Decimation X (from Xona Games)...

[JLV 2k5]

Yeah thanks a lot Jason for the info. I too am pleased to hear you are working towards a Decimation II; that sounds sick.

So before I talk strategy I'll let it be known that none of these are entirely my ideas or tactics. Like we both said before, Rancid3000 and I talk about this stuff a lot, therefore these ideas/tips about game approach are a combination of what we have both learned. However, he is better at the game (has reached like 3.6 million!!!) so he can definitely add more info to this post.

Tactics
We've identified several ways to approach the clearing of stages past say the level 25 area (where it gets difficult lol). In addition, these first tactics will have the assumption there are basically zero shields remaining. I am posting this info to not only share what myself and Rancid300 have learned, but to get feedback from Decimation X gamers, and the developers, on what they think and have experienced themselves.



1) The Straggler. Here you would intentionally leave an enemy behind in order to introduce a gap in the bullet rain. Say the enemies spawn on the right, you would leave the top left enemy (this works best if you only leave one rather than the entire left most column) alive throughout the first advance. Once you have the straggler alone, be careful not to accidentally kill it, then focus your fire on the remaining group and kill as many aliens as possible before the first bounce. Jason you do this quite a bit in your 10min youtube video (or at least I think that was you playing).

There are several sub paths in approaching this strat. After the first bounce you can stay in the bullet gap and move back to the right along with the group of enemies. As you kill more enemies they move faster (obviously) which narrows this gap in their fire, making it difficult to dodge bullets once you have finished of the aliens. The other sub strat is to exit the gap immediately after the first bounce, moving out towards the left wall as they start moving back right, grabbing the powerup that is probably dropping then hopefully killing them between their trip from the right to left wall again.

The issue with this strat is effectively killing the enemies before they bounce of the left wall twice (three total bounces); if you allow this then you are left with the risky bullet dodging (typically from 1 or 2 fast aliens) with no shields and can easily result in death. You also have to be careful in attempting this strat. One of two things can go wrong. a) Once you leave the left most straggler and enter the bullet gap, you have to make sure your bullets are not just missing the remaining flock of enemies (you actually shooting into the gap itself). If so, there will be too many bullets to dodge later and you will die. The other, b) is if you leave the straggler, enter the bullet gap and start working on the remaining flock, you have to make sure you don't initiate another gap in the enemies. You have to start clearing them from left to right thoroughly, otherwise you will loose the bullet gap upon the first bounce and will probably die here.


2) The Decimate Strat. Everyone knows this one. This is where the player "decimates" the entire group before they bounce even once, eliminating the need for any real bullet dodging. This strat is tough because you a) need to be powerful enough to effectively decimate (because if you leave enemies without a bullet gap you will probably die), b) you have to precisely move your ship to maximize bullet landing % and accuracy. As the enemies speed up this becomes more difficult, and c) you don't seem to get many powerups using this strat, so even if you are powerful enough to pull it off a few times you may not sustain the firepower to continue doing so.

3) The Rear Start Strat. We are still play with this strat; it works better in a case which I will talk about next. Here, the enemies spawn on the right. Rather than begin shooting on the left side as they progress left, wait for them to move a little and then blast the right end of the group. Here, you will only be able to shoot for just long enough to get one power up. Then you have to wait until they bounce to begin attacking again, and you want to decimate here before they do their second bounce on the right most wall. Again, difficult to make this happen, you have the same difficulties as mentioned above with the decimation strat.

4) Shield Hiding. Anyone who has reached the one million score region and above understands how much shields can help later on when the enemies get more difficult. Rancid300 brought up a good point last night in suggesting to "save" your end shields as much as possible, even if that means waiting a couple seconds to shoot so they take less impact. Then, you can utilize them more, and hopefully maintain them somewhat longer at the later stages of the game.

Having some edge shield really works well when incorporating the "Rear Start Strat". If you have some right most bunker and the enemies spawn on the right, don't shoot right away. Wait for them to pass a little, blast at the tail of the flock, and then use the bunker to hide if you cannot decimate them on the way back. You can honestly avoid an entire bullet rain with just a small amount of shield if you use it effectively.



