Jackal & Hound, inc.

[RNGmaster]

Managed to get 4148031, Grade D

strange, this top score already was there, how did you manage to receive the same up to seventh digit.

Well then, I don't know what my top score is (and I couldn't identify it since I can't enter my name). Sorry I couldn't be of help there.

[Y2135]

Good/bad news.

Shining Armour project was started as my first attempt in shmup genre and in the beginning, I even couldn't imagine what I was trying to do. Giving pretty much time to the developing process, along with studing shmup theory and playing/watching scroll shooters, I witnessed my ideas evolve very fast. Unfortunately, software part had to be remade hundreds of times, and now it's come to the limit.

I decided to restart everything from scratch with gained experience in mind. It will not be the same style of game though. Game will be more casual, story-oriented, definetly slow-paced with some unusual method of destroying enemies. Moreover, it will be horizontal side-scroller for optimal usage of PC monitor. For now this is all I can tell. Thank you very much for all your help and attention, don't leave! I'll try to do my best in this re-attempt=)

If you'll want to have sources of Shining Armour and/or level editor for the game just e-mail me. If you'll want to ask how it all works, e-mail me and of course all game art is free for you to use everywhere you want, just inform me so that I could follow your progress=)

As conclusion, I uploaded my whole working directory with ...
http://www.mediafire.com/?940g1qkmp7u1lc3
... all resources for Shining Armour. To play the latest build start FINALPROJECT.EXE.
Note, that some of the content is GM's, and was used only as reference.

This topic will be later renamed and kept up for informing about progress.

[Udderdude]

It's unfortunate you've decided to abandon this project, but thanks for releasing the resources for everyone to take a look at.

[mjclark]

So is this the end or the beginning?
"Like a man to double duty bound I stand in pause where i shall first begin and both neglect"

[Udderdude]

Well it's make with Gamemaker and appears quite complex, so if someone with a good knowledge of Gamemaker picked it up it could possibly be worked on further. But that person is not me :P

[BPzeBanshee]

I know I can certainly make use of some of the code in there for the sake of GMOSSE's development (credit given, naturally) but at this point in time I don't think I could quite take over as developer for the project. I'd like to but I could not make graphics for the game of consistent quality, so at best it'd be on life support/maintenance mode anyway.

Also, a lot of code stuff is externalised (I never thought I'd see a Game Maker game where key parts of the menu are externalised, now I've seen everything) and written in such a way that it'd take me ages to just know what the hell is going on despite the fact that it appears to be well-organised - basically learning the code of the game inside-out which is very time-consuming which I can't devote myself to at this present time.

A question for Y2135 though: Are you using Game Maker 8.1? I'm interested to know how you've appeared to get TATE working using views but without the noticable distortion.

[Rozyrg]

I'm interested to know how you've appeared to get TATE working using views but without the noticable distortion.

I noticed that too. At first, I thought it might just be the higher resolution disguising it; but then I tried reducing the instructions in my script down to the few given in his - basically, enable view, rotate view, make view visible. What I got was a somewhat malformed display (not stretched properly, things in the wrong places); but no noticeable distortion.

Experimenting some more, I noticed simply taking out the view_hview,view_wview commands had about the same result; but without the additional controls, I can't seem to do anything about the screen stretching too much one way or showing things that should be off of the screen.

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm interested to know how you've appeared to get TATE working using views but without the noticable distortion.

I noticed that too. At first, I thought it might just be the higher resolution disguising it; but then I tried reducing the instructions in my script down to the few given in his - basically, enable view, rotate view, make view visible. What I got was a somewhat malformed display (not stretched properly, things in the wrong places); but no noticeable distortion.

Experimenting some more, I noticed simply taking out the view_hview,view_wview commands had about the same result; but without the additional controls, I can't seem to do anything about the screen stretching too much one way or showing things that should be off of the screen.

