Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

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ptoing
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by ptoing »

Just played this, and I have to agree it is a bit boring.
Cleared it on Bullet Hell without too much problems.

I think it would be a lot better with somewhat less (popcorn spam) bullets, but making the bullets faster.
Also as someone said it could need a better mix of fixed and aimed stuff.

Also agreeing on the bombs being too much, esp with autobomb. 3-5 bombs max should be enough and the multiplier should be reset of halved or something when you get autobombed.

Artwise it is pretty nice, not caring for the girls much here.
But I have to say that everything is a bit sterile, which I think is due to the fact that there are virtually no animations whatsoever. The playership does not bank, there are no enemies which rotate, no weaponslots on bosses opening and whatnot, not even the bullets are animated. I only played with Ako and I found the playershot was too bright, and thus it flashed too much, hurt my eyes.

All that said this has potential if you tweak the gameplay more and keep at it.
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Just a quick question with regards to TATE modes. I need to know what the expectations are, so that I can see whether I am capable of meeting them.

When in TATE mode should the entire game be in TATE (Menus, opening screens, ending etc.) or is it ok if only the stages you play are in TATE mode, and the rest of the game is in the default aspect ration.
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Kaiser
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Kaiser »

pieterator wrote:Just a quick question with regards to TATE modes. I need to know what the expectations are, so that I can see whether I am capable of meeting them.

When in TATE mode should the entire game be in TATE (Menus, opening screens, ending etc.) or is it ok if only the stages you play are in TATE mode, and the rest of the game is in the default aspect ration.
Obvious answer from the answering machine: Entire game with TATE option on, should be rotated including menus.
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positron
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by positron »

Hello,
I'm french player, your game is awesome, I look forward to see more.
Great job !
+
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Matskat
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Matskat »

pieterator wrote:Thanks for the feedback guys,
emphatic wrote:As this is a vertical game, please add TATE support as well.
ZOM wrote:And yeah, another vote for a Tate option, IMO it's pretty much a must in a vert even if most doujin-verts don't have it either.
I'll have a look at my code to see if it's possible to add a TATE mode. The 640x480 resolution is quite deeply ingrained into the game, but any new shmups I make will definitely take a TATE mode into account from the start (Or be TATE only).

Another vote for tate!

As I am playing this in a cabinet, it would be 100% cooler if TATE were present.

Aside from that.....GREAT LOOKING GAME - PLAYS SMOOTHLY! Very DDP feeling...good work!

(Psst! Tate!)
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Hi guys,

Just wanted to let you know that TATE mode is in the works, a very basic version of which should be in the next release.

I am also currently working on completing Stage 4, and adding two additional characters. You've already met the Ninja character, Haruka. There is also going to be one guest character, bringing the total to four.

Here are Haruka's pallet swaps that will be used in game.

Image
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Is that TATE mode you've got in the works any better than the attempt at implementing it that I sent you by any chance? It certainly isn't ideal but my understanding of Aero Flux' internals (and also surfaces which I've heard could solve this) is pretty limited.
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Rozyrg
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Rozyrg »

The new character art looks great! 8)
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Matskat
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Matskat »

Tate option FTW!

Good call man, I'll have this game in my cabinet as soon as a TATE inclusive version is playable!

I've been rockin' my man Gryzor's GM stuff in a cab lately and goddamn it rocks!

The new character looks great - she's a hottie, good work :twisted:
Looking forward to upcoming versions! Hell yeah!
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Hi guys, just a quick update. Finished my fourth and final character for Aero Flux. I'm sure some of you know her, it's Hatsune Miku the virtual idol. Always helps to have a celebrity in your game :D. You can also check out the high resolution uncropped version here.

