Birth Order - my first xblig release

[mice]

Not many of you will actually enjoy this. But hopefully one or two? Maybe?
http://marketplace.xbox.com/games/media ... 0258550ab9





All suggestions / feedback are highly welcome!

[foxyg]

Looks interesting. Buying a copy just to support you.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Was browsing on the Japanese XBL site and saw that Birth Order is already up. Also noticed that the verizontal 60fps Redshift shmup is up there.

I just d/l'ed the trial version of Birth Order just a few minutes ago. Very well done yoko-based danmaku shmup effort. Feels very polished with the sliky-smooth arcacde-spec 60fps framerate indeed. Like the insider nod towards hexgonal map tribute like that found in the PSX game of Starfighter Sanvein. The asking price of 80 MSP is quite reasonable.

BO sure looks awesome running on a low-res arcade monitor setup indeed. The overall screen presentation will be in a letterboxed widescreen format if played on a traditional old-school 4:3 CRT-based RGB monitor setup.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mice]

The overall screen presentation will be in a letterboxed widescreen format if played on a traditional old-school 4:3 CRT-based monitor setup

Unless you press the Back button...try it.
Hidden feature due to it not being "proper" 4:3.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Thanks for the handy tip, mice. I'll give it another spin on my arcade monitor setup. Looks great with the obligatory old-school scanlines presentation vibe going on. Decided to buy it right away & see what the full version has to offer.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mice]

Like the insider nod towards hexgonal map tribute like that found in the PSX game of Starfighter Sanvein

Didn't know of Starfighter Sanvein. Been checking out some vids now and the floor selection is pretty similar to mine. Need to get hold of this and try it out. Looks really fun.
My "tiles" draw inspiration from the board game Dungeon Quest (or rather the swedish Drakborgen).

Looks interesting. Buying a copy just to support you.

Decided to buy it right away & see what the full version has to offer.

Appreciate it! But I'd prefer feedback, please.

[Ed Oscuro]

Do you get points by eating old-fashioned radios? Unclear at the moment about what that thing is supposed to be, but it looks neat. The attacks shown seem rather basic and unthreatening however. The rest of the graphics are kind of huge and basic looking too, and why does the ship have huge protruding spikes? Is there a gameplay element to that?

[mice]

Do you get points by eating old-fashioned radios?

Guess you're refering to the cards?
No, you get stuff from the cards, like experience, extra lifes, extra pods (little helpers) and stuff like that. You play out these cards between the stages.
There are no points in the game.

The attacks shown seem rather basic and unthreatening however. The rest of the graphics are kind of huge and basic looking too, and why does the ship have huge protruding spikes? Is there a gameplay element to that?

True, might look a feel a bit basic. The spikes existing from the start don't have any special gameplay element. Spikes that you get later do, however.

[DJ Incompetent]

Hey mice. Great work on Birth Order. Original interpretation on the STG. It's like the non-annoying kind of quick-time events matched with board game Risk?

The only thing I'd really want changed is the final boss fight. There's a lot of buildup getting to that final space on the board only to find that the final challenge was pretty similar to other boss fight pieces on the map. It was pretty underwhelming.

The extra lives cards are a little generous as well, but that's just my preference.

I was gonna say add a scoring system, but then I'd find myself running to every spot on the map to boost my score. That'd get pretty boring, so nevermind.

Thank you for making this. I had good drunken fun last night with it.

[mice]

@DJ Incompetent:
Thank you so much!
Don't know if you got to the "true" final boss or not, but I hear you.

I'm going to keep on pumping out this kind of hybrid (shmup / board) until everyone actually gets how fun it can be.
And yes, each game will be better than the previous. In all aspects.

[foxyg]

Played a bit, very innovative. The ship is abit too large, not sure how exactly big the hitbox is. If the background is a bit more interesting this could be a top shmup indie game.

[DJ Incompetent]

@DJ Incompetent:
Thank you so much!
Don't know if you got to the "true" final boss or not, but I hear you.

I doubt I did. I only unlocked two keyholes and the final boss was 4 sections of mostly the same stuff.

Is TLB I gotta unlock all six keyholes?

[mice]

Is TLB I gotta unlock all six keyholes?

No, you need to get, and use, all of the evolution cards.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For mice,

Any plans to do a cool arcade attract opening that leads into the main title screen to spice things up? Of course, it'd just be "extra icing" on the cake indeed.

