Decimation X (from Xona Games)...

[Jason]

Yes, Decimation X is coming to the PC, but we cannot predict how soon this will happen. We'll be releasing Duality ZF on the Xbox 360 first, then on the PC, and perhaps Decimation X at the same time. And yes, when the versions are released on the PC, they'll contain any and all bug fixes and updates made on the Xbox 360 version.

[JLV 2k5]

thanks guys. I'm glad you two are as excited about it as we are.

[JLV 2k5]

yo guys, i just checked out your sight for the first time. xonagames.com and /games part. Congrats on winning that $100k, that is sick. So you guys made geometry wars too? I have the demo for that game but haven't decided to buy it yet.

Also, i think its great that you guys got this type of recognition / camera time last summer or whenever it was http://www.youtube.com/XonaGames#p/u/3/XqcrKunPKFs . this is sick

Any word on the Decimation X update?

Thanks!

P.S. The guide is going well. We'll probably be ready to show you a draft of it fairly soon.

[Xonatron]

You must have stumbled upon some of my geo wars vids. We didn't make that game. (We wish!) It's very "intense retro" as our games are, though. I love it. Reminds me, someday I want to do a twin stick arena shmup. So many do it. So many do it wrong.

[JLV 2k5]

cool cool. Yeah I would buy it.

by the way guys, just scored a 5.40 million, level 71.

Didn't die until the early/mid 3 millions. Owned the green dots and had like 1 or 2 lives left. Jason I like how you programmed the enemies to reroll at the mid 60s. I don't know if you just decided to stop designing new mobs or just figured most people wouldn't get past the green dots, but I liked it. haha, it was like, "oh, these guys again!".

Also, I feel like the restarted enemies, red, blue and greens at like level 65/66 are easier than immediately after the green dots, or at least don't continue to increase in power at the same rate. Once you pass the green dots does the enemy health continue to increase at the same pace or does it slow down? With that being said, does anything at all about the game change once you reach a certain level?

Thanks!

P.S. Jason I can't help but to admit I have a goal to beat 5.8 million

[Jason]

Wow, congrats! You are just behind me at 5.8 million, level 74. Owning the green dots is crucial. I also didn't lose a life until over 3 million, which was funny since 3.1 million was my highest score at the time. The enemies were from an earlier PC version of this game, which used a font drawing routine for the enemies, and I ran out of font character space, so I couldn't add any more enemies without reprogramming the routines specifically for this game (which could easily be done) but I liked that they wrapped around eventually, so I left it in. The strength of the enemies continually increments by 1 hit point for each new enemy, but because of the pixel perfect collision detection, the wider enemies are far easier to hit and absorb your bullets than the green dots. I wish I had designed the enemies better with this in mind, and made even wider ones, and a lot more skinnier ones. Nothing in the game changes after a certain level, it continually increments in all known aspects until you die.

[JLV 2k5]

Yeah thanks Jason. Regardless of your design intentions, the six levels which include green dots (levels 57 - 62) in my eyes are like the "boss" levels of Decimation X . If you can get to them or past them (or even past just a few levels of green dots), you will score high. Like you said, their small surface area really plays a role. I find that at level 59 (when the bright orange enemies are on the top row and there are green dots on the two rows below the top), I actually kill all the top enemies before the green dots. This means that not only are the green dots taking forever to kill, but so many bullets ineffectively pass by them to kill the stronger enemies above lol.

You make a good point in mentioning that you wished you had a more diversified enemy pool in terms of shapes. Maybe that's one thing you could throw into the mix to make Decimation 2 even more sick.

Any word on the online scoreboard update?

[Jason]

Yeah, that's a good point. They are sort of a boss section, where it gets more difficult. The game should have more things like this. And in Decimation II, I will include more diverse enemies to create just that. It's already in the schedule.

The Friends Scoreboards are still in development, and I plan to have them done this week and in playtest, so by the time it gets through that and peer review, it should be up for download (it will remind you there's a new version when you run the game) by next week.

[JLV 2k5]

okay that sound great, thanks for the info.

Jason I know we talked before about how level clear score depends on time; im curious about more detail.