With that being said, those are the tactics we seem to have figured out / played around with as of right now. I would love to hear everyone's approaches, ideas on the matter, personal feedback, etc. If you have a strat to add, or think we should be doing anything different, I would love to hear about it.

I know its a ton of text but thanks for reading everyone. As you can see guys, we love your game and are having a blast playing it and talking about how to get higher scores. Look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!

[Xonatron]

I just wanted to give thanks for everyone who voted our game 5 stars (and 4 stars, too!) as we have now broke into the top 20 top rated Xbox LIVE Indie Games in the United States. (We were easily in the top 20 for Canada and Japan, but, for some reason, the United States was a harder sell.)

Our current rank (we were #17 at the time of this posting):
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games ... 3&rl=0&p=1

The reason the top 20 means so much is that we are displayed on the Xbox LIVE Indie Game "Top Rated" section in the Xbox Dashboard, forever, until we are bumped off.

We were down to 21st place for a while, and somehow, someway, got boosted up (or someone else got boosted down).

Anyways, thank you for all your support! Every vote and every thought and opinion counts!

[rancid3000]

Congrats Matthew! If you have not rated this game do it now!!!

[Xonatron]

Shmups will dominate consoles once again!

[No_not_like_Quake]

It's definitely the best 80 pt game on the service, by far.

[rancid3000]

It's definitely the best 80 pt game on the service, by far.

I agree. The imposible game has been moved to my number 2 favorite Indy game.

[JLV 2k5]

yeah congrats on making the top 20 again. everyone who hasn't rated Decimation X, do ittt.

Rancid3000 mentioned that he thought you guys wanted to get Decimation in the arcade games list, rather than the Indie. What is the different between xbox arcade and xbox indie games? I am sure this could be solved through a google search but I bet the brothers have a good explanation.

Thanks!

P.S. looking forward to some strat talk regarding my earlier post. I got 3.08 million last night! yesssss

[Jason]

JLV 2k5, thanks for your extensive strategy post. It was refreshing to see that you've covered most of the same strategies that I've been using. I think the one people most likely are to miss is the "Decimate Strategy"; sometimes you're powerful enough to blast them all in one sweep. And keep in mind the time bonus is quite extensive in this case, since you get 4x as many points for killing the wave 2x as fast. But you can miss vital power ups in the process... Also note that in multiplayer you can combine strategies... one guy can hide in the rear, while the other one decimates the wave, and the guy hiding can grab the power ups.

It is very refreshing that you guys love the game this much, and believe it to be the #1 80 pt game, and that you are talking strategy. Amazing. Thanks for all of your support, and yes, if you want to see more competition (especially when the Friends Scoreboards go up in my update) please rate the game a 5, and we'll be pushed higher in the Top Rated lists, and get more people playing the game. While I want people to rate it fairly, I believe most people just don't bother to rate, and ratings matter a lot for our standing. Because so few people rate, all of your ratings matter a lot.

P.S. To answer your question, Indie Games are for unsigned devlopers, and Arcade requires a contract, which requires us to fit into their desired portfolio (which means even a good game may be rejected), and requires meeting a minimal level of quality (which I'm sure we can do), and requires minimal features, such as online play.

[JLV 2k5]

Thanks for the reply, and yes we love the game, I am very glad Rancid3000 pointed it out to me. Good point about the 2 player strat. I haven't gotten a chance to play multiplayer local but I bet its great.

I agree with what you said, and am surprised this game doesn't have more ratings. I watch it go up everyday, but it only has like 200 some online ratings. You are right, everyone needs to encourage friends to play and rate Decimation, etc.

Question: When do you anticipate the Decimation update coming out? I am excited to see what scores other gamers are putting up.

Once again thanks.

I am still awaiting other strat perspectives and tips. Later

[Jason]

I am hoping the Friends Scoreboards to go up this week or weekend. It depends on how quickly we get through play test and peer review, which can take 2 days, or 2 weeks, it's out of our control. I am hoping by the weekend, and I will push for this, but no guarantee.

