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@@brianmo2611 are you dense or do you have autism? You make it and see what Nintendo and Valve do, both are known to use for millions of dollars you dolt
I'm glad you were able to get a vertical slice of Portal64 done, and I think that was the most interesting part; most of the rest of the effort would probably have been just remaking the levels. Getting the tech to work was the cool aspect. It's for the best you can spend your time on something you created yourself, and it already looks awesome.
As far as i can tell it's still being worked on github with the portal64: still alive repo having commits 2 days ago. Its effectively become community only now as he can't work on it since valve said no.
My respect for you suddenly went up when you said "This new library is great because when the code crashes it tells you what line it crashed on". Making Portal64 was clearly harder than I'd realised
A big problem is that there's basically three states a project like this can be in: Valve can officially sanction it, officially refuse it, or turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn't exist. That first one is really hard to achieve, most companies don't want to sanction random fan projects... and the second one means you don't get to do it any more. So generally you want to aim for that third one... try to skate by and avoid rocking the boat so that Valve can pretend you don't exist. The problem is that once you leave that state, you can't really go back. Once Valve's hand has been forced and they give an official "no", you can't really go back to Valve pretending they've never heard of you. Which means that just removing the libultra code that was the original sticking point isn't going to be enough. The only way to lose that official "no" is to get an official "yes", because any lifting of the official "no" _will be interpreted as_ an official "yes", that veil of plausible deniability is gone.
Which is exactly why I don't believe anyone should show a fan project before it's entirely finished. This happens time and time again and yet still people are like, look at this cool thing I'm making, then are surprised when it gets shut down. I know you want to show off your work and it can be motivating to see people loving what you've done, but in the end if your goal is to put out a finished thing, just wait until you have a finished thing. Then it doesn't matter what happens.
As long as it's distributed as a mod for Portal, Valve doesn't get a say either way. As far as I know, this whole problem started because James wanted to distribute Portal64 on Steam. If he drops that, legally, he doesn't need Valve's permission to continue development, even using libultra (although that would expose him a lawsuit from Nintendo, so switching to libdragon would be a good idea anyway). What I really think is happening is that he grew bored of the project (all the technical challenges solved, only grind left) and this is a convenient excuse to quit.
@@ColorblindMonkAlmost every fan project for anything exists because the original creator doesn't care, whether because it's not worth their time to take the project down, they don't know it exists, or they're fine with fan projects but don't specifically endorse any
Correct. I think they kind of tricked him into thinking they might sanction it. But It should be assumed that you’re making a bootleg from the beginning. Do it anyway and keep the info to a minimum.
I feel the only reason Nintendo has so many active devs doing things on their consoles is because those devs know that, if they don't do it, Nintendo will be perfectly fine with letting all their consoles die. Nintendo doesn't deserve the community and fans it has.
@@RoshiGaming I think a big misunderstanding is that all of Nintendo is against fan projects and stuff, which simply isn't the case. The main people against it are the people working at Nintendo HQ in Japan and those are scared shitless of losing their successful IPs by not protecting them. Nintendo is nothing without having Mario or Zelda so they'll do everything to protect them. I think the main factor at play is the legal trouble they found themselves in when Warner Bros tried to steal Donkey Kong from them due to Nintendo supposedly copying King Kong. Ever since then Nintendo has been very careful with their IPs and source code because they fear to lose it all from just a small legal miss-step
Sad to say, too, this also applies to most console manufacturers. They don't care about game preservation or hardware preservation, because those things have an impact on their ability to foist newer and "better" products on their customers. Nintendo is just the most egregious example of this.
@@RoshiGaming Property owners need to be able to own everything they possibly can and be able to leverage anything possible at any time, even if it has no use to them anymore. It's just how those kinds of people are.
Cool concept. I think he could get away with it if he uses a complete diferent lore/story and aesthetics. Also, he needs to twist a little all the levels so they aren't exactly the same. In the end, it is completely unrelated to Valve and/or Nintendo. Something similar to Super Tux Kar compared to Mario Kart.
Effectively, @@lmk10000, it becomes an iteration of Narbacular Drop for the N64. Unless if there are problems copying the aesthetics of that game. Which means going in a theme different from "science lab" and "fantasy".
Steam itself has no issue with portal fan games, nintendo are the real sharks. The solution is quite tactful: Portal63, a puzzle game where you shoot 63rtals from a 63rtal gun
OpenGL 1.1 in n64! I think Silicon Graphics will be proud of the libdragon team. Is amazing how an SGI hardware can run an SGI API 20 years later. edit: s/a SGI/an SGI/g edit 2: fix second occurence.
@@henryfleischer404 Imagine if n64 ship with OGL 1.0 back in the days! all games would be more or less compatible with modern hardware. and of course emulators will be easier in some aspects because an ogl 1.0 compliant application should work the same on any other ogl 1.0 implementation. That would be awesome! PS: Even today, Mesa have to emulate fixed function pipeline in modern hardware to run OGL 1.0 apps.
*an SGI (because "ess-gee-eye" starts with a vowel sound) "A" vs "an" is determined by the _sound_ that immediately follows, not the letter. It also doesn't matter what an initialism stands for.
That wizard idea is so cool, I've long since thought about the limitation of wizard classes, in anime and media, wizards are scholars who make their own spells, but how the hell does someone program that without it feeling like you need a computer science degree to make a fireball
There's a few games that actually have spell crafting similar to this, Mages of Mystralia being one that's on steam and very cute, however it's top down. However having it as a 3D platformer also sounds great so I'm looking forward to where this project is going.
