SCORE RUSH EXTENDED 撃点 - RELEASED ON PS4!

[Xonatron]

(This is the upcoming PS4 version. See the released Xbox 360 version here: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=33540)

Score Rush Extended 撃点
Xona Games
(PS4)

Score Rush Extended 撃点 PS4 PlayStation Store:

https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-ca/ ... USH0000000

Score Rush Extended 撃点 PS4 Announce Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYxBfC0RFxM

Release Date:
May 31, 2016 (NA)
June 2, 2016 (EU)
unknown (JP)

Animated GIF:



Genre: shmup (shoot 'em up, STG)

Box Art:



Title Screen:



Contact:

xona.com/contact

Web:

xona.com/scorerush
playstation.com

Social Nets, RSS, Wiki:





Goal:

To make the most fundamental and philosophically pure shoot 'em up ever. To make a game that truly tests how good we are at dodging and shooting enemies. To properly represent and respect the shoot 'em up genre, which was the top video game genre before FPS. To attract mainstream gamers back into retro-style arcade action competitive score-running gameplay. I have a true love for shmups.

Description:

A widescreen bullet-hell dual-stick overhead-view 2D scrolling shooter. Originally an experimental game released on Xbox LIVE Indie Games and became the #1 game in Japan. Locally cooperative, globally competitive. Play alone or with your friends -- as a team! -- to compete against scores from other single player and multiplayer teams.

Philosophy:

Empower the player. Increased challenge comes from increased game difficulty not player weakness. Allow domination. Never let the game be at fault for player death. Reward domination. No gimmicks. No hidden points or bonuses. To get the highest score, dominate the game (kill everything as fast as possible). Example, does saving your bombs help kill enemies faster? No, so saving bombs does not award extra points. Requires a scoring mechanic designed to measure the actual domination of game.

Art Style:

Gray-scale background and rainbow colored foreground. Aesthetically pleasing and strongly differentiates ground and sky layers, even when screen becomes crowded with enemies and bullets. Extreme intensity in player power up and enemy attacks. Massive satisfying explosions.

Screenshots:


Title screen.


Main menu.


Beginning of game.


4 players. Locally cooperative, globally competitive. Play as a team to compete with other teams on the scoreboards.


Those are four hitboxes, still rendered despite the (very quick) blinding explosion from a boss kill. Keep in mind this is a split-second screen capture, the game never appears this way to the gamer. Even in this split-second, we still adhere to our philosohpy of empowering the player and never letting the game be at fault for player death.


4 players, 4 colors. Color-coded powerups seak even distribution, although players are free to collect as they please.


Collect trailing options and coalesce them to form a powerful laser.


Boss explosion

Newer Screenshots:


Fire spots on the ground.


Fire spots on the destoryed boss, which is falling to the ground.


Fire spots on the destroyed boss on the ground,
which matches the gray-scale background art style upon crashing.


Fire spots on a damanged, but living, boss.
Notice the ground is colored in Boss Rush mode.


Fire spots everywhere!

Questions / Comments / Criticisms ?

Feel free to ask and share! Constructive criticism welcome.

That is all for now.

#shmup!

[Chaos Phoenixma]

So it lacks online co-op like Jamestown does?


Definitely hope for

all difficulties are available from the start now(assuming this wasn't already done on the other versions)

Please no trophies that force co-op. Especially ones where you need 3-4 controllers just to get them(Jamestown also does this). This would be a bit less of an issue with online play though.

[Weak Boson]

Looks amazing! Score Rush is such a quality game, the idea of an extended version makes me inappropriately excited.

I found unlocking difficulties fun - particularly recruiting extra players to help you do this.

But I don't have a PS4 so steam version when??

[Xonatron]

Chaos Phoenixma,

Thanks for your interest. Let me run through your concerns:


Multiplayer (Couch Co-Op):
--------------------------------------

There is no online co-op. We were not in a position to be able to do this. Maybe in a future game. No promises. No promises ever.

But, there is local couch co-op for up to 4 players and online PSN scoreboards for each group of players: from 1P, 2P, 3P, to 4P. So the game is locally cooperative and globally competitive. As well, you can compete with teams bigger than you (but not smaller) in the following effortless manner: When you score a 1P score, it is posted to the 2P, 3P, and 4P scoreboards. So there is the potential for you to be a two player team on your own, as well as a single player to beat your two player team on their own.

Thinking about couch co-op, this is the gameplay we fundamentally care about the most. Real life friends hanging out in real life playing together in real life. This is not an excuse for lack of online multiplayer, as we appreciate online play too.


Difficulty Unlocking:
------------------------------

There will be 3 difficulty modes:

- NORMAL
- EXPERT
- GODLIKE

Each difficulty past NORMAL unlocks when you beat the previous difficulty.

