Making a shmup

[evilbutterfly]

In case you hadn't read the thread where I asked about hit detection, I'm making a game in Java. I knew basically nothing about GUI stuff before starting this, but I found a nice guide to making a simple Space Invaders sort of game. Here it is, if you're interested (be warned: it's translated from Spanish, so some of the things in the code won't immediately make sense to you. Like, he named one variable 'ventana' instead of 'window'. The guide itself is in English, but the code isn't).

Anywho, I'm just making this thread to keep you all updated on my progress with the game. I have in mind what all I want by the final version. Basically, it's a standard shmup, but instead of getting weapon upgrades (well, there may be some, I haven't quite decided) your weapons level up through use. You have 3 weapons (red, blue, green) that you can cycle through. Red = bullets, Blue = laser, Green = homing shots. I want the three to be balanced and useful so that you won't just use one and ignore the rest (aka: No E. Laser from Gradius 3). I plan to have scrolling levels and bosses and for the game to be played in an applet from a website, but that's a bit in the future.

I've been making pretty steady progress, but I hit walls sometimes because this is pretty much my first attempt at making a game in Java. I mainly just used that tutorial to set up the GUI (because the college refuses to teach us anything about GUIs). I've since changed a lot of the crap around because 1) I didn't like how he did some things, 2) his stuff didn't allow for things I needed to do, 3) efficiency (at least I think my things are more efficient). If you look at his screenshot and mine you'll see a glimpse of the changes. Warning, though, my graphics are BAD, because they're not my focus right now, getting bombass gameplay is. =P

Speaking of screenshots, here are a couple:


Maxed out red weapon (yes, those are block enemies, stfu). You can tell I hadn't gotten too far at this point. The exp bars and such for blue/green are missing. XD


Maxed out blue weapon. Lasers <3


Sitting in the corner being a cheapass with the green weapon. =P

It looks a lot better in motion, cuz you can sorta look past the craptastic graphics. Then again, when playing you have to deal with the craptastic sound. x____x;; I will let you guys know when I add more stuff. I'm not sure what to start on now that I've basically finished the weapon systems. I'll prolly work on expanding the enemy class to make room for bosses and more advanced enemies (those boxes just move up and down and shoot randomly). I have a running list of enemy types I plan to create. After I get a few types then I'll prolly work on making them come in waves (as it is there are 10 and they just respawn as soon as you kill them). With that framework in place then I may finally get a scrolling level to play through.

But yeah, any comments/suggestions? I always love feedback, and I wish I knew how to do applets so I could throw this on a site and let you guys try playing around with it yourselves, but for now any ideas for gameplay/enemies/whatever would be nice. Hell, even "Noah you're awesome" would be nice. =P And btw, I plan to ask people I know around here and IRL if they'd mind making nicer looking enemies/backgrounds/etc later on (I'd hate to be fighting boxes forever, haha), cuz I'm REALLY not artistic at all. For now, though, boxes and triangles ftw. =P

[Moogy]

Horizontal shmups are lame. Needs more danmaku. ;<

It looks surprisingly decent, though, I must say.

[sleeplessdragn]

How does your college not teach you anything about GUI?

And I agree, it does look quite decent.

[evilbutterfly]

Well I've only taken 2 Java classes, and I suppose they figured GUIs were "too advanced" or something. I dunno. They only told us VERY BASIC GUI things (like how to make a textbox) and even then, those things were only briefly mentioned in labs and whatnot in freshmen year. Any time a program had a GUI associated with it, they provided that GUI and told us how to use it, we just had to write the back end. So all I needed was a tut to set up the GUI and I started going nuts writing the back end of the game. =P

Anywho, as far as the game is going, I decided the red weapon was fairly useless (I've spent a lot of time shooting those blocks and have the absolute least fun using red). Now when red bullets kill an enemy, they fragment off into slower, weaker bullets. At higher levels, those little bullets can also explode if they kill enemies (which, realistically, won't happen too much because the fragments are weak ass). I tested it in ideal conditions (lots of enemies that even level 1 bullets kill in one shot) and OH MY GOODNESS it was quite the fireworks show. I tried it in more realistic conditions (way more armor on enemies so they took lots of hits) and it was useful but not stupidly overpowered. So I think I'm done with the weapons.....for now.