I can't thank you guys enough for raising awareness of this game. We will start to market it as soon as the Friend Scoreboards go online, so I hope this really gets the ball rolling, and gets those ratings up even higher. Wish us luck! (And Duality ZF should follow behind in only a month. Woohoo!)

[JLV 2k5]

wow Jason that sounds great. I thought you might say in a couple weeks. haha awesome.

yeah the friend scoreboard is really exciting and incorporates the friendly competitive aspect which makes games great.

Duality ZF in a month! sick

is there going to be any way to play Duality multi player online with friends?

[Xonatron]

...Indie Games are for unsigned devlopers, and Arcade requires a contract, which requires us to fit into their desired portfolio (which means even a good game may be rejected), and requires meeting a minimal level of quality (which I'm sure we can do), and requires minimal features, such as online play.

Also, XBLA contracts come with marketing, XBLIG games barely have any other than just "being there" on the system. XBLA is more likely to make money, but the level of polish requires more money to make.

[Defcon 5]

I bought the game today, to play it with a friend. We really enjoyed it. Grats!

[Klatrymadon]

Same here! I played it for about two hours, despite most of my games lasting around five minutes. It's addictive stuff; can't wait for the leaderboards. Cheers!

[Jason]

is there going to be any way to play Duality multi player online with friends?

Sadly no. But that's a feature Duality II will have, or if/when it hits the Arcade section, and if that happens, it'll still likely be Duality II.

[Jason]

Same here! I played it for about two hours, despite most of my games lasting around five minutes. It's addictive stuff; can't wait for the leaderboards. Cheers!

That sounds like we hit it spot on! This is the type of addictiveness we wanted. Now if people could just find out about the game. Hopefully soon! Thanks for the feedback, it's great!

[Daigoro]

i got some feedback in there for ya.

[JLV 2k5]

Same here! I played it for about two hours, despite most of my games lasting around five minutes. It's addictive stuff; can't wait for the leaderboards. Cheers!

try to conserve your lives in the earlier levels. get as many power ups as you can to maintain the power of your shit as you progress. The key to a high score is honestly just lasting as long as possible. Speed helps the score, but really just taking your time will ensure that you break your personal records.

Tip for beginners: Use your shields as effectively as possible. Watch some of the youtube videos to see how guys play in the 20/30/40 levels. It's nuts!


JASON
Stinks about Duality not being on live but its okay. I like that you are already thinking/talking about a Duality 2, nuts.

Question. What other approaches to marketing/advertising Decimation have you taken on? I know that being on the top 20 rated is huge. Is there anything else you can / are doing to promote the game?

Thanks

[Klatrymadon]

Speed helps the score, but really just taking your time will ensure that you break your personal records.

Cheers for the tips, mate. Aye, my scores are getting better with every game, although I haven't quite broken into the 35+ stages, yet. Still having a blast, here!

[JLV 2k5]

Speed helps the score, but really just taking your time will ensure that you break your personal records.

Cheers for the tips, mate. Aye, my scores are getting better with every game, although I haven't quite broken into the 35+ stages, yet. Still having a blast, here!

great. whats your high score? i guess being in the 30s you have broken the 1 million point barrier?

[Jason]

What other approaches to marketing/advertising Decimation have you taken on? I know that being on the top 20 rated is huge. Is there anything else you can / are doing to promote the game?

None yet. We'll start when the update gets out. We'll likely use youtube videos, and make a contest to help others show off their own play videos, and give an award to some of the entries. This will help get videos out there of game play. If you have other ideas, we are open, but we're just getting into this, so we'll likely try a lot of things, and we have a bit of resources to spend on advertising, so we'll likely give some paid advertising a shot.

[JLV 2k5]

None yet. We'll start when the update gets out. We'll likely use youtube videos, and make a contest to help others show off their own play videos, and give an award to some of the entries. This will help get videos out there of game play. If you have other ideas, we are open, but we're just getting into this, so we'll likely try a lot of things, and we have a bit of resources to spend on advertising, so we'll likely give some paid advertising a shot.

okay. yeah i think videos are a good idea; probably your best bet for now.