Hatsune Miku Pallet Swaps

Image
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

BPzeBanshee wrote:Is that TATE mode you've got in the works any better than the attempt at implementing it that I sent you by any chance? It certainly isn't ideal but my understanding of Aero Flux' internals (and also surfaces which I've heard could solve this) is pretty limited.
Hey BPzeBanshee, I've had a look at your code, but I could never get it to work. But it was your enthusiasm for finding a solution to my problem that made me persevere, and in the end find one I can implement.

What I actually do is resize the rooms and rotate them using the room_set_view() and view_angle[]. But like I mentioned at the beginning of the whole TATE discussion, the 640x480 resolution is quite hardcoded into the game. So a lot of objects think the centre of the screen is 320 not (room_width/2) like a more seasoned programmer might have coded it. So a lot of exception code will have to be added, and I also have to redesign some HUD elements to take up less space as they will now share the screen with all the action. So the game will be finished as a 640x480 game, and then in one go adapted for TATE, but at least I know I can do it now.

The use of surfaces is a very tempting option as it would probably be the easiest (I'm speculating as I haven't given it thorough thought), but some graphics cards don't support surfaces and I want everyone to be able to be able to play Aero Flux. I actually do use surfaces for shadows (Transparent Shadows under options) but I've given the option to use the old school flickering shadows for compatibility.

Thanks again for all your help and encouragement, I hope I can be of similar help to you in the future.
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daliscar
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by daliscar »

pieterator wrote:Hi guys, just a quick update. Finished my fourth and final character for Aero Flux. I'm sure some of you know her, it's Hatsune Miku the virtual idol. Always helps to have a celebrity in your game :D.
This is looking so cool now!
Will Miku still continue with her STG responsibilities in Hector'39 or have you managed to sign an exclusive contract with her for Aero Flux? :lol:
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

daliscar wrote: This is looking so cool now!
Will Miku still continue with her STG responsibilities in Hector'39 or have you managed to sign an exclusive contract with her for Aero Flux? :lol:
Erm, yes she gave me permission to use her in my game, didn't mention anything about copyright infringement or, OH LOOK, A DECOY!!!
Last edited by pieterator on Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

pieterator wrote:
BPzeBanshee wrote:Is that TATE mode you've got in the works any better than the attempt at implementing it that I sent you by any chance? It certainly isn't ideal but my understanding of Aero Flux' internals (and also surfaces which I've heard could solve this) is pretty limited.
Hey BPzeBanshee, I've had a look at your code, but I could never get it to work. But it was your enthusiasm for finding a solution to my problem that made me persevere, and in the end find one I can implement.

What I actually do is resize the rooms and rotate them using the room_set_view() and view_angle[]. But like I mentioned at the beginning of the whole TATE discussion, the 640x480 resolution is quite hardcoded into the game. So a lot of objects think the centre of the screen is 320 not (room_width/2) like a more seasoned programmer might have coded it. So a lot of exception code will have to be added, and I also have to redesign some HUD elements to take up less space as they will now share the screen with all the action. So the game will be finished as a 640x480 game, and then in one go adapted for TATE, but at least I know I can do it now.

The use of surfaces is a very tempting option as it would probably be the easiest (I'm speculating as I haven't given it thorough thought), but some graphics cards don't support surfaces and I want everyone to be able to be able to play Aero Flux. I actually do use surfaces for shadows (Transparent Shadows under options) but I've given the option to use the old school flickering shadows for compatibility.

Thanks again for all your help and encouragement, I hope I can be of similar help to you in the future.
Interesting info.

At the very least then I think the redesigned HUD I managed to come up with would be perfect for the TATE mode unless you have an idea for how to narrow its appearance on the screen further. If you'd like, I can resend it as just the parts that were changed so you can (in theory) just slip it it and it'll work.
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

BPzeBanshee wrote:At the very least then I think the redesigned HUD I managed to come up with would be perfect for the TATE mode unless you have an idea for how to narrow its appearance on the screen further. If you'd like, I can resend it as just the parts that were changed so you can (in theory) just slip it it and it'll work.
Aww Yeah! Finally figured the code out, and got it to work! :D

Man this is awesome I'm definitely going to explore this further. And I finally see what you did with the HUD, although I'll tweek it a bit, maybe move it to the top of the screen. Some menus will also need to be adapted, but it's looking awesome, thanks.