I've been doing a lot of thinking, too. I think I'll have there be 3 playable ships, each with a focus on a different thing. Power, Defense, and Speed. They'll all have some special attribute, a special ability, and some secondary weapon thing (which will fire when you shoot any other weapon). It'll be like this:

Power:

• Weapon: Powerful missile that flies forward, hits, makes big boom. Levels up like other weapons.
• Ability: Max level for weapons is 6 instead of 5.
• Attribute: Weapons are all a bit stronger.

Defense:

• Weapon: Flares. They shoot off in several directions and draw enemy fire. They'll do minimal damage if enemies run into them, and are mainly for stopping bullets.
• Ability: Bullet Repel (not the final name). By sacrificing one unit of shield, you create a pulse around the ship that bounces all enemy projectiles in the opposite direction. This also makes these shots friendly, so they won't harm you but they WILL harm enemies.
• Attribute: Shields. Unlike other ships (which die instantly when hit) the defensive ship will have shields that allow for ~3 hits. They recharge (slowly) over time.

Speed:

• Weapon: Not quite sure about this one.
• Ability: Ability. Bullet time (called Hyperdrive or something. This isn't the damn matrix). You hold down the button, you slow down to half speed, everything else slows to 1/3 speed, so you have better reactions and you can get tons of shots off. This recharges very slowly.
• Attribute: Faster, obviously. Weapons fire faster and the projectiles are a little bit faster. Just gotta be careful not to crash into people cuz you're so fast. =P

Again, I want balance between things. They'll all be awesome in what they do, but not any more awesome than the other ships. And there won't be any parts in the game where having one ship or the other gives you a distinct advantage. They'll all be equally useful in every situation. Balance is hard, though. -__- Plus, I can't do this part of the game until I get a main menu and all that working. For now I'm just throwing the idea out there so people can make suggestions. The bullet time thing came from somebody else that I asked, because my mind had gone blank.

I still have to do the actual writing of a lot of code. When I sit in class I leave a notebook open for ideas and writing pseudocode that I later look at and actually put into the computer. I have quite a bit building up that I need to actually code in, but I keep getting distracted. I also have a list of all the features I want to eventually add. I plan to edit that list into the first post (and bold/italicize anything I implement). And just so you know, Moogy, one of my ideas is to have several difficulties, the worst of which will be fittingly called danmaku. ;D

[evilbutterfly]

WHEEEEEE UPDATE! This thread managed to sink to page 2 (in this section of the forums, I'd say that's pretty poor), but don't worry, I have been working (semi-hard, at least) on this thing. My buddy Matt has been talking more with me about graphics (he's in the design school here, I'm in computer science, WE'RE THE PERFECT TEAM!), and he's told me to make crappy versions of sprites and send them to him so he knows the dimensions and such (so I'll be sending him rectangles named Enemy_Tank.gif and such and be getting back sweet stuff). Hopefully we get a batch of good looking stuff (aka: not my stupid box enemies) so my screenshots look nicer.

But games aren't all about graphics, of course. I've been coding and coding and coding and coding my ass off. I actually copied it all into Word one day out of curiousity, and I was up to like 98 pages. That was a couple weeks ago, so I'm definitely well over 100 pages of code now. Fun stuff. What I've added since my first posts (hell, even this list is gonna be big):

