BREAKFORCE FINISHED !

[Alec44]

Breakforce V1

this one is playable with keyboard (or with joytokey)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FBKP3ZJN

this one is playable with a basic USB pad (there are some bug with several pads)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FY90G7LR

password "breakforce"


Some screenshots :




how to play ;


-button 1 (backshot)
-button 2 (wave)
-button 3 (front shot)
-button 4 (ballup/balldown)

-bouton 6 (homing missiles)
-bouton 8 (homing laser)

there are some "green capsules" in the different levels, shoot them and it will increase the score !

the game is quite difficult but it can be 1CC with little training !



There is a little introduction( just wait at title screen) and two endings !

[Udderdude]

That looks pretty cool. Is the art all original? I can't really tell.

[Alec44]

That looks pretty cool. Is the art all original? I can't really tell.

No, i'm not an artist, i 'm not skilled at all to draw sprite or backgrounds, even compose music !

I ripped the sprites from the following games :
-aero blasters
-in the hunt
-hyper duel
-strato fighter
-thunderforce 4
-front mission gun hazard, etc etc....


Sorry to come here just to talk about a fan made shmup but i hope game design and gameplay will enjoy someone.....

[Alec44]

No one ?

[ZOM]

Give it some time, some people might not have all too much "free-time" during the week(and previous weekend)

[Alec44]

Pictures of level 3, a chase after an ennemy prototype, in this level the player can blast the big red flagships (pic2), when it occurs the flagship split into two (with a very small rotation), this is up to the player to avoid this !

There is also mines and an entire ennemy division to blast !



And this is the level 4 "submarine attack" but it is done about 5%

[Udderdude]

Well seeing as you're using all borrowed art, there's nothing much to judge until you post a video of the game in action, or a demo for people to try out.

[nZero]

Well seeing as you're using all borrowed art, there's nothing much to judge until you post a video of the game in action, or a demo for people to try out.

And two videos :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdtm2v ... videogames
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdqgbb_demo_videogames

The game: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BF5VTK3P
joytokey (with the good config) : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZKQ64ZLW

[Alec44]

Level 1 to 4 are playable !
4 levels with their boss !

I' a french guy from shmup.com, sorry for the bad english !

[Alec44]

Big voice : "Plaaaaaaayyyy it, play it this is an order" !!!!

[BPzeBanshee]

Nicely done, a few criticisms at the moment:

- Please, externalise your files. One EXE that's 50 MB in itself has a long loading time. If you dont know how to do this I can help out since I've started doing the exact same thing in my game project.

- Stage 1 is too long and too hard in the later sections. Difficulty curve is allright until you reach the red ball things that shoot big laser bullets. Might just be me though, you'll probably want some more opinions in this area before you decide to change anything significant which is fair enough.

- Please explain controls. You have two opening sections that have no use besides postering large pictures, maybe use the second one just to explain the firing control buttons and stuff.

Besides that, the game looks reasonably consistent, though you might wanna check on the Thunder Force ones, I suspect there's a bit of black inside them that you could improve, since they stood out like a sore thumb compared to everything else.

Keep us posted.

[Alec44]

- Please, externalise your files. One EXE that's 50 MB in itself has a long loading time. If you dont know how to do this I can help out since I've started doing the exact same thing in my game project.

- Please explain controls. You have two opening sections that have no use besides postering large pictures, maybe use the second one just to explain the firing control buttons and stuff.

Thank you

-yes ......externalise files (i don't know how to do that), do you think if i externalise backgrounds and music only it will be all right (without music, the game was only 4,5mo)?

-And the controls, yes i will put a little tutorial just after the main menu !
the difficulty will ba ajusted but a good player can go to stage 4 without lose a ship !!!

I've set the difficulty like this, yes i know it can be tougth sometimes but the hitbox is very small versus ennemy shots or even against walls but the red things will be deleted, normally they appears only at level 2 !
And with a pad this is far easyer !

[BPzeBanshee]

-yes ......externalise files (i don't know how to do that), do you think if i externalise backgrounds and music only it will be all right (without music, the game was only 4,5mo)?

