Papilio [v0.9.2.5 Beta, now with True Last Boss!]

[S20-TBL]

Testing multijointed object manipulation using 2D arrays. I'm beginning to feel the pain of the oldschool Konami / Treasure programmers now. The good news is that the Stage 4 boss is surely beginning to take shape.



Wanted something non-obstructive to use as segments, then I remembered that classic Sonic used chain-link sprites for those.

Also, more player character spriting. Almost complained about having to sprite 8 different animations for each character, but then remembered that we live in the 2000s and no longer have to manually encode every single tile into a ROMset. Copypasting FTW.



They're flying towards the screen. Wonder what for? Hmm

*Goes back to watching Roman Gunlancer videos to keep himself sane*

[BPzeBanshee]

I've been thinking a bit about that sort of thing for a boss object myself but not sure how you'd be able to make it allow for any kind of flux ie bridges having pressure placed on the center or gravity. Any ideas?

I'm liking what I'm seeing though. Hecatoncheir Stone-Like Edition?

[S20-TBL]

I've been thinking a bit about that sort of thing for a boss object myself but not sure how you'd be able to make it allow for any kind of flux ie bridges having pressure placed on the center or gravity. Any ideas?

I've thought about it myself. I used to have a sample of a physics-based multijointed ragdoll rope from the old YYG forums. Now that I understand how array-based controllers work, I think I can try digging it up again.

Here's the link to the particular project file if you're interested in tinkering around with it.

I'm liking what I'm seeing though. Hecatoncheir Stone-Like Edition?

Oh yes. This boss will be a tad different though. Probably with a hint of something out of Metal Black or Biometal added to the mix.

[Rozyrg]

Doing a bridge with a single spot where it's weighed down is fairly easy ,the problems would be with having more than one - for instance, an enemy crossing it from the other side. Not impossible, you'd just need to have rules for some specific situations: for instance, whether two points are close enough that all points in-between would also need to have the same y value.


As for using this stuff for creature/enemy design, that gets pretty tricky, yeah. The only thing I know other than straight lines and 'following' type behavior (think Gradius options) are lengthdir tricks to make simple arcs. Basically you just make the points between the head and body always maintain a half circle, starting off with the angle between those.

The hard thing with this setup is knowing when/how to mess with the radius using scaling shenanigans that work independently on lengthdir_x and lengthdir_y. You obviously still want the neck to look like it's maintaining the same overall length.

Basic L joints aren't too complicated, either; but the real trick is making them look right for the purposes you need them for - arms and legs etc. Having several connected joints flailing about without constraint isn't hard, it's just two straight lines instead of one, with one being hinged on the other; but making them react believably to floors, obstacles and bend in expected ways can be.

[S20-TBL]

Doing a bridge with a single spot where it's weighed down is fairly easy ,the problems would be with having more than one - for instance, an enemy crossing it from the other side. Not impossible, you'd just need to have rules for some specific situations: for instance, whether two points are close enough that all points in-between would also need to have the same y value.

These diagrams make sense. I think Sonic 2 and S3K had these "denting" bridges that use this behavior of lowering 2 or 4 segments on either side of the dented portion. It should be possible in GM using a loop that detects which portion of the array a specific foreign object is colliding with:

Code: Select all

for ( i = 0; i < bridgelength; i += 1)
{
           if instance_exists (bridgesegment[i])
           {
                     if collision_circle (x, y, radius, playerobj, 0, 1)
                     {
                                bridgesegment[i].y = low;
                                bridgesegment[i-1].y = low - half;
                                bridgesegment[i+1].y = low - half;
                     }
           }
}

The above is theoretical (and is more than likely wrong) but you get the idea. :p

The L joint theory looks interesting. The Stage 5 boss will also be multijointed, but I'm going to avoid using any complicated structures until I figure how to code multijointed behavior that reacts believably to gravity and floor collisions.

[S20-TBL]

Added some new enemies. Also, after defeating the midboss and proceeding deeper, the background changes to a pulsating wall of crystals. Shades of Contra and Metal Slug now.



Boss! She's still incomplete. These aren't her final patterns (they're too brutal).

[S20-TBL]

Not the actual in-game look. This was printscreened off of GIMP.



The second midboss in Stage 4 also has near-finalized attack patterns. Getting there...