• Advanced hitboxes (it used to be entirely rectangles, now I can do any polygon. This is a big deal with triangles, since having rectangular bounds essentially doubles the hittable area, which is not exactly nice)
• Shields (regenerate slowly (even for enemies), and they block lasers)
• Multipart enemies (so they can have several independant parts that do something)
• Non-code based level system so you could make levels if you know the format. Think like .sm or .dwi files in SM. You don't need to know the actual program code but you can edit 'levels' for the game, and you don't have to recompile the game every time you change a level.
• Multi-layered terrain and background (a small but very visually important thing that you can't really see in the screenshots. Basically gives you a good sense of depth because there are like 6-7 layers of environment all moving at different speeds. Also, the layering means I can do cool things, like jungle levels with vines and stuff right up in screen yet winding forest paths seen off in the distance)
• Pseudo-transparency (Java doesn't naturally support semi-transparent things, so I do an old trick you'll see in old NES/SNES games: flickering so fast it looks semi-transparent)
• Player HP. Unlike most shmups, you can take multiple hits. However, like other shmups, the first hit will **** you over, because your ship goes into a "damaged" state where it shakes randomly up and down. A single bullet will make you lose some control and make you more vulnerable, and after a couple you'll have trouble not slamming into every bullet and enemy near you. So it retains difficulty without the "dammit I dodged 99 bullets and the 100th one grazed me so I lose" frustrations. It also gives a very urgent feel to the game, because it's not just "oh look, my hp bar is low, I better be careful", you ship is literally shaking all over the place, with little fiery explosions flying off of you. In fact, there is no HP bar, you must judge your ability to take a hit solely by how badly your ship is shaking. Your hp comes back (very slowly, though), so sometimes you can afford to take hits, and you'll learn to get a feel for how far you can push your ship before it explodes.
• Transmissions. Unlike basically any other shmup, this game will have a story (nothing too intense, but it's there). Friendly (and perhaps some enemies) will send you transmissions. I will get friends and family to do voice acting, and in the final game you will get fairly regular communications concerning why you're doing what you're doing (and on Easy mode, hints on the enemy's weakpoints and such). It won't be overwhelming, trust me. I realize it's hard to care/pay attention to storyline when you're amidst bullets.
• Level transitions. I always hated how most games of this nature would suddenly switch from level to level. In this you'll be on a planet and at the end of the level your ship will speed up and blast off, without ever stopping the action it'll transition levels. The ground will drop out and the sky will fade to stars. Again, I want this game to have a story and at least make sense, something most/all shmups don't do (like ground and trees and gravity-defying tanks on the ceiling in Gradius. I never understood that).
• Various enemy types. I won't list them all, but I have been writing out the different behaviors each enemy type does. The big additions are the Building class of enemy, which does this snazzy shake and fall while exploding effect when it dies. The other enemies are mainly different by how they attack you (sweep in from off screen then leave, fly straight at you, move slowly and fire at you, etc etc).
• Re-wrote the Blue weapon. It used to just pop up a rectangle the full length of the screen instantly. This worked alright until I started trying to making special stuff that I REALLY wanted to implement. Namely: shields and mirrors (which I haven't finished at all, but they won't be too much more work now that shields are made). Both of which block lasers (which normally cut through everything). Nothing I coded would make the lasers perform correctly against things that were supposed to stop them, so now they're more like a projectile. This will allow me to do a lot more with the weapon, since the old way required a lot of special case stuff to even be fired and hit stuff at all. Besides, most lasers in shmups aren't true lasers and act more like projectiles anyway, so I didn't figure it'd be a huge deal.
• Probably more that I'm not thinking of. I had so little to begin with and so much now, it's overwhelming trying to think of the changes.

Whew, it's a lot of stuff. And I know some of you may be thinking "What!? Storyline in a shmup?! THAT'S STUPID!" Well in the final version I'll definitely include options to turn off cutscenes and other story elements. It'll be good for the people who don't care and/or have already played through the game and seen it all before. I try to keep everybody in mind when designing this thing. I'll have piss easy modes for people who just want to see the story and/or suck at the game and I'll have tough ass crazy mode for people like Moogy who demand that of their shmups. Just wait till it's done, you'll all love it. =P

BUT ENOUGH OF THIS TEXT! Time for screenshots. Again, it all looks so much better in motion, but you oughta be able to see I've done quite a bit (note: all the graphics are still all mine, so if you think this is an improvement over last time, just wait till Matt gets his hands on it):

Those tests of Red's power I mentioned last time:
Against a bunch of weak crap (note, I'm not even shooting at this point in the picture):

With some armored stuff mixed in (note, this severely changes red's effectiveness):


