TIGSource Forums

It's still a bit too early to release a binary, but I wanted to see what tigforums-ers thought of the gameplay and aesthetic being shown in this brief video of XALCYON, my in-development sequel to my procedural roguelike-ish game XONG:

http://ompldr.org/vY2xyaQ/xalcyon-alpha.mp4 (http://ompldr.org/vY2xyaQ/xalcyon-alpha.mp4)
http://ompldr.org/vY2tjag/xalcyon-video2-2.ogv (http://ompldr.org/vY2tjag/xalcyon-video2-2.ogv)

As in XONG, the levels are procedurally generated and your characters are very disposable, you just press escape to start a new game at level 1. One hit from any bullet or enemy or explosion will kill you and completely end your game, so every pixel counts. You have limited energy and all actions besides movement use energy (for example, keeping up your shields, or firing any weapon.) There are two weapons shown here, one standard gun with light energy use and one heavy bomb that will stick to moving enemies or walls. Plus, the shield. I'm about 5 days into developing this so go light on the graphics, some of the assets are certainly temps.

One other thing I wanted to ask opinions on---XALCYON requires dual analog sticks (most USB gamepads have them)---would people freak out about this? I'm doing it no matter what at this point, because the whole implementation (now at 1000+ dense lines) now revolves around being able to move and shoot independently in 360 degrees while simultaneously controlling shields or bombs. Not possible with a keyboard.

So, what do people think?

Thanks,,,
Dave

Link to original XONG: http://dto.github.com/notebook/xong.html (http://dto.github.com/notebook/xong.html)

Here is a much-updated video: http://ompldr.org/vY201bA/xalcyon-beta.mp4 (http://ompldr.org/vY201bA/xalcyon-beta.mp4)

Some gut reactions:
Looks and sounds a bit Robotron 2084. Which means you have my attention. However the levels at the moment feel a bit sparse in comparison, and the limited weapon energy will probably give it a much different feel.

I'm thinking it might be a bit sluggish, but I'll reserve judgement on that until there is a game in front of my face.

As far as the gamepads thing goes, I own a bunch but others who don't have any won't go out of there way to get one in order to play it. Even though it most likely won't feel as natural, you should include an option to play the game with a mouse, which would solve the 360 degree problem. Look at something like Waves, or better yet, Scoregasm to get an idea.

Hi siegarettes, thanks for responding. Agree about the sparseness---now that I've got the basic play mechanics together, I'm focusing on the level generator and hope to have 3 or 4 different templates such as 1. area with one or two bases spewing enemies like in the video, 2. subdivided room with guys who zoom around and drop bombs on you while shooting also regular bullets, 3. see more ideas at the dev repo here: https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/ (https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/) (scroll down past the file list)

Re: sluggishness, i'm working to reduce frame rate drops, it mostly has to do with level generation right now. It's running pretty smoothly for me (better than the video)

I can see how the mouse would be used for aiming, but what about analog movement?

Im sure the what your using to capture the video has a bit to do with the slowdown.

As far as analog movement, you got me there. It could possibly be done with a system where you command you character by clicking on a spot and sending it there.

That's a kind of out there solution however. I'm not sure how much analog movement will affect your game however. Do you move faster or slower depending on how far you press the stick? Otherwise, while it is not a perfect solution, many other twin stick shooters on PC have gotten away with only having 8 way movement.

Unless its a really precise game it won't change the way the game plays too much. You could have 8 way movement for keyboard, with mouse aiming, BUT give a warning on startup or something that tells you it plays best with a dual analog controller.

Hi, at the moment velocity doesn't vary with the stick pressure. and i will probably keep it fixed because the player needs to be able to judge time/distance depending on the situation.

The angles are still 360, but i suppose the numeric keypad and mouse could substitute as you are saying in the last paragraph. Both that and the warning message about "joystick preferred" will be easy to implement.

Thanks so much for your feedback, I'll post here when I have a downloadable beta.

Hello, I did some profiling and got some awesome speedups! The framerate is a very solid 30 right now.

Update----the game actually ran very smoothly at 60fps as well, though once I got above 400 objects or so it started to bog down more than at the 30fps setting. But I'm quite excited to be able to maintain 60fps in future games that use fewer objects (such as my fantasy roguelike i'm working on)

I like XONG and still play it occasionally. I also like what you've shown so far of XALCYON, and I'm looking forward to playing it.

Though you're using procedural design, will there be a final level like most old school arcade games?

Hi ithamore, I'll keep you all posted on developments. Yes I would like to have a final level and victory screen for each randomly generated game. For example there might be 8 or 10 levels.

Hey all, thanks for your comments and interest in XALCYON! I've released the first playable demo, with three different pseudorandom level types, four enemy types, two different weapons and a shield.

There's an overview and info here:

https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/blob/master/README.org (https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/blob/master/README.org)

Downloads are here:

https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/downloads (https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/downloads)

I'll soon be releasing a Linux download as well.

It's a bit rough, but hopefully you enjoy this demo!

EDIT: fixed the file, verified working on my friends windows box :)

had to take down the download for a moment because of a few missing files :(
will put it back up and update this in a few minutes.

I've fixed the download. Thanks!

I've put up a Linux build of my Xalcyon playable demo in the downloads area:

https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/downloads (https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/downloads)

Not as tested, and slightly more annoying to get running (you will have to install SDL from your Linux distribution's software installer).

I hope you enjoy the game!

I just watched the video and it looks like something I want to play. I will download it and give it a go after work hours!

Hi Fuzzyspoon and friends,

I'll be on #tigirc (as "dto") whenever possible to help with (probably) joystick config. I promise a joystick config screen in the next build :)

Or post here.

Any feedback on the music?

http://soundcloud.com/ioforms/sets/soundtrack-for-xalcyon (http://soundcloud.com/ioforms/sets/soundtrack-for-xalcyon)

Gotta dig out my PS2 to PC converter and give this a try, XONG was pretty neato.

Hey that should work. I'm creating a joystick config screen right now, should be ready soon.

Hello, here's a screenshot of the fully-working new joystick configuration/saving screen for Xalcyon :)
I'll release this with the next build of the game.

(http://i.imgur.com/JajmM.png)

As requested, I've released an improved demo with a number of fixes, some new music, and most excitingly for you folks, a very quick and easy joystick config screen that saves to disk for next time you play.

https://github.com/downloads/dto/xalcyon.blocky/xalcyon-win32-20120209.zip (https://github.com/downloads/dto/xalcyon.blocky/xalcyon-win32-20120209.zip)

Quick start: unzip the file, plug in your gamepad, and click XALCYON.EXE
More details: https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/blob/master/README.org (https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/blob/master/README.org)

I'll post an updated linux download soon.

Here's the updated linux download I promised, with the joystick config GUI hanging off of the F1 key.

https://github.com/downloads/dto/xalcyon.blocky/xalcyon-linux-20100209.tar.gz (https://github.com/downloads/dto/xalcyon.blocky/xalcyon-linux-20100209.tar.gz)

See also https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/blob/master/README.org (https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/blob/master/README.org) for info on making sure you have a few correct Linux libraries installed.

There are many improvements here: https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/downloads (https://github.com/dto/xalcyon.blocky/downloads)

Not a very sophisticated promo, but I posted some fun video footage of several playthroughs of the new build.  http://ompldr.org/vY3FqZg/xalcyon-beta-promo.mp4 (http://ompldr.org/vY3FqZg/xalcyon-beta-promo.mp4)

I'm switching over to this thread with screenshots :)

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=24357.0 (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=24357.0)