[RELEASE] Cyberpunk 3776 released on Steam

[phannDOTde]

Hi there,
I know I'm the new guy over here and my first post is about to let you guys know that I just released my first Indie game on Steam availabe for PC&MAC which can be found here http://store.steampowered.com/app/343170

Since retro arcade Shmups are kind of a niche, Cyberpunk 3776 might even be even in a smaller niche since it got a pretty dark tuned vibe that comes with it. Cyberpunk 3776 is a side-scrolling shooter set in a dystopian future world where you are the last of all of humanity. Avarice and indifference have brought about the end of days and an extraterrestrial force has come to declare war in a showdown to the end. With gameplay based on the golden-age of arcade shooters, the controls have been simplified and the playthrough streamlined. The driving force behind the game is its dark themes of life and its eventual end, portrayed as monologue by voice actor Nico Uusitalo.



Key Features:

Spoiler

• Retro side-scrolling shooter action
• Increasing level difficulty from moderate to insane
• Seven unique boss battles
• An upgrade system
• Steam achievements
• Steam leaderboards
• A score crafted for the game
• Xbox360 Controller support (PC)
• PS3 Controller support (MAC)

System Requirements:

Spoiler

OSX/Windows XP/Vista/7/8; a 1.4GHz processor; 2GB system memory; integrated Intel HD Graphics or AMD Radeon HD Graphics with OpenGL 2.1 or better; 300MB hard disk space; and Microsoft DirectX 9.0c (on PC). For more information, visit http://www.cyberpunk3776.com.

I would be honored if you guys could help me to share and get the word about the game and I'm happy to answer your questions about the game. If you want to make a let's play video, stream the game or write a review just drop me a line on twitter @phannDOTde.

About myself
I'm in Gamedevelopment for about ten years now and as a Gamedesigner I worked on major brands like "DarkStar One" and "Sacred 2". I been doing a lot of prototypes during those years but Cyberpunk 3776 is my first selfpublished Indie Game. If you are interested to find out more about my work visit http://www.peter-hann.com.

looking forward to hear from you.
Best
Peter

[system11]

Cleaned thread - tired of hostility towards new devs now.

[Immryr]

while i agree with you on the hostility to new devs thing, i don't think pretas was, at least initially, hostile. to me it just seemed like decent advice as the games title is definitely in danger of drawing unwanted attention from cd projekt red. there have been several games shut down recently with names bearing less resemblance to the big name guys suing them.

[system11]

I'd never even heard of the other game, so in fact this discussion worked like advertising for CDPR for me. If we're going crazy over names, don't let Atari hear about Cyberpunk 2077, they had a Cyberball 2072 and 2022! You all saw what happened to Minter, dragged out behind a dumpster with a shotgun.

I'm very tired of certain people speaking as if it's on behalf of the whole forum, and dealing with new game/dev threads in such an obnoxious and rude way. I'd be much more interested to hear opinions from people who have for example, watched the video or actually played the game.

[phannDOTde]

Thanks System11,
If you guys wanna have a look here are some Steamkeys give aways - would be great to get some feedback from you guys or even a Steamreview if you like the game. May not be everyones piece of pie at the end but who knows

9W458-Y6DMT-39RG2
KEM9W-BD2VC-YDACX
KLEHX-PQ4XQ-QMKI6

first to come first to get served

Best
Peter

[Ebbo]

Hi there and welcome to the forums! I snagged one of those codes out of curiosity, will return with proper feedback later.

[phannDOTde]

Hi there and welcome to the forums! I snagged one of those codes out of curiosity, will return with proper feedback later.

Hey Ebbo, thanks and have fun with it

[STG4WD]

Hey phannDOTde, it would be cool to see you streaming this on Twitch so we can watch and chat to you about it.

[phannDOTde]

Hey phannDOTde, it would be cool to see you streaming this on Twitch so we can watch and chat to you about it.

Good Idea - I'll newer did twitch before and maybe my bandwidth will not hold up to this - I'll check it out during the week

[STG4WD]

Hey phannDOTde, it would be cool to see you streaming this on Twitch so we can watch and chat to you about it.

Good Idea - I'll newer did twitch before and maybe my bandwidth will not hold up to this - I'll check it out during the week

Either that or you could find a shmupper with the bandwidth and give them a code

Either way you should sign up for a Twitch account so you can chat to people on the stream!

[phannDOTde]

Hey phannDOTde, it would be cool to see you streaming this on Twitch so we can watch and chat to you about it.

Good Idea - I'll newer did twitch before and maybe my bandwidth will not hold up to this - I'll check it out during the week

Either that or you could find a shmupper with the bandwidth and give them a code

Either way you should sign up for a Twitch account so you can chat to people on the stream!

