Hey, regarding this game, I thank you all for some constructive criticism and also for putting a lot of ideas up to the plate that I can *sure* use in continuing my project here.
!
About the dragons themselves, in the programming of the game
Dragon Dancer, I first thought that I am to make the wings animated as silky-smooth as possible instead of just 2-5 frames of it and that’s it, you know? I was aiming for some realism as best as I can. But, I will be taking at least some of your opinions to heart when I do continue this project, you guys!
As for the bullet patterns, Icarus, you wrote down this:
The bullet patterns are kind of swarmy as well. Maybe start to add some structure to the bullet patterns themselves? Observe shmups from the Toaplan era and further to see how patterns can be created. Creating a good structure for the stages is also important, very few shmups nowadays operate on the swarm principle of stage structure, opting for a more ordered layout and combining with bullet patterns to create the difficulty.
That is such great advice.
Definitely. I mean, look, I believe in the phrase “
Keep it real, keep it simple”, and this sure is to be the case with my game when I do some additions and tweaking on it, got it?
Having said that, listen: I am gonna have players start the game with the approaching enemies firing as *fewer* bullets than was presented in my current demo, with the bullet patterns very simple and easier for the player to dodge. Then later on, I’d gradually turn up the bullet patterns by making them slowly more complex and challenging for the later areas! You know, with this potentially fair tactic (and a slow-to-medium enemy bullet speed to start with!), this game could get better and better for all of you, I am sure. That is what I am endeavoring for on this!!
=b
And TalkingOctopus, you wrote this:
Very nice. As an aspiring shmup dev, I wonder what programming languages and tools you are using to program the game and create the artwork? My guess from the assembly, would be directx and C++ or C? Any advice for learning DirectX? I already have a good grasp on SDL.
The programming language I am using for this wonderful project is FreeBASIC, really.
^-^ The official page for it is located at
http://www.freebasic.net, ok?
Also, at least a couple of the programming tools that I have used so far in this game are:
- • Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7 (10th Anniversary Edition)
• Texture Maker (an OUTSTANDING tool to use in creating new textures in shmups and stuff, and you can find it here! )
On learning DirectX programming, I do not know any ins-and-outs yet on how the inner workings of it are made, but I can guarantee you, I am doing my best with what I know to do on developing this project, let me tell you now.
^^
As well, with my original art designs for
Dragon Dancer, I first drew and colored them on paper, and then I scanned them to Paint Shop Pro 7, and added some extra touches. Here are three (3) of them right now, and they show you three VERY beautiful iron-fisted queens from three different kingdoms, with a brief description for each queen indeed. Ready?
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Queen Elizia
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Queen of the Volcanic Kingdom of Zelasiu, whose lands are made up of islands teeming with huge and active volcanoes that can go off at anytime without warning! In battle, she transforms herself into the mighty Lava Dragon, whose main attack is a neverendingly intense stream of lava bursts coming out of its mouth.
Queen Ariteena
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Queen of the Green Kingdom of Selandis, whose lands gush forth such unforgettably beautiful emerald-like forests, as well as richly fertile, lush, and even miry quicksand-filled swamps. In battle, she transforms herself into the awesome Forest Dragon, whose main attack includes releasing forth many deadly spores from its mouth.
Queen Zelondia
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Queen of the Aqua Kingdom of Meotani, whose lands yield forth an immensely vast tropical-like paradise of lovely rain forests, as well as such huge magical rivers and waterfalls that usually lead to so many different and amazing places at once!! In battle, she transforms herself into the great and powerful Water Dragon, whose main attack includes a spread-like tidal wave of intensified water blasts that emits from its mouth.
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And those three women are also known as the Dragon Dancers, gifted with the awesome power to transform themselves into such fierce and elegantly magnificent dragons in battle, each with different weaponry, bombers, and more!!!
And finally for you, BulletMagnet, as part of your reply, you wrote the following opinions:
- Definitely plenty o' destruction happening, the overall "style" somehow reminds me of Lords of Thunder. Lots of explosions and shiny medals also give it a bit of a Giga Wing feel, but it works pretty well.
- The pace is very fast for a manic shmup: the hitbox is very small indeed, but with all those enemies and bullets coming at you so fast (and with the showers of medals making it even tougher to make out what's what), things can get confusing pretty fast. Also, the very large player sprite can make it tough to hone in on the hitbox in the thick of things.
- The "experience" system reminds me of Radiant Silvergun...do I read it right that whenever your chain ends, no matter how much you've exceeded the EP requirements for a Level Up (is that displayed onscreen anyplace? I didn't notice), you can still Level Up only once per chain? This might mean that it'd be in the player's interest to purposely end chains in order to "level up" more frequently, if two shorter chains mean you Level Up twice, while one long one means you only do so once. Also, of course, I need mention the obligatory "Silvergun Syndrome," which pretty much forces you to play for score just to survive (which might put off some players), though I'd hafta see the whole game in action to see how much this comes into effect.
- The "tail" is pretty long, it almost seems as if you could circle it around your entire hitbox and freeze it there, making yourself all but invincible to everything except unblockable shots...at least that's how the video made it look. The player just mowed down everything with that tail, he didn'ty even have to shoot, really.
- On that note, I don't think you've mentioned much about the scoring system yet, but will there be any point incentives for killing enemies with your tail instead of your shots, sort of like Kyuin offers?
- Off to the side, joystick support would be great.
While you got some excellent opinions going on, my man, I think you have come to a couple of the best ones I have seen which are 1) the incentive idea for killing enemies with the tail; and 2) adding joystick/gamepad support.
d==b !
Here is the thing on that incentive one that I plan on implementing into the game, BulletMagnet: for *every* enemy that you successfully kill with your tail, you will score at least 1 experience point (or 1 EP), helping you to Level-Up your weapon further rather than just waiting for your chain to end as the only way to bring home the EP there. Are you with me so far?
As for the second one which is the joystick/gamepad support, I will NO DOUBT add it for a forthcoming and better version of
Dragon Dancer, so just hang on tight!!
All of you, I thank you so much again for both your opinions and your time as well!!! See you again as I upload some more of my
Dragon Dancer demonstration videos!!
!
I would make the dragon a bit shorter, at the beginning I thought the tail was some kind of graphical error 
Overall this demo looks very solid. Definitely one of the more promising shmup homebrews I`ve seen so far.
