SKYCURSER - A New Shmup After One Year of Development

[mamboFoxtrot]

Yanno, I'm not really sure which is more awesome, though: A katana the size of an airplane, or an airplane that can wield a katana! It almost makes me feel disappointed that you can only shoot the katanas you make in Akai Katana.

p.s. regarding, regarding, regarding

Yeah, it might be better to just go

Topic:
blahblahblah

than "Regarding (Topic), blahblahblah".

[BPzeBanshee]

Very interesting regarding the backend stuff. As a GM dev myself along with Kaiser I wasn't really all that sure a USB/Serial/etc to JAMMA board would really exist in a way that worked out of the box. Sounds more like something to pull off with a bit of engineering knowledge, a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino board, or whatever the Taito Type X uses. GM:Studio alone is a pain in the ass for complex games especially if you externalise anything.

Feel free to shoot questions to any of the several guys on this forum that do develop with it (I'm still experimenting with the differences between it and older GM versions so count me in) and we'll be happy to help.

[arcadehero]

Very interesting regarding the backend stuff. As a GM dev myself along with Kaiser I wasn't really all that sure a USB/Serial/etc to JAMMA board would really exist in a way that worked out of the box. Sounds more like something to pull off with a bit of engineering knowledge, a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino board, or whatever the Taito Type X uses. GM:Studio alone is a pain in the ass for complex games especially if you externalise anything.

Type X uses a JVS-to-PC conversion board; Sega and Namco have created some JAMMA-to-PC I/O boards but I don't believe they have released the libraries or software needed to code for them.

AFAIK most indie arcade developments have either created their own I/O board from scratch (as was the case with Friction, a light-gun game released in 2011) or they use something like the J-Pac or the I-Pac, which also come with wiring harnesses and a computer program for mapping inputs. Those are mainly for MAME but I imagine converting to a non-MAME game wouldn't be too much trouble (but I am not a programmer so I could be wrong )

[NIK]

Saw this thread linked on NeoGAF and thought I'd pop in and wish you guys luck. Great to see game like this in development and huge respect for you throwing it out there for scrutiny.

Game appears very slow-paced to me but I expect you are only showcasing early levels at this stage? Liking the look of the shotgun, seems to offer the player genuine choice. Fusion of military and alien styles is carried off well if a little over-reliant on eyeballs to carry it off. Would be nice to see a little more variety in the designs.

[MJR]

Hello,

I really like that someone is developing a JAMMA shmup, and a pretty one to boot.

However, I am concerned about some of the design choices you made. It looks like you have done some of the most traditional beginner's mistakes that western developers seem to be making, over and over again.

It looks like you started the development on creating presentation and feeling, thinking that the gameplay would create itself, once you create and put the all the pieces you created together. Wrong, vertical slice development is only done succesfully by those who are willing to scrap the whole thing and start over from scratch again.

So the problem you have is this. You wanted big and pretty graphics, but low resolution, so you made a big ship and big shots. And decided that "hey, it's cool, now we have claustrophobic feeling".

This, in turn, negates most of options for skill-based gameplay since there is not enough room for moving around. This means that there is not many paths per second for the player to pursue in your moment-to-moment gameplay.

This is not necessarily a problem, if you make the gameplay based on memorization, like in R-type, and add complex and interesting weapon system to give player some choices. But that kind of gameplay requires lot of unique and imaginative weapon sets and enemies with multiple weak points, and unique situations. Which in turn requires resources, which you, as a small developer, probably do not have, I guess? Even worse, enemies seem to be requiring multiple shots, which diminishes even further possible outcomes. Lack of background limits everything even further.

Even then, it is not necessarily a problem, but you will need at least five times more development time to really deliver something that is truly memorable. Because you need to throw lots of uniquely functioning enemies and weapons and powerups to keep the player constantly engaged. Close-range shot achievements seem like one-hit tricks; once it's done couple of times, it won't add much lastability, because it is memorization based more than skill based. Because of the points I stated earlier.

You probably have not noticed your problems yet, as you seem to be having only few moderately challenging levels, which can entertain any test player for a limited amount of time. The problem will only become apparent in extensive testing - or, in worst case, when your game is released and will be picked to pieces in this forum.

