I'm starting work on my shmup but it turns out I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I decided to make a small test demo to get C&C about it. I'm hoping some of you guys can try it out for me and see what you think. I used Game Maker to create this game cuz I don't know how to program with an actual language.
It's kind of hard to give real C&C yet, as it's just a small test demo. But I think it's good to get something out early and get feedback on what you've got. I'm glad to see you got something out and working!
Spend some time working on the movement. Try playing it now, and run your ship in circles (by cycliing through the arrow keys...) and you'll see, weird movement behaviour. You've got to nail that down, might as well do it early so it doesn't cloud peoples perceptions later when they should be looking at other issues.
You dont like that feature? I added the small dragging to give it a more realistic feeling. Well if you prefer the stop-on-a-dime kind of movement, I'll be glad to remove it.
Fan art by me, TKGB. New one every month. Click to enlarge and comment.
TKGB_Mental_Gear wrote:You dont like that feature? I added the small dragging to give it a more realistic feeling. Well if you prefer the stop-on-a-dime kind of movement, I'll be glad to remove it.
This wasn't a small bit of drift, I felt I was really swinging wide when moving through a diagonal. I don't mind a bit of inertia, I'll try this again, seemed more like a whopping bug in your movement code.
TKGB_Mental_Gear wrote:You dont like that feature? I added the small dragging to give it a more realistic feeling. Well if you prefer the stop-on-a-dime kind of movement, I'll be glad to remove it.
This wasn't a small bit of drift, I felt I was really swinging wide when moving through a diagonal. I don't mind a bit of inertia, I'll try this again, seemed more like a whopping bug in your movement code.
Bill
Really? Four pixels is a drag? Or I probably made it 7. I can't remember.
landshark wrote:I strongly dislike any kind of momentum in a shmup.
I also found the popcorn enemies to move a bit too quick.
How fast do you recommend for such an enemy?
Fan art by me, TKGB. New one every month. Click to enlarge and comment.
TKGB_Mental_Gear wrote:Really? Four pixels is a drag? Or I probably made it 7. I can't remember.
Hmmm... that's what you're expecting to happen. I'm saying "I think there's a bug", and what you expect is in fact not happening. When multiple keys are pressed, like from down->right->up I seemed to see really bad drift. Much more than 7 pixels, by at least a factor of 10. But, like I said, I'll try it out again tomorrow to see if I can experience it again and give you more info.
How are you handling movement? Sounds like you move a fixed number of pixels each frame? You should consider (if you are, ignore me) using vectors representing position, velocity, and acceleration.
I think the movement is too unprecise, too.
Its hard to dodge all the bullets.
If you want i can give you a new movement script.
And i would change room speed to 60 it looks much smoother!
TKGB_Mental_Gear wrote:Really? Four pixels is a drag? Or I probably made it 7. I can't remember.
Hmmm... that's what you're expecting to happen. I'm saying "I think there's a bug", and what you expect is in fact not happening. When multiple keys are pressed, like from down->right->up I seemed to see really bad drift. Much more than 7 pixels, by at least a factor of 10. But, like I said, I'll try it out again tomorrow to see if I can experience it again and give you more info.
How are you handling movement? Sounds like you move a fixed number of pixels each frame? You should consider (if you are, ignore me) using vectors representing position, velocity, and acceleration.
Bill
If he's going to use inertia, maybe.
I personally think no shmup should had inertia. The only one that has it and it works very well is Exerion, but I think that game WAS BUILT around Inertia.
If he chooses to use no-inertia movement, a fixed number of pixels is a good option.
the2bears wrote:If he chooses to use no-inertia movement, a fixed number of pixels is a good option.
It's really not that good an option.
You'll have a game likely running at a fixed frame rate. Now, to adjust your speed do you propose some sort of "Move 50 pixels over 60 fps"? No, you go with a fixed point representation, or floating point, and convert at render time to screen location (the pixel). Makes it much easier to handle the very likely case that you don't move an integer value of pixels each frame.
I actually love it. I'm addicted to playing now. I also studied some of the game's actual structure...like how it was made in Game Maker. Are you at all interested in helping me with my shmup project soon? I'm writing up how I want things to go and all. Do you have an AIM?
And no pickles! Oh god help you if I find pickles!
-Stewie Griffin
the2bears wrote:If he chooses to use no-inertia movement, a fixed number of pixels is a good option.
It's really not that good an option.
You'll have a game likely running at a fixed frame rate. Now, to adjust your speed do you propose some sort of "Move 50 pixels over 60 fps"? No, you go with a fixed point representation, or floating point, and convert at render time to screen location (the pixel). Makes it much easier to handle the very likely case that you don't move an integer value of pixels each frame.
Bill
I propose "Move 2 pixels down at every frame while the DOWN command is pressed".
You can do some math with diagonals if you don't want the ship to have the same vertical and horizontal speed while moving diagonally (Some games do, others don't), I just don't get it why you think one method is better or worse than the other.
I don't want to go in a heavy discussion about it, I think each one will code in what he finds easier .
Shatterhand wrote:I just don't get it why you think one method is better or worse than the other.
I don't want to go in a heavy discussion about it, I think each one will code in what he finds easier .
I just think one way is more flexible. But of course, everyone can do what they want and ultimately if they're comfortable with the program and it works, that's what counts. No one judges your code, just how it plays
just for the record, in Gamemaker you can easily tell an object to move "2.362162362 pixels to left" if you feel like , you just write "x -= 2.362162362 " and you are set
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