Blue Revolver

[Aldnox]

When the achievement patch drop, will that also include trading cards? I would love a profile background with woof's fantastic art.

I already have a Mae card I want a Val one though...

[Kaiser]

I rarely post but I'll make an exception this time, I bought Blue Revolver on launch and..... since then I bought the soundtrack and i've been looping it.

This game is truly fantastic, the macro dodging and micro chaining really work because the game works around them, I've 1cc'dNormal, now i'm constantly going at Parallel hoping to 1cc it one day (I'm not interesed in Hyper because well, it doesn't offer that much over Normal like Parallel does) and I have to say this:

You guys brought me back from dev hell, I've been struggling with my new shmup for few months and after playing this game, listening to it's soundtrack, my mental block is gone, despite that our artist cannot work on it atm (until Christmas, tl;dr he's getting a new PC because his old one died) now I feel I can push on and make it all work. I'm full of hype and you guys brought it upon me with your awesome game.

I look forward to the future updates.

[Squire Grooktook]

Was having a really good run and I think I ended up severely reducing rank somehow midway through stage 4. I think it was due to losing 2 iives in a chain death (trying for a Break on midboss). Though I'm also wondering if using up all bombs is also part of it.

[Glick]

Was having a really good run and I think I ended up severely reducing rank somehow midway through stage 4. I think it was due to losing 2 iives in a chain death (trying for a Break on midboss). Though I'm also wondering if using up all bombs is also part of it.

The devs explained how the rank loss/gain works on Steam. See: http://steamcommunity.com/app/439490/di ... 8315948551

[Oniros]

I rarely post but I'll make an exception this time, I bought Blue Revolver on launch and..... since then I bought the soundtrack and i've been looping it.

Same, I think I've spent more time listening to the OST than playing the game. :V

If it is not too cost-prohibitive, Qygen should put this on Spotify. More people should listen to it! Also, I added an entry for the OST on VGMdb, if anyone has more details to chip in would be more than welcome!

[tjg92]

I'm loving the soundtrack as well. I haven't bothered unlocking the remixes yet because I'm nowhere close to tired of the originals

Speaking of unlocks, are the wallpapers for the main menu or for the thingy that goes behind the actual game window? I haven't unlocked anything, I'm being stingy for reasons I do not fully understand. I can't really see the picture behind the game window in TATE anyway.

[dinosaurjerk]

I'm loving the soundtrack as well. I haven't bothered unlocking the remixes yet because I'm nowhere close to tired of the originals

Speaking of unlocks, are the wallpapers for the main menu or for the thingy that goes behind the actual game window? I haven't unlocked anything, I'm being stingy for reasons I do not fully understand. I can't really see the picture behind the game window in TATE anyway.

they show up in the center start menu in like a random rotation and you can use them for bgs

[Squire Grooktook]

Thanks for the rank guide. I'm guessing now that the best rank control method is to try and survive as long as possible, then die once or twice when rank is really high to push it all the way back down (since the post says its decrease is relative to total amount). Spread out deaths across the run seem comparatively worthless outside of ammo recharges.

Also been playing on hyper and just reached the final boss for the first time. The atmosphere

Really, not only is the ost gorgeous, but each track really builds on the last one to create a wonderful emotional journey with an immensely cathartic payoff with the last battle theme.

Also fuck yes the macro dodging is so much fun. The stage 3 boss second pattern gets me zig zagging - sight reading - hype every time. Only other bullet hell besides Mecha Ritz that's channeled that Cho Ren Sha style of hyper-active kinetic fun for me.

[Oniros]

When the achievement patch drop, will that also include trading cards? I would love a profile background with woof's fantastic art.

Cards are already in.

It doesn't say so on the Steam page, maybe the devs should look into that.

[Danbo]

When the achievement patch drop, will that also include trading cards? I would love a profile background with woof's fantastic art.

Cards are already in.

