Creeping Me Out: Hex Night

Creeping Me Out: Hex Night is an upcoming Amiga platform game deep in development, built in Scorpion Engine. It’s due hopefully in 2022-3, though I can’t be sure – with a physical edition from the fine folks at Bitmapsoft.co.uk – providing nothing disastrous happens!

Visit CMO’s Itch.io page!

1.5 Feb 2023 – AGA update. New AGA version with optimisations and new backgrounds. Also various bugfixes.

1.4 Jan 2023 – Performance update. Many improvements, now runs without Fast RAM. Improved boss fights, new in game font, etc.
1.3 – A/V update.. Improved level tiles and copper backgrounds.
1.2 – Minor additions and bug fixes.
1.1 – April 2022 – A refinement of the old demo, with the password screen added, and many, many logic and graphical improvements.

NOTE: Everything shown here is very subject to change. Content of final game may differ.

Francis is waiting for his friends in the bar when disaster strikes! Some sort of magical catastrophe has befallen the town of Gorcester! No time to think! You’ll have to find your friends before setting off on an arduous journey to confront whoever, or whatever is responsible!

A Platform Adventure game with modern sensibilities, CMO:HN plays a little like many games, it’s got Euro platformer blood with hopefully a challenging, fair heart. Earlier in development would compare it to other games, but it’s fully formed enough now to stand on it’s own, so that gets more difficult. From a purely mechanical perspective, it’s somewhere between Castlevania(3) and Turrican. Mild exploration and secrets, occasional alternate paths, etc.

The Blue Barge, where our journey begins…

What are the levels like?

The levels are complex. I’m leaning into exploration in a big way. There are also much smaller, “hand drawn” story levels that serve as cutscenes, hub areas, etc. (see above)

When will it release?

I’m not sure. It’ll take a good long while, but hopefully 2023-4. I’ve released a demo of the first couple of levels of the game so whatever happens there will at least be a short game for the community to play with.
* I took the same approach with Zombie Holiday

Who’s working on this?

Just me, Michael/Mixel Dawes, but none of this would be possible without Earok’s incredible Scorpion Engine, and his frequent tips and assistance have been a total lifesaver. The Scorpion and wider Amiga community have been hugely encouraging too, which helps more than you might think.

I drew all the graphics, and made all the music, etc. (I’m largely learning to use a tracker while working on this project, so that’s been a ton of fun.)

What Amigas will it run on? (And why?!)

Right now I’m working on the “high spec” build that currently requires 2MB Chip +1MB Fast. I also plan on a CD32 build that doesn’t require Fast RAM. There is an experimental AGA only build in the works too, which only real difference is the style of the background graphics.

I may port down to weaker systems by reducing colour count and toning down some features. No promises though.

Currently it runs very nicely on an A1200/20 with some fast ram.. So those of you with Vampires? That could be great if you meet the ChipRAM requirement. MiSTer? Should be perfect.. WinUAE? Beautiful.. Stock A500? 😬 No, sorry.

CMO:HN is currently HDD/CD only. It’s too big to ever contemplate distributing on floppies.

Screens from the demo:

2MB Chip? So.. AGA?

No! its an ECS* game that takes advantage of Extra Half Bright to give a broad primary palette and heavy copper effects in the background to achieve >100 colours on screen much of the time. The A3000 came with 2MB chip off the shelf, the A600 can be easily upgraded to have 2MB chip.. Thats why i usually call it an ECS game and not an OCS one, but some older machines can also be made to run the high spec build, with the right upgrades..

Will it work on NTSC Amigas?

Yes! But It runs quite a bit faster in NTSC.. Whether or not you like this is pretty subjective, but at least it runs!

Wait.. Why make an Amiga game at all?

Because I love the Amiga, its such a great, close-knit community and a fun hardware platform to work within the limitations of. I am not, by most peoples standards – a programmer – so I use tools to make my games. I’ve tried many toolsets across various platforms, and by sheer luck I noticed Scorpion Engine when I was rejoining the Amiga scene. I’d been looking for an engine with this level of flexibility that fits with how I like to work, and it’s really just incredible to me that this is possible at all. If I’d found anything as powerful and flexible as Scorpion for this specific concept I’ve wanted to make for a very long time – I’d have been using that, on another platform, but here we are. Support Earok and Scorpion!

Will you port it to other systems?

Probably. How and when? No clue.

If/When you finish it, how much will it cost?

I have no idea and it depends entirely on what goes in the box for the physical edition, and what behind the scenes costs are involved at Bitmapsoft. The box might contain, for example; a print comic tie-in, feelies etc.. That’s getting way ahead of myself though.

What’s with the name?

The game features characters and locations from my comics. You don’t need to have read any of them for the game to make sense. You can see some of those old comics at CreepingMeOut.com.. Why isn’t the game just called “Creeping Me Out”? Because I’m making multiple games set in the same world, and it gets confusing without a subheading. Feel free to just call it CMO, or CMO The action game, as it’s going to be years before any other CMO games get done. 😅

What about your tools and workflow?

Oh boy, this is complex! For Audio I use Audacity, for Music I use OpenMPT and occasionally OctaMED Sound Studio. For graphics I use Pixaki (on iPad, where most of my pixel art starts) Aseprite (where most of my pixel art ends) Pro Motion NG (For Copper effect art and typography), Pyxel Edit (For editing map tilesets specifically) PPaint (for tweaks and on-platform checks) – Maps are edited in Tiled. I use Comic Draw and Procreate on iPad for non-pixel art pieces the likes of which I use in promo art etc. You can watch parts of my workflow occasionally on Twitch.

I’d rather play a visual novel!

😮 Luckily I’m working on one of those too..! See Auburn Fields!

How can I keep up to date with this?

You could follow me on Twitter, Discord, Twitch (where I’m happy to answer questions about this and other things I’m working on!), as well as Patreon.

Want to help?

  • Patreon: Support this, and my other projects though Patreon which I basically just use as a tip jar right now.
  • Discord: I have a tiny discord community where I post progress updates and other projects’ work. You’re also welcome to share your work here, it’s a fun little place.
  • Scorpion Engine: I’m pretty sure if more people were using Scorpion it’d make bouncing ideas about implementation off each other easier. Go and use Scorpion, Earok is the man.
  • Twitch, Youtube etc. I frequently stream, and make youtube videos. You’re always welcome! I’m often drawing, but also – playing things! Twitch / Youtube.
  • Feedback: I’m always open to feedback, and have received some excellent technical advise already. (thank you!)
  • Encouragement: Probably the biggest obstacle to the completion of this project is my own brain, so any positivity is always appreciated.

6 thoughts on “Creeping Me Out: Hex Night”

    1. If scorpionengine support’s save games during CMO’s development I’ll implement them. Otherwise I’ll cobble together some sort of password system. 🙂 Thanks for the comment. I’m going to try and auto translate this to German so hopefully it’ll make sense..

      Wenn die Unterstützung von Scorpionengine Spiele während der CMO-Entwicklung speichert, werde ich sie implementieren. Ansonsten werde ich eine Art Passwortsystem zusammenschustern. 🙂 Danke für den Kommentar. Ich habe versucht, dies automatisch ins Deutsche zu übersetzen, damit es hoffentlich Sinn macht. 😅

      1. Dirk Schindler

        Thank you, very nice that you reply, the translation worked well. It’s good that you also thought of a Save or Pw function. Find it important for larger titles.

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