boss fight and focus on one enemy or the boss and do a frame by frame analysis of what's happening so I can figure out how to code it as close as I can to the original. That wastes a lot of time.

For boss 5 I had to write down each frame of animation for the transformation and how long those frames are held for in frames per second. Just to get the initial transformation done properly it took me an entire day. The actual boss fight AI and rigging up the animations took me about an hour.

I contacted one of the designers at one point to ask what Jennifer was saying so I could try to clean up the muffled audio when it's again down sampled for the MD hardware. I ripped them right from the arcade data instead of recording them from a video etc.

I alternate with Black Tiger but I also have to do constant upkeep to both for changes in the engine. If I leave it for months (which I did between April and the end of May), crap breaks and I have a lot of testing and figuring out to do which ends up eating more time than it should. So now I only go a week or two max without testing Splatterhouse and Black Tiger.

The last thing I was working on was eliminating the slowdown in the game and I think I actually got rid of it all except for one spot (right before boss 3 I used sprites for a giant tree).

I'll be returning to working on my hobby projects at the end of Sept at the very latest when Tokyo Game Show is over and I'm home again.

Robocop has at least 2 other ports in the works for MD so I don't need to waste time right now on that one.

Legendary Axe will go into full development when Splatterhouse and Black Tiger are completed.

So I just wanted to say just because I'm not posting new videos consistently - I am still working on this game. If a project is worth it, I always finish it.

And remember - I'm not getting paid for this stuff. I do it entirely for fun and because I want ports of these games on my Sega. I want to play them as badly as you do if not worse.

And now for the whiners:
Go outside, live a little. This shit will be done when it's done. Accusing me of working on too many things at once or assuming I'm not working on things anymore at all is just completely fucking stupid and reeks of self projecting. I know what I'm capable of doing - *you do not*. Try being patient for once, it pays off in the end.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

North American = NA. But I might as well just refer to them as Black Tiger and Black Dragon - the regional differences go with the names. Black Dragon is harder and Black Tiger (the NA version) is toned down with some of the rock traps removed.

I know to jump backwards when I see them, but I just get smashing through the enemies and forget about the traps LOL!

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@m6502 Aside of the demos there is no set deadline yet on anything. Though I may try to even out how I release stuff the majority of it will 2027 and 2028. If I focused on the main project alone I could have it done in 2027 but there is no sense in rushing it.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@VTRCHIPMUSIC lol! It wasn’t you ;) I didn’t even know you asked. Part of an article posted about black tiger and a lot of really stupid comments on YouTube videos.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@JayViperTV Lmfao as soon as I saw that cube… bit of a circle I said “why does that look like a fucking washing machine??” Thank you for this - made my day! 🤣

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@Grummz @EndymionYT I honestly thought it was some fucking AI art making fun of God of War - I thought it was a mystical washing machine. Then I found out it was real. Who in the actual fuck thought this cube was a good idea??? It looks like something out of an 80s cartoon gone wrong.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@linaofmbgames @Dillonverse This is that key art I was telling you about where it looks like the girl is standing next to a mystical washing machine. I’m assuming that’s not the look they were going for. Very unfortunate.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

I have one massive project that is a lot of work (like 10+ people should be doing it but aside of music I'm doing it alone).

Then the other 3 are somewhat smaller. Legend of the Cursed Blade isn't huge sprites but there will be a massive variety and it's a like Cadash a bit where every area is like a chapter of the story. Well the bosses tend to be huge but the character and regular enemies are a little bit bigger than black tiger size.

Buddy Cops I'm just doing a tiny demo and it's like half done. And the other game's demo was finished ages ago.

My sega stuff is my resting point but I don't have time to do that at the moment aside of bug fixing.

It's just a good thing I don't show people the tons of prototypes I do before I lock into a game I want to do. It would melt a lot of brains 🤣🤣

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@abaroners It's no problem. I'm a huge fan of Splatterhouse myself :D (the first 2 at least)

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@OGSegaSteve @freakoutsideofx I loved “the new mike hammer”. I used to watch it every day after school at one point.

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

lol! I edited all the bad words out. When it started it was full of them. Then I revised a few times.

I’m awake most of the night. I sleep for 4-5 hours typically. I see my family a lot during the day. The perks of working from home :)

We do stuff in the evenings and on the weekends. But I still have plenty of time to do my own thing.

I tend to watch movies right before I go to sleep. And if I’m not asleep by the time the movie is over I listen to the soothing sounds of Star Trek the next generation which lines me up for some pretty strange dreams lol!

Everything is scheduled and balanced!

[Amunet @freakoutsideofx]

Happy 85th Birthday, Stacy Keach!
Do you remember him as 'Mike Hammer'?

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

When it comes to my own personal projects I tend to be more easy going about what people say. But if you don’t stand up for yourself sometimes they poke it in even harder.

When I’m doing something for free and for fun and someone shits on it because they feel like they need attention. I will give them the attention they seek lol! But they’re not going to like it.

But I’ll never get discouraged. 15 years of this already and I’ve probably got 15 left in me 🤣🤣🤣

[Monster Bath Games @realMonsterBath]

@tbc19822 @Megadrive4ever8 Thanks! I’ll be just fine. Going for my evening walk by the ocean momentarily.