Lunacy Star [Remake] Extra Stage Update

[Taizen Chisou]

Lunacy Indeterminate presents to you a Difficult and Touhou-esque Bullet Hell Game
~ ~ Lunacy Star ~ ~

The SECOND VERSION, this time with LESS HORRIBLENESS



UPDATED GRAPHICS and MUSIC [s]and STORY[/s]



in the demo, featuring THREE WHOLE STAGES FULL OF STAGE AND BOSS



totally WACK SCORING based upon BULLET DELETION



with new FEATURES including ALWAYS WATCHING YOUR PERFORMANCE.



TRY IT, PREFERABLY THE INSTANT YOU FINISH READING THIS VERY SENTENCE

[hr]

Version 0.8 (38.1MB)
Version 0.8 for those who Already Have 0.1 (27.7MB)
Version 0.1 (17.6MB)

Things that exist:
[*] Three stages
[*] Six shottypes
[*] High score keeping
[*] Attack perfection record keeping
[*] Continues
[*] Sound test
[*] Configurations menu
[*] TURBO MODE


I've gone and started on a re-doing of this nasty ol' thing to make it less horribly unbalanced and unfair and dumb-looking and all that good stuff.
Rest assured that I've taken great pains to make sure that this version is not horribly unbalanced and unfair and dumb-looking.

Also, there is a sequel to this game, but it's only better looking than the original version of Lunacy Star 1. I don't intend to re-make that, however.


If you do try it, be sure to share with me your thoughts on the players and patterns and music and junk! Or if you wanna just post a highscore, that's cool too :3
Mine on Lunatic is 204,213,400.

Thanks for checking stuff out!

[Cagar]

not a long time ago, i was playing the old version and wondered what happened to it
This is nice.
EDIT: VERY nice.

[BPzeBanshee]

This is so much better than the original. Are you still planning on finishing Lunacy Star Second? I think Second's overall approach was a bit better, not just graphics/music, be a shame to let it go to waste.

[Taizen Chisou]

Thanks, y'alls. What do you guys think of it so far, is it too easy, too hard? I mean, it is only the first three levels out of six, sure, but I do hope this means that things aren't too uncomfortable for those playing the game.

LSS is still moving, yes. I've just left off in the middle of making Stage 5, the final level. 5-1 is finished, I need to start 5-2, and the stage portion of 5-3 is done.
As well as that, I've actually gone and completed the soundtrack to it, which you can find here: https://soundcloud.com/taizenchisou/set ... tar-second
There's about a year gap between the making of the Ex-2 theme and Ex-3 theme, so the shift between the two might be... quite large, haha.

I've only recently decided how I want to do backgrounds in LSS, which is mainly because I've been thinking of ways to go about doing it in Re:LS.

LSS does still have a lot of work to be done, though. I'm told that the jump in difficulty between the two modes is perhaps a tad excessive. /shrug

As for highscores, I've set a new one on Hard mode, haha



Disregard how bad I am at my own game lol

[Softdrink 117]

Just beat the trial on standard and advanced. Overall it seems really promising; I like the music (though I hate the current sfx balance), and I like many of the patterns and stage layouts for the most part. However, there were a few things that jumped out at me:

First, enemies which can shoot arrows will fire at the player for a while after they've left the screen. Is this intentional?

Second, I like the idea you have going with some of the boss patterns rapdily 'flipping' from one direction to another. However, it happens instantaneously, which can be rather disorienting. I'm not sure if adding a frame or two of transition would help or would make it worse, but I think if you haven't looked at that yet it would be worth playing around with.

Third, there are some 'polish' features which might be nice to include. Showing the player visually where the item collection point is at the start of a run (like you'd see in Touhou) might be helpful. Having a boss position indicator on the bottom of the screen might also be helpful, although in most cases not necessary since your bosses tend to stay at the middle of the screen. Having the option to change the music/sfx balance would be a nice touch.

Fourth, it's possible to start bombing before a boss pattern starts, use the invincibility from the bomb to make it through the pattern, and get a perfect bonus for that pattern. Somehow I doubt this is intentional, since those kinds of bonuses are usually for NMNB'ing an attack.

Finally, just a general question, but is that last attack from the stage 3 boss going to be there in the normal game, or is that trial-exclusive? 45 seconds of that spam seems a bit much for that point in the game, at least with how you have the current pacing set up.

[Pteriforever]

Fun!

