Twin Tiger Shark - Android - PC - XBLIG - OUYA

[mice]

Yes, as said, I'm quite surprised by all of the positive feedback even from non-shmuppers. It's nice to see that playing for progression is still popular.
Having Easy as default difficulty setting was probably a good decision. The game doesn't scare anybody off.
It's quite fun to follow the progress of some players as they increase their score little by little. Maybe I should make that kind of thing visible in the hiscore list?

[n0rtygames]

Having Easy as default difficulty setting was probably a good decision.

Absolutely! Most of your players will not be hardcore shooting game players after all. Example from my own experiences:

"One of the best things about Chronoblast is that if you have a bomb in hand and get hit, it uses it for you" - actual quote from some dude on Twitter

Even though I sort of take this as a crappy feature that I don't particularly want - you should always remember that most of your players will be relatively new and playing on 360 pads. Most likely gonna be using the analog stick, so unless they are well practised are likely to be heavy handed flailing lunatics for the first few credits.

[Van_Artic]

got up to 2-4 on my first attempt; very nice game indeed
any plans for a revision/sequel/black label?

[mice]

Even though I sort of take this as a crappy feature that I don't particularly want

Ah, I'll add that feature to Easy, I think. Just to scare the better players away from that difficulty.

got up to 2-4 on my first attempt; very nice game indeed
any plans for a revision/sequel/black label?

Thanks!
I need to fix the stupid bugs and weapon balancing issues first, before thinking on new real versions.

[spadgy]

Got the game running lovely on my 28" PVM (with the game area filling a 16:9 space... or I guess I mean 9:16!). Anyway...

Hit stage 2-5 on 'Hard' with 4.7 million, but, QR high-score problems again.

I presumed it was the problem you identified before mice. But a look at my local high-score board suggests my 360 and controller were signed in (score at the top, and you can see my previous 'Guest 1' score that caused problems before):



Anything in your logs this time!?

[brentsg]

I need to fix the stupid bugs and weapon balancing issues first, before thinking on new real versions.

You'll never make it as a real game dev. They never do this.

[Damocles]

I think you're on to something here. I'll be honest. I played through most of the two loops using the blue weapon and found the game up to that point to be fairly boring. Bosses were extended, but the levels themselves were cake. However, when I switched to the green weapon near the end of stage 2-4 the game really opened up. It feels like Hard mode with anything but the blue weapon is the way to go. In doing so it becomes an excellent little game. I made it to the 2-6 boss on the first go, so I'm excited to try and beat the game starting on hard. Speaking of bosses, I enjoyed the fact that most were at least two distinct enemies, though they still go down way too quickly with Green.

Do you get points for keeping your helper planes alive? I swore I heard a sound effect, but wasn't sure if they were just picking up medals as they left.

Really, the only thing that I would flat-out change is the end-of-level medal sound effect. That is amazingly annoying.

Keep up the good work.

[mice]

I presumed it was the problem you identified before mice.

Turned out to be another problem this time, thanks for pointing it out. Fixed now. Also, I've added your score.

You'll never make it as a real game dev. They never do this.

Ah, that's the problem. Feeling sad.

using the blue weapon and found the game up to that point to be fairly boring.

Yeah, but the green one is overpowered as well. Going to take a while to fix this whole thing.
Thanks for being honest!

Do you get points for keeping your helper planes alive?

No, I don't think so...

Really, the only thing that I would flat-out change is the end-of-level medal sound effect.

Added to the todo list.

Again, super thanks to all of you!

[spadgy]

I presumed it was the problem you identified before mice.

Turned out to be another problem this time, thanks for pointing it out. Fixed now. Also, I've added your score.

You beauty! Thanks!

You'll never make it as a real game dev. They never do this.

Ah, that's the problem. Feeling sad.

You already are a real game developer! You made TSS and it's going down well! But, seriously, if you aren't already working in dev, you've got something great for you 'portfolio'. That's more important to most developer employers than a newfangled dev degree (of course there's a few examples of great ones). I may not be a dev employer, but I wrote enough articles and did enough interviews about it when I was with that games industry-targetted mag develop. They all say it's primarily about having a complete, functioning game to your name.

[brentsg]

You'll never make it as a real game dev. They never do this.

Ah, that's the problem. Feeling sad.

You already are a real game developer! You made TSS and it's going down well! But, seriously, if you aren't already working in dev, you've got something great for you 'portfolio'. That's more important to most developer employers than a newfangled dev degree (of course there's a few examples of great ones). I may not be a dev employer, but I wrote enough articles and did enough interviews about it when I was with that games industry-targetted mag develop. They all say it's primarily about having a complete, functioning game to your name.

Way to jack up my joke with serious shit.

[mice]

if you aren't already working in dev

I'm acutally employed as a game* developer.
*= Press here to win. Oh, you didn't win? Press again (no, not flappy birds kind of games)

[TSJ]

Ach, mice, thanks for this.

Perfect little Toaplan-y fix that I've always wanted on the 360 but had sort of given up hope for.

2-4 so far, need to check out hard mode... the blue wide-shot seems pretty overpowered though!

[spadgy]

'Hard' is wicked fun, and still within most player's ability to clear the first loop after a couple of tries. And it loops into 'Harder', which makes Gradius-style collapses a little more likely, so it turns into a fight.

mice; I'm guessing splitting the board into two separate 'Easy' and 'Hard' boards would be quite an effort? It would be ace to be able to have an 'Easy' and 'Hard' position on there as a player. I'm sure I could score more in 'Easy' through survival, but don't want to loose my 'Hard' effort that currently stands. Might get a few more playing hard! I understand, though, that it's a bit much to ask for!

