Super Killer Hornet Resurrection - Video Dev diary

[DirtyOstrich]

I'm really bad at keeping proper dev diaries, I've tried and failed.
So I've decided to regularly upload youtube vids of my progress.
I've been uploading a few over on the OUYA forums hears what I've got so far.

Level1 beta:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwdG6gJfjdY

Level 1 boss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a60y8p5dpM

Level2 beta:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iCSmfT4mpw

Level3 beta:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlSv1kCh ... tube_gdata

Sorry for the poor quality, I really need some new screen capture software.
Also on the vids the enemies go black when hit, this doesn't actually happen like this in the game.
I think it's because the game runs at 60FPS and I'm recording at something like 15 FPS.

Cheers,

Paul

[railslave]

Nice to see animated enemies, i remember a time when shmups would be slammed for being too static, "blastwind" comes to mind..despite being a technosoft game.

[n0rtygames]

Nice to see animated enemies

They're your sprites you nutjob!

[railslave]

Nice to see animated enemies

They're your sprites you nutjob!

I coudnt be arsed to animate them though

fair dos, hes done wonders with this one, (boss 1 (i think))





even if he does have a habit of turning all my other stuff upside down

[DirtyOstrich]

Just finished off the level 2 boss.
Pretty happy with this one.

http://youtu.be/fv1rXUqEcTY

[shmuppyLove]

What's with the math?

World's first educational shmup?

[DirtyOstrich]

What's with the math?

World's first educational shmup?

Ha ha, yeah something like that.
The idea was to combine brain trainer mechanics with SHMUP gameplay.

Think it works pretty well actually, not sure what others will think though.

[DirtyOstrich]

Here's another boss, this one is from level 3.
Still a little buggy, but nice and weird.

http://youtu.be/7VZCMtC9VSM

Yes, that is a weird flying tree monster giving birth to a snake as a form of attack.

[railslave]

HaHa, nice one. A little "if you go down to the woods today " wouldnt go amiss there.

Shame the top of the tree isnt seen though , sort of adds to the "acid casualty harry pothead-ness"

[n0rtygames]

Your laser/shot is going through the enemies. Doesn't feel like a piercing shot it just doesn't look right.

Considered adding some impact effects?

edit: I see you have some impacts on the boss, but you're rendering the projectiles underneath so it looks kinda strange.

suggested layer order:
Ground pickups
Ground Enemies
Air Powerups/pickups
Air enemies
Player shot & Laser
Enemy bullets

This shit is so important. You should not overlook it..

[railslave]

Im currently pushing his royal flumpness for some very "n0rty" snakes...

[nasty_wolverine]

Your laser/shot is going through the enemies. Doesn't feel like a piercing shot it just doesn't look right.

Considered adding some impact effects?

edit: I see you have some impacts on the boss, but you're rendering the projectiles underneath so it looks kinda strange.

suggested layer order:
Ground pickups
Ground Enemies
Air Powerups/pickups
Air enemies
Player shot & Laser
Enemy bullets

This shit is so important. You should not overlook it..

My entire scene and entity management is literally written around layering. It can mean the difference between "What Fuck did I get hit with?" and "Man, despite all the cool nifty effects, nothing important gets hidden underneath!!!"

[DirtyOstrich]

Your laser/shot is going through the enemies. Doesn't feel like a piercing shot it just doesn't look right.

Considered adding some impact effects?

edit: I see you have some impacts on the boss, but you're rendering the projectiles underneath so it looks kinda strange.

suggested layer order:
Ground pickups
Ground Enemies
Air Powerups/pickups
Air enemies
Player shot & Laser
Enemy bullets

This shit is so important. You should not overlook it..

Looking into now

[DirtyOstrich]

And another vid, this is just a quick look at level 4.
Still needs tweaking.
http://youtu.be/OUbggTlDlK4

[Cagar]

I'm sorry but I find your math scoring system terrible. Consider re-working it, I guess no-one is interested in math while playing shmups

[beermat]

I'm sorry but your math scoring system looks terrible. Consider re-working it, no-one is interested in math while playing shmups.

Don't see why not. Typing of the dead is pretty good

"Maths Mode" as well as normal modes would be a nice compromise, so you can still use what you've done and appeal to more people. The maths definitely needs to be harder though. I'd suggest speeding the fall rate up a little, forgetting about the player creating the equation (maybe have it appear just before the answers start falling), and make the equations more complicated (eg ((5*2)-8)*7=?).

If I was doing it (like you care):

• I might consider answering not by falling items, but rather the player being in a certain third of the screen a few seconds after the equation appears. The answers could then be static on the HUD and easier to see. As there is no longer a way not to answer, it also gives a sense of urgency.
• If they get it right, a barrage of player bullets from offscreen goes up the screen. If they get it wrong a barrage of enemy bullets from offscreen goes down the screen. A good reason not to ignore the mechanic.
• Have the equation flash faster and faster to signal when the time is nearly up.
• This quiz mechanic can be applied to anything with a multiple choice answer. All you need is a quiz file with questions, dud answers and a right answer. How about a shmup quiz
• If some questions are going to be entire sentences, how long the player has to answer could be a function of the question length

[Cagar]

Hard calculations = talented mathematicians will get better score, when it has nothing to do with shmup gameplay
Easy calculations = You could just replace the numbers with colors.

Overall, calculations has nothing to do with taking risks (< which shmups scoring systems are usually about) or good dodging or shooting...