One of the most interesting solutions I've seen to this problem is to implement a system where the player *draws* their spells using representational pictographs. Then you can use shared similarities to 'invent' new spells before they're taught to you. Let's say you know a wind spell and a fireball spell, and then you learn a 'strong wind' spell that just looks like the regular wind spell with an extra circle around it. Well, why not add a circle like that to your fireball spell? Congratulations, you've just created a 'strong fireball' spell. Okami implements a drawing system that would be perfect for that kind of experimentation, but doesn't utilize it as well as it could. The original DS version of Ni no Kuni did the same thing but *much* better, since you were physically drawing on the bottom screen. It's tragic that this spell-drawing system was replaced with a simple list in the PS3 remake instead of being implemented with an on-screen drawing function like Okami. But at least you can play the DS version with a full fan-translation!
I guess that's the problem with doing development publicly like this... If the development were anonymous and secret until it was finished, the game may have been completed before Valve or Nintendo even had a chance to stop it. Of course, it may not have been legal, but tons of fan works have walked that line before, and even if the project were shut down, the game itself would probably be archived by someone else. See Pokemon Uranium, for example. Anyway, it's too bad corporate interests ended this project prematurely, I would have loved to play a full version. Maybe you can revisit it in 85 or so years when these works enter the public domain...
It is impossible for me to feel truly bad for people who publicly advertise the project they are making that uses an IP they don't own and how sad / upset / disheartened they are by the inevitable and completely understandable C&D. It is why I always recommend to anyone who is planning to spends years making a game to just make their own unique content from the get go, just take concepts and elements from the game you so desperately want to appropriate.
@@balsalmalberto8086 Single player is significantly harder for sure~ but learning how to protect against certain elements and what does/doesn't work to kill certain enemies was part of the fun for me.
Oh my god, dude's making Noita 3D :) I know it isn't Noita, it's got its own art style and everything and I love what I'm seeing so far, but the magic system is very Noita-ish and I love that too. Good luck with the project my dude!
Noita was hardly the first game to use parametric spell creation. Magica is a well known example that this game feels much closer to, though I like the Minecraft mod Ars Magica 2, and its successors Wizardry and Psi.
6:40 that's something Oblivion did! It wasn't overly fancy, but you could mix and match existing spells and balance their intensity into a new one to fit your needs.
One indie game that IMO requires more attention is Astlibra Revision. It's a sidescrolling action JRPG developed over a period of over a decade by KEIZO, a Japanese salaryman who developed this game almost entirely on his own simple because "he felt there weren’t enough 2D action RPG games that filled the niche he most enjoyed". I finished it the other day and it's one of my favourite games of all time. It's available on Steam as well as the Switch and recently it received a DLC with a new roguelike-style campaign.
You describing your issue with spells in videogames reminds me of a game that solves that exact problem. At some point you have to play noita it solves that exact problem. And by understanding the core spells of that game and combining them together you can create wands that destroy the entire world in a click. Wonderful game.
*Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss* (1992) also has a system of combining runes to cast different spells. As you find new runes you get access to spells you didn’t have before, which is a cool way to reward exploration.
The game Magicka has the mechanic of combining elements to create spells, there’s no limit on casting. It might be worth checking into to see if there’s any overlap with your game mechanics.
1:05 At this point, without having ever heard of the thing you bring up next sentence, I very confidently said “but someone’s already done that”. Because of course they had.
Hey man I found your channel via your Portal64 project but am excited to see the new projects you do. Awesome this development isn't getting you down too much.
James, if you do a source-only distribution so that downloaders can build against libultra after acquiring themselves then you can avoid running afoul of Nintendo, or at least make it diffiult for them to win any suit they brought. I am not a lawyer. However, I'd be happy to help you navigate the situation if I can.
You never know, some wealthy individual may pay you to finish Portal 64 as is and then may completely accidently leak it to the public. On a different subject entirely and purely hypothetically what do you think it would cost to port a game like say "Portal Clone" to the N64? Asking for a friend.
@@MozTSnintendo doesnt have any legal claim over this except libultra, which is just a software library and can absolutely be replaced (thats what ultrahle did)
@@mothcompute ultrahle didn't remove libultra from the rom being emulated, still meaning distribution would be illegal, the only other sticking point would be trademarks on the nintendo logos, although easy enough to bypass and not technically required. but yes libdragon is otherwise to any ones knowledge completely unencumbered and should be used for new projects going forward.
Your game idea reminds me of Magicka. In that game you combine basic elemental powers to cast different spells. Glad to hear you are developing an original game.
Don't forget that exploring code/coding can be very popular on youtube if done well. Example: Sebastian Lague. I think your style lends itself to that kind of content. In addition you could run the project open source and if you record/stream yourself developing your own game as open source code, using Libdragon, you will uncover bugs or missing features in Libdragon, and you might inspire some of your viewers to work on improving libdragon at such pain points, when they normally wouldn't have, either because they didn't know about Libdragon, or because there was nothing to make it interesting for them
Good luck on your new project!! I absolutely adore the idea that you have, about having basic magic that you build up to create unique spells! Looking forward to more content regarding it in the future~ I've had a similar idea that I've messed around with in pen and paper, and been hoping to try it in a video game as well. Really curious to see if we end up having any overlap in ideas!
You've done such an incredible job with this project. Maybe an anonymous person with incredible skills like yours might pick up where you left off - you never know. Thank You!
Soooo basically valve is still being stupid. . . I wish they would stop saying "we dont want nintendo to strike us" and say "We dont support you porting Portal to N64"
Hi James, if Valve wants a steam release of the game, does it make sense to bundle the rom with an N64 core as a standalone application? This way it can be tracked, and fans who want to play it on original hardware can go into the steam apps folder and find the ROM there. There’s another game that is currently doing this. I believe it’s a Rugrats game that also provides an NES ROM in its game folder. Cheers
you can even enforce DRM through incorporating the SteamWorks API into an ares build, and encrypting the ROM, i've done that for some other projects, that combined with modern flashcarts having USB uarts and/or wifi means you can enforce it on the console as well.
