Sine Mora(Suda 51 shmup)

[Sumez]

ALL XBLA games have demo. It's a requirement.

[BrightSuzaku]

Ikaruga is my favorite shmup...but it's not the only one that exists! :P

Yeah, I totally understand that. It's an awesome game! I for one, love that little polarity-switching meatgrinder ship, too. But, I have some reservations as to whether it can be used as an example of traditional "bullet hell". Honestly, I feel that Ikaruga is it's own genre, which is just as awesome a designation as you can get. At least the scoring system, frustrating it can be, has more clarity than your average Cave game. XD

Thanks, reiker, I'm glad to know that the blue bullets may just be a problem of the lighting provided by a shakycam! I've seen my share of invisible bullets before (lawls, Garegga), but I've also seen blue bullets on a blue background done well, too.

Honestly, all the "stray bullets" that hit me seem to be the ones that are highly visible, but I just happen to not notice... Ahem. I get too twitchy sometimes, I guess.

[Ghegs]

Direct-feed videos from PAX are starting to come out, and the difficulty seems to be a notch higher on these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkT8HgjhoWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEPyeuDyLnA

[evil_ash_xero]

Well, that's more like it. I hope it turns out well. We need new blood in this genre, pretty bad. We need variety, but we we can't even rely on CAVE anymore, to consistently put out the goods(I don't eve want to hear it), it's time for some others to join the party.

"I'm coming now baby. Ease it in."?

Yeah, I totally understand that. It's an awesome game! I for one, love that little polarity-switching meatgrinder ship, too. But, I have some reservations as to whether it can be used as an example of traditional "bullet hell". Honestly, I feel that Ikaruga is it's own genre, which is just as awesome a designation as you can get. At least the scoring system, frustrating it can be, has more clarity than your average Cave game. XD

It's bullet...heck-ish.
I remember when I first got it, I hadn't seen so many bullets in a shmup. But then I got DOJ...and well... Yeah, CAVE definitely fits the bill of "bullet hell", more-so than Ikaruga. This game, however(Sine Mora), doesn't really look like bullet hell. Not in the Manic Shooter sense, anyway.

[dannnnn]

Looking good, I really hope they include an option to turn off the enemy health bars though.

[dpful]

Excellent game!! I thought the health bars were significant for taking out the small enemies. Very urgent gameplay! I don't remember health bars on the boss parts, where the urgency wasn't such a big deal.

[dpful]

Brief impression of the game:
Looks very beautiful
Tastefully hidden bullets- really, Just like garegga. Also lots of high visibility too
Scary bullets-- nice missiles with trails, wiggling shrapnel bullets from destroyed planes.
I loved it.

(on hard mode), start thee level, manic-ly try and kill planes before they get past you, without getting hit by shrapnel, to buy more time (you die when you run out of time). Played through the first of levels with 2 second countdowns between kills, very tense, sometimes dropping bombs just hoping to stay off zero.
Then boss fights, plenty of time, just try to kill the boss before they kill you. Very cool, slow mo and bombs utilized great, hard patterns.
Awesome game!!
Rank meter goes up with everything but down with damage and slow mo usage. Higher rank, more enemies (I think), more danger, more opportunity for time

Story mode the same but easier and no shrapnel.

[disCorder]

Direct-feed videos from PAX are starting to come out, and the difficulty seems to be a notch higher on these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkT8HgjhoWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEPyeuDyLnA

"52 likes, 73 dislikes" What's with the hate out there? I know youtube is.. well, youtube.. but still..
The game looks awesome. Hopefully it will play as good as it looks.

[RNGmaster]

Direct-feed videos from PAX are starting to come out, and the difficulty seems to be a notch higher on these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkT8HgjhoWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEPyeuDyLnA

"52 likes, 73 dislikes" What's with the hate out there? I know youtube is.. well, youtube.. but still..
The game looks awesome. Hopefully it will play as good as it looks.

First video is nothing much but shooting at depth charges for a minute. Looked Euroshmuppy to me. Boss fight looks fun, but ship seems a little fast.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Ive just watched the first vid and the bullets are much easier to make out compared to the leaked vid, although there does seem to be a slight possibility that one of those missiles could sneak passed if we were in a bullet heavy pattern and we were concentrating solely on the blue / red bullets.

All in all im very much looking forward to this game. (the man waving out the tank was a nice touch)

Just out of curiosity how big is the hit box? If the hitbox is smaller than the ship it might be wise to show the hitbox at the character / plane select screen. Atm my guess is that the hitbox is the size of a round bullet in the center of the screen (if you pause the game on HD you can make out a darkened area in the middle of the ship)

[dpful]

The bullets are definitely hidden-slash-visible when they want. It seemed like the hit box was medium (not tiny), I could slip through some pretty tight patterns.

