Firestorm (v0.2.0.0) - Gradius style shoot 'em up

[The Mulletron]

Hello one and all, The Mulletron here. I've decided to release this game here to get an expert's opinion on this.

The game is pretty standard fair as far as shoot 'em ups go. It has a Gradius style power-up system to upgrade your ship with, and about four levels worth of enemies to shoot down. I know the graphics are a bit basic, and that the sound effects are poor, but I want to get the gameplay down first, before I start adding the gloss. (Anyways, I find it quite fun to play.)

Well, enough chit-chat, here's the download link:

Download Link (updated 29/01/2010)



All comments and criticisms are welcome. Also, I am open to ideas if you have any.

Edit (29/01/2010): Major update. This version features five full levels, many new enemies, several new upgrades, a few new sound effects, and a couple of other minor additions and fixes.

[lilmanjs]

no pictures to show what the game looks like?

[Udderdude]

You can fly out of the screen boundries.
I never got anything to upgrade my ship with.
Enemies were boring/frustrating to fight and levels never seemed to end.
Enemies fire even when they're at the bottom of the screen and sometimes even they're off the screen
No background artwork at all
Summary = Why don't you try hard?

[The Mulletron]

no pictures to show what the game looks like?

My apologies, there you go (check first post). These are screenshots of the older version, but the graphics haven't really changed much since then.

You can fly out of the screen boundries.
I never got anything to upgrade my ship with.
Enemies were boring/frustrating to fight and levels never seemed to end.
Enemies fire even when they're at the bottom of the screen and sometimes even they're off the screen
No background artwork at all
Summary = Why don't you try hard?

I'm sorry the game wasn't to your liking, but it's still early days yet. Its only a beta, so bugs are part of the package unfortunately, and like I said earlier, I'm going to add more graphics only when I'm satisfied with the gameplay.

[EddyMRA]

I like this so far. The gameplay's there, and that's what's important.

If I may suggest, please give the pickups some animation. When I first played, I thought the aqua orbs were the enemy's bullets. Also, at the first boss, try giving its laser attack some sort of warning for the player, because it comes out instantly and results in a cheap damaging hit.

A couple of ideas that can add to the gameplay:

*Make a pickup item replenish your special weapons. Right now from what I see, your special weapons replenish only upon a new life or reaching a new level.
*Add an upgrade slot to increase the maximum special weapon stock (unless I missed something that does this).
*Since you have a health system, a small hitbox is unnecessary. Out of curiosity, though, are you planning to add in a small hitbox?

This plays great so far. Keep it up!

[The Mulletron]

If I may suggest, please give the pickups some animation. When I first played, I thought the aqua orbs were the enemy's bullets.

I would like to, but making animated sprites is very difficult. What I might do instead is create an animated bubble around the pickups (like in Raptor: COTS). That would save me the trouble of animating each one individually.

Also, at the first boss, try giving its laser attack some sort of warning for the player, because it comes out instantly and results in a cheap damaging hit.

Yeah, the laser is quite a cheap hit (well at least in the early game). I might make a simple charging sprite appear just before it fires its first volley.

A couple of ideas that can add to the gameplay:

*Make a pickup item replenish your special weapons. Right now from what I see, your special weapons replenish only upon a new life or reaching a new level.
*Add an upgrade slot to increase the maximum special weapon stock (unless I missed something that does this).
*Since you have a health system, a small hitbox is unnecessary. Out of curiosity, though, are you planning to add in a small hitbox?

1) There already is a pickup item which replenishes your ammo. That said, the only way to get one is to break open a crate. I might add a pickup that is dropped by enemies, that will partly replenish special ammo.

2) This is something I've been meaning to do for a while, but there are two small problems I have to overcome before I can do it. One is that I have to find a place to squeeze the upgrade, and the other is that once I do, I have to compensate for the extra cost for all the upgrades below it.

3) I haven't yet, and never planned to give a small hitbox to the ship. Like you said, a small hitbox is unnecessary, and anyways, I feel I've gone soft enough on the player already by giving the player five lives.

[The Mulletron]

Major Update: Download Link

Perhaps the least eagerly anticipated game release of 2010. After 6-7 months of work, I bring you Firestorm v0.2.0.0. Featuring one new level (bringing the total to five), major changes to the other four levels, new enemies, new weapons, new upgrades, new SFX, smoke trails, and other changes too numerous to list, so there's enough there to justify a download. Comments and criticisms welcome.

[Udderdude]

Still sucks, impossible to get enough upgrades to actually kill anything, background is distracting, enemy shots are tiny, lol shield, etc.

In level 2 enemies start flying right from the bottom of the screen and kill you almost instantly. Hurr.

[monkeyman]

Ok i've given it a few attempts and here are my thoughts:

Negatives:

You are way underpowered, concntrating all my upgrades on primary weapon and using missiles freely i found that everything except the basic tiny enemy would get most the way down the screen before dying.

Crates need to be toned down, I could only ever destroy one by suiciding it and in the end I just found they blocked my way or drew my missiles away from actual enemies. I know you want them to be hard to open but at least make it possible.

I could not read which upgrade was highlighted due to the colour scheme (white over bright yellow isn't a good idea).

I'm not a fan of the floating healthbars but that's a matter of taste.

Not sure about the background, at least change the (player) bullet colour from white it the background is going to be white spots.

Missiles (at least basic variety) seem to slow. Many enemies simply outrun them.

Enemies shooting at the bottom of the screen is fustrating, especially when combined with the first point.

Are the power up drops random? Some waves seem to drop lots on one playthrough then nothing on the next. I would personally standardise which enemies drop and which don't to get rid of the element of luck.