I did this with the view_hview stuff and got the screen stretching outside the visible screen on one side and not being stretched enough on the other side. It's possible that this may actually be the fault in Game Maker that causes the blurriness when we DO use the altering of the view.

Note also that Shining Armour always maintains its size the same way around all the time anyway at 768x768 or whatever it is. GMOSSE and XYX do not. This also could be a potential source of the problem as well. Personally I won't be mucking around with it for a while yet, but if you get perfect TATE thanks to these revelations do share.

[Rozyrg]

Hm..I didn't notice that. All I could dig up was the fact that some of the HUD changes position independently of everything else if TATE is active. Don't hold your breath for me finding a solution, though...lol, it's just good to know there's one at all.

.. and should it involve gutting what we already have just to work, a slightly fuzzier TATE mode ultimately ain't so bad.

[S20-TBL]

Lolz....I'm interested in how he did his laz0rs, so I'm digging this up. Though I *did* need to get the SuperSound extension for the GMK to work.

I'm rather surprised at what he did regarding the externalisation process though. That's pretty sleek. =P

As for TATE, I haven't tried rotating the viewport yet, though I did get a peek at his code (which was indeed nothing more than a view angle tweak).

[BPzeBanshee]

Lolz....I'm interested in how he did his laz0rs, so I'm digging this up. Though I *did* need to get the SuperSound extension for the GMK to work.

I'm rather surprised at what he did regarding the externalisation process though. That's pretty sleek. =P

As for TATE, I haven't tried rotating the viewport yet, though I did get a peek at his code (which was indeed nothing more than a view angle tweak).

For the lasers, chances are they're much like what the Korean guy who made DoTonPachi did with image blend and a bit of glow trickery on round objects. Or it could be something more complex that probably doesn't need to be such.

The externalisation stuff really did throw me off there for certain. I'm curious as to how he did it too, though I don't really have the kind of time needed to check out what he's done - I believe it could potentially be manipulated not just for level designs but for enemy object design too. MUGEN: Game Maker Edition perhaps?

[S20-TBL]

The externalisation stuff really did throw me off there for certain. I'm curious as to how he did it too, though I don't really have the kind of time needed to check out what he's done - I believe it could potentially be manipulated not just for level designs but for enemy object design too. MUGEN: Game Maker Edition perhaps?

I had a closer look. Seems what he did was externalize ALL the parameters for enemy behavior, level design and patterns, encrypted the resultant files using a data encryption script, and loaded the relevant parameters into data structures so he could call them up in-game using scripts once the playable room has started up. Pretty ingenious stuff there, and doing this allowed him to put together a level editor similar to the one used by Immortal Defense. Although I do wonder what this does to loading speeds--I remember a similar discussion on this issue somewhere in the TIGSource forums, but that place honestly gives me the willies.

And yes, studying this sort of thing will take an ungodly amount of time. I imagine a tutorial would exist somewhere in the GMC Advanced User forums though...

[BPzeBanshee]

The externalisation stuff really did throw me off there for certain. I'm curious as to how he did it too, though I don't really have the kind of time needed to check out what he's done - I believe it could potentially be manipulated not just for level designs but for enemy object design too. MUGEN: Game Maker Edition perhaps?

I had a closer look. Seems what he did was externalize ALL the parameters for enemy behavior, level design and patterns, encrypted the resultant files using a data encryption script, and loaded the relevant parameters into data structures so he could call them up in-game using scripts once the playable room has started up. Pretty ingenious stuff there, and doing this allowed him to put together a level editor similar to the one used by Immortal Defense. Although I do wonder what this does to loading speeds--I remember a similar discussion on this issue somewhere in the TIGSource forums, but that place honestly gives me the willies.

And yes, studying this sort of thing will take an ungodly amount of time. I imagine a tutorial would exist somewhere in the GMC Advanced User forums though...

