Heavy Gun Blossom FINAL VERSION

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:17 pm

This is the final version. It is 100 percent done.
z,x,c fire various shot types
arrows move
space fires

To download this FREE and complete windows game click the link below.

http://www.exoload.com/uploads/406/1146281066.zip

Post by **Ghegs** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:00 pm

Well, it's not that hard. As of writing this I'm at 19,000 points and the window is in the background.

Haven't even lost a life yet.

The craft's range of movement isn't restricted in any way. I just held the right arrow button for a good while so I imagine the craft is pretty damn safe, especially if the bullets themselves are destroyed at some point.

So, yeah. Even without exploiting the bug it's not too hard, the boss doesn't seem to get more difficult at any point. But it does work as a nice mini-training game.

Hardly enough bullets to be called a bullet hell shmup, though.

Oh, and joystick support would be nice.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:11 pm

Ok points well taken this is a WIP and i haven't gotten around to fixing the ship's boundaries.The bullets are cleared when they go offscreen. I was told that this was too hard so i knocked the bullet counte down a bit. Do you think it would be better with more? And if so how much more?
I would like an original shield system can you guys help me think of a way to block bullets?

I'm currently adding all your sudgestions, i'll return with a more finely tuned game in about an hour.
Thanks for your interest.
-P_O

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 3:29 am

I Know this is a WIP ,take this a constructive criticism.

It's indeed not all that hard, it could be harder

Also, it would be good if there was some indication when a bullet hits you. An explosion, a sound effect, or something

And I dunno if you noticed, but your ship can get OFF screen, and then you get invicible

Ah, I see Ghegs also noticed that

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:14 am

I'm so glad that I can have some seasoned shmup fans help make the game more fun and more challanging.(I started getting into them this year)

Once again thank you for playing. Like I said I have added all the improvements and fixed the off screen thing. It works but I'm still programming so the next version might not be untill late tomorrow.

-I have lost my icon creation program (iconomaker 2.0), so if you know of a good free one do tell!(iconomaker 3.0 is not free).

-I'll let you guys know when I release the scond version.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 10:37 pm

New version released. Please try it and five me good feedback.
Check the main link for the update.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:04 pm

This Game is awesome but I,d like an alternate shot type like a straight beem for diffrent situations for more points faster but is harder to hit the flower with.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:47 am

Thanks for the idea Dale.
Could you maybe tell me a bit more? How large the beam might be and any limitations on the firing?

Post by **Ghegs** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 10:25 am

Nice improvements, this is turning into a shmupper's solitaire or Bejeweled. Few more suggestions, though:

I'd like some visual cue that my ship has been hit - the sound effect is sometimes lost to the enemy's "gatling gun" attack sound. Maybe the ship could flash bright white for a second or two (a moment of invulnerabilty here?) or something.

What triggers the extra lives? In any case, they're a bit too frequent. In my 2-minute run I must've collected 5 or 6 of them.

For some reason the high-score list in the title screen is garbled, yet some characters are displayed properly. Took a screenshot. It would also be nice to able to reset the high-score list. And maybe it could also save the time the run lasted as well as the score.

Also, this is just a little something I personally love, but I'd like to see the overall time spent with the game. "You have had 213 runs which have lasted 6 hours, 46 minutes, 12 seconds in total. Seriously dude, get a life."

Something like that, yeah.

EDIT:

I managed to get the lives counter to -7 (screenshot). Right after starting the game I went "inside" the boss and got this result. Doesn't happen all the time though, and sometimes I got other numbers.

(That #1 high-score was done on this version, timed at 4:28.)

Pause button would be nice. Also the high-score list could save the last typed name as default (you could still change it, of course).

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:01 pm

Thanks!
I'll get right on the changes.(This my last day of the weekend).
I'm gald that you have enjoyed it. I just fixed the lives bug last night.
When you get hit the enemy shots are destroyed giving you 10 pts per piece so you can "spend" extra lives for points. This makes it so the player can play safe by keeeping lives or simply destroy the ship for bonus points.