Maybe the player shots should go behind the enemy shots? Some of the "flashier" ones can make them hard to see while continuously firing is all.

Other that that, it's pretty much great ^.^

[Cagar]

I find stage 1 being way too easy even on the hardest difficulty. It's easy to fall asleep

[Taizen Chisou]

Just beat the trial on standard and advanced.

Oh wonderful. This means that I can confirm that people actually can clear what I have to offer on at least the hard mode.

Overall it seems really promising; I like the music (though I hate the current sfx balance), and I like many of the patterns and stage layouts for the most part.

Thanks, this means a lot, hehe. I have to wonder about "for the most part," because I'm always open to suggestions for things. Such as:

However, there were a few things that jumped out at me:

First, enemies which can shoot arrows will fire at the player for a while after they've left the screen. Is this intentional?

Probably not, it would depend on what instances you're referring to in particular.

Second, I like the idea you have going with some of the boss patterns rapdily 'flipping' from one direction to another. However, it happens instantaneously, which can be rather disorienting. I'm not sure if adding a frame or two of transition would help or would make it worse, but I think if you haven't looked at that yet it would be worth playing around with.

Disorientation is intentional, hehe. The Lunatic variant is even named "Incredulous Disorientation."

Third, there are some 'polish' features which might be nice to include. Showing the player visually where the item collection point is at the start of a run (like you'd see in Touhou) might be helpful. Having a boss position indicator on the bottom of the screen might also be helpful, although in most cases not necessary since your bosses tend to stay at the middle of the screen.

The point of collection was to be touched upon and given a graphic in the tutorial level Zero Stage, but I suppose I can do this for regular runs too.

Having the option to change the music/sfx balance would be a nice touch.

I'll have to think of means to implement this, then.

Fourth, it's possible to start bombing before a boss pattern starts, use the invincibility from the bomb to make it through the pattern, and get a perfect bonus for that pattern. Somehow I doubt this is intentional, since those kinds of bonuses are usually for NMNB'ing an attack.

Hmm yes this is definitely something I've overlooked lol. I'll include checks to guard against this sort of thing in later versions.

Finally, just a general question, but is that last attack from the stage 3 boss going to be there in the normal game, or is that trial-exclusive? 45 seconds of that spam seems a bit much for that point in the game, at least with how you have the current pacing set up.

Hahahaha- I've already cut it down to 20s in the development build. You don't know how often I hear this haha.

Thanks very much for this, I'll get right to work on this stuff.

Fun!

Maybe the player shots should go behind the enemy shots? Some of the "flashier" ones can make them hard to see while continuously firing is all.

Other that that, it's pretty much great ^.^

Ah hey, it's Aurora Dash. Define "flashy," by the way, are you referring to perhaps the lasers or the rebounding gravity-influenced player shottype?
I thought I've already put them on a lower draw depth than the enemy bullets, but I'll go ahead and turn down some opacities to be sure.

I find stage 1 being way too easy even on the hardest difficulty. It's easy to fall asleep

Bahaha, you would be in the minority. Well, unless you mean the stage stage, and not the boss portion. I'm told that the bosses are actually fairly difficult for early game. Have you cleared through Stage 3 on the hardest difficulty?

[Cagar]

I find stage 1 being way too easy even on the hardest difficulty. It's easy to fall asleep

Bahaha, you would be in the minority. Well, unless you mean the stage stage, and not the boss portion. I'm told that the bosses are actually fairly difficult for early game. Have you cleared through Stage 3 on the hardest difficulty?

I mean the stage-portion, some enemies barely shoot. I just that think it feels weird

[BPzeBanshee]

Implementation of sound control with GM is very possible, how easy it is to do depends on whether you went fully GMFMODSimple (like I did with very old versions of GMOSSE) for handling your sounds AND music, or using GM's default sound engine for the sfx.

If it's the former it'll need a bit of work but the end result will definitely pay off if done right, if the latter it'll be as easy as:

Code: Select all

sound_volume(snd,vol); // Set volume for a specific sound
//OR
sound_global_volume(vol); // Set volume for all sounds, if you want more control ie voice don't use

[Pteriforever]

It was mostly the seeker missiles that were the problem, actually. Changing their colour a bit would be good,but on second thought they're not too bad.

[Taizen Chisou]

Implementation of sound control with GM is very possible, how easy it is to do depends on whether you went fully GMFMODSimple (like I did with very old versions of GMOSSE) for handling your sounds AND music, or using GM's default sound engine for the sfx.

