Serious Sam Double D

[MommysBestGames]

Hi all,
Between run-n-guns and shmups it's a tough call for me--I love them both. A huge draw for me to Contra has always been playing further, and encountering a new bad guy that I have no idea what he's going to do. I'm sure a good number of forum-goers here also enjoy borderliners so I figured this could be of interest to some.

Serious Sam Double D is our (Mommy's Best Games) current game and is going to be released to PC in mid-August. It's in the vein of our first game Weapon of Choice, so "Contra-on-acid" style (as it's been described), .. which should be expected with Serious Sam!
Oh, and it's all official--Croteam asked us to work on this as part of their 'indie series'.
They said make the best 2D Sam we could dream up. thus the Gun stacker was born!


Game runs at 1280x720 (with different aspect ratios possible), but this screen showing a 'corpse piling' scene is shrunk down to fit here. Full res here.
UPDATE: The max resolution is now 1680x1050.

The Gun stacker works off connectors you find hidden throughout the levels and lets you mix-match-and-add your weapons any time, depending on bad guys you're up against. You can have up to 6 guns stacked on top of each other at a time, all firing with one trigger press.

Here's the gameplay trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taIp39spHq4

And this Rock Paper Shotgun article has lots of action screens from a recent playthrough:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07 ... us-sam-dd/

Other info: 18 levels for campaign, 3 different areas, +25 weird-o enemy types, 32 guns, 12 challenge rooms

I hope you dig it and if you have any suggestions or complaints based on what you see, or what you've had issue with in the past from Abuse-control-style run'n'guns on PC, (like 'please let me remap controls', etc) please fire away! We may not be able to address everything at this stage, but I welcome all feedback.

UPDATE: Serious Sam Double D will release August 30th, on PC for $7.99 on Steam, Impulse, GetGames, IndieCity, Desura, and other digital stores.

UPDATE 2: The game is on sale now for $7.99. Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/111600

-Nathan

[Damocles]

Looks interesting, and appears to capture the Serious Sam style in 2d. I will say, however, that the mention of quicksaves in the Rockpapershotgun article has me worried.

[Sumez]

Also you need to work on the cover art. Otherwise, looking interesting.

[spoot]

Woot! I see "chicken mechs".

[Obiwanshinobi]

Are the movement controls digital, as they should be in this kind of game? I'd like to be able to control the dude with d-pad and the guns with the right analogue stick. I don't have a problem with mouse and WSAD as such, wouldn't choose to play an FPS or Max Payne etc. with a joypad, but last time somebody came up with the Abuse-like control sheme in a game without proper joypad support, I was no good with WSAD (poor performance on my rig didn't help, though).

[MommysBestGames]

Looks interesting, and appears to capture the Serious Sam style in 2d. I will say, however, that the mention of quicksaves in the Rockpapershotgun article has me worried.

In what way does the quicksave worry you? Serious Sam in general relies pretty heavily on that ability. I like it a lot because the game's are difficult, but you get to effectively set your own checkpoints and in forward in tough spots.
That said, Double D also has checkpoints in place, in addition to letting you quicksave any time. Basically the checkpoints act like an automatic quicksave. We found a lot of people forgetting to quicksave and having to replay a lot, thus the frequent checkpoints.

Are the movement controls digital, as they should be in this kind of game?

Yes, the movement is fully digital. You can play with the controller or keyboard-mouse and can remap the controls as you'd like. I prefer the controller but often test with the WADS and but in general it's very responsive. They keyboard defaults to WADS+mouse, and the controller defaults to left stick moving, and right stick aiming.

You can also set an option to have the player jump when pressing up on the left stick, and another option to have him jump down (through certain background sections) when pressing down on the left stick.

[maxlords]

That is such an odd graphical style. Made me feel like I was watching a kids show or something. Seems like a pretty irreverent game even for a Serious Sam title. On the fence about it...would have to play it I suppose. I'm a big fan of the series, so I'll at least give a demo a spin.

[Ghegs]

In what way does the quicksave worry you? Serious Sam in general relies pretty heavily on that ability. I like it a lot because the game's are difficult, but you get to effectively set your own checkpoints and in forward in tough spots.

To my ears, this sounds like "We're unable to make a game with good, balanced, tough-but-fair difficulty, so let's put in quicksaves."

That said, Double D also has checkpoints in place, in addition to letting you quicksave any time. Basically the checkpoints act like an automatic quicksave. We found a lot of people forgetting to quicksave and having to replay a lot, thus the frequent checkpoints.