[Danbo]

i played the early access build, and this is quite impressive. there's a lot to look at usually, with all the parallax stuff / weather effects etc. the big crystal weapon is a lot of fun to use, though most of the weapons seem to control pretty well (first time i used the blue bomb i figured i'd have invuln and sent it flying around the screen - doesn't work like that!)

guessing you're a big thunder force fan? i didn't play for long, but one thing i noticed was that i didn't get as many enemy warnings in the later stages. maybe this was intentional or maybe you never got around to it yet, just an observation

i also got a bug where on selecting No at the continue screen, i get put back at the shot select menu, and trying to quit that just causes a screen fade effect - it doesn't take me back to the main menu.

good work either way!

[S20-TBL]

i played the early access build, and this is quite impressive. there's a lot to look at usually, with all the parallax stuff / weather effects etc. the big crystal weapon is a lot of fun to use, though most of the weapons seem to control pretty well (first time i used the blue bomb i figured i'd have invuln and sent it flying around the screen - doesn't work like that!)

Thanks! Glad you liked how things are so far. The big circular blade actually cancels bullets, but I was planning to make the player(s) invulnerable as long as they stayed within the circle at first. Turned out it might have been too overpowered, but I'll think of something.

guessing you're a big thunder force fan? i didn't play for long, but one thing i noticed was that i didn't get as many enemy warnings in the later stages. maybe this was intentional or maybe you never got around to it yet, just an observation

Yes, I never got around to placing proper warnings in later stages (was too busy putting new content in at the time). Hopefully I can get around to it next week before releasing the new version though.

EDIT: Yes, big TF fan here. Except maybe for 6. And Broken Thunder. Those never happened. >.> <.<

i also got a bug where on selecting No at the continue screen, i get put back at the shot select menu, and trying to quit that just causes a screen fade effect - it doesn't take me back to the main menu.

Thanks for bringing this up. This might have been caused when I tried fixing the screen fade errors from the previous version. I'll look into it ASAP.

EDIT 2: Found the problems. Thanks again for letting me know!

[S20-TBL]

I was investigating the reports made by several people who playtested Papilio and complained about getting stuck on certain screens (Game Over, Wisp Select, etc.) without being able to return to the main menu, when they're supposed to. After thorough testing, it turns out that calling certain SuperSound DLL functions for freeing up memory may have been the culprit, possibly causing the application to get confoozled--when I attempted to narrow it down by changing a few bits here and there, the game froze completely. Only when I commented the DLL functions out did the script for returning the player to the main menu work as intended.

Sometimes I wish I finished my Computer Science course instead of transferring to Advertising.

Crunch time for the last week of January. Also Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on February 13. Go go go

[BPzeBanshee]

Very strange behaviour. As much as I had SuperSound nailed to a tee for loop point recording in a test engine I did years ago I hadn't anticipated its compatibility problems were THAT bad.

I can't elaborate on details yet but if it pans out there may be a better alternative to this and XeAudiere by weekend's end.

[S20-TBL]

Very strange behaviour. As much as I had SuperSound nailed to a tee for loop point recording in a test engine I did years ago I hadn't anticipated its compatibility problems were THAT bad.

It may not have been compatibility problems per se, but more likely calling the functions for freeing BGM assets from memory when there were no assets being used at that same moment caused the game to either skip running the entire loop (using End Step or an Alarm) or completely freeze up (by running the script on instance deletion).

Also, it may have been largely my fault since the bit of code being used for that particular function was old and didn't have my "else {}" or "if <variable> != 0" conditional failsafes yet. I'll try running it with these tacked on after I fix the Training Mode maps.

[S20-TBL]

Version 0.5.2 is out!

Updates:

• Stage 4 is now in the game
• Three new game modes have been added: Rank Off (disables the dynamic difficulty in favor of a per-stage rank increase), Training Mode (choose a level to practice in; you can also adjust the starting rank to your liking) and Asuratva Mode (the game is pissed at you right from the start and the Rank never goes below maximum)
• Bigger 4:3 resolution, to address the cramped feeling the game had in previous versions

I'll update the version found in Indie Game Stand tomorrow...too tired to continue tonight. Version 6 up next.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that there were also some changes made to the scoring and item collection mechanics. You can no longer collect more than 1000 gems at a time, but capping your gems gives you a 25% increase in firing rate and gives you a "Perfect Bonus" if you manage to complete a stage with a maxed out gem stock (the old "Perfect Bonus" given for completing a stage without losing a life has been renamed to "No Miss Bonus"). Kudos to BulletMagnet for his feedback, which made this change possible.

[S20-TBL]

The first post has been edited to reflect the changes and addtions in the new version.

Also, I apologize for the slight inconvenience, but I found a jarring graphical glitch that occurs only in Survival Mode: if you managed to get the snowstorm weather effect, pausing and unpausing the game will cause the snow layer's alpha channel level to max out, rendering it opaque and causing the game to be unplayable on account of having a blinding mess on the screen. I'm currently uploading a fixed version on itch.io and will upload the same soon on Indie Game Stand, and will email all those who purchased the game once the uploads finish.

