New XBLIG danmaku shmup Aeternum...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Just noticed a new danmaku shmup listed in the Indie games section of Xbox Live under the title of Aeternum -- is listed on the Japanese region Xblig section as of right now. It's a 117.27mb d/l and is priced at a mere 80 Microsoft points for the taking.

Noticed that you can buy the Aeternum soundtrack at the jesseabishop.bandcamp.com site.

Buttons are reconfigurable on the fly in the Options menu selection screen which is a plus -- this applies to the demo version as well. So break out that Hori RAP EX-SE for some awesome Seimitsu joystick action.

Four difficulty settings are available: Normal, Hard, Demonic & Lunatic.

Is good enough to qualify as an Instabuy!

Is presented in 16:10 letterbox screen format if played on a 15kHz low-res arcade monitor setup running in 480i using a Scart to Jamma setup or in 240p if using an Ultracade UVC with VGA cable setup (and in 720p if played on a HDTV setup via HDMI). Am not sure if a traditional old-school 4:3 screen format is available (perhaps as a hidden option?) -- could be implemented in a future update to satisfy those hard-core gamers using a 360 console hooked up to a candy cab setup. Looks great with proper scanlines with such an old school arcade monitor -- can't get any better than that, folks.

The bullet patterns are impressive.

Reminds me of yoko based shmup titles such as Trouble Witches, etc.

Has a solid arcade-spec 60fps framerate indeed.

Sports an 8-way joystick/D-pad directional movement + 3-button scheme.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[yosai]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Produ ... 0258550c43

[Alfred]

Yes it's very well made one of the better STG's on XBLIG. I agree about the bullet patterns and enemy placement. Wish it had online scoreboards.

[BrooksBishop]

Hello there!

I'm Brooks, programmer, artist and developer of Aeternum. I'm so glad to see the response has been pretty positive so far.

As far as online scoreboards go, I totally wish I could have gotten them in as well. But when it comes to Xbox Live Indie Games, the only choice is to run a workaround involving setting up on the fly sessions between games online to exchange scores, and leaving one Xbox running the game online to act as a seed box. Wasn't worth the headache of implementing with the massive amount of extra development time it would have added.

I'm hoping to move on to a PC release early next year, which should be a much easier platform for implementing centralized online scoreboards.

[Enemy]

Looks nice from the youtube vids i have just looked at. Will give it a go when I get home tonight.

[rancor]

Looks awesome! I'll be sure to get this tonight! Great to see the dev. here as well.

[Alfred]

Hello there!

I'm Brooks, programmer, artist and developer of Aeternum. I'm so glad to see the response has been pretty positive so far.

As far as online scoreboards go, I totally wish I could have gotten them in as well. But when it comes to Xbox Live Indie Games, the only choice is to run a workaround involving setting up on the fly sessions between games online to exchange scores, and leaving one Xbox running the game online to act as a seed box. Wasn't worth the headache of implementing with the massive amount of extra development time it would have added.

I'm hoping to move on to a PC release early next year, which should be a much easier platform for implementing centralized online scoreboards.

I know how the p2p scoreboards works, No problem not all devs can do it. Will you make more STG's for XBLIG's?.

[BrooksBishop]

At the very least I have plans for a (free) update for an Extra boss for Aeternum. So there's more shooting to come there.

As far as continuing with the genre, if it does well I may put the team on a full blown sequel to try and outdo what we've already accomplished.
I do have ideas for for some other different games though, some including STG elements.

At this point, we want to finish up the plans for Aeternum and let the dust settle some before really deciding where to go next.

[Alfred]

Everybody please remember to rate the game, I rated it five stars. A high rating will help with sales.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The screen size can changed as well (from 0% to 150% if so desired at any time, even from the game "pause" prompts -- is another plus in my book). The default setting is at 94% (but the top & bottom black bars on a traditional 4:3 CRT-based TV monitor or arcade monitor setup will still remain). I gave it a solid five star rating as well.

