Codename TROOPER (ver. 0.5.7.2 available for download)

[Aru-san]

Inspired by Zanac boss battles which usually consist of multiple stationary (and some moving) targets that shoot at you. I managed to make this after watching Icarus' Zanac Neo Score Attack on YouTube and decided to brew up ideas for a boss rush Zanac-esque game.

You can download the recent version here. Just a couple more features and levels.
You can watch the game in action on YouTube. (Outdated version)

Eventually, this game will have a background (hopefully) and not-so-crappy graphics. I can't believe a game at this stage would still have crap graphics...but the gameplay is at least there.

[monkeyman]

Hmm.. hard to get excited this early on in the game but I can see there is potential here.

Not sure about the interface, though I'd imagine it isn't finalised but the whole press c for next level and r to restart ruined the flow.

A bigger issue which is easier to remedy is the use of black background and black borders - you can't see where the edge of the screen is! Luckily it's easy to change border colour in gamemaker so go to the 'game constants tab' (it may not actually be called that) and change the border colour.

Would like to see this once more interesting bullet patterns are in place however. Stick with it!

[the2bears]

Images?

Bill

[Aru-san]

Here are some images of the game.

Stage 01


Stage 05


Stage 10


Other


Also, updated the download link with a more recent version. Release 4, to be precise.

[worstplayer]

That "let them bleed out" scoring system is simply amazing. I also like the 3rd pattern.

[null1024]

That "let them bleed out" scoring system is simply amazing. I also like the 3rd pattern.

Agreed. The nice thing about it is that it makes it harder if you concentrate on score, namely since the longer you're going, the more likely you'll make a mistake, especially with these fast [yay!] bullets.

Now all we need are more levels!

[Aru-san]

So far, you see this level structure set up:

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01--05--10--ED

When this game is completed, I plan to pull off this (plus automatic level advance):

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                         |--99--X1--X2--X3--END
                         |
                 |--50--65--85--ED
                 |
         |--30--40--ED
         |
         |--20--ED
         |
01--05--10--ED

I also kept a notepad of footnotes right below the map.

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LEFT SIDE:

Aim for a levels
    and achieve a grades!



Time bonus: Medals x time left

---

RIGHT SIDE:

Medal system
Starts at 10. Increases by 10.
Max at 250. (Note: It's not 250. It's finalized at 150.)
All medals attract non-shooting player.
Dropping a medal reduces it by a level. (Note: Not anymore.)
Dying resets the counter.

Bonus system (Note: This is the +10 thing you see when you start the game.)
Medals add to create a new value.
This determines how much you earn from
destroyed turrets.
Start at 10, no max.
Reset to 10 on death.

Fun fact: all of my shmup plans happen during my spare time...at school. On the idle times where I feel that I know the content in the class, I spend my time making random shmup plans. Very few make it, however. This just happens to be one of the plans that I actually put to frutition.

[Aru-san]

Here is the most recent version of my game (Release 8 Build 5).

Contains these fixes:
- Automatic advance (the R button for restart is still there, though)
- Fixed tracking of medals (medals already headed for you will keep heading towards you)

I may just scrap the timer bonus for this game and just use the timer to prevent prolonged milking. Also, on the next release, I'll try to make levels 20, 30, and 40.

[Aru-san]

You can download the most recent version here (ver. 0.1.5 b3).

Contains the following:
- Same fixes from the previous release.
- 3 more levels.
- Gave the bullets a hitbox so dodging is (slightly) easier.
- Added a slow button (X).
- Tweaked durabilities for some enemies.

So far, the level structure is as follows:

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         |--30--40--ED
         |
         |--20--ED
         |
01--05--10--ED

Which levels you'll end up playing after 10 depends on your score, so use the scoring system to get to the new levels. The patterns for these levels are especially tough, particularly 30 and 40.

Also, I'll probably shoot for a timer and levels 50 and 75 for the next release. I'll shoot for the timer in particular because of this:

With the massive amount of milking you can do with those turrets, you can achieve this enormous amount with about roughly 10-15 minutes of medal milking.

[monkeyman]

Definately looking more interesting now, though I haven't seen lvls 30 and 40 (for some reason trying to milk lvl05 = death).
One thing I have noticed though is the larger medals obscure the enemy bullets (at least for me), there are probably ways of tweaking the medals / bullets to help with that - or it might just be that I suck.

