Feathered Orbs

[n0rtygames]

Are you still having problems with collision being a pain in the arse?

I can help you out with that - by either throwing code at you - or telling you what CB is doing:

The expensive operation:
* At the start of each update, all bullet positions are cached in an array which correlates to screen space

After that's done:
* Any time a collision check is needed, we poll these grids for nearby things that we want to test against.
* Each object has two extra variables, mnX and mnY to represent their 'squares' in the array
* We pull out a list of array indexes of objects that are nearby - these are actually the index of the object in the projectile List.

e.g
List<Projectile> maActiveProjectiles = new List<Projectile>(); // Where our proj's live
List<Projectile> maInactiveProjectiles = new List<Projectile>(); // Where our spare/dead ones live

so when we get our array of indices, we're talking about our master lists - our grids only store sort of pointer like things to the list we care about. Then we're able to work with a specific set of projectiles instead of all 800 on screen or whatever you have.

[mice]

Good idea!
My old engine had a similar system, but instead of squares the screen was divided into stripes covering either the whole width or the whole height.
So the initial sorting was only made in one dimension.

Didn't think my new engine, running on todays HW, would need something like that. What is this, the 90s?

[ptoing]

Post DOJ and ketsui use pre rendered art, of course done over by hand...most newer 2d games do.the same... Live with with it...

So when I post a pic to pixeljoint, I should lie?

You can tell them that you used 3D as a sketch and cleaned up keeping pixel level detail in mind. If they give you grief for that, forget about them. You are making a game, you are free to use whichever tools and processes get you the best result the quickest. As long as you do not steal stuff from other people and are clear about how you got to your result, no one should care for anything else.

Alternatively you can also post on Pixelation if you want crits for your pixelart (or low-spec "NPA", since we got a forum for that too.)

[mice]

You can tell them that you used 3D as a sketch and cleaned up keeping pixel level detail in mind. If they give you grief for that, forget about them. You are making a game, you are free to use whichever tools and processes get you the best result the quickest. As long as you do not steal stuff from other people and are clear about how you got to your result, no one should care for anything else.

I just want the outlines, so as long as those are cleaned up I guess it's ok for most purists as well.
But 3D renders this small usually gets a mess so I don't think it'd buy me any time. Moving 4 small balls around until it looks ok, animation wise, in gale will probably be faster for me.

[n0rtygames]

I just want the outlines, so as long as those are cleaned up I guess it's ok for most purists as well.
But 3D renders this small usually gets a mess so I don't think it'd buy me any time. Moving 4 small balls around until it looks ok, animation wise, in gale will probably be faster for me.

Here, have my balls if they're helpful!



Scaled up to 200% - using these in the CB patch

[mice]

Ey, long time no update.

Something else got in the way...you wouldn't believe it, I'm making a zombie shmup!
Got this godly artist working with me (no, not Rozyrg, he's like...the maker of gods, need to change my sig). Life is sweeet!

And now when I've just submitted HR to the Ouya people I got the urge to finish off FO to be another Ouya release.
I have to say I love that machine. Sure it's got its faults but the input lag is nowhere near as bad as anticipated.

[mice]

Running on the OUYA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0YsR9dhs3o

[Rozyrg]

Awesome! I'm so tempted to just go out and buy one, despite obviously needing to get a bunch of other things sorted out first.

Definitely looking forward to sharing the same (albeit small) space on there with ya.

[mice]

<obi-wan-on>you have no other things to sort out</obi-wan-on>

[Nifty]

Popping in to say that I really like the look of this, particularly the graphical and pattern styles. I do have a few things I could mention though, depending on how much room you have left for tweaking.

[mice]

Popping in to say that I really like the look of this, particularly the graphical and pattern styles. I do have a few things I could mention though, depending on how much room you have left for tweaking.

Shoot, please! Any input appreciated!
This piece of s**t (so out of insipiration) could need some serious fun injection.

[n0rtygames]

Shoot, please! Any input appreciated!
This piece of s**t (so out of insipiration) could need some serious fun injection.

Stop being a dumbass and playing around with new toys like the OUYA then. I mean, unless you want to scratch around to get 50 sales which is considered "amazing" for the platform

Seriously, what's wrong with you? This games good. It looks good. It sounds good. It appears to have responsiveness.

Finish the bloody thing and release it!

