Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

[Atomhead]

Heya guys & gals,

*TRAILER, DEMO & FULL VERSION AVAILABLE!*
You can now actually play the demo (or better yet, buy the full thing)
Trailer video is HERE! (Thanks to Cas Van Nieuwenhuyse)

Official site: http://hi.entity.be

Note: what you WON'T see in the demo: lots and lots of levels (infinite in some cases), bossfights, weapon upgrades, adaptive difficulty, 2 player RETRO mode, ...

------

Finally I get to present my own hectic vertical scrolling shmup, Hyperspace Invaders Zero (or HI0 to keep it short).
It's actually 3 games (3 completely different modes in 1 game). http://hi.entity.be <-- official site

Retro Mode




Soulgrinder (Standard Mode)




Soulgrinder (Training Mode)




Spacetrooper Mode

[mjclark]

This has really grabbed my attention actually.
Demo and gamepad support please

[Atomhead]

Joystick support: already there!
Demo: I'll keep you posted!

[mjclark]

Great!

[BPzeBanshee]

I don't suppose there's going to be an option to turn all those particle graphics off/lowered significantly is there? I can't imagine that being much good for performance.

Looking forward to the demo.

[Atomhead]

BPzeBanshee: Matter of fact there is!
You can switch your "cpu power" on the fly by pressing "B".
There are 4 cpu settings, 4 being maximum particle count and max motion blur.
Lower than that systematically spawns less particles and uses less or no motion blur.

[BPzeBanshee]

Good stuff.

[Udderdude]

Are you going to take any elements from the Space Invaders Extreme series?

[Atomhead]

I never thought of Space Invaders Extreme when making this... i was kind of disappointed by that game.

Retro mode and Spacetrooper mode are remakes (of Space Invaders (1978) and Paratrooper (1984)) with some gameplay modifications.
The Soulgrinder mode is a little more extensive and becomes more difficult over time (as you score better and/or progress further in the Training mode).
It's all explained on the site....

By the way, this game should be released by the end of the week, as http://www.indiecity.com launches.
There's going to be a demo too by that time so you'll be able to check it up close

[z0mbie90]

Looks cool. Gonna keep an eye on this.

[JGcontraman]

Keep us up to date for a release. Looks nice and very welcoming to the retro community. Can't wait to get my hands on this.

[Atomhead]

Just got word from IndieCity's launch plans, which made me have to correct my previous statement about the release date.
They're launching at the end of the week alright, but the first couple of weeks it will be open for insiders only (for testing purposes - though you could apply to be a part of them if you ask them nicely).
Another small thing I wanted to mention in case you're wary of the IC download client: its only purpose is downloading games, you won't need it for anything else. I have good faith in these guys, they have a correct attitude towards developers afaic.

On the other hand this delay gives me a little more time to add some of the features that I actually planned to include in an update after the official 1.0 release. I'll be replacing some of the music, graphics and background effects.

I've already optimized a lot of the code (it's running real smooth now at max cpu setting on my pc).
Also since i just recently became a member here I just found out about BPzeBanshee's "GMOSSE" (a nice work I have to say).
Had a closer look at it and decided to incorporate its oldskool highscore system. Definitely adding you to the end credits for that one mister Banshee!

Ok, more news whenever it's worth mentioning! Thanks for your comments.

[BPzeBanshee]

Glad you made good use of GMOSSE, even if it was just the idea! Basic chaining is in quite a lot of successful games across the spectrum, and I can see it working quite well if you're going for the retro theme in gameplay as well as aesthetics.

Just don't be surprised if people manage to score higher using it than you'd ever expect because that's what happened to me.

[Atomhead]

Updated the screenshots since the game is now finally FINISHED! It took me exactly 6 months, but i learned a lot and hope to do the next one in a shorter development period.
I hope you like what you see.
I'll still be working on a trailer and later on updates for the game.
I'll let you know when the demo is available and link it right here!

[Raytrace]

the screenie pics at top of this page won't load for me

oh and Hi ppl btw

[Atomhead]

Raytrace: Strange because it works for me... you could try checking them on the website: http://hi.entity.be

[mjclark]

Can't wait to play this- it looks great but only some depth to the scoring can make it worthwhile and it sounds like that's in there too now

[mjclark]

Any news on this= the OP got me rather hyped but now all this hanging around waiting for IndieCity is becoming irritating...