If it was only 4.5 MB without the music then definitely externalise those. As a whole it wont necessarily improve the size of the download (being in a ZIP with the files it may actually end up being larger give or take a MB or two) but it'll definitely be worthwhile in terms of loading times as well as give you some experience with externalising files. I'll send you a PM regarding this soon.

-And the controls, yes i will put a little tutorial just after the main menu !
the difficulty will ba ajusted but a good player can go to stage 4 without lose a ship !!!

I've set the difficulty like this, yes i know it can be tougth sometimes but the hitbox is very small versus ennemy shots or even against walls but the red things will be deleted, normally they appears only at level 2 !
And with a pad this is far easyer !

Oh so THAT was what the little flashing thing that I had to squint my eyes to see was....I'll probably play through it again a few more times but now that I know that I'll probably do better considering I know most of the controls now. XD

But yeah, these red things were there at the end of Stage 1 specifically and bumped up the difficulty significantly for me (assuming the hitbox was the entire ship). I also could've sworn one of the large carriers dissappeared out of existence abruptly but I'll need to play it again to be sure.

[Alec44]

ideal config for joytokey


The game is quite better playing with a joypad, so, before i fix the controls directly, i suggest you to config key in that way :


directions :
Left =arrow-left
right =arrow-right
up = arrow-up
down = arrow-down

buttons :
Bt1 =W (3 way backshot)
Bt2 =X (wave, go through walls)
Bt3 =C (twinshot)
Bt4 =V (upward /downward shot)
Bt5 =n/a
Bt6 =N (5 ways homming missiles)
Bt7 = n/a
Bt8 =Q (single search laser, weak but it can go through walls)

[BPzeBanshee]

Joy2Key has been renowned for lag input issues using Game Controllers, I recommend using Xpadder instead. Later versions require you to buy it but v5.3 shouldn't be too hard to find and it works just fine.

[Alec44]

Yeah, i heard about xpadder !

But i will use an extention of GM to enable pad support in the final version !
(for the moment, i don't know how to use it....) !

[Alec44]

I'm working on level 4....
An underwater attack to enter the secret ennemy base !

During this level there will be various deadly trap, an entire cave will fall off on the poor player, gigantic submarines will fire mines (other various ennemies) and the boss (the machine will be able to handle water to destroy the player !

But i don't want to talk to much


To be continued....

Edit, during the title screen, there is a little red square thing...this is only a timer for test purposes....
The hitbox is the green cockpit of the ship (aproximately 5/3 pix)

[BPzeBanshee]

Finally made it to second stage (thanks to finding out about the Missile function), at first I thought it was rigged since it seemed to home in and wipe everything real quick, then I died at the second stage where nothing seemed to destroy the rocks in time before I got pushed into them. :O

Also, your High Score system doesn't seem to work cause after you put in your name it resets and does not save your previous scores.

And is there meant to be music in the existing demo? Cause if so, it's not playing on my computer.

[Alec44]

And is there meant to be music in the existing demo? Cause if so, it's not playing on my computer.

I used "moon of blackrain" for the first stage, is this one works ?

[BPzeBanshee]

No I hear absolutely no music at all. I hear the sound effects of the weapons (which some of them are a bit loud so its not a volume problem on my end), but no music at all whatsoever.
EDIT: Looking through some forum threads reveals that Game Maker's standard method of playing MP3 files does not work on some computers, and it only plays one file at a time. I think it's about time you learnt how to make use of GMFModSimple.

[ED-057]

I tried this game and the music worked fine here. I agree that the first stage is a bit long. Then after finally reaching the boss area it was game over in about 6 seconds.

Oh! an enemy is firing at me from... BEHIND! I'll take `em out with a reverse shot. Heheh! *presses A button* Oops, not that one... *presses B button* Crap, that's not it either... *presses Y button* Where'd that dern reverse shot go? *presses X buSPLOSION!!!

[Alec44]

Oh! an enemy is firing at me from... BEHIND! I'll take `em out with a reverse shot. Heheh! *presses A button* Oops, not that one... *presses B button* Crap, that's not it either... *presses Y button* Where'd that dern reverse shot go? *presses X buSPLOSION!!!

