Generic Arena Shmup finished.

[worstplayer]

So, i'm working on an arena shmup (ewww) and i have couple questions.

1:It's going to be in 1280x1024, can your monitors display such resolution?
2:What kind of controls would you want in such game? So far it supports ps2-compatible and xbox360-compatible gamepads. Are there other dual stick gamepads in common use with different configuration? Anyone wants keyboard and mouse support?

EDIT: video here

EDIT2: http://pivostudios.hustej.net/gas.zip <-- final version here.

[moozooh]

Keyboard & mouse is the way to go with most games that have any kind of aiming involved. So far mouse is THE most precise controller for aiming.

Also, 1280x1024 is the native resolution of 19" 5:4 LCD monitors, but it is possible that some 4:3 and 16:10 monitors will display it cropped or otherwise distorted. I suggest leaving 1280x960 as a 4:3 option at least, and think of some padding for widescreen displays.

By the way, the game looks really good. I somewhat like arena shmups (Crimsonland <3), so I'll be looking forward to it!

[Zebra Airforce]

how about tap button to shoot, hold to shoot and lock direction (keyboard only controls)

[P_HAT]

how about tap button to shoot, hold to shoot and lock direction (keyboard only controls)

Brutal

[moozooh]

That seems similar to µ-cade, unless I'm remembering it wrong.

[Zebra Airforce]

Just to clarify, by "keyboard only", I meant for people who don't want to use the mouse/a controller. I didn't mean that you should only allow keyboard controls.

[Ixmucane]

My laptop's screen is 1280x800, which is a rather common large size.
I think you shouldn't expect more than 1024x768 from players; 800x600 would be more inclusive, but if you really need a large arena...

[moozooh]

1280x800 isn't "large", by far. The norm of desktop/laptop resolutions ranges from 1280x720 to 1400x1050 nowadays (I use 1280x960 on my home 17" CRT).

For simplistic 3D applications (and I assume your game is 3D-accelerated), 800x600 is close to a stone age for PC users, even the puny EeePC knows better (1024x600).

1024x768 is going from standard to below-standard resolution nowadays, and it will work on pretty much any PC hardware released in at least the last 5 years, so you don't really need to go lower with 3D graphics.

If I were deciding, I'd go with:

• 4:3 — 1024x768, 1280x960 (+ 1280x1024 for compatibility), 1600x1200;
• 16:10 — 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050.

That will suit pretty much everyone in my opinion.

[indstr]

Yes on 1280x1024, although I would prefer 1280x960 as it is the proper 4:3 aspect ratio

I think you should include support for controllers with 2 d-pad's such as the Visualboy, and also allow configurable controls on keyboard, such as waxd for movement, numpad for aiming.

[worstplayer]

Configurable controls is insane amount of work, much more than few hardcoded options. And i'm a lazy person.
Anyway, keyboad+mouse is implemented, i'll add keyboad only (and single stick/dpad) later.

As for resolutions. This looks like problem. I want all players to see same portion of screen regardless of resolution.
Looks like only solution to please everyone is to render it at 2048x2048 and stretch it to fit current desktop resolution.
But that'll require huge sprites which could be problem on laptops and old computers with less than 64MB VRAM.
Decisions...

[moozooh]

Huge sprites? I'm not sure how it's done currently, but I don't think you need huge sprites in any case, especially if hardware scaling is to be involved either way.

[Ixmucane]

As for resolutions. This looks like problem. I want all players to see same portion of screen regardless of resolution.
Looks like only solution to please everyone is to render it at 2048x2048 and stretch it to fit current desktop resolution.
But that'll require huge sprites which could be problem on laptops and old computers with less than 64MB VRAM.
Decisions...

You need neither to render a 2048x2048 buffer if the screen is smaller nor to draw particularly huge sprites.
You can choose a reasonable "reference" size, e.g. 1024x768 (whole window) or 700x700 (square playfield), and make sprites that would be displayed at their natural size (i.e. good-looking) at that resolution.
Then other window sizes can be implemented with hardware scaling of your sprites; everything will be small on small screens and large on large screens, with perfect efficiency and slightly compromised sprite appearance.

[worstplayer]

Ok, so "reference" resolution will be 1280x960 and rest will be scaled.

i also tried keyboard-only controls but it was totally unplayable as it was nearly impossible to hit anything. So i added joystick+mouse instead

[moozooh]

Sounds good.

[worstplayer]

The game is almost in playable state. Now i just need more enemies, spawning patterns and sounds.

