BLUE REVOLVER [greenlight!!!]

[Danbo]

new 0.15 release! features a bunch of feedback, overhauls and fixes!
we're on greenlight now! please vote http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =380437841

http://woofycakes.itch.io/blue-revolver-demo
(changelog : http://bluerevolvergame.com/CHANGES.md)
(video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96OOodLX5ns)

hi there! a few folks and I have been working on a shmup for a little while now and I'd like to proudly present our first release. A small 1-stage demo intended as a vertical slice - feel free to try it out and let me know what you think!



you can see a small gameplay clip here, I guess. we wanted to go for a sort of traditional bullet hell style game based around a fancy special weapon. it's a 4-button game, so you might find it a little awkward to play.

the scoring system is what I pretentiously termed the FLOURISH system. the idea is to quickly build up an 8-chain and get a big payoff by destroying enemies with the special weapon, resetting your chain. it's sort of a mix between two games which are big favourites of mine, ketsui and muchi pork... but there are elements from other games in there as well. midbosses and bosses additionally have little tricks you can pull off to get big score bonuses, i look forward to seeing if you can figure them out!

default controls are arrow keys + zxcv. alternately, you can use wasd + jkl; - or just rebind them! joypad support is in though not 100% - press a key on an unsupported controller and you'll get an error report we can use to add your controller in a next release

we're interested in all forms of feedback. this is still heavily in development, so not everything is 100% lovely and done, but game/level/boss design feedback is obviously what i'm most interested in from system11. that said, tech/art feedback is dandy

http://woofycakes.itch.io/blue-revolver-demo

Art is by the amazingly talented woof and comicz. I did most of the coding and barebones level/game design. qygen has given us some great music even at this stage, and while the sounds are very much still WIP i have to credit Wyrm with a lot of the audio work.

[Ebbo]

This certainly looks sweet! The graphical style sort of reminds me of Imalice. Unfortunately it seems my toaster isn't powerful enough to run the demo... I'll promise to give it a go once I get myself a new computer soon enough.

[Shepardus]

Ran perfectly fine on my computer (Windows 7 64-bit).

Looks and feels great so far! Artstyle also reminds me of Imalice, and I'm really liking it, though the bullets were sometimes difficult to see against the lighter backgrounds (especially the brown bullets). I also like the scoring system so far, though I found myself running out of special weapon ammo a lot more than I would have liked. Maybe the ammo pickups should restore more, or maybe I just need to learn to play properly. Those are just minor nitpicks though, I look forward to seeing it developed further!

[mice]

Just super!
Maybe a bit too yellow on yellow, readability issues. But I really enjoined this, looking forward to the rest.

[Udderdude]

The art style makes it quite difficult to see enemy projectiles in most situations ..

Also, when I got to the first boss, I couldn't use the laser anymore. WTF is up with that? Bug?

The first boss's 2nd pattern fucked me up because I wasn't expecting the game to go all Ketsui on me all of the sudden. How about a bit of warning?

[Danbo]

Also, when I got to the first boss, I couldn't use the laser anymore. WTF is up with that? Bug?

Seems a few people have run into this bug, I've taken note of it. Seems to have to do with using the laser during the boss introduction sequence.

Also taken note of readability issues!

[Cagar]

I thiiiink.. that i like it. Maybe.
I'd try to beat your high score if I knew what it is?
Got 4.1m myself with a quick attempt and I'm probably missing lots of boss-related stuff.
Though I'd make the chain timer much, much more strict.
The speed that it decreases once you use the special weapon is alright, but building up to the 8 chain is just way too easy. It's pretty much just "kill 8 enemies", as the timer never even starts to go down. Dunno if intentional, but I think that the scoring would be much more intense and fun if you actually had to kill the 8 enemies QUICK!

Also yeah, bullet visibility etc...

[Blackbird]

Tried this game out today. It's great fun, I like it! The game has a nice tempo and incorporates some familiar mechanics without feeling too samey. The scoring mechanic is fun and not overcomplicated. I like the aesthetic you have going as well. It runs great on integrated graphics, no real slowdown.