My thoughts on this design: Consider two types of players:

A) Mainstream / newcomer players: The majority of the players will be mainstream gamers who can be intimidated by bullet hell craziness. The design caters to this. A newcomer playing EXPERT or GODLIKE would have the wind taken out of their sails far too quickly. There is no easy mode. The game is tough in NORMAL. If everyone can beat the game in NORMAL right away, then I have done something wrong.

b) Expert players: For the experts, NORMAL mode is still a challenge, and may likely be the game mode experts concentrate the most on. And if they wish to play EXPERT, then very likely they can beat NORMAL. And if you can beat NORMAL, then beating NORMAL is not something that takes a long time. I am curious if this is viewed in a negative light, like a grind? It is not a grind. And even an expert player can be hit hard by these harder modes if they are unfamiliar with the base NORMAL mode. If you cannot beat NORMAL, would you really want to play EXPERT? This system seemed to have worked with Score Rush (X360).

That said, I am interested in your thoughts against this system, if you would like to elaborate on them. Let me know how it works against you.


Trophies:
------------------

There are no trophies that force co-op. I am against such trophies/achievements. Developers make them to force the players into playing the game the developer's way -- often to force online play -- which is an abuse of the developer's power. They are so prevalent that developers are just following suit without considering the consequences.

Every trophy can be unlocked in single player. The idea with our trophy design is that they are YOUR trophies, not your friends' trophies, and YOU can win them on your own.

Also, our trophies do not ignore co-op play! The cater to it! Playing with friends can help make certain trophies easier to unlock, such as beating the game. So the trophies are designed to reward co-op play, however they are fundamentally designed from the single player perspective. I think this is the key methodology that should be behind all co-op trophies and achievements.

P.S. There is a related flip-side in this "do not force players to do things they do not wish to do" philosophy of ours: Whatever the gamer chooses to do they should be rewarded by doing so. For example, all game settings should have online scoreboards. As many shmup fans know, usually only default settings get online score recognition. In Score Rush Extended, there is an online scoreboard for every possible mode.


Chaos Phoenixma, I appreciate all your thoughts on these things.

EDITED: I misread Chaos Phoenixma's comments as being negative, so I removed any insinuations saying such.

[Xonatron]

Weak Boson,

Thank you! I am getting excited about it too. Finally we will have a console release with online scoreboards and unlockables.

And I appreciate the feedback on the unlocking difficulties.

Unfortunately, there are no PC/Steam version promises. I learned to never make promises!

[brokenhalo]

Oh hell yes! Loved playing the xblig version, and felt it could have easily been an xbla game (the quality was extremely high). Can't wait to see what kind of changes/polish you guys have added to the game. So hyped for this!

[Mills]

How long did it take for the developers to come up with such an innovative and unique title SCORE RUSH EXTENDED, 10 seconds?

Visuals look disorienting with the clash of colours, lack of depth between foreground and background images.

[#1 in Japan] Really, when it taken much longer for games like RAIDEN, or GIGAWING, to generate that level of popularity amongst gamers. I not buying it

[Van_Artic]

How long did it take for the developers to come up with such an innovative and unique title SCORE RUSH EXTENDED, 10 seconds?

just like your beloved RAIDEN, or GIGAWING; when they get a sequel, you just slap a 2 ahead of the name and you're done, it's as simple as that, and it takes less than 10 seconds

(but i do agree on the #1 in japan part)

also

where's Duality ZF?

[ATTRACTS]

How long did it take for the developers to come up with such an innovative and unique title SCORE RUSH EXTENDED, 10 seconds?

Visuals look disorienting with the clash of colours, lack of depth between foreground and background images.

[#1 in Japan] Really, when it taken much longer for games like RAIDEN, or GIGAWING, to generate that level of popularity amongst gamers. I not buying it

It's always nice when a person or group of people try to bring our favorite genre a new game to play, only to watch the elitist asshats insult and berate them right out of the starting gates. You wonder why you're still playing the same shit for the last 20 years...this is part of the reason why.

[Xonatron]

Mills,

If you know a better way, why not help us? The entire reason I make games is because I can be so critical of them and believe I can do certain parts better. When we post here, it is an invitation for you to do the same within our own games.


Naming Convention:
-------------------------------

Why not offer advice? The game has not been released yet, so I could rename it... maybe to a name you choose.

What should we name it? Score Rush? That implies it's the same game as before. Score Rush 2? That implies it's a completely new version. It isn't. We even thought of Score Rush V2 (version 2) which implies it's a new version of the same game. My son suggested Score Rush Extended. And I accepted it not because it was my son's advice but because I felt it was a perfect fit. I loved it. It describes it is more than Score Rush (1) yet not a Score Rush 2, and that's what we were shooting for.

And the conversation on this took longer than 10 seconds. If anything, an attack on Xona Games would be more correct in that we take too much time to do things, not too little.