And i still have no idea how it should be called
Any ideas?

EDIT: While trying to invent new enemies i realized that coming up with new and original ways enemies can ram you isn't that easy.
Of course, there's an easy solution: bullets.
Arena shmup + bullet hell... sounds unplayable. Let's try anyway

[Ixmucane]

And i still have no idea how it should be called
Any ideas?

Given the debate here, something with "letterbox" in the title:
Space Postman: Letterbox Arena
Bullet Mail Letterbox
and so on.

[worstplayer]

Sorry for no updates. I'm rewriting the game from scratch. I tested it on my old PC and it ran at 15fps.
Looks like 300-layer parallax scrolling wasn't such a great idea after all.

[FSR]

Woah, 300 layers is a damn lot. What where they used for?
For Special effects, such as wobbling background images?

And sorry for going a bit off-topic, but I'm just interested:
Have you ever considered publishing Laseroid on yoyogames.com? It could easily take a Top 10 spot.

[worstplayer]

Those layers contained various stars and plumes of smoke, and together it formed nebula that changed perspective as you moved around.
It looks pretty, but hardware requirements are insane. I must come up with more sober background.

And i doubt Laseroid would have much success on Yoyo. It's very primitive game from technical standpoint.

EDIT: JPG compression likes to f*** up dark red, and it also happened here.

[Ixmucane]

You don't need 300 layers to display some parallax effects. Suitable 3D geometry, maybe with fragment shaders, can easily approximate the transparent nebulas; "how much smoke can I see along this ray" is a question that can be answered realistically with a modest amount of texture lookups and computation.
For example, you could use tiny billboards, or even point sprites, for individual stars; overdraw would be drastically reduced, and processing thousands of vertices shouldn't be a problem.
For the soft parts of the nebula you might combine several samples from affordably low resolution 3D textures, in front of some kind of skybox (maybe just a cube map texture) for the far regions.

[Ixmucane]

You don't need 300 layers to display some parallax effects. Suitable 3D geometry, maybe with fragment shaders, can easily approximate the transparent nebulas;

I found an account from someone who already did this (a starfield with humble GL_POINTS): http://www.arcnebula.com/devBlog/2008/0 ... ar-fields/ (see also the rest of the blog)

[worstplayer]

Ok, the game is now in playable state, except i only have 4 enemies.

-Asteroid - generic breakable asteroid - releases multipliers upon destruction
-Kamikaze - moves towards player in slightly curved path and explodes when it hits you
-Cluster mine - randomly moves around. When it gets too close to you or is destroyed, it releases 3 homing missiles
-Shooter - circle-strafes around you and shoots PinkCircularBullets(tm) in your general direction

Now i'm working on a Snake. (every shmup needs one.)

Any other enemies you'd like to have there?

EDIT: new video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lobzbHHBwDk

[worstplayer]

Here's first playable version: [link dead]
Since i STILL don't have a menu here are few shortcuts you'll need

number keys switch controls:
1 - Dualshock-compatible gamepad
2 - Xbox/360-compatible gamepad
3 - Rumblepad-compatible gamepad
4 - Keyboard & mouse
5 - Joystick & mouse

Backspace restarts the game.
ESC - exit

If you have framerate problems press R to reduce beckground complexity.

Suggestions welcome.

[monoRAIL]

Nice game! Very high quality. I liked the graphics and music. I played with an xbox 360 controller, and I was able to get to level 13. The analog aiming worked nicely. The banking and thrusters on the player ship is very effective.

Framerate was fine (On a new Vista computer)

Some suggestions:

Spread fire is impossible to aim, since you have to let go of the right stick to use it. I'd have the ship stop firing if the player isn't aiming the right stick, have it spread fire by default, and focus fire if the player is holding down the trigger.

The blue flowers don't make much sense. If you automatically collect them, then there's no need to have them fly across the screen, just increase the multiplier when the asteroid dies. If you want the player to have to collect them, then then shouldn't seek until the player gets close. At the moment they're distracting - when one zooms in quickly from off-screen it looks like a threat and distracts your attention from the actual threats.

Overall, pretty cool game. I'm looking forward to seeing more enemies. You could get a lot of longevity out of a game like this by adding a few different player ships.

[worstplayer]

Spread fire is impossible to aim, since you have to let go of the right stick to use it. I'd have the ship stop firing if the player isn't aiming the right stick, have it spread fire by default, and focus fire if the player is holding down the trigger.