If you got someone in mind just point me there - I'm happy for advice since I don't have much experience with twitch

[nasty_wolverine]

you went too crazy with the blur and glow shaders. i would say add an option to disable those.

[STG4WD]

Here's the Hall of Fame:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44981

Not sure this has been done before on the forum- could be interesting!

[westquote]

Congrats on the Steam release - looks fun! I will pick it up this weekend.

My #1 suggestion, in terms of visceral satisfaction and visual aesthetic, would be to double or triple the number of frames in your base explosion animation (while keeping duration constant). On Jamestown, we ended up with >30-frame-per-second explosion animations, since they were so close to the inner satisfaction/feedback loop.

Also, would echo the sentiment that bloom/glow are a bit overkill. Would appreciate a setting to fade them down/out.

[phannDOTde]

you went too crazy with the blur and glow shaders. i would say add an option to disable those.

You can change the Quality settings to disable those (was the oonly easy way to implement the switch without touching to much of the older codebase)
The Quality settings in the launcher basically disable postFX one by one

[phannDOTde]

Here's the Hall of Fame:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44981

Not sure this has been done before on the forum- could be interesting!

I'll check them out, try to reach one to team up and let you guys know Until then there are a few Let's plays of an older release or even prealpha releases here http://www.cyberpunk3776.com/press.html just scroll down to the bottom of the page.

[phannDOTde]

Congrats on the Steam release - looks fun! I will pick it up this weekend.

My #1 suggestion, in terms of visceral satisfaction and visual aesthetic, would be to double or triple the number of frames in your base explosion animation (while keeping duration constant). On Jamestown, we ended up with >30-frame-per-second explosion animations, since they were so close to the inner satisfaction/feedback loop.

Also, would echo the sentiment that bloom/glow are a bit overkill. Would appreciate a setting to fade them down/out.

Thanks You're right I could touch so many parts of the game to make them better and polish them further at some point it would be a never ending story tho. But for sure I take the advice for my next project I'm working on.
As for PostFX check my reply there, you can disable PostFX by changing the quality settings.

[phannDOTde]

I'm actually having a very hard time keeping the framerate up to 60 no matter how I try to play it. All of the lesser options stutter the same kind of way, even in their locked-in 30FPS rates (which should still be able to go to 60 IMO) and also in the very same spots in every setting from the lowest resolution to the highest; some optimization and tweaking definitely seem to be needed to get tit to run better. My PC setup is way beyond the minimum specs, so.....

Other than that, the actual game mechanics work for me. Nicely done.

Could you post me the specs you running the game on or drop me an email info[AT]cyberpunk3776.com ? Plus an info in which "spots" it does stutter if you can point it out.

[astrix]

I'm enjoying the game so far. Cant wait to see what you come up with next.

[phannDOTde]

I'm enjoying the game so far. Cant wait to see what you come up with next.

Thanks Astrix
I started a new Project which is mostly an kind of an ARPG with huge prio on Action. It's still very early in development/pre-production. I hope I can reveal more about it in the next two month.

[The Coop]

Nuts. Came in too late for the three keys.

This game has a definite euro-shmup vibe to the visuals, and in some of the gameplay traits from the video I saw. My curiosity's been piqued, since I've never had an issue with euro-shmups. But unless it goes on sale in the near future, I'll have to wait a good while to grab it. My proverbial spending wad's been swallowed by birthdays, a car inspection, a vet visit for my cat, and bills.

It's like everything knew a new shmup was coming

[Lobinden]

The visual presentation is interesting, and I'm sure it's a good romp, but it seems a bit "euro-shmup" esque.
Now I don't have an issue with all euro-shmups, but that does put me off from trying this game, considering there's not much (if any) info out there on this game's mechanics and scoring system (if there is one).

[Ebbo]

The game sure has its share of euroshmup traits, slippery movement, health bar and the shield being the most prominent ones. Especially the way the latter two have been implemented in this game feels pretty awkward: there is no invulnerability frames after being hit which can result enemy attacks draining your health almost immediately and the shield's hitbox is so large I just didn't use it after awhile. Also most of the UI elements are either too small and/or plain hard to read.

Overall the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, unfortunately. Stages are very long, with a lots of similar enemy waves repeating one after another and there is hardly any proper level design going on. Even the bosses have very simple patterns and take way too long to kill.

I also think that the game could use its cyberpunk setting more effectively. Besides the brooding narration and moody music (which I actually liked), nothing about the ship/enemy designs or gameplay screams "cyberpunk". The dystopian future isn't really that uncommon for shooters either; take a look at Metal Black for an effective example.