Visuals:
-----------------

Colors: The colors are all neon primary and secondary colors. There are a set of standard colors that make up the majority of enemy attacks, and then special and rare "exotic" colors such as purple for special attacks. So there is design. Generally popcorn enemies and boss turrets shoot yellow. There are exceptions to all the rules. During play, this is fairly balanced. I could do a run through an analyze any clashes though. (I just made an issue for me to do this.)

Depth: There is depth between foreground and background, as one is colored bright neon and the other is gray-scale. I explained this idea a bit in the art style section in the original post. The difference is quite clear during gameplay.

That is, except in our BOSS RUSH mode, where the background does have color, but the foreground consists of only bosses and minor popcorn enemies so there was not enough visual confusion to warrant the gray-scale background effect. Mills, perhaps these are the screenshots you were referring to.

Here are some screens from before, when the background was colored, with menu shots to keep it in context:

Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.


Older Score Rush [Extended] screenshot.

NOTE: The above are older screenshots, and the background design and coloring has since changed.

As you can see, it was far more visually confusing before.


#1 In Japan:
-----------------

The game was #1 in Japan on the Xbox 360 in the Xbox LIVE Indie Games marketplace, in ratings and sales, as were our other two Xbox 360 releases. This distinction became our "claim to fame". We did not compete with AAA titles. We were never the "#1 shmup in Japan of all time".

APPEND: This is similar to "best seller" in books. Are they the best selling book of all time? No. But were they among the best selling books in some circumstance? Yes. I am not sure, but it may mean they were the #1 best selling book for a period. It is a similar idea with our games. We were the "#1 best seller in Japan" and "#1 top rated in Japan", so I went with "#1 in Japan". P.S. Incidentally, we were hacked off the top lists, when the top games were targetted for rating manipulation (which affected sales too): http://xona.com/2011/07/06.html

This attention to detail, and the assumption I am being dishonest, is a problem I run into on these forums all the time. It is both a strength and a weakness of these forums. As you can see above, I have no problem explaining the details. I am not trying to mislead anyone. Once we used "intense retro" and there was the idea our games were not retro and shmups are not retro because they still exist. All of this I agree with. However, I have a marketing job to do towards mainstream gamers. I wish this job of mine was understood. Marketing is not a place for details, it is a place to gain someone's attention. Box art cannot be a Wikipedia page.

Any constructive help on this would be greatly appreciated.

When I claim "#1 in Japan" it is because the game was #1 in Japan in some manner, not all manners. It was some form of success, not the ultimate form of success. Notice how you picked on other shmups being bigger than Score Rush (and they are), but not other game genres. Why make that assumption? Our #1 in Japan did not compete with AAA but it did compete with all other game genres on the XBLIG system, not just the shmups. However little this success is, it is some form of success, and I would like to use it to promote the game.

Again, any help in how to do this would be great.

If you can, show me what box art design I should use instead. Show me what text other than "#1 in Japan" I should use. Etc.


EDIT NOTES: I edited this post a bunch of times, to elaborate more, post screenshots, and to not come off as rude.

Thanks,

[Xonatron]

Van_Artic,

I addressed the #1 in Japan thing in my post to Mills above.

Duality ZF is on hold. If our games sell well on these next-gen platforms, there is hope for Duality ZF. No promises. Shmups are not easy to make a living off of. But I am glad to (soon) finally put Score Rush in a huge platform that has online scoreboards.

[Xonatron]

brokenhalo and ATTRACTS, thanks so much for your support!

[Chaos Phoenixma]

No intent to be negative. Just wondering a bit.


But this is a definite purchase for me anyway, at least once I get a PS4.

[Xonatron]

Chaos Phoenixma, ah cool. I just misread you then. Apologies for that. Thanks for the support.

[Weak Boson]

So why exactly is there no online multiplayer? It really helped fulfill the game's potential for the ga.me version.

[Xonatron]

Weak Boson,

I was wondering how I should answer this question. I was thinking perhaps of just saying it was the best thing for the company and leaving it at that. But I wish for you all to understand a bit of the development decisions.

The online multiplayer in the HTML5/ga.me version was a branch off of the C#/XNA Xbox 360 version, and a port to JavaScript among other technologies. The PS4 version, coined Score Rush Extended as you know, was also a branch off the C#/XNA Xbox 360 version. I say this just to clear up any ideas that online multiplayer was somehow in the game and was removed or unsupported. It was never in this version of the game, the version that is supported by Sony on PS4 (via Mono/MonoGame), the C#/XNA version.

The real reason online multiplayer is not in the game is due to difficulty which is time and money. We have done difficult things before. But time and money were not on our side.

Not a satisfactory answer. I know.