@@KevDoy basically for the emulator integration, you can implement a mailbox for exchanging commands on the PI bus, then have the emulator call functions in the steamworks APIs to perform certain DRM related functions and memory map the responses via a buffer, the PI bus can access a full 32 bit address space via DMA operations. that's fundamentally how flashcarts with extended features operate, the summercart64 for example, you can call commands via the mailbox, the onboard micro executes the command, and you can retrieve the data from the N64 side via the 8KB buffer or if the SDRAM is unlocked for writes the cartridge ROM area, it has commands for doing packet exchange over the USB connection. we now have the ability to completely take over the boot process from IPL3 and up on the N64, so you could write a loader on the N64 that retrieves the ROM over the USB port and decrypts it using a key retrieved from somewhere, all that would be needed is a small service running on the PC side, perhaps integrated into the emulator to permit a connected console to load the ROM. of course it would be a lot of effort to develop, but some in the homebrew scene are looking into it for their own releases with libdragon, to prevent their ROMs being sold on replica carts.
@@commander3494 There is an SDK called PSn00bSDK that has nearly all of the features of the Sony SDK, but is independent of it, so at least that wouldn't cause a problem.
@@commander3494 Just bundle the rom inside an emulator executable and only distribute that. Or just fake it and do a demake with intentional affine texture warping.
@@soviut303 or add DRM that requires the ROM to call home via steamworks API, i've done that for other projects that run on retro hardware, and with modern flashcarts its easy to implement on the N64, you can even encrypt the payload with a custom IPL3 or embedded AES key that's fused in a cart for a physical release, not impossible to workaround of course, as pirates have little morality in such matters.
4:00 Was releasing the ROM on steam itself not an option? Sega already has done that with a number of their genesis games, getting ahold of the roms is as simple as buying them and popping open the game files in any file manager.
I've built similar APIs with encryption into other ROMs using a flashcart's network and UART capabilities so it would be trivial to inject DRM and encrypt the ROMs to deter piracy and make bypassing it prosecutable
It happens that the description given for the new game aligns with something I have been intermittently searching for. In my personal ideal world you would be able to bind each of the spell runes to a controller button and chain inputs together in a combo with generous timing while simultaneously being able to control the characters movement. This sort of thing could be used in both combat where enemies are appreaching you and movement and timing based puzzles. I think this would result in a system that feels both versatile and fluid.
An indie game rec: Super Kiwi 64! The studio is a solo dev - Siactro is Marcus Thorn - they're dedicated to creating N64 inspired collectathon experiences. I had a blast playing Super Kiwi, and I think fans of you would appreciate it too.
So the new game idea is fantastic, and I'm excited to see where it goes! Customizing spells is always a cool feature even when it's more base level than your idea, so that seems like a really solid idea that I'd love to see get completed! But speaking on Portal 64, I don't honestly get how they could police you if you're not using LibUltra anymore. Who cares if it can run on the N64 hardware or an N64 emulator? I don't understand under what legal grounds they could legally stop you if it was no longer using LibUltra.
The rune system is really cool. Ultima Underworld has a similar rune mechanic, but it is very clunky to change spells and there aren't a ton of viable combinations of runes. But, it feels awesome finding a new rune and experimenting with it. Would recommend looking at it for ideas.
Thinking about robust magic systems, something that made Mass Effect's biotics systems feel so good and work so well is that the entire system works on one fundamental rule: dump ions into Eezo, create a mass effect field. Mass effect fields manipulate kinetic energy levels by distorting the "mass effect" (space magic buzz word) of a, well, mass. It would be neat to build from scratch a magic system with one simple rule like that.
Looking forward to that wizard game, it looks nice. That spells thing you mentioned reminded me of the game Noita, it has that "make your own spells" idea, in a way.
3:55 Okay so this wasn't just valve's fear of legal issues with Nintendo as initially reported, this was valve taking down your project simply because they didn't want it to exist, so there is no reason not to be angry at valve, got it
Your spell system kind of reminds me of the game loom. A point-and-click adventure game developed by Lucas and created by Brian Moriarty. It's interface with music based, so every "verb"in the game was essentially a spell he would cast by playing specific notes in order. And every time the game taught you a new spell you would have to figure out what the spell was and write the notes down in the included spell book. Maybe for a physical release you could include a mock spell book with a section to allow players to write down the spells they get in the game.
I had a similar idea for flexible creation of spells in a game in the 90s when I was actively MUD coding. I then discovered that there is a pen and paper RPG from the 80s that did it better than I had conceived. Ars Magica is still my favourite RPG to this day.
That sucks that you won't be able to complete the game, however it was really cool to be able to look at it! Great job, and we look forward to whatever you can build next. Also it would be cool if you got permission from another company (if not valve) to do a remake of a more modern game on the 64. I think it would still be cool to see.
the fact valve said they were worried they couldn't "track the project" because it would effectively just be a ROM doesn't track for me, Micro Mages is available thru Steam and it's also a just a ROM and an emulator. I understand it's their IP, but I would like to know what about that bothers them. Either way, it seems like it just wouldn't have been worth the effort, so I'm glad you're moving onto something new, it looks fantastic
Excited for your magic game. Arx Fatalis is a longtime favourite of mine, but few other games dare to take this approach. Tibia, kind of. Ultima, I've heard. Arx at least had "hidden spells" that you had to discover through understanding the system and I've craved that ever since
WIZARD GAME!!! I've wanted to make a spell crafting game myself for years now. Also, I'm certain a certain Jay shaped youtuber will be excited about this game idea as well. If you haven't seen TheStellarJay's videos on wizard games, they're a fantastic watch. I'm super looking forward to it!