A somewhat major concern: I'll be going back to school in order to learn tradeskills in electronics and communication tech this year, so I'm rearranging my priorities on the developmental side. For now, I'll be focusing on creating the layouts and backgrounds for stages 5 to 8 so that I'll be able to concentrate more on the programming side once classes begin--assuming I'm able to get into them in the first place.

Preview of Stage 5's layout (WIP):

[BPzeBanshee]

One minor visual glitch I've noticed in stage 4: after the midboss, note the top part of the background behind the blue part isn't completely covered when you change the indexes so it looks jarring.

Really digging this update. Nice to see the old stage 1 music tune back in again, it didn't fit before but it's certainly fitting in here now. Have you changed any parts of it because I remember it sounding different before?

[cuttingagent]

Playing the update, got a game over in Survival and the game just got caught in a loop and I had to shut the game down manually.
Unable to replicate in Survival my 2nd try, but it happened again in Training lvl 4.
After a game of Rank Off mode, after I picked the first letter in the high score entry, the letters shifted down a couple inches on the screen.

Win7 64bit SP1 core i3 m370 @ 2.40ghz 6gb RAM Intel HD graphics if that helps.

[S20-TBL]

Playing the update, got a game over in Survival and the game just got caught in a loop and I had to shut the game down manually.
Unable to replicate in Survival my 2nd try, but it happened again in Training lvl 4.

This is strange. I thought I had gotten rid of the infinite loops caused by the sound DLL asset unloading functions spazzing. I'll check again, I probably missed removing a function or two. Although, at which part did you get the infinite loop? Did you get it after the Game Over screen, or before?

After a game of Rank Off mode, after I picked the first letter in the high score entry, the letters shifted down a couple inches on the screen.

This is a coordinate error. I had fixed an issue where the letters shifted to the left, so it's probably from the new parameters I introduced. Will fix.

Thanks for catching these!

[S20-TBL]

I managed to spot where the loops were occurring. Hopefully the next fix will have dealt with them completely, along with some other minor quirks I've been informed about.

This is what's currently bothering me though:

Spoiler

"Hello Michael ,

Congratulations!!! We are very pleased to announce that "Papilio" has been tested and fully approved by the Desura Team. More importantly, we have you officially scheduled in our Launch Calendar. On March 11th 2015 at 8am Pacific Daylight Time your game will GO LIVE. Please allow for the game release to propagate across the worldwide Desura CDN network over the course of an hour from that launch time, due to caching and other factors that may inhibit the game from showing up immediately.

In the meantime, you really need to prepare like crazy. I would strongly suggest that you queue up your media plans, get all of your press and announcements ready to go and you should take full advantage of setting up linkbacks to the game just as soon as it is available for general release. Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, Facebook and all of the social media channels should be top priorities and please be sure to mention Desura in the process; as we will be setting up our Social Network for notifications.

You should also really take the time to consider the visual assets that you have and any enhancements that you can make to give your game the maximum visual boost it deserves -- After all, the hard work of making the game itself has passed; Now comes the task of making people aware. If you need any help in this arena from a team that has been doing this for years, we have partnered with the guys at 2Advanced Studios (http://www.2advanced.com/) and they have agreed to extend extremely deep discounts to our Indie developers whom are working on rather tight budgets to:

Build Game Websites & Social Media Assets
Create New Keyart, Boxshots, Icons and other Promo Materials
Photo Retouching and Proofing of Professional Screenshots
Providing Press Release and Copywriting Services (Game Descriptions, etc)
and so much more...

In any event, this is all completely optional and Desura takes absolutely no "cut" in the process. We are just leading with as many possible tools that can ultimately help you stay ahead of the competitive field in the gaming market. Also, we are currently lining up a partner that specializes in Press Release Distribution and Promotion within the Video Game Industry -- If you are interested in any of these options, just drop me an email.

Otherwise, I just wanted to extend my sincere congratulations for getting through the process. I know it was ugly and not very easy to setup (and I'm sure the submission process took way too long); this of course is one of the many things that Bad Juju Games is working on right now. In addition, if you have any future game updates, incremental releases, patches, or otherwise, please get them into queue early in the work week -- The more testing that you can do to ensure your updates are solid, the easier it will be for us to move them through the submission process.

Sincerely,

******"

The kicker: 2 days prior to this email, either my monitor died completely after 4 years of pain and hardship, or I just need to get a new signal cable. It's showing a really bright display and is failing to refresh properly.