The only thing I'm not a big fan of is changing the screen resolution of Windows, but I guess I'll just have to get over that.

I'll keep you posted.
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

pieterator wrote:
BPzeBanshee wrote:At the very least then I think the redesigned HUD I managed to come up with would be perfect for the TATE mode unless you have an idea for how to narrow its appearance on the screen further. If you'd like, I can resend it as just the parts that were changed so you can (in theory) just slip it it and it'll work.
Aww Yeah! Finally figured the code out, and got it to work! :D

Man this is awesome I'm definitely going to explore this further. And I finally see what you did with the HUD, although I'll tweek it a bit, maybe move it to the top of the screen. Some menus will also need to be adapted, but it's looking awesome, thanks.

The only thing I'm not a big fan of is changing the screen resolution of Windows, but I guess I'll just have to get over that.

I'll keep you posted.
The forced screen resolution was for the TATE method I used which I agree with you there: it's not a good solution and a cheap shot on my end. I think in your case that other method of yours for screen rotation would be much better.

I can see you needing to put some extra effort in considering the hackjob quality of what I'd put in, but if you can get that HUD with your improvements in I think it'd be ideal regardless of yoko/TATE mode.

For those who haven't seen it, here's how my hackjob HUD looks in-game (obviously subject to change with next public beta, and the white text isn't part of it):
Image
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Hackjob? Definitely wouldn't call your efforts that :D You painstakingly went through my code, and in almost no time found a solution to something that took me months. You gave me a proof of concept, which is much more than I could have reasonably expected.

Thanks again for all your work, I owe you one ;)

Ps, could you please send me the latest version of your Aero Flux TATE code, from the screenshot above, it looks like you've added some new things since the previous version you sent me.
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Hmm, odd. I thought that WAS the one I sent you. I'll send you a PM later today when I'm home from school. ;)

(I think I made it so the power level disappears when it's on Max, can't remember what I did there it was that long ago xD)
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cuttingagent
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by cuttingagent »

I'd be willing to do some music for this... for a price. =D
That price being, namely, if you give us the option of using a separate button for focus fire in the config. I know it's one more button, but you wouldn't have to use it if you don't like it and besides, you KNOW you can never have too many options in a shmup. I can't imagine 2 people tryna play on the same keyboard anyway, that's why I have 2 gamepads with me wherever I take my laptop.

...And pretty please one more palette swap; I was instantly disappointed that I couldn't put Satsuki in white. I knew it was the colour I wanted since the moment I laid eyes on her.

If you're interested, you can check out some of my work on souncloud.com/cuttingagent, and a couple bonus tracks on cuttingagent.com.
I have a lot of different musical styles, so whatever I'd make would be tailored to enhance the gameplay to the best of my abilities. It would definitely be a new challenge for me because I've never done work on a game before, but I like a good challenge.

With that said, I also have some unrelated notes on the game in general, mostly just aesthetics as I think other people covered the rest pretty well.

First, let me say I love the look of it. The sprites are beautiful, the landscape reminds me of a higher-res version of Zelda LTTP, the girls are adorable, and the title screen is pretty good.

The enter your name screen is atrocious, but I kinda got the idea it was just there as a placeholder.

The WARNING:BOSS APPROACHING thingy was a bit underwhelming. Maybe bigger, and flashier (as in strobing/flickering). Kinda liked the choice of pink though. Not usually the colour one would use to strike fear into the heart of man but it fits with the game's palette rather nicely.

The character palette swaps should make their ships the same colours as their outfits. Ask any girl you know, and she'll tell you that when she goes out to destroy mechs, she always colour-coordinates with her ship. I'd also really like it if their weapon fire matched their hair colour. Satsuki's already does... why not make it a theme?