As much as it sucks to accept at times, especially in cases like this where significant work has already gone into the project, props to you for seeing the risks involved and acting appropriately. I guess it's probably like asking for a unicorn to hope Nintendo ever open-sources Libultra or offers reasonable licensing terms that an individual could stomach, but it's always heartening to see a dev shine a spotlight on all the adjacent work being done in an area. With any luck, maybe this can inspire more to contribute to these projects and get closer to a ground-up reimplementation of the features needed without any Libultra components, at least to help people down the line avoid running into these showstoppers.
@james.lambert I'm not disappointed at all that we won't get a release of the Portal 64 Port. I'm just happy I got to see something truly amazing happen, something that I never thought I'd see be able to run on the N64. You keep on keeping on, don't be discouraged, there is greatness within you that you need to set free on to a new canvas, may it be this new game that you are working on. Keep up the great videos.
Noita is the obvious comparison of a spell system like that, though I also enjoyed the detective game Case of the Golden Idol which also featured puzzles around magic runes.
Use my link www.displate.com/jameslambert or my discount code JAMESLAMBERT to access my special promo on all designs 1-2 are 27% OFF 3+ are 37% OFF. Available for one week only. Discount applied automatically at check out when using my link, (excl. Limited Editions, Lumino and Textra).
@@Cmdrbzrd?
@@Cmdrbzrdbruh, what? You know what Valve and Nintendo could do, touch grass
Awe sheet, I'm SCEARED, you will be sued, so lets buy the support, let's go bois!!!!!!
stop being a push over and just make the damn game, god i hate people that are cowards because of big companies
@@brianmo2611 are you dense or do you have autism? You make it and see what Nintendo and Valve do, both are known to use for millions of dollars you dolt
the art for that new game is very beautiful, like it a lot
Love your videos! Hope you find some more micro seconds 👍
The man, The Myth, The Legend: Kaze!
Arianna what are you doing here! Love your work my guy.
I love how this N64 community comes together and supports each other like this
Meeting the geenius
I'm glad you were able to get a vertical slice of Portal64 done, and I think that was the most interesting part; most of the rest of the effort would probably have been just remaking the levels. Getting the tech to work was the cool aspect. It's for the best you can spend your time on something you created yourself, and it already looks awesome.
Yeah, the Demo showed that it was totally possible and only needed more time and resources.
uhhh it's still under active development on github. it'll be out eventually. y'all are declaring defeat wayyy too early
As far as i can tell it's still being worked on github with the portal64: still alive repo having commits 2 days ago. Its effectively become community only now as he can't work on it since valve said no.
My respect for you suddenly went up when you said "This new library is great because when the code crashes it tells you what line it crashed on".
Making Portal64 was clearly harder than I'd realised
Fancy seeing you here, AI safety dread man.
This is why they would record their gameplay on VHS and have the code in the corner
My favorite AI safety commentator!
A big problem is that there's basically three states a project like this can be in: Valve can officially sanction it, officially refuse it, or turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn't exist. That first one is really hard to achieve, most companies don't want to sanction random fan projects... and the second one means you don't get to do it any more. So generally you want to aim for that third one... try to skate by and avoid rocking the boat so that Valve can pretend you don't exist.
The problem is that once you leave that state, you can't really go back. Once Valve's hand has been forced and they give an official "no", you can't really go back to Valve pretending they've never heard of you. Which means that just removing the libultra code that was the original sticking point isn't going to be enough.
The only way to lose that official "no" is to get an official "yes", because any lifting of the official "no" _will be interpreted as_ an official "yes", that veil of plausible deniability is gone.
Which is exactly why I don't believe anyone should show a fan project before it's entirely finished. This happens time and time again and yet still people are like, look at this cool thing I'm making, then are surprised when it gets shut down. I know you want to show off your work and it can be motivating to see people loving what you've done, but in the end if your goal is to put out a finished thing, just wait until you have a finished thing. Then it doesn't matter what happens.
As long as it's distributed as a mod for Portal, Valve doesn't get a say either way. As far as I know, this whole problem started because James wanted to distribute Portal64 on Steam. If he drops that, legally, he doesn't need Valve's permission to continue development, even using libultra (although that would expose him a lawsuit from Nintendo, so switching to libdragon would be a good idea anyway).
What I really think is happening is that he grew bored of the project (all the technical challenges solved, only grind left) and this is a convenient excuse to quit.
This is generally the worst legal advice for fan projects. Feigning ignorance isn't a valid defense strategy.
@@ColorblindMonkAlmost every fan project for anything exists because the original creator doesn't care, whether because it's not worth their time to take the project down, they don't know it exists, or they're fine with fan projects but don't specifically endorse any
Correct. I think they kind of tricked him into thinking they might sanction it. But It should be assumed that you’re making a bootleg from the beginning. Do it anyway and keep the info to a minimum.
I feel the only reason Nintendo has so many active devs doing things on their consoles is because those devs know that, if they don't do it, Nintendo will be perfectly fine with letting all their consoles die.
Nintendo doesn't deserve the community and fans it has.
I'd still love to know why they care this much about projects built on top of source code from 26 years ago
@@RoshiGaming I think a big misunderstanding is that all of Nintendo is against fan projects and stuff, which simply isn't the case. The main people against it are the people working at Nintendo HQ in Japan and those are scared shitless of losing their successful IPs by not protecting them. Nintendo is nothing without having Mario or Zelda so they'll do everything to protect them.
