endless fire version 2

[nullpointer]

Hi All,

Coming back atcha with a new revised version of Endless fire. my manic generative endless shmup!!

I taken on board most of the useful feedback you gave on the last version.
The new version includes:
colour coded enemy (relating to their attack type)
enemy beams now disappear if enemy is killed
joystick support and input redefine options
Boss levels
2 new enemy types
Better score/progress saving
Better speed limits on bullets
Better death anim for bullets
more ridiculous psycho screen fx (just for fun)

still havent done: more backgrounds,more music, more polish etc...

Anyway im pretty pleased with most of the updates, Im sure there will be some bugs hiding in there, thats what you guys are for , and it will still run slow on old machines, but hey what do you expect for free?

Anyways check it out and let me know what you think
http://www.codespace.co.uk

[raiden]

no bugs found. joypad support worked great out of the box without any customizing. enemy variation greatly appreciated. Not to repeat myself, but I think this game has immense potential to outclass even the best doujin games out there, if just a few minor gripes could be remedied:

- please remove the lines, at least offer the option to do so. I know you want them, and they have a gameplay function, but they make the game look terribly unfinished.
- let the enemies look a little more threatening. Even with a few vector lines, you can do more than... squares. Look at games like Tempest, Warning Forever or Parsec47 for inspiration. The Asteroid boulders look funny, but clumsy - not threatening.
- the sound needs a little tuning. Explosions are especially weak. Player weapons could use different sounds, too. Maybe a sound for sucking in score items. Music itself is nice and trancy, but it would be great to see some adjustment to game situations, like boss tunes and such.
- concerning the trippy effects, I´d wish to have 2 separate modes: one with absolutely no effects at all, and one with all of them at once. Having all selectable separately creates the problem of score diversification. As it is now, even the regular game has too many effects for me to concentrate well. They may look kickass, but make pattern understanding more difficult than necessary.
- I´d also go for a classic menu structure of title screen, options and game, maybe a hiscore list. Right now, the game has a very "techdemo" feel to it, showcasing a great engine, but lacking in design and presentation. Maybe you can find someone working in design to spice it up?

[black mariah]

I dig the lines. My eyes are stuck on the ship about 80% of the time above a certain level. You can actually tell the difference between some of the enemies based entirely on line movement, which is also cool.

I have a few gameplay recommendations.

- Freeze the multiplier counter when 'bosses' appear. It sucks to get to the boss with a full multiplier only to end up with a multiplier around 20 when it's finally dead.

- This is a bastard maneuver, but reset the multiplier to 0 when the player dies.

- I can't tell if this is how it's done now or not, but basing the amount of green/yellow stars that appear on how close you are to the enemy when you destroy them would be sweet. It appears that the amount varies, but I'm not sure how. Would you mind explaining?

- The hitbox seems to be weird. Maybe it's just me.

- Tate!

I really like the direction this thing is headed. Program faster!

[uwfan]

its very good.

keep the lines.

however, the major problem that i hoped would go away has not: Sometimes it completely freezes up on my windows XP machine, and i have to reboot

[AngelFish]

Its a very nice game. i like how its abstract. after playing more of it. this game is fantastic the only notes i have is there is no power ups. and the ship is abit slow. also which would be amazing if you had swords in it. but Very good.

[SteevTee]

I have been playing this game for a couple of weeks now and am really enjoying it, i think i have reached gen 140 or something. How about fading between different colours/geometric shapes for the background (a bit obvious I know, but would show more variation in generations).

If you want I can draw some, just let me know what size etc you need...

Also, I noticed a little bug: sometimes on the boss sections, player shots will detonate on invisible enemies on the play area.

[mrMagenta]

wow, this is really becoming something special. and it flows nicely on my laptop with 1ghz pentium mobility and standard intel gfx.

as for criticism raiden listed it up nicely. a lot of people are real stingy about presentation, the hotter you can make it look, the more attention it will get, and you got some really nice dynamics to back it up. only I'm not so sure about taking away the lines because they're helpful in pressed dodging situations where you need to clear up. however, perhaps they need some effect or treatment to make them look more integrated.

now i strongly feel i have to get back to my own programming.. i hope people won't tire of the vector-look too soon because it's quite convenient and fast to work with.

cheers!

[Molloy]

My main niggles would be I find the game's graphics a little too abstract. I think I enjoy the abstraction in games like Warning Forever only because there are also realistic bits to ground it. The enemies aren't threatening looking.

You're homing missles should look like missles, not arrows. I find those little bugger a bit too persistent as well. They should move at high speed but peter out fairly quickly if they miss. I had a couple of them chase me across the screen and back again.

The use of colour is excellent but I find the little white borders around the bullet sprites a bit naff. Make them look more like bullets.

I think some sort of overt arcade game structure would be good. You should be doing a level, fighting a boss and leaving the level. The pacing just needs some punctuation. As things stand the levels just run from one to the other and it's a bit monotonous.

Don't know about you, but when I get shot I like to blow up.. the you're craft sort of flashes a bit and keeps going isn't satisfying somehow.

I find the music is too repetitive. You need to at least compose another tune for bosses. Frankly, unless a game has 8+ tracks I rather it hasn't music at all. If you took the music out and just went with sound effects (ala Robotron and Defender) I think it could also help inject your enemies with a little more character.

I think this has the potential to be fantastic. The bullet patterns are great as things stand. The charge lasers are fun as well.

[mrMagenta]

by the way, the shield never ends if you hold the keyboard button down.. i used it to watch how the bosses fire and i was totally hypnotized, it's art for shmuppers.. endless fire sure is the right name. the starshaped bullets and the blue drop bullets are the ones that look best when the boss fires huge tightly packed patterns. the bullets that have open space between the outline don't read or match as well as the others. i'm not sure about the boss design itself though. i guess there is a little bit of friction between the stuff with very sharp lines, like bullets, and the style of the boss and shield effects. i also agree on changing the color of the background to mark progression.. just my 2 cents on the visuals

[captain ahar]

very nice work my friend. i love the use of color.

[mjclark]

Necrobumping now!
Have there been any further developements with Endless Fire?
I've just discovered this six years aftter the party started eh?
Truly tis grrreeeaaatttt