Bit of programming later, I've added primitive terrain (rofl), multilayer backgrounds (kinda hard to tell, but compare this with older screens), and various enemy modifiers (with actual graphics, instead of the green boxes becoming purple/blue/orange they will have visible differences like heavier armor/bigger jets/bigger guns. Each color means they are stronger, faster, shoot more, or some combination of those):


Voiceovers finally implemented, multilayered terrain (you can barely see the trees cuz of the subtitle, but they're there), shielded enemies, and the Sweeper enemy type (comes in from the top/bottom of the screen and sweeps across while firing):


Something I hadn't mentioned before. When a voiceover plays I can specify an amount of static, which will layer an appropriate image of static over the image. Thus we can have "oh s*** we're going down!" images under tons of static and interference:


I JUST finished this new GUI design (better than a bunch of ****ing boxes, I'd say), which is what prompted me to update this thread. Here's it with Mr. Voiceover Man:


Note, the empty bar on the right, with the (crappy) picture of the missile is for secondary weapons, which aren't quite implemented yet (it'd take hardly any coding, really, but I'm not sure how I want to do secondary weapons just yet). And the green thing is for how many lives you have left. Again, not implemented, as it is you die and it says Game Over, haha. And btw, those little blue boxes are supposed to be infantry, and that particular green box is an artillery piece (that big yellow shot is its shell, which arcs up and over stuff). And you can barely see the infantry's shots. They do basically no damage, haha. But anywho, more screens:

Crashing buildings (looks so much better in action. The little circle explosions pop up randomly while the building shakes randomly side to side and lowers:


Laser being useless against shielded enemies:


How sad. =(

Random shot of green pwning everything (it's not that great but looks so cool):


Me vs the level 1 boss, the Tank Factory. It spawns those tank enemies (yeah shut up it's the same box, but it shoots at you instead of just shooting straight) and has a big laser on top that can raise to follow you. It's my best example of a multipart enemy. I still need to program the smokestacks to spit out smoke:



Well, that's all for now. I'll be checking in for your opinions and such, so leave tons of feedback dammit! =P Just know that I haven't given up my project, I'm still going hard at it. It's my baby and I love seeing it grow and mature into an awesome adult of a game. =)

[Omeganitros]

O_O

Awesome

[RandomPscho]

Wow.

[jamuko]

O_O

This is awesome, eb. =D I admire your ability to keep at it. My biggest problem is that I start things and never complete them, or even abandon them for something else at the planning stages. :/ (I actually have been thinking on making a game just like Phoenix Wright but with all original characters/story, but who knows how long it'll be before I have anything substantial.) I even have that shirt from ThinkGeek that says "I never finish anth" =(

But enough about that. Can't wait to see more of this!

[OniSplitter]

It looks pretty sexy so far to be honest. From the original few screenshots on the page, I wasn't too impressed. The concept was a bit overused (as it still is, but hey, its a HUGE start. O-o) and it looks fairly simplistic. ~Note: No I am not basing simplicity in terms of visual appearance, I know from experience with games that making a GOOD game and making a PRETTY game are two COMPLETELY different things and should not be confused in any way~ That out of the way, the progression of the game looks wonderful. Balancing of the weapons is the main thing I am worried about, I kind of skimmed your posts, so I'm wondering how the balancing has come out, that seems to be the main problem with games today, you get a new weapon and never use the old ones. As for the new interface, it looks lovely, much better than the original that is. The voiceovers seem to fit into place and the boss is a nice touch. Granted the enemies are still (and may remain) boxes, but who cares? As I said before a visual appealing game has nothing to do with how well the game is made / how fun it is. I'm going to start keeping an eye on this thread now and watch it's progression. If you release a public beta, let me know, I have a knack for finding glitches/bugs (years of Halo 2 glitching experience.)

Summary: Great work so far, I hope to see a lot more come out of this game. It looks stunning so far, and I know you just LOVE balance in games, so I'm expecting great things from this.