On my Mac it takes less than a few seconds between stages (assuming the loading bar is anything to go by) but I imagine stuff like that will be horrible on my legacy PC. However, such a function WOULD be excellent for input recording if queueing the step of say a keypress simluate function didn't have any effects on speed. Queues and lists and stacks are one of those GM things that I don't touch with a bargepole (along with tilesets as I mentioned in Rozyrg's thread) but maybe this may be interesting to take a look at for modifying into such later on.

[Y2135]

I have to say that externalization stuff was a HUGE mistake. In result, I cut off myself from complex enemy behavior and level design. Shining, but useless. Game maker itself is a very good engine for 2d scrollers, no need to f*ck around with external stage editors and other complex things. So... let''s try again?


p.s.: No pre-rendered crap this time, only pure hand-drawn stuff.

[BPzeBanshee]

Holy crap you're back! Didn't expect you to come back after the last project (which despite the pre-renders certainly looked okay if not performance-intensive).

So what are we looking at here? A GM platformer/gun-n-run of sorts?

[Y2135]

Flow of life here in Russia is highly unpredictable so 1 year of absence is ok =D
No, it's shmup. Horizontal and slow-paced. As boring as possible =D (joke)

[Y2135]

[BPzeBanshee]

Not sure if it'd look any better but if the floor spot is actually collidable with the player might I suggest making the blocks on the roofs of the same colour slightly darker (unless you can 'land' on those too)?

[ciox]

Shame about your old Psyvariar-like project, this one looks good too though. Would be cool if that worm enemy busted out from one of the buildings in the background when it came in.

[Y2135]

Level design is just ahead, so all backgrounds are for tech demo purposes only.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzwYtbYH_sQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKufKcjFTbU

[Y2135]

Videoreport #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Kz33_8NkM

[Y2135]

So this is how I'll make environmental part. Urban setting, as you can see.
http://y2135.blog.com/files/2012/07/screenshot115.png
Two-players battle versus turret gun, heavy cannon and armored snake
http://y2135.blog.com/files/2012/07/screenshot118.png

[Y2135]

Ok, I know that spiders can't hang in thin air =) Just showing staff. Click on images to see full-size.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZVtpWC0MOU

[Y2135]

Those are deadly ones!

[Y2135]

Have a question for you, friends.
In "jet-pack hero" style, fly into the wall = death is acceptable or it is an unnecessary challenge?

[Ebbo]

I don't find it all that "necessary". If you at some point need collision damage to spice up your level design, simply use spikes or other hazards like that. Also, you could make running animation ala Lords of Thunder when your character is moving on a flat surface.

[Y2135]

Some platformer aroma I feel from your words! =D
The truth is I want to abstract from platformers and run'n'guns. It has to be a pure scroller, soo..
For example, in Gradius wall collision kills you. In my vision player heroes navigate heavy flying chairs that will surely receive damage from hitting walls. On the other side, while testing I found wall=death really unforgiving.

[BPzeBanshee]

In Deathsmiles there is no collision at all. In one other game (I can't recall which) it allowed some collision with the wall but if prolonged resulted in death. That could work for you maybe.

[Y2135]

Well, Deathsmiles gives more touhou feel, though no walls at all is conceptually appealing.
Death only after prolonged collision is also an interesting idea. Thanks!

[Y2135]

Sorry to wake you. I forgot to tell you something. The things I tell you will not be wrong.
After successfully implemented PAUSE ( ), I decide to write here a note about the in-game controls. Damn that blog thing.
Player has two buttons (and four directions of course) to manipulate a character.
The first button is for primary fire and nothing else.
The second one is for missile fire. Holding down reveals crosshair to choose target for your missile. Meanwhile you cannot move so be careful and choose a target quick. When ignition of the missile is fully up, release button to launch.
By quick tapping the second button player make character to turn around.
That's all. Don't search for all the answers at once. A path is formed by laying one stone at a time.

p.s.: During pause player can choose between unguided (faster, less complex) and homing missile fire.