If you ever plan to update the game or work on another shooter, I highly recommend visiting the dev subforum for guides and feedback.
Good luck with your next project!

[phannDOTde]

The visual presentation is interesting, and I'm sure it's a good romp, but it seems a bit "euro-shmup" esque.
Now I don't have an issue with all euro-shmups, but that does put me off from trying this game, considering there's not much (if any) info out there on this game's mechanics and scoring system (if there is one).

yea, everyone got his own artstyle and gameplay preferences. I'm from germany, lived a while in southamerica so there for sure is an "Euro-vibe" to it
As for Mechanics there are a few Let's Plays on YT that show actual gameplay from earlier versions and how it evolved. The main ingredients are upgradable Shipsystems (but don't expect a power up hunt)
A primary weapon which can be upgraded, a charge weapon which can be upgraded, several other stats that - you guess it - can be upgraded. Upgrading is done by collecting Upgradepoints dropped by enemies by a calculated chance - this points must be actively collected leading to micro choices if you want to put yourself in risk to collect them before they pass by. There are all so Shield refill collectibles which are pretty forward in mechanic - collect them and refill your shield partially or completely. One thing that might be kinda unique since I didn't see it anywhere else before are floating healthpods; they have a chance to spawn if you low on health. To recharge your health you need to stay on the healthpod while enemys are still going after you, creates interesting mirco decisions IMHO.

Scoring system: you get a +1 on your multiplier for every incoming you defeat. The multiplier stays as long as you a.) kill another enemy b.) hit something. Each enemytype has a certain score plus you get additional multiplier score added depending on your MPL. The difficulty here is to keep the MPL up over the whole stage while dodging and stuff to get the maximal score possible when you take down a Boss. As long as you don't die on a stage your score will be carried through the game and this way you get an perfect highscore only if you manage to play all seven stages with perfect multipliers without dying.

I think that are the basics, let me know if I didn't explain it well enough

[phannDOTde]

The game sure has its share of euroshmup traits, slippery movement, health bar and the shield being the most prominent ones. Especially the way the latter two have been implemented in this game feels pretty awkward: there is no invulnerability frames after being hit which can result enemy attacks draining your health almost immediately and the shield's hitbox is so large I just didn't use it after awhile. Also most of the UI elements are either too small and/or plain hard to read.

Overall the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, unfortunately. Stages are very long, with a lots of similar enemy waves repeating one after another and there is hardly any proper level design going on. Even the bosses have very simple patterns and take way too long to kill.

I also think that the game could use its cyberpunk setting more effectively. Besides the brooding narration and moody music (which I actually liked), nothing about the ship/enemy designs or gameplay screams "cyberpunk". The dystopian future isn't really that uncommon for shooters either; take a look at Metal Black for an effective example.

If you ever plan to update the game or work on another shooter, I highly recommend visiting the dev subforum for guides and feedback.
Good luck with your next project!

Thanks for your feedback, it's easier to take in the "good job man" ones but such as yours are much more helpful for me as an developer of course - really appreciate that. I agree - I could have done a better job on the UI, I tried to include a lot aut audio-visual feedback that helps the UI and even pronounced it some more with the new steam release version but may gone to subtle on some parts. I was aiming to put the atmosphere in front of the gaming experience so this was my first goal over all. If I would do a refactoring of the game some day I sure would take your advice to design those enemies more Cyberpunkish - I worked on this game alone (respect voiceovers and music) so I did all the stuff you see there by myself, art, animation, coding, most sfx, etc. Without sounding too defensive it's my first Indie title and as a one man army you only get so far on the first shot.

Invulnerability Frames - man I should definitely see to get them in there with a next update!
Shield hitbox - that's the tradeoff of using the shields, you get a bigger hitbox which helps doing shieldkills in case your weapon overheats but makes it harder to dodge
Stage length - each stage has a minimum killcount to spawn the endboss, so if you only dodge enemies all the time the stages will get longer, averages time of a stage are between 5-7 minutes I think (wrote it down somewhere). As you build up your ship it gets easier however.
Bosses - each boss requires it's own tactic like a little puzzle to figure out and it depends a lot on your ship setup how fast you can kill them.
Level Design: each level got it's own spawn patterns but there are some switches that are random, so you can't just learn the whole stage and play it from memory completely, there will be always be a certain amount of variation in spawnpatterns. If you don't kill a certain amount of enemy's some spawnpatterns will repeat - meaning those enemys come after you again until you bring them down.
Enemytypes - each stage introduces new enemytypes, so further on you get more and more diversity

I hope this explains some of my ideas behind the game - however like I said before, not everyones piece of cake and it's not the typical "bullet hell power play" experience

/Peter