Decimation X (from Xona Games)...

[JLV 2k5]

just put up a new high score; 7.30 million AND got it on film with my digital camera!!!! The footage will be up on youtube tomorrow. Good thing I stayed up til 3am decimating rather than getting rest for class.. lol

Also, I ordered a capture card today. Nothing special, just an inexpensive usb one. It'll be better than rigging up my digital camera tho. haha

onward

Here is the videoooooo

7.3 million points, level 79 run

[Xonatron]

just put up a new high score; 7.30 million AND got it on film with my digital camera!!!! The footage will be up on youtube tomorrow.

Oh, WOW!!!

[rancid3000]

just put up a new high score; 7.30 million AND got it on film with my digital camera!!!! The footage will be up on youtube tomorrow. Good thing I stayed up til 3am decimating rather than getting rest for class.. lol

Also, I ordered a capture card today. Nothing special, just an inexpensive usb one. It'll be better than rigging up my digital camera tho. haha

onward

So almost 3 hours of Halo wasn't enough for you eh? And yes... we do play that kind of shooter as well.

[Xonatron]

We just got a kick-ass review on Destructoid:

Decimation X: Probably the Greatest $1 XBL Indie Ever
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Booern ... 4982.phtml

[JLV 2k5]

We just got a kick-ass review on Destructoid:

Decimation X: Probably the Greatest $1 XBL Indie Ever
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Booern ... 4982.phtml

Yeah that is awesome, he used my 4.26 million video too

I am very happy about that

[JLV 2k5]

Questions for our Guide

So there are going to be quite a few questions. Do you best answer (I know you're busy). If some of the questions require a complex/long response and you are too busy now, it may be better to just give a short response currently and expand later.

1. How many As is max? We think its 6, just want to clarify.

2. How many Rs is max? I think its 10/12ish.

3. How does the extra fighter meter go up, purely points based?

4. How does the icon shower meter go up? I think icons effect this meter more than pure points.

5. If the ship hitbox is bottom center, what are its dimensions in terms of pixels? To have a comparison, what are the dimensions of a bullet in Decimation X?

6. We want to know about collision information and programming. I know this is complex, maybe you can just add this later.

7. How many extra bullets on screen does a "B" power-up allow?

8. By what increment do "R" power-ups increase the speed of your bullets? 5%, 10%?

9. When accumulating "S" power-ups, is there a limit to the strength of the shields in terms of layers? If so, how many layers is max?
I would also like to know collision information regarding shields. How does a bullet impact differ from one layer of shield in comparison with say 5 layers? (this is complex)

10. I would like to know more about how enemy firepower increases as the game progresses. Also how enemy speed increases, in terms of level progression and how they speed up as you kill the pack (complex).

11. How many points are awarded for the collection of each power-up? does this increase as you accumulate power-ups or as the levels progress?

12. Each bullet which impacts the I-Beam shield awards points. How many points do you get per bullet collected by the I-beam. Does it go up depending on the level?



That seems to be all for now. As you probably already know, we will come across more questions.

Once you respond, we can tweak the guide to have a nice table of contents and be properly formatted so you can add it to the website. We can talk more about this later

Thanks!

[JLV 2k5]

@Doucette Brothers

As you know I just posted a 7.3 million scoring run for Decimation X on youtube. I am going to keep filming and will break this high score in the future. I would love to get to like 10 million; that would be sick.

My questions is this. Is there any way you guys can add my videos to Xona.com or your youtube channel? Any extra game footage, especially if its a nasty run, will help with your games publicity. Having additional public exposure to these videos will hopefully increase popularity and sales.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

[Xonatron]

I have not had time to do Xona updates, but I plan on showcasing the top scoring videos! No worries! We won't add the vidoes to the Xona Games YouTube channel, as if it's one of our own, but I will create and update a Decimation X playlist on it, which will include your videos. The greatest amount of hits will come from our xona.com updates, though! They will come!!

[Xonatron]

And if any of you are attending GDC next week, let me know by email: http://xona.com/contact.html We could exchange cell/txt numbers and maybe hook up.

[JLV 2k5]

Matthew

That sounds good about the videos, I'm excited to see them get more views.

