shmups.system11.org

So I'm wondering
how do you like my shmup demo?

http://360.digitalthinker.org/Downloads/shmup.zip

I have doubts about how some special effects should look like.
and also check if you like my 2 buttons weapons system.

How about my game, Shoot Shoot, Bang Bang? The link is to the info page where you can find the downloads for windows and linux

How about some details beyond a 2 button weapon system, so I know what I am getting in to?

Aggrav8d: Are you afilliated with pompom games somehow? I just wonder how you can "borrow" sound effects from mutant storm and then charge for the game.
Anyway the game is pretty enjoyable, at first I thought the green center of the ship would be the hitbox... Keyboard control is a must. Also try and make the bullets far enough apart to actually dodge them, instead of just flying around long arms of bullets, or make the hitbox smaller.

Silvery Wings - I asked them. I'm not actually selling the game yet, BMT Micro is supposed to reject any attempts to buy the game or tell you thanks for ordering before the release date. By that time I will have replaced all the questionable material.

Keyboard is already available. Player 1 can use EDSF. Player 2 can fly with the arrow keys and enter/return to fire. the same keys can be used to move the mouse in the menu (just in case you have no mouse at all)

I'm definitely thinking about smaller hitboxes and maybe some kind of shield.

Oh yes, and of course there is joystick support for those that want it. I'm waiting for my lik-sang adapter to arrive so i can playtest with a ps2 controller (I have no regular PC joystick. If someone wants to donate me one, that'd be cool)

HAHAHAHA

good luck selling that 20$

ROFL

Vagrant - Thanks. Once I write 7 or 8 more levels and release the editing tools to the paying customers so they can make their own mods it will do well. Just last night I finished testing heirarchical entities so I can build big bosses. Combined with the scripting system that's already in place I can do everything I've ever heard of in a top-down shooter. Besides, it doesn't officially begin selling for many weeks which gives me lots of time to fill in the gaps.

in case you werent being sarcastic, let me rephrase that:

your game is a joke, youd have to pay me to play it.
everything is bad about it, and i mean everything.

i dont think putting random shit in would improve it either, and if i want to create levels, id make my shmup, tough its out of the question now until i get a real computer, not the POS mac im forced to use.

sorry mods :p

edit: not so sorry after all, since the dude decides to sell his game, i might as well saz what i think.

My decisions to sell my game have nothing to do with your manners and even less to do with when you do and do not choose to speak your mind. I'm perfectly aware that it is, at present, a joke. It's only version 0.6. Insulting a game that is still in the middle of development is jumping the gun just a little.

It was perfectly clear the first time that you didn't like it - I simply chose to ignore your rude tone. I totally agree that you should spend your time & money making your own shmup, it will teach you some humility.

Still, I can understand your confusion. You don't appear to understand what I was talking about in my previous post and your blanket, unconstructive criticisms are indicative of a lack of social skills and clear thought. I'm not trying to start a flame war. I'm trying to goad you into telling me specifically what you have a problem with. Collisions boundaries too big? artwork lame? controls feel stiff? fire patterns too dull? Yes? No? In what way? How would you change it? These are just a few examples of things you should have asked yourself while you posted.

In summation, I don't think there's any reason for you to apologize to the mods. It's quite clear that you're pretty sorry.

Anyways, since this is Red Knights post, and not Aggrav8d's...

Red Knight, your game seems pretty solid so far. The ship looks great, and although the cubes are repetitive in this demo, they look great ass well. Are the cubes going to shoot anything? Or are they simply contact kills you. If so, the one thing that bugs me a bit is that they come up from the bottom of the screen a bit slow and you can't shoot em?

Where is this game going? Is it a high score type game like the recent Endless Fire, or are you planning on creating a full spread complete with bosses? It feels very current like ikaruga or something.

Solid feels, great graphics, keep us updated and we'll keep sending feedback. Please check out my game, "war of the abyss" in the other posts.

As for everyone else, this post was made by Red Knight for his game.
Shoot shoot Bang bang has its own post on the forums, lets not confuse each other.

-CODY-

The 3 colours cubes are just fillers.
In the real game they will be replace with something else.

But right now, I'm having some ideas on making transformable cubes.
Cubes -> Robot.



I don't quite get it.
But it come in with a decent speed on my machine.
You can try using the homing lasers to lock on it, or try slashing it down with the blade( or try doing the double slash ( hold down "N") )


That's my coal. If you have to do something right
you have to give it 120% of your strength.
and do mimick somthing that's allready a guarantee succes

But my original plan was a Radiant silvergun clone,
the thing that keep bugging me is the 7th weapon, with the 3 button weapon system.
I already have a dual Sword, Homing laser, Assault Vulcan, Sideway Vulcan, Backshooting vulcan and Options.
I just have no ideas for what kind of weapons of mass destructions I should have use.

I'm also reading some asian religion texts like Buddhistm, taoist and some other stuff from the Mahabarath, just to give you those texts you people have seen in Ikaruga.