Updates Soon!
Pixel_Outlaw

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:52 am

It would be like a focus laser you would hit the flower with, the points would go up faster than it would hitting it with a spread shot but the attack would be much thinner and harder to hit the flower with.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 2:21 am

Oh I now see what you mean. So it would do maybe 1.5 times the damage of the normal weapon? Would tha ratio be good for you?

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:58 pm

Yes and a diffrent color for it would be good.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:16 pm

-I'll try, this lazer is kind of hard to do,. Collision checking about kills the speed on my machine.(It just looks kind of static the way i have it now...)
I just need some good shapes and cool effects.

- I'm thinking of dropping te joystick support, mapping the darn thing is a chore and it seems like it makes reads some usb devices as joysticks causing some undesirable results.(The Game Maker joystick support is half-assed at best)

I'm still working on this but have began developement another shooter-puzzle hybred game too.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:30 am

It'd be cool if the points were proportional to how close you were to the blossom as you can stay on the outskirts with relative safety.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:56 am

Sounds fun maybe the next version.(good idea!)

Ok new version released.(pause with space bar lazer shot with x button.
Things to test:
REMEMBER: usb devices can make it run slow especially mice!
1 is it running at an acceptable speed?(when lazer is active)
2. Is the title font now digital like the one in the screenshot?

Post by **Ghegs** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:01 am

Well, the laser certainly changes things. I almost never use the spreadshot now and got my score to six digits easily.

I noticed that when playing with a joystick the ship actually moved a bit slower than when playing with the keyboard. Maybe it's safe to drop the joystick support altogether, joy2key would work great here and it would also map the laser to a joystick button.

Still can't get the font in the title screen displayed properly and now I can't even see the in-game text right. The score looks okay, but the "lives" text is mostly garbled. Maybe it's just my computer, what font are you using?

How often do the extra lives come now? My best run on v3 scored ~270k and I don't think I saw a single extend in there.

No problems with speed and laser. Lovely effect, btw.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:47 pm

Man the garbled screen text is really bothering me. THe font i'm currently using is called LCD. My buddy that test ran this reported the same errors, he was running pro. I have xp and have tried it on 98. It probably is your graphics card. If you are interested with helping me with running some tests pm me for my email address.( I live in the US so time might make this difficult.)

The lives were taken out for a while to tesst people's reaction. (I gota sudgestion and was waiting for feedback.)
Is the lazer too powerfull in your opinion? ( I just thought it was a good traidoff for the spread of the wave vulcan.)

Could you look into your font file and tell me if they all have the same icon? Also what windows you are running. Also do you have the newest version of directx?

Post by **Ghegs** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:39 pm

Pixel_Outlaw wrote:The lives were taken out for a while to tesst people's reaction. (I gota sudgestion and was waiting for feedback.)

Ah, alright. Not having extends doesn't really matter, it just makes the game a bit more harsh.

"These lives are all you got, you ain't getting any more."

Is the lazer too powerfull in your opinion? ( I just thought it was a good traidoff for the spread of the wave vulcan.)

It does make scoring a lot more easier. Like I said before, I barely ever use the vulcan now so it's rather obsolete. Maybe if the balance was tweaked a bit more to a different direction - the laser would stay as it is, but the vulcan could be aimed anywhere on the screen (sort of like in Warning Forever). This would also give a bit more incentive for the player to move away from the bottom of the screen.

Or maybe it would be enough if the spread was just more wide. As it is you have to be pretty much in front of the enemy to hit it and at that point you can usually hit it with the laser. Notice that I don't actually know anything from game design, I'm just tossing ideas.

Could you look into your font file and tell me if they all have the same icon? Also what windows you are running. Also do you have the newest version of directx?

Sure. There are three types of icons - one with the double T, one with a green italics O and one with a red A. Running Windows XP, latest version of DirectX.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:11 pm

With Ghegs help i was able to fix the font errors, so if you've been getting errors with fonts this is the version to DL.
Ghegs now claims a High Score of 300k
http://www.s3.exoload.com/uploads/406/1144349772.zip

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:48 am

Now by pressing c button you are treated to a weak but all directional Bezier lazer this was hell to code so enjoy!

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 3:27 am

Ok this is the final version. Done forever unless you find a bug.