I'm excited for Decimation X to grow in popularity in general, haha

[JLV 2k5]

so how did the conference go guys? any new potential for more Decimation X & Duality ZF publicity?

also, hows the decimation online scoreboard update coming?

thanks

[Xonatron]

GDC has us swamped with work... we have a lot to do to see if Duality ZF can get an XBLA contract and that's what we are working on now. You guys will have to be patience with us a bit over the next month! It's been overwhelming honestly...

[JLV 2k5]

oh yeah I bet. That's exciting about the xbox live arcade contract (I guess that is was XBLA stands for?).

Do you plan on getting contracts for Duality ZF alone or for both that and Decimation X?

My capture card came today. Nothing crazy just a simple USB one. I am a little worried about how the quality will turn out but I'm real excited to start filming all the time and upload full runs etc.

Thanks!!

[Xonatron]

Yeah, XBLA = Xbox LIVE Arcade... it will only be for Duality ZF, and it might be Duality's sequel that gets it (which means Duality ZF coming sooner to XBLIG)... who knows though... a lot of work has to be done very quickly!

Good luck with your card!

[JLV 2k5]

yeah cool.

actually the card has been somewhat of a disappointment. everything works properly, but in order to use my card i have to play with AV component cables. I am using a lcd tv (19" widescreen) and I typically use an hdmi cable. The component cables have noticeably more game lag than the hdmi cable, and it affects my performance in games. I don't know what I'm going to do; do you guys have any solutions?

thanks

[Xonatron]

JLV 2k5's (AR superstar623) high scoring run is now on xona.com:

http://xona.com/2010/03/30.html
http://xona.com/ (main page currently)

[JLV 2k5]

wow guys! thanks a lot for putting my video on the main page of your website!! that is an honor and I am really happy about that!! makes me want to film more (I will be in the future).

I'm about to play decimation now. I do it as a stress reliever when I'm frustrated with other games lol

how is everything going with the company? XBLA contract? Duality? Decimation update? Our strategy guide questions?

thanksss keep up the good work

[DJ Incompetent]

I do it as a stress reliever when I'm frustrated with other games lol

yes-yes. Tell me more about these other games you play.

[Xonatron]

We haven't had a chance to look at the strategy guide yet, and the other work is still on going. We are preparing an XBLA pitch presentation for the interested publishers, and this is no easy or quick task. That's about it. There's a lot of foundational work to be done with our new company: Xona Games Inc. This is all that business work that goes on behind the scenes that nobody really gets to see. Perhaps I'll blog about it, but I'm not sure if it's interesting to our audience or just our fellow developer friends.

[JLV 2k5]

yes-yes. Tell me more about these other games you play.

haha. my main game is halo 3. I play that fairly seriously; Rancid3000 and I run mlg and doubles as much as we can. I get pretty frustrated with that at times, anyone who has played halo knows what I mean.

I haven't been playing shmups very long to be honest. Decimation X is what got me hooked. I have recently downloaded MAME and have been fooling around with that; haven't gotten hooked on a shmup there yet tho. I also play Ikaruga; hopefully the next shmup that I "master". Ikaruga is really really frustrating for me. That game is hard. I can typically pick up a game and get really good at it really fast, but Ikaruga with no continues and no practice mode makes this considerably difficult.

I think I will get both Bioshocks this summer; I know they are good.

[JLV 2k5]

@Matthew

All sounds good. I know you guys are incredibly busy. Keep up the good work.

And to comment on what you said about the blog; I think that would be a great idea, blogging about what you and Jason are working on / progress with stuff within the company. I would definitely be interested in hearing about updates periodically and I know that if I am, there are other fans that would be too.

I see that you have a blog section on the website and it isn't what I thought it would be. You guys just have cool things that sort of serve as updates (drunken gamer review, interview stuff, etc). I think people would certainly read about company updates if you added them here. Just a suggestion

onward!

[Xonatron]

Great suggestion... it is something I wish to add to our blog. That personal touch.

[JLV 2k5]

just broke my high score, barely

the last enemy of level 81 got me before I got him, high score 7,492,289

unfortunately I wasn't filming. I try to place Decimation a little each day to keep my skill up. Since my lowest score on the list is 4.65 million (basically like level 60ish) its tough for me to even get on my high score list. I probably havent set a top 5 score in a couple weeks (besides tonight). Hope the online boards can come out soon!!!

