mices - Gun.Smoke tribute, Broken Pearl, Twin Tiger Shark

[gamingjustin]

The bomb mechanic you're thinking of sounds very un-Toaplan to me.

Agree. But if toaplan would have thought about this idea, they would have made it. Yep, that's probably how it is because it's brilliant.

You'll be glad to know they did make it. That bomb mechanic is straight out of Fire Shark-- the longer you hold the button, the further it travels vertically until you let go to make it explode. Not 100% sure, but I think even if you tap the button there's still a delay so it's not instant. Anyway, you're good to go if you want to maintain Toaplan consistency.

[mice]

That bomb mechanic is straight out of Fire Shark

Cool!
Fire Shark don't have checkpoints either, lots of non-toaplanish things about that game.

They do not. I believe there is also a deadzone

Made a 8 pixel deadzone on the sides. Seems ok. Bottom part got a 96 pixel deadzone, not very toaplany, but it's fair.

[trap15]

Same!Same!Same! (Japanese Fire Shark) does have checkpoints.

Get rid of that huge bottom dead zone; it's not Toaplan if you're not getting sniped by gun-boats from behind

[mice]

Next thing you're going to tell me that the game should have a health bar...

[trap15]

Sniper gunboats from behind are a Toaplan classic! Even Tiger Heli has them

[mice]

So, wip 1:
http://widepixelgames.com/tts/TTS_131023-1.zip

A small bit of toa in there...but trap, please bash on!

Key conf, not listed anywhere but here, so remember them since the game goes "fullscreen" (will have borders if monitor is not 16:9).
If your monitor doesn't support 1280x720, the game will probably throw an exception.

Arrow keys - Move
Z - Bomb
X - Fire
A - Restart
S - Change screen conf (tate on/off and dir)
ESC - Quit

Any input appreciated!

.

[trap15]

Very very great start! Super excited to see where you take this

Things I noticed that I would do something about:

• Ground enemies seem to die really quickly
• Air enemies seem a bit sparse and a bit too "spread out" over the screen (look at how Flying Shark handles most of its air enemies, maybe?)
• The autofire seems misplaced, considering it's a Toaplan-styled game
• I didn't actually try this, but I think "manual" autofire can break the game (no shot limit)
• I'd probably make the main shot "single fire" and maybe have an autofire button at the same rate that you have it now, but only allow a certain amount of player shots (maybe 5? try things out)
• Boss died REALLY quickly
• Enemies fire a bit fast for a stage 1, but perfect speed for maybe stage 1-4.
• Enemies firing rate seems sane for stage 1, but far too slow for around stage 1-4.
• Air enemies need to fire more often, and those big air guys should probably shoot aimed with phase shifted shots on the side (so basically, as-is, but center shot is aimed at the player)

I hope you take these into account, and play around with possible solutions. Lots of things you can do to change these things up.

[Dave_K.]

Awesome work!

Some feedback from a purely esthetic standpoint (if you want to emulate old toaplan like games):
- don't use fading transparency in the bomb animation (flicker it)
- enemy rotation should be at discreet angles (as if there were actual independent sprites)
- scanlines would also be cool, but probably too much to ask for this early in development

[mice]

Super thanks to both of you!

Just fixing the issue with "number of main bullets" and autofire rate made a huge difference to the toaplan feel!
So now it can only be 4 on-screen "bursts" on screen at once and I actually raised the autofire rate a bit which means you can't spread you own shots all over the screen as easily. The game is actually challenging all of the sudden.
Been struggling with this (getting away from constant stream of main bullets but without it feeling boring) before but I really didn't know how to tackle the problem before, thanks trap!

- don't use fading transparency in the bomb animation (flicker it)

Aaah, the engine should definitely support a "fake transparancy through flickering" option for objects! Thanks!

Again, thanks! New version this weekend with all of the issues taken in to consideration.

[n0rtygames]

Fun as fuck. Been suing the same CRF track as a placeholder for a while recently until I replaced it. So that was strange at first

Not sure what other feedback I can give really. It's just fun. Well done!

[mice]

Thanks!
I've got a feeling that when I change the track, the game will show its true colors and suck as f**k.