~Oni. =]

[evilbutterfly]

I'll try to get it into Java Applet form (I've never done one before, I'll have to read all about how to do it, code in what needs to be coded (not much, I don't think), and then find a place to host it (not sure, but it may kinda big)) or an .exe (Java doesn't make .exe files, but I've read that there are tools you can download that take .java files and make .exes for the platform you're on, so I could make an executable for Windows and send it to you guys one by one) once I'm at a certain point. At this point I don't have an actual level 1 or anything, no menu, it's very unpolished. I would feel dumb releasing anything at this point, but I assure you, once I can I will be releasing stuff so you can play it (cuz it's so much better in motion than in screenshots). Besides, I'm a firm believer in early and frequent beta testing.

As for balance:

As it is, the guns aren't completely balanced. Red is pretty much the most ridiculous thing ever, and green isn't entirely useful. Then again, the utility of the weapons is directly related to the kind of enemies you face. Right now I have a bunch of weak ass test enemies (and I am a cheater that uses my built-in cheat key to level all my weapons to max), and Red is insanely good against hordes of weak enemies.

Just look at those 2 older screenshots of red. The first one those enemies are all very weak. Not only did the initial shot kill them in 1 hit, the half dozen shots that blasted out from that death were also strong enough to kill enemies in 1 hit. Thus firing once would cause a wave of death as each bullet hit, killed, and exploded. In the screenshot, I haven't even fired the weapon for a good 5 second and they're still exploding all over cuz of the chain reaction of red fragmenting from dead enemies. In the next SS, however, I add in some armored enemies (not insanely tough, but they take 3-4 hits instead of half of one), maybe 1 for every 2-3 of the other enemies. Because they absorb more hits, there are way fewer fragmentations (the red shots only explode if they kill something, so if the lil pieces that fragment off are hitting armored stuff and not killing it, they won't also fragment). In this case, Blue will still cut through and hit the whole group, making it the better weapon for the situation.

But in general, you'll encounter different situations where different weapons are better. You'll start off with just Red but then quickly gain Blue and Green as you go (again, I want the game to make sense, so I've written into the story why there is one all-powerful fighter ship in the entire human armada while the rest suck ball, you will gain the weapons as you go). This will serve a couple purposes. One, it'll make the fact that your ship is better make sense (and retain continuity with the rest of the story in future games). Two, it'll let you get used to the weapon system itself (at first you don't switch weapons, you just discover the experience system, then you get used to switching between 2 and then 3 weapons and all that). And three, it'll let you get used to when each weapon is useful. Basically, once you get a weapon you'll encounter situations where that weapon is pretty much needed to succeed. After you have all 3, you'll start getting into mixtures of these situations, so you'll have to quickly decide and use the right weapon for the job. In the most difficult sections, you'll have to have perfected quickly switching weapons or you'll be dead in the water.

For example, there may be some heavily armored enemies in front of a pack of weak ass easy-to-kill enemies (but still are firing and therefore are a threat) so you'll want to use blue to slice through and annihilate the enemies to the back so you can focus red or green on the enemies up front. Later on, the enemies up front may be shielded, so you'll have to pound away with red on one, switch to blue while the shields are down to fire through and hit the weaklings in the back, then switch back to red to finish the enemy off. Sounds pretty simple now, but when these situations are piling up in front of you and enemy bullets are flying all over, you'll find it harder to pick the right thing. I want there to be several levels worth of gameplay where all 3 weapons are totally maxed out, but these levels will be incredibly hard despite having the best weapons in the game. It'll be good. =)

As for the graphics vs gameplay thing: I know visuals aren't everything, but visuals help a lot in getting you into the game. As a programmer and not an artist, I can't do a whole lot in making things look great in still pictures. I CAN, however, make some neat effects and things that help put you in the environment of the game. Multi-layer backgrounds and such is one such thing, it gives you a sense of depth that you kinda lose in an entirely 2D game. The shaking of your ship as it goes down, the voiceovers and teammates talking to you (so you don't feel like you're the only ship in the world fighting all this stuff), all that will help create atmosphere for the game. In the final product, I want rich environments that you fly through, hopefully with teammates in the foreground and background also fighting (and getting shot down a lot more than you do). There will be some reactive environments (one level will be in a cave, and when you or the enemy shoot the ceiling rocks will fall down, which can be used for or against you) and a trigger system in place (for one level you'll be in a civilian area, and if you kill too many innocents they will form a militia and you'll encounter much more resistance) so it's not the same boring thing over and over.

