Interview with creators of Dimension Drive a new indie SHMUP

[Aggro Sky]

I figured you guys may be interested in this. Two gentlemen that work at the ESA (European Space Agency) started their own Indie game studio as a side project and their first game is a SHMUP! It's called Dimension Drive and it does things that I'm fairly sure no SHMUP has ever done before. The main attraction being a dual screen layout that allows you to warp back and fourth between two separate environments (makes for pretty insane multi-tasking). We did an interview over at Gaming Rebellion and one of my guys did a Let's Play of the Beta. I'm sure the guys over at 2Awesome Studios would love to hear feedback on their game, especially from here. If you're interested, the link to the interview and Let's Play is below. Any feedback is appreciated!

http://www.gamingrebellion.com/2014/11/ ... up-lunacy/

[Captain]

This suprisingly looks really nice. To me at least.

[Aggro Sky]

Yeah I was pretty impressed when I played the Beta. It's still a work in progress but looks really promising. The dual screen layout is truly unique.

[Stilghar]

This suprisingly looks really nice. To me at least.

Thank you! And thanks Aggro! Give the free beta a try and let us know how you find it

[MathU]

Excellent Bifurcation immediately comes to mind.


I'm not sure what version of Windows you've developed this for but I can't seem to make the beta run myself. I get the "not a valid Win32 application" error.

Judging from that gameplay video showing control setup (or lack thereof), you guys seem to have made the unfortunate mistake of forcing that awful arrow-keys-and-ZXCV garbage on keyboard users. Please be sure to include a complete control configuration in the final version!

[Stilghar]

Excellent Bifurcation immediately comes to mind.


I'm not sure what version of Windows you've developed this for but I can't seem to make the beta run myself. I get the "not a valid Win32 application" error.

Judging from that gameplay video showing control setup (or lack thereof), you guys seem to have made the unfortunate mistake of forcing that awful arrow-keys-and-ZXCV garbage on keyboard users. Please be sure to include a complete control configuration in the final version!

Didn't know Excellent Bifurcation. Just tried it and from what I see is where our idea started (playing 2 shmups at the same time). We do something different though as you are only on one side at a time, and switch between them, which is a bit less crazy and also adds some strategy to the game. This also allows us to create some interesting puzzle areas.

The game works in Windows 7 and 8. Which version of Windows are you using? The default keys are zxc garbage as you say But you can already change them to whatever you like in the current beta. In the final game this option will be mantained of course, so yeah, you get to chose your keys/gamepad buttons.

[MathU]

I'm on Windows XP here. Is this a 64-bit-Windows-only game?

Please make sure movement is remappable too! I've seen some more recent games get it wrong by only allowing you to remap the other inputs while leaving the drawbacks of arrow key control intact.

[Stilghar]

I'm on Windows XP here. Is this a 64-bit-Windows-only game?

Please make sure movement is remappable too! I've seen some more recent games get it wrong by only allowing you to remap the other inputs while leaving the drawbacks of arrow key control intact.

All keys are remappable, including movement arrows.

It should work on 32 bit machines, the current build unfortunately doesn't work on XP. We'll try to create a build for Windows XP. I'll keep you posted.

[Aggro Sky]

People still use Windows XP? o_O

[BulletMagnet]

Hmm, a shmup version of Fractured Soul. The beta offers a nice framework to build on; I like how the "switch" could be used both defensively (to avoid nasty patterns) and offensively (to hunt down more baddies to shoot). Once more elements are added things could definitely get interesting...

[S20-TBL]

Their old dev thread is over here, with a playable beta: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=49708

[Stilghar]

Yes, that's our dev thread and the beta there points to our site and IndieDB where you can get the latest one free.

[Stilghar]

Hmm, a shmup version of Fractured Soul. The beta offers a nice framework to build on; I like how the "switch" could be used both defensively (to avoid nasty patterns) and offensively (to hunt down more baddies to shoot). Once more elements are added things could definitely get interesting...

Looking at Fractured Soul now I thought that the Nintendo DS could be a good platform for our game! On a second thought however it would mean that we would have to turn the console vertically and then the controls would be awkward

Glad you to see you like the switching mechanic! One thing that is also worth noting is that the switching is tied to the concept of energy (ammunition). This means that you NEED to switch from time to time, this adds a layer of strategy.