Shin Doraigo

[tibone]

Hello folks.

I think (not sure) this is my first post here.
I do read here often.

Anyway, i have just developed a little vertical shmup for Flash.
And i would love your guys opinions.

My main influences are games like Zanac and Aleste, but without power-up managing.
Also i'm a huge Compile fan.

Anyway, onto the game

It's a vertical scrolling, endless shmup (is it the first endless shmup?)
So, take a endless runner and mix it with a shmup and this is the result.

I also added timed modes.
And there's online leaderboards thanks to the Kongregate interface.

You can play it here:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/tibonev/shin-doraigo


Screenshot:



And opinions are highly welcomed.

Thanks.

[Dave_K.]

Glad you came out of lurker mode tibone!

I must say with those influences and that screen shot I got pretty excited to try this. The pixel art and music are good, but the enemy movement and bullets could use a lot of work to make the game more interesting/exciting to play. You should consider programming waves of enemy in particular attack patterns that leverage some of the various weapons shown. Also bullet patterns could be more varied with respect to speed and trajectories (try not to be so linear).

Hope this feedback helps, and looking forward to more revisions.

[n0rtygames]

Yeah, I have to mirror what Dave_K has said here.

Consider that I turned this:


in to this:


and to be honest I'm STILL not 100% happy with the final game.

I'd recommend that you have a look at the "Frantic" series of flash games over on Kongregate since the mechanics actually resemble yours somewhat (Health bars as opposed to one hit kills for instance). They're really quite fun and should give you some food for thought regarding the things Dave has highlighted to you.

There are three games total - but you should get a good enough idea from the first.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/polymerrabbit/frantic

Look more at the enemy patterns than the bullet patterns - as bullet hell is not something to be encouraged ALL the time

[tibone]

Hey guys, thanks for trying it out.
This is my first time doing (and not playing) a shmup.
So, it was bound to be flawed.

I am working on improving it already, and your suggestions are pretty interesting. I'll try to apply them for sure.
I'm especially happy you guys dig the music.

[n0rtygames]

Dude, if this is your first shmup - as I said.. consider that I turned the first shot in to the second over time. For your first effort, this is WAY better than my earlier stuff.

Keep us posted as to your progress and don't let yourself be put off!

[tibone]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I want to try something a friend suggested to me.
Add very few and sparse, reward collectibles, to make the player venture onto dangerous part of the screen, for big points.


About programming waves of enemies, that would require starting the whole thing from scratch. But i intend to make my next shmup more traditional in that sense, with patterns of enemies and movements. I love Galaga, some pretty enemies patterns is something i want to try.

But, like i said, this is my first shmup, and i wanted to make something "unsual" out of it. Which is why i went with what a friend called "bizarro boss-rush", only enemies, no bosses.

I want to fix the bugs in this, and then i'll see what's next.


n0rty: Those two screens, are from the same game?

[BPzeBanshee]

Two can play at the before/after game. My own project started as this:


And now it looks something like this.

It'll take a while, but with effort (and the will to do things from scratch if need be) anything's possible.

[tibone]

Apart from the music, GMOSSE is really cool.
I played some of the test versions avaialable here.

[BPzeBanshee]

What's wrong with the current music?

lol jks, it gets better next release anyway. Outdated vid here.

[tibone]

Nothing wrong with the music.
It's just that i'm more of a prog-rock/metal kinda of guy.
So purely electronic music with techno beats are not my thing, that's all.

I always prefer the sound of screeching guitars.

[railslave]

Nothing wrong with the music.
It's just that i'm more of a prog-rock/metal kinda of guy.
So purely electronic music with techno beats are not my thing, that's all.

I always prefer the sound of screeching guitars.

Same here (current music guy )
But if technosofts idea of screeching guitars is your thing (why the dickens wouldnt it be ???) >>>>>


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vw2d3_a ... 632B2569C8

well, im at least a quarter of the way there

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/844 ... aveers.wav (unused outtake)


G.M.OS.S.E.'s going to melt peoples faces off ..

[tibone]

Technosoft guitars you say? Love them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2LSPzu34XY


Old video, but still.



That tune you posted is not bad, but definitely not my thing.
The beat is very electronic and the synths doesn't sound like they're playing a guitar like riff, like the TF4 song you posted where the synth sounds like it's playing a guitar (in termos of range and notes, and playing, attack, release, etc).

And GMOSSE already kicks ass, just because i don't like the music, it doesn't mean that GMOSSE is bad, or even that the music is bad..

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm sorry if I didn't add more smiley faces to my post to emphasis the lulz, btw.

The main tunes keep a generally happier tune although perhaps the Omake tunes I'm using may be more your thing. Note the quality doesn't sound the best and merged the intros (which I'm using) with the stage themes (which I'm not).

[tibone]

Oh man,i LOVE Crue Ball soundtrack.
It has that gritty MegaDrive sound.

Also, have a listen to the Skitchin' soundtrack : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvEooC-rK3Y
Some of the best guitar sounds of the Megadrive. Worth a listen.

If you want some metal-like tracks for GMOSSE, let me know, i wouldn't mind trying my hand at it.



Also, i uploaded a new patch for Shin Doraigo, with some minor changes in enemy rates and speed.
Nothing major.
And i think i'm done with it, because everything else that i want to do will require re-writing a lot from scratch. So, i might as well try something completely new.

[BPzeBanshee]

Nice!

Regarding music for GMOSSE, I think Railslave can attest to my level of tightness regarding consistency and how it actually fits with what's happening in the game, as he has been working towards a complete soundtrack replacement for GMOSSE's nicked MD music for some time now and it'll eventually be the default soundtrack. As the system does support music mods ala Xeno Fighters, the former tracks will end up as a 'vintage' music mod as a separate download.

If you have the balls to take on the challenge of a 'Tibone Metal GMOSSE' mod though, you're more than welcome to try. I think we'll all be VERY interested to see what you can do.