Well this isn't really a port. But I've been playing working on making a Puzzle Link Clone in using Hollywood. (Just something to spend an hour or two a week on.)
In case you're wondering... Puzzle Link is a puzzle game for the Neo Geo Pocket. It's a bit difficult to describe. Essentially, your player is on the bottom of the screen and has full left-right movement. As your playing there is a line of random blocks that shows up on the top of the playing field. When a new line shows up, it pushes any blocks down. Once a block reaches the bottom on the screen, the round is over. Your player can destroy blocks by connecting a block of the same types together with a pipe. Now, the trick is, if the blocks will only blow up if they are not part of the same group... err... Now a group is a bunch of blocks of the same type that are directly touching one another... As the blocks blow up, they cause any blocks underneath them to crawl back up. If those blocks end up touching another group of blocks that of the same type then it causes a chain reaction and they blow up. ;)
The game has 3 play modes. A survival mode in which you just do the above, and the game gets harder by introducing more blocks, and getting faster. There's a puzzle-mode where the player is broght in front of a static screen with a pattern, and the player has to clear all blocks from the screen using the least amount of connections. However, it gets tricky as the player always needs two seperate groups of the same block type in order to clear a type of block. So in some cases you might end up with a bunch of single groups of the same block. :) The normal game mode has several levels with varying amount of different blocks, wait times for new lines to come in. Once the player blows up a specified amount of blocks, there are two special "exit" blocks that the player needs to blow up in order to end that level. If the player does it before a timer runs out, they get a special prize (a card with a weird character on it.) In Puzzle Link 2, there is a play mode where the player can actually play a game with the cards he/she has won.
Here's a review of the original game:
Link to ign.pocket review.And here's where I am with it:
Link to screen captureThe graphics will get replaced. I just went into Cinema4D and rendered a bunch of primitives in different colours. At the moment, I've got the blocks creeping down, the player can move left and right. The fire button shoots a pipe (that's the weird red thing, the screen cap didn't quite get it as it's in movement). There is an algorithm that groups similar blocks together.
My next step is to make the pipe the player shoots blow up the a group block, have the blocks underneath move up and cause any chain reactions that should occur.
After that I need to actually have the pipes work properly and enforce the rule that the player needs to connect at least 2 groups of the same kind of block together (and handle the possibility of three groups as that can happen in the game. :P) Then it's the extra work of putting in the menus, the other play modes (puzzle mode), having a tutorial, and see if I can cram in an intro.
I'm also torn about what to do for the graphics, music and sound. I'm not very good at graphics or music. I'm kind of toying with the idea of seeing if I can use sprite rips and samples from the real game to make it like the real game. However, I do want to make this game play in 640x480 in 24 bit with 16 bit sound. I could base myself on all of the same and see if I can reproduce something more upscale, but I'm not sure.
Opinions?
Steph
Targhan