If there's checkpoints already, why have quicksaves as well? Is it just so the casual player won't break down, cry and start spouting off how the game is unfair and stupid?

[Sumez]

True, the 3D Serious Sam games rely on quicksaves, it's simply a different kind of game than the arcade games people here are used to playing. But it's still action packed and fun as hell - I like them a LOT more than just about every other modern FPS.

What makes people react negatively to quicksaves in this game is the fact that it looks like a Contra like arcade style run'n'gun game, so people expect it to play like one, which requires a possibility of doing an insanely-hard-yet-possible no-miss run through every stage in the game.

You play these games for a challenge, to see how well you can do, how far you can get and how high you can score. You don't play them to get "an experience" from one end of the game to the other, like you do with most FPS games.

Quicksaves, like checkpoints with infinite extra lives, healthbars and a plethora of healing items, etc. are all items used by "euroshmup" type games, which make the games more appealing to people who aren't good at playing that sort of games but at the same time alienates everyone who'd normally dig that kind of a game. It also makes it possible for the developer to "cheap out" and make sections in the stages that are practically impossible to clear without using quicksaves.

[Observer]

Simple as this: put a "seriously serious mode".

If you wanna get serious: one occasional checkpoint, no quick saves, fewer health items. Hell, drop a continue system for that mode instead. Enemies stay the same (I mean, to make the corpse piles and all, it would be a terribly boring activity to spend 10 minutes killing each mob) but perhaps gain different, harder attacks (especially bosses). Etcetera.

You guys are forgetting this is coming as a PC release. On Steam (right?), the now-officially STG haters combine Valve. Anything that resembles a 2D schmukmup (even if it's a run 'n' gun) gets frowns.

You have to make it accessible and keep people happy or else things will go to hell. Keep in mind you have the whiny kids, the Meta Critic shit, the "is this game worth?" threads, the mainstream sites with their 'reviews', all sorts of lovecraftian shadows lurking around. It only takes a couple of them to rain on your parade and hinder any future releases. AND, like I mentioned to them, it might eventually lead to Shoot1UP being released on PC. That's what you guys should be looking forward to. With the myriad of possibilities to arrange ship formations, almost Homeworld-like, those awesome boss designs and such...

People will still cry it's a hard game because it's 2D and "looks like a SNES game".

[Obiwanshinobi]

You don't play them to get "an experience" from one end of the game to the other, like you do with most FPS games.

One FPS game where checkpoints worked out jolly well in my book was XIII on the PC (the amount of bithing people who played it with joypads aimed at one of my favourite levels - the canyon - makes me think the balance went south on consoles). Not an arcade game by any means. Project I.G.I. games also did checkpoints well in times when lack of quicksaves was almost universally considered a flaw by the PC gaming press.
That said, back in the day I enjoyed Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project for what it was - a game with quicksaves. That is, until it bugged on me rather badly, rendering my playthrough unfinished. Shame It doesn't like the video card I'm using now as I'd like to give it another go. You devs should check out Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project too.
P.S. Just played a bit over a level of Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project with a keyboard. The graphics are obviously dated, but some light sources, particle effects and explosions still look good (second to none of NAOMI games I'd say). As for the gameplay, the controls are pretty bullshitless, the levels as rich in secrets as I remembered, but boy, does the lot beg for some tweaks. Air kick should be killing just about every enemy on spot - this isn't always the case. The Hard difficulty should throw more enemies at you rather than give them more hit points. As it is, the shotgun doesn't come in handy on Hard as the enemies recover and fire back at you faster than you reload. Golden Eagle is more effective in pretty much every situation. I could go on, but the bottom line is: with these assets they could've crafted an arcadey run & gun, but ended up making a game too easy for wrong reasons, where your weaponry appears underpowered on Hard. Except for the mighty effective pipe bombs.

[JoshF]

I would include something like an arcade mode with 3 lives (I don't know how long the game is but if it's really long you could add a 1UP or two, but NOT 25 like Hard Corps: Uprising; a shooter should not be Donkey Kong Country), save states disabled, and less health or health items. Good luck finishing the game. I always wanted a Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project sequel.

[MommysBestGames]

That is such an odd graphical style. Made me feel like I was watching a kids show or something. Seems like a pretty irreverent game even for a Serious Sam title. On the fence about it...would have to play it I suppose. I'm a big fan of the series, so I'll at least give a demo a spin.