[Xonatron]

Wow, congrats. I'll let J answer the onlines scoreboards issue, as we are both working on different things right now, and it's unfortunate that GDC and Duality ZF on XBLA work has been overwhelming us lately.

[JLV 2k5]

haha yeah I understand, i know you guys are swamped. I'm just very curious to see if I truly have the highest set score to date. I play as if I don't haha, 10million would look real good!

[Jason]

JLV 2k5, I am just getting to all of this now. Matthew has answered many of your concerns, such as the desire for complex end-game stats (which I would love too) but how this would ruin the simplicity and genius of Decimation X, so we'll be leaving stuff like that for the sequel.

As for the Guide, I have not been able to find time to go through it, and you must've received my email asking for simple questions that I can run through and answer, and I will do so now...

1. How many As is max? We think its 6, just want to clarify.

Auto fire starts at "1 fire / 8 frames" (the game runs at 60 fps) and decrements by 1 with each 'A' icon, and stops at "1 fire / 2 frames", which is 6 steps. So yes, you can only get 6 A icons.

2. How many Rs is max? I think its 10/12ish.

There are 14 R icons you can get. The starting bullet speed is 10 pixels / frame. It increments by 1 pixel/frame with each R. And thus ends at 24 pixels / frame.

3. How does the extra fighter meter go up, purely points based?

First extra fighter arrives at 10,000 points.
After you get one, the next one takes the time it took for the last one (10,000 in this case) and multiplies it by 4. So it will take 40,000 additional (NOT total) points to get the next extra fighter, so it will arrive at 50,000 points total. The pattern continues. The next fighter will take the amount of the last * 4, so 40,000 * 4 = 160,000 additional (NOT total) points are needed for the 3rd extra fighter. This will happen at 210,000 total points. And so on. So...

Free men arrive every 10,000, 40,000, 160,000, 640,000, 2,560,000, 10,240,000, etc. additional points.
Free men arrive at these point totals: 10,000, 50,000, 210,000, 850,000, 3,410,000, 13,650,000, etc.

4. How does the icon shower meter go up? I think icons effect this meter more than pure points.

Same as the extra man, except it starts at 15,000 points, and the multiplier is 2.5 instead of 4. Points only; nothing else affects this. So...

Icon showers arrive every 15,000, 37,500, 93,750, 234,375, 585,938, 1,464,844, 3,662,109, 9,155,273 etc. additional points.
Icon showers arrive at these point totals: 15,000, 52,500, 146,250, 380,625, 966,563, 2,431,406, 6,093,516, 15,248,789, etc.

NOTE that for #3 and #4, the reason it seems chaotic in the game is because you score different amount depending on how quickly you kill the enemies. Kill them faster, you get more points, and the extra men and icon showers arrive in earlier levels.

5. If the ship hitbox is bottom center, what are its dimensions in terms of pixels? To have a comparison, what are the dimensions of a bullet in Decimation X?

Player's hit box is 9x9 pixels, in the center BOTTOM of the sprite.
Enemy bullets are 3x6 pixels in size, and every part of them is 'hittable' into the player's hitbox.

6. We want to know about collision information and programming. I know this is complex, maybe you can just add this later.

Player bullets are 3 pixels wide, but only act 1-pixel thick. This 1-pixel width, but full height, bullet collides pixel-perfect with the enemy shape, and player shields.

Enemy bullets are 3 pixels wide, and will collide with a shield even if it is a full 3 pixels away. This disallows 'sneaky' bullets to pass through. They are always shot in 3-pixel multiples such that they always match up perfectly with the 3x3 pixel player shields.

Player bullets are not shot on 3-pixel boundaries, and act 1-pixel thick, so a player bullet can be seen to travel partway through the player's shield without damaging it, since only the middle pixel causes collision.

7. How many extra bullets on screen does a "B" power-up allow?

4 for B.

8 for B-Squared.

8. By what increment do "R" power-ups increase the speed of your bullets? 5%, 10%?

1 pixel / frame.