[Aru-san]

Definately looking more interesting now, though I haven't seen lvls 30 and 40 (for some reason trying to milk lvl05 = death).
One thing I have noticed though is the larger medals obscure the enemy bullets (at least for me), there are probably ways of tweaking the medals / bullets to help with that - or it might just be that I suck.

I've noticed that problem too when milking Level 05. It seems that when the medals get in the way, they tend to make bullets seem "invisible" despite the fact that the medals are visibly underneath the bullets. I've fixed that by creating a new bullet, and said bullet makes use of direction (directional bullets w/o Game Maker Pro ). This new bullet has slightly remedied the invisible bullet problem.

Remember, in this build, your level path is score based. Just keep trying and (hint hint) don't overmilk if you feel that the situation is too dangerous. You'll be in for a treat once you get to Levels 30 and 40.

[null1024]

Definately looking more interesting now, though I haven't seen lvls 30 and 40 (for some reason trying to milk lvl05 = death).
One thing I have noticed though is the larger medals obscure the enemy bullets (at least for me), there are probably ways of tweaking the medals / bullets to help with that - or it might just be that I suck.

I've noticed that problem too when milking Level 05. It seems that when the medals get in the way, they tend to make bullets seem "invisible" despite the fact that the medals are visibly underneath the bullets. I've fixed that by creating a new bullet, and said bullet makes use of direction (directional bullets w/o Game Maker Pro ). This new bullet has slightly remedied the invisible bullet problem.

Remember, in this build, your level path is score based. Just keep trying and (hint hint) don't overmilk if you feel that the situation is too dangerous. You'll be in for a treat once you get to Levels 30 and 40.

God, I can't beat level 30 for my life. I found out the trick to make the medals larger [and they seem to give out more points, found this purely by accident, but very cool].

Why don't you make bullets layer themselves above everything else? [layer = -999999]

Also, directional bullets don't need GM Pro. If you mean rotated, a sprite with 36 subimages works perfectly fine.

[Aru-san]

Definately looking more interesting now, though I haven't seen lvls 30 and 40 (for some reason trying to milk lvl05 = death).
One thing I have noticed though is the larger medals obscure the enemy bullets (at least for me), there are probably ways of tweaking the medals / bullets to help with that - or it might just be that I suck.

I've noticed that problem too when milking Level 05. It seems that when the medals get in the way, they tend to make bullets seem "invisible" despite the fact that the medals are visibly underneath the bullets. I've fixed that by creating a new bullet, and said bullet makes use of direction (directional bullets w/o Game Maker Pro ). This new bullet has slightly remedied the invisible bullet problem.

Remember, in this build, your level path is score based. Just keep trying and (hint hint) don't overmilk if you feel that the situation is too dangerous. You'll be in for a treat once you get to Levels 30 and 40.

Why don't you make bullets layer themselves above everything else? [layer = -999999]

Also, directional bullets don't need GM Pro. If you mean rotated, a sprite with 36 subimages works perfectly fine.

Here's where I have priorities layer-wise, from top to bottom:

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HUD / Messages
Player
Turrets
Bullets
Medals

Also, I used that exact technique for the rotated bullets.

Expect the next build some time next week or, if I'm not too lazy, this weekend. Again, new features for the next build that I'm trying to aim for are the following:

- A refined HUD.
- Levels 50 and 75.
- A timer that will automatically destroy all turrets when the time runs out.
- More bullet shape diversity.

[Rozyrg]

You're making pretty swift progress with this I see. Looking good.

Yeah, bullet visibility is no mean feat... it's a problem I've had with mine from the beginning, and I've tried plenty of stuff to remedy it. The most recent solution I came up with was to make them change color depending on what they collide with/ pass over. Works OK for the moment.

[ZacharyB]

I found a small bug in the latest public version: I was playing for survival just to see how low of a score I could get. I beat level 15, and then the game displayed the "Thank you for play" and "Advance to level 20" messages simultaneously (on top of each other). It then advanced me to level 20. Should be easy to fix if you haven't already.

[Aru-san]

This bug has already been fixed and will be released on the next build I send out.

[null1024]

I've always solved bullet visibility by making the bullets flash, usually from a semi-dark color to a really bright color, or [in the case of 5speedguns], making them shift hue a bit for them to be noticeable.

[Aru-san]

It took me an entire afternoon of coding, bug testing, and bullet pattern surviving, but you can now download the most recent version of this game here (ver. 0.3.2).

