Lots O Stuff

Didn't realize it had been this long since I updated here. >_>

The main thing to report is that I'm getting a bunch of my stuff ready for publishing on OUYA. Yay!

Here's a list of the ones I'm planning on bring over:
-Megatank (v2)
-Laser Carrot Attack (v2)
-Fire Arrow
-Flying V (remix/V5/OUYA Edition/whatever)
- (unnamed Space Harrier type game)
- (unnamed dragon game)

The other thing is that I started experimenting with a little paper doll animation thing that could in theory be used to build a fighting game (or something more interesting, hopefully.)

As you can see, even only using an incomplete graphics set (no side or back views yet), it can yield some interesting results. I've even made it to export all the pertinent data for each animation frame. The issue is, though, that the amount of data that needed exporting took me aback somewhat. Somehow, an 8-frame kick animation managed to take up 900+ lines! Granted, that's with every variable hogging the whole line for itself; but still.

Basically, I'm going to have to figure out some clever loading/data crunching scheme if I ever plan to use any of this stuff.. which I would really like to.

Fire Arrow

Beta

This one started as a fun little side project trying to teach my friend GML; but soon got out of hand and became it's own game. It's a short, timed survival/caravan shmup that can be played in 3 or 5 minute modes. In 3 minute mode, you get roughly half the stage and 1 boss, while in 5 you have 2 bosses to fight.

The music isn't original to this game, I was lazy and just used some favorites from my tracker/module collection. As I haven't requested explicit permission to use any of these (I thought it might be ok since there's no pretense of selling this), I'll remove any or all of them upon request if necessary.

Tracks:

Cool City by Purple Motion
The Tiara by Solaris
1234 ROCK! by Yannis Brown
Marucombat by Maruku Buranu (Marc Brown)
Hyperdyne by Static
Acronyme by Baroque


The game will also look for songs (.mod/.s3m/.it etc.) in the music folder on startup, so feel free to use your own favorites instead. :)

Megatank EXE free now. :)

Figured it had been gathering dust too long, I decided I'd rather just have it more accessible and hopefully more people will be able to play it. Here it is.

Thanks to the few folks that actually bought it! :)

LASER CARROT ATTACK

I was (again) thinking of methods for creating a cool DDP-like beam effect and ended up whipping up a silly little game not long after. :) I knocked it out in one night (tonight, actually), and it shows as it's easily my simplest game yet. There's basically no graphics to speak of, just blow up things with a giant rainbow laser beam of death. ENJOY.

As for other games, I'm waiting on a video converter box for my laptop so I can record footage via an external device (DVD/VCR etc.) without the messiness involved with direct screen capturing making things far more frustrating than they need to be. I plan to do one long demo reel with pretty much everything.

LAST CHANCE demo (Win/EXE)

LINK

1 level, 3 selectable ships, and a new mode (Extreme) exclusive to this version. More detailed description @ Yoyo. Enjoy! ;)

LAST CHANCE - browser shmup (demo)

1 level demo


Nothing fancy so far. The backgrounds, arrangement, and boss are all incomplete; but there's enough there to try out I think.

I picked the name solely because I was on the verge of giving up on GMHTML5 for this kind of fast action game. After finishing Megatank, I had tried a simple platformer and a Space Harrier style shooter; but neither ran at an acceptable speed in-browser. (Both will be eventually be released in EXE format for the same price as Megatank, though.)

New XYX demo

New demo (3 levels), bringing it up-to-date with features in the current (full) version such as 2P, TATE, key config, etc.

This also includes an unfinished version of the Level/Map Editor. I've chopped some stuff out to make it better match the demo content; but nothing that effects it's functionality. I'll probably put together some more detailed docs later; but here's a brief rundown on how to use it.

Within the editor:
-----------------------------------------

MAP - This is strictly for assembling the graphic map for the level. Note that these will automatically loop. Also note that I've only tried fairly small maps so far.

LEVEL - Define enemy layout, checkpoints and hinge points (based on in-game step #), music, and background layer(s.)