AM I BEING TROLLED? WHAT THE FUCK

[beermat]

Hard calculations = talented mathematicians will get better score, when it has nothing to do with shmup gameplay
Easy calculations = You could just replace the numbers with colors.

You're right that it's a shmup/quiz mashup and people who can do both simultaneously will get a better score. It's a gimmick, but it sounds like it could be good for a laugh (like typing of the dead). A multi-tasking concept in general is totally compatible with shmup gameplay though. Already you might have to dodge bullets from multiple sources, manoeuvre yourself to destroy enemies, anticipate enemy movement, get some pickups not others, rank, scoring mechanics like chaining etc. Adding something else just means you have to focus even more (if you just want to use traditional shmup gameplay as an example, think about double play).

AM I BEING TROLLED? WHAT THE FUCK

Not by me. I'm trying to convey my opinion and hopefully it's coming across, thinking the other person is a troll often comes down to miscommunication. Am I being trolled?

[railslave]

AM I BEING TROLLED? WHAT THE FUCK

Because someone disagreed with you ?? (is that what trolling means? not sure i even know)


...i love the maths thing, its original!

I actualy seen a game that teaches people to code in Html5 that was pretty crazy as well, its just experimental stuff, exciting tbh ..

No threat to anyone.

[n0rtygames]

For what it's worth I'm including a minigame in Chronoburst which is quite educational.

I'm just not saying what it is yet. Except that it's hilarious.

[DirtyOstrich]

Well I'm glad that it's split opinion at least it's got people talking.

The idea of the math mechanic is, as beermat said, to multi-task.
The maths may seem easy but they're a lot harder when you're in the middle of a load of bullets.
I've tested it a with quite a few people, and it seems that the difficulty I've set it at seems about right so it's not too overwhelming but enough to keep people thinking.

Overall, calculations has nothing to do with taking risks (< which shmups scoring systems are usually about) or good dodging or shooting...

I find this a weird comment, it has everything to do with risk. Is it worth flying over the screen to collect a falling number, is it worth having a guess if you're not 100% sure of the answer and risk losing your multiplier?

I get that a load of people are going to hate it, it's got maths in it for god sake, but new things have to be tried out.
I think it works really well, but I suppose I would.

"Maths Mode" as well as normal modes would be a nice compromise

Yeah, I thought of that. I've added a couple of modes with no maths, but wanted the main 'Normal' mode to have the maths to entice people to try it.

Beermat: Thanks for all you're suggesting, going to have a tinker tonight and see how they feel.
Thanks a lot for the feedback.

[Cagar]

So you have to take like one risk every 1 minute? And if you haven't thought about the answer, it's pure luck if you lose your multiplier or not? Also, if you're lucky, the correct answer might just drop to right where you are?


Go ahead and do original scoring system which involves multitasking, but why the hell did you choose math calculations?

[DirtyOstrich]

And if you haven't thought about the answer, it's pure luck if you lose your multiplier or not?

How's this pure luck? If you haven't thought about the answer and get it wrong then it would be your fault for not getting the question right.

Go ahead and do original scoring system which involves multitasking, but why the hell did you choose math calculations?

I actually got the idea from Outrun 2 There's a maths bonus section which I really loved and thought it would work well in a shmup.
I think it works well enough, but I know others will always disagree. It was always going to be a risk trying something that people might see as educational, but I like it

Also if people really don't like the maths there are non-math modes in the game, I just don't think they're as fun.

[Pteriforever]

I love the maths element actually, it's really original and it will make for interesting decisions. Any chance you could make the calculations harder, though? This is maybe fine for stage 1, but you should definitely be including fractions and exponents/roots by stage 2, and if there are no integral signs by the time you get to stage 4, I'm going to be disappointed.

Other than that, I think a lot of the bullet patterns are a little too random. It's not that big a deal though.

[Cagar]

And if you haven't thought about the answer, it's pure luck if you lose your multiplier or not?

How's this pure luck? If you haven't thought about the answer and get it wrong then it would be your fault for not getting the question right.

If you haven't thought about the answer and ACCIDENTALLY pick the right answer you got 33% chance to accidentally pick the right answer

[dunpeal2064]

If you don't think about what color your counter in Futari is, you have a 50% chance of ACCIDENTALLY getting it right anyways.

What is the point? Accidentally scoring is fine, accidentally scoring optimally would be an issue, which you won't do with 33% odds.

[n0rtygames]

If you don't think about what color your counter in Futari is, you have a 50% chance of ACCIDENTALLY getting it right anyways.

Boom, headshot. Dude has a point.

Holding down shot for the entirety of BL Original will get you 50% of the score (not taking in to account point blanking or auras) that you could get by shot switching correctly.

Say anything bad about BL Original and...

[Cagar]

If you don't think about what color your counter in Futari is, you have a 50% chance of ACCIDENTALLY getting it right anyways.

What is the point? Accidentally scoring is fine, accidentally scoring optimally would be an issue, which you won't do with 33% odds.

The score in futari will still be about the same for every player who doesn't try to score but just play for survival casually. How about this SUPER KILLER HORNET RESURRECTION case?

[dunpeal2064]

If the odds are 33% when guessing, by your logic every player that is disreguarding score and is playing casually for survival will still have the same score, which would be 1/3 the score possible if not going for score.

Obviously this is not true for either game in question. In Super Killer Hornet, you won't get 1/3 right consistently. In Futari, a player disreguarding score could accidentally use the correct shot 100% of the time, or 0% of the time.

[Cagar]

Even if we forget this completely, the player with good math skills will score better, which makes zero fucking sense.