The bullets mix in with the background a bit because they follow a similar color palette to the background.

Hard to tell about the difficulty level with just one stage, but it seems pretty manageable for a scrublord like me. I think the best way to go with making shmups approachable is to make them somewhat difficult, but be really generous with extends (like doujin Crimzon Clover) so new players have the opportunity to make lots of mistakes and learn more before they have to retire the run.

Please consider adding out-of-the-box support for X360 controllers at the very least - some kind of controller support is mandatory for an arcade game like this, imo.

Looking forward to playing more.

[Danbo]

I thiiiink.. that i like it. Maybe.
I'd try to beat your high score if I knew what it is?
Got 4.1m myself with a quick attempt and I'm probably missing lots of boss-related stuff.
Though I'd make the chain timer much, much more strict.
The speed that it decreases once you use the special weapon is alright, but building up to the 8 chain is just way too easy. It's pretty much just "kill 8 enemies", as the timer never even starts to go down. Dunno if intentional, but I think that the scoring would be much more intense and fun if you actually had to kill the 8 enemies QUICK!

Also yeah, bullet visibility etc...

My high score is at the top of the itch.io page. I've since beaten it, though! As for the chain timer, I see your point and its something I'll be playing around with. I generally wanted to make it easy to build up to an 8-chain though, to make things more satisfying for new players and to try to hint to the player that riding an 8-chain without using the special weapon is exactly what you're NOT supposed to be doing.

Tried this game out today. It's great fun, I like it! The game has a nice tempo and incorporates some familiar mechanics without feeling too samey. The scoring mechanic is fun and not overcomplicated. I like the aesthetic you have going as well. It runs great on integrated graphics, no real slowdown.

The bullets mix in with the background a bit because they follow a similar color palette to the background.

Hard to tell about the difficulty level with just one stage, but it seems pretty manageable for a scrublord like me. I think the best way to go with making shmups approachable is to make them somewhat difficult, but be really generous with extends (like doujin Crimzon Clover) so new players have the opportunity to make lots of mistakes and learn more before they have to retire the run.

Please consider adding out-of-the-box support for X360 controllers at the very least - some kind of controller support is mandatory for an arcade game like this, imo.

Looking forward to playing more.

Relieved it's running fine for you, I feel most of the folks I've had test this so far have had fairly powerful machines.

We'll be implementing a novice mode and seeing what to do with extends later on, obviously there aren't any in this demo because it's just one stage.

The public demo (in about a week or so, hopefully) will definitely feature support for most mainstream controllers - 360, Dualshocks, and so on. Currently trying to have it support non-mainstream ones.

[Ebbo]

So I got this demo up and running on my new laptop and it seems to run fine but occasionally there is some strange black flickering going on... It doesn't seem to occur as often when I'm not using different weapons too much. Maybe it's just me.

Besides that the game already looks stellar and I really like the art style. But the gameplay isn't clicking with me as well I'd hoped and I think it's partially because of the weapon system. Having three different weapons that all fire forward feels a bit redundant, especially when one of them seems purely focused on scoring. I wish the weapons had more utility besides scoring so that I would actually want to use them all the time. I think that would make things feel more immediate to the new players as well - "Wow this weapon is so cool, I should use it more!"

If I had to suggest a solution, maybe you could work the special weapon around so that it would stand out more and encourage players to play differently? Or maybe drop either shot or laser completely to make things more straightforward?
Either way it certainly doesn't break the game for me, far from it. Just some food for thought. Good luck with the project!

[Elixir]

First impressions:

- Laser takes an uncomfortable amount of time to activate
- First boss, final phase can easily be safespotted simply by going to the top of the screen
- I like that boss has parts which appear as if they're taking damage, but most parts don't seem to be destructible
- I really like the awsd support, I rarely use keyboards for shooting games but when I do I almost always have to use this style
- I don't really care for scoring systems reliant on resources and temporary multipliers (Ibara, Futari Maniac, Espra.de, LASERREIMU etc) but I'll see how I feel about it later
- I'm hoping to see various ships and shot types

And yeah, the basics: things like controller support, training mode, replay saving and leaderboards are needed.