Yeah, I realize the art is weird. It's just my art style.
Hope you enjoy the gameplay and it wins you over! Nice avatar btw, my son and I played some Space Gun just this morning.

To my ears, this sounds like "We're unable to make a game with good, balanced, tough-but-fair difficulty, so let's put in quicksaves."

Hmmm.. that's an interesting point and I can see how it sounds like that. I would think that too, but when I play the FPS Sam games, I really enjoy them. They're hard as balls and you're constantly scraping by, looking for health everywhere. I liked that aspect a lot so we kept it in Double D. It's.. weird because I've been working on the game the whole time and while I love Contra,.. the flow is different. More like the FPS versions than Contra.

If there's checkpoints already, why have quicksaves as well? Is it just so the casual player won't break down, cry and start spouting off how the game is unfair and stupid?

Yes. I'll think about putting in an option to turn off automatic checkpoints though.

You guys are forgetting this is coming as a PC release. On Steam (right?), the now-officially STG haters combine Valve. Anything that resembles a 2D schmukmup (even if it's a run 'n' gun) gets frowns.

Wow, you lost me there. does that mean you like Steam or not? I'm pumped Jamestown was released there. I really hope their sales are good.

You have to make it accessible and keep people happy or else things will go to hell. Keep in mind you have the whiny kids, the Meta Critic shit, the "is this game worth?" threads, the mainstream sites with their 'reviews', all sorts of lovecraftian shadows lurking around.

Yeah, it's a pretty crazy balance.

t might eventually lead to Shoot1UP being released on PC.

Yes, that would be nice for sure.

[MommysBestGames]

I would include something like an arcade mode with 3 lives (I don't know how long the game is but if it's really long you could add a 1UP or two, but NOT 25 like Hard Corps: Uprising; a shooter should not be Donkey Kong Country), save states disabled, and less health or health items. Good luck finishing the game. I always wanted a Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project sequel.

Weird.. so this is an interesting point.
How do I convince people this more like the FPS Sam than Contra or Metal Slug? I think the Duke Nukem MP comparison is valid, as there's lots more exploration and goofy secrets than a Contra game, but it's a lot harder than Duke Nukem MP. I guess I'd like to say it without using the previous game names too.

We've talked about including a 'one-hit' mode. Hadn't thought about 'lives' really. But more like a one-hit mode per level. Each time you die, you'd get reset to the start.

[Obiwanshinobi]

...or throw in a time attack mode (would work for DN:MP, but the air kick is too unreliable), maybe with time limit and extends à la Strider, and some penalty for quickloading (say, the number of quickloads displayed next to the score).
Been playing Ninja Five-0 and Kuri Kuri Kururin recently, so I have time attacking on my mind. With this kind of games, I believe, players should be always given the means of speeding things up.

[Sumez]

You guys are forgetting this is coming as a PC release. On Steam (right?), the now-officially STG haters combine Valve. Anything that resembles a 2D schmukmup (even if it's a run 'n' gun) gets frowns.

Wow, you lost me there. does that mean you like Steam or not? I'm pumped Jamestown was released there. I really hope their sales are good.

You have to make it accessible and keep people happy or else things will go to hell. Keep in mind you have the whiny kids, the Meta Critic shit, the "is this game worth?" threads, the mainstream sites with their 'reviews', all sorts of lovecraftian shadows lurking around.

Yeah, it's a pretty crazy balance.

t might eventually lead to Shoot1UP being released on PC.

Yes, that would be nice for sure.

For the record, I didn't write any of that... don't know what happened to your quotes there...

[Observer]

lol, yeah, I wrote that!

Speaking of which, what I meant is that Valve has stated to several devs that they don't like traditional shooters all that much. So getting a run 'n' gun will definitely be a good thing.

[MommysBestGames]

You guys are forgetting this is coming as a PC release. On Steam (right?), the now-officially STG haters combine Valve. Anything that resembles a 2D schmukmup (even if it's a run 'n' gun) gets frowns.

Wow, you lost me there. does that mean you like Steam or not? I'm pumped Jamestown was released there. I really hope their sales are good.

You have to make it accessible and keep people happy or else things will go to hell. Keep in mind you have the whiny kids, the Meta Critic shit, the "is this game worth?" threads, the mainstream sites with their 'reviews', all sorts of lovecraftian shadows lurking around.

Yeah, it's a pretty crazy balance.

t might eventually lead to Shoot1UP being released on PC.

Yes, that would be nice for sure.

For the record, I didn't write any of that... don't know what happened to your quotes there...

Derp, fixed them in the original message. Sorry.