Level structure in this version is now as follows:

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LV1 LV2 LV3 LV4 LV5 LV6

             |--50--75--ED
             |
         |--30--40--ED
         |
         |--20--ED
         |
01--05--10--ED

This game contains all of the fixes of previous versions plus:
- A slightly modified medal system (drop a medal, next medal will be one level below...so TAP to save your medal levels).
- A timer that will automatically destroy all turrets (supplemented with a scoring consequence) when the timer runs out.
- A refined HUD that doesn't look like a boring NES game.
- The inclusion of levels 50 and 75 (again, milk the scoring system to get to this point).
- More bullet shape diversity (read: pea-bullet, long, arrow, and rectangular) with each bullet having a slight blink to improve visibility.
- Enemy explosions.
- An easter egg.

At the rate I'm going, I need pro players to help destroy this game, especially with levels 50 and 75. Others can still pitch in on some bugs I may have overlooked, though. If you thought level 30 was hard...you haven't seen anything yet. I'm personally striving to beat Level 50 alone.

[Ravid]

This is quite a nice game potentially, I see you have some good ideas Aru-san

Level 50 is too hard imo. A bullet pattern like that works in games with a much slower ship. As it stands, shooting from the bottom of the screen is suicidal so the only viable option is to sit above the turrets and hit them with the side options, and this takes ages and is tedious. Also it takes like 6 mins to get to that stage; I know milking is the main point of the game, but it goes on too long.

My suggestions for fixing with minimal changes: reduce the timer on each stage by like 1/3, and remove a couple of the turrets from level 50 so it's a bit easier and doesn't take ages to kill.
Other suggestions: increase shot power, decrease ship speed (by perhaps 10-20%), give the turrets "angry" attacks when there's only a few left (to make milking more interesting).

Also, I don't understand what the conditions are to start increasing your medal value. As far as I can tell, you go really close to the turret releasing medals and the value goes up. However, this doesn't work at the start of stage 1, and I can't figure out what starts it off.

Edit: figured it out. The medal value fails to rise if you are not close to every source simultaneously. Not sure if this is the way you intended.
Level 75 is nice.

[Aru-san]

Level 50 is too hard imo. A bullet pattern like that works in games with a much slower ship. As it stands, shooting from the bottom of the screen is suicidal so the only viable option is to sit above the turrets and hit them with the side options, and this takes ages and is tedious. Also it takes like 6 mins to get to that stage; I know milking is the main point of the game, but it goes on too long.

Yeah, I could have figured that level would have been too hard. Even I can't beat it, so I guess this really calls for tweaking.

My suggestions for fixing with minimal changes: reduce the timer on each stage by like 1/3, and remove a couple of the turrets from level 50 so it's a bit easier and doesn't take ages to kill.
Other suggestions: increase shot power, decrease ship speed (by perhaps 10-20%), give the turrets "angry" attacks when there's only a few left (to make milking more interesting).

I'll add that to my to-do list for this game (which I'll show below all of these responses). Though increasing shot power would make the first few levels a bit too easy seeing that the turrets in those levels start off with low durability.

Also, I don't understand what the conditions are to start increasing your medal value. As far as I can tell, you go really close to the turret releasing medals and the value goes up. However, this doesn't work at the start of stage 1, and I can't figure out what starts it off.

Two methods you can go about doing this, but many players would decide to go with the option listed in bold:

- You can destroy a turret spewing out 10pt. medals, collect those medals, and then destroy another turret now spewing out 20pt. medals and so on and so forth until you reach the max value of 150pts. per medal.
- You can destroy one or two turrets in close proximity and get dangerously close to them to quickly bump the value up to 150pts. per medal.

Edit: figured it out. The medal value fails to rise if you are not close to every source simultaneously. Not sure if this is the way you intended.

That's how I intended it. I made this technique so players can pull off a "miclus" and have the medal counter bump up as you're on top of the target (or in this case, really close to it).

My chosen solution for Level 50 was to speed up the special bullets that spew out the bullets, making it slightly less threatening because the bullet spawning all of the other bullets leaves the screen at twice the speed than it was before.

Did you know that you can slow down your ship with X?

[Ravid]

And now, my to-do list for the next version:

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- = Not yet implemented | * = Implemented

- Level 85. (I'll splurge out on Level 100, the X levels, and some more things next update)
- Lower durability for the turrets; increasing firepower would make earlier levels too easy.
* Modify some aspects of Level 50 to make it a bit easier.
* Cut the time of all stages by 1/3 (1/4 if not divisible by 3, only applicable to stages 05, 10, and 20).
- Program alternate attacks for turrets when there are few left on the screen.

