I made a videogame! (demo v3 inside)

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:36 am

This is a shooter I'm working on (Codenamed Project Dumf). I plan to have 6 or 7 stages, haven't quite decided yet. For now I have a 1 level demo to show.

All the graphics are done by me, as well as enemy movement, bullet patterns and level design. Mediocre (from the GameMaker forums) was working with me on this for a while and did a great job with a bunch of the programming. Can't thank him enough.
The music is placeholder stuff from vgmusic.com.

Now on to the fun stuff.

Scoring System:

Pick up the medals for points. Destroy the fast spinning enemies before they explode for a 100,000 bonus each. You can also buzz the blue bullets from the boss for 2000 points each. That's about it as far as scoring goes.

Controls:

Joystick/Gamepad- Hold down BUTTON 1 to shoot. BUTTON 3 resets the game.

At the title screen, press ENTER to start the game. At the continue screen, press ENTER to make a selection. You can also press ENTER at the game over screen to restart the game.

Keyboard- Hold down SPACE to shoot. ARROW KEYS to move. The "R" key resets the game.

At the title screen, press ENTER to start the game. At the continue screen, press ENTER to make a selection. You can also press ENTER at the game over screen to restart the game.

DOWNLOAD

Let me know if it sucks or whatever.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:01 am

Haha, that's awesome. If that's level 1 it's kicking my ass. Very nice looking, simple but challenging patterns. I can see the Psikyo and Raizing influence. I would have much rather spent cash on this than Trizeal or Raiden 3.

Finally cleared stage 1. Ran into one error:

Suggestion:
-Can you make the medals a little easier to pick up?

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:26 am

Rob wrote:I would have much rather spent cash on this than Trizeal or Raiden 3.

ya WHATEVER!

cool game though.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:50 am

Thanks Rob, glad you like it.

And yes, that error is kicking my ass. I've been trying for a while to fix it. I eventually decided it happens so rarely that I could get away with it for a demo. Another bug is when you take a hit on the boss's final pattern and the bullets go crazy in random directions. It's part of the same error.

Rob wrote: Suggestion:
-Can you make the medals a little easier to pick up?

Yeah, that'd be easy to do.

What do you think about the part with the 6 spinning enemies that spew a ton of bullets- should I put some sort of "Get over!" warning pointing to the sides of the screen? I've been thinking about that.

Arcatech · Post by **Arcatech** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:50 am

That artwork looks cool as hell Cigs. I'll give this a whirl tonight and let you know what I think.

Actually, it has sort of a shmuppy alien hominid look to it.

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:56 am

That was pretty cool. The music sound like an SNES game to me. Nice work cig! I had to continue quite a few times. I'm not used to using my keyboard.

Alpolio · Post by **Alpolio** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:24 am

That is one cool game. And it's an ass kicker and a half! I'm having to use the continue a lot and I'm using an Xbox 360 controller!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:27 am

cigsthecat wrote: What do you think about the part with the 6 spinning enemies that spew a ton of bullets- should I put some sort of "Get over!" warning pointing to the sides of the screen? I've been thinking about that.

I don't think it would be distracting, which would be the only drawback I can think of. I was going to get trapped there either way until I knew the duration of the attack and how slowly I had to move over. Go for it if it isn't much effort.

More specifically on the medals, I would also like to be able to grab the medals while the ship is reactivated & temporarily invincible. No big deal, though.

Arcatech · Post by **Arcatech** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:29 am

is there something special that has to be done for a controller to be recognized? I'm using a psx controller thru usb.

It took a little bit, but I beat it in one credit. I agree with Rob about the medals though. If you can program it so that medals can be picked up during the respawn time, that would be nice.

Very enjoyable though, for sure.

Alpolio · Post by **Alpolio** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:36 am

AFXisatwin wrote:is there something special that has to be done for a controller to be recognized? I'm using a psx controller thru usb.

It just did an auto-detect for me. You still have to hit "Enter" to start the game, and then you just pick up the controller and start blasting away.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:43 am

I dig it. Really like the art style. Ship seems a little underpowered, but not so much as to really hinder the game at all.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:54 am

Cigs you sick bastard, all those bullets, and no bomb button.

Awsome graphics.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:10 am

Bombs and powerups and all that good stuff are coming, don't worry. I suck at programming, bombs are hard to make apparently.

edit- new version in the first post.

-slightly smaller hitbox
-medals are easier to grab
-medals can be grabbed while invincible

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:10 am

I'd like to ask your programmer friend what kind of code he wrote this in, C++ or something similar?

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:18 am

We did it in Game Maker. I'm doing a lot of the programming as well. Currently all of it, since he may have abandoned the project.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:32 am

Wow, it's like Batsugun, except A LOT harder.

