THUMPER (out now)

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Necronopticous
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THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

Code: Select all

THUMPER IS RHYTHM VIOLENCE
YOU ARE A SPACE BEETLE
KILL CRAKHED!
I have been waiting for this game to drop for what seems like an eternity, and after playing as much as I possibly could after work yesterday I'm happy to report that it has completely lived up to my expectations. I'm surprised that I haven't really seen any buzz about it around here, as it is very much in line with the STG design philosophy. Extremely fun and challenging, and becomes something else entirely when you're focusing on scoring. Highly recommend!

http://thumpergame.com/
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Super Laydock
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Super Laydock »

Never heard of it before you mentioned it in PSVR thread.

But after checking up on some video's of it, I definitely will be getting this
on PS4 when my VR set arrives later this week.
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Ruldra
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Ruldra »

[Youtube | 1cc list | Steam]
mastermx wrote:
xorthen wrote:You guys are some hardcore MOFOs and masochists.
This is the biggest compliment you can give to people on this forum.
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MommysBestGames
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by MommysBestGames »

Haven't played it yet, but the look is pretty great.
The way you drift, that is, how violently the beetle turns and jumps, looks like it'd be fun to control.
And the trippy 'roadway to heaven' animation on the main website is nice. Reminds me of the Journey scarab!
Made a giant arcade-adventure: Pig Eat Ball. Also made shmup with multi-ships: Shoot 1UP DX, Gunstacking game: Serious Sam Double D XXL, and more shooters.
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

I just beat the final level earlier tonight. Fucking amazing! I will not spoil the TLB which may go down as one of the greatest video game bosses of all time, but here's the boss before him to give you an idea how utterly insane the game gets in the final stages:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH9VtQPmr90

I am going back to practice scoring routes now, and to get S Ranks on each of the 9 stages. I managed to beat the developer's Level 1 score, and currently have the highest score in the world on the PC leaderboard.

https://twitter.com/Necronopticous/stat ... 36?lang=en

Worked on Level 2 for a few hours but kept making mistakes. I think I'm just mentally exhausted. Tomorrow, then!
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Sumez
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Sumez »

Digging the minimalistic, heavy industrial beats :3 Reminds me of Militia.
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Frenetic
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Frenetic »

Wow man, I just got this game too!

--F
Necronopticous wrote:

Code: Select all

THUMPER IS RHYTHM VIOLENCE
YOU ARE A SPACE BEETLE
KILL CRAKHED!
I have been waiting for this game to drop for what seems like an eternity, and after playing as much as I possibly could after work yesterday I'm happy to report that it has completely lived up to my expectations. I'm surprised that I haven't really seen any buzz about it around here, as it is very much in line with the STG design philosophy. Extremely fun and challenging, and becomes something else entirely when you're focusing on scoring. Highly recommend!

http://thumpergame.com/
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GaijinPunch
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by GaijinPunch »

Actually makes me wish I had a system.

Dumb question: any scoring?
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rapoon
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by rapoon »

Necronopticous wrote:
I managed to beat the developer's Level 1 score, and currently have the highest score in the world on the PC leaderboard.
I haven't been able to break ~150k on level 1. do you have a stream of that run? I want to see what some of the top-scorers are doing differently.

that prob answered your question, gaijin. the scoring system is impressively deep; revolving around strict timing and creative input. I vaguely remember reading
that one distinction Thumper makes opposed to traditional rhythm games is emphasis on the off-beat. it's not particularly 'melodic' at times.
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

GaijinPunch wrote:Actually makes me wish I had a system.

Dumb question: any scoring?
Absolutely, scoring is a huge focus in the game, and something that will be completely overlooked by the vast majority of games press/reviews (no surprise there). Much of the scoring is based on making no mistakes and missing no major beats for as long as possible, but there is a whole additional layer built on top of that revolving around the combination of a few fancy moves you can do which feel absolutely amazing to perform. For example, when hitting any major beat on the track (pressing the one button the game uses), you can optionally hold up on the control stick to hop into the air which puts you into a temporary hover state. Then, on a subsequent beat you can press down to slam down onto it rather than hitting the button like usual to power up one of the next major beats on the track. If you do it just right you can perform the same move again and slam down on top of the powered up beat which produces this visceral effect that actually pauses the game for a split second which messes with your rhythm a bit but gives you many more scoring gems for that section. To add to the complexity, you can actually stay airborne thru turns by performing a "perfect turn" which means hitting the directional exactly at the right time, as opposed to drifting through the turn in advance (think parrying vs blocking in Dark Souls). Mastering these mechanics is essential in getting a high score, and completely enhance the feel of playing the game, just like any good STG scoring system.
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