Example: Level 36 awards 9,000 base points for completion in 20seconds. This done in 10 seconds awards 36,000 points and done in 40 seconds awards only 2250 points.

I'm an engineer and pretty good with numbers, I was throwing some data points around in excel trying to figure out your equation. It fits a negative exponential, and a power curve pretty well, however im still not sure what form you are using. Do you have the actual equation? I would like to add it to the guide.

haha i could derive it myself, i would just need more data points.

Thanks a lot

[Jason]

Oh I thought I already said the forumula, it's simply inverse squared!

Time Bonus = Standard Level Complete Bonus / (Completion Time in Seconds / 20 Seconds)^2

[JLV 2k5]

yeah you mentioned that, i just never matched the numerical formula to the verbal description. Thanks!

wow im hooked on writing this guide. we'll show it to you soon

[Jason]

Awesome! Your enthusiasm is inspiring! Can't wait to see it!

[JLV 2k5]

nice.

I just added Decimation X to the high score thread. Go ahead and add your high scores to the thread

[JLV 2k5]

so im having issues uploading my videos. just wanted to check to see if you knew the solution jason. my camera saves video clips as .mov (quicktime) files. I guess you guys use windows movie maker to edit the videos, so i need to convert to .wpm (windows media player). I have tried downloading several same programs from online, but i cannot find a free one. How did you guys do it like with the car video?

Thanks

[Xonatron]

Our capture device stores the vidoe as .AVI, which imports into Windows Movie Maker. I think Jason's camera saves as something that can be importanted into Windows Movie Maker, too, which is probably .AVI as well. WMM then exports as .WMV which youtube accepts. That's how we do it!

Dealing with .MOV files on a windows machine is always a pain. I'm not sure what software to suggest.

[Observer]

Adobe Premiere would be your only and best bet and even then, I have to agree, .mov files are a slight pain in the rear.

Luckily, the PC version will be compatible with Fraps so it'll make uploading videos far easier, right?

[JLV 2k5]

um yaa i think ill try to find a program to convert .mov to .avi

thanks guys

my entire top score list is 4 million or more, so i dont really have much difficultly getting high scores now. time to start taping!

Oh and Jason, we are ready to show you our Decimation X Guide draft. It is a combination of Information that we have learned through you and through playing, as well as a strategy section. Rancid3000 and I have been using the share feature in google docs to work in it simultaneously. We can invite you too this way or do any other method that you prefer (email you a word .doc, etc)

Just let me know; I am excited for feedback from you and Matt

Thanks!

[JLV 2k5]

Doing a little advertising for you guys. This is my facebook status right now

If you have Xbox Live try this game out, Decimation X. It's an old school space invaders type game but on steroids. Found in Game Marketplace/Indie games. The trial is free and the full game costs only $1, its sick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6KcT38n1as

[Xonatron]

Wow, thanks so much. Good job on the new high score, too!

[JLV 2k5]

yeah your welcome and thanks.

our information / strategy guide is pretty much finished and ready for you and jason to look at it.

do you know the best way to share it with you two?

[Xonatron]

yeah your welcome and thanks.

our information / strategy guide is pretty much finished and ready for you and jason to look at it.

do you know the best way to share it with you two?

If it's in a google docs format, just share it with us that way! Our emails can be found on http://xona.com/contact.html (click to each our names).

[JLV 2k5]

okay matt great thanks. hopefully we can get that to you guys sometime today.

So I'm curious as to what type of capture card you guys have; internal or usb?

I think Im going to buy an external usb one (I only have a laptop right now), so I am looking for recommendations for a decent brand. I don't really need a nice one, just one that is decent and does the job.

Thanks

[Xonatron]

We have an internal Blackmagic Intensity Pro, which is one of the most professional capture cards you can get. So I have no advice for you on lower end ones, unfortunately!

[JLV 2k5]

haha yeah i would have expected you guys to have a nice one. its okay, ill hunt around some other forums and look at reviews. hopefully ill be adding some better quality Decimation runs soon!

[JLV 2k5]

i invited both of your emails to our google doc guide.

take a look, let us know what you think

Thanks!

[Xonatron]

JLV 2k5, love the avatar pic! That's an honor for us!