I tried your helpful advice by pressing the Back button on the controller with the 4:3 arcade monitor setup (but got a squished screen that really doesn't look as good as it does in 16:9 letterboxed mode running on a traditional 4:3 monitor).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BulletMagnet]

Just gave this a try earlier - was going to offer a handful of criticisms and whatnot, but it turned out that none of it even remotely mattered once I saw the name of one of the helper pods. Game of the forever!

[mice]

@BulletMagnet:
Please, I still want to hear your handful of crits. I've done a bit on another, similar, game and I kind of need the input.

(but got a squished screen that really doesn't look as good as it does in 16:9 l

Yes, that's why it's an undocumented feature. But I personally saw that I prefered the full-screen experience over the letterboxed, that's why I kept it in.

Any plans to do a cool arcade attract opening that leads into the main title screen to spice things up?

The scrolling text and the smoothing music that is there now is setting the pace perfectly...well, maybe not.

[Captain]

Chimera beast with cards.

[Moniker]

Played a couple of games. Very cool concept. A few thoughts/questions:

Good stuff:
Love the aesthetic, and ship/enemy design. No complaints here.
Love the card system + hex grid.
Love the powerups.

Issues:

- I still don't quite get the benefit of having each enemy requiring a different shot type. Esp since each shot type acts the same way. It can be a bit distracting, since you're looking at the enemy to see which button to push, and then switching back to the player ship to make sure you aren't going to get hit. Maybe if the types acted differently, and the enemies were still vulnerable - but to a lesser degree - to the wrong shot type. Maybe if you used the wrong one it wouldn't cancel their bullets, or summuch?

- I gather leveling up improves your damage? I don't recall it being mentioned in the tutorial, so I'm not sure. But the key-holders become sort of trivial after a few stages of leveling/card spending.

- As much as I've played, there isn't really much difference b/w bullet patterns in each key-holder. Pretty much just radial fire + bouncing spheres and the figure-eight pattern afterwards. More variety would be better.

- In the same vein, more diversity during the levels would be better. It's kind of hard to notice, since enemies don't last long once you hit the right button. Maybe slow things down a bit, have a good mix of popcorn/resilient enemies, and have a little more in the way of stage design (maybe not so far as Satazius, but Darius-esque levels would be cool).

- A hiscore board would still be great, even if it's just EXP+beaten cells. Since exp is pretty much == score in other shooters, this should be intuitive enough.

EDIT: Also, being able to see the entire grid during the grid-view would be great, too. It took me a minute to realize what my key-cards were doing. (Even though it's on the tutorial.)


Anyway, you're on to something great. Can't wait to see the next incarnation.

[mice]

Chimera beast with cards.

It is? Will need to download an try it.

- I still don't quite get the benefit of having each enemy requiring a different shot type. Esp since each shot type acts the same way. It can be a bit distracting, since you're looking at the enemy to see which button to push, and then switching back to the player ship to make sure you aren't going to get hit. Maybe if the types acted differently, and the enemies were still vulnerable - but to a lesser degree - to the wrong shot type. Maybe if you used the wrong one it wouldn't cancel their bullets, or summuch?

I did try a few variations on this before settling with the existing one. Mainly because this was as simple as it can be. Just press the proper button on the gamepad and everything else will be taken care of. Next game will not feaure this nor a variation on it. Back to basics, the way it should be.

- I gather leveling up improves your damage? I don't recall it being mentioned in the tutorial, so I'm not sure. But the key-holders become sort of trivial after a few stages of leveling/card spending.

Yes, you get "stronger" by leveling up. The closer to the target you are, the harder everything gets. So should the key holders, but after spending some time leveling up much of the game becomes really easy.

- As much as I've played, there isn't really much difference b/w bullet patterns in each key-holder. Pretty much just radial fire + bouncing spheres and the figure-eight pattern afterwards. More variety would be better.

True.

- In the same vein, more diversity during the levels would be better. It's kind of hard to notice, since enemies don't last long once you hit the right button. Maybe slow things down a bit, have a good mix of popcorn/resilient enemies, and have a little more in the way of stage design (maybe not so far as Satazius, but Darius-esque levels would be cool).

Yes. As it is now, the stage design is really minimalistic.

- A hiscore board would still be great, even if it's just EXP+beaten cells. Since exp is pretty much == score in other shooters, this should be intuitive enough.

Since most of the content is "procedurally" generated it wouldn't be fair to have a list. Each game could be vastly different.

