War of the Abyss - Try My SHMUP TOO!!!!

[cdawg4949]

Not to take the limelight away from EndlessFire ... I have finished my trial level of my first attempt at game making. Obviously in GAMEMAKER, this game was supposed to look semi-hand drawn, although done all in photoshop. It has a very old school feel and most of the enemies don't fire in the first level. This is because the story is gonna take us from the reefs, where the sharks and jellyfish live, down to the deep, where another civilzation of creatures has developed, and is now using ships and mutant sea monsters to take over humans on land.

First off, I plan to implement joypad capabilities ASAP. Can anybody tell me how to do that with gamemaker?

I am greatly hoping to recieve plenty of feedback as to improve the game. I am also gonna set up a high score table just for fun, and to give you guys something to shoot for, rather than suffer the wrath of my game alone.

Download here!!!!

http://home.csumb.edu/h/hoffmancody/world/WOTApage.htm

[heckabecca]

Very creative game with well though out ideas and sounds. Some of the graphics are a bit fuzzy, but the quality is good for a beginner. I recommend making the sharks look less this dolphins. other than that, great game and i look forward to seeing the revisions and additional levels. -Becca

[EddyMRA]

Wow, pretty good game! Keep us updated on this project.

Suggestions:

*Make the crab boss do something to alert the player before it throws its claws at you (i.e. flash, gesture animation, make a sound). Those claws come out and kill me before I have time to react.

*For the chain system, have a visual indicator, such as a chain meter like in Mars Matrix, to give players a representation of the time for them to keep a chain alive.

[cdawg4949]

135 reads and only 2 responses!!!

C'mon guys! A little help here. I want to make this thing the best I can and I need your help. I give you a free bit of shmup entertainment ( i hope ) the least you can do is gimme a little feedback.

Thank you very much to those who responded. I like the ideas and I have already started implementing them into the game. I have also started adding more powerups so the ship can take on some of the harder upcomming levels. The jelly fish are also going to move a bit more, as they are very static just like the sharks.


-CODY-

[nullpointer]

Ok.. i stop lurking now

I liked whatyou've done so far..
I dont know anything about gamemaker but it loks like you could build a decent shmup in it if you work at it..

Personally I'd advise working on the gameplay first and the graphics later.. Because if you are programmng it yourself you will have to implement all the game play ideas.. whereas it is possible to get someone else to do the gfx later. and a dull game with great gfx isnt that hot anyway..

But i reckon you have got a nice idea with the underwater theme!!
I'd try and exploit it more.. say having bubble gun as a 2nd weapon that you can fire to capture enemies with, once youve lined up a few in bubbles you could pop em with the first weapon and rack up some extra score (damn.. thats a good idea.. maybe i do it myself...

And maybe try and do more stuff graphically with the water effects.. like background caustics or deep water rocky stuff. coral reefs etc

check out 'in the hunt' or especially the water level in 'dragon blaze' which are both water shmups with great graphics..

Keep it up!

p.s. i like the spiky things that shoot off the side walls..

[cdawg4949]

Wow, BTW that bubble capture idea is sheer brilliance. I kinda want to use it, but it is so good that I would feel like I am ripping you off.

-CODY-

[gameoverDude]

I'd give the bosses life gauges so you know when they're going to kick it. As for the chain meter- I'm with Alluro there.

WOTA is looking great so far.