I think the main factor at play is the legal trouble they found themselves in when Warner Bros tried to steal Donkey Kong from them due to Nintendo supposedly copying King Kong. Ever since then Nintendo has been very careful with their IPs and source code because they fear to lose it all from just a small legal miss-step
Sad to say, too, this also applies to most console manufacturers. They don't care about game preservation or hardware preservation, because those things have an impact on their ability to foist newer and "better" products on their customers. Nintendo is just the most egregious example of this.
@@RoshiGaming Property owners need to be able to own everything they possibly can and be able to leverage anything possible at any time, even if it has no use to them anymore. It's just how those kinds of people are.
We have Disney to thank for the intellectual property laws that force Nintendo to do this if they realistically want to stay in business.
It would be interesting if a game called "Hortal64" came out, that allowed you to use physics and travel though colored holes called "Hortals."
Cool concept. I think he could get away with it if he uses a complete diferent lore/story and aesthetics. Also, he needs to twist a little all the levels so they aren't exactly the same. In the end, it is completely unrelated to Valve and/or Nintendo.
Something similar to Super Tux Kar compared to Mario Kart.
Hell from Hortal getting Had by haDOS- the Hideo ga-
*gets copyrighted by Kojima*
Effectively, @@lmk10000, it becomes an iteration of Narbacular Drop for the N64.
Unless if there are problems copying the aesthetics of that game. Which means going in a theme different from "science lab" and "fantasy".
@@oscarcacnio8418 could be very interesting copying that concept or something similar.
Steam itself has no issue with portal fan games, nintendo are the real sharks.
The solution is quite tactful:
Portal63, a puzzle game where you shoot 63rtals from a 63rtal gun
OpenGL 1.1 in n64!
I think Silicon Graphics will be proud of the libdragon team.
Is amazing how an SGI hardware can run an SGI API 20 years later.
edit: s/a SGI/an SGI/g
edit 2: fix second occurence.
Well, OpenGL 1.1 is from 1 year after the N64. Still impressive though, I wouldn't even know where to start with something like that.
@@henryfleischer404 Imagine if n64 ship with OGL 1.0 back in the days!
all games would be more or less compatible with modern hardware.
and of course emulators will be easier in some aspects because an ogl 1.0 compliant application should work the same on any other ogl 1.0 implementation.
That would be awesome!
PS: Even today, Mesa have to emulate fixed function pipeline in modern hardware to run OGL 1.0 apps.
*an SGI (because "ess-gee-eye" starts with a vowel sound)
"A" vs "an" is determined by the _sound_ that immediately follows, not the letter. It also doesn't matter what an initialism stands for.
@@alvallac2171 Thanks! I am not a native english speaker I will edit that! :)
@@alvallac2171 its up for debate in text
will any wizards be able to use a teleportation spell? maybe one with some sort of preview of where they'll go to? ;)
That wizard idea is so cool, I've long since thought about the limitation of wizard classes, in anime and media, wizards are scholars who make their own spells, but how the hell does someone program that without it feeling like you need a computer science degree to make a fireball
There's a few games that actually have spell crafting similar to this, Mages of Mystralia being one that's on steam and very cute, however it's top down.
However having it as a 3D platformer also sounds great so I'm looking forward to where this project is going.
That’s so wizard anni
reminds me of the owl house's magic
@@adora_was_takenrune magic systems are so cool tbh it's a good execution of one for the medium of TV
One of the most interesting solutions I've seen to this problem is to implement a system where the player *draws* their spells using representational pictographs. Then you can use shared similarities to 'invent' new spells before they're taught to you. Let's say you know a wind spell and a fireball spell, and then you learn a 'strong wind' spell that just looks like the regular wind spell with an extra circle around it. Well, why not add a circle like that to your fireball spell? Congratulations, you've just created a 'strong fireball' spell.
Okami implements a drawing system that would be perfect for that kind of experimentation, but doesn't utilize it as well as it could. The original DS version of Ni no Kuni did the same thing but *much* better, since you were physically drawing on the bottom screen. It's tragic that this spell-drawing system was replaced with a simple list in the PS3 remake instead of being implemented with an on-screen drawing function like Okami. But at least you can play the DS version with a full fan-translation!
Dont worry, on Internet it wont die
is there still a way to get the original Portal 64?
@@TalentedAndHot there isn't a phorum where you can't find the ROM AND you can't download ir if you dont search portal For Nintendo 64 rom
not unless there is a release, we can't seed from nothing.
If only there was some kind of archive, like an org if you will... 🤔🤔🤔
💪🏽🏴☠️👍🏽
@@bunnybreaker the romance of CD
Even if you never got to distribute it, I thought watching you develop, demo and play Portal 64 and just seeing it was extremely satisfying.
I guess that's the problem with doing development publicly like this... If the development were anonymous and secret until it was finished, the game may have been completed before Valve or Nintendo even had a chance to stop it. Of course, it may not have been legal, but tons of fan works have walked that line before, and even if the project were shut down, the game itself would probably be archived by someone else. See Pokemon Uranium, for example. Anyway, it's too bad corporate interests ended this project prematurely, I would have loved to play a full version. Maybe you can revisit it in 85 or so years when these works enter the public domain...
It is impossible for me to feel truly bad for people who publicly advertise the project they are making that uses an IP they don't own and how sad / upset / disheartened they are by the inevitable and completely understandable C&D. It is why I always recommend to anyone who is planning to spends years making a game to just make their own unique content from the get go, just take concepts and elements from the game you so desperately want to appropriate.
@CrAzYpotpie they don't need you to do that and I hope they continue spitting in the face of Nintendo forever
@@halcyonacoustic7366 Feel free to point out what I said that you disagreed with.
