Aeternum [PC & Xbox bullet hell]. OUT NOW ON STEAM

[BrooksBishop]

Thanks guys, your support is very much appreciated.

Latest news update:
Got the game on the front page of Joystiq!
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/17/xblig ... -pc-for-3/

Sadly, the comments are exactly as I think everyone has come to expect out of comments nowadays. :/

[CStarFlare]

Been playing around with this a bit. It's been surprisingly rough on me; I think the larger sprites + horizontal orientation are fucking with my perception. Might also be tied to what other people are saying about slow movement being kind of slow.

A few thoughts:
- Getting put back to default power is one of my shmup pet peeves. (EDIT: OK, so this doesn't actually happen. I'm just taking too many hits too close together )
- I've also felt some frustration about the small size of some of the bosses. Maybe I'm just used to Cave games where you have to put effort into not hitting them. The squid in the first stage threw me off; I spent a few fights wondering why I wasn't able to kill him before time ran out, then I realized that shooting him anywhere but the face doesn't work.
- Enemies swoop into the screen really fast, and sometimes go really far to the left. I feel that the only place I don't have to worry about being kamikazed is in the back 25% of the screen or so, which is discouraging when combined with a POC system.
- It would be nice to be able to see the point values of things we pick up. Right now I'm not really sure if picking up point items is all that important; spell bonuses and tick damage seem to add up pretty well on their own. I'm also not sure if their value differs based on autocollect vs. manual collection?
- It's silly to make me enter my initials on the scoreboard when I've chosen to quit and retry.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the scoring fix in 2.0.1.

[n0rtygames]

Sadly, the comments are exactly as I think everyone has come to expect out of comments nowadays. :/

Yeah, don't read comments.

Seriously. Never read the comments.

https://twitter.com/AvoidComments

[BrooksBishop]

Hello CStarFlare!

The PC version has a fixed up speed. Jaimers and SuperSoaker really seem to like it now. Unfortunately, the Xbox version still has the old slow speed, and I can't afford the $100 to patch it. Sorry.

I tried to give a lot of cues as to when you're hitting enemies. There's a very obvious flash, and an audio cue that is the lowest frequency sound effect in the game. For boss fights, there is also the floating marker on the left which always shows you where the boss's hit box is centered.

As for the enemy movement, honestly, some of that is intentional. I tried to build in a few traps where it baits you into moving to an area before springing something on you. All stage enemy movement is entirely scripted though (except the stage 2 orbs, those are on follow), so I think once you get a feel for where things will be coming from, you can turn the tables on them instead!

I didn't want to clutter the screen up too much with numbers popping up all the time. Also on the Xbox I'm riding the line barely above 60 FPS and numbers as particles would definitely have put the game into slowdown territory. The PC version just keeps the same visuals for consistency. If you want to start working out the math to determine the actual value of point items compared to everything else, I wrote up a little guide on the functions that determine score for Story/Normal mode right here on my website. Generally though, it's good to pick up point items anyway, because 100 point items nets you an extra panic, which can be invaluable. Arrange mode uses an entirely different set of mechanics though, which I think I'll leave as a mystery for now!

I agree, it is totally silly to have to enter initials every time. So another good reason to look forward to 2.0.1 is the fact it will remember the last entered name.

Thanks for all the feedback!

[BrianC]

I'm getting sick and tired of MS's stupid update policies. I thought they were going to change them, but I heard it may only be for Xbox ONE. Too many games not updating because of them.

[MadSteelDarkness]

Even without the update, this is still one of my favorite xblarg shooters. Well done, Brooks! I'll be picking up the PC version soon.

[Remembrance]

In this week's Indie Royale bundle.

[BrooksBishop]

Yep, Aeternum is in the latest Indie Royale bundle!
The bundle will run from December 3rd to 9th, and is also a part of the Gaming Tuesday initiative which is currently going to help the Philippines recover from Typhoon Haiyan.

So you can contribute to charity, AND pick up Rush Bros., Bad Bots, Who's That Flying?!, Defy Gravity, and Aeternum at the same time, with more games to come.


I have also updated the game to 2.0.1 on all platforms (Humble Store, Desura, IndieGameStand).
This update is mostly small bug fixes. Notably, fixing taking a panic hit in Story and Extra modes now properly failing a spell bonus.
More importantly though, it also sets the name entry screen to remember the last name entered! Thanks for the feedback on that, everyone.
If you only care to pick up Aeternum alone, you can always buy it at http://aeternumgame.com via Humble Store, DRM free.

[CStarFlare]

Time to play 2.0.1. Looking forward to spending more time with this.

Is the 360 version pretty much final? I'd like to add Aeternum to Restart Syndrome but I try to avoid games that are going to be tweaked in ways that necessitate clearing the board.

[BrooksBishop]

It would cost me $100 at this point to renew my App Hub account, and would definitely not make up the cost.
Probably best not to get me started on that Microsoft rant, lol.

So yes, Aeternum on Xbox is in all likelihood final.

[SuperSoaker360]

Got my package. A late Christmas gift I suppose but being this close to New Years, I was under the impression that it wouldn't be coming in until January.



Aeternum Original Soundtrack+, a free download code to Jesse Bishop's latest album, Street Cleaner, and little snips of every character in the game. Those Ellica glasses got a good laugh out of me.








A character sketch of Aubrey. Unfortunately it was creased when it came in. Maybe in future try taking two pieces of cardboard on each side and taping them around the drawing to prevent it from being mishandled. In any case, I'm still happy with it. Definitely love her, and I will surely treasure this.