Like the insider nod towards Cave's Progear No Arashi, Death Smiles & Akai Katana's little touch of having your player character press down on the end-boss life bar or pressing up on the player's stats bar to politely move it out of the way during heated moments of danmaku action. Really nice 'n' nifty little embellishment nonetheless.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Chaos Phoenixma]

it looked more like a horizontal Touhou with less loli. but that's just from the demo.

BTW, how many stages does this have?

[BrooksBishop]

Four stages, with seven bosses between them. And I'm working on an Extra boss to add in a patch.

[zendor118]

Bought and added to my collection of indie games... will try to get around to it this weekend!! Glad to see that the dev is here also!

[Softdrink 117]

Picked this up a couple hours ago, have to say I'm very impressed overall. Strong sense of quality in the mechanics, visuals, and soundtrack, and relatively good pacing. Story is fun and light, and all scenes are skippable and can be disabled altogether via options, which adds a lot of replay value.

My only real complaint at this point is that there are a few spots on stage one that suffer from invisibullets. Off the top of my head the only one that comes to mind is the opening to the Archibald fight, but I'm sure there was at least one more. It might just be me/my monitor/whatever, and after a couple plays I learned to watch more closely.

As others have said, it's great to have the dev on here too-- Nice work with this!

[BrooksBishop]

My only real complaint at this point is that there are a few spots on stage one that suffer from invisibullets. Off the top of my head the only one that comes to mind is the opening to the Archibald fight, but I'm sure there was at least one more. It might just be me/my monitor/whatever, and after a couple plays I learned to watch more closely.

Yes, Archibald's first attack does have bullets that are invisible when he fires them, then stop and fade in as they start moving again. This is probably the oldest thing I wrote that's still in the game from when I started working things out with my bullet engine. I like to think I learned a lot since then.

And thank you! I'm glad you like the game.

[rancid3000]

Looks good and I'll definitely buy this later tonight.

[soupbones]

Looks great! Nice find.

[BrooksBishop]

Since you guys are so awesome, here's some free codes for the Aeternum Original Soundtrack!
I think the work of Jesse, our musician, really helped bring the game to life, and I believe you'll all agree.

6m4y-c2g5 - taken
ubp3-xcnf - taken
mvfl-jc5m - taken
f9a4-kw2g - taken

Redeem at: http://jesseabishop.bandcamp.com/yum

[Softdrink 117]

Yes, Archibald's first attack does have bullets that are invisible when he fires them, then stop and fade in as they start moving again. This is probably the oldest thing I wrote that's still in the game from when I started working things out with my bullet engine. I like to think I learned a lot since then.

Oh, I didn't realize it was intentional. I thought it was just a matter of white bullets on white background making it hard to differentiate between the moon and his shots. Either way like I said not a huge deal.

[Klatrymadon]

The game seems great, but I keep having problems with lag. Just 1- or 2-second freeze-ups, after which I usually find my character respawning from a death, hehe. I've tried downloading the game again, but it still happens. Is this affecting anyone else's copy?

(It even occasionally happens at the title screen, for some reason...)

[BrooksBishop]

The game seems great, but I keep having problems with lag. Just 1- or 2-second freeze-ups, after which I usually find my character respawning from a death, hehe. I've tried downloading the game again, but it still happens. Is this affecting anyone else's copy?

(It even occasionally happens at the title screen, for some reason...)

This is about the last thing any developer wants to hear, is someone having isolated problems like this.
Is there any chance we could talk over email and see if we can figure something out? If so, go ahead and send me a message at brooks@wastedbrilliance.com

[Klatrymadon]

Oh, I didn't mean it as a complaint, mate! Just wanted to note a possible tech issue, although I hope it's just something to do with my console.

I can email you a better description of what's happening if it'd help, though.

[BrooksBishop]

I can email you a better description of what's happening if it'd help, though.

That would be very helpful, thanks!

