shmups.system11.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NNclyMgICE

Vert shmup I have been working on for ages, using Multimedia Fusion (see Alluro's Xeno Fighters EX). Sort of inspired by Gradius and Treasure shooters.

The main game mechanics are in place, basically the player has rotating side weapons which are locked in place by holding the shot button, releasing shot will allow 180 degree movement per weapon each side. However, only a few graphics have been done and there is just one test level.

- The power-up system is similar to gradius, cycled by collecting blues from every 4th destroyed enemy.

- A total of 6 main weapon systems, each has strengths against different enemies, ie, Napalm is good at close range and against bio foes. Reflect is ideal for enclosed levels. Lightning for larger electronic enemies. Blade is powerful all round but short range. Fusion creates chain reactions in destroyed enemies. Pulse is a rapid all-rounder (ie Vulcan).

- A beam weapon is charged by collecting blues and by grazing enemies and their shots. Activating beam will turn all shots to blues, which in turn will keep the beam firing longer.

Anyway, just thought I would share what I have done so far...

Looks really great for a homebrew game, I can see a lot of the influences. You have the Treasure/Milestone bullet wipers ha.

Wow! Looks very nice! I wish I could create graphics as good as those you have there. When I can get back into making Xeno Fighters EX, I will give the graphics an overhaul. The gameplay aspect in mine is pretty much complete, save for a few things to be desired.

What version of MMF are you using? I am using a much older version: MMF v1.2 build 98.

The most important question is: when can we play this?

Keep it up. I look forward to it!

Yeh, looks nice. Having control over the firing direction is a personal favourite feature of mine, and I always like it when shmups have weapons that can be changed at will.

looks like it has some real potential the backgrounds and explosions look ace!

som critique:
character design could use a real overhaul

classic homebrew syndrome, the designer wants to put too much cool stuff in, shitloads of weapons and firing directions and and and, usually makes the game feel lacking and not thought-thru.. less is more if you get it right.

keep it up why not make a kickass midi soundtrack for it, that would rock!

this looks seriously nice!

Wow, thanks for all the positive responses!



I think it is the last version of MMF v1, not MMF v2, I will check tonight.




I intend to re-do the smaller popcorn enemies. Most of the sprites are place holders (those 2 large cruisers for example). However, the enemies are designed to look like ancestors... from the future.



Exactly. I wanted to make sure the main weapons all worked. The beam was the last addition to this. The main thing I am concerned with is making the levels unique and that they work well with the weapons.



The soundtrack is 90% done. I have a load of mp3s created using ejay. It sounds good.

Again, thanks for the comments, this has inspired me to get off my ass and get it finished!

It reminds me of Gradius V, in the way that if you're not familiar with the game or its influences, you have no idea what the heck is going on with those weapons and explosions but you keep watching anyway just because it looks so damn good. Really nice stuff !!

good! looking forward to playing this. oh, and be sure to inlcude a full fledged tate-mode please!

Looks awesome!

Ok, I have been working on this game for a while now. My trial period for the video capture has expired so I am posting some screen grabs (I've uploaded them to my flickr account cos it's nice and quick.):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/radiantsilversteve/sets/72157594560688250/

Also: I am nearing the stage where I can upload a playable demo (~20mb), and suggestions for file hosting?

Looks promissing man!
Keep the good work!

Wow, I gotta say, that's well done so far.

Good explosions.... I always hate when explosions in a shmup are all like, wimpy or something.....


And I'd never heard of this Multimedia Fusion thing....

Now Im gonna have to try it. Planning a shmup of my own, but looking for various things to make it with (Im lazy about coding).


Anyway, keep up the good work, drop a link here on the boards when you have the game (or a demo) up so we can try it.

Another thumbs up.

Personally I think maybe there are too many weapons though. I love the control of the angle however.

It might be awesome if different ships had a set of those weapons we saw in the video--so maybe any given ship had 3 of those weapons. Making people chose ads a replay factor instead of having all of them out there on the table at any time.

Wow. That's very cool. How long you've been making games?

Very nize indeed! I look forward to the download.

I like the large ship in the "0607 08" shot. the designs on the hull are very "Stargate SG-1" in a Goa'uld sort of way. Very nice. I'm anticipating this one!

You need to change the priority so that enemy bullets are first/ highest then the player ship next. You can't let the explosions obsure your ship or any bullets.

That looks pretty darn good. The ship design looks to be very detailed and the Earth background in some of your pics looks awesome.

Is the tool that you are using freeware? I have no idea how to code for a SHMUP but making sprites for it would be very cool

http://www.mediafire.com/?fjxhye5ejh1

OK, so here is a test demo of the first level.

The controls: default 'w' 'a' 's' 'd' for movement, '0' (num pad) for fire 1 (shot) and '.' (num pad) for fire 2 (weapon switch/beam). Press F3 to set up controls (don't use the spacebar, as this is temporarily used to max the energy bar) F5 for full screen (I think there may be an issue with dual screen users, so stick to windowed mode!).

Holding fire 1 while moving will lock your weapons in position, releasing fire 1 and moving forward or back will rotate the weapons around your ship, from front to back (like R-Type Leo).

Collect blues from every 3rd defeated enemy to cycle weapon selector at bottom (like Gradius) release fire 1 and tap fire 2 to switch to selected weapon. Collected blues will add to a multiplier (blue numbers at top) which is ever decreasing. The multiplier affects things such as grazing and enemy kills.

Also, collecting blues and grazing enemies/enemy shots will increase the beam bar at the top. Once full ("Energy Max") tap fire 2 whilst holding fire 1 to fire beam (also, all enemy shots will be turned into blues by the flash). Release fire 1 to cut beam off.