It doesn't say so on the Steam page, maybe the devs should look into that.

good shout, forgot to check that on the store page.

[Danbo]

v1.01 update is live on steam, itch.io and humble! mostly bugfixes, there's a "score breakdown" mode for elite players and some readability options if that's been a problem for you



http://bluerevolvergame.com/patchnotes/

chievos coming in a week's time. replays and leaderboards after that.

[KaizaCorp]

v1.01 update is live on steam, itch.io and humble! mostly bugfixes, there's a "score breakdown" mode...

Thank you so much for the score breakdown mode, very helpful when figuring out my route for a stage!

Also the visual options are great!

[Sadd]

v1.01 update is live on steam, itch.io and humble! mostly bugfixes, there's a "score breakdown" mode for elite players and some readability options if that's been a problem for you

Great patch, the black lines are gone on my end now

[blackrabite]

I wasn't tired when I usually sleep last night, so I used it as an excuse to buy Blue Revolver. Currently breaking dawn, I'm at work, and now I am tired. Great job! I wanted to drop some immediate impressions. They'll be at surface-level, so I hope that's okay:

The movement speed is nice; it feels like the player gets to swing through patterns! I also appreciate the Chain > Flourish mechanic. It encourages one to figure out & execute scoring routes, yet a less-than-perfect performance doesn't devastate your marriage or ruin your ability to score on the rest of the stage. Also, the game seemed to automagically detect the portrait mode my monitor is running in (neat!). Finally, I'm not sure if I will use it or not, but having the choice to darken backgrounds as a visibility option is great foresight.

I only spent a couple hours throwing myself at Hyper mode last night, so I'll be back later after I've had more time to immerse myself in the game & its aesthetics. Probably watch that STG-Weekly, too. Way to go with the release, Danbo & co.

[Danbo]

thanks for the feedback. i'm considering changing the core game rules for the leaderboards/replays patch, but after that i don't want to change it at all (nobody wants to play a STG where things are constantly changing or where their replays suddenly dont work anymore etc), so there is a little leeway to fix a few small things. the main thing i want to change is that i'm not sure the rank system is entirely spot on for hyper mode.

- i am considering changing how normal mode works a little as far as ammo goes. it might regen on its own, or enemies may drop more. i also want to decrease the scoring potential for it slightly, such that a top score in hyper is something different from a top score in normal (parallel mode already has a 30 million dollar bonus, on top of more flexibility with resources)
- the sponginess is probably due to wide and follow being fairly lacking in power. considering improving them - especially since wide is presented as the default. the game feels entirely how i want it to feel with narrow shot, since that's the one i generally use. the resuppliers are something a surprising amount of people have problems with, heh
- this is the first game in a set universe. we'll be doing further games which flesh out the setting etc. we had the idea that gallery mode should flesh out some of the game's lore, but it just came far too late in development and localization was a big burden. all of our games going forward will be EN/JP only so this won't be such a problem.

[Oniros]

Blue Revolver Black Label incoming?

[Danbo]

Blue Revolver Black Label incoming?

someone asked me this on steam discussions, i'll just copy/paste what i told them since i'm being pretty forthright:

hi there!

personally as a designer, i'd like to. i still have an idea or two, there are things i'd like to take a second crack at. maybe some things that could be worth completely changing just to see. it might be some time before we return to STGs, so getting to do a revision would be nice.

as a member of our team, it's not smart. after leaderboards and replays are up, BR is no longer our primary project - short of bugfixes or a small bit of content here and there when we feel like it. as the only programmer on our team, i can't stretch myself between our next project and whatever black label would be.

as a businessman, it's not viable. our audience is tiny, and of that audience i expect the conversion rate would be miniscule for a black label DLC (which would need to include stuff like missions, new toys to play with, new unlocks etc). if we did it as a free update, it wouldn't get tons of eyes on the game and hence wouldn't drive sales.

so i very much doubt it would happen, sorry.

