Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

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pieterator
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Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Hi guys,

Alright! Beta phase commence!

I have just gotten to the Beta stage of writing my bullet hell shooter, Aero Flux. This has been an on and off project of mine for many years now. The game was created using Game Maker 8.1. Each sprite was loving rendered in Photoshop, and the sounds edited in Audacity.

You will notice that the game draws heavily on Dodonpachi, which is one of my favourite shmups.

Here's a couple of screen shots from the game.

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Link

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Link

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Link


And here's the link to Aero Flux - Beta V1.5.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?80zotjp6naon4o6

Any feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks guys,
Pieter.

[Edit] Gameplay mechanics
  • 1.) Tapping the fire button makes you move at normal speed, holding it down makes you move at halve speed.
  • 2.) Destroying enemies fills up your experience bar (Orange), which increases your firepower.
  • 3.) Destroying enemies increases your multiplier, which increases the rate at which you score points.
  • 4.) Dodging or Grazing enemy bullets fills up your bomb bar (Magenta), which when full, adds one bomb to your bomb stock.
  • 5.) If you get hit by an enemy bullet, and have bombs in stock, the bomb save will activate. This will clear the whole stage of enemy bullets for about two seconds, but will not damage the enemies.
  • 6.) There are 8 bonus enemies per stage (Big orange orbs) that double their score each time one is killed i.e. 500, 1000, 2000 -> 64000. They account for a quarter of your score, so don't miss them.
  • 7.) Destroying all enemies in a certain group (Hinted at by "+" signs appearing when enemy is destroyed) will give a bonus.
  • 8.) Destroying the bigger enemies at point blank range releases bonus stars.

Game features
  • 1.) You can choose a different costume colour for your character at the select screen by pressing up or down before you select them.
Alpha Werewolf made a video review of the Alpha version of the game. If you would like to have a look at the game before downloading it, go here to check out a no miss, no bomb playthrough of the Alpha.
Last edited by pieterator on Wed May 30, 2012 4:35 am, edited 10 times in total.
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emphatic
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by emphatic »

This looks very promising, but as I'm on a laptop only, I can't play it. Gamepad support perhaps? As this is a vertical game, please add TATE support as well. The easiest way of doing this is to have an option where the window is just as big as the game without the character art at the sides. If the user rotates the windows environment, the game will be fullscreen tate (if you support fullscreen of course).
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by P_HAT »

Looks very cool :)
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by ZOM »

Looks very good! You actually have ground targets - not something you see everyday in this section.

And yeah, another vote for a Tate option, IMO it's pretty much a must in a vert even if most doujin-verts don't have it either.
The only inconvenience I see with that are your many hud-elements, but I'm sure it's possible to distribute them on the top
and bottom of the screen. Keep it up!
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Thanks for the feedback guys,
emphatic wrote:As this is a vertical game, please add TATE support as well.
ZOM wrote:And yeah, another vote for a Tate option, IMO it's pretty much a must in a vert even if most doujin-verts don't have it either.
I'll have a look at my code to see if it's possible to add a TATE mode. The 640x480 resolution is quite deeply ingrained into the game, but any new shmups I make will definitely take a TATE mode into account from the start (Or be TATE only).
emphatic wrote:This looks very promising, but as I'm on a laptop only, I can't play it. Gamepad support perhaps?
Try using 2P's keys. They are WASD for direction and N for accept/fire, M for cancle/bomb. But yes, you are right, the game does not fully support laptop keyboards. One of the next features I would like to add is for the user to configure his own keys. I'll read up on support for gamepads as well.

As for fullscreen, just hit F4 to toggle between windowed and fullscreen mode. You can also take screenshots with 'O' and pause the game with 'P'.
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Topshmups
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Topshmups »

Looks good but the download link on yoyo games doesn't work anymore any chance of upping it else where?
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Topshmups wrote:Looks good but the download link on yoyo games doesn't work anymore any chance of upping it else where?
Sorry about that, I just re-uploaded the game and now it downloads just fine. If the download doesn't work the first time, try again after a couple of minutes. Thanks for the keen interest.
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Topshmups »

Thanks downloaded and off to give it a try :mrgreen:
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Uploaded the 'Full' (42Meg) Alpha V1.0 version on Media Fire which includes the music files.

Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?kzmhdwyimtw
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Suslik
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Suslik »

pieterator wrote: Any feedback and suggestions are welcome.
Hey :)

So far looks pretty good. Ill just mention the things that i dont like or need an improvement in my opinion :P
  • Game field is not completely visible. Im not a fan of not visible and moving game field.
  • Where is my hitbox (cockpit maybe) and how big it is? Probably should be mentioned somewhere. Or maybe it is and i missed it?
  • Improvement for grazing bullets.Its not convenient to look at the bomb bar increase. Maybe some sound effects or visual effects would do the trick. Careful though, directing players attention to effects can be bad if not done carefully.
  • Where is my graze area?
  • Lag (or designed game slowdown in order to make very difficult sections easier?) in places with a lot of bullets. Slower computer = win, thats unfair! We cant compare high scores in the future.
Each game has its own difficulties. Maybe your game is supposed to be the way it is now, im just sharing my thoughts and visions about things that make bullet hell games more enjoyable for me xD
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Thanks for your feedback.
Suslik wrote:
  • Game field is not completely visible. Im not a fan of not visible and moving game field.
I am :D Personal taste I guess.
Suslik wrote:
  • Where is my hitbox (cockpit maybe) and how big it is? Probably should be mentioned somewhere. Or maybe it is and i missed it?
  • Improvement for grazing bullets.Its not convenient to look at the bomb bar increase. Maybe some sound effects or visual effects would do the trick. Careful though, directing players attention to effects can be bad if not done carefully.
  • Where is my graze area?
Thanks, these are all very valid points, and I will address each one of them in the next update.
Suslik wrote:
  • Lag (or designed game slowdown in order to make very difficult sections easier?) in places with a lot of bullets. Slower computer = win, thats unfair! We cant compare high scores in the future.
Unfortunately, I'm not that hard core a programmer (More of a artist/game designer). And even if I was, implementing slowdown or frame skipping (for slower PC's) needs to be incorporated from the beginning. This engine is to far along to incorporate something like that at this stage.
Suslik wrote: Each game has its own difficulties. Maybe your game is supposed to be the way it is now, im just sharing my thoughts and visions about things that make bullet hell games more enjoyable for me xD
Thanks for your thoughts, every opinion helps shape and improve my game.
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by null1024 »

pieterator wrote:Thanks for your feedback.
Suslik wrote:
  • Lag (or designed game slowdown in order to make very difficult sections easier?) in places with a lot of bullets. Slower computer = win, thats unfair! We cant compare high scores in the future.
Unfortunately, I'm not that hard core a programmer (More of a artist/game designer). And even if I was, implementing slowdown or frame skipping (for slower PC's) needs to be incorporated from the beginning. This engine is to far along to incorporate something like that at this stage.
I handled this just by scaling the FPS cap based on how many bullets were on screen. Shouldn't be too hard to do, but might drastically change how you work your level design if you do implement this...

Frameskip is a bit harder, and in the few GM games I've seen use it, it hasn't helped any.
Pure time based movement [read: frame independent] really does require you to design the engine for it, and isn't suitable for a shmup anyway.
Last edited by null1024 on Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Joneswilliamsc »

pieterator wrote:
Topshmups wrote:Looks good but the download link on yoyo games doesn't work anymore any chance of upping it else where?
Sorry about that, I just re-uploaded the game and now it downloads just fine. If the download doesn't work the first time, try again after a couple of minutes. Thanks for the keen interest.
Well Topshmups, same problem was with me. But I try to download it for three to four times. And after all I am able to download it. I was really very glad when I was able to download it. Its really very nice and looks very grate.
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by ShmupSamurai »

Is it just me or are the ship pilot pics on the side REALLY distracti...*gets hit by a stray bullet* :|
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Thanks ShmupSamurai, I'll take that as a compliment. :D
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by ZOM »

I wonder... what's on the right screen if you play 1P only?