[BPzeBanshee]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I just had something similar happen with my old 4:3 LCD screen, and it wasn't the cables.

The Desura news is pretty cool but the wording sounds like they're expecting a finished product by March. The social networking stuff seems like a royal pain too.

[BulletMagnet]

IIRC Desura does have some "alphafunded" games on it, would it accept yours under that label if more time than that is needed?

[S20-TBL]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I just had something similar happen with my old 4:3 LCD screen, and it wasn't the cables.

I thought as much after doing more research on it. Cable problems would probably lead to RGB signals getting mixed or cut off (e.g. magenta screen from lack of a Green signal), but not this. This one sounds either like a bunch of transistors went bad, or the entire LCD panel did.

he Desura news is pretty cool but the wording sounds like they're expecting a finished product by March. The social networking stuff seems like a royal pain too.

IIRC Desura does have some "alphafunded" games on it, would it accept yours under that label if more time than that is needed?

Good points. I need to clear this up with them. Actually I had emailed them prior to this that I was looking to have my game alphafunded via their site, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure since my original queries were from 4-5 months ago (and it took them that long to reply--I actually gave up on them).

[BulletMagnet]

Seems it's up as a "preorder" on Desura...also, in case you're not aware, IsThereAnyDeal is mistakenly listing its price on there as "free", presumably confusing the full game with the demo.

[S20-TBL]

Huh. That's strange.

I sent a reply to the email I posted asking for a clarification of his terms, but I didn't expect all of this to happen so quickly. There must have been some mistake or something.

Anyway, going to try and get a new monitor tomorrow. I can't work for beans on this laptop for some reason, but I'll have to force it if necessary. Hopefully the guy responds soon as well.

[S20-TBL]

New monitor is up and running, so I'm back in business at least. The updated demo is currently being polished for release (using a backup file of an older version so I have to retrofit some of the newer functions and parameters in there), plus I'm adding a few things in v0.5.2 that I was supposed to add before (d'oh).

Also, the Desura rep responded and said that the original email was just a general template sent to all approved developers, so not all of what was written in it may apply to Papilio--it's just to let me know that I've been greenlit for distribution. Thankfully this relieves me of some of their requirements.

[S20-TBL]

A new demo is up on itch.io, along with some updates to the paid game. Those of you who bought it will have received the list of updates via email, but here it is:

• A glitch that could cause the fourth boss to crash the game should you successfully trigger its hidden mode has been removed.

• Several DLL scripts that were wrongfully implemented and that could cause the game to loop indefinitely have been removed.

• A fix was added to the Wisp Selection screen that now prevents players from accidentally switching an already chosen Wisp type should they click on one of the icons after the screen begins fading to black.

• A highly distracting visual glitch that only occurs during a random weather effect in Survival Mode has been fixed.

For the free demo:

• A bigger screen resolution (400x300) has been implemented.

• Timers for all bosses, to let you know how much longer you have before they attempt to escape.

• Forgot to mention in the email that the EX Bosses and the hidden Stage 2 midbosses are now accessible in the free demo...

Lastly, from February 14 to February 28, Papilio's Alpha will be on sale at itch.io for $2.99.

[S20-TBL]

New video demonstrating the most recent changes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnCi4tN6aUA

Also, Papilio is on sale at only $2.99 at itch.io. Offer good until February 28.

I found a couple of bugs too, mostly involving the positioning of the boss timer. I have no idea why it kept changing positions, so I locked it in place now.

Goes back to manhandling Nerscylla and Rathian in MH4U. Username is Axl if anybody wants to hunt online.

[S20-TBL]

I recently found out both my shmup and Rozyrg's (specifically, ZPF) were listed on baidu.com:

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/3605171399?pn=2

Also, a couple of guys featured the game on their review sites:

https://gamesthatiplay.wordpress.com/20 ... ra-review/
http://gamecola.net/2014/10/scratching-the-itch-io-17/

Apologies for the 3-week hiatus. Currently looking for another job to help support this project with. That and the background assets for Stage 5 are killer.

iblamemonsterhunter4uchargebladeop

[S20-TBL]

Sorry for the long hiatus. I'm not dead yet. It was a bit rough adjusting to my new job and stuff but I'm (hopefully) a bit more stable now.

Stage 5 preview:



Stage 6 preview (multiple areas):



Stage 6 battleship (WIP)



Stage 7 is also in progress. More to come.

[BulletMagnet]

Great to see you back, looking forward to more on this one.

[BPzeBanshee]

Hooray!