Black Box ( project name ) - another very occasional devlog

[Sasupoika]

And in process of making another one, jesus christ.
At least I can use it in my studies.

Anyway, here's the short story and introduction:
Now that I have learned how to actually program, I might try to filter some left ideas now with properly writing things and fix some things people generally had problem with Aero Chimera:

==More humane difficulty levels==
I keep hearing the relentless difficulty of AC was what pushed lot of people off. While I am going to preserve the three difficulty-levels, I might be paying more attention. I kinda adjusted the normal to my skills ( "this should take me good time to clear" ). Then I slapped on autobomb and minimum rank on novice mode. Not a good idea.
And thus, novice mode should be an actual novice mode. Normal mode would be easier than general AC, while Death Mode... shall remain a cruel joke - in a different way, since I won't be probably be using suicide bullets.
==More appealing visuals and audio==
Another one that I heard was that AC looked awful - well, it's true, I usually drew the enemies 15 minutes before implementation and then forgot about them. So, goal is to actually work to make game look bit more appealing. Pre-rendering is because I have to actually work on my modeling skills ( studies he he ). Plus, it is one of the easier approaches as an one-man turd.

And things that didn't bother (lots of) people, but bothered ME
==Not programmed retardedly==
As I pointed out, the AC wasn't very... competently written. I was lot limited by my programming ability. Now I feel that I can probably do some of the ideas I had for AC, but was put off by lack of skill / frustration with the project.
==More uniform scoring system==
Scoring system started out as sort of 2-64x multiplier point-blanker. Then it sort of... bloated into becoming a mishmash of several scoring system. I had ideas of even incorporating additional modes ( like Recca-mode ). But for this game: current ideas involve sub-weapon whoring and hypers, the sort that still encourages speedkilling and point-blanking.
==basflkjmnalkf==
I am just feeling like doing one more shmup, now.

So, instead of Raizingish in direction, the shift is probably going towards something other. Less focused on rank.
While DOJBL and such will probably be a huge inspiration, I am hoping to still give it original spins. I still want to give it the sort of bleak vibe, "you are gonna end up dead"-feeling.

especially on death mode

What's to expect? A demo, probably, since my current goal is working towards a single-stage showcase of the gameplay and engine. But that is probably on side of the next year... Not as slow as AC, though.

And here's the devlog entry:
oh man I got beams done.

[Drake]

obligatory hooray! shitpost

[Squire Grooktook]

I'm really glad to hear you're doing another game. I really enjoyed Aero Chimera, and I've probably mentioned it more then anyone else on this forum that I know of. To keep this short, I'll just list what I liked about it real quick:


-I liked the patterns and felt they had a really fantastic balance of macro vs micro, fast movement vs focused movement, etc.

-I liked that every ship felt like it had a completely different playstyle, had to dodge as well as shoot differently, approached situations totally differently, etc. This is probably a complement to level/pattern design as much as ship design. The game really makes you feel like speed is important, which a lot of danmaku games don't IMO.

-I liked the scoring, manic medal chaining, speed killing and aggressiveness, all tied into the games fast sense of speed and pace.

-The stage 2 boss is probably one of my favorite shmup bosses ever. Pretty much perfect, I never get tired of fighting him.


There wasn't a lot I disliked. The difficulty is probably what kept a lot of people out of the game. You'd think that a "hardcore" demographic like shmup players wouldn't mind, but I guess "the clear" is really important to a lot of people, and feeling like they'd never be able to achieve it (or at least not in a reasonable amount of time) was enough to stop most people. I personally didn't mind, I was happy spending about a month or two working my way up to stage 5.

Rank system felt a bit extraneous too, never really got a feel for it.

Only other "wishlist" thing I thought of was that each ship have a different bomb effect (like Armed Police Batrider) to further distinguish them. On that note, I really like the idea of sub-weapons you mentioned in the OP. Sounds in line with that "every ship has a different playstyle" thing that I like.

Anyway looking forward to this!

[Sasupoika]

Haven't had too much time recently, but at least I drew some 'splosions.

[mice]

Nice splosions!

[Sasupoika]

Beams make a return, two types this time, slow ones and instant ones - the other will have the same type of warning laser.

Regarding the ships, I am not sure if I will have more than one. I probably would go for a single ship with selectable types of fire, bombs, etc. But this might not be for demo. Problem with lot of ships is that it is difficult to balance - better have one or two ships that control well and are balanced.
As I might have mentioned, the scoring mechanism will probably revolve about a special charge-weapon ( that I haven't implemented ), getting and cashing mutliplier. Probably something lightning-themed, even if is stepping on Kamui's toes.
And I want hyper mode.
Hyper modes make me hard.

Of course, the aesthetics of the game are still in air. Initial idea was sort of dieselpunkish, with backdrop being monstrous machine amalgations.
But I have also had ideas for something bit more futuristic. I think the idea of lightning-based weapon is more boring in such settings.
The ship's probably getting redesign at some point anyway.

[Squire Grooktook]

I dunno, I immensely liked the ship variety in Aero Chimera and thought the variety of play styles was one of the biggest highlights of the experience. It felt like there was some Dragon Blaze/general Psyikyo influence in there, the way every ship kind of had very different playstyles besides just typical "wide shot vs straight shot" Cave formula...which felt pretty fresh.

The idea of customizable load outs is interesting though.

[Sasupoika]

Well, gotta see what I can do. If the configurable setup doesn't work, I might fall back into the multiple ship setup.
One thing I had been thinking was role of bomb. For example, I was thinking of having radical effects in gameplay. For example, the wide-clearing bomb might not do much damage, but it's an autobomb. Focus bombs are slightly fewer, but deal massive damage and don't hurt score that much - they are less well-suited for survival. Then there would be the scoring option, which could be just a trigger for hyper-mode ( which is rather antisurvival, but opens up options ).

But whatever makes in is decided by how well it fits the gameflow and the general scoring concepts.