When (if) you manage to get past the substitute boss (the red blob thing) the game just continues, so you will need to hit esc or F2 to end.

Cheat!: If you want to see the weapons, press 1-6 on the keyboard to switch. To max the energy beam, press space.

Please let me know if there are any horrendous bugs. I welcome constructive comments!

Enjoy




Yeah, a good idea. I do think the 6 weapons is a bit too much, perhaps I will look into designing another ship, with maybe a different way of shooting too...




Agreed. Currently the shots are always brought to the top, but not the player. I will look into this.




Too long. Shoot 'em Construction Kit on the ST was the first thing I used. But have been working on games for about 12 years on and off. This is the closest I have come to releasing one!




No, Fusion v2 is cost around £100 I think. The version I am using (1.5) was £50ish

This is really good. Some of the weapons (like reflect, lightning) are very interesting but sometimes useless since reflect bounces off things while lightning seems to aim at random. Napalm could be more powerful since it's so short-range. If you're intending the different weapons to be more effective against different types of enemies, you should make those types of enemies very distinct. If napalm is good against bio enemies or whatever, then show me who the bio enemies are because I have no clue from just playing.

Little details like that would flesh the mechanics of the game out more. I understand it's a WIP though, and the game has a TON of potential. I already have fun playing it.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I do intend to make it clear to the player the difference between the bio and mechanical enemies. So far, the only bio enemy is that blob at the end of the level. Weapons like reflect will be far more useful in enclosed stages. I may try and reduce the randomness of lightning.

Thanks for playing!

After playing this for an hour more last night (still can't 1cc this first level...) I'm beginning to see the strats for the different weapons more and I like it. I'm not using napalm much at all, but all other weapons have a purpose meant for different enemy configurations, a lot like Silvergun. Here's what I found from just playing, and hopefully it accords with what you intended:

vulcan is pretty basic. Good for popcorn enemies at the beginning. Not useless, but not that exciting.

reflect is great for the large ships that are clustered together. Get between them and shoot sideways, and the laser bounces a LOT and takes them down. Other than that, no incentive to use them on smaller enemies unless those enemies cluster together more so that the bounces can be put to better effect. I can see this being useful in stages with walls.

Napalm is next to useless. Not enough power for me to risk getting in close to enemies.

Lightning is mostly useless, except for large enemies (like near the beginning). Get in close so they can't miss, and dish out the damage!

Fusion is pretty good for the enemies that follow eachother, like the diagonal guys. Each one runs into the explosion from the last. Other than that it doesn't quite pack the punch to take out larger enemies, nor does it have the firing frequency to take out spread out popcorn enemies as well as vulcan.

blade is my favorite. I could go through the whole level with it. It does a ton of damage and after you memorize some of the enemies you can get them before they shoot at you. I can maximize the damage by sticking them both in front. If you want more balanced weapons I'd say weaken this one a little or make the others more useful, because I need incentive to use all the weapons and so far I can get through just about everyone with this thing.

Another idea might be to have some enemies with spreading bullet patterns such that they are too tight to dodge when you're close to them, hence making the blade near impossible to use on some enemies.

It would remind me of Silvergun's sword if I could cancel bullets (the main use of the sword in Silvergun) but since I can't, it really isn't that similar except in appearance. if you are going for a silvergun-style blade, maybe add a type of bullet that can be cancelled by the sword and perhaps that will help charge the beam weapon.

speaking of the beam weapon, I like it but it takes a LONG time to charge and then it's gone quickly after you use it. The charge up time isn't that bad if you just make it last a bit longer.

overall though I really like this game. If you make it as a full game it will be awesome.

Excellent, thanks for the comments Kengou. Comments like "playing this for an hour more last night" make the effort more worthwhile! I am looking into the weapon settings:

I think I will do something about napalm, although I do want it to be more beneficial vs bio enemies.

Lightning, perhaps I will try to reduce the randomness of it to make it more useful, maybe have it jump to another enemy?

I think I will increase the fire rate of Fusion, and slightly reduce the impact damage it causes.

I like the idea of the spread shots to hamper blade usage. I probably wont alter it too much though.

If you want to charge the beam quickly, for example, stick your ship dead close to the bomber that appears from the background, right between where he shoots the lasers. The beam will charge much faster as you are grazing 2 sides at once, and from his lasers. You can also do this with the large battleships, but they shoot those nasty lasers, so you have to be quick!

Finally reached the blob at the end of the level. It does look different from the rest of the enemies. I guess the problem is that it's the ONLY bio enemy in the level (went down in about 3 seconds circling around it with Blade, too. WAY too easy, I hope that isn't a boss)

No, the red blob is just a test enemy. I know it's a bit crap, but I will try to ensure the boss is pretty badass.

Lightning and Fusion could stand to be a bit more powerful considering how long they stay on enemies.

Ok, I have uploaded a new video showing the second selectable ship and weapons etc. The game is coming along quite well now, but I am experiencing some annoying bugs/limitations because of the software and probably my sloppy coding (although I can work around these by making my code more efficient).

New Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XICC3MXIKV4

New Screens:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/radiantsilversteve/sets/72157601844468849/

The new ship:

Has a primary forward firing weapon which can be switched between Vulcan (spread) and Laser.

The rotary weapons work differently with this ship as it only has one which rotates though 360 degrees.

The rotary gun weapons: Proton Canon (rebounds), Corrode Spray (wide but short range), Ion Cannon (powerful but slow to reload) and Plasma Whip (mid range).

There is also a new Beam weapon which sprays powerful shots in a spiral formation.

That's what i was thinking, i love the decal style. Makes me think it'd be neat to play a doujin with all the Babylon 5 ships or something.

Looks very impressive!