What are you working on?

[emphatic]

HOLY HELL always manages to catch my eye when I look at this thread, heh.

Project Modus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AGkanT_u2k

Well... I was working on it, but it's sorta stalled for now because I transitioned from XP to Win7 and the original Multimedia Fusion doesn't work in 64-bit. (Yep, working with that ancient thing MMF.) Was originally hoping to get the first stage done before posting it here, but I didn't even get to the miniboss.

Looking good.

[Spiderift]

HOLY HELL always manages to catch my eye when I look at this thread, heh.

Project Modus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AGkanT_u2k

That actually does look good! I like those little details like the flashing orb in the title screen, and the intro bit as your ship is launched.


My friends and I are working on a bullet hell game called Aivalar: Solar Odyssey. Engine's nearly done. I'm just experimenting with some early level designs to refine the gameplay and scoring system. It revolves around something I call the Dynamic Focus System, which uses a rank system to encourage the player to find the optimal balance between offense and defense. The overall experience I'm going for is somewhere between Touhou (which is extremely passive) and Cave games (which tend to be active).

Anyway, screenshot of some random bullet hell I made using the engine!

[Odessi]

I've been working on (and finally finished) a scripting language for bullet patterns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-uw5SfmJ9A

You can get it here (it's C++): http://code.google.com/p/bulletscript/

[agustusx]

When I took a bit of time of from War on Bugs I was working on prototypes to see if I could design in a way that would be easier to work with when the project got larger. I have a prototype score attack game that I want to flesh out a bit more, polish up and present sometime in April I figure. Looking for some feedback on one of my ship designs. Needs some work but what do ya think?

[Udderdude]

Looks extremely basic, needs some more detail on the tail end and the wings could be a bit less wide.

[agustusx]

Looks extremely basic, needs some more detail on the tail end and the wings could be a bit less wide.

I've been thinking bout what to do with the tail.

Talking about detail, what do you think bout the tank then, is it any better? ignore the ground..

[Udderdude]

Tanks don't need much detail but it looks a bit too rectangular.

[agustusx]

thx for the feedback

[Erik.S]

Hello! This is my first post as I just stumbled across this forum! I'm developing a vertical shmup for Xbox 360 called Rive.
It's still a WIP, but at least it's starting to look like a game. Let me know what you think!

[Udderdude]

Are those bullets casting shadows? That really shouldn't be necessary. If anything, ditch the shadows and make the bullets brighter/add a glowing effect to them.

[Erik.S]

Are those bullets casting shadows? That really shouldn't be necessary. If anything, ditch the shadows and make the bullets brighter/add a glowing effect to them.

That's so true! Thanks for the feedback. I'm really new to shmups in general, so I expect to do a lot of stupid things.

[hermitC]

I'm currently working on Nordenfelt, a steampunk shoot em up for PC. It's in alpha state now. Screenshots and at least one video should be released within the next days. More information can be found at my dev-blog at http://www.blackgolem.com or by subscribing to the newsletter at http://www.nordenfelt-thegame.com.

Sorry that there are no screenshots included in this post. I'm going to correct this ASAP.

[Odessi]

Finally got around to doing some more demo effects for my bullet scripting language, and fix some bugs/documentation at the same time. Who knows, I may be able to actually start making a game with it, now!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-aEbAYI4lE

[X-0ut]

Firstly, Hi!
I'm new to this board, but love creating games and most of all, I love shmups
Currently working on an horizontal scroller, its a long way from being 'finished'


More info can be found on my blog
This is currently the 3rd shmup I have created, and plan to make this my best game so far.

[Aru-san]

This reminds me a lot of Einhander for some reason.

As for me, I've gotten back into the development bandwagon trying to work on a shmup that involves "kill-waves-quickly-for-more-waves" and a dynamic skill level system.

[Udderdude]

Glad you decided to show up, X-Out. I like that video of the walking robot. Good luck with the Einhander-em-up :O

[codergames]

I'm working on Galaxide. I use my own engine, it took me almost a year to make the engine and the first game called Invader Attack. The engine is written in C++ and some code is in faster C. It uses SDL to handle input and OpenGL to handle graphics.