I think the clash of colors in some circumstances is a valid issue. I didn't have any difficulties but those fluffy round yellow/brown bullets feel like the kind of bullets which could be shot away.

I actually played this before seeing this thread. It was posted on newStage, a fairly popular Japanese site, so you might want to leave a comment if you don't want it there: http://stg.liarsoft.org/c20150111-111236

[Danbo]

So I got this demo up and running on my new laptop and it seems to run fine but occasionally there is some strange black flickering going on... It doesn't seem to occur as often when I'm not using different weapons too much. Maybe it's just me.

Besides that the game already looks stellar and I really like the art style. But the gameplay isn't clicking with me as well I'd hoped and I think it's partially because of the weapon system. Having three different weapons that all fire forward feels a bit redundant, especially when one of them seems purely focused on scoring. I wish the weapons had more utility besides scoring so that I would actually want to use them all the time. I think that would make things feel more immediate to the new players as well - "Wow this weapon is so cool, I should use it more!"

If I had to suggest a solution, maybe you could work the special weapon around so that it would stand out more and encourage players to play differently? Or maybe drop either shot or laser completely to make things more straightforward?
Either way it certainly doesn't break the game for me, far from it. Just some food for thought. Good luck with the project!

Never heard of a black flickering issue. Any other extra info you could give would be really good.

I had my own misgivings about having a shot, a laser and a special weapon - though you seem to be one of the first to bring it up so it's perhaps not the biggest issue right now. I wouldn't say the special weapon is purely focused on scoring, it's more powerful than the standard weapons - but hard to tell at this point because it's just a first stage. I enjoy watching beginners hoard their ammo to use it on enemies that give them trouble.

If I can alter the spread shot to be more satisfying to destroy standard enemies and to plink away at bosses with, the laser might turn into an alternate special weapon. But that won't be in the next demo. Either way, toying around with less conventional weapon types is something I'm really looking forward to.

First impressions:

- Laser takes an uncomfortable amount of time to activate
- First boss, final phase can easily be safespotted simply by going to the top of the screen
- I like that boss has parts which appear as if they're taking damage, but most parts don't seem to be destructible
- I really like the awsd support, I rarely use keyboards for shooting games but when I do I almost always have to use this style
- I don't really care for scoring systems reliant on resources and temporary multipliers (Ibara, Futari Maniac, Espra.de, LASERREIMU etc) but I'll see how I feel about it later
- I'm hoping to see various ships and shot types

And yeah, the basics: things like controller support, training mode, replay saving and leaderboards are needed.

I think the clash of colors in some circumstances is a valid issue. I didn't have any difficulties but those fluffy round yellow/brown bullets feel like the kind of bullets which could be shot away.

I actually played this before seeing this thread. It was posted on newStage, a fairly popular Japanese site, so you might want to leave a comment if you don't want it there: http://stg.liarsoft.org/c20150111-111236

Good feedback! Will get on a bunch of that stuff - particularly the safe spot, how embarassing. Boss is going to have a bit of an overhaul but probably won't be fully destructible. I probably won't be able to do replay support in time for the public demo (19th), but we'll see. Ibara is one of my favourite games, though Muchi Muchi Pork was probably a bigger influence when I was coming up with the scoring system. I also enjoy the basic idea behind rade's scoring even if there's a huge amount of bad boss milking.

I'm not too fussed about it appearing on newStage, I'll just take it as a compliment that someone thought it was worth posting there. I'm fine with any sort of shmuphead getting to see this demo so we can get the best feedback early on, the public demo will simply be polished enough to show the general public, while hopefully addressing the easier bits of feedback.

[Danbo]

proud to present our 0.15 public demo!

the big ticket items - a graphical overhaul intended to help readability, joypad support, some more nuance in the boss behaviours, highscore support, a whole bunch of tweaks/fixes (laser feels a lot better now) and i made the title screen play an explosion sound effect

http://woofycakes.itch.io/blue-revolver-demo

[S20-TBL]

Going to try this out. Gameplay and art look interesting.