Not sure I like that there is no invincibility after you are hit, especially when a ship appears without warning from the bottom of the screen and takes off the ENTIRE healthbar as a result.

On to the positives:

While the graphics are basic I like the ship designs for the most part.

Enemy bullets were always easily visible.

It's nice you keep power ups after dying.

1st boss attack patterns were varied and interesting (sadly can't say the same about 2nd boss and didn't see any bosses past that).

I think while this clearly needs a lot of work, if you can solve a lot of the issues and make the game much more balanced, it could be fun.

[The Mulletron]

You are way underpowered, concntrating all my upgrades on primary weapon and using missiles freely i found that everything except the basic tiny enemy would get most the way down the screen before dying.

I'm a little reluctant to give the player too much off the bat, since the premise of the game is to upgrade your ship to overcome later adversities. That said, you make a fair point about being too underpowered.

I could not read which upgrade was highlighted due to the colour scheme (white over bright yellow isn't a good idea).
...
Not sure about the background, at least change the (player) bullet colour from white it the background is going to be white spots.

I'll do something about those in the next release.

Missiles (at least basic variety) seem to slow. Many enemies simply outrun them.

The missiles you start off with are supposed to help you fight the larger enemies in the first couple of levels whilst your primary weapons are still weak. I'm guessing the enemies which outrun your missiles the most are the ones that jump down from the top of the screen. You have to time it so that you launch them when the enemy is at its slowest.

Not sure I like that there is no invincibility after you are hit, especially when a ship appears without warning from the bottom of the screen and takes off the ENTIRE healthbar as a result.

I was going to make some kind of warning about ships appearing from the bottom of the screen, but I never got around to it. I will add it in the next release.

About the invincibility, I'm not too keen on that idea since the player already has multiple hitpoints, as well as 5 lives. Making the player invincible after every hit would make the game too easy.

Still sucks, impossible to get enough upgrades to actually kill anything, background is distracting, enemy shots are tiny, lol shield, etc.

In level 2 enemies start flying right from the bottom of the screen and kill you almost instantly. Hurr.

Ditto what I said to monkeyman about the background, the underpowered ship, and the enemies flying from the bottom of the screen. As for the shield on the fifth boss, it's more of a placeholder until I can make something more decent.

[bkk]

the premise of the game is to upgrade your ship to overcome later adversities.

This isn't a very exciting premise.

About the invincibility, I'm not too keen on that idea since the player already has multiple hitpoints, as well as 5 lives. Making the player invincible after every hit would make the game too easy.

This is your biggest problem, ditch the healthbar.

Autofire and configurable keys, please.

[The Mulletron]

This is your biggest problem, ditch the healthbar.

That's not something I'm really willing to do. Although I do enjoy shoot 'em ups without healthbars very much, the "one hit and your out" method they use really frustrates me sometimes. Its just the way these types of games mercilessly punish you for making one mistake which annoys me, sometimes to the point where I just give up on it.

That said, I am willing to compromise. Maybe I'll make a "Sudden Death" mode at a later date (it shouldn't be hard to implement).

Autofire and configurable keys, please.

Configurable keys are definitely something I should work on next (Game Maker already supports this somewhat, its just a case of making a configuration program and working with INI files). As for autofire...uhh, care to elaborate on that? I mean, holding down the fire button already fires automatically.

[Ixranin]

That's not something I'm really willing to do. Although I do enjoy shoot 'em ups without healthbars very much, the "one hit and your out" method they use really frustrates me sometimes. Its just the way these types of games mercilessly punish you for making one mistake which annoys me, sometimes to the point where I just give up on it.

It almost feels like your game is trying to punish the player for having HP though, with all the fast tough enemies and the small fast-moving bullets it throws at you.

I think I found a bug with the level 2 boss. (The boss duo) When I killed the second one, it fell on me and took off my last life, then the game gave me both the level complete and game over messages, and sent me to the next level anyway. (With the "Game Over" sitting in the middle of the screen still.) Though... it feels cheap that the boss gets to do a suicide run on you after you beat it.

EDIT: On second thought, it probably means your game doesn't give the player invincibility when you beat a boss. I don't know any shmups offhand that don't protect the player the moment they kill the boss, was that intentional?

[bkk]

Autofire and configurable keys, please.

Configurable keys are definitely something I should work on next (Game Maker already supports this somewhat, its just a case of making a configuration program and working with INI files). As for autofire...uhh, care to elaborate on that? I mean, holding down the fire button already fires automatically.

I meant the level 4 (I think) weapon specifically.

[The Mulletron]

It almost feels like your game is trying to punish the player for having HP though, with all the fast tough enemies and the small fast-moving bullets it throws at you.

Just because the game has HP doesn't necessarily mean the game will get any easier. At best, it will protect the player from being insta-killed from a stray bullet. The thing is, I have to balance out making the game playable with making the game challenging.

It was never my intention to punish the player for having HP, but neither is my intention to make it easier for them because of it.

I think I found a bug with the level 2 boss. (The boss duo) When I killed the second one, it fell on me and took off my last life, then the game gave me both the level complete and game over messages, and sent me to the next level anyway. (With the "Game Over" sitting in the middle of the screen still.) Though... it feels cheap that the boss gets to do a suicide run on you after you beat it.

I agree, that does seem cheap. I'll do something about it next release.

I meant the level 4 (I think) weapon specifically.

Hmm...I don't recall any of the primary weapons (let alone the fourth one) having autofire problems, and I have tested them all extensively. Regardless, I will look out for this problem.