Hmm, i can aim spread fire just fine. It's analog, so farther you push the stick, the more focused shooting gets and it doesn't shoot at all when centered. Maybe i should add some deadzone for less precise gamepads.
But having option to shoot with triggers isn't bad idea actually, expect it in the next release

The blue flowers don't make much sense. If you automatically collect them, then there's no need to have them fly across the screen, just increase the multiplier when the asteroid dies. If you want the player to have to collect them, then then shouldn't seek until the player gets close. At the moment they're distracting - when one zooms in quickly from off-screen it looks like a threat and distracts your attention from the actual threats.

This is great idea! Having to approach multipliers to collect them would force player to move around more, which is always a good thing. Working on it RIGHT NOW. And maybe they'll even timeout

Overall, pretty cool game. I'm looking forward to seeing more enemies. You could get a lot of longevity out of a game like this by adding a few different player ships.

Different player ships? Sure, why not. However, i'll have to make some changes to make it work (and make extra models for different ships).

[monoRAIL]

Ah I didn't realize there was different stages of shooting possible.
I'd recommend having a 0.2 deadzone on any analog sticks. That seems to work well for the 360 stick. I wouldn't actually put shooting on the triggers, just that if the player is shooting without a trigger pulled it could be spread fire, and if they're also pulling a trigger then switch to focus fire.

[worstplayer]

Ah I didn't realize there was different stages of shooting possible.
I'd recommend having a 0.2 deadzone on any analog sticks. That seems to work well for the 360 stick. I wouldn't actually put shooting on the triggers, just that if the player is shooting without a trigger pulled it could be spread fire, and if they're also pulling a trigger then switch to focus fire.

[link dead] (press 0)

[monoRAIL]

Yeah that's really good. Being able to spread fire constantly makes the game easier, you can defend yourself from more enemies at once. I was able to make it to phase 15 this time.

The stationary multiplier/asteroid-flowers are also good, this encourages the player to move around the arena.

There isn't much need to focus fire at the moment. I think you need to add a large slow moving enemy with lots of hitpoints so the player has to focus fire on it for a few seconds to kill it.

Another feature which I think would help a lot is dust and debris from asteroid explosions. There should be a dust cloud and lots of particles of small rocks when an asteroid breaks up.

The layered background is looking really good - perhaps you could add some twinkling stars in there... maybe just 1 or 2 layers of stars with their brightness fading up and down slowly.

Finally the dead zone on the joystick doesn't seem to be big enough. When I released the right stick, my ship often stayed shooting. Mine's a pretty old control pad, maybe the stick is loose. Also, the aiming didn't seem to be totally smooth, if I fired up and right, then rolled around to down and right, the ship didn't rotate smoothly - rather it snapped quite quickly past horizontal onto the diagonal again. There might be a minor bug in your rotation code.

By the way - are you on shmup-dev.com? You should post this there, you would get lots of feedback from other developers.

[worstplayer]

There isn't much need to focus fire at the moment. I think you need to add a large slow moving enemy with lots of hitpoints so the player has to focus fire on it for a few seconds to kill it.

Don't worry, it'll become useful when snakes appear.

Another feature which I think would help a lot is dust and debris from asteroid explosions. There should be a dust cloud and lots of particles of small rocks when an asteroid breaks up.

Yeah, i'll add it, but i have to find a way to do so without confusing player.

The layered background is looking really good - perhaps you could add some twinkling stars in there... maybe just 1 or 2 layers of stars with their brightness fading up and down slowly.

I already experimented with this, and it doesn't look very good.

Finally the dead zone on the joystick doesn't seem to be big enough. When I released the right stick, my ship often stayed shooting. Mine's a pretty old control pad, maybe the stick is loose.

Deadzone will be adjustable in final version.

Also, the aiming didn't seem to be totally smooth, if I fired up and right, then rolled around to down and right, the ship didn't rotate smoothly - rather it snapped quite quickly past horizontal onto the diagonal again. There might be a minor bug in your rotation code.

Bug found and eliminated.

By the way - are you on shmup-dev.com? You should post this there, you would get lots of feedback from other developers.

Yeah, i'm there, I just have zero posts. I'll start a topic there.

EDIT: Motherfuckin' snakes in the motherfuckin' space!
[link dead]
EDIT2: dead links removed.

[worstplayer]

Final version is here: http://pivostudios.hustej.net/gas.zip

If you don't like something about this game, please reply, and i'll make sure it'll be better in my next game

EDIT: in case hustej.net doesn't work: http://www.filedropper.com/gas_2