I've set out to do a lot with this game, and sometimes it's kinda overwhelming to think of what all I have left to do. However, when I look at my first post in this thread and realize how far I've come since then, I realize it's no big deal to keep going and finish this thing. I know what I want as a final product, and everything I do I have that in mind and I'm not gonna cut features out because of deadlines or anything. I will finish this thing and it will be awesome. =)

[DDRpeanut]

I'd pay 50 bucks for it.

[evilbutterfly]

Quick update:

Added the first (and easiest to code =P) secondary weapon, missiles. Way overpowered at the moment, will tweak them later (I'm still having fun killing bosses in one hit XD).

There's a main menu now. Much better than running the program and being suddenly thrust into the game. =)

I did a bunch of graphical tweaks. It still has my touch of bad graphical-ness, but it's a better model for Matt to draw over to make better stuff, and it looks better for the time being. =P


I'm really looking into coding an editor soon, because writing the text files for the levels by hand is pretty ****ing annoying right now. I know it'll be a lot of work to make code that codes code for me, but it'll be worth it. =\

[Bahamut-X]

Dude, this looks so cool.

I love the fact you're thinking about having to utilize all weapon systems equally and creatively, and how you're trying to destroy repetitiveness by introducing new things each level. Seriously, I commend you for this. You have a lot of really good ideas.

[evilbutterfly]

Big things happening right now. For those of you who don't know, I released a bit of a demo of the game in its current state a few days ago. So far all my friends think it's coming along pretty well. Like I've said, the game looks a lot better in action than it does in screenshots, and I think the people who have played the demo will agree with me there.

Since other people have a crappy version I'm feeling pressure (mostly from myself) to push out something better, so I've been hard at work. So just as a little update, some things I'm working on adding to the game now:

-Flying enemies crash when killed. Not only a cool effect, but can be used in game. Purposely aim for a big ship and watch as it crashes down, taking out other enemies on the way.
-A lot of revamping of the way graphics are done, which will let me more easily add sweet particle effects later on.
-Particle effects I just mentioned. Basically, expect sparks and debris when things get hit, shells being ejected from the machine gun, and other nice little effects.
-Adding a lot of new images. Right now basically every enemy uses the same stupid box image. I'm gonna start making more crappy graphics so you can at least tell enemies apart. The best part of this is that Matt has been asking me for the dimensions of enemies, so with all these crappy enemies as guides he'll be able to pump out some awesome stuff.
-Tweaking the missile weapon. As it is, it's highly inconsistent and isn't doing exactly what I like. Hopefully my changes make it more useful but also more balanced with the current set of weapons. Then again, nothing is balanced about the game right now. I will fix that eventually, though. =P
-Been working on the script for the game. I want immersive levels with a lot of radio chatter and human emotion behind the battles you're furiously fighting, and you can't do all that without a well written script for all the NPCs to say.
-Speaking of that script, keep in mind I'm thinking of going far beyond just this game. There will be parts of this game that tie into the next game, the game after that, and so on. I'm serious about having a sweet ass story.

Once I get all the graphical boosts in there I may privately release another tiny demo to show off the better effects I have in place. I might also get some bigger and better enemies into the demo, since the current set favors the Red weapon quite a bit. I'd like people to see what I mean when I'm talking about enemies that you need to use a mixture of weapons against.

After that release, though, I already have more I need to work on. Namely is the level editor. Biggest complaint from the demo players was the short length. Right now, some random enemies spawn and you kill the boss and then go into space and that's it. Reason being is that making levels involves writing out lots of lines telling the game when and where to spawn what and how. Triggers are really hard to write out by hand, and it's very likely I'd mess them up if I tried to make anything very complex. I want to make a level editor, nothing really user friendly (at first), but at least friendlier and more foolproof than text files. =\

But really, aside from adding new enemies (piss easy), new ships for the player (some of that will be quite a headache), fixing up the menu system (somewhat painful), and doing some other little tweaks (some little stuff, some pains in my ass), there's not much else to do other than make a bunch of levels. Hopefully I have at least a few levels done, with (at least text, I need to find people for voiceovers) in-game transmissions and everything. I am excited about the things to come, though. =D

[evilbutterfly]

Even though you suckers don't reply to this thread, I will give you all a special treat.

http://download.yousendit.com/3B25576760D42B37 (link has expired, new one: http://download.yousendit.com/4988D71A3F0A1AFB)

Demo version 3. Link expires in 7 days, so make with the downloading before then. =P

[hi19hi19]

You have a lot of good ideas. I tried programming something like this once, but I got really bored of it. I like how this is coming, though. Will play.

