Sylph Wind - shooter I've been developing quite a long time

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:20 pm

Hi, I've been lurking here for couple of years, tried to register on last autumn, but there were some problems with my email authentification so it failed.

I've been developing a buzz-based shooter named "Sylph Wind" for about two years, one and a half years making game engine and technology and about six to eight months making content.
Some of you might know that title, as an early alpha is downloadable from Gamedev, Pouet and from Shoot the Core.

I entered last summer's Assembly 07 Game development competition with Sylph Wind, the game placed fifth and was audience reaction was generally positive.

(The winner of the competition was a shooter too, titled "Centripetality", an arena shooter which borrowed polarity and chaining gameplay mechanics from iky.
It wasn't a shmup, neither it wasn't very good game at all, but it was a shooter nevertheless.)

New screens appeared recently in the Gamedev.net's Image of the Day section:
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums ... _id=484857

There's also stuff related to Sylph Wind at SHMUP-DEV.

I hope that Sylph Wind will be finished before summer.

Square King · Post by **Square King** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:48 pm

Downloaded. Thanks for the heads-up! I'll give it a try later on. Looks delicious.

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:04 pm

This might be better off posted in Development, but anyway, I'll tell you my initial impressions.

1. I can't seem to get my joystick to work with it. Joystick support is important .. joy2key is just an alternative

2. Backgrounds were very cool, but all that crazy movement was a little dizzying @_@
3. Music sounded like random piano notes over a beat. Could be better.
4. I assume the 2nd button is just there to slow you down and get chains. The constant ship spinning was pretty distracting though. I can't concentrate on scraping bullets with that much movement.
5. After chaining for a small bit, and building up the left meter, it seems button 3 let you use a bomb-like weapon .. but it seemed to hardly take off any of the meter. I could use it over and over and nuke the screen repeatedly. I also seemed to be getting a "Level Up", but it didn't seem to effect my shot power or anything.
6. No autofire makes me a sad panda

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:30 pm

Udderdude wrote:This might be better off posted in Development, but anyway, I'll tell you my initial impressions.
1. I can't seem to get my joystick to work with it. Joystick support is important .. joy2key is just an alternative
2. Backgrounds were very cool, but all that crazy movement was a little dizzying @_@
3. Music sounded like random piano notes over a beat. Could be better.
4. I assume the 2nd button is just there to slow you down and get chains. The constant ship spinning was pretty distracting though. I can't concentrate on scraping bullets with that much movement.
5. After chaining for a small bit, and building up the left meter, it seems button 3 let you use a bomb-like weapon .. but it seemed to hardly take off any of the meter. I could use it over and over and nuke the screen repeatedly. I also seemed to be getting a "Level Up", but it didn't seem to effect my shot power or anything.
6. No autofire makes me a sad panda

Thanks for feedback. Here's some answers.

1. Will be implemented.

2. Camera is actually facing down and forwards in the released demo, currently it points straigt down. This makes the foreground and background blend better and also reduces the camera movement.

3. Matter of taste.

4. Psyvariar

5. The lightning weapon is discharged automatically whenever the energy gauge is full, the bomb can be launched whenever you want, but it will decrease the amount of collected energy as a penalty. The bomb stock is shown at the bottom left corner of the screen.
You'll get a weapon upgrade whenever you get 100 level ups.

6. You don't need to shoot that much in sw, but if I get many complaints on the lack of autofire, then I might add it to game.

Here's a gameplay video from the early version of the game (2 weeks before the release of the assembly compo version), the lightnings obscure pretty much stuff here

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5741610104

Zaarock · Post by **Zaarock** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:51 pm

Looks nice. I'll try it out when I can although I dont really like psyvariar.

Ozymandiaz1260 · Post by **Ozymandiaz1260** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 8:33 pm

Wow, this looks really good. When I get off of work I'll DL it and let you know what I think

Post by **Ghegs** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:24 pm

Moved to Development.

Hulkcore · Post by **Hulkcore** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:11 pm

Liked the game quite a bit, looked beautiful. Good work.

My critiques:

1.) Ship felt weak, i.e. popcorn isn't popcorny enough.
2.) Does leveling up do something? I didn't seem to notice being stronger or having a cooler gun.
3.) Please make it so I can hold down the shoot button. If you're not using it for a slow/weapon change, there's no reason to not have autofire. My finger gets tired of tapping z constantly.