Thanks again, BrooksBishop! This brightened my day when it came in. Do you plan on doing any other STGs in the future?

[Squire Grooktook]

Just picked up the game for Christmas. It's pretty awesome.

[BrooksBishop]

Really sorry to hear that about the package getting folded. Jesse packed the prizes, I'll let him know for the future.

As far as more STGs in the future, I definitely have ideas for more. Nate and I developed the universe a lot more than you can see in the game itself, so I have plots and characters for a couple sequels already. I also posted a dev log for a STG project I've done a lot of engine work on in the development forum at http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=48208.

I've just been busy moving into a new house lately, so work's on hold a bit, but we're definitely not done yet!

[Neorebel]

Game looks pretty brutal on the highest difficulty!

[cuttingagent]

Got this on Desura but it crashes upon launch on my HP core i3 laptop =(

I sure wish I'd seen this thread before I got it or I'd have ordered it direct and gotten the free Desura key anyway.

[BrooksBishop]

I'm very sorry to hear that.

My first thoughts are if you're running the standalone version, you need to have installed both the .NET Framework 4.0, AND the XNA Framework 4.0. Microsoft's error messages in these cases are in fact extremely unhelpful, this is usually what is happening when the game just crashes on launch.
.NET: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=17718
XNA: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=20914
If that's not the problem, then the video card needs to support at least Pixel Shader 2.0.

If you want, you can email me at brooks@wastedbrilliance.com and we can see if I can help get the game running.

[Iori Branford]

So on my current PC the latest version has a mysterious 30 FPS cap. Forcing vsync off on aeternum.exe is unhelpful.
Only clue is that another XNA game, Dust: An Elysian Tale, had that cap at first, but setting its Variable Refresh option to On fixed it. What this does technically, I'm not sure: vsync off, or frame render cap off, or something else.

Win7 64, NVIDIA GTS 450, 1920x1080 @ 60hz.

[BrooksBishop]

Iori Branford, interesting. Aeternum's engine actually uses the XNA defaults, which are to use a fixed timestep (60hz) to try and keep the frame rate even and the bullet motion smooth, and to use vsync.

I didn't mess with these because on my system with vsync off I have pretty bad tearing. And with variable timestep I ran into a problem with the bullet rendering where it would loop the vertex buffer too fast and cause flickering.

Doing some quick research to see if there were any quick solutions, and I found a thread on the Steam forums for Escape Goat mentioning this very problem with XNA and certain NVidia cards while Aero is turned on. I've talked with Ian Stocker before, so if I can't work out something on my own, I can probably get some advice from him.

I'm busy through Sunday, but if you give me few days, I'll see what I can do toward adding a vsync/timestep toggle to the options, which seems the obvious solution.
To that end, could you toss me an email at brooks@wastedbrilliance.com, and I'll keep in touch with you there. If you don't mind testing a patch that would help me immensely too!

[BrooksBishop]

Hello again, everyone! Thought I should pop in and mention the fact that Aeternum has been officially updated to 2.0.2, finally.

This update is basically all fixes to the few technical problems people have pointed out to me, so hopefully this smooths things out once and for all.
Namely, this adds vsync and fixed/variable timestep toggles to account for Nvidia cards that don't properly report frame rates to XNA, and also fixes the problem with running full screen on monitors with a native resolution smaller than 1280x720.

I would also like to point out that Aeternum is now also available via itch.io if that's where you like to go for games now
Aeternum on itch.io: http://brooksbishop.itch.io/aeternum

Enjoy!

p.s.: Update is live on itch.io, Humble and IndieGameStand. I have submitted the patch to Desura, but they're slow. I think you'll get a notice when they approve it. If you bought on Desura and don't want to wait for that, you can go in and download the manual installer and run and it should work just fine.

[Bonus!]

How is the Steam Greenlight campaign going?

[BrooksBishop]

No Greenlight posting for Aeternum yet.

However, I have a brand new game that's getting fairly close to being a demo and has a much greater chance of passing through the popularity barrier on Steam. As soon as I have something tangible enough to show off in that game, I'll drop the $100 for Greenlight access and post Aeternum at the same time, since it won't cost anything extra and I can't see a downside to it (besides the idiotic comments the game will receive, I guess).

I'll definitely post more on that when it happens!

[BrooksBishop]

Updated with info about TouhouCon, Greenlight and PHYSICAL COPIES! See the first post.

[BrooksBishop]

The Greenlight page is live! I figured TouhouCon tomorrow is a good time to have it up so I can promote the hell out of it.
If you like the game, want it on Steam, and want to see more games developed, please upvote and spread the word!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =519935643

[BrooksBishop]

Yes, I admit it took me far too long to get this done... but Aeternum is finally out on Steam!
New version has a bunch of new stuff too, like online leaderboards, achievements, trading cards, a new playable character, and a bunch of other upgrades.
Plus, the game is now built on the FNA framework which means wider support for controllers than XNA had.

Take a look!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/454750/Aeternum/

[BrooksBishop]

Sooo, are we the old humble widget customers getting the updated version too?

That's the plan.
I'm going to load Humble with Steam keys for one, but first I needed to get an idea of how many keys I should request for it. There will also be an updated DRM free version, but that's kind of its own beast that needs some extra work since I changed how the leaderboards and unlocks work. There's a lot of Steam code that worked its way everywhere now and I have to figure out how to make things work without it.

[BrooksBishop]

Humble Widget purchasers of Aeternum should now be able to log into their Humble accounts and request a Steam key.
The DRM free download has not yet been updated, but you've now got access to the brand new Steam version and all the updates that come with it there!