Separate stuff:
-----------------------------------

Music
-custom songs go in /custom/songs and must be in .ogg format (SuperSound limitation.)
- in levelbuild.txt, under [songs]:
-- fn#= (file name w/o directory)
-- tt#= (song title)
-- au#=(song author)

Gfx
-custom gfx go in /custom/gfx
-  files must be in recognizable formats (any that GM will accept) and the image dimensions must match those of the sample images (160x54 I think)

- in custom_mapset.txt, under [titles]:
-- #= (custom gfx set name)
-- each added set should be given it's own section below this in [] brackets with the exact same name as that indicated under [titles] Underneath it should go...
---image#=(file name w/o directory)
---imagetrans?#=1 (for the corresponding image number, if you want that image to have a transparent color. The particular color is based on the bottom left pixel.)

Megatank Beta up for play!

 (Thanks goes to SSK for the video, as always.)

Here it is!

Feel free to leave any comments or bug reports here, on my thread at shmups, or on the game's thread at the GMC. Enjoy! :)

This is still the beta; but you can still purchase the EXE version directly from me for $2 if you like. The current version has some cool music by Raigon, which I couldn't include in the web version due to sound issues.

MEGATANK Details

Well, I'm getting pretty close to finishing my first little GMHTML5 project. The final game will have 2 long "rounds" each consisting of 50 enemy waves and a boss battle. Clearing both rounds gives you an ending screen, naturally; but will also loop the game, setting the enemies' firing rate (and other adjustments) to their maximum from the start.

I'm planning on posting the HTML5 version wherever I can (feel free to recommend places) and I'm thinking about offering the surprisingly smoother and faster Windows EXE version for a buck or two as well. Speaking of that, whenever the premium edition of XYX is ready, the EXE version of Megatank will be included on the disc as a bonus. I'll probably have to dedicate part of the manual to it now, though. ;)

GM:HTML5 Test game

Very very simple game I threw together in GM:HTML5
Christmas was good this year, suffice to say. ;) I was initially having problems with Yoyo's pretty new toy; but it turned out to be no more than a subtle difference in how the two formats handle scripts.

NOTE:
- Sound is screwy. It might not work at all depending on your system/browser.
- 2X version may be significantly slower depending on your system
- use Chrome for the best results!

FLYING V - New demo!

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/95432

Features:

- 4th level
- new music by Raigon
- bonus stages
- Arcade Extra mode
- unique weapon for each ship (Dual)
... lots and lots of minor tweaks


What still needs work:

- some sound fx aren't final
- difficulty settings may require balancing (ok..probably a lot)
- Level 4 still needs some graphical touches
- Bonus stages are functional but aren't quite 'there'

FV update

New videos courtesy of SSK. :)



This is the new mode (it's called "Arcade Extra" on the menu now), where enemy bullets change to medals if you clear the entire formation/wave - some of which only consist of a single enemy. There are some more differences from the standard game, too, such as a simple rank system that replaces the difficulty settings (the ones in the options menu do not apply in AE mode.) Basically, reaching a target number of completed waves - ie. 25/50/75 - will cause a subtle spike in difficulty; but being as the medal values increase alongside this, you'll ultimately have to tough it out with faster bullets and more aggressive enemies if you want the best score.

Speaking of score, AE mode has a much, much higher scoring potential than the other modes, I've made it just under 80 million on recent test runs. This also means the extend requirements are similarly higher - by at least 3x.

Also new (for all modes) is that the Dual weapon is now different for every ship. Hurray for variety!

Fire Eagle - Wide back/forwards spread, similar to the kind seen in Star Soldier games.
Gold Hawk - Focused, narrowing forward shot for concentrating all firepower on a single target.
Jade - Targeting shot similar to the Talon; but focuses on a single target.
Sapphire - Bits independently target enemies, same as the old default one.


Also also new is a bonus for destroying an enemy before they can fire. Right now you get 15x that enemy's value; but that may change.


ALSO ALSO ALSO... I just went back and added tags to all my previous posts here (not there was really that many), so it's easier to pinpoint info on specific games, videos, demo links and whatnot now. :)

Flying V lives!

I've been working on good old 'V again. Here's some of it's lovely new features!

- Horizontal panning added
- Player/enemy bullets sprites redrawn pixel by pixel
- Difficulty settings have been re-enabled, including fake 'bullet hell' ones, like in XYX
- Death's Head LUNA (level 2 boss) has a second attack phase and her wings are now destructible.
- MEGA MEDAL mode (difficulty 7), where stray enemy bullets turn into medals and the scoring potential goes through the roof!
- Old music tracks are being scrapped. Many thanks go to those who helped me with them, of course; but I'm aiming for greater consistency and refinement overall. Raigon mentioned possibly working on some music for this; but I won't hold him to it.