Now of course, I am just a single poster in an internet forum full of.. very critical posters to say the least, so you don't have to believe a word I said, if you don't want to, but I have been working in game industry for 20 years (Mostly in housemarque) so I do have at least a little bit on insight for the most typical development pitfalls, and I can usually recognize them right away. Especially in a genre that I know well inside out. Reason I write this is because I truly appreciate your effort and I feel you have a lot of promise, and I really hope this could become something great.

And, even if this game is not the best shmup in the world, that does not mean that "you suck and should never make the game again" - which is often the attitude in the entertainment industry. Learn from your mistakes and make even better game next time

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Finally checked out that cool 720p Vimeo video of Skycurser in action yesterday (via the Arcade Heroes link)...wow! Can't believe how small and compact the Airframe jamma setup is with Skycurser up & running on it.

Any idea on how much a full jamma kit of an Airframe + Skycurser will cost as I'd like to buy one on day one of release please.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[valgalder]

Looking forward to the Logan Arcade release party of this next month!

[exidy]

planning on purchasing this for the 1up here in denver.

[gray117]

I'd ditch the shield logo (or re-design it to be more like a fighter squad logo graphic, if you're leading with it - like what you see painted on a plane or made into a badge), ditch that photo on your website background, and that griffin aerotech at the bottom of the website - those graphics do not go with your game aesthetic, just seem incongruous - or a bit too amateur/disorganized - and as if team and game is not on quite on the same page. (Whereas I understand it's probably just something put there to get something going and it's kind of just stayed there because you've had more important things to do.)

Get some more of that graphic/comic art like on the bezel/header and you'll tie it all in a lot more strongly and help it all feel a lot more cohesive and communicate that arcade visual language right from the very top of the website.

Given all the work you're doing on the game and platform it may seem like a small thing, but I think it'll really help first impressions - especially on the website. These are the first and last bits you currently have to see on the website, and does your identity, and the game, no favors at the moment.

As it is, it is not immediately clear what the griffin aerotech is supposed to be if you're coming across this fresh - presumably your company because it looks kind of different, and is different from the game title. But it's also part of the game title somehow... and it's there in 3 fairly different looking forms; like the first 3 times someone worked it up and couldn't decide which they liked, didn't want to make a decision, and felt to precious/proud about their work so slightly desperately put it all on a single page like they were trying to show off something that didn't quite work anyway.

Just look at some of the classics - snk/capcom/taito/sega - usually a company logo will appear relatively simple to distinguish itself from, and not intrude upon, the more bombastic game branding. It's an ease of communication thing, a first impression or showcase - an integral part of that arcade display/attract feel. When it starts to get a bit muddled visually to whole show starts to feel a bit of a muddle.


... Aaaaanyway, that's probably more time spent explaining that than needed, I only do since it's the one thing that really irks me because everything else I get where you're coming from culturally/context wise - there's clearly some good work and passion going into this!

[Sumez]

I'm still confused how you're approaching the hardware "issue". I really like the idea of producing the game on lightweight cheap ARM hardware (I'm sure outdated x86 hardware would be preferable, but probably more of an issue to mass produce?), but how exactly are you planning on putting it together? Are you gonna get custom designed PCBs printed from china, or are you figuring out some sort of standard Raspberry Pi + Arduino configuration?
Couldn't help noticing you were looking for Linux nerds (that's definitely not me, but it does hint at the fact that you're planning on launching the game through an OS?)

[olisan]

I know most of you are not near us but we well do a "SEGA special" event on 08 october in Paris



The new "work in progress" Skycurser game will be available

[/quote]

[PC Engine Fan X!]

SkyCurser version: 2016.7.14 was shown at the 2016 California Extreme show on both days back in July 16-17 with a brand new stage 3 complete with end-stage boss (there are 5 stages to be included when SC is finally done in it's entirety). Two-player co-op was announced and is planned to be implemented at a later date. The initial pricepoint of a standard Skycurser Jamma pcb kit is slated for a $799.99 USD MSRP when they finally become available to purchase for the hard-core arcade PCB hobbyists down the road.

I did get to watch Eugene Jarvis of Raw Thrills arcade developer/company fame play a single session of SC and it kicked his ass easily late Saturday night at the CAX show -- priceless to watch/witness. Developer Griffin Aerotech said that with stage 3 finally finished, however, there were still some bugs that needed to ironed out (the Airframe pcb would sometimes stop/freeze up suddenly during a serious & heated shmup session and reboot itself -- that was a bit irksome at best though but understandable).

What was interesting about this latest version of SC, you could select any of the three stages at the initial start of a session. How cool is that?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~