[JLV 2k5]

yeah thanks i like it too

matt i dont know what the issue with posting comments on youtube but i have tried to reply to your youtube video a couple times and it just like loads forever. I didnt record the 6.9 million run, unfortunately. i dont have a capture card so i dont tape everytime i play. i hope to get one soon.

However, I do have this 4.26 million point level 60 run uploaded onto youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M4s2diAGoc the quality isnt so good but you can get a sense of my strategy and play style. plus its the highest scoring video on youtube

[JLV 2k5]

so I would like to add some things to think about for future games and or add ons to decimation (2) or duality.

One, i wish there was more information on the high score panel. If nothing else I think having the final level would be a great addition; things also to be considered would be final power level, etc.

The second thought is a little more complex. I have been more and more interested in the cumulative power-up collection at the end of each run. Now that I understand how important it is to get all 6 As pretty early, and know this is definitely one of the biggest keys to scoring high. I am also interested in how many power-ups (every kind) I had collected throughout the entire run. Then you can look back and say, "Well yeah look, I had 10 more Bs in this run, thats why I did so well" ,etc.

In addition, and I realize this is quite a bit more complex and involved, but I wish there was a power-up timeline graph. I have seen similar graphs in RTS army style fighting games where there is a graph of total units over the entire timeline of the game. Comparable to what I said above, I am interested in knowing at what levels my Is and S power-ups came, how powerful my ships firepower was, i.e. how many Bs, Ps, As, and Rs were collected early. Maybe even when the Icon shower's came.


My third question, and this can be added to the guide, is regarding the extra fighter (EF) and icon shower (IS) meter. Do you get an extra fighter at the same point value every time? Same for icon showers? It seems at the beginning of the game you get icon showers and extra fighters at about the same pace, but then they offset. My thoughts is that the EF meter is purely points based and that the IS meter is more effected by icon collection (it moves more when you grab icons). I think this because it seems like the shower always comes immediately after collecting a power-up (especially early).

Okay I know its length but thanks guys!

i cant wait for the online scoreboardssss

[Xonatron]

I'll let Jason reply more to this, as this is more his game than mine. But here's the balance issue coming into play again. Make games (just like life itself) is all about balance.

Gamers love stats, and we know this. But the more you put into a game, the more you take away it's simplicity. Simplicity always beats complexity. There's genius in simplicity. I think that's one of the reasons Decimation X has done so well, is it's simplicity (with great fundamental gameplay of course).

All of this information would be great to have, especially in a shmup game that almost is like an RPG in terms of player ship growth and powerup, and I am interested in this information too!

Any of this, if it is implemented at all, will be in the sequel, not as an update to the original.

I think we have stumbled upon the true path to a complex game, which is to release a simple (with extreme focus on simplicity) game first, and then add the "I wish it had" features in the sequel. Giving it all, all at once, creates a complex and confusing experience for a first time player. A player who has yet to play the game more than a few times simply doesn't care about the details yet (for the most part), and the added complexity can break them out of their fun, ruining the game's success.

Sequels are great for all of this stuff, though!

[JLV 2k5]

All great points. I agree with what you are saying 100%. These will be good things to consider for Decimation 2 and other shmups that Xona Games releases in the future. I think you guys really hit home with Decimation X, and are expected (everyone seems really excited) and will do so equally with Duality.

I have always been a gamer my entire life. PC and console (loved the 64); I have been an xbox enthusiast since the original (2001). I mainly have been into FPSers, RPGs, RTS games (warcraft & starcraft), and any sort of game where you really have to think. I played shumps casually, but never really fell in love with them, until recently with Decimation.

I'll have to admit, I didn't know much about shumps or even what Xona Games was until like a month ago, and now I'm hooked. Rancid3000 introduced me to Decimation, and we started playing it together (but separately) chating on xbox live. It was funny but we couldn't help but jump right into the strategy discussion. We were perplexed that such a simple game in nature required so many actual tactics and learned experience/strategy to score high. We loved this. This has inspired us to post so much about the game and write our guide. Rancid3000 has always been a shmups enthusiast, Decimation and Duality are just additions to his repertoire. I on the other hand, am excited to jump into the world of shmups and try to crush high score lists all over

keep at it. thanks!