Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

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Atomhead
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *NOW AVAILABLE!* (incl. demo)

Post by Atomhead »

Thanks man, glad you enjoy it. It gets way more frantic than what you get in the demo! :)
In case you want something to aim for (other than the end credits), my SG highscore is 26.533.000 ;)
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *NOW AVAILABLE!* (incl. demo)

Post by mjclark »

OK-bought it and loving it :D :D (FastSpring definitely seems to be the way to go)
Couple of questions:
1) What's the big number at the bottom of the score results page (underneath "shots fired" and just above and betwen final multiplier and final score)- is it just a timer? When I die in Wave 2 it reads between 105 and 120
2) What's the relationship between what happens in Training and what happens in normal Soulgrinder Mode? Do my achievements in Training give me powerups and multipliers in Normal?
3) Would be nice to have a hi score display on the screen whilst playing (another something to aim for!) and also online leaderboards eh?
The fact that Training affects Normal is a novel and interesting mechanic and being able to download the EP is a nice touch too.
Finally good work on including a CPU setting. More games should have this as hardware specs seem to be increasingly an issue at the moment
So far this is well made, interesting, pretty and FUN so cheers indeed :D
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *NOW AVAILABLE!* (incl. demo)

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mjclark wrote:1) What's the big number at the bottom of the score results page (underneath "shots fired" and just above and betwen final multiplier and final score)- is it just a timer? When I die in Wave 2 it reads between 105 and 120
That one is a conglomoration of the statistics, kind of the end result of how you well played. It takes into account your accuracy (shots missed / shots fired), how far you got, the number of invaders you eliminated, number of souls you collected etc. So it's just a general indicator that'll show you all the stats in a glance.
mjclark wrote:2) What's the relationship between what happens in Training and what happens in normal Soulgrinder Mode? Do my achievements in Training give me powerups and multipliers in Normal?
Training Mode upgrades your ship in both modes yes.
Achievements don't have any other goal than to achieve them, since I got rid of the online achievement system as I had too many problems with it, it's just local. I should've mentioned which achievements there are, will do so in a coming website update. You can see in the helpscreen (bottom right) the number (out of 10) of achievements you unlocked.
mjclark wrote:3) Would be nice to have a hi score display on the screen whilst playing (another something to aim for!) and also online leaderboards eh?
I actually had that in earlier builds but it was kind of standing in the way. I still like the idea so I might keep it for a future update.
As for online leaderboards: I really wanted those but since I was running into so many problems trying to do online achievements for IndieCity (who also support leaderboards), I'm not going to promise anything like that at this point...

Thanks for your comments, I'm really pleased that you enjoy the game!
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *demo + full version + trailer*

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Trailer video is finished! Check it! (Thanks to Cas Van Nieuwenhuyse)
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *demo + full version + trailer*

Post by mjclark »

Just got on the IndieCity beta but can't find HI0 on there...
...they do have Infinity Danger for PC though at £1.20 :D
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *demo + full version + trailer*

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There's been some days delay again, they've been waiting for me this time since I was busy working on different projects.
But it's a matter of days now. As you've noticed, they've entered public beta to do some more testing, and it won't be long until they go public with it.
Ah well it's available anyway (if my website doesn't go down anymore like it just did)...
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *demo + full version + trailer*

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I just pushed an update: Hyperspace Invaders Zero v1.11.

Changes:
- graphical update for the main menu and highscores.
- changed some of the demo contents. (more traininglevels so you can get more of a feel for the game)
- fixed the highscore bug (only in the previous build)
- changed the game structure: the retro remakes are now implemented as "unlockables".
You now have to unlock the RETRO 1P and RETRO 2P modes by getting a decent highscore in SOULGRINDER MODE. (1 and 3 million)
To unlock SPACE TROOPER, you need 10 million in RETRO 1P.

PS: the game is slated for translation to Japanese thanks to the people from Playism.jp (kind of a Japanese IndieCity that localises Western indie games).

http://hi.entity.be
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero *demo + full version + trailer*

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Hey guys, thought I'd post a little teaser screenie for the holidays...
1- yes, it's the sequel to HI0.
2- no, it won't be done soon since I'm dividing my time between about 4 other projects as well (another 2 games, 1 engine, 1 app). I plan to make this a valid sequel, not just some quick HD version.
3- Everything you see is completely "beta". First steps... strictly re-using sprites at this point. Already having a good time with it though :)

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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Is that screenshot size the game's native res or is it like that cause you did a fullscreen capture?
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

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BPzeBanshee wrote:Is that screenshot size the game's native res or is it like that cause you did a fullscreen capture?
It's 1080p, currently the only resolution.
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Atomhead wrote:
BPzeBanshee wrote:Is that screenshot size the game's native res or is it like that cause you did a fullscreen capture?
It's 1080p, currently the only resolution.
D:

I realise it's a bit early on, but surely the performance will be terrible using a resolution so high let alone with the excessive visual effects you use. GM's never been great with anything above 640x480 - in fact the first game I made was 800x600, had about two cases of particle usage in the entire game and it blew up a RAM card (and naturally Windows XP doesn't like RAM changes on the fly so it broke too). XD

