Invader Attack and Galaxide

[codergames]

Hi guys, I was referred to this section by worstplayer to post some work. Two games, one was finished in April this year, the next one could be finished in 1-2 months or so.

Invader Attack (very original and unique name, deliberately made to be very catchy and awesome):
http://www.codergames.com/games/gamedet ... er-attack/
game play video:http://codergames.com/news/games/pc-com ... tack-game/
recent review, done by some guy who played it thoroughly (rating 7/10): http://captaind-pc-gaming.blogspot.com/ ... ttack.html


Galaxide (unstable alpha state, lots of bugs):
just a short game-play video: http://codergames.com/news/games/galaxi ... me-sample/

[worstplayer]

Played Invader Attack for a while, here's a couple of recommendations:

Remove the inertia and add autofire. It's a small change, but seriously, at least try it. You'll see the game will become much more enjoyable when you don't have to wrestle with controls and can concentrate on actual combat.

You can't see your score while you play. You have this nice online hiscore table (kudos for that, great feature), but I can't see my own score while I play? Why? And healthbar too.

[codergames]

I struggled so long with both casual and non-casual players, getting all sorts of contradictory emails. Originally my game had an autofire and was slow paced game, slow shooting, slow everything, because I'm a casual player. But since there were more demands from the people who wanted more action, more speed, more everything, so I had to try meeting all the wishes and, naturally, failed miserably. But, since the price was lowered, people don't seem to mind anything. I'm not getting any emails.

There's no hud display, no score, no interference on the screen, one of the wishes of casual players. So you have many contradictions in the game and the whole screen reserved just for the action. While you can't understand the game from a single play, you can get some, limited, impression. The game is actually more strategic, because of the AI. The more you shoot with no purpose or clear goal in mind, the more likely is that you'll get all the invaders very angry and get killed.

... and just to add that Galaxide will be more for regular players than casual. The spaceship will still behave with slight inertia, but since the movement will be in all directions, it won't be that noticeable.

All my games support and will support a gamepad, since I'm a gamer coming from oldies like Galaxian, Galaga, Donkey Kong, etc. I've spent fortune on those machines and it doesn't seem natural to me not to have a gamepad on a PC. Believe it or not, most of the casual players required me to make mouse controls!? ... to hell with that

[ShmupSamurai]

rule #1 of all shmups: Inertia = bad.

also, casual gamers don't know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to shmups.

Also, being able to see me score is important.

Also, unless you're playing Vulgus or Uridium; AI doesn't equal squat in shmups.

[doctorx0079]

Huh, I thought this was going to be the main Invader Attack thread now but it appears to have died . .

[codergames]

Hi,

That's old news, that game is already available. The Galaxide is now in development:

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

I didn't know you guys are interested, so I haven't been posting here.

[microcosm]

While you can't understand the game from a single play, you can get some, limited, impression. The game is actually more strategic, because of the AI. The more you shoot with no purpose or clear goal in mind, the more likely is that you'll get all the invaders very angry and get killed.

When you need a paragraph to mention the concept of rank, I have little faith that you appreciate the subtler nuances of what distinguishes an outstanding shoot-em-up from a mediocre one.

[codergames]

I don't understand what you're saying. I was talking about artificial intelligence which is learning from your moves. The game's first 15 levels are easy, sort of introduction, but still you should be strategic not reveal your moves to AI, as you'll have to find a new strategy very early in the game. The invaders are learning. Of course, there are always dumber invaders on every level, so they kinda affect the other, smarter, invaders and may cause problems. Its a game where AI is unpredictable as opposed to the usual shmups. I was merely trying to be original and my friends and most of the customers like it. Not that I have a lot of customers. The game is not being advertised.

[microcosm]

Your description of your game's A.I. system would be just as applicable as a description of the ranking system in Battle Garegga, whereby a single (24-bit unsigned) variable measures the aggressiveness of all the enemies, and their belligerence increases more rapidly if you're careless with the fire button.

It's a very hard task to specify algorithms for A.I. that are sufficiently smart (for want of a better word) to provide a decent challenge in a real-time strategy game. Usually, those games just allow the computer-controlled players to produce units more cheaply, to offset the greater ingeniousness of the human players.

I wish you every success, but what you wrote makes me worry that your A.I. system might be more of an aspiration than an algorithm. Unless you already have (your own, unpublished) description of precisely how your A.I. works, you're creating a lot of problems for yourself by designing a game around it.

[codergames]

Thanks. My AI has thousands of line and uses dozens of properties and methods in OOP terms. The idea was to make invaders more alive. In the usual shmups they're not that alive in terms of learning and organizing. Space Invaders / Galaxian type of game was ideal for me to realize the idea. It went pretty well. Originally the AI was so smart that my customers complained, so I had to "dumb down" the whole AI code. The game was released in April, demo is available with 14 free levels.