rapoon wrote:I haven't been able to break ~150k on level 1. do you have a stream of that run? I want to see what some of the top-scorers are doing differently.
I was not streaming when I got that score, but I can explain. I think I have completely figured the scoring out. The single most important thing is getting from beginning to end of the entire level (not just the individual waves) without missing any major beat or taking any damage. After wave 1 you will notice that you get a 1,000 point bonus for No Damage and a 1,000 point bonus for No Misses. The key is that each of those two bonuses will increase in value by 500 points for every consecutive wave so long as you are not restarting any section. Yes, this means you have to play it straight through which is absolutely brutal, but the score potential is insane:

Wave 1: 1000 + 1000 = 2000
Wave 2: 1500 + 1500 = 3000
Wave 3: 4000
...
Wave 27: 28,000

No other bonus/trick is going to get you anywhere near the sum of points that you will get from these bonuses chained together for the entire level, but it is also the most difficult thing to do, and makes it even riskier to go for fancy moves when you are deep into the level. If your goal is a top score, a run can be absolutely shattered by missing a beat or hitting a wall during the last few waves.

Level 1 is easy enough that I was able to attempt every possible perfect turn and smash kill the game would allow me, while soaking up every line & air ring. I missed a few points here and there, but my score is probably at least in the ball park for maximum points possible. Anything beyond level 1 is too challenging to go as all-out as this until you've got the entire level mapped out and have extreme confidence in your timing. I tried Level 2 this way for hours and only made it about half way through without a mistake on my best attempt. My advice for scoring on anything beyond level 1 would be to go for all of the fancy moves in the first 5-10 waves so that if you make a mistake it's not so bad to start over, and then after that play as safe as possible to maintain your No Damage and No Misses bonuses to the end. Once we start to reach the point where we can play these levels on nearly pure muscle memory you can probably take it a step further and start mapping out ideal scoring routes through each wave, some of which I already found myself doing on my very first playthru because it's just so much fun to play the game in that way.
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rapoon
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by rapoon »

Necronopticous wrote:
rapoon wrote:I haven't been able to break ~150k on level 1. do you have a stream of that run? I want to see what some of the top-scorers are doing differently.
I was not streaming when I got that score, but I can explain. I think I have completely figured the scoring out. The single most important thing is getting from beginning to end of the entire level (not just the individual waves) without missing any major beat or taking any damage. After wave 1 you will notice that you get a 1,000 point bonus for No Damage and a 1,000 point bonus for No Misses. The key is that each of those two bonuses will increase in value by 500 points for every consecutive wave so long as you are not restarting any section. Yes, this means you have to play it straight through which is absolutely brutal, but the score potential is insane:

Wave 1: 1000 + 1000 = 2000
Wave 2: 1500 + 1500 = 3000
Wave 3: 4000
...
Wave 27: 28,000

No other bonus/trick is going to get you anywhere near the sum of points that you will get from these bonuses chained together for the entire level, but it is also the most difficult thing to do, and makes it even riskier to go for fancy moves when you are deep into the level. If your goal is a top score, a run can be absolutely shattered by missing a beat or hitting a wall during the last few waves.

Level 1 is easy enough that I was able to attempt every possible perfect turn and smash kill the game would allow me, while soaking up every line & air ring. I missed a few points here and there, but my score is probably at least in the ball park for maximum points possible. Anything beyond level 1 is too challenging to go as all-out as this until you've got the entire level mapped out and have extreme confidence in your timing. I tried Level 2 this way for hours and only made it about half way through without a mistake on my best attempt. My advice for scoring on anything beyond level 1 would be to go for all of the fancy moves in the first 5-10 waves so that if you make a mistake it's not so bad to start over, and then after that play as safe as possible to maintain your No Damage and No Misses bonuses to the end. Once we start to reach the point where we can play these levels on nearly pure muscle memory you can probably take it a step further and start mapping out ideal scoring routes through each wave, some of which I already found myself doing on my very first playthru because it's just so much fun to play the game in that way.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I was restarting checkpoints when I'd fuck up, so that makes sense you'd lose the combo. Mistakes are easy and it's unforgiving. Have you noticed any additional scoring by tapping through an uneven shield section instead of holding (i.e. | | | | | (hold X vs hold X (1st 3), tap X, tap X). I started doing this immediately after I saw uneven spacing in the track but I didn't notice additional gems.)
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