I've asked SSK to help me with a video for the new version, too, so keep an eye out. :)

Boss Attack

Regardless of the fact I only have 5/6 bosses so far (and some of those aren't even finished); Boss Attack mode is now in the game. I wasn't initially planning to have it 2P/Dual enabled; but I thought it would be strange to leave that out, especially as fun as playing with both ships is in the main mode. I've also rearranged the layout of the title menu somewhat, too, allowing the player mode (1P/2P/Dual) to be selected separately from the game mode itself. This should make adding additional modes easier as well.

As of now:
- Boss Attack is unlocked along with the Gallery and first secret ship by beating the game once.
- like the Enemy Test mode, checkpoints are temporarily disabled independent of them being active in the main game. No continues are given, either.
- Boss Attack has it's own separate hiscore table and end-stage tally
-- you are rewarded for less time taken (in place of wave clear bonuses)
-- perfect clearing the mode (1 life) gives you a HUGE multi-million bonus
-- remaining lives give you far more points than before, although bonuses are scaled the same way, with the amount you get per life depending on how many lives you start with.
-- hiscore table awards/medals are given for subsequently clearing bosses without dying, these are not reset when you die.

Map Builder, Medals, New Video

I've just made a rudimentary 'fake' scrolling tile system for XYX as well as a handy little map builder that lets me arrange them and export the arrays to a text file. Fake as in not using any of GM's predefined tile functions.

This just shows some plain colored tiles; but I'll substitute these as soon as I have some real ones made.

It remains to be seen, though, how efficient it will be to work with within the current system I have or even how well it'll run on my legacy PC. It might have to wait for another game... or a sequel.

I also introduced some post-game 'medals' on the suggestion of a friend over at Shmups.

New default Hiscore table, showing perfect clear medals counting down from 4.

Right now, they're only given for subsequent perfect clears and, unlike the character/ship unlocks, you lose them if you continue, so keeping them is an achievement in itself.

New video courtesy of SSK, showing off some new stuff on level 4:

Still alive...

Survived another monster tornado.... that's living in the south I guess. *shrug* Anyways, I'm still working on XYX; but here's a nice dummy shot of something I'm playing around with at the moment. :)

(Too much Rastan recently...lol)

So far, all it does is make the background scroll (which does not loop...yet) when you move left or right, and you can also swing the sword. Yay.

New Flying V!

Well, not that there's really any new content, just a bit optimization and tweaking here and there. The main reason for this update is that I got it to go from running like complete pig shit to fairly smooth by..

A: Downsampling most of my sfx (which were almost all in 44k), I shaved off 2 megs or more from the .gmk just by doing this
B: NOT PRELOADING said sfx. Why oh why is that wretched box checked by default? I first tried this with XYX and the difference was NIGHT AND DAY. If my jaw could've dropped through the floor and knocked my downstairs neighbor unconscious, it would have!
C: The devastatingly awesome Cleanmem.DLL

Anyways, here it is. I doubt it'll make much difference if you have a decent PC, though.

more

Another one courtesy SSK:


Here you can see what little I have of level 5 so far and some new explosion fx I worked on this weekend.

Other new stuff:

-Got some awesome new FM-style music tracks for XYX from Raigon. I think they solidify the arcade feel flawlessly.
-XYX now uses score_under's DLLCrypt extension for saving scores, etc. I've noticed a slight speed drop using it on my netbook, though, so I'll probably leave it as an option.

THINGS

Some new footage of ZPF courtesy of my buddy SSK:





The biggest news, though, is that XYX now supports 2 players! It took almost a solid day of GM'ing to hammer out the basic stuff (still working on the rest....slowly.) I doubt it will actually ever be played by two people at the same time; but it's fun to map the controls to the sticks on a USB gamepad and play dual style. :D

(I even put in a handy autofire function if you don't have a gamepad for your PC.)

Yay!

STUFF AND THINGS

New video showing more of level 3 and the beginning of level 4. Thanks again to SSK for helping me with these.

... and here's a dragon enemy for level 5. The background here is only temporary; but the theme will most likely be of the classic hell/fire level variety. Chances are the boss might just be the friendly looking fella from the title screen. :D
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I'm also getting art and page layouts ready for the game's manual... which I intend to have printed for a premium disc-based version of the game. More on that later.