There are several extra lives in level 1 ! (play with a pad with the config above !)
I know the first level is quite long but i don't want to make a thunderforce 6 with 30 seconds levels !

[BPzeBanshee]

There are several extra lives in level 1 ! (play with a pad with the config above !)
I know the first level is quite long but i don't want to make a thunderforce 6 with 30 seconds levels !

I only saw one extra life in Stage 1, and that was right towards the end, which in itself I swear took ten minutes to reach. Fair enough not having it being a 30 second one like TF 6 but cut out a few of the useless plane parts please. This is only Stage 1 and there's just not enough in the level to excuse for the length.

Also, not a high priority, but a menu-based config option for the weapon keys would be good too, considering the variance in what the key controls are now.

[Kaiser]

Oh! an enemy is firing at me from... BEHIND! I'll take `em out with a reverse shot. Heheh! *presses A button* Oops, not that one... *presses B button* Crap, that's not it either... *presses Y button* Where'd that dern reverse shot go? *presses X buSPLOSION!!!

There are several extra lives in level 1 ! (play with a pad with the config above !)
I know the first level is quite long but i don't want to make a thunderforce 6 with 30 seconds levels !

Uh taking out 20-30 seconds would'nt hurt the level so stop making excuses! It's nothing bad, it will make the game more engaging/exciting for players. Main menu needs LOTS of work. Don't diss us keyboard players and implement "Configure Controls" option for us keyboard players so we don't get confused while playing but you can implement that much later once you've got CORE elements of the game down, focus on the core gameplay right now and shorten up stage 1 bit please. Long stages never do good impressions on people. Actually first few stages being long never do. Stages being long can be only understood in last 3-4 levels. Lots of variety NEEDS to be put into levels to keep player's interest. Keep it going and listen to us! That way, you'll make a hell of a game for us to play. Good luck

[Alec44]

Level 4 the wip in the water was boring after all.....

I will built a "semi sumerged" level with corridors and some traps, something more "exciting" .....

[Alec44]

Breakforce V1

this one is playable with keyboard (or with joytokey)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FBKP3ZJN

this one is playable with a basic USB pad (there are some bug with several pads)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FY90G7LR

password "breakforce"


Some screenshots :




how to play ;


-button 1 (backshot)
-button 2 (wave)
-button 3 (front shot)
-button 4 (ballup/balldown)

-bouton 6 (homing missiles)
-bouton 8 (homing laser)

there are some "green capsules" in the different levels, shoot them and it will increase the score !

the game is quite difficult but it can be 1CC with little training !



There is a little introduction( just wait at title screen) and two endings !


I made a "real" level design, no random ennemies !
Action during seven levels with bosses....

6 different weapon, the player can use his favorite or one weapon for one situation !

[Dave_K.]

FYI, every doujin shooter uses letter keys ZXCV for buttons 1-4 and sometimes uses ASD as additional 5-7 keys if needed. The letter keys you assigned look random. I know joy2key or xpadder configs can change this, but I use a JPAC, and its a pain to reprogram the jpac for keys I'll only use for one game, so why not just go with standard keys?

Also, whats up with those green capsules? It says to shoot it right at the start of the game, but my fire goes straight through it, then my ship ends up crashing into it. Is this a bug or what?

[Alec44]

Also, whats up with those green capsules? It says to shoot it right at the start of the game, but my fire goes straight through it, then my ship ends up crashing into it. Is this a bug or what?

You must consider this like an ennemy !

And for the key config (i'm in azerty) i can understand its a pain in the ass to config !

[wondersonic]

Breakforce V1

And what will come for the next version

[BPzeBanshee]

Breakforce V1

And what will come for the next version

SmashForce, where you smash your controller in frustration to the game's control mapping and extreme difficulty of course!

I'm kidding. I can actually see the logic for having the numbers on the number pad as they are (especially if you were say, a left-handed keyboard user) but the ZXCV system really is the preferred industry standard.

I'm really looking forward to trying this game out next time I get the chance nonetheless.