It's (on hard mode) very hard to kill the planes and tanks before they get off the screen, and you need as many seconds as you can (that they reward you with). It turns into a kamikaze cluster at the left of the screen as you try and block them from escape -and then dodge their shrapnel. That's why the health bars matter- you've got to prioritize who your gonna kill so they don't all get away. It's pretty intense risk/reward/urgent survival gameplay.

Also, maybe most interesting, is the super wide screen, that's letterboxed besides. Lining up with a target on the other side of the screen is dificult- it seems very far away. I liked that. That's another reason planes stack up on the left. It's so wide.

[mainfinger]

I just got back from PAX. I actually met somebody at the Sine Mora booth from this forum (though I didn't catch their name). They said I should check out the site so here I am!

I doubt I'm as "hardcore" as most of the people on a dedicated shmup forum, but I do really love the genre and would like to share what I thought of the game.

Later today I actually have a writeup of my experience playing both of the Sine Mora demos (Story Easy & Arcade Insanity) going up. I played the Arcade Insanity demo quite a few times (there rarely was much of a line for the game). I'll post a link to my writeup later for those interested (it's not live yet).

[Udderdude]

Thanks for your hands-on experience, dpful.

[dpful]

I just got back from PAX. I actually met somebody at the Sine Mora booth from this forum (though I didn't catch their name). They said I should check out the site so here I am!

I doubt I'm as "hardcore" as most of the people on a dedicated shmup forum, but I do really love the genre and would like to share what I thought of the game.

Later today I actually have a writeup of my experience playing both of the Sine Mora demos (Story Easy & Arcade Insanity) going up. I played the Arcade Insanity demo quite a few times (there rarely was much of a line for the game). I'll post a link to my writeup later for those interested (it's not live yet).

It was me! if I'm the guy who single handedly blew up the Hexapus. Yeah, it took me a couple of days to find the game. That, Jamestown, and the iphone "space shooter" were the only shmups. Jamestown was in the PAX top ten section though!

please post the link. That means you and I are the world experts on the game for a few minutes (and the game is good everybody!). Any questions anyone? yes, it's called a hexapus. yes, the designer is from hungary. yes, I didn't catch what the rank meter does-- I think he said he was still working out the details on how more enemies and faster bullets would be added with rank. and it was his earnest attempt to resurect the genre. (there were so many games at pax! it was the only modern shmup!)

[mainfinger]

It was me! if I'm the guy who single handedly blew up the Hexapus.

Yup! I got to witness that. That was awesome. I still never managed to take out its second form, but I came really close quite a few times.

Here's the link to my impressions of the game. Feel free to share comments, everybody!
http://www.wingdamage.com/pax-preview-s ... -xbla-psn/

NOTE: Of course today of all days I had to change the DNS over. If the link doesn't work, check back a little later. Right now the DNS is still propagating.

2nd NOTE: Looks like the DNS is done doing its thing.

[dpful]

Nice article! No mention the guy who killed the hexapus, but not bad I was barely able to beat him.
The sense of urgency trying to kill the smallest plane before it escapes is what defines the title. Same thing in the tunnel knowing you've got to kill every worm to last. Beautiful game, too.

I was very impressed with the game. It might push me over the edge into buying an xbox when it comes out.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

There's some info about the game on Digital Reality's site http://www.digitalreality.hu/games/item ... -sine-mora

[Mad Mage]

I played it there too. My main compliant is there are a lot of segments where your ship is flying forward and nothing is happening. But at least cut scenes such as when a boss changes position after a segment, can be fast forwarded, similar to old Capcom arcade games.

I like the bullet patterns because they seem fairly original compared to the usual fare. The bullet time is fun too, and limited enough to keep the game from being a cakewalk. I don't know what difficulty the videos posted are, but people keep in mind there are at least two difficulties, which is something I think all shmups should have.

[Deca]

I'm slightly concerned at all the emphasis being placed on the difficulty of eliminating popcorn enemies, that's pretty much one of the core faults of euroshmups....but I'm still staying optimistic here! Anxious to learn more about the game and give it a go for myself, as I said I'd love to see this game really shine

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I think popcorn that has slightly more health than the norm might be ok, but certanly we wanna have that feeling of having a kick arse powerful ship taking on the enemy single handedly. Something which euroshmups with a peashooter dont do.

The gameplay vids dont look euroshmuppy so I think we should be safe

[dpful]

if you miss a popcorn, you'll probably run out of time and die 4 second later. If you manage to kill one, you'll probably be killed by the shrapnel. so they end up feeling a little bit less like popcorns, and a little more like..... I can't think of another game of the cuff where you're compelled to keep your shots on the enemies like that-- maybe that vert scroller with the melee attacks and the samurai theme (whose name I forgot). It's not like that one though.

it seemed more like radiant silvergun than euroshmup (for no other reason than you had to consider your procedure for success while on the dodge). I played it maybe 4 or 5 times and liked it a little better each time. Memorization accompanied by some hectic dodging. For me, the pace was maybe similar to a border down, but with something to do besides just shoot (you've got to keep your eye on the clock and your targets). (I really like Border Down, this game seemed a little for organized in the gameplay department than border down).