Here's Galaxide gameplay video, the game is in Alpha state as of today, the video is few days old:

http://codergames.com/news/games/galaxi ... -sample-2/

Let me just repeat once again, I'm not making games to compete with anyone, I'm just doing what I love, trying to be original at the same time. Although Invader Attack is original in terms of unique features not present in any other shmup, Galaxide is a classic shmup with different graphic effects and different music style.

[Alec44]

Firstly, Hi!
I'm new to this board, but love creating games and most of all, I love shmups

Im' sure you can make an awesome shmup, the mecha is great, if all the game is like that i'll buy it with no hesitation !

When someone has a real passion for shmup, a "culture" a good game design and a good gameplay can birth !

[relminator]

X-Out is da man!!! I like the screens dude!

As for me, I've just finished my pattern editor for the DS SHMUP I'm devving.

Bullet Rel Designer

Download:

http://rel.betterwebber.com/junk.php?id=113




PS. I hope someone submits patterns to me. ;*)

[Xonatron]

Working on Duality ZF, shooting for the illusive XBLA contract:













These and more screenshots here: http://xona.com/2010/08/19.html
Official site: http://dualityzf.com/

(CONCERN: If these image sizes spoil the thread I'll adjust them.)

[Udderdude]

Matt: You might want to make those links, pretty huge images.

Lots of stuff going on in them though. Are there going to be any organized patterns?

[Dave_K.]

The first and second screen shots look like organized patterns to me. The red firey hell screen shot looks awesome!

[Xonatron]

Our game is not a "bullet hell", rather a "manic" shmup, if I have the terminology correct. Please correct me if I do not. I am somewhat lost with it and I'm not sure if proper definitions exist. What I do know is, we are not a true bullet hell.

Our bullet hell game mode is just slower player fighters and slower enemy bullets with much more enemy bullets (when compared to our regular game mode). So there is little overall bullet patterns in the overall screen-load of bullets, unlike a true bullet hell, but the "find a path through the tons of slowly moving bullets" concept still exists. We also shrink the hitbox (I think), if not the hitbox of all the game modes was shrunk to match the smaller bullet hell game mode hit box size.

The above changes truly make a difference from our regular game mode. Each enemy, has it's own pattern but is often randomized to be basically the same, but not quite the same, each time. The first screenshot (3rd stage boss) above show this. This is on purpose. It is a style we chose. We chose to overload the screen ala Thunder Force II style, with lots of simple enemies contributing to the bullet mess, rather than Cave shmup style where few enemies create amazing and beautiful bullet patterns.

I ranted a bit there, but hope it explains it. Would love your thoughts.

EDIT: So to answer your question, yes there are organized patterns from every enemy, but they can and will get lost with too many enemies on screen, so the most you will see them is in the boss fights. It is nothing as you would expect from a bullet hell game.

Should I shrink those images? I noticed it didn't ruin the forums formatting too much.

[nicolasbol]

I started working on shumps after X-out released the source code for his first game: Prototyp. I tried to port it to Java (http://fabiensanglard.net/Prototyp/index.php), even though I knew neither C++ nor OpenGL at the time.

I've learned a lot about openGL since and now I am trying to get something together on iPhone:

http://fd.fabiensanglard.net/shmup_wip/ ... titled.mov




It is so much work over such a extended period of time, I have grown a new respect for people that actually manage to ship something.

[Ebbo]

Our game is not a "bullet hell", rather a "manic" shmup, if I have the terminology correct. Please correct me if I do not. I am somewhat lost with it and I'm not sure if proper definitions exist. What I do know is, we are not a true bullet hell.

So you clearly understand the distinction made between "bullet hell" and "manic" shooter... Yet you've named that game mode "bullet hell" although it's more like "manic"? *confusion* Okay nevermind I'm just nitpicking. But here is a bit more significant rant:

Like Udder said, there are lots of things going on in those pictures and I think one problem is with enemy bullets. They all look the same. Actually is there any other bullets besides those small dots? Different bullet types with varied sizes and shapes would most likely help player to identify different bullet patterns (or barfs) and make dodging easier. At its current state it's just a big mess and looks boring as well. Also, I don't really like those black outlines around bullets - they just won't fit.

Edit: And change those GIGANTIC pictures to links, please.