[Oniros]

I was replying half in jest but I appreciate the explanation. Tbh I think the game is damn solid but one of the reasons why shmups are a dying breed is that no one even knows when little gems like this are out. Sadly, I've seen only a single review for this game from Hardcore Gamer. While other turds like Sine Mora weren't nothing special, it had 60+ reviews on release and I assume it must have recouped its cost if they ported it to the Vita and iOS later. Word of mouth from the devs and the community can only get you so far. Feelsbadman.

[Cagar]

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[Squire Grooktook]

I'll take a game that I find has nice movement and a unique mechanic over one that's infinitely deep but doesn't do much interesting any day.

Hence, I don't mind that Biometal has nothing going for it beyond a 1lc, because it's fun and exciting to revisit anytime with its heartpoundingly visceral mechanics and setpieces.

I'd take the stage, pattern design (particularly the macro dodging in boss patterns and the decent amount of rng patterns), pace, atmosphere, and unique weapon gimmicks over most other danmaku games on steam or 360 any day of the week, even if the scoring can be theoretically capped much sooner.

Not to say its my ideal shmup (it's still fairly too pure danmaku for my tastes) , and there are titles on steam that I like much better, but it's definitely near the top of the list for my favorites on pc. It doesn't have that "blah" or "ho hum another generic danmaku" feel that nearly everything in the sub-genre gives me these days, regardless of polish levels.

[Danbo]

helvetti. good to see that the voice in my head that i have to shut up with gin every couple of nights has registered an account. i'll tell you the same thing i tell my impostor syndrome.

if this is the position you take, the game needs far more than a month. you are comparing this game with probably whatever your favourite cave game is - even if you're comparing the game with something like donpachi, well, that was still created by ex-toaplan developers, people who had already been making shumps for a while. we are completely fresh.

the game will fall short of such expectations because we simply do not have the experience. as a developer, the only way to cross ira glass' famous gap between your ambitions/taste and what you can achieve is to do a huge volume of work across multiple different projects. pouring an unlimited amount of work into one STG project (that will never sell because of what it is. people think this is a lazy port of a phone game.) is not how to achieve this, and financially it puts us into the ground. taking the extra time to try to ship replays instead of just saying "fuck that they're never appearing" is already going against my better judgement in a business sense.

so in the end, our position is: "the game does not have the limitless ceiling that literally the best games ever created offer, but it is fun to understand and to get into (people who don't play shumps actually engage with the scoring system when they play this!), getting to whatever that ceiling is is a thoroughly enjoyable process, and people are still coming up with emergent tricks that surprise us". we made a fun, imperfect game that is worth any STG fan's time and money, and god help me i'll fight you if you say otherwise. we learned tons from this project, and we still have a huge way to go yet, though. one project cannot be the whole flight up that stairway. it can only be one step.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah, I was going to say "1 month is an oddly specific amount of time for such a tactile process"

Going through a similar process myself for a hobby project, substantially enhancing a games depth is not something you can really accomplish in a month. Unless you stumble across some sort of crazy miraculous innovative new mechanic that fundamentally changes the entire game, but even that will take several months to properly implement and rebalance the game around. And that's wishful thinking anyway.

[Squire Grooktook]

Oh, also Danbo while you're hear, may I ask a question?

I was planning on buying the soundtrack, but when I listened to an upload of it on Youtube, I noticed that the tracks are actually different. IE they're longer, some of have more drawn out intros, etc. I actually prefer the in-game versions for being more concise.

Does the purchasable ost contain the "in-game cuts", and if not, would it be possible to include them?

Sorry for the double post.

[Danbo]

Oh, also Danbo while you're hear, may I ask a question?

I was planning on buying the soundtrack, but when I listened to an upload of it on Youtube, I noticed that the tracks are actually different. IE they're longer, some of have more drawn out intros, etc. I actually prefer the in-game versions for being more concise.