rapoon wrote:Have you noticed any additional scoring by tapping through an uneven shield section instead of holding (i.e. | | | | | (hold X vs hold X (1st 3), tap X, tap X). I started doing this immediately after I saw uneven spacing in the track but I didn't notice additional gems.)
I don't think that makes any difference. One thing I'm still unsure about is whether if it ever worth skipping shield markers in favor of maintaining a kill chain. My suspicion is that it is, but it will take some careful investigation to figure out what the threshold is there, and how many shield markers would have to be in a set to produce more gems than a kill, or a power kill even. I will probably stream a bunch tonight while working on S ranks, so I should be able to go back and examine my play carefully after that and see if I can provide an answer to these sorts of questions.
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by GaijinPunch »

Sounds cool. Might have to boot up in Windows and check this shit out!
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

Here's a highlight from my stream earlier tonight showcasing some advanced scoring techniques on a rather long & difficult wave of Level 4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiykjpUCeIA
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

Top player on PC is streaming now:

https://www.twitch.tv/secretcartoonland
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

Another highlight from my ongoing quest to s rank all levels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVM6z3dqlvs

And Orion destroying my level 5 score shortly after:

https://www.twitch.tv/secretcartoonland/v/94952825

Why aren't you assholes playing this?
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Squire Grooktook
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Squire Grooktook »

No money yet :3
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Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

I will gift the game to anyone who really wants to play but actually can not afford it (be honest, we're talking $20 here) under obligation of clearing all nine levels at the very least (I will hold you to it). I'm Necronopticous on Steam, hit me up.
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Squire Grooktook
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Squire Grooktook »

Dun worry about that, I'll be getting some dough soon lol.
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
Aeon Zenith - My STG.
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

I just finished getting S rank on all levels, and currently hold overall WR.
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by amdiggywhut »

I heard this game basically just controls with left stick & X button on PS4. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but can an arcade stick be used? If so, any benefit to doing so (other than getting more use out of a PS4 arcade stick)?
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

Yeah, arcade stick works pretty well with THUMPER. The benefit is that it's not as hard on your fingers. My thumbs are absolutely brutalized from playing on a PS4 controller w/d-pad for a week straight. It feels pretty good with the stick, too. I eventually went back to the PS4 controller since I have become very comfortable playing with it, but that's really the only reason.
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Ruldra »

Someone on the Steam forums actually recommends playing with an arcade stick.
[Youtube | 1cc list | Steam]
mastermx wrote:
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Some-Mist »

main reason I want to check this out is because Brian Gibson. lightning bolt is the shit.

glad to hear this is pretty spot on
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

Orion Rigel Dommisse has been streaming the game. She is personal friends with Brian Gibson, and beta tested the game for a year before release. She streamed from Brian's house last week and played THUMPER with a bunch of friends. Brian plays, himself, for a significant portion of the stream, and answers many viewer questions about the game. Here are the past broadcasts from that night:

https://www.twitch.tv/secretcartoonland/v/96178136
https://www.twitch.tv/secretcartoonland/v/96181921
https://www.twitch.tv/secretcartoonland/v/96181921
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

New gameplay mode PLAY+ dropped today. Advanced one-life-clear mode with rank-style speed throttling on high score multipliers. If you needed any more reason to play this game...
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by chempop »

I have a PS4 on the way, my first new console since Deathsmiles his JP 360 in '07/08?!!

Thumper is likely going to be my first PS4 game, so pumped to play it :D
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Necronopticous
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Re: THUMPER (out now)

Post by Necronopticous »

Game of the goddamned year, and certainly a great break-in title for your new PS4. Let me know how it goes!
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