Nordenfelt - 2D Steampunk Shmup

[hermitC]

Hi there,

I'm going to share Nordenfelt's development trace in this thread. Nordenfelt is a vertical 2D steampunk shmup with some experimental features. I don't want to list them here because some of them may be kicked out for gameplay reasons. Changes and new features will be announced in this thread anyway.

Video - Nordenfelt Alpha Version

The video shows the game's alpha version. The core mechanics are implemented, the graphics are for tests only. There is still much to do. So this thread will keep growing over the next few months.

[worstplayer]

OK, not going to criticize an engine test.
Keep working on it, and don't forget to share your progress.

[Udderdude]

Why does it appear to be running at 15 FPS?

[hermitC]

Why does it appear to be running at 15 FPS?

This is due to the weak screen capturing settings. Could not find out how to improve the capturing speed. The game itself runs at 60 fps, the screen capturing only takes each 5th or 6th frame.

It is the first game-play video I ever made so there are still lessons for me to learn. The quality in further videos will be better.

[Ixmucane2]

Why does it appear to be running at 15 FPS?

This is due to the weak screen capturing settings. Could not find out how to improve the capturing speed. The game itself runs at 60 fps, the screen capturing only takes each 5th or 6th frame.

Instead of capturing frames in real time, maybe you can record a replay and re-render frames at your leisure. A replay recording and playback feature has other uses.

[hermitC]

Instead of capturing frames in real time, maybe you can record a replay and re-render frames at your leisure. A replay recording and playback feature has other uses.

Good idea. If I can't figure out a better capturing mechanism I will think about your suggestion. A good replay feature needs some work. Therefore I have to ponder.

[hermitC]

I'm learning how to draw sprites at the moment. Graphics Gale is the tool of choice. Here are my first 3 creations:

Testing form creation:



Testing detailing (plate joints):



Testing colouring:




The problem with this "hard-black-edge" sprite style is the distortion of the sprites when they get scaled or rotated. At least scaling was intended for handling different screen resolutions. Therefore I have to find a style or some tricks which allow me rotating and scaling my sprites without losing to much visual quality.

Does anybody know different graphics styles which I can investigate? Any tricks for the scaling/rotation problems?

[worstplayer]

Pixel art+rotation=fugly. Sorry, nothing can be done about that, these things are simply not compatible. But you could make limited number of rotations in an editor and manually clean them up.
If you want smooth rotation & scaling, you'll have to try different style. Learning 3D just to make a couple of prerendered sprites is a bit too much, maybe try some simple vector art?

[Sasupoika]

Out of curiosity, what is resolution of the game? If the enemy-ship/player ship is that big, I definetely recommend you to lower the resolution. It makes much easier to sprite art. For example, Dodonpachi runs on 240 x 320 resolution.

[hermitC]

@worstplayer: Vector art would be a solution. Haven't thought about that one yet. Depends on SFML if it supports vector graphics and if the resulting style meets the Steampunk look. More graphics prototyping here than I thought

@Sasupoika: The game's resolution is a basic problem. I really don't know how I should support different screen resolutions. I will have to check out some other 2D shmups and look how they handle it.

[Udderdude]

I really don't know how I should support different screen resolutions.

You don't. You pick one and stick with it.

[Ixmucane2]

I really don't know how I should support different screen resolutions.

Really big windows with 2x, 3x, 4x... pixels and no interpolation; intermediate resolutions between multiples of the nominal screen size with empty borders around a properly sized playfield; and arbitrary "wrong" aspect ratios with letterboxing. Allowing the user to resize the window freely is a nice feature.
If you want to be really fancy, you can draw nice borders around the playfield and, for the ranges of aspect ratio that have enough space, move score and other displays from the playfield to the otherwise unused gutters.

[hermitC]

I really don't know how I should support different screen resolutions.

Really big windows with 2x, 3x, 4x... pixels and no interpolation; intermediate resolutions between multiples of the nominal screen size with empty borders around a properly sized playfield; and arbitrary "wrong" aspect ratios with letterboxing. Allowing the user to resize the window freely is a nice feature.
If you want to be really fancy, you can draw nice borders around the playfield and, for the ranges of aspect ratio that have enough space, move score and other displays from the playfield to the otherwise unused gutters.

Thanks a lot! These advices solve many of my problems.

[Sasupoika]

I am still going to say that you should pick kinda small resolution.
Seriously, even 800x600 that I am working with is gigantic for a shmup. Spriting is annoying and hard, but with lower resolution it is generally faster and easier with somewhat better results.
And as Ixmucane2 said, you can use making a viewport that you can enlarge at your will.
For example:



Also, smaller version of your red ship:

[hermitC]

Currently I'm thinking about the right resolution and its layout. The resolution will be fixed and scaled up by integer numbers without interpolation. Nordenfelt is going to be a vertical scrolling shmup. Therefore I'm considering a portrait layout. The resolution will be somewhere between 240x320 and 480x640. It will be a tradeoff between my sprite art skills (smaller sprites = less details) and an acceptable (speak sellable!) visual quality.