If it's the former it'll need a bit of work but the end result will definitely pay off if done right, if the latter it'll be as easy as:

Code: Select all

sound_volume(snd,vol); // Set volume for a specific sound
//OR
sound_global_volume(vol); // Set volume for all sounds, if you want more control ie voice don't use

I'm more referring to how the rest of the options menu work, is that it's coded to be on/off when the player presses a button haha. I'll have no real issue in implementing it technically.

It was mostly the seeker missiles that were the problem, actually. Changing their colour a bit would be good,but on second thought they're not too bad.

I'll have them reduced in the next version that is issued and we'll see how it is.

As for the project, I am now working at Stage 6. The music composition through the final boss is completed and can be seen here:
https://soundcloud.com/taizenchisou/sets/re-lunacy-star
I'm getting a drawing tablet for my 18th birthday, so I can get to work at making smexy-ass backgrounds rather than the voids that have kind of become standard since LSS ehehe.

[Cagar]

Progress?

and why is this game so damn ignored.
BUMP!

[Pteriforever]

I've been going through trying to complete my Advanced mode perfection record, already did the lower difficulties.

Really looking forward to attack practice :3

[Pteriforever]

UPDATE: All Advanced mode spellcards captured! The hardest ones were 27. "-Bombast- Grand Swipes" and 67. "-Experimental- Danmaku Multiplication" Which took 7 attempts each.

Next is my Hopeless perfection record, which I'll be checking off as I go:

4. "-Melancholy- Large Barrage"
8. "Leaf Pillar Storm"
12. "-Rage- Inverted Black Hole Lunatic"
16. "Storm Danmaku Lunatic"
20. "Blasts of Green Lunatic" 0/8
24. "Rain of Blades Lunatic"
28. "-Pride- Brilliant Spin Cycle" 0/6
32. "Hurricane of Blood Lunatic"
36. "-Timidness- Close Quarters" 0/6
40. "-Rage- Small Trap Lunatic"
44. "Incredulous Disorientation" 0/6
48. "-Jubilance- Radiant Cosmos Lunatic"
52. "Starry Trap Lunatic"
56. "Entombing Cross" 0/6
60. "-Testing- Quake Circle Lunatic" 0/4
64. "-Simulation- Great Rain Call Lunatic" 0/3
68. "-Experimental- Danmaku Multiplication Lunatic" 0/3
72. "-Innovation- Dimensional Network"
76. "-Mechination- Cube Cross"
80. "-Catharsis- Release Ruin Lunatic" 0/2
84. "-Rancor- Rocket Tackle" 0/2

TOTAL CAPTURED: 74/84
HOPELESS CAPTURED: 11/21

[Taizen Chisou]

Progress?

and why is this game so damn ignored.
BUMP!

Game's done! Mostly, anyway.
Stages 1-6 are complete. I'm starting on Extra and Zero Stages soon.
On the technical side, I've been cracking at implementing replay functionality. It's ... actually coming along better than I had hoped.
Debating whether to start on Attack Practice or on Extra first.


On the subject of,

I've been going through trying to complete my Advanced mode perfection record, already did the lower difficulties.

Really looking forward to attack practice :3

UPDATE: All Advanced mode spellcards captured! The hardest ones were 27. "-Bombast- Grand Swipes" and 67. "-Experimental- Danmaku Multiplication" Which took 7 attempts each.

Next (...)

I am very impressed! And a little jealous (I couldn't cap Radiant Cosmos Lunatic until attempt ~22 or so, how dare you)
To note, many of the cards you've yet to perfect have received major nerfing in 0.9. In particular, I'd put capping Danmaku Multiplication Lunatic out of your mind for a while. There's a bug regarding the hitboxes of that specific bullet style in the release build.
Blasts of Green is now possible with Not The Homing Missiles, and Rocket Tackle was made to be a bit slower.

There will be a total, of 285 perfection records to attain in the final product.
A run of the main game from stages 1 through 6 will pit you against 60 of them.