[BPzeBanshee]

Me too, I'm looking forward to seeing how this game actually works. If it took inspiration from GMOSSE it can't be that bad.

Right?

[Atomhead]

mjclark: Believe me I feel the same. I'm sure they're doing the best they can though....
However there is some good news!
I mentioned before that I would do an update after official release. Well, I already finished the update in the meanwhile, so you'll get the most up to date version.

I added another ton of stuff, including:
- improved graphics and particles
- some new enemies
- a whole new 2 player hotseat co-op mode for the RETRO space invaders game
- an extra difficulty level for Soulgrinder mode
- increased the resolution, opening up the playfield a bit
- some technical improvements (there are now 7 cpu modes, the highest of which works great on my i920 pc).

I also had to remove the IndieCity achievements system since I kept having a problem with it.
However the game still unlocks and remembers achievements, just not online.

Anyway sorry to keep you waiting! You guys will be the first to know when it hits release.

Here's some more up to date screens:

[BPzeBanshee]

Looking a bit high-performance there. I remember asking for a option to switch off the fancy effects and stuff, is there an optional FPS display to give us an idea of whether the game's lagging or not?

[Atomhead]

For the gamemodes that are remakes (Spacetrooper & Retro Modes) I have absolutely no problem on my 6 year old cheapo "edge of dying" laptop.
Soulgrinder mode puts a lot of focus on quantity (lots of enemies, bullets, particles), so I can't really recommend playing it on an old machine.
I might dive back in at some point to make an ultra-low cpu setting if I get enough complaints from users who should upgrade

[mjclark]

Wooh- those new screenshots have got me all hyped up again

[Captain]

This looks very promising, I hope it works on older computers though.

[mjclark]

Any news on this? I'm still hyped for it!!!!!
Also what's happening with increasingly-irritating IndieCity?
Despite being subscribed to their newsletter , facebook and twitter feeds there's not a fucking clue given as to when they're going to go public ,as well al lots of instant turnoffs like a "recommendtion engine" that suggests games and downloads them for you automatically and an obligatory download client (doh!)

Personally I'd be a lot more interested if this game was available directly from your own website without all that nonsense.
And I'd be even more interested if there was a demo eh?

[Atomhead]

Really sorry to keep you waiting like that mjclark. Truth is I'm waiting for it myself, so there's not much I can do.
I have considered self-releasing it on my site, but I have no good means (or webprogramming skills) to install a webstore (unless anyone has some easy to implement ideas?).
I also am not in favor of the idea of releasing the demo without being able to offer the full game at the same time.

As for IndieCity, ofcourse there are a lot of hurdles to overcome when starting up a business like that... They are way past
their original launch date right now, and that's probably why they won't submit any news on it until they're absolutely sure about it.
Their recommendation engine is actually pretty extensive and account-based, which, if you're a fan of Indie Games is a pretty good thing,
since other distributors like Steam etc. don't do that.
Don't worry about having stuff auto-downloaded, I'll be damned if you couldn't disable that.
Like I said before: the download client is only for downloading games, you can easily remove it afterwards.

I'm not a fan of download clients myself, but as an aspiring indie games dev I am interested in what IndieCity is doing.

[mjclark]

Really sorry to keep you waiting like that mjclark. Truth is I'm waiting for it myself, so there's not much I can do.
I have considered self-releasing it on my site, but I have no good means (or webprogramming skills) to install a webstore (unless anyone has some easy to implement ideas?).
I also am not in favor of the idea of releasing the demo without being able to offer the full game at the same time.

Thanks! What you say makes sense and I guess you're probably a lot more frustrated than I am with the delays eh?
Charlie's Games and Squid In A Box have very successfully used something called "Fastspring" to enable direct downloads from their sites of Scoregasm and Waves respectively. Not sure how it works but it definitely is working for them.
Anyways I'm hanging on this thread in a still-hyped kinda way

[Atomhead]

Thanks for the tip, I'm researching the matter. FastSpring does look interesting.

[Atomhead]

I ended up going with FastSpring, it seems like a really good service. It won't hurt to be joining IndieCity too when they launch ofcourse.
Anyway, the game's out there, links are in the top post.
Enjoy!

(it's my first so be nice!)

[mjclark]

This is such geat news! Grabbed the demo at 2.am this morning and it's really FUN, great graphics and fluid gameplay.
Will get the full version when I do my banking on Monday. For £3.50 who wouldn't????