My chosen solution for Level 50 was to speed up the special bullets that spew out the bullets, making it slightly less threatening because the bullet spawning all of the other bullets leaves the screen at twice the speed than it was before.

Did you know that you can slow down your ship with X?

Changing firepower would make scoring earlier levels harder since you are more likely to accidentally destroy turrets. Since surviving the early levels is trivial that is a more significant change. Of course this is a balance issue for individual stages so fiddling the turret durability is probably the best approach regardless.
The stage time reduction was just a rough amount, doesn't have to be exact proportions heh
I'm not sure whether your solution for level 50 will be good enough; you still have the problem that once the fast shots pass by you might get boxed in if you're unlucky in the way the spirals point. Unless they also fire shots backwards there's not much incentive to sit in the space below the turrets anyway. I guess you're in a better position to test this though.
And no, I didn't know you could slow the ship

[Aru-san]

Changing firepower would make scoring earlier levels harder since you are more likely to accidentally destroy turrets. Since surviving the early levels is trivial that is a more significant change. Of course this is a balance issue for individual stages so fiddling the turret durability is probably the best approach regardless.

I guess I could use a combination of lowering turret durability with increased firepower.

The stage time reduction was just a rough amount, doesn't have to be exact proportions heh

Well, it sort of works in a way. Maybe I'll slightly raise and lower some values.

I'm not sure whether your solution for level 50 will be good enough; you still have the problem that once the fast shots pass by you might get boxed in if you're unlucky in the way the spirals point. Unless they also fire shots backwards there's not much incentive to sit in the space below the turrets anyway. I guess you're in a better position to test this though.

Tested it out. The bullets spiral too slow to shoot downwards twice, so it's safe to be below the turrets when facing Level 50. It's still challenging, but it's at least possible to dodge on the lower half of the screen compared to the original version.

Also, I'll probably make the tough patterns activate based on time because after all, milking DOES take time. For those that are willing to milk will face the challenge, and it will also be punishing for those that take too damn long to kill the turrets (which, honestly, shouldn't be a problem because you can pretty much breeze through every single level in about 6-30 seconds).

[Aru-san]

Currently, as I have it set up, when the timer runs out, the game gives you 1/10th of what your PPT (points per turret) is.

My question is this: should I keep this 'punishment' or should I reward players for dodging patterns that get progressively difficult?

[null1024]

Currently, as I have it set up, when the timer runs out, the game gives you 1/10th of what your PPT (points per turret) is.

My question is this: should I keep this 'punishment' or should I reward players for dodging patterns that get progressively difficult?

Even though I really want to say keep it [so players have to find a balance between milking and when they should kill the enemy], I think it might annoy the crap out of people who milk the enemies like crazy, dodge the ever increasingly difficult patterns, have the enemies selfdestruct, and find out that they barely got any points for doing all of that.

[Aru-san]

Maybe I can make the punishment less harsh by making the player only get half of their PPT instead of the very unforgiving 1/10th.

[Aru-san]

It took a long while, and I decided to add more features than I had listed on the OP, but you can download the recent version of my game here (ver. 0.5.7.2).

This version, of course contains the following that I had planned. The bolded points are especially important.

- Level 85.
- Slightly increased firepower for the player (balance fix).
- Lowered the durability ramp for the turrets (balance fix).
- Cut stages times by roughly (read: EXACTLY) 1/3 or 1/4th of their original time.
- Programmed alternate attacks for each level (based on time, not on quantity as originally suggested).
- A WORKING LIVES SYSTEM.
- A new bomb mechanic. The bomb button is [C]. (You get LOTS of bombs. If you think there's something wrong with this picture, tinker with the game and it'll all make sense. ^_~)
- Game path is now tailored towards how many times you die on certain levels.

Though I went a bit overboard and decided to throw in a couple more features thanks to the extra time I had available (read: my internet and phone service went kaput on me and I have to use my dad's laptop if I want to use the internet). Though I think they would make good additions for the game...and it sure does make scoring all the more difficult (and hopefully fun for some).

