mices - Gun.Smoke tribute, Broken Pearl, Twin Tiger Shark

[billzo]

I managed to get my engine up and running on the rasperry pi, but it ran a tad too slow. So, having the games in c++ would be a first step to conquer slower hardware.

I'm surprised you're having trouble with running a Java-based game on pi. I'm sorry if you've mentioned this before, but are you using an available game engine for Java or did you write your own? Usually with today's hardware (even if relatively limited), running the JVM instead of direct code like C++ shouldn't cause that big of performance drop.

I ask because I'm curious. I'm using libGDX to write a side-scrolling shmup, and I'd like to put it on a pi machine just for fun at some point. If I have to port the game over to C++ just to do that, forget it though. It's not worth it.

[mice]

I'm surprised you're having trouble with running a Java-based game on pi.

When the heat turns up it gets crawling. Java is a lot slower than compiled code but you're right that a 700mhz + gles-card should be able to handle it.

are you using an available game engine for Java or did you write your own?

It's my own engine, but I'm using libgdx as well. For rendering and stuff.
The engine is written in such a way that a conversion to c++ should be easy, so I'm really considering doing my own converter.

Game notes:
* Got a new mission reward implemented: "Bonus X Held". Scoring just got even more interesting.
* Boss 5 and 6 got satellites.

I'm keeping the cyber rainforce music this time, the song in there are so good I can't let go of them.

[ptoing]

Just played the latest version of Broken Pearl and I have to say I find it way too easy and also pretty unchallenging overall.
Also I got almost 10 million on my 2nd playthrough (And I am sure something like 15 million should be possible with some better bonus gathering)

Some more precise crits:

- I feel that the player is way overpowered, a lot of the bosses go down before they can even really throw anything at you if you got a decently powered up ship (Only played with Azure so far)

- Enemy shots can be avoided most of the time by simply moving left and right.

- The horizontal scroll is maybe a bit too much (but I understand that this would be hard to fix now, it is a minor issue and might just be me)

- I am not sure about the mission stuff. They are not very challenging and people will with time (very quickly) find out what the best combo is to get the highest score. I always did the bonus held missions when those were available and if not I took the one with the highest score bonus.

- The game gives you a stupid amount of lives given how easy it is. I ended the game with 10 or 11 lives left. Also there is no Lives Bonus at the end of the game. More of a question, why is the 1 up every 950.000 and not every 1.000.000? Seems a bit weird, maybe just me again.

- The smallest round enemy bullets could maybe be a bit bigger, they are sometimes hard to see.

- It should be possible to speed up/skip the bonus countdown between levels. It can get a bit tedious when there are loads of pearls.

I think that's about it, I do enjoy the oldschool presentation and the music quite a bit though. I hope you will polish this a whole lot more.

Edit:

Played a credit with Carmine, managed to 1CC on first go, a bit more than 8 mil points 4 lives left.

- harder than Azure, because generally weaker shot, also you get a bit of Batsugun syndrome as in it gets harder to see some of the enemy flak due to the player shot being pretty prominent.

- The wider spread also does not help a lot more with killing popcorn enemies.

- Bosses took a lot longer, but were not really much harder or more challenging. Easily the easiest part of the game, I would say, but I take it the bosses are not final. I imagine more patterns and different phases?

[mice]

@ptoing: Huge thanks!

- I feel that the player is way overpowered, a lot of the bosses go down before they can even really throw anything at you if you got a decently powered up ship (Only played with Azure so far)

Found a crucial bug, for the difficulty issues.
The "wingmates" initial fire power was the same as the max for your main ship.
And when the wingmates were fully powered they had 5 times the firepower of the normal maxed out shots.
So if you had the wingmates going with you for some time you'd have quite an advantage.
I felt that there was something wrong, but I just thought I was just getting really good at the game...

- It should be possible to speed up/skip the bonus countdown between levels. It can get a bit tedious when there are loads of pearls.

Yes, been meaning to fix that. But I probably wouldn't have done it if you hadn't mentioned it...

- I am not sure about the mission stuff

It stays!

but I take it the bosses are not final. I imagine more patterns and different phases?

Honestly, they are more or less final. I was thinking about adding a second form but didn't come up with anything fun (to do, or play).

I'm seriously considering adding some kind of difficulty setting now...was hoping I wouldn't have to.

All ideas to fix any (other) issue are welcome!