[dpful]

I was into it. I was critical of one thing though-- the machine gun sound was not to my likeing, and was distinctly euroshmuppy. I prefer some kind of BRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAP and it was more CHUGACHUGACHUGACHUGA, and it made me feel like I couldn't keep my shots on an enemy-- like what if they slipped between my shots like on an iphone shmup?

[Udderdude]

Revenge shrapnel and dying from a time limit? This is sounding deliciously evil. :3

[Deca]

it seemed more like radiant silvergun .

Oh god don't say that please don't say that

[Sumez]

Revenge shrapnel and dying from a time limit? This is sounding deliciously evil. :3

The time limit sounds really annoying, but maybe they can pull it off?
I wouldn't want a modern shoot'em up to take cues from Ai Cho Aniki

[Reiker]

dpful, mainfinger, Mad Mage - thank you very much for playing the game and sharing your impressions!

Please accept my apologies for the "depeche mode" style of communication - I'm quite busy these days.

Do you plan on having any kind of additional stuff put in via updates past the game's release or is this kind of view too far ahead to say?

Well, the diplomatic way would be saying that it's too far ahead - but actually, it's not. Updates are firmly connected to sales performance, meaning if the game sells well, we will get the chance to continue building on the fundamentals (and include a 2P mode, for example).

I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind answering how you feel about giving the player the option of choosing for himself such things as bullet colour, slowdown on/off, HiDef or Std Def, screen shake?

Very nice idea - the only problem with this is that now we're pretty much content-locked. Recolouring the bullets is easy in the editor - it's changing a parameter in the game - but giving the player the ability to choose his own bullet colour is actually a feature.

Please remove health bars for enemies, at least in the arcade mode.

As dpful mentioned, "health bars matter - you've got to prioritize who your gonna kill so they don't all get away", but sure - we can make them optional.

Rank, please. Have the bullets to go faster or slower than a given standard, depending on how good (bad) a player performs.

We have a nice and complex rank system in the Arcade Mode. Quite similar to Battle Garegga, actually.

@Reiker, any chance that this will be released for PC as well ?

Yep - at a later date, though.

Are you planning a demo? Though I guess most (all?) XBLA games have one.

Yes, we will have a demo on PSN, and the mandatory trial on XBLA.

If the hitbox is smaller than the ship it might be wise to show the hitbox at the character / plane select screen.

A very good idea, thank you!

the machine gun sound was not to my likeing, and was distinctly euroshmuppy.

Now this one made us smile… sound design is actually coming from Grasshopper Manufacture (Japan). Also, we absolutely LOVE every single sound in the game, so unfortunately, this is not going to change, sorry.

I don't know what difficulty the videos posted are, but people keep in mind there are at least two difficulties

They are from the Story / Easy mode (still). There are multiple difficulty levels in both game modes (Story/Arcade), Insane being the hardest.

[Sumez]

I can see why the health bars are really important, and personally I always preferred games to have them.
And even if they don't, they gotta have visible damage on the enemies, like flames popping up or the enemy flashing red, etc. Playing EspGaluda II or ProGear without that detail would kill a lot of scoring opportunities. Oh, and the latter could seriously use health bars for the bosses...

[Randorama]

@ Reiker:

As dpful mentioned, "health bars matter - you've got to prioritize who your gonna kill so they don't all get away", but sure - we can make them optional.

Yes, optional health bars are very fine for me, thank you.

We have a nice and complex rank system in the Arcade Mode. Quite similar to Battle Garegga, actually.

Thanks a lot, that's by far the best news about the game so far.

[guigui]

I think it is great to have a developper of the game right here, thanks a lot to Reiker for sharing with us.

I also like the idea of rank and removable health bar, and I like even more the concept of remappable button layout, which you definitely included from the beginning, didn't you ?

Also, a question about gameplay : how does the big laser thing work ? Does it recharge over time ? or while killing ennemies ? Is it possible to recharge this laser fast enough to fire it more than twice a stage ?
I hated those modes in Darius Burst where you actually had to charge your laser through the whole stage to empty it on the boss, boring...

[Deca]

We have a nice and complex rank system in the Arcade Mode. Quite similar to Battle Garegga, actually.

You have my attention Hoping this involves suicides (and maybe even some exploitation of respawn invulnerability for scoring). People can say what they want, but I personally find rank control to be a very interesting layer to add to a game, makes it feel much more dynamic.