[BrooksBishop]

Dropping by to let everyone know that Aeternum has been updated to patch 1.1 on XBLIG.
The patch fixes a few bugs, adds exit confirmation screens (I know I've accidentally exited a game in the middle of a good score run, haha), and tweaked some difficulty on the easy end slightly.
The biggest change though, is that I actually added a continue system of sorts. If you die on a stage, you can Retry it to keep going if you want to unlock all the stages for practice, or just complete the story. Using a retry zeroes your score though, so a 1CC is still your best bet for a good score!

I'm also hard at work on the Extra stage. I think this boss is my best work yet, both aesthetically and for game play and fun.

In other news, we're running a bit of a challenge contest!
I made Aeternum largely because I like watching people who are really good at shmups play their best games. So, to the first few people to post YouTube videos of 1CCs of Demonic or Lunatic difficulty, we're offering some fun mystery prize packages. If you're interested, you can read more about it at the site: http://wastedbrilliance.com/2012/12/the ... challenge/

Happy dodging!

[xavierjesus]

Squids on drum-kits for the win! Yessurr!

Why though was Head Asplosion not used - that's one of the strongest tracks! (Seriously though, that name - Asplosion? Really? I mean, an assplosion is my usual Sunday morning wake-up...)

Off to purchase this lil' game now, and support you carazy kids.

Ciao.

[Special World]

Pretty solid XBLIndie release.

I do wish you had more aimed shots, though. Playing through, (on normal anyways) it seems like there are a lot of spots where you can just chill out and shoot the boss since the patterns repeat in the same way. It'd be nice to be forced out of the comfort zones more. Also, the bosses sure do have a ton of health :X

Keep up the good work anyways!

[Iori Branford]

I'm impressed. Although the style appears ZUN, the straightforward gameplay with average weaponry gives a hard-edged survival feeling not unlike late-80s Toaplan.

What do you think about CAVE-like fire+focus? That is, long-press of the fire button also enters focus. Could be either another button binding, or an option for the regular fire button to do so.

[BrooksBishop]

Pretty solid XBLIndie release.

I do wish you had more aimed shots, though. Playing through, (on normal anyways) it seems like there are a lot of spots where you can just chill out and shoot the boss since the patterns repeat in the same way. It'd be nice to be forced out of the comfort zones more. Also, the bosses sure do have a ton of health :X

Keep up the good work anyways!

Thanks! I actually created all the content by building everything at Lunatic difficulty so it felt good and fun to me, and then toned things way back to make them less difficult down to Normal. So the harder difficulties are what I would call the real game. But I do agree, patterns that force you to play in new ways that you aren't used to, to learn to adapt are the best!

I'm impressed. Although the style appears ZUN, the straightforward gameplay with average weaponry has a hard edge not unlike late-80s Toaplan.

What do you think about CAVE-like fire+focus? That is, long-press of the fire button also enters focus. Could be either another button binding, or an option for the regular fire button to do so.

And thanks to you too! I do love me some CAVE. Thinking back on it, that might have been a good idea to help ease people who aren't used to a focus mechanic into it. But I personally like the flexibility of the separate button, so that's what I gravitated towards when making the button layout. You can actually use the key binding feature in the options to set fire and focus to the same button. You don't get the long press action, but it was still pretty interesting when I tried it! I'll play around and see if there's an elegant way to make it an option.

[n0rtygames]

Hello there!

I'm Brooks, programmer, artist and developer of Aeternum. I'm so glad to see the response has been pretty positive so far.

As far as online scoreboards go, I totally wish I could have gotten them in as well. But when it comes to Xbox Live Indie Games, the only choice is to run a workaround involving setting up on the fly sessions between games online to exchange scores, and leaving one Xbox running the game online to act as a seed box. Wasn't worth the headache of implementing with the massive amount of extra development time it would have added.

I'm hoping to move on to a PC release early next year, which should be a much easier platform for implementing centralized online scoreboards.

As I said to Snops... if you need help with that - just ask

I literally have a solution you can just drop in, so long as your score system has an InsertScore(ScoreEntry foo) method and takes care of duplicates/can handle spam.

[joeboto]

elicia dialog in stage 1 doot do doo. reads like mayuri from steins gate i presume?