Also, Ako is sexy shmexy, Sayo's pose is meh. :mrgreen:
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Alpha Werewolf »

My sister claims that the characters' ships should look different when you change their outfits, because she couldn't tell them apart when we both played with the same character. Otherwise, you know my comments ^_^
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

ZOM wrote:I wonder... what's on the right screen if you play 1P only?
At this stage, only a black place holder image. I plan to have that drawn with the next update.
Alpha Werewolf wrote:My sister claims that the characters' ships should look different when you change their outfits, because she couldn't tell them apart when we both played with the same character. Otherwise, you know my comments ^_^
Thanks for the feedback. I have update the characters, not only do the ship colours now match the character costumes, P1 and P2 have different ship designs as well. Thanks again for the video review you made, there's lots of useful feedback in there.
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by emphatic »

Really nice boss fights!
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Thanks, I'll make sure the remaining bosses don't disappoint. :D
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Redesign of Asuna Sayo.
Did this as a colouring and anatomy exercise during my art month sabbatical. :D

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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Alpha Werewolf »

Yeah, that looks much better than the previous version. I like it ^_^
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by ZOM »

Now that's more like it :mrgreen:
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

The fans spoke.
I listened :D
Glad you like the results!
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by omgitsblake »

Graphics - check
soundtrack - check (btw whats the stage 1 music from)
Multiplier - check
bullet scraping - check
tight gameplay - check

its a pretty good shmup already

though i noted that the yellow tank like enemies only shoot once (or was it twice)
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BrandonL337 »

While I haven't had a chance to play it yet(using my dad's one-foot-in-the-grave laptop) I'm not so sure about the tapping the fire button to go normal speed. Maybe change it so that you press a different button to move slowly. I've played games with alt-fire modes that depend on tapping versus holding the key and while it adds depth to the combat it is rather uncomfortable to repeatably tab a key on the keyboard. As an alt-fire mode I think it works but for changing the move speed I think having it mapped to a different button would work best.
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by ShmupSamurai »

Just gave this another run and I must say, it's damn GOOD. Almost feels like a real arcade game, and kudos to your excellent machince designs, I WISH I was that good at drawing proper mecha-stuff(my best atempt would be those green mech thingys in the Samuraii Sabre pics :P )

I also was able to 1CC the current version, with only one miss too. :shock: :lol:

Great work, keep it up! :D
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Zeether »

I can't help but realize that the character names remind me of Negima.

Looks good though! :D
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Whaka!

Sorry for the long absence, but I didn't want to post till I finished the third character design for Aero Flux.
I have bounced this design of some people and have come up the these two final designs.

So I'm asking you, the players, to choose the design you like the best, which will be used in the final version of the game.
Just post either A or B in a reply to this thread.

So here she is:

Image
http://pieterator.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2uqrd1

[Edit] By unanimous decisions, the fans have chosen A. This will be the costume used in the game.
ZeetherKID77 wrote:I can't help but realize that the character names remind me of Negima.
Very good! 10 points for you :D Yes I mixed some names and surnames from the Negima Manga to create the character's names.
ShmupSamurai wrote:I also was able to 1CC the current version, with only one miss too. :shock: :lol:
Nice going! I'm busy working on the bullet hell difficulty, which is much more of a challenge to 1CC.
BrandonL337 wrote:I'm not so sure about the tapping the fire button to go normal speed. Maybe change it so that you press a different button to move slowly.
The main reasons for using this firing system, is
One: Dodonpachi used it with great success, and thus I shamelessly ripped it off, and
Two: If you move diagonally, hold fire and press bomb, that's four keys. If a second player does the same that's eight keys, already a lot, and most keyboards could have a problem with that many keys pressed (Laptops in particular). If this was a single player game, it would not have been a problem.
Last edited by pieterator on Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sasupoika
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Sasupoika »

A. 8)
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