Does the purchasable ost contain the "in-game cuts", and if not, would it be possible to include them?

Sorry for the double post.

it doesn't include the game cuts, no. i could look into it i guess? though it's not really hard to look into the game files and pluck them out yourself. 7-zip will be your friend.

[Squire Grooktook]

Ah, didn't realize that they could be extracted so easily. Will give that a try.

Thanks for responding. I will definitely be purchasing the OST regardless.

[e_tank]

danbo, i sent you a pm. feel free to respond to it publicly in this thread, that is if you wish to respond to it at all.

[Cagar]

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[Squire Grooktook]

I'll take a game that I find has nice movement and a unique mechanic over one that's infinitely deep

...and how do these things exclude eachother?
They shouldn't, and it shouldn't be "pick one".

But they often do, at least for me.

Crimzon Clover, DFK, etc. might be deeper, but I don't like the way you move. I don't find the mechanics interesting. etc. As such, even though I like them on a superficial level, I can't bring myself to play them for more than a few minutes every few months.

Given the choice between them, I'd choose something more like X-Multiply's tentacle-blocking mechanic or Gradius's cover shooting, even though they aren't as "deep" in a scoring-sense. And that's also why I place Blue Revolver over the aforementioned in my own personal game library.

It would be nice if Biometal had a nice scoring system based around its speedkills and melee combat that was as deep as anything Cave ever made. But it doesn't. But it's still a top 10 for me regardless.

And to be clear, I said "at least one month", but even that one should totally be enough ESPECIALLY for a hobbyist who doesn't have to go through a chain of communication for changes and has full control over a project that is content-wise finished.

It depends on what kind of system you're working with, though. Some naturally have lower skill ceilings than others, and extending them takes a lot of work.

I could see some tweaks with added scoring opportunities being added to BR over the course of a month or more. But tuning it from the current level to Cave levels of pixel perfect optimization is something I don't really think the current system would support without radical changes to the fundamental mechanics and scoring system.

[blackrabite]

so in the end, our position is: "the game does not have the limitless ceiling that literally the best games ever created offer, but it is fun to understand and to get into (people who don't play shumps actually engage with the scoring system when they play this!), getting to whatever that ceiling is is a thoroughly enjoyable process, and people are still coming up with emergent tricks that surprise us"

Great awareness here. I read your article in the devlog re: philosophy of your scoring system. You highlight how CAVE chaining, unless perfection is achieved, feels like it revolves around points of failure. Granted, it makes full chaining extremely rewarding, but...! It's all or nothing, and your "all" is capped at your first mistake for the stage (maybe even the run, to the extent of how bomb/lives bonuses are handled).

Blue Revolver takes a different approach with a totally accessible scoring system. I see it as a game that could easily give people "the bug" if they haven't gotten it before! Given that it does have a lower ceiling or a faster pace to achieve it or what have you, that scale of that attainability may appeal more to players who haven't gone balls-to-the-wall on, like, Dai-ou-jou or something. Experimenting with options also does a good job of spicing up any session.

A shmup, a 20min short singleplayer score rush gauntlet game should be made to have insane amount of potential, depth and "A-ha!"s to compensate, and the thought of a very good score when you start playing should feel completely unknown/alien.

I think I see your point. It's a short game so it had goddamn-well better have density, right? This is grounded on the premise that Blue Revolver doesn't have as much of this as you believe it should. Is it possible that its accessibility (difficulty, scoring system) may contribute to its gravity to certain players... just not so much to people with experience in the genre?

There's just not much to do, it's too static overall ... Now it's "hmh, current Jaimers run is 151m, yeaaah makes sense"

You mean to say that the highest echelons of play have scores that are on the same plane as somebody at, like, an intermediate level? Or that the play to attain that kind of score doesn't look that much different than the play to attain something average?

I appreciate your honesty and thoughtfulness on this topic! Please correct me if I read anything incorrectly in what I quoted.

[Cagar]

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