I like the visual style though.

I don't like how your white shot makes it hard to see white bullets though (boss).

MASTER SATAN · Post by **MASTER SATAN** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:40 am

Very cool! If you want some professional music PM me. I'd be happy to lend a hand. How long did it take you two to make that demo?

Post by **Ghegs** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:42 am

Can't get it to start, the game always crashes before the loading is complete:

My laptop is far from a high-end machine, but it does run stuff like rRootage and Warning Forever good enough. Are there any special requirements?

MASTER SATAN · Post by **MASTER SATAN** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:45 am

it ran perfectly on my 800mhz system and win xp. sounds like a bug that needs squashing.

ptoing · Post by **ptoing** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:16 am

Fucking ace game there. The hitbox felt a bit strange tho, as if it was wider in the back. Dunno.

Those spinning enemies are EVIL. EVIL I tell you.

Anyways, love the style. If you want help with art I am sure I can sqeeze this into some of my free time

check http://www.ptoing.net/html/art.htm for some of my stuff.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:18 am

Best score I could muster after many plays: 1,520,800

Maybe more of those 100,000 pt. discs can be destroyed (I think I only manage 2-3). Anyone get a better score?

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:46 am

cigs, good game already, but:

Improve the ship animation (I think you know that already).
That stage we just played I hope it's not level 1 (way too hard).
Improve the background animation in general, and enemies animation.
Bomb button.
Power up system.
A special weapon system would been nice (like the option system of Battle Garegga).
A option for tate mode.

Music is alright, but not great.

Here's the list.

Arcatech · Post by **Arcatech** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:02 pm

I just played it again and got 1140400.

If I could get my controller to work, it could possibly improve.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:05 pm

Mate, I can help you a little bit with Game Maker... I can't really CODE the game for you... I have my own project which is frozen for like what.. a year now?

I am downloading the game now, but this error seems a common error when making a shmup.

If you ask the bullet to go after an object, and that object does not exist, you will have an error message (Or the bullets go all crazy)

Do you "destroy" the Player ship instance when its destroyed? Because if you do, the player.x coordinate doesn't exist anymore (Not while you don't put the "player object" back on the game field), and if any bullets need this coordinate, it will get crazy.

Instead of destroying the player ship, just make it invisible for a while (And obviously, turn off any collision the ship may have, as you don't want a dead player buzzing bullets or collecing medals)

I am going to play this now

Post by **Shatterhand** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:11 pm

The art direction is indeed awesome. I just credit feed it to the end

I need a better control than the Dual Shock 2 for this

Did anyone managed to survive the part where the two spinning enemies show up? It seems to be damn hard

The boss wasn't all that hard though

Excellent stuff, if you keep it up, you sure will have a winner here. Just to second that, the hitbox also seemed kind of weird to me.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:36 pm

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Art direction IS amazing. All this time I thought you were just kidding around making those fake video game shots...

The backgrounds, wow! I love them!

Yes, it needs a smaller hit box, power-up system and a bomb, and this needs to not be level 1!!!

Great stuff! Keep going!!!

Ex_Mosquito · Post by **Ex_Mosquito** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:42 pm

Damn cigs that bloody brilliant! I dont usually like homebrew shooters mostly due to shit enemy placements. Good on you. The level design is excellent, i can you worked hard on it. I like the medal system, risky and rewarding with plently of opportunities for getting that little bit extra score, sign of a good game in my books.

Highscore:

1.758,700

fl0w · Post by **fl0w** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:10 pm

hello,

i've tried the game this morning (GMT+1) and right now.

Nice graphics indeed, esp. the boss.
The music is OK, not unforgettable but OK, really.

The background could scroll faster to make it even blurrier and increase the sensation of speed.

The medals are still very hard to get. Make their hitbox wider or slow'em down (they're a bit fast compared to your ship), or both.

I hate the spinners, esp. when i die and then there are 4 of them (bug ?). Very hard to survive if you're not at the center of the screen when they start shooting, as the take you to the borders and then you die ^^

I'd like to be able to control the speed of my ship (à la Cave, the ship is slow while shooting).

The missiles, well... i hate dying because 2 pixels of the tail of a missile that's almost offscreen touch me >_<

Overall it's really good and FUN. It's hard but not stupidly hard, I mean even the hardest parts look possible.

Please don't give up now that you're alone

I know it's hard...

EDIT : haha, the blue bullets shot by the boss can be grazed !

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:42 pm

The art direction is indeed great. That's a cool and unique style. Some of the sprites' edges seem to need a little more cleaning, though.

Keep up the great work.

Plasmo · Post by **Plasmo** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:50 pm

doesnt work for me