@@CrAzYpotpie Shakespeare should've just stopped writing about that silly Lear guy, what an unoriginal hack
@@slizzysluzzer Feel free to point out what I said that you disagreed with.
beefing with companys until this gets green lit
*companies
To pluralize a noun that ends in -y, drop the -y and add -ies.
@@alvallac2171always nice to get a grammar lesson in yt comments! /gen
@@alvallac2171loser, singular
lol
@@alvallac2171 somebody called the grammar police
Magicka is a really fun game where you combine elements in real time to cast spells! I played a lot of it with my friend!
Made by the same people as Helldivers! Did you ever play the mobile spinoff?
if you go much much further back LOOM is also similar in the way that you construct spells, but in that case out of notes.
Don't bother with single player. Their Gauntlet remake was not good either.
@@balsalmalberto8086 Single player is significantly harder for sure~ but learning how to protect against certain elements and what does/doesn't work to kill certain enemies was part of the fun for me.
I still have QFQFAAD embedded in my brain from Magicka 1. Loved the game! :)
Quest 64: 2 confirmed.........
my immediate thought haha
hahah so right
Finally... Quest 65
truuuuu
Oh my god, dude's making Noita 3D :)
I know it isn't Noita, it's got its own art style and everything and I love what I'm seeing so far, but the magic system is very Noita-ish and I love that too. Good luck with the project my dude!
Noita is addicting af
Noita was hardly the first game to use parametric spell creation. Magica is a well known example that this game feels much closer to, though I like the Minecraft mod Ars Magica 2, and its successors Wizardry and Psi.
@@Scrogan Hex casting is also interesting
We believe in you! You did amazing job, and if you will finish it, it would be extremely cool!
Valve's "Nintendo technically could maybe possibly sue us someday perhaps in theory" excuse was a total cop-out.
Woah, that rune system reminds me of Arx Fatalis, where you had to draw runes on the screen and combine them in order to cast magic spells
6:40 that's something Oblivion did! It wasn't overly fancy, but you could mix and match existing spells and balance their intensity into a new one to fit your needs.
@@IndigoGollum This exists. It's called Spell Crafting for Skyrim on the nexus
One indie game that IMO requires more attention is Astlibra Revision. It's a sidescrolling action JRPG developed over a period of over a decade by KEIZO, a Japanese salaryman who developed this game almost entirely on his own simple because "he felt there weren’t enough 2D action RPG games that filled the niche he most enjoyed". I finished it the other day and it's one of my favourite games of all time. It's available on Steam as well as the Switch and recently it received a DLC with a new roguelike-style campaign.
Be the change you want to see in the world
James Lambert x Kaze Emanuar collab when?
You describing your issue with spells in videogames reminds me of a game that solves that exact problem. At some point you have to play noita it solves that exact problem. And by understanding the core spells of that game and combining them together you can create wands that destroy the entire world in a click. Wonderful game.
*Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss* (1992) also has a system of combining runes to cast different spells. As you find new runes you get access to spells you didn’t have before, which is a cool way to reward exploration.
The game Magicka has the mechanic of combining elements to create spells, there’s no limit on casting. It might be worth checking into to see if there’s any overlap with your game mechanics.
1:05 At this point, without having ever heard of the thing you bring up next sentence, I very confidently said “but someone’s already done that”. Because of course they had.
That is such a cool concept for a game, and the snippet we've seen looks gorgeous. So evocative of the best art of that era.
Hey man I found your channel via your Portal64 project but am excited to see the new projects you do. Awesome this development isn't getting you down too much.
James, if you do a source-only distribution so that downloaders can build against libultra after acquiring themselves then you can avoid running afoul of Nintendo, or at least make it diffiult for them to win any suit they brought. I am not a lawyer. However, I'd be happy to help you navigate the situation if I can.
The new game looks awesome! Really cool idea to shout out a game at the end of your videos
You never know, some wealthy individual may pay you to finish Portal 64 as is and then may completely accidently leak it to the public. On a different subject entirely and purely hypothetically what do you think it would cost to port a game like say "Portal Clone" to the N64? Asking for a friend.
Pls
Nintendos lawyers are gonna be richer
Leaking would just put the heat on the creator. As that's the one responsible for it no matter what way it leaks. 😋
@@MozTSnintendo doesnt have any legal claim over this except libultra, which is just a software library and can absolutely be replaced (thats what ultrahle did)
@@mothcompute ultrahle didn't remove libultra from the rom being emulated, still meaning distribution would be illegal, the only other sticking point would be trademarks on the nintendo logos, although easy enough to bypass and not technically required.
but yes libdragon is otherwise to any ones knowledge completely unencumbered and should be used for new projects going forward.
Your game idea reminds me of Magicka. In that game you combine basic elemental powers to cast different spells. Glad to hear you are developing an original game.
Also the wizard in the "Gauntlet" remake
your new game looks dope! keep up the good work, James!
Magician’s Quest on DS actually used your Idea before hand like 1:1 but I’m gonna love seeing your take on it in your game!
WOW I love that demo of the FMV on the TV model!
Don't forget that exploring code/coding can be very popular on youtube if done well. Example: Sebastian Lague. I think your style lends itself to that kind of content.
In addition you could run the project open source and if you record/stream yourself developing your own game as open source code, using Libdragon, you will uncover bugs or missing features in Libdragon, and you might inspire some of your viewers to work on improving libdragon at such pain points, when they normally wouldn't have, either because they didn't know about Libdragon, or because there was nothing to make it interesting for them
you are great james, love to hear updates about what you’re working on
Really exciting new project. Already looking forward to seeing more about it.