I am looking at the release of version 0.9 perhaps over Christmas, hopefully. I gotta get those stages and grab the ACTUAL boss graphics from my spriter, still. And... maybe work on some backgrounds. I... don't enjoy background design >_>

Other changes include re-balancing applied to the shottypes;
[*]Homing missiles have increased damage output
[*]The blast missiles will now create splash damaging explosions
[*]Lasers have been given additional range while focused
[*]Unfocused rapid fire shots have wider range
[*]The satellite shot now has two familiars
[*]Gravity shots are now bounded within the frame and deal additional damage if moving fast
On the flip side, bomb damages have now been cut to a third. (You get a lot of them!)

The life output has been increased threefold for yellow Stars collected above the Point of Collection.
Also, the life bonus for capturing spellcards has been modified.
Old: Clearing +0.00, Capture +0.10
New: Clearing +0.05, Capture +0.05
Additionally, you receive +0.08 Bombs upon clearing boss healthbars.

The Point Item Value cap has been adjusted to fit the difficulty.
150,000 on Zero
200,000 on Easy
250,000 on Normal
300,000 on Hard
350,000 on Lunatic
400,000 on Extra
Collecting a blue Star while at the cap will award you with (cap/100) points.
Additionally, if the Point Item Value is under 150,000, then grazing a bullet will increase it by 10, as well.
The base point value of grazing a bullet was also increased from 10 to 500.

The margins between the movement speeds of the ships has been increased.

I believe have addressed a bug (that is probably) present in the game that renders it impossible to transfer damage from a familiar to a boss. I don't recall if the release build is affected, but it's not now.

[lots of other superficial changes here]



tl;dr i'm still working on things and there'll be new stuff before the New Year's hopefully.

[BPzeBanshee]

You still planning on having proper backgrounds for this?

If it's not something you'd enjoy or would make the game look worse might I suggest going a different route and having something else in the background? Clean Asia only had fake-vector square blocks for 2 out of its 3 stages and it looked quite fine. Simple gradients and stuff along those lines could convey most basic things anyway and it's not like your game really needed backgrounds in the first place.

Regarding your replay functionality, please let us know if that actually ends up working correctly 100% of the time, because I never managed to get it right and it almost burnt me out completely from game development. If you nail it I'd really like to see how you pulled it off.

[Taizen Chisou]

Yeah, I'm working on the backgrounds right now.

And you'll have to get in line, haha.
There is a large amount of shmuppers wanting to know my replay secrets.

ALSO YOU GUYS I WANT YOUR HIGH SCORES



----------

[CStarFlare]

The Point Item Value cap has been adjusted to fit the difficulty.
150,000 on Zero
200,000 on Easy
250,000 on Normal
300,000 on Hard
350,000 on Lunatic
400,000 on Extra

I haven't play the game (yet!) but I have to ask why people do this. I'm not sure how easy these will be to hit, but Double Dealing Character's score cap being attainable halfway through the game was very disappointing. It just seems odd to impose a limit on scoring potential instead of letting the players push the system to its limits.

[Taizen Chisou]

The Point Item Value cap has been adjusted to fit the difficulty.
150,000 on Zero
200,000 on Easy
250,000 on Normal
300,000 on Hard
350,000 on Lunatic
400,000 on Extra

I haven't play the game (yet!) but I have to ask why people do this. I'm not sure how easy these will be to hit, but Double Dealing Character's score cap being attainable halfway through the game was very disappointing. It just seems odd to impose a limit on scoring potential instead of letting the players push the system to its limits.

On Normal and above, you might be hitting the caps in the last stage. Any earlier and you're doing something special.
Personally, my runs have only gotten about 220,000 on Normal, then 280,000 or so on Hard. And even then on Lunatic, I was only at 350,000 Value starting in the middle of the final boss >_>
(At the time of writing, I've completed a run on Easy with some minor bombing for score. The run ended with 162,130 PIV.)
So the main game might be easy to cap if you know where to place your bombs. If this proves to be of any issue, then I'll consider making adjustments.
Zero and Extra will be incredibly hard to cap out, if not impossible outright, given you won't be given near the amount of resources to delete bullets.

The main point behind players capping the value, is that

Collecting a blue Star while at the cap will award you with (cap/100) points.

But like, even though I've not coded in support for scores in excess of 2.1 billion, 1.8b and over would be ridiculously difficult to attain. Like... no miss all-spellcards-captured Lunatic clear with lots of graze-whoring.

My final scores? They're right around
700,000,000 on Easy
925,000,000 on Normal
1,150,000,000 on Hard and
1,300,000,000 on Lunatic.