[MommysBestGames]

lol, yeah, I wrote that!

Speaking of which, what I meant is that Valve has stated to several devs that they don't like traditional shooters all that much. So getting a run 'n' gun will definitely be a good thing.

Aahh... yes. Reminds me of Sony back in Playstation 1 and early PS2 days telling devs they didn't want any 2D.
I'll keep you all updated with the Steam progress and if and when it gets approved.

[MommysBestGames]

The Hard difficulty should throw more enemies at you rather than give them more hit points. As it is, the shotgun doesn't come in handy on Hard as the enemies recover and fire back at you faster than you reload. Golden Eagle is more effective in pretty much every situation. I could go on, but the bottom line is: with these assets they could've crafted an arcadey run & gun, but ended up making a game too easy for wrong reasons, where your weaponry appears underpowered on Hard. Except for the mighty effective pipe bombs.

Cool! I've got hard mode set up so you have to deal with more enemies (they're health doesn't change) and tougher enemy types sooner.
And I loved Ninja Five-O.. played through the Time Attack levels as well.

[Observer]

lol, yeah, I wrote that!

Speaking of which, what I meant is that Valve has stated to several devs that they don't like traditional shooters all that much. So getting a run 'n' gun will definitely be a good thing.

Aahh... yes. Reminds me of Sony back in Playstation 1 and early PS2 days telling devs they didn't want any 2D.
I'll keep you all updated with the Steam progress and if and when it gets approved.

Looking forward! I'm loving the enemy designs and I feel it suits Serious Sam like a glove. Hopefully, there shouldn't be any exclusivity thingo so you can release it in other services. Believe me you'll get them bitchin' about DRM and stuff so a Gamersgate/Impulse/etc DRM-free option might help easing their "bitchiness".

[MommysBestGames]

Great news, Serious Sam Double D has been approved for Steam! It's coming out August 30th, for $7.99.
It'll also be on Impulse, GetGames, IndieCity, Desura, and others.
Here's also details on the new higher res (it was a max of 1280 wide, now up to 1680). And the insane trailer the publisher made to showcase the gunstacking mechanic. Enjoy!
http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/08/ ... -30th.html

[Uzumakijl]

Glad to see more Indie devs making more interesting games, I'll most likely end buying this to support you guys and since it looks quite fun and frantic.

But seriously try to get Shoot 1UP on Steam, I would buy that without hesitation looks quite good and Steam lacks decent shmups, Steam users need to be educated with some shmup knowledge every now and then.

Anyways, Good luck with the sales, I hope you guys do well.

[evil_ash_xero]

Serious Sam Double D? I think that was my nickname when I studied Nietzsche, and was addicted to female hormones.


Is that my worst joke yet? I'm trying really hard to get to that peak.

[Observer]

Great news, Serious Sam Double D has been approved for Steam! It's coming out August 30th, for $7.99.
It'll also be on Impulse, GetGames, IndieCity, Desura, and others.
Here's also details on the new higher res (it was a max of 1280 wide, now up to 1680). And the insane trailer the publisher made to showcase the gunstacking mechanic. Enjoy!
http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/08/ ... -30th.html

Crank the res all the way! PC FTW! I'm buying this, not only because I love Serious Sam but because it can really mean Shoot1Up on the comp as well, hehehehe

edit: good god, the guy of the ad! hahaha, I was missing that kind of stuff. CGI shit my balls, all you need is a crazy dude screaming this game has moth·$%$& GUNS!

[Moniker]

Still planning on releasing this on xbox as well?

[MommysBestGames]

Thanks a bunch for the Shoot 1UP support gang! I'd love to bring it to PC, but I'd definitely like it be worth-while so we'll try to get it on Steam which may take some time.

Still planning on releasing this on xbox as well?

Yes, Serious Sam Double D will come to the Xbox 360 this Winter. We're working on an XBLA deal currently.

[MommysBestGames]

Serious Sam Double D is out now on Steam! (And others) for $7.99.
Video, reviews, screenshots here:
http://www.mommysbestgames.com/serioussamdoubled.html
Steam page:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/111600
Enjoy the stackin'!

[Jeneki]

Yea, this is definitely going on my next Steam purchase. I watched one of the videos where he's being chased by a giant hamster wheel, it looks hilarious.

[FIL]

Another +1 for shoot 1up, probably the best shooter on xbox live indie games. I know that doesn't sound like high praise considering the quality of most of the shooters on there but it's a really good game. Double D looks awesome too.