[Jason]

Ebbo, the entire game of Duality ZF shouldn't tecnically be classified as a "bullet hell", but instead a "manic" shooter. However, only the hard core shoot em up fans even know these terms -- most have never heard of "shmup" -- I have people tell me this all the time, which is why we still promote the game as a "shoot em up". And everyone is calling our game a "bullet hell", heck they even call Aegis Wing a "bullet hell". When we decided on having one of the game modes more bullet hell-like, we decided to call it "bullet hell"... "manic" just wouldn't serve the public, and no other names fit. And besides, I'm not sure if it's not a "bullet hell". There's a hell of a lot of bullets, and while they don't have specific patterns as most bullet hells do, you'll find that the game play is more about skill in evading rather than knowing where to be (although there is a genius in that, and we do want more of this in retrospect).

The enemy bullets have a black outline so they are always visible no matter what chaos is going on in the background, over any terrain, over any explosions, they are even drawn over the HUD. However, I agree they could look better, but the black line is likely to stay, so that you can see them! I even went as far to include a mode that tested over 25 different bullet drawing styles that could be changed during game play and it was the only one that really worked. However, I may still give them more of a glow around the black.

The bullets are colored differently, depending on what gun they came from. This helps distinguish where they came from, so you can use their motion, direction, and color to discern between them. We purposely made the bullets all similar in style and speed to make the difficultly not arise from surprises of fast bullets, but from more complex patterns that you need evade. However, perhaps we could revisit this. Keep in mind this game started with the idea of very simple roots (a 2 month project) and has grown considerably (2 years), so we are revisiting a lot of these ideas, since we realize simplicity has its genius, but it made be holding us back in other areas.

All feedback is welcome.

P.S. Trust me, the Bullet Hell mode is not boring, if anything it's the one mode we need to tone down.

[eebrozgi]

The bullets are colored differently, depending on what gun they came from. This helps distinguish where they came from, so you can use their motion, direction, and color to discern between them. We purposely made the bullets all similar in style and speed to make the difficultly not arise from surprises of fast bullets, but from more complex patterns that you need evade.

You mean that the player would really get confused from a bullet that's not shaped / isn't the same size as the normal round bullet? I doubt it. I would guess that different kind of bullets keep things more interesting that just plainly recolouring the same bullet over and over again.

[Jason]

You mean that the player would really get confused from a bullet that's not shaped / isn't the same size as the normal round bullet?

No, that's totally not what I meant at all. I was just explaining our logic of keeping things simple (it was originally meant to be a simple game), and our steps to provide visibility and understanding despite everything being so simple (colors unique per gun helped a lot).

I would guess that different kind of bullets keep things more interesting that just plainly recolouring the same bullet over and over again.

Yes I agree. Our original plan was to mimic such exotic bullets using clusters of the bullets we already had, and we do have laser-like streams of bullets, to add variety. I have also been itching to make destructable bullets (either projectiles and/or missiles), but not sure if I will.

Please note the bullets are color coordinated to the gun, not just randomly. So when you see that spread of 5 greens coming at you, you know what gun shot them and from what enemy, since it's consistent. Further, patterns within a single enemy or boss will have different colors from each gun, to further help distinguish what's going on.

Our philosophy is "Give power to the player" which means give them as much information as possible to allow the difficulty of the game to arise from your opponent and not your limitations. Even the constant bullet speed was to help follow this. However as we've realized with graphics that sometimes visibility has to be sacrificed (though we're still working hard to preserve this, since it's vitally important for ultimate gameplay), we also realize that our standpoint on keeping things simple may not make for the most fun game. So we're revisiting a lot of these issues... and all your feedback is great. Thank you so much for it.

[Dave_K.]

Besides color, multiple bullet shapes would help the player identify bullets from particular enemy, even in the midst of a barrage of other bullets. They don't have to be drastically different, and can be similarly sized with black outline like the plain circle ones, but oblong, star shaped, spinning animation, etc. would help identify overlaying patterns in the bullet spam. Just a suggestion to try out.

[Jason]

Besides color, multiple bullet shapes would help the player identify bullets from particular enemy, even in the midst of a barrage of other bullets. They don't have to be drastically different, and can be similarly sized with black outline like the plain circle ones, but oblong, star shaped, spinning animation, etc. would help identify overlaying patterns in the bullet spam. Just a suggestion to try out.

Good suggestion. I originally had stars shaped bullets, but found the circles were the easiest to see. But I may be able to throw some star shapes in there relatively easy -- with the new bullet design they may actually be visible. Thanks!