I know there are things like capture cards (I really don't know much about them though), but do you have any other recommendations on how gamers could record their gameplay to make these videos / show off your game?

I would definitely be interested in posting up some of my 3million+ score games on youtube.

Thanks!

[Jason]

okay. yeah i think videos are a good idea; probably your best bet for now.

I know there are things like capture cards (I really don't know much about them though), but do you have any other recommendations on how gamers could record their gameplay to make these videos / show off your game?

I would definitely be interested in posting up some of my 3million+ score games on youtube.

We have a capture card, but it's not an easy thing for gamers to do. It's unfortunate that this wasn't easy, but likely the easiest way is simply to set up a camera. You can see that I've done this myself on my own youtube uploads.

[JLV 2k5]

haha, awesome. i just got my top score 3.44 million on tape with my digital camera! yesss

[Xonatron]

haha, awesome. i just got my top score 3.44 million on tape with my digital camera! yesss

You'll have to post it.

...and post it on our high score video thread:

(Decimation X) Official High Score Video Thread
http://forums.xbox.com/30978018/ShowPost.aspx

[JLV 2k5]

yeah i dont know if i can. i might have to retape. having issues uploading the video to my computer.

so. i just consistently put up some 3million + score games and i think im realizing some more things about the game.

A power ups. A few games I had a ridiculous firepower stream (wide and continuous with no breaks) at like level 17/18. The secret is in the A power ups (Jason has mentioned the importance of these before, I am merely reiterating). Don't miss any of these (or any powerups at all). Also, when early icon showers come, sometimes there will be two As close together. Target these, get as many As early and you will be decimating (clearing a group of aliens before they bounce) levels in the early 20s.

Also, I have abandoned the straggler strat. I have changed it up. With sheilds early on I sit right in the middle and shoot until the enemies pass, collect the powerups, and then sit in the middle again and finish them off on the way back. This allows you to get enough powerups through the game so that when your shields are finally gone you can decimate. If you shoot accurately enough (which is the key to the decimation strat), you can be fairly effective doing so.

Also, when you can, snake the S squared and I powerups whenever you can. These basically ensure a level clear.


JASON. A thought for future updates and Decimation 2 / Duality. Rancid3000 and I were chatting and we think it would be great if the game saved your fastest clear time for each level. I know this requires quite a bit of programming but it would definitely be cool, particularly on the early levels when you only are concerned with getting to level 20ish asap.

Also, we had a question with the powerup meter. As you collect Ps and the meter increases, does the power of your bullets increase with each P powerup, or only incrementally when the meter maxes? (we think its the later but just want to confirm)

Thanks!

[Jason]

JLV 2k5, thanks for more strategy!

So, you want to know what the fastest clear time was on each level, as you play? The fastest you are able to clear a level will change depending on the power ups that have randomly appeared up to that time. Also, if you want a fast clear time, you can do so if you get rid of the shields, so doing so isn't necessarily the best way to play the game. So, I'm not sure if it's a good metric to show, or to care about. Even thought faster clears = more points, but maybe that's not the best way to a top score (but maybe it is, since you have less shields destroyed by enemy bullets). Who knows.

I had thought about storing the fastest clear time ever, for a given score.

As of now, I have no plans to add this in, since I want to jump back to Duality ZF ASAP.

Each bullet has the same amount of power, no matter what. "P" icons don't effect individual bullet power. So, essentially they are null-power ups until the meter fills.

[Defcon 5]

Is it possible to add online scoreboards in indie games ? I thought that only arcade games can have this..

[No_not_like_Quake]

Quick question about Xbox Live: I currently only have a silver account and have not noticed if my rating a game is counted. Is it?

[Jason]

Is it possible to add online scoreboards in indie games ? I thought that only arcade games can have this..

Yes, if you implement a P2P network, such that the games will commence "online play" with other games running, in the background, and use the internet connection to share scores, rather than gameplay. The problem is that you need a Gold membership to play online games, and since the Friends Scoreboards runs on top of this protocol, you need Gold membership for this to work.