EDIT: Also, being able to see the entire grid during the grid-view would be great, too. It took me a minute to realize what my key-cards were doing. (Even though it's on the tutorial.)

Yes, I've heard this before. Sometime the target is almost off screen.

Anyway, you're on to something great. Can't wait to see the next incarnation.

Thanks! Appreciate all of this!

[Weak Boson]

Played the trial and the game seems pretty neat. I'll download it when I next add points.

[DJ Incompetent]

Is TLB I gotta unlock all six keyholes?

No, you need to get, and use, all of the evolution cards.

A'ight. Did all that stuff you said. I didn't know when to stop looking for evolution cards. I had to burn a berserk card and spend a stage trying to guess if my ship changed shape while a different color. That was kinda messy.
It didn't help I became so overpowered that yer 5th form TLB didn't last long. I emptied half my deck of cards prepping for that fight so I probably didn't see what could have been. Also, was my player ship supposed to be force-moved toward the left of the playfield or was that a glitch?

And homeboy, what were ya thinkin' sliding a QR code through that "true end" with no warning, it doesn't freeze or pause, and ya get like 6 seconds to intercept it? I had my barcode app on my homescreen, my phone next to me, and I was playing on a projector and I still couldn't react fast enough to get the four seconds needed for my phone to scan that moving target.
Was that QR the real TLB? Can I guilt ya into PMing me what that code led to?
Guiiiiiiiiilt.


Heh, your guy totally sampled the All Your Base song in there.

[Never_Scurred]

Any videos up, yet? This looks unique.

[mice]

A'ight. Did all that stuff you said. I didn't know when to stop looking for evolution cards. I had to burn a berserk card and spend a stage trying to guess if my ship changed shape while a different color. That was kinda messy.

I think (I'm getting a dementia...) there's a tip-card telling you how many evolution cards there is.

It didn't help I became so overpowered that yer 5th form TLB didn't last long.

Felt nice, didn't it?

I emptied half my deck of cards prepping for that fight so I probably didn't see what could have been. Also, was my player ship supposed to be force-moved toward the left of the playfield or was that a glitch

Yes, if you had the berzerk card this might happen. But not otherwise.

Was that QR the real TLB?

Can I guilt ya into PMing me what that code led to?

Yes, you can. As soon as I actually have something worth looking at, at that page. I though I'd be ready by now, but I wasn't.
EDIT: How are you gentlemen?

A big thanks for the playthrough!

Any videos up, yet? This looks unique.

The only, and short one, I've seen; shows clearly how you can miss how to play the game. A good vid for me, though.
Should have poped up the card-selection screen automatically after each fight. As it is now, people (this one person) seem to miss it totally. And they (still just this one person) don't seem to read the tutorial.

[Sined]

Birth Order giveaway (with Robofish) here -> http://on.fb.me/FO4jpN

Just like the page and post comment with the game you would like to win.

[mice]

Birth Order giveaway (with Robofish) here

Awesome!

Here's an amazing review, for you who wander what the game is all about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Jpk#t=862s

Got tears in my eyes when watching this.

[Thjodbjorn]

Birth Order is a pretty fun game. Good going!

[mice]

Birth Order is a pretty fun game. Good going!

Thanks!

This blog:
http://khex.blog42.fc2.com/blog-entry-1022.html

Shows the game getting a Code 4 error. Could, pretty please, any nice Japanese reading person please explain to me what he did when ge got it?
Google-translate doesn't give me much, except for it having something to do with the Y button.

[MadSteelDarkness]

Bought this last night and quite enjoyed it!

I had, however, been out drinking with friends so i'm not sure i was...playing it right?

But from what my foggy brain remembers, the presentation was lovely, and the controls felt perfect: visceral and snappy.

So yeah, you did good, mice. Stoked for your next release.

[No_not_like_Quake]

Birth Order is a pretty fun game. Good going!

Thanks!

This blog:
http://khex.blog42.fc2.com/blog-entry-1022.html

Shows the game getting a Code 4 error. Could, pretty please, any nice Japanese reading person please explain to me what he did when ge got it?
Google-translate doesn't give me much, except for it having something to do with the Y button.

I Google-translated it in English and French. The French translation made a bit more sense but not much: it has something to do with the Y button at a certain part in the game, the error seems to happen more frequently after 20 minutes or so of play, and that he is unsure if the problem is on his end. He would like additional information, I guess asking readers if they have experienced the same thing. Sorry if my post isn't of much more help.