Stuff to do.
1. Coding my own BulletML, since I don't "Leach"
2. Add some combo meter score board.
3. Use SDL for sounds.
4. Scripting (for the GUI and controls)
5. Boss design (Hardest part is to come up with something unique)
since each level will have 3 bosses.
6. Level design. I want each level (total 6 levels) about 10 minutes long.
3 minute for each stage.
7. Trying to add some walls in games. "R-Type" walls that can crush you
8.writting more patterns for the "Cubes"
9. modeling, I wanted to do some cogs design.
rendering in the background giving you the feeling like flying in a clock.
10. refine all the special effects in the game.

and
11. if I'm not in a hospital from overworking my self.
TWEAKING,
most games have to be tweak just to give you the right feeling of a quality gameplay.


Oh yeah,

The name of the game is "Man Ten Fung" in chinese or "Man Ten Kou" in Japanese
translation it is "Whole Red Sky".


I forgot what version my shmup demo are
0.34 or 0.45?
so I quest I have some 55 versions to go just to be Perfect.

I checked out your stuff..
It seems like you have got quite a nice engine in there..
So you can expand on things alot.

Having cubes doenst bother me for a tester version, but like others have said maybe you could add some more enemy types (listen to me cubes programmer!)
I like the weapons and movement etc
Maybe you need to implement some different sized enemy.. ie popcorn ones and mid size ones and then bosses...
I agree.. bosses are really hard to design and make cool to play!
But your list of aims seems really good!
I'd try to find your own theme eventually though to take it away from being so 'ikaruga' looking..

cool work so far tho!

I really love when some person calls himself the CEO when his business has exactly 1 person. Or, maybe you'll correct me and say you've got 2.


Anyways, on-topic. Like everyone else says, I see potential, but a few comments.
- 6 levels x 10 minutes = 1 hour - it's really the upper border in length for a self-respecting shmup. Speaking only for myself, though, I prefer shmups in the 20-35 minute range.
- Adding walls, designing enemies, etc. - make sure you don't just add a hazard for the sake of a hazard. It should contribute to an overall plan, theme, or feel. Not just, "Hello, here's a few enemies. Now some walls. Ah, here's walls and enemies together," if you get my drift.

As for a clock background, what's the theme of the shmup? I'm intrigued.

There was a commandment in Gamedev somewhere in one of their articles.
" THOU SHALL NOT CALL YOUR SELF A C.E.O "
It should be commandment number 1.


That's something I'm still thinking about. How long should a shmup game take?
Fighting games should take about 30 to 40 minutes to finished with one characters.
I quest your right about the time range. I should create levels that take 5 to 9 minutes.
Level 1 -> 9 minutes, the longest, and the rest should be about 4 minutes.


Theme? I want a level where the player fly in a Ship ,Machine or Base
and I think it should look more interesting when you fly in a giant machine that has moving Pistons and spinning parts of the old clock like.



I don't have a Cube or a Dreamcast.
To tell you the thruth, I have never played Ikaruga before.
I just get bits and pieces from Japanese demo Shmup.
like Tiyoruga(awesome game tho) , Black and White (Ikaruga on flash)
Hangamo (demo), and some Ikaruga in game sounds file to get the Idea and feel.

Right now I'm working on my own Bullet ML,
I'll be checking out
Tumiki Fighters ,Parasect 45, Einhander, Striker 1945, Guwange and Others shmup that I can find, for ideas on bullets behavior.

I wouldn't recommend Einhander for bullet spread ideas since the game tends to focus on more unorthodox methods of getting you killed(Quite a few of the few bosses for example would rather ram you than shoot at you).

Aside from that releasing shooters one has to pay for can prove to be difficult goal.(You're not only competing against big commercial works but also the free doujins and the king of them all...MAME).

Oh yeah..Shoot Shoot Bang Bang? Eh? Kind of name is that?
This may sound like a joke but a good shootername eventually leads to a good shooter(though I'll also admit yours needs work...ESPECIALLY since you plan on charging for it).

I mean Gradius, Gigawing, Dodonpachi, Chaos Field, Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, etc are some great names. Maybe if you changed up the style, created some new graphics etc..ah well.

There's a reason why most 2D shooter developers(even some of the doujin-esque ones) can get away with charging for their games and that's due to POLISH. They usually feature full soundtracks, original art, absolutely pristine gameplay(which can be argued ) and all of that sort of thing. I'm not seeing this in the demo and it's bad form to promise the world and more in the full version.

RedKnight: The average CAVE shooter will run about 15-20 minutes at most(three hours if you milk ). A Gradius game would go 45-60 minutes(I go by this on Gradius V as I tend to unlock one continue every hour, or say one continue every two playthroughs of Ikaruga). Length depends I guess more on what you want to put in the game. If you're looking at a quick and dirty blastfest then consider a 20-30 minute length game. Or if you feel you're up to it look towards a more artistically inclined shooter with lots of pretty setpieces or examples of design influence in a 45-60 minute shooter. Above all don't try mixing the two or you'll end up with some disasterous results.

From what you have so far and what you want to do I'd suggest a Radiant Silvergun length(Which is 50-60 minutes..thus a fairly long game even for having only six stages). I don't know if you want a Radiant Silvergun style though(Which is more or less fighting nothing but bosses, the stages themselves and regular enemies being nothing more than a way to score points)

Also this may be just my keyboard but I was tapping the fire button to get a single bullet(Trying to chain the red cubes together ala Radiant Silvergun). Every now and then a single tap would register two bullets. Obviously this issue is a bit messy since it could very well be my keyboard or some other outside factor..but if it comes up with other users it could be something to look into.

Whatever the case keep up the good work.