- New point per shot system that gives you points per bullet that hits a turret.
- New multipler system that's tied into the alternate attacks. Now there's even MORE incentive to wait and dodge more fierce patterns. Note: this will also make you start SHOOTING more because enemy self-destruction doesn't yield this multipler.

Now I REALLY need pro players to playtest this build. The patterns are getting harder, and the new time-based bullet pattern mechanic I have implemented may intimidate beginners of the shmup genre.

[Ravid]

This version is much better The time-based attack changes allow the player to set his/her own pace, which I like, and the new patterns are cool. I got 135mil after about 20 mins.

Problem: you added extra lives, but with the penalty you suffer for dying you might as well not have.

Other comments (not necessarily problems, just observations): I'm a bit reluctant to comment about the difficulty, [edit]and so I won't.[/edit]
There is less score incentive to milk the later levels properly than the earlier ones since the medals don't pay back as many times. The new multiplier does something to offset that. [edit]Actually I just got 1mil extra medals from 85 alone. Do the later turrets give off more medals, or is it just the longer timer?[/edit]

The scoring systems relating to shots/bombs and enemy destruction/medals are completely unconnected; it would be nice if there was some interaction. The former doesn't really amount to much since you can max out the +value in stage 2 and then just hoard bombs for survival later on. Unless I'm missing something here.

I think I liked the old stage path system better, though the actual scores required needed tweaking a bit.

[Aru-san]

Problem: you added extra lives, but with the penalty you suffer for dying you might as well not have.

The penalty's not that harsh if you score good enough...at least that's what I think. If it's too harsh, I could tone it down.

Actually I just got 1mil extra medals from 85 alone. Do the later turrets give off more medals, or is it just the longer timer?

Medal amounts, although hidden, start increasing starting at Level 50.

The scoring systems relating to shots/bombs and enemy destruction/medals are completely unconnected; it would be nice if there was some interaction. The former doesn't really amount to much since you can max out the +value in stage 2 and then just hoard bombs for survival later on. Unless I'm missing something here.

As of right now, the bombs only clear the screen of bullets. In the next version, I'll make it so the bombs will do some damage to the turrets. I will also DECREASE the amount of spare bombs you get (I got complaints from a couple playtesters on the shmups IRC saying that I had too many bombs). How the bombs can help scoring right now is that once you get +10000, you can then cancel MORE to raise your PPT count.

I think I liked the old stage path system better, though the actual scores required needed tweaking a bit.

I may or may not bring the old system back...but I probably will to appease someone...

Other suggestions that I got from playtesters from the shmups IRC would be this:

- Spew out more items when the harder patterns are triggered (I'll do this by increasing the rate medals come out when a harder pattern comes)
- Better bullet patterns (mostly aimed bullets).
- Harder patterns from the start (ex: take level 75 and have it replace level 05). I am currently reluctant on doing this, though, so it might not happen.
- Add MORE turrets over time to supplement the harder patterns.
- Make a mode with suicide bullets and harder patterns, no red enemy mode (bringing out items will work the same way as it did in Shooting Tech Demo, another game I made a few months back), and no bomb restock on each level. 3 lives, 3 bombs each life, 8+ levels of hell. Have fun.

I also got a little bit of praise of this game in said IRC:

(whole lot of game breaking from XOXIIZEAL/shoe-sama)
<Aru-san> Yep. Worst game I've ever made.
<SFKhoa> I like it
<SFKhoa> fuck you guys

I was, of course, joking when I said that it was the worst game I've ever made.

(Metal^'s criticisms of the game and conversations and stuff)
<Aru-san> Suicide bullets were also a good recommendation.
<Metal^> i mean spinning's great i guess
<Metal^> yeah thank psikyo
<Metal^> giving me the idea lulx
<BER-> but then it starts to look like soracross's game?
<Metal^> LOL
<Metal^> soracross will never make a game half as decent as troopa
<Aru-san> LOL

[null1024]

Played the latest version, I say, it's a lot better than older ones [duh], but I really don't like the lessened enemy health, and the death penalty is a bit harsh [no pun intended]. Couldn't you half the PPT instead of zeroing it?

[Aru-san]

Played the latest version, I say, it's a lot better than older ones [duh], but I really don't like the lessened enemy health, and the death penalty is a bit harsh [no pun intended]. Couldn't you half the PPT instead of zeroing it?

I would originally do that, but unfortunately I ran into decimal problems that I couldn't find a solution for. I don't want the PPT to have a value on the last digit, so if anyone can help me find a solution, that would be great.