EDIT- was looking through the res, lol'd seriously at the error graphic


EDIt 2- You want a full review? I'm bored this evening; here's a full review.

The Main Menu header looked like a selectable option, rofl.
When I whipped out my level 3 blue laser (I think it was that way for all levels) as the defense ship I got the WTFWTF, and when the tank boss's laser hit me I also got a WTFWTF

It seems really hard to die in this game, with those HALO-eque recharagble shields. I know balancing is coming soon, but just thought I'd point that out. Even though you go down (I realize that "crash landing" is the death mechanism you have as the shield guy), your shields recharge too quickly to complete the decent to the ground.

As the power ship, everything was way too easy to kill lmao
The speed ship was pretty useless.

Overall, there's a huge balanceing problem (which I'm sure you're aware of, hehe)
But I like where this is going, a lot. If there's something specific you want me to test, just tell me or PM me. I'm really interested in seeing where this goes, and I'd love to test things any time you want. Who knows, I've got a few good ideas of my own if you're interested.


Best of luck.

[evilbutterfly]

Speed ship is useless? I haven't actually timed it, but it kills the boss faster than either of the other ships. It's my favorite ship. O__O

Also, the game is supposed to be easy right now. I want people to see the whole level, and some of the people playing the demo really suck at these games and tell me it's really hard. Probably next version I will make the difficulty selection have an effect on everything. I've been holding off on that until I finish the editor (which is coming along nicely) because when building levels, you'll be able to select whether or not an enemy appears on certain difficulties. Easy will be VERY different from Hard, trust me.

As for the crashing thing, its just an indicator of your ship's HP (notice, there's no HP bar). It moves you up/down randomly, it doesn't pull you down to try and kill you (though maybe it should). In the current easy state of the game you can ram enemies and take huge chunks of damage and not die, but on Hard you'll only be able to take a few shots before going down. Combine that with the fact that the first couple shots will send your ship shaking around uncontrollably and I'm sure you can imagine the difficulty. It won't be as bad as 1-shot-and-you-die but it'll be close, and knowing you can take more hits will give me more reason to send even more bullets at you on Hard. ;D

As for the WTF image, that's just something I added so the game wouldn't crash when images aren't found. Prior to version 3, if the game tried to load a graphic that didn't exist, the game would close. If you shoot the blue laser at an enemy with shields, you'll notice there's a special graphic of the laser "exploding", since shields absorb lasers. I, forgetting that the boss uses a laser type weapon, forgot to make a set of graphics for the boss laser's "exploding" state. Hence, you get a wtf image. It can only happen as the defense ship if you're silly enough to let the cannon hit you, so I wasn't too concerned with fixing it right away. Consider it an easter egg for now. =P

And please, ideas are always welcome. I have a really solid idea of what the finalized game will be like, but if there is room for your ideas and they'd make a good impact on the game, I'll add them. =P

[hi19hi19]

Well, I like the idea that when you take damage, your ship loses lift. (similar to a real airplane: bullet holes in wings creates drag, reducing lift)
When your "heath" reaches zero, you can't go up anymore and plummet into the ground, killing you. That's much more realistic and a really cool death mechanism I haven't seen often before.

EDIT- If you want a kick ass storyline, I've got a bunch of cool names you can use...

[evilbutterfly]

The storyline is very solid and damn near set in stone. This is actually the first in a series of games with intertwining and involved story.

And when I get around to implementing lives, the player's ship will crash just like any of the enemy ships.

[banditcom]

Power ship is cool.
Shield ship sucks.
Speed ship is overpowered. xD!!

Green homing on anything but power ship blows.