The Lunatic run ended with two extra lives in stock and captured 30 of the 60 attacks. So yeah, I can't see a perfect game being worth much more than 1.8 or 1.9 billion.

[Cagar]

The Point Item Value cap has been adjusted to fit the difficulty.
150,000 on Zero
200,000 on Easy
250,000 on Normal
300,000 on Hard
350,000 on Lunatic
400,000 on Extra

I haven't play the game (yet!) but I have to ask why people do this. I'm not sure how easy these will be to hit, but Double Dealing Character's score cap being attainable halfway through the game was very disappointing. It just seems odd to impose a limit on scoring potential instead of letting the players push the system to its limits.

Agreed.
You should never limit your scoring mechanics like this, instead I think doing the opposite would be better, like giving some bonus multiplier etc. for some other multiplier being high

[Taizen Chisou]

Lol you guys, capping the PIV makes blue stars into miniature point items instead of regular point items.

I can't be overly certain about score multipliers, anyway.

But like, even though I've not coded in support for scores in excess of 2.1 billion, 1.8b and over would be ridiculously difficult to attain.

I DID code Lunacy Star Second to handle scores of 18 digits, but the highest you'd get would be like... 4 billion. If you didn't die at all.
The multiplier capped at 99.99, and you could only do that by no-missing up until the final stage.

If you aren't at the cap, then the score-driving items aren't worth points in any of my titles, you see. Multipliers in LSS and blue Stars in Re:LS will only give regular points if they can't do anything else.

In any case... I'm trying to avoid adding any extraneous scoring systems to Re:LS. I had a hideously complicated setup in the original LS that nobody used ever, so I figured that I wouldn't bother here. If you can think of a better way that will ~not~ be horribly broken or unintuitive, or inflate scoring past the billions, then I'm open to suggestions.

[Taizen Chisou]

Never mind, I am NOT open to suggestions! I've made a change today, and the short of it is that hypers are a thing.

Expect the next release.... ... .... ...........soon!

[Pteriforever]

Looking forward to it :3

[Taizen Chisou]

YOU GUYS IT TURNS OUT THAT THE GAME WON'T BREAK WHEN EXPOSED TO LARGE NUMBERS




*Taizen Chisou huddles off to multiply everything by twenty-seven


------------------------------------

I'm working on the Extra Stage. If people don't mind not being able to play it, AND not being able to load replays (You can still save them though!) I can totes go and upload an updated version for y'all to take a crack at.

------------------------------------

Also remember that the OST, as I continue to work on it, will be posted to SoundCloud!

[Cagar]

release plz

[Taizen Chisou]

oh okay

So you can click here to download 0.8 from scratch.
Or you can click here to download an extended set of files if you've already got 0.1 and want to shave like a third of the download size.


SAVE YOUR REPLAYS
GIVE THEM TO ME SO I CAN DEBUG REPLAYS IN THE DEVELOPMENT BUILD
AND POST YOUR HIGH SCORES

[Pteriforever]

Awesome!

Wow, I can't even beat some of these on Standard... Looks like I'll have enough perfection records to keep me going for a while.

[CStarFlare]

In my most recent playthrough, I ran into something strange in stage 5 I think. There's a short section between a midboss and the stage boss where enemies fire bullets that reflect off the sides of the screen. Usually there will be a couple sets - some that shoot small circular bullets, and others that fire purple oval bullets. This time, the second set didn't pop up - I noticed because I sometimes have to bomb there if things get too thick.

Maybe it's intentional behavior based on something I did?

[Taizen Chisou]

In my most recent playthrough, I ran into something strange in stage 5 I think. There's a short section between a midboss and the stage boss where enemies fire bullets that reflect off the sides of the screen. Usually there will be a couple sets - some that shoot small circular bullets, and others that fire purple oval bullets. This time, the second set didn't pop up - I noticed because I sometimes have to bomb there if things get too thick.

Maybe it's intentional behavior based on something I did?

Ah, you're referring to Stage 4. The pre-boss waves are bonus enemies that you'll get for defeating the second midboss in an exceedingly timely manner. In general, when a midboss appears, it is advisable to finish them quickly so you can get the stage to spit up extra enemies.
Some Stage 4 midbosses are easier than others- try playing with different ships and see for yourself which of them is the easiest for you to fight.
(Remember that there's a Stage Practice that you can check out!)

@Pteriforever

Aha, I was wondering what you thought about the new patterns.
Don't forget to post some high scores!