[n0rtygames]

Thanks!
I've got a feeling that when I change the track, the game will show its true colors and suck as f**k.

Out of interest, why change it? As far as I know, CRF's rules state that you can use his music and even modify it so long as its part of game. You're just not allowed to redistribute them as standalone tracks (like a lot of royalty free stuff)

Also the fun factor was irrespective of the music. Game is just fun

[mice]

Want more tracks for the stages and they should be somewhat coherent. I can't find any more of his work that is in the same style as Hornet, sadly.

Just implemented the spread-shot...maybe I shouldn't do that? Time for a poll, maybe.

[trap15]

Spread shot is a good idea. I'm not sure why it slipped my mind to mention that in my list. The forward-only is a bit odd.

[mice]

Made a poll for it.

[trap15]

Even Flying Shark has angle to the shots, it's just not really spread like the later games.

[mice]

Even Flying Shark has angle to the shots, it's just not really spread like the later games.

Yep, that's why I put straight in quotes, because I didn't know what to call it.
Impl square col pickups now, need more pickup droppers if this should be kept (and it looks like it according to the poll).
I'm off to glance at twin cobra...

EDIT: What am I on about...what game's got this powerup scheme?

[trap15]

Fire Shark

[mice]

But in what game is the colored square changing colors while bouncing?!
I'm lost, was pretty sure it was twin cobra...

In other news:


I ain't ever going to redraw the sprites with regards to the light source, so I thought maybe I take a pretty cool way out if it.
Ofcourse it needs to be experimented with a whole lot more to give the exact effect I want but maybe it's a way forward?

[mice]

Been doing other stuff instead of gameplay bits over the weekend...
A cheesy title with rolling demo in the background.



Now I HAVE to implement a 2 player mode.

[railslave]

Shadowed Palm trees are the new black !


Is this going on xblig at all?, Microsoft just gave me a random £1 for some strange reason.

hmmm xseed

[Rozyrg]

Brilliant logo!

[emphatic]

Is this going on xblig at all?

+1.

[mice]

Do you see how tiger kind of blends in with the jungle? Just like real life this is. Yes.

If the game gets finished it will go out on ouya and xblig. But there's an if and a when, in there...

[n0rtygames]

Do you see how tiger kind of blends in with the jungle? Just like real life this is. Yes.

If the game gets finished it will go out on ouya and xblig. But there's an if and a when, in there...

Nope. Not listening. Finish this one and put it on xblig or you will get no feedback on any of your other games ever again!

I'm giving you a very serious Swedish nod right now.

[mice]

If nothing unforeseen happens, this will get finished. Compared to feathered orbs, this game I actually find fun myself.
But music and sfx are a big questions mark now. Which is a bit off-putting, tbh.

[n0rtygames]

Compared to feathered orbs, this game I actually find fun myself.

I find this is the biggest factor in getting a game completed in a quick timeframe...

Gotta have some hype for your own product aswell as support from others!

[n0rtygames]

If nothing unforeseen happens, this will get finished. Compared to feathered orbs, this game I actually find fun myself.
But music and sfx are a big questions mark now. Which is a bit off-putting, tbh.

Incidentally, if you need help getting your own music instead of CRF - I can probably get someone to help you out there. Sound effects? Just get Audacity and modify stuff sfxr generates..

[mice]

Sound effects? Just get Audacity and modify stuff sfxr generates.

Been doing unmodified sfxr this far, but doing effect-stuff in audacity with them is a really good idea for this game.
Got two genesis-sounding explosions now. \o/
Thanks!

I can probably get someone to help you out there

Thanks! Asked the one who did the heavy recoil music (Hans Axelsson), yesterday. See what he has to say first.

[mice]

New version with some sfx. \o/
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/457 ... 1028-2.zip

I think it kind of works...

Some gameplay changes as well, not much but some, like 3 different weapon types.
And Hans has agreed to do the music and he suggested to keep CRF's Hornet in there somewhere. I agree, it's the best song ever. And it sounds like a train-stage tune...to me.

Need to polish the logo, looks like a 2 year old painted it.