Other than that, it was a quality experience.

RobTheBuilder · Post by **RobTheBuilder** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:46 pm

Is your music midi or mp3 (not played game yet so can't hear it)

I write music, I can have a bash at some tunes for you if you'd like.

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:48 pm

RobTheBuilder wrote:Is your music midi or mp3 (not played game yet so can't hear it)

I write music, I can have a bash at some tunes for you if you'd like.

Mp3.
Most of the music is finished but couple of boss themes might be welcome addition. Please download the game if your computer meets the system requirements and listen the style of the music.

If you can't play the game, pm me and I'll post you some mp3 tracks from the game ost.

(Strangely the quote tags seems to default to "off")

MSW · Post by **MSW** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:16 am

Looks nice, but runs slow makeing it very easy.

I'm on Win XP with a 2.6GHZ P4 with 512MB and a 256MB Geforce 6800 GT vid card and up to date drivers. Not state of the art, for sure, but it should run smoother given your system specs. I ran the game in 640X480 in fullscreen with all the effects set to default. There are certain spots where frame rate dramaticly increases to around 60 (usualy when the camera points directly down on the background) otherwise its running at about 15 frames per second. I'll try messing around with the settings file and replaying.

Also, although I have a vid card that can support it, my LCD monitor can't handle anything above 1024 X 768 resolution. Just as a note to yourself maybe set the default resolution to windowed 640X480 in the final version, with the ability to change it in an options menu or through some configuration utility program. Its just a polish thing that gamers have come to expect.

The game is very pretty, yet the background mesh seems to be a little distracting and hog much of the rendering time. Maybe some reduced LOD polygon meshes are in order?

Gameplay seems pretty solid if a little dull. Its a scoreing mechanic game, where leveling up just increases your multiplier. Not a bad idea, but I think the player's weapon system needs work. In essence you are asking the player to scratch bullets for score but arn't giveing the the firepower to get out of his own way. I think a better mechanic would be to only allow the effects of scratching if the player isn't fireing. Then when they increase thier scratch meter they also get more powerful/spread shots. However fireing causes the meter (and player firepower) to shrink back down with every shot. And hitting the smart bomb reduces it to zero. Yeah its a little simpler, but players then are tradeing firepower for score so its up to them how long they can take the bullet hell heat. Spinning needs to go though, it seems artificialy tacked on, just another button to push with negligable effect to anything but potential score.

Sorry if this is a little harsh, just trying to provide constructive critisisam. Its a great start just needs a little polish and maybe some redesign in my opinion. Please don't take it the wrong way. Its GREAT to see you post Slyph Wind on Game-Dev, very rare to actualy see anyone with an apprechiation for, much less understanding of STG/SHMUP games on there.

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:53 am

Looks nice, but runs slow makeing it very easy.
I'm on Win XP with a 2.6GHZ P4 with 512MB and a 256MB Geforce 6800 GT vid card and up to date drivers. Not state of the art, for sure, but it should run smoother given your system specs. I ran the game in 640X480 in fullscreen with all the effects set to default. There are certain spots where frame rate dramaticly increases to around 60 (usualy when the camera points directly down on the background) otherwise its running at about 15 frames per second. I'll try messing around with the settings file and replaying.

This seems to be a bug in the engine, as I've received some other notes on drastic slowdown on certain NVidia cards.
Check whether you have high AA and AF settings and try to reduce them if necessary.
The demoversion also has a shader bug which might cause slowdown on certain videocards.
Up to date drivers don't hurt either

I can get constant 60fps with 2xAA 2xAF at the 1280x720 and 1024x768 resolutions with my GF 6600GT and 60fps without AA and AF on the 1280x960 resolution.

Also, although I have a vid card that can support it, my LCD monitor can't handle anything above 1024 X 768 resolution. Just as a note to yourself maybe set the default resolution to windowed 640X480 in the final version, with the ability to change it in an options menu or through some configuration utility program. Its just a polish thing that gamers have come to expect.

I accidentally set the resolution to 1280x960 for the demo. Final version will have front end and support for multiple resolutions.

The game is very pretty, yet the background mesh seems to be a little distracting and hog much of the rendering time. Maybe some reduced LOD polygon meshes are in order?

The backgrounds are quite low polygon so LOD won't help much, but the main performance issue is fill rate (the amount of pixels drawn).