9. When accumulating "S" power-ups, is there a limit to the strength of the shields in terms of layers? If so, how many layers is max?
I would also like to know collision information regarding shields. How does a bullet impact differ from one layer of shield in comparison with say 5 layers? (this is complex)

Yes there is a limit.

This is very complex, and to be quite frank, it is handled somewhat wrong -- due to speed of development issues, the settings were hacked together in the last day and since been fixed for Decimation II, but this fix is not visible in Decimation X.

In Decimation X, you can pretty much consider all shield layers to be of about the same strength. So the visuals are giving wrong information. The reason is that all bullets, yours and the enemies, are so powerful, it eats up the shield almost as fast at max shield as at min shield.

It would take paragraphs to explain how this happened, and the details behind this, and it's complex, which is why it was missed when put together so quickly (the code was correct, but the implementation of strength vs. strength settings is what was wrong). If I did so, you'd understand the issue, but it's beyond the complexity needed for a strategy guide. Although I wish I had time to explain this issue.

In any case, max shield isn't that much more strong than min shield.

10. I would like to know more about how enemy firepower increases as the game progresses. Also how enemy speed increases, in terms of level progression and how they speed up as you kill the pack (complex).

Enemy firepower increases linearly.
The chance of a single fire from any enemy ship form the group remains constant no matter how many ships there are, in a given level. That means 50 ships shoot the same number of bullets as 2 ships. Although there is a limit, a single ship can only shoot once per frame (60x per second) max, but by the time this is reached, you really don't care about stats anymore.

Enemy speed...

Initial speed = 12.6 * 0.05 pixels per frame. For all levels. No matter how high you get
Max speed (i.e. of the last single ship left) = 12.6 + 3.5 * (level number - 1) / 25.
Current speed = linear from Min..Max by the percentage X = 0..100% = Min..Max
X = 0..100% = as you go from 55 enemies to 1 enemy = 1/56 through 1/2 --> changed linearly into 0%..100%

11. How many points are awarded for the collection of each power-up? does this increase as you accumulate power-ups or as the levels progress?

Icons give 50 * Current Level points.
Points Icon gives 1000 * Current Level points.

12. Each bullet which impacts the I-Beam shield awards points. How many points do you get per bullet collected by the I-beam. Does it go up depending on the level?

1 * Level points per bullet absorbed. It is given to the player who MOST OWNS that portion of the I-beam.
Little known fact: I-Beams merge when multi-players have them at the same time.

I hope this suffices for now. Let me know if you need help understanding the formulas, especially for enemy speed.

[Jason]

8. By what increment do "R" power-ups increase the speed of your bullets? 5%, 10%?

1 pixel / frame.

Since it starts at 10 pixels / frame, it increases it by 10% of this original speed each time: 100%, 110%, 120%, 130% ... 240% of the original speed from 0..14 R icons received.

[JLV 2k5]

wow thanks so much for the answers to the questions!! this helps in my gameplay too, particularly the info about shield strength. I know now not to target a cluster of "S" powerups in an icon shower.

One last concern: the starting elevation of the enemy waves as the game progresses. I know they drop and drop as you go. At what rate (I'm sure its like 5 pixels per wave) do they drop? Is there a limit to how low the enemies get to? Example, at level 125 will they be just above the fighter (or something like this)?

Thanks!

[Jason]

No problem!

The enemies' starting location drops 3 pixels every level. There is a limit, such that the bottom enemies rest just above the shields (regardless if they exist or not). It's computed such that the largest (tallest) enemy will rest just above a fully formed shield.

[Elixir]

yes-yes. Tell me more about these other games you play.

haha. my main game is halo 3. I play that fairly seriously; Rancid3000 and I run mlg and doubles as much as we can. I get pretty frustrated with that at times, anyone who has played halo knows what I mean.

I haven't been playing shmups very long to be honest. Decimation X is what got me hooked. I have recently downloaded MAME and have been fooling around with that; haven't gotten hooked on a shmup there yet tho. I also play Ikaruga; hopefully the next shmup that I "master". Ikaruga is really really frustrating for me. That game is hard. I can typically pick up a game and get really good at it really fast, but Ikaruga with no continues and no practice mode makes this considerably difficult.

I think I will get both Bioshocks this summer; I know they are good.

He was being sarcastic.