My weapon fire seems to be flickering near the top of the screen but I'm not sure if that's just me or other people are having problems with that.

The music volume ducking every time shit's blowing up is far too extreme. If you wanna do that, you should have it be very subtle. There are other good ways of keeping the sound effects audible, like EQing both the music and SFX so they each have their own stronger frequencies.

The sounds in the menu hurt my ears so bad. But I could redo those too.

This one's a minor gripe, but the other character sidebar looks so empty on one-player. I can see that you're going for a screen that's inviting for someone else to jump in at any time, but I feel like I'd rather have a copy of my character mirrored on that side or at least something to fill up the space. Actually, maybe a vertical row of pictures of all the other girl's faces in squares with a big PRESS START thing?

It could also be really cool if the character sidebars were animated. Not constantly, mind you (unless you want to! And I'm certainly not gonna stop anyone from using jiggle physics), just, to have them flash a look of exasperation as a boss approaches, smug look upon defeat, crispy burnt face or full on corpse at game over/continue screen. Maybe a cheat or scoring method to get their clothes off. I don't see why anyone was calling it 'porn' in the comments there, they were clearly fully clothed... but you may as well just spite the haters =)

I agree with everyone that the game is far too easy. Autobomb should be an option in the config and is ideally off by default. I'm not even very good at shmups compared to most others but I consider autobomb cheating/using a crutch that simply won't be there for you in other games. Better to practice and get better IMO. (I do use it in Hellsinker, just cause that game is confusing enough as it is. I'd never turn it on for any game with less than 4 buttons in constant use)

If you're having trouble upping the difficulty at your own skill level, here's something good to keep in mind. If you turn the speed of a bullet pattern up, it's just as possible to beat as it would be if it was slower. The main thing is that there needs to be a space to fit between the bullets. So if you're trying to test something for bullet hell mode, turn the speed down, see if you can beat it, then turn it up to 11!

My ship's shadow is always in the same place, to the right of my ship. Maybe it could kinda gravitate toward the center of the screen just a little, with both left/right and up/down movements. Not sure how realistic that is, but it's something. Or you could just float it right under the ship instead of to one side.

Like I said again, this is a very attractive looking game and I'm really glad it's a 2-player because there simply aren't enough of those. Best of luck on finishing it and lemme know if you'd like to take me up on some sound work. I'll give it a few more playthroughs (5 is enough for now) and pop in if I think of anything else.
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tiaoferreira
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by tiaoferreira »

I dont see any problem with this game. Is very beautiful and It is a very fun game.
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

@cuttingagent - Thanks for all the great feedback.

Boss warning and name entering screen are all rough drafts at the moment, I will hopefully update them in the next update. All the ships are being redesigned as well, and pallet swaps together with banking animations will be added.

As to the comments on the visual aspects, I will take some of them to heart, but some have a good reason for being the way they are. The shadows for instance have to move at the same speed as the ship because I don't use true parallax scrolling. Animating the portraits is a lot of work, and I'd rather spend that effort tweaking other aspects of the game. I can make Satsuki's one pallet swap white though.

Don't worry about auto bombing, It's going to get a serious hit from the nerf stick.

Weapon fire flickering at the top of your screen? Sorry, I can unfortunately not reproduce it on my computer. Has anyone else experienced this anomaly? Please let know.

I've sent you an pm with regards to providing sound for Aero Flux.

@tiaoferreira - Thanks, I'll make sure it stays that way :D
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

He might be referring to the player shots disappearing before they completely leave the screen, which is easily solved by changing the destroy condition to something like this:

Code: Select all

if y < -sprite_width then instance_destroy();
If you use standard GM convention and have your player shot sprites facing to the right to accomodate for directional use then this will work, otherwise just replace sprite_width with sprite_height or an arbitrary number you can put in like -40 that will definitely do the job regardless (but then you might have the issue of enemies getting hit before they appear on the screen if not handled correctly). Of course I'm pretty sure you already know this though.