Not a bad idea, but I think the player's weapon system needs work.

You'll get a weapon update after each 100 level ups. At the end you'll have very powerful spreadshot.
Also I implemented the autofire to the game, which seemed to fix most of the firepower issues.

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:30 pm

Edited the control scheme a bit:

Button A = basic firing mode (now w/autofire)
Buttons A + B = alternate firing mode (concentrated fire)
Button B + movement = roll (slow + more energy from scratch)
Button C = smartbomb, unchanged from previous version

So player have to be in constant motion (wiggling left/right or up/down will do) in order to roll, this makes game a tad harder because it was very easy in certain spots (level 2 midboss) to sit in safe spot and continuosly absorb energy for infinite shielding and excessive multiplier.

The level 3 is almost finished, I'll release some footage of it when I got it done.

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:01 am

Stage 3 (Volcano) Playthrough video.
Boss = DRAGNET.
Sucky gameplay, I just died too many times on this stage.

<VIDEOS REMOVED. BETTER STUFF UPCOMING>

Marcel1CC · Post by **Marcel1CC** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:11 am

looks very good, I'll try it out after work

ps: is it freeware? i mean the final version?

worstplayer · Post by **worstplayer** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:30 am

Demo doesn't work on my PC. It exits with "can't set screen mode".

(WindowsXP, GF8600, latest official drivers,monitor native res:1280x1024x60hz)

Marcel1CC · Post by **Marcel1CC** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:10 am

worstplayer wrote:Demo doesn't work on my PC. It exits with "can't set screen mode".

(WindowsXP, GF8600, latest official drivers,monitor native res:1280x1024x60hz)

argh... same here

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:44 pm

Since I've got two complaints on inapporiate resolutions recently I added a feature where the game defaults to desktop resolution and if the aspect isn't 4:3 it will run with borders either on sides or top and bottom of the game window.

worstplayer wrote: (WindowsXP, GF8600, latest official drivers,monitor native res:1280x1024x60hz)

In this case the game will run on 1280x960 with small bars on top and bottom of the screen.

Marcel1CC · Post by **Marcel1CC** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:55 pm

done! the backgrounds looks very nice but it runs slow

oh and you have too put in autofire and gamepad function!

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:11 am

Bosses need a timer of some sort, because you can milk the first boss for a million years.

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:03 am

Zebra Airforce wrote:Bosses need a timer of some sort, because you can milk the first boss for a million years.

What about this scheme:
After a certain time (like 100secs) the boss rank increases > faster bullets.
After another timeout (200secs?) the boss retreats.

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:54 pm

pieslice wrote:What about this scheme:
After a certain time (like 100secs) the boss rank increases > faster bullets.
After another timeout (200secs?) the boss retreats.

I like the idea of increasing rank, but you should make sure the boss is worth a substantial number of points (maybe have it's value multiplied by the chain?) so that you have a reason to destroy it before time runs out.

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:33 pm

Three stages playthrough video, DivX

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VWKZVTUI

I'll post google video link, very messy quality. I really don't know how to make google videos to look better. Do I need to upload gigabytes of uncompressed video?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9766983518

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:31 pm

A new video, 4 stages playthrough

http://rapidshare.de/files/44829742/sho ... s.avi.html

Size: 93mb
Codec: H.264

I'll record some shorter clips and upload them to YouTube tomorrow.

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:37 pm

Some YouTube clips.
watch in high quality

Stage 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kpNQSAW ... re=related

Stage 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4GfUWiO ... re=related

I'll upload stage 3 and 4 in Monday

pieslice · Post by **pieslice** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:39 pm

new clips, watch in high quality:

Stage 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGnNZhGv ... annel_page

Stage 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEEpurRc ... annel_page

lilmanjs · Post by **lilmanjs** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:07 am

why is there no sound on these videos?

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:53 am

Very impressive looking.

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:34 am

This game definitely looks impressive. The art style reminds me somewhat of Ikaruga.

I'll be tracking this.

320x240 · Post by **320x240** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:11 am

Looks good. One thing though. Some of the enemies are a little to static looking, especially the larger ones. This is true for some of the enemy patterns too, like the ones just gliding down from the top of the screen. I can see that these patterns are tightly linked to the build-up and tension of the game but is there a way to make these enemies move more dynamically without destroying this build-up?