It might be best answered by simply stating that it wasn't the time to do it, for a number of reasons. Consider that finishing Score Rush Extended for PS4 was a huge uncertainty for us to being with, and that online multiplayer -- done the right way, not the laggy way -- would have been a project in of itself, just as it was for the HTML5/ga.me version. It was not the best idea to add more into the mix and potentially kill the project.

Also, it was weighed against other features. What about porting to Xbox One, PC/Steam, etc.? And it is easier to without online multiplayer. The tech certification requirements on the consoles are halved without online multiplayer. Less chance for bugs. Hard to debug. It is hard for me to debug 4-player game issues, let alone 4 online players. There were (and still are) chances of a multi-platform release. How can we balance all of these things? It's hard. Impossible really, and that's why some things are dropped.

Plus, we are doing other (huge) things separate from Xona Games. Nobody really likes to hear that. And saying it doesn't reflect the passion with have for Xona Games. A lot of these things are done for Xona Games, to fund it or support it. These are personal issues we normally do not get into.

It sucks to not deliver. But it sucks even more to not deliver anything at all (like Duality ZF).

[Van_Artic]

yo i love detailed explanations like that, bringing in facts and proof about your sells (and the hacking unfortunately) speaks volumes
at least you guys know what you're talking about, unlike that "invader attack 2" jerk

ill prolly brush off 20 or 30 mins into score rush sometimes again, but this, being a PS4 exclusive is kind of a bummer

[Xonatron]

Van_Artic,

Thanks. I hope we do not come off as fake. We are ultimately on your side. We are gamers first. If any criticism can be placed on Xona Games it is that we treated it as a hobby too much and as a business not enough. Now that I have ran through the dirt, so to speak, I respect how much it matters to treat a business as one, and how hard it is to transform a hobby into a business. It is one of the hardest things, as you do not want to sell out.

Back to being on your side, anything we do is just us playing our cards right. So I run with the "#1 in Japan" thing if I can. It may not seem like a big deal in light of the Godlike games like Raiden, however it interested Microsoft and Sony in us as indie developers, so it was our "ticket" in to the next generation consoles.

If things go well, we would like Xona Games to expand onto other platforms. For the time being, we can make no promises. I have been burned making promises I could not keep in the past, and it still burns today. Sony is a great company to work with, you should be happy for us in that regard (sorry about the exclusivity for now). This will be our first release with them, and it is almost like a test to see if this will really work.

[Xonatron]

Update on the box art. We decided to use a Kanji title, and decided upon using 撃点 after speaking with a Japanese friend of ours who has helped us in the past with our poor Kanji:

What do you think?

[Xonatron]

Just created a poll to vote on the best box art here:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=56284

[DJ Incompetent]

First PS4 game I would like to play. Good on you!
I hope you make some cash-money on it!

[Stevens]

Love this on the 360 and throw a credit in once or twice a month. Good luck on the PS4.

[ikaruga007]

Looks interesting. Will buy for sure.

[Doctor Butler]

I love that the hardest difficulty is GDLK

[Xonatron]

New box art, to better match the title screen, which is also new (with Kanji):

[Despatche]

Is the original game in this, or is it the exact same game with extra modes?

[Xonatron]

Despatche,

Unfortunately the exact original game is not in this game, but it is close. It's more refined. The scoring system and many things have been tweaked. The average gamer may not notice, but would if they went back. Graphically it has been updated but my previous comments are about the specific gameplay itself.

The idea with this title was to improve the game with the understanding that not many people experienced or even knew of the original game due to the unpopularity of XBLIG, in comparison with future mainstream PS4 and Xbox One presences. So we wished to improve the game as if it had not been released. There was a large part of me that thought the original game untouched should be released, but work had already begun on the title before the PS4 work started, from years ago.

Ultimately, it was not pushed so far to be called "Score Rush 2", but pushed far enough that it is no longer "Score Rush (1)". We fortunately found a way out of these issues when consider the title, in part thanks to the extra features and modes, by titling it, "Score Rush Extended". A very suitable title. Even the extra PSN features help bring it to the next level, such as online scoreboards, activity feed, controller lights and sounds, etc.

I think any one who has experienced the original game -- as many here have -- should now consider themselves owners of a rare game, as XBLIG will be shut down this year and the original product will be unable to be purchased ever again. Anyone who owns it are true fans for sure.

[Xonatron]

Big news. Release dates and announce trailer revealed:

Score Rush Extended 撃点 PS4 Announce Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYxBfC0RFxM

Release Dates:
May 31, 2016 (NA)
June 2, 2016 (EU)
??? (JP)

Sony invited me to post the announcement and trailer in their blogs:

PlayStation.Blog (NA):
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/05/ ... on-may-31/

PlayStation.Blog (EU):
https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2016/05 ... next-week/

[brokenhalo]

Day one purchase. Can't wait!

[Xonatron]

brokenhalo,

Thank you!