Excited to see your progress on your new game! I also loved the shoutout for Let’s Revolution. Great indie title.
Good luck with the new game. The spell mixing concept sounds fun, it reminds me of the elemental spell system they had in the Magicka series of games.
I am here for anything you make. You are brilliant. :)
Best of luck man. Looking forward to your success.
Love hearing about this. Im excited to see your work in the future.
Ive also been working on my own game.
Portal 64 Still Alive fork: *_Am I joke to you?_*
How is that project going?
Good luck on your new project!! I absolutely adore the idea that you have, about having basic magic that you build up to create unique spells! Looking forward to more content regarding it in the future~
I've had a similar idea that I've messed around with in pen and paper, and been hoping to try it in a video game as well. Really curious to see if we end up having any overlap in ideas!
A sponser. Glad to see this project being supported.
*sponsor
*sponsor
Portal 64 may have not been saved, but the legacy that was built upon it will live on.
You've done such an incredible job with this project. Maybe an anonymous person with incredible skills like yours might pick up where you left off - you never know. Thank You!
Soooo basically valve is still being stupid. . .
I wish they would stop saying "we dont want nintendo to strike us" and say "We dont support you porting Portal to N64"
Have you seen the wand building in Noita? Thats awesome in how it can change your spells.
Hi James, if Valve wants a steam release of the game, does it make sense to bundle the rom with an N64 core as a standalone application? This way it can be tracked, and fans who want to play it on original hardware can go into the steam apps folder and find the ROM there. There’s another game that is currently doing this. I believe it’s a Rugrats game that also provides an NES ROM in its game folder. Cheers
you can even enforce DRM through incorporating the SteamWorks API into an ares build, and encrypting the ROM, i've done that for some other projects, that combined with modern flashcarts having USB uarts and/or wifi means you can enforce it on the console as well.
@@shemlesh got any resources on this you can share? I can’t picture how that would work.
@@KevDoy basically for the emulator integration, you can implement a mailbox for exchanging commands on the PI bus, then have the emulator call functions in the steamworks APIs to perform certain DRM related functions and memory map the responses via a buffer, the PI bus can access a full 32 bit address space via DMA operations.
that's fundamentally how flashcarts with extended features operate, the summercart64 for example, you can call commands via the mailbox, the onboard micro executes the command, and you can retrieve the data from the N64 side via the 8KB buffer or if the SDRAM is unlocked for writes the cartridge ROM area, it has commands for doing packet exchange over the USB connection.
we now have the ability to completely take over the boot process from IPL3 and up on the N64, so you could write a loader on the N64 that retrieves the ROM over the USB port and decrypts it using a key retrieved from somewhere, all that would be needed is a small service running on the PC side, perhaps integrated into the emulator to permit a connected console to load the ROM.
of course it would be a lot of effort to develop, but some in the homebrew scene are looking into it for their own releases with libdragon, to prevent their ROMs being sold on replica carts.
I love that low poly scenes, with fake lighting using vertex colors.
Time for a PSX port; PortalStation.
Unfortunately that wouldnt work either, again due to distribution outside of steam
@@commander3494 There is an SDK called PSn00bSDK that has nearly all of the features of the Sony SDK, but is independent of it, so at least that wouldn't cause a problem.
@@commander3494 Just bundle the rom inside an emulator executable and only distribute that. Or just fake it and do a demake with intentional affine texture warping.
"Sony shall not be as kind as VALVe."
Unless if they truly do not care about the PS1 anymore.
@@soviut303 or add DRM that requires the ROM to call home via steamworks API, i've done that for other projects that run on retro hardware, and with modern flashcarts its easy to implement on the N64, you can even encrypt the payload with a custom IPL3 or embedded AES key that's fused in a cart for a physical release, not impossible to workaround of course, as pirates have little morality in such matters.
4:00 Was releasing the ROM on steam itself not an option? Sega already has done that with a number of their genesis games, getting ahold of the roms is as simple as buying them and popping open the game files in any file manager.
I've built similar APIs with encryption into other ROMs using a flashcart's network and UART capabilities so it would be trivial to inject DRM and encrypt the ROMs to deter piracy and make bypassing it prosecutable
By any chance, is the magic system of that new game inspired by a Minecraft mod named Ars Nouveau?
New game preview looks super good, cannot wait!
Thr title was such a tease
YAY!!!....wait yay
Clickbait but clickbait that I enjoy
It happens that the description given for the new game aligns with something I have been intermittently searching for. In my personal ideal world you would be able to bind each of the spell runes to a controller button and chain inputs together in a combo with generous timing while simultaneously being able to control the characters movement. This sort of thing could be used in both combat where enemies are appreaching you and movement and timing based puzzles. I think this would result in a system that feels both versatile and fluid.
An indie game rec: Super Kiwi 64! The studio is a solo dev - Siactro is Marcus Thorn - they're dedicated to creating N64 inspired collectathon experiences. I had a blast playing Super Kiwi, and I think fans of you would appreciate it too.
Good luck on next project!
So the new game idea is fantastic, and I'm excited to see where it goes! Customizing spells is always a cool feature even when it's more base level than your idea, so that seems like a really solid idea that I'd love to see get completed!
But speaking on Portal 64, I don't honestly get how they could police you if you're not using LibUltra anymore. Who cares if it can run on the N64 hardware or an N64 emulator? I don't understand under what legal grounds they could legally stop you if it was no longer using LibUltra.
Love the growth of your channel!!
That new project looks super cool! I'm really excited to see how it turns out!
The rune system is really cool. Ultima Underworld has a similar rune mechanic, but it is very clunky to change spells and there aren't a ton of viable combinations of runes. But, it feels awesome finding a new rune and experimenting with it. Would recommend looking at it for ideas.