I do think I saw something like the problem described in Aero Flux but it's been a while since I last played so I can't really recall. Better to be safe than sorry and just nip in the butt with that.
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

The code I use looks like this:

Code: Select all

if y < stage_obj.y-sprite_height+sprite_yoffset{
    instance_destroy();
}
So yes, you can technically hit enemies before they enter the screen, but they only become active when they enter the screen, so it's not an issue. But like I said, I can't see the flicker on my PC, so I can't fix the problem.
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Ah yes, I forget your stages are longer than the actual screen. I'm still getting used to this concept in GMOSSE actually - haven't figured out zone-based instance deactivation so Stage 2 boots with some 400+ wall objects. :lol:

I'll see if I can spot the 'flicker' later today. cuttingagent, does this happen in 2-player only or regardless, and with which ships?
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Greetings all. I'm in the process of redesigning all my ships in order to give them banking animations and and colours corresponding to the characters costumes. This is something I'm planning on doing only one more time, so I thought it would be a good idea to let the community pick out some of the character pallets.

Make your voice heard by simply stating the character's name, and the colour or colours you would like to see (Max 3 please :D).
E.g.
Asuna - Red, Light Blue, Black.

I've given the current pallet swaps below as reference. From left to right, top to bottom:
[Asuna] [Satsuki]
[Haruka] [Miku]
Image
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Not bad, sir. I honestly can't really comment but I'm sure the other guys will help you make the right decision here. Just as long as it's not some ugly orange that hurts my eyes. :P

I guess the ship selection menu isn't keeping the changes I did for showing said characters within the game screen eh? I'm sure I had it implemented in the build I sent you but I had to stretch them horizontally to make them fit to equal halves of the screen, which it looks like you haven't done here.
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pieterator
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by pieterator »

Hello there ladies and germs. Not a lot of time left for you to vote for your favourite colours. I still have some other things to add in, but towards the end of next week I will finalise all the fighters' colour swaps.

Here's a preview of what the fighters will look like in the final version of the game.
Yes those are banking animations :D, and yes I intend to have those white halos around the fighters in the game as well.
Image
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Very pretty spritework. Guessing the cockpit is the hitbox? It's nice to have it visible right on the sprite as opposed to having to guess/figure it out (although games like Progear and EspGaluda that show the hit location during selection/tutorial work too).
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BPzeBanshee
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by BPzeBanshee »

The white outlines would be totally unfitting with the rest of the game graphics, but oh well.

Colours look fine too. Will you have only the one frame for banking animation or is there several planned?
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Giest118
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Re: Aero Flux - Bullet Hell Shooter

Post by Giest118 »

Just commenting to point out that I like the game. And the graphics. And the women. I would have sex with them, almost certainly.

Now, I have no idea how old or new the version in the OP is, so my comments here might be totally irrelevant, but:

I have a concern or two. Is there supposed to be very little difference between Normal mode and Bullet Hell mode, in terms of boss difficulty? I played the two modes almost back to back, and Bullet Hell was only somewhat more difficult. I feel that most of the problem might be that the bullet speed is generally very slow in the boss patterns, giving you actual years to figure out where you want to be to dodge stuff. The stages were definitely harder because of the suicide bullet mechanic, but I'm sure that can be easily overcome with a bit of planning.

I wouldn't have concerns with the difficulty, except that the autobomb mechanic makes it actually really hard to die, in addition to the abundance of bombs you can get just by grazing bullets. Generous autobomb mechanics can be justified if the game is sufficiently difficult (which I don't think this game is), but even in those cases it should punish your score somehow. Even something as simple as lowering your multiplier by a couple of notches.

Like I said though, it looks promising. Let us have a new version to play with soon, hm? :D
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