Chaos Streams (upcoming ascii shooter)

[Drum]

http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2011/03/ ... .html#more

Looks hot, also confusing.

[Frederik]

I think the general idea is nice, but I see some real problems with the jerky "character by character" movement of the onscreen objects, instead of smooth pixel-by-pixel animation like in normal, graphics-based games.

In a shmup (similar to racing or fighting games) quick reaction is vital, and an ultra-choppy framerate will pretty likely prevent this game from being more than a gimmick from what I can see. And yeah, the fact that everything is ASCII-based doesn´t make seeing things easier. The later enemies with their little rotor blades are cute, though

It does look kinda cool with the rainbow colors and the funky smartbomb, and I´m a bit of a sucker for ascii art - I used to love ZZT when I only had a weak DOS computer, and a lot of people really make impressive creations with such a limited engine. But that was an adventure game - I don´t really see this working for shmups. Not that I won´t give it a try when and if a demo comes out

And there have been tons of these pseudo-retro games coming out in the last few years, the only recent game in the retro-style that´s been really done really well is Jeff Minters Minotron.

[captpain]

Might be fun, assuming the weirdo color changing stuff doesn't hurt the visibility too much.

[Slump]

As someone who appreciates ascii graphics in Dwarf Fortress and Crawl, both of which I play often, I'm digging the idea. It seems to run impressively smooth from the video but it sounds like it's still early in development so it will be interesting to see how it turns out when he finishes and actual level.

[drei :3]

Reminds me of old LCD games.

8/

8)

8D

8=D

8====D

Is that a lifebar?

8(

I think this can work if the enemy shots don't do fancy speed/direction changes. One could also implement a few very fast bullets and projectiles that pause to adjust their direction without making it unplayable, if these trajectories are drawn before they happen. Given the graphics, I hope the game will be designed around playing in short bursts. It would be an interesting contrast to have "photo-realistic" sound effects.

[Jockel]

8====D
Is that a lifebar?

...or are you just happy to see me?

[Slump]

8====D
Is that a lifebar?

...or are you just happy to see me?

Buh dump bump...

After watching the video again I think I'd prefer having the ability of setting the color fluctuating off. It seems like that'd hurt my eyes over time. I mean you went ascii, why not go monochrome?

[Udderdude]

It's going to be very limited by it's ASCII based resolution. The rainbow colors everywhere aren't helping either.

[Paradigm]

Looks shit.

[Dave_K.]

Been there and done that.



Although technically not played in ascii like Chaos Stream looks to be. I also like the use of color in CS.