Oh man, you'd love the casting system in Arx Fatalis
Thinking about robust magic systems, something that made Mass Effect's biotics systems feel so good and work so well is that the entire system works on one fundamental rule: dump ions into Eezo, create a mass effect field. Mass effect fields manipulate kinetic energy levels by distorting the "mass effect" (space magic buzz word) of a, well, mass. It would be neat to build from scratch a magic system with one simple rule like that.
Looking forward to that wizard game, it looks nice. That spells thing you mentioned reminded me of the game Noita, it has that "make your own spells" idea, in a way.
Stay strong . Just see the concept you did on portal 64 is already huge and show your skills. Making your own ip sounds very nice
3:55 Okay so this wasn't just valve's fear of legal issues with Nintendo as initially reported, this was valve taking down your project simply because they didn't want it to exist, so there is no reason not to be angry at valve, got it
Yea, honestly it does just sound like the valve rep saying any old shit to try and shift the blame to Nintendo.
Yeah, it's basically Valve saying they're blocking it because they can't require Steam for you to be able to play an N64 rom.
you earned yourself a subscriber, looking forward to your game !
Your spell system kind of reminds me of the game loom. A point-and-click adventure game developed by Lucas and created by Brian Moriarty. It's interface with music based, so every "verb"in the game was essentially a spell he would cast by playing specific notes in order. And every time the game taught you a new spell you would have to figure out what the spell was and write the notes down in the included spell book. Maybe for a physical release you could include a mock spell book with a section to allow players to write down the spells they get in the game.
I adore the wizard idea. I'm really glad you're still going to do development on the N64
I had a similar idea for flexible creation of spells in a game in the 90s when I was actively MUD coding. I then discovered that there is a pen and paper RPG from the 80s that did it better than I had conceived. Ars Magica is still my favourite RPG to this day.
That sucks that you won't be able to complete the game, however it was really cool to be able to look at it! Great job, and we look forward to whatever you can build next.
Also it would be cool if you got permission from another company (if not valve) to do a remake of a more modern game on the 64. I think it would still be cool to see.
the fact valve said they were worried they couldn't "track the project" because it would effectively just be a ROM doesn't track for me, Micro Mages is available thru Steam and it's also a just a ROM and an emulator. I understand it's their IP, but I would like to know what about that bothers them. Either way, it seems like it just wouldn't have been worth the effort, so I'm glad you're moving onto something new, it looks fantastic
Really really cool to see libdragon implement stack unwinding for its crash handler! ^^
Best of luck for the new project. Maybe you can find the combination of runes that will unlock Valve's approval for Portal64...
Legendary. A multi pronged approach of tech solutions, game developing and indie game reviewing sounds almost too good to be true.
Imagine if Miyamoto received a parcel one day, and it was a Portal64 cartridge made just for him. Maybe then he'd have a chat with Valve.
Excited for your magic game. Arx Fatalis is a longtime favourite of mine, but few other games dare to take this approach. Tibia, kind of. Ultima, I've heard. Arx at least had "hidden spells" that you had to discover through understanding the system and I've craved that ever since
Didn't Quest 64 combine elements like that?
Portal for GameCube when?
When someone outside of valve's and Nintendo's jurisdiction ports it.
WIZARD GAME!!! I've wanted to make a spell crafting game myself for years now. Also, I'm certain a certain Jay shaped youtuber will be excited about this game idea as well. If you haven't seen TheStellarJay's videos on wizard games, they're a fantastic watch.
I'm super looking forward to it!
As much as it sucks to accept at times, especially in cases like this where significant work has already gone into the project, props to you for seeing the risks involved and acting appropriately. I guess it's probably like asking for a unicorn to hope Nintendo ever open-sources Libultra or offers reasonable licensing terms that an individual could stomach, but it's always heartening to see a dev shine a spotlight on all the adjacent work being done in an area. With any luck, maybe this can inspire more to contribute to these projects and get closer to a ground-up reimplementation of the features needed without any Libultra components, at least to help people down the line avoid running into these showstoppers.
Have you heard the indie game Animal Well? It's like Halo 2 and 3 put together, that's how awesome it is.
Is it an fps
Off-topic, but I just noticed the strandbeest model on the shelving unit. I think I have the same one. Good piece of kit, that.
That's a nice game you're developing. I really wish there were more games with magic spell development.
@james.lambert I'm not disappointed at all that we won't get a release of the Portal 64 Port. I'm just happy I got to see something truly amazing happen, something that I never thought I'd see be able to run on the N64. You keep on keeping on, don't be discouraged, there is greatness within you that you need to set free on to a new canvas, may it be this new game that you are working on. Keep up the great videos.
The rune combination effect reminds me of Lost Magic on Nintendo DS! You'd draw sequences of runes with the stylus to combine their effects.
To me, your game concept sounds a lot like Magicka, which I loved as I kid, so I'm excited!
Noita is the obvious comparison of a spell system like that, though I also enjoyed the detective game Case of the Golden Idol which also featured puzzles around magic runes.
Yo I heard the dreamcast is easy to make homebrew for...
Have you played Arx Fatalis for the PC? The magic system you describe for your upcoming game reminds me of that.
The magic system seems like the natural progression of quest64 spells. I like it.
Hello, can you please talk about Pokemon Red for N64? That's a delicious box art you have back there!
The new game sounds fun!! I already wanna share it with my D&D friends 😁
love the idea for your game, cant way to see where it goes
I loved Lost Magic on the DS so that magic shaping feature seems right up my alley
As someone who rented Quest 64 quite a bit as a teen, I'm intrigued by your new game idea.