[Cagar]

Please default the "No" button in the twitter suggestion

[Shepardus]

Looks and feels good like it did before, bullet visibility is better than before.

You probably already know this but there are some places where the laser looks weird because it seems to stop before actually reaching the enemy (probably because the hitbox is larger than the sprite?). This is mostly noticeable on bosses, especially as the midboss is spawning.

[Blackbird]

Lots of cool stuff in the change log. I'll test this out a bit more later on.

[Jaimers]

How do I make the game stop saying my controller is not supported every single time I press a button while trying to use Xpadder or Joy2Key?

[Zeether]

I'm on Windows 7x64 and double clicking the .exe doesn't start the game at all for some reason.

[Nana]

SUFFERING


This game looks super good, too. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[Danbo]

Please default the "No" button in the twitter suggestion

yeah it was just a last-minute thing, the twitter stuff in later versions will be a bit better thought out

Looks and feels good like it did before, bullet visibility is better than before.

You probably already know this but there are some places where the laser looks weird because it seems to stop before actually reaching the enemy (probably because the hitbox is larger than the sprite?). This is mostly noticeable on bosses, especially as the midboss is spawning.

hmm good catch, duly noted. though i would note that you can't damage the midboss when it swoops past, if that's what you're trying

How do I make the game stop saying my controller is not supported every single time I press a button while trying to use Xpadder or Joy2Key?

ah damnit! i hadn't thought of that. definitely rethink that in a later version, for now you could do two things - install love2d 0.9.1, get the .love file from the itch.io page and run that... or run the game through Steam Big Picture, which should add support for your controller if you have it configured for that mode. really sorry for the inconvenience!

I'm on Windows 7x64 and double clicking the .exe doesn't start the game at all for some reason.

strange. could you try what i detailed above? install love2d, run the .love file and see if that works. just to see!

SUFFERING


This game looks super good, too. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

currently the game requires render-to-texture support and i guess your machine doesn't have that? we'll be adding a "simple graphics" mode later on which should help the game run on older machines, but i'm not sure what i can do to help you for now. sorry!

[Nana]

Aww shoot. Yeah, it's a laptop, so I can't really change too much on this end. Thanks for the reply though. The game really does look great.

[BPzeBanshee]

Upgrading the laptop graphic drivers out of the question?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Will tate option be included in a later build of this cool Blue Revolver demo? I think it'd look ace running in full screen in tate on a true low-res 15kHz arcade monitor setup using an Ultracade uVC setup indeed (at the usual 320 x 240 presentation spec).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Danbo]

Will tate option be included in a later build of this cool Blue Revolver demo? I think it'd look ace running in full screen in tate on a true low-res 15kHz arcade monitor setup using an Ultracade uVC setup indeed (at the usual 320 x 240 presentation spec).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

i don't know when our next public demo will be, but it'll definitely be in that!

[WrongEnemy7]

I've played it today and it's amazing. Fun and challenging! But the art style is confusing at times, enemies blend with the background sometimes. I don't know exactly what the issue is but it's a nitpick in my opinion, i managed to have great fun with it despite that. Music is good, enemy variety is great, boss battles are fun and the scoring mechanic just makes my brain explode (in a good way) from all the simple combination that can increase my score. I love it and i can't wait for the full game!
Kudos on the twitter sharing option!

[BulletMagnet]

Seems someone tipped off Siliconera.

As for myself, I like what you've got going here, but I will toss another "improve the bullet visibility" request on the pile.

[Cagar]

I will toss another "improve the bullet visibility" request on the pile.

Yeah me too.
Just make the colors of them stronger/darker. You might lose some aesthetic integrity but that will never be more important than gameplay for me (and currently it actually bothers it!)

[Danbo]

we've already went to the point of having to cheat outside of a very limited palette for the bullet graphics, it's just something we're always going to have to try to improve somehow

[Stevens]

Seems someone tipped off Siliconera.

As for myself, I like what you've got going here, but I will toss another "improve the bullet visibility" request on the pile.

Just came here to say I saw it on Siliconera:)