Graveyard Shadows (C64)

The story

The dead never rest—and neither does the gravekeeper. Each night, skeletons rise from their graves and wander the grounds. Keep the graveyard under control: put the skeletons down, collect their bones, and return them to an open grave before the night gets worse.

How to play

• Move around the graveyard and shoot skeletons. A fallen skeleton leaves bones behind.
• Pick up the bones and carry them to an open grave to close it. Carrying bones slows you down. Walk up to an open grave and stand directly in front of the headstone/grave tile to deposit the bones. Please note that the headstone is a solid object. You cannot walk through it. You must stand adjacent to it (the tile directly in front of the grave) to trigger the drop-off. Some graves have not headstones though.
• Watch out for ghosts and the demon. Find and carry the magic fire to banish a ghost; the demon cannot be banished.
• Close every grave to finish the level. Hurry—the moon keeps moving, and your remaining distance earns a bonus.

How to Deliver Bones (Closing the Grave)

If you're having trouble placing the bones into a grave, follow these steps to ensure success:

• Locate the Open Grave: Open graves are marked by a visible gap or opening in the ground.
• Position Yourself Correctly: To deposit the bones, stand directly in front of the headstone or on the tile representing the open grave.
• Understand the Headstone Collision: The headstone is a solid object and cannot be passed through. You must stand adjacent to it (on the tile immediately in front of the grave) to trigger the bone deposit.
• Perform the Action: While standing in the correct spot and carrying bones, face the grave directly. The game will detect this and automatically remove the bones from your inventory, closing the grave.
• Helpful Tip: If you feel "stuck" against the headstone, you are likely in the right position. Avoid trying to move into the headstone; instead, interact with the grave tile while standing beside it.

Controls

Use a joystick in port 2:

• Up, down, left, right: move
• Fire: shoot in the direction you are facing
• On the title screen, press Fire to play or H to view high scores.

Points

Action	Points
Hit a skeleton	1
Return bones to a grave and close it	10
Banish a ghost with the magic fire	10
Complete a level	1 point for each pixel the moon is short of the right edge (320 - moon position, minimum 0)

Online leaderboard

Graveyard Shadows supports an online leaderboard through WiC64. A compatible WiC64 device with firmware 2.0.0 or newer can fetch the top scores and submit your score after a game. No real WiC64 hardware? VICE includes WiC64 emulation—enable and configure it in VICE to try the online features. Without a working connection, you can still play; only your best score for the current session is kept locally.

Version 1.0

I fixed a few shortcomings and bugs in the game. Colliding with a demon now costs one life instead of ending the game.

Version 0.9

Almost done, I think! This is still a work in progress, and things may change.

The game is PAL & NTSC compatible.

AI assistance

The author used AI tools to help find and fix bugs, write game screens, and implement WiC64 support. The author's estimate is that approximately 10% of the project was AI-assisted.

Credits

Music details: 

- Beautiful Cruel World by Esteban Palladino (Uctumi) (c) 2023 Genesis Project

- Mikael Norrgård (WitchMaster) song: The Adventure