Again, super thanks for all of the testing by everyone!

[ptoing]

I don't think adding difficulty settings is too great an idea (I generally do not like them much, everyone playing on normal and all that)
Instead of just difficulty settings you could also change the mechanics a bit, ala the Mushi games. I think that makes a lot more sense. Make it modes, not just more bullets or something like that.

As for bosses, I would at least try and make sure that there are no safespots. Atm there are some spots on some bosses where you can just sit and kill the boss with very little danger.

[S20-TBL]

Instead of just difficulty settings you could also change the mechanics a bit, ala the Mushi games. I think that makes a lot more sense. Make it modes, not just more bullets or something like that.

I second the extra game modes with tweaked mechanics, though I wonder if that would be too much work. You could simplify it though, kind of like the extra modes in Tyrian.

[Ebbo]

I haven't been able to test the game but decided to throw some food for thought considering the mission system: how about an option to choose several missions at once? It could grant player an extra bonus multiplier at the end of stage if player manages to complete all of the selected missions but also increase the risk with some kind of penalty if even one objective fails.

[mice]

how about an option to choose several missions at once?

That's a really great idea! Need to think a bit about this, can't see an easy way to select multiple missions.
Maybe the last mission square should be "Continue" and the others will be marked selected (somehow) when pressing fire?

I don't think adding difficulty settings is too great an idea

I second the extra game modes with tweaked mechanics,

Yes, I'd rather do somithing more/new/twisted to the game than spend the time implementing different difficulties.

[ptoing]

Played some more, now at 12.8 million in an almost 1LC run (died a few times in the last level because of a fuckup).

[mice]

Really appreciate it ptoing!

Saw that Bonus +5k question, and I guess I need to fix the font readabilty issues as well.
That was a xbox playtest comment too.
But in this case I guess the X do look like a K.

Edit:
New version with the overpowered wingmates bug fix.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... 1029-1.zip

[ptoing]

Just gave it a shot. It's harder for sure, which is good.

Some more crits:

- The player ship's shadow should not have the exhaust flames showing.

- The powerup could use some indication how long it will be to a change.
Maybe something in this direction:

- I would separate the highscore tables between the 2 ships, since they play quite a bit different (also red is quite a bit harder)

- The bosses are still quite pushovery, with blue that is.

EDIT:

Just managed a 1cc with Azure, 8.46 mil points. 7 Lives left at the end.

Still not super hard to beat, but it is a lot harder to score as high as I did before now, because it gets a lot harder if you go for more +X instead of Powerups.

[mice]

- The player ship's shadow should not have the exhaust flames showing.

And soon you're going to tell me that shadows don't add when only using one light source.

- The powerup could use some indication how long it will be to a change.

Added a small transition anim, not as flashy as yours but it does the trick, I think.

Only change, I think, is the pickup-type transition and some shuffling of mission objectives.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... 1029-3.zip

Again, huge thanks!

[ptoing]

The shadows not adding up is a good point too, indeed. Also shadows should be smaller on lower parallax levels

All of that stuff would be possible fairly easy from what I know, but maybe not so much in java.

The transition animation is cool, works nicely to indicate change. Gonna give the game a few proper whirls later.

[tiaoferreira]

hey, mice, about TTS, how can I set up the game to run in 1280 x 1024 mode?

[ptoing]

Oh also, just noticed that when pausing the selection sometimes is on QUIT to begin with. That should never happen.

And you need a transition flash for the big pearl in case of the player being fully powered up.

EDIT:

Just noticed that it can happen that enemies which are totally offscreen get killed by bombs, especially those rotating big ones.
Noticed it esp in stage 1 at the Regiwhatevs thing. If you bomb there at certain times the first rotating one wont appear.

[Herr Schatten]

Tried the latest Beta and loved it. I agree, though, that the bosses are a bit of a pushover once you're powered up sufficiently (especially with the blue ship).

[ptoing]

Yeah, also I think that you could at least mix up some attacks a bit more. Like the main attack off the first boss is super easy to avoid. Make some of those shots or patterns aimed at the player. Same goes for many other bosses. Needs more mixing stuff up.

[mice]

All of that stuff would be possible fairly easy from what I know, but maybe not so much in java.

Depends on the render lib I use, the current PC one don't seem to support this directly. I would need to abandon spritebatch and do my own opengl.
For the xbox, it doesn't look to be a problem. Only, my engine don't support this, so I'd need to do that as well.

hey, mice, about TTS, how can I set up the game to run in 1280 x 1024 mode?