[Herr Schatten]

The resolution will be somewhere between 240x320 and 480x640. It will be a tradeoff between my sprite art skills (smaller sprites = less details) and an acceptable (speak sellable!) visual quality.

Choosing a lower resolution will most likely improve the visual quality. Especially if you're not terribly skilled as a pixel artist, your work will tend to look bland, as you will find that you have a lot of empty space to fill. On the other hand, it's a lot of fun to cram lots of details in objects and backgrounds with small pixel dimensions. I strongly suggest you do yourself a favour and go for the lower resolution.

What do you mean by "sellable", btw? If you actually consider selling your game on even a semi-professional basis, you should definitely get a dedicated artist with decent skills to do that stuff for you instead of trying it yourself.

[hermitC]

What do you mean by "sellable", btw? If you actually consider selling your game on even a semi-professional basis, you should definitely get a dedicated artist with decent skills to do that stuff for you instead of trying it yourself.

Yes, I'm going to sell this game. The current task is testing my own artist skills. If they don't suffice I'm going to hire an artist. It's all about comparing costs of DIY and outsourcing. And feeding the artist within me

[Udderdude]

So who drew this, then? http://www.nordenfelt-thegame.com/photo.jpg

Certianly if you did that, you can do a decent job with sprites.

[hermitC]

So who drew this, then? http://www.nordenfelt-thegame.com/photo.jpg

Certianly if you did that, you can do a decent job with sprites.

Yes, that was me. Spriting is a different discipline and I still have to learn and get experience in drawing low-res sprites. Let's see here how my learning progress is going on.

I'm grateful for every hint and critique you guys (and gals) can give me. Concerning this you did a great job so far. Thanks a lot!

[Udderdude]

If you're better with natural mediums, it might be easier for you to draw your ships on paper, scan them, and then trace the sprite over a scaled down image of the scan.

[Sasupoika]

Anyway, I am interested the flow of the game. Is it play --> Buy stuff --> Play another level? I am myself not very fond of this kind of gameplay. Mostly because I am 1cc/score-whore.
( add arcane course please. Basically meaning that there is no break between stages to shop or anything. Maybe allow player to setup their craft before start of the course? )

[hermitC]

Anyway, I am interested the flow of the game. Is it play --> Buy stuff --> Play another level? I am myself not very fond of this kind of gameplay. Mostly because I am 1cc/score-whore.
( add arcane course please. Basically meaning that there is no break between stages to shop or anything. Maybe allow player to setup their craft before start of the course? )

Score hunting and an online score board is a should-have feature 'cause most people like to compare their scores with others. The basic version of the game is a closed system, no need to buy extra stuff to go on. That would not be fun and most players would hate my game.

I'm not familiar with "arcane courses". Is it a series of levels which have no non-shooting actions in between (like shopping) - a non-stop action mode so to speak?

This article may answer some questions.

[Udderdude]

I'm not familiar with "arcane courses". Is it a series of levels which have no non-shooting actions in between (like shopping) - a non-stop action mode so to speak?

He typo'd "arcade course". And yes, an arcade mode would be non-stop with no breaks (except for a status screen that you can immediatly skip between stages)

[hermitC]

Arcade mode is going to be included. I don't want to bother adrenaline junkies with pondering about equipment off the playfield

It's the common shmup mode and it would be a big mistake not including it.

[hermitC]

Further exercise graphics from learning how to draw sprites:







You can find the tutorial for the last sprite at my blog.

[Sasupoika]

You are getting very good at it.
Keep up good work!

[Herr Schatten]

You are getting very good at it.
Keep up good work!

Yes, your progress is quite amazing. Some things to consider:

- Try to limit the number of shades per individual colour. You'll find that you'll need surprisingly few to do a decent shading, and your sprites will get a clean and more appealing look. Personally, I usually use no more than eight shades per colour. Also, try to re-use the same palettes throughout the game to make your game world more coherent. Take a look at classic Capcom CPS2-sprites. The artists really did wonders with their limited palettes.

- In my own experience, clean pattern dithering looks better than randomly placed dither pixels. Looks more like an additional colour, you know.

- Make up your mind up if you really want to keep all the black outlines. I think that they can be good to seperate the outer shape of the sprite from the background, but they don't look as good within the sprite itself. They give everything a cartoony look that clashes with the elaborate shading.

- Take a look at Mega Drive shmup "Steel Empire" and Amiga shmup "Banshee" for inspiration. Both have some really awesome steampunk artwork. Don't be afraid to abstract stuff slightly.

[hermitC]

Thanks for the praise!

@Herr Schatten:
Thank you for sharing your experience here. I'm still learning and will try out everything for optimizing the graphics for my game. I already played Steel Empire (good visual resource, average game) but Banshee was new to me. It's an amazing resource for learning Steampunk spriting!

[hermitC]

I'm still searching for the right graphics style for Nordenfelt. I made a performance comparison between 2D sprite art and rendering 3D models to 2D.

Some images to wet your taste:











Read about it here.

[worstplayer]

Damn, you make really cool models. Now tweak the material and lighting a bit so it doesn't look so plastic, and you have your graphics style.