[mice]

Shoot, please! Any input appreciated!
This piece of s**t (so out of insipiration) could need some serious fun injection.

Stop being a dumbass and playing around with new toys like the OUYA then. I mean, unless you want to scratch around to get 50 sales which is considered "amazing" for the platform

Seriously, what's wrong with you? This games good. It looks good. It sounds good. It appears to have responsiveness.

Finish the bloody thing and release it!

Thanks! Just what I needed. But I really want Nifty to give me his input.
And the zombie game is way better, in every respect. Unfortunately.

[Nifty]

Yeah sorry I got distracted over the weekend

What it looks like you're going for here is something with a lot of short, fast stages that emphasises tight play over technical complexity. On that basis:
-To preface, I don't like item-absorbing in general, but I don't feel like it's adding much to the game at the moment. There's (as far as I can see) no mechanic to change how many appear, meaning all they're indicating is the amount of the shooting of the things, something which is already apparent by default. The only alteration is upon reaching max power, which IMO turns them into more of a visibility blocker than anything. Assuming that optimal play involves hitting max and remaining there for the rest of the game, it only matters for, what, part of the first stage? I guess what I'm saying is that it'd be nice if there were more to it, or some other thing to take note of.
-...I also liked being able to see the power counter
-One thing that particularly stands out to me as being a bit off-pace is the first boss's second pattern (one with the radial spread moving through the trapping fire). There's nothing more to dodge after the spread, yet the pattern keeps going for a couple more seconds, essentially giving free kill time. Short stages aren't a good fit for slow boss fights followed by long explosions (that also give most of the points). A simple fix for the latter would be to do something like have the stage bonus appear while the boss is exploding, especially if you're going to get all of the items anyway.

Again, this is looking great overall. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do with it. I'll be sure to keep watching for updates.

[mice]

Super valuable input! Thanks!

-To preface, I don't like item-absorbing in general, but I don't feel like it's adding much to the game at the moment. There's (as far as I can see) no mechanic to change how many appear, meaning all they're indicating is the amount of the shooting of the things, something which is already apparent by default. The only alteration is upon reaching max power, which IMO turns them into more of a visibility blocker than anything. Assuming that optimal play involves hitting max and remaining there for the rest of the game, it only matters for, what, part of the first stage? I guess what I'm saying is that it'd be nice if there were more to it, or some other thing to take note of.

Totally right. It needs some fun, just as I have been saying. Will probably keep the absorbing part (just for the power-up) but add something more (and not related to that) as well.

-...I also liked being able to see the power counter

HUD is not even started, still just placeholders. So it will return.

-One thing that particularly stands out to me as being a bit off-pace is the first boss's second pattern (one with the radial spread moving through the trapping fire). There's nothing more to dodge after the spread, yet the pattern keeps going for a couple more seconds, essentially giving free kill time. Short stages aren't a good fit for slow boss fights followed by long explosions (that also give most of the points). A simple fix for the latter would be to do something like have the stage bonus appear while the boss is exploding, especially if you're going to get all of the items anyway.

Bullet patterns will need to be redone, anyway.
The speed of the bullets will increase. Doing this less of a BH game and more of a Raiden Fighters 160bpm one.
And the long explosion is too long, agree.

[tiaoferreira]

Where is link for download this game?

[mice]

Here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... ed_001.zip

Still a pile of unfinished junk. Might take it up, but most likely not.
It's a java app, so if it doesn't work. Too bad.
"Look at the size of that thing". Heard when looking at the main character ship...
Music taken from the front page of Cyber Rainforces page. Works quite well, he knows his stuff.

[tiaoferreira]

QSL, TKS!

[heisenbergman]

Wow great job with this so far And I'm stoked to see another Java developer in the house!

Especially excited that it seems like you're using either LibGDX or LWJGL to program this?

[mice]

QSL, TKS!

Whaaat? I'm too old for this...

...you're using either LibGDX...

Yep, easy OUYA port and pretty good/stable PC builds.
And Java freakin' rules!

[heisenbergman]

^ That is awesome man!

I've been programming in Java since college, but only got into game development/LibGDX last April. As it stands, I have a half-finished platformer that's currently on hiatus. I just started getting into shmups almost a month ago and I already want to try creating my own STG using Java/LibGDX.

[mice]

Make sure to hide the libgdx stuff behind some interfaces or the like.
You never know - one day something better comes along and you want to switch easily.