Like you said though, early days. Looking forward to the day I can try this out to grind a variety of computers to a complete stop, or blow shit up with that very neat new shot type you've got there. :P
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

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BPzeBanshee wrote:I realise it's a bit early on, but surely the performance will be terrible using a resolution so high let alone with the excessive visual effects you use. GM's never been great with anything above 640x480 - in fact the first game I made was 800x600, had about two cases of particle usage in the entire game and it blew up a RAM card (and naturally Windows XP doesn't like RAM changes on the fly so it broke too). XD

Like you said though, early days. Looking forward to the day I can try this out to grind a variety of computers to a complete stop, or blow shit up with that very neat new shot type you've got there. :P
lol... =) I assure you it's really running smooth here at 60fps.
I'm definitely looking for a middle road regarding performance (enemy/bullet count vs particle madness).
Already all the settings are turned down to what HI0 considers to be the minimum CPU mode.
I'll be trying at the best of my abilities to crank out a more insane amount of GM objects with an eye on the cpu.
BUT, I can tell you right now that it won't even be aimed at legacy pc's and I can tell you why...
Sorry if you don't have a fast pc, and I can't code for sh!t in XNA or the likes right now.
While yes, I am trying to sell my things - thus keeping some vague kind of audience in mind, I'm also simply trying to create something that appeals to myself.
Both aspects are important to me, but that latter is what keeps me going ;)

PS: the game's also more fun because of the extended resolution. It's also 60fps whereas HI0 is made for 30fps.
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Atomhead wrote:
BPzeBanshee wrote:I realise it's a bit early on, but surely the performance will be terrible using a resolution so high let alone with the excessive visual effects you use. GM's never been great with anything above 640x480 - in fact the first game I made was 800x600, had about two cases of particle usage in the entire game and it blew up a RAM card (and naturally Windows XP doesn't like RAM changes on the fly so it broke too). XD

Like you said though, early days. Looking forward to the day I can try this out to grind a variety of computers to a complete stop, or blow shit up with that very neat new shot type you've got there. :P
lol... =) I assure you it's really running smooth here at 60fps.
I'm definitely looking for a middle road regarding performance (enemy/bullet count vs particle madness).
Already all the settings are turned down to what HI0 considers to be the minimum CPU mode.
I'll be trying at the best of my abilities to crank out a more insane amount of GM objects with an eye on the cpu.
BUT, I can tell you right now that it won't even be aimed at legacy pc's and I can tell you why...
Sorry if you don't have a fast pc, and I can't code for sh!t in XNA or the likes right now.
While yes, I am trying to sell my things - thus keeping some vague kind of audience in mind, I'm also simply trying to create something that appeals to myself.
Both aspects are important to me, but that latter is what keeps me going ;)

PS: the game's also more fun because of the extended resolution. It's also 60fps whereas HI0 is made for 30fps.
Oh dont get me wrong, I don't expect this to run on a legacy PC ever - that's my limitation I put on my project, wouldn't force it on anyone else. I'm just paranoid that you're going to churn out some beast of a game that only works on a quad-core i7 with a top-of-the-range graphics card when there's little reason it shouldn't work on modest machines, you know?

I'm definitely liking the look of it so far, though. Thanks for the reassurance. :D
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

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Better late than never: just uploaded a HI0 gameplay video to Youtube.
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

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Greets!
I've been away from programming for a while (since the final update for HI0).
However since a few weeks I've been at it again. I've scratched all my other games so I could focus solely on HII.

I might do a mini dev blog here --> http://hii.entity.be
But for now it's just a teaser / WIP site. Have a look at its current state!
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Looks very good, even if it is a bit ridiculously hi-res/16:9-only aspect! Nice to see you're still with us. :D

Looks like you're doing a mix of (I think it was called) draw_set_blend, particles and some glow effects to enhance the visuals over the actual sprites. Do the sprites have additional glowing as well or is that sprite-based (in the image)?
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Re: Hyperspace Invaders Zero - v1.11

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Heya!
BPzeBanshee wrote:Looks like you're doing a mix of (I think it was called) draw_set_blend, particles and some glow effects to enhance the visuals over the actual sprites. Do the sprites have additional glowing as well or is that sprite-based (in the image)?
The sprites have some glow and are blended with themselves (as with HI0). There are also some color cycling things going on which aren't obvious from the screenshot.
I might look into different blending shapes (1 per object, whatever blurry thing blends the best) to establish a nicer glow...
Most objects are all additive unless they really need to be visible (like enemy bullets) - in that case I blend an additive layer over a normal layer.
As always, all is subject to change, graphically and gameplay wise. I'd like to have it finished by the summer, but that may as well be wishful thinking since there's lots to be done.
My intention is to make it a more streamlined, more immersive experience than before.

If I make a new screenshot that I like along the way I'll put it up. Video will have to wait (too much embarrassing stuff in there right now).
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