DroneSwarm - shmup in development

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Sat May 05, 2007 3:32 pm

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and new to shmup development. I'm making a game called DroneSwarm - www.droneswarm.com

It will be a widescreen, high-definition side-scroller with 2D graphics. Hopefully I will have some screenshots soon - it's in the very early stages of development at the moment.

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Sat May 05, 2007 3:37 pm

Welcome rofl.

Anyways, there is a development section on this forum.

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Sat May 05, 2007 3:54 pm

Ack, that's what I get for posting before I read. Someone please move this to the development forum kthanxbye.

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Sat May 05, 2007 4:17 pm

Thread moved as requested.

You might want to add www. to your signature link to fix the tags. :)

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Sat May 05, 2007 7:30 pm

Hello and welcome.
Gimme specs about language and libraries please.

Don't forget to post here too.

Somewhat of a sister forum for shmup developers.
http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Sun May 06, 2007 2:58 am

Pixel_Outlaw: I'm working with Torque Game Builder, so the game is programmed in Torque Script, with perhaps a little C# for the frontend.

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 9:15 am

I'm entering DroneSwarm in the SHMUP-DEV 'options' contest, so look out for updates soon. Should have some concept art in the next day or two.

Here's the shmup-dev thread: http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/index.php?topic=1230.0

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am

Concept art for DroneSwarm:

and a quick preview video of my work so far:

http://droneswarm.com/files/DroneSwarm_progress01.wmv

The sound effects are from http://www.soundportfolio.com/

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 2:39 am

latest progress shots:

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 6:57 am

Click here to download the DroneSwarm demo

Screenshots:

Post by **Ghegs** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:11 am

One thing I've wondered but for some reason haven't asked yet...why do your graphics look more suited towards a vertical shooter?

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:14 am

Maybe you're supposed to flip your monitor ?

FSR · Post by **FSR** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:12 am

I played the demo and enjoyed it.

The game runs smooth in 800x600 and with (very) slight hiccups in 1024x768 on my computer:
Pentium 4
1,8GHz
256 MB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Windows XP

I can't comment on the enemies and bullet patterns at this point, but here are two other suggestions:
- Allow the user to change the button configuration. The positions for Z and Y are swapped on some (European) keyboards. This is pretty uncomfortable for players that (have to) use a keyboard.
- If possible, replace .png with .gif files to save memory

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:24 am

Ghegs - good question! I wanted to make a top-down shooter because planes look more interesting from above than from the side, but I also wanted the game to run in widescreen high-definition video modes.

Zebra - I may include a key configuration for tate mode.

FSR - Thanks for the tip about the European keyboards, I'll include Y as a shoot button. Fully configurable controls will be available in later versions. I use .png instead of .gif because .gif has only 1 bit of alpha, whereas .png has 8 bit, allowing for much smoother edges on sprites.

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:19 am

YouTube Video

Higher quality WMV video

JJG · Post by **JJG** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:29 am

I kind of agree with Ghegs this really wants to be a vertical shooter. I think it would be cool if there was a little bit of animation to the wings when your ship moves 'cause as it is now it looks kinda stiff (maybe something like the ship in Karous).

I'd say flip the screen vertically and have a few people test it both ways, see what the consensus is.

Looks really cool!

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:44 am

Sorry it's not going to be vertical - it's specifically targeted at widescreen monitors and HD TVs. Good idea about animating the wings, I'll put that on the to-do list.

FSR · Post by **FSR** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:05 am

Here's something else I noticed:
If I keep holding Z after getting destroyed, the ship won't fire once the invincible phase ends. I have to release Z and push Z again to fire. Or was this done on purpose?

eight · Post by **eight** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:26 am

It'd make much more sense if it was vertical, but I will just flip my monitor then - if monoRAIL includes the key configuration for tate mode.

BigTinz · Post by **BigTinz** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:58 am

That looks great!

It works perfect with my gamepad.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:54 am

Great enemy concepts and enemy implementation. The game flows beautifully but I wish the player ship moved a bit faster. The graphics are really easy on the eye's. Nice work!

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:29 am

eight - tate controls are in the next version, coming soon.

monoRAIL · Post by **monoRAIL** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:34 pm

Level 1 is now finished! European keyboard layouts are supported and so is tate mode.

YouTube Movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92PoS1NBwHE

Download the game here: http://droneswarm.com

Screenshots:

FSR · Post by **FSR** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:36 pm

+ If I'm not mistaken, some enemies (black jets, helicopters) have been weakened and repositioned. It's always a good idea not to start too hard in the first stage.
+ Playing the game with the Y and X keys feels a lot more comfortable.
+The drones are great. I didn't pay enough attention to them last time, but I can now clearly see why their use is important and makes the game easier.
+ I usually don't like games where the player gets punished for shooting to much, but it's very well implemented in this game.
+ Cool explosion effect on that boss