I was also just wondering earlier about how cool a MMX-spinoff of that may be... you go through 8 Mavericks as one of: X, Zero, Vile, Signas/Sigma, Mac, or Dynamo (possibly Axl, Magma Dragoon, and Agile); each tracking down different things. X gets armors, Zero gets melee weapons ala MMZ, Vile gets X3's adaptive Robot Ride Armors, etc. (Dragoon gets more SF moves?) Then as you move onto the boss levels, you encounter and battle the other cast members.

Multipath multiplayer is enabled, and so are PvP battles. If multiple players are fighting the Maverick(s) and they win, players then duke it out and the winner gets the power.

  Dl'ing now.

Anticipation... an, tis, i-pay-hay-shun...

Combine Taunt + Dodge into a dodging taunt; and add that to your already decent idea. 3 buttons is fair/managable; dropping it to two seems a bit wonky. Also, don't many of your "Directional Smash" attacks double as dashes anyways?

Judging by the demo I played, that's how I thought/expected it would work, anyways. (Or how it kinda does already. I didn't even know there was a dash, tbh! I just spammed the specials/attacks to move around quick.) I guess if you really want to 2-button it, you can just sub the up-attacks for jumps too. So then you have:

Punch/Kick/Jump/Dash button (nail "targets" with combos to maneuver around)
Taunting Dodge button

If you want to map Jump or Jump/Dash seperately, or plan to use them without attacking frames however, I would seperate that out into a third.

Niiice. The Kid from the top of the IWBTG site would go great on that, and Indie Brawl subforum may have some graphical assets that may help you, too. Ask Souliard about it. I'm liking this!

:D

Where all do your gaming interests lay?

There's a few things I'd like to work towards. So far I'm dev'ing them in GM, but that's only because I suck at real programming. XD

One's in my siggy, and another's right here. And I was thinking about simply doing one of the subgames of that one for the AGBIC contest, if it can get cranked out in time.

I think its great, haven't tried out the drawing yet, but I think adding animations for the default characters, if not adding a method for creating animated custom characters, may give the game a slightly smoother look.

Just give your character's legs a blur frame. Or a wheel. Maybe some skates, even.

I'll re-dl it, see if that does something. Maybe your RNG really does just hate me, haha!

 

EPOCH WIN.

I think we ARE vastly approaching hive-mind status!

That was exactly what I was thinking about doing for FirstFantasy and/or TimeTrigger. Just a simple Rogue-sized dungeon, maybe 3x4 areas at most, with a "cliche epic boss" encounter, and a coin-tossy "Choose Your Own Adventure" kind of plot. The only things I would change between them are the battle system (FF6's Magic/Talent vs. CT's Zone-Ranged/Team Techs), and maybe the general setting/colors.

Have a line of 13-16 chapters, but only play 5 of them: One of the first 3, one of the second 3, etc; and then one of four finales, each with a happy and a tragedy end that was determined by collective results of the other four stages.

Procedurally generated MegaMan game, where the chain of powers/weaknesses have no scientific boundaries; and most of the robot master AI is reduplicated faithfully.

Includes:
-"Classic Mode" that plays like MM1, but with randomly shuffled