[mice]

Ach, mice, thanks for this.

Super thanks!

the blue wide-shot seems pretty overpowered though!

Being rectified as we speak.

It would be ace to be able to have an 'Easy' and 'Hard' position on there as a player

We're discussing this in the dev thread, so it will be available in one form or another in the update.

[spadgy]

Ace! Well, caved and climbed a couple of places with an 'Easy' score.

One more question (and then I will get involved in the dev thread if that's a better place for input)... If you start a credit on 'Easy', the second loop is 'Hard'. Is the third loop then 'Hardest', as with the second loop if you start on 'Hard'?

[mice]

Well, caved and climbed a couple of places with an 'Easy' score.

So you play Easy for score/position an Hard for fun?
Yeah, the easy/hard hiscore table problem is prio 1 in the update.

If you start a credit on 'Easy', the second loop is 'Hard'. Is the third loop then 'Hardest', as with the second loop if you start on 'Hard'?

There's only one change (since there should have been only one extra "lap" for both difficulties), like:
Easy -> Hard -> Hard -> ...
Hard -> "Harder" -> "Harder" -> ...

[Tigershark]

Bought this. 69p? Hard to believe. Lovely game.

[system11]

Way better than 95% of all Flying Shark clones that ever existed.

My only real complaint is the aspect ratio, the play area should be 4:3 and when in horizontal some of the left and right of the area are chopped so you can barely see the millions digit.

Next port it to PS4

[spadgy]

My only real complaint is the aspect ratio, the play area should be 4:3 and when in horizontal some of the left and right of the area are chopped so you can barely see the millions digit.

I think the chopped score view is on the list over in the games Development thread here on the forum. As for the aspect ratio, while I'm a 4:3 loyalist, I feel it's reasonable to make the game 16:9 when most people who get this will play it on a 16:9 screen. That said, perhaps those of us inclined to actually run it tate will probably also be the ones doing so on a 4:3.

Oh, and if system11 gets a PS4 version, I'd like it on a JAMMA PCB please!

[n0rtygames]

Bought this.

It's like it was made for you!

[n0rtygames]

By the way, for those not following the dev thread - I hope Mice doesn't mind but I wrote a script which updates every 30 minutes or so to pull down the current high scores and separate Easy/Hard mode

You can find the output here

Currently all the scores are lumped together - to submit a score for hard using QR codes you will need to first beat your easy mode score if it is higher as the system only uploads the highest score on the table. So I think you might be able to get away with clearing your save data (if anyone doesn't know how to do this with XBLIG titles - just ask, but its usually under "Storage for <Game Name>" under your save data on your 360

Again - not completely sure this will actually work, I'm not 100% on how the server side implementation works but think of this as resetting high scores in a service menu and it might just work for you if you wanna go and attack hard mode instead

[system11]

My only real complaint is the aspect ratio, the play area should be 4:3 and when in horizontal some of the left and right of the area are chopped so you can barely see the millions digit.

I think the chopped score view is on the list over in the games Development thread here on the forum. As for the aspect ratio, while I'm a 4:3 loyalist, I feel it's reasonable to make the game 16:9 when most people who get this will play it on a 16:9 screen. That said, perhaps those of us inclined to actually run it tate will probably also be the ones doing so on a 4:3.

Yeah exactly, the number of people who will rotate a 16:9 screen playing this game are going to be ... very few in number. The majority will be playing it on giant TV displays.

[mice]

Bought this.

It's like it was made for you

Yeah, both of them!

I think the chopped score view is on the list over in the games Development thread here on the forum

It due to me adding a thousand separator to the score at the last minute, without proper testing...so sorry about that.

Lovely game.

Way better than 95% of all Flying Shark clones that ever existed.

Thanks!

the play area should be 4:3

Sometimes I think so too, 4:3 playarea is better for both taters (4:3 full screen) and non-taters (larger visible area).

[Jelloman581]

Wanted to spread the love at the recent STG Weekly shindig at SoCal Regionals, but I forgot indie games (and XBLA games as well, as SoftDrink found out with Ikaruga) require an internet connection. So I played when I got home! I did tell people about it, for a dollar, can't go wrong!

[neorocker]

Have you considered an option for 4:3 tate with screen wobble? I think that'd be a good option to implement if at all possible.

[n0rtygames]

Another way to allow for 4:3 is to remove the ability to scroll horizontally the way we do now (If you have a look at Chronoblast and notice the much complained about lack of horizontal scrolling after I implemented 4:3 support and proper tate - this might start to make sense now!)

So currently what you should have on screen is a playfirled that is 405x720

To go to 4:3 (or 3:4 really) this would have to become 540x720 - so depending on how much scrolling there already is, this might not actually be too much of a dealbreaker? Just use a different horizontal scrolling algorithm if you still have pixels to spare on each side after increasing the viewport to 540px wide

Because it's a single player game.... and you're tracking the players X position to do the camera scrolling.. right?

[emphatic]

If it comes to voting, then here's another one for 3:4.

[Tigershark]

Put my score up (using mobile phone). Not yet 1 million on Hard but getting there. I chill out to this game after a session on the frenetic XYX/

[system11]

The power ups need to hang around longer, you never get to a second green attempt and the super long screen means that they're quite often unobtainable. Dodging into a blue after dying is cause to just quit and start again.

2,519,200 on hard.

[Mero]

You made TSS and it's going down well!