Edit the bat file and add 1280 1024, but you'd most likely get black borders and stuff.

And you need a transition flash for the big pearl in case of the player being fully powered up.

I deliberatly didn't do that, since it would require a new picture the size of the pearl...and it was late at night...and...will fix.

Oh also, just noticed that when pausing the selection sometimes is on QUIT to begin with. That should never happen.

Fixed. Didn't reset the button list. Another thing I'd seen every day but wouldn't have fixed if you haven't mentioned it.

Just noticed that it can happen that enemies which are totally offscreen get killed by bombs,

Yes, they do. Will fix.

. I agree, though, that the bosses are a bit of a pushover

Yeah, also I think that you could at least mix up some attacks a bit more.

Convinced, will look into removing the monotony of them and make a real effort.

Again, huge thanks! Am in a bit of a hurry, that's why the short anwers. Will get back with more details.

[tiaoferreira]

Thanks, man!

[ptoing]

Some more stuff:

- The main player shot goes over the warning message, the options shots go under it. Kinda weird.

- The option shots should probably spawn UNDER the option sprites. I think that would look better.

OK, those 2 are super nitpicky, now comes the big one.

I just played the game in Tate mode for the first time and it actually made me motion sick, something that rarely ever happens with me when playing games. I think the reason is because there is quite a lot of horizontal scrolling which turns out to be quite fast.

Could you try to make a testbuild where the base resolution is 240 instead of 192 pixels wide? I think that would help with this problem. Also it would give the player a better view of what is going on in general.

[mice]

Could you try to make a testbuild where the base resolution is 240 instead of 192 pixels wide?

Here's a 224, needs to be divisible by 32, I think.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... 24x352.zip

[ptoing]

Yeah, that is a lot better. The higher extend requirement is better as well.

[mice]

Yeah, that is a lot better.

But what about everyone with widescreen tvs and monitors?
What's even worse, I like this version better as well, generally.

Also, in that version the first 5 bosses are made a bit tougher, the first boss just a tiny bit, though.

[ptoing]

you could make the play area longer. Dunno how much that would fuck up stuff like enemies coming into the play area earlier, generally making stuff harder probably. But yeah. It is better.

[BPzeBanshee]

Don't like having my Windows Account username locked in as the name used for highscores. And as a Gojira fan I call sacrilege!

Really digging it otherwise. Few UI things need adjustment if you're going to go with the expanded wide area (a good idea IMO, looked nice on my BenQ GL2450 tated monitor) but I forgot the commandline arguments to actually see the difference between this res and what you used for Twin Tiger Shark.

[mice]

And as a Gojira fan I call sacrilege!

Yeah, but it's so powerful and fitting so I'm going to have a really hard time finding a replacement.

Don't like having my Windows Account username locked in as the name used for highscores.

This is how the ouya and xbox version will be. For PC, I'll probably reuse tag entering screen from twin tiger shark.

Really digging it otherwise. Few UI things need adjustment if

Yeah, loads. Fixed a few of them now.
But now I've got a game start problem, related to all of this, that I can't seem to find the root cause of.

Been playing some more with the new screen size and I find it looking a bit sparse now. I loved the crowded look of the narrower screen.
I'm in a bit of a cross roads here...

Thanks!

Edit:
New "proper" version of 224x352:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... 1102-1.zip

[hanasu]

I get this error when trying to run the version in the above post:

[mice]

I get this error when trying to run the version in the above post:

Only in that version or was it the first time you tried it?
I guess that monitor with 1680x1050 is your primary screen, or?
Strange that you'd get an excpeption when trying to set the resolution that is clearly working.

[Kaiser]

http://www.javatpoint.com/how-to-set-path-in-java

On certain PCs for strange reason, when Java installs, it doesn't add itself automatically to the %PATH% system variable thus causing these errors to appear. This should fix it (or in general google on how to fix the path in Java, but this link should be enough)

[mice]

Thanks Kaiser, but that isn't the problem hanasu has, right?

On anohter note, I've made a decision...drum rolls...I'm going to run with 224x352.
And the xbox version will start up in 1280x720, letterboxing on 4:3 TVs, but now there's an option to change aspect ratio on the game.
Think I solved a lot of issues with this decision. Feels good.