Lazarus update

A place for people with an interest in developing new shmups.
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SpiltMilkStudios
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:55 am

Lazarus update

Post by SpiltMilkStudios »

Hi guys n gals! Been a while since I've posted on here, I feel bad :(

I aim to do it a lot more this year, and I'm not sure if this is the best way to kick off, but here we go - and update on Lazarus, our shmup wot we're making.

EDIT:

Here's the new look pilot!

Image

Image

I just did a live Q&A session on YouTube - I do this once a week every Friday, link here: http://youtu.be/DLOzOiqxjt4?t=1m33s (I've skipped in because the start is usually a bit slow :D

Enjoy, lemme know what you guys think!
SpiltMilkStudios
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:55 am

Re: Lazarus update

Post by SpiltMilkStudios »

And here is the promised gameplay footage:

http://youtu.be/gDThPxc-p_Y

Enjoy, and let me know what you think! I realise it's not ideal (going to get some direct feed stuff soon, promise) but for now it's enough to get the basic idea... I hope!
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Temia Eszteri
Posts: 43
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:45 pm
Location: Rainy Seattle
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Re: Lazarus update

Post by Temia Eszteri »

Some things I'd like to comment on - while it's looking interesting and promising so far, I have a couple of recommendations I'd like to suggest:

1. The gap between the time taken to destroy the enemies is rather wide. I'd recommend having it so that it takes only 2-3 seconds of sustained fire at most to bring down even a large enemy, and less than that for the medium ones.
2. I would avoid having highly-saturated backgrounds - as it is, it was notably hard (even for you) to pick out background details during that second wave. Decreasing the contrast and saturation of the background will help highly-contrasting and saturated elements such as bullets pop out and remain visible.

Sadly I didn't get to watch much further than that because craning my neck was starting to hurt, but best of luck regardless!
SpiltMilkStudios
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:55 am

Re: Lazarus update

Post by SpiltMilkStudios »

Temia Eszteri wrote:Some things I'd like to comment on - while it's looking interesting and promising so far, I have a couple of recommendations I'd like to suggest:

1. The gap between the time taken to destroy the enemies is rather wide. I'd recommend having it so that it takes only 2-3 seconds of sustained fire at most to bring down even a large enemy, and less than that for the medium ones.
Yeah we're tweaking this a lot. The 'problem' is that the player's gun in that video is at the base level. After about 5 minutes of play, they'll have got enough coins to upgrade their guns to a much more effective shooting speed, thereby decreasing the time it takes to destroy the bad guys. It's a tough balancing act!
Temia Eszteri wrote:2. I would avoid having highly-saturated backgrounds - as it is, it was notably hard (even for you) to pick out background details during that second wave. Decreasing the contrast and saturation of the background will help highly-contrasting and saturated elements such as bullets pop out and remain visible.
Yeah they're totally place-holder, but the tips and advice is noted. Should reduce the amount of back-and-forth with the artist, thanks :D
Temia Eszteri wrote:Sadly I didn't get to watch much further than that because craning my neck was starting to hurt, but best of luck regardless!
Haha yeah, I was torn between making it fill the YT screen as much as possible, versus showing it in it's proper orientation...
Shmuppet
Posts: 63
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2013 5:52 am

Re: Lazarus update

Post by Shmuppet »

Hi SpiltMilkStudios! Haha, oh I get it now.

The artwork is amazing! Got any more? Can't wait to play the game.
SpiltMilkStudios
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:55 am

Re: Lazarus update

Post by SpiltMilkStudios »

Shmuppet wrote:Hi SpiltMilkStudios! Haha, oh I get it now.

The artwork is amazing! Got any more? Can't wait to play the game.
Thanks! :D

Sadly just before delivery of the final ton of artwork (or at least, the 2D stuff we're using for soft launch) our lovely artist's net connection got changed. IE: her landlord or whatever changed ISP's so she's got to wait a while.

Mega frustrating but the final stuff will be amazing, and I'll make sure to post more of it here when we get some...oh hang on...

What's this? ;D

Image

Just a bit of WIP hud stuff.

I'm eager to show as much as we can!

This shows where the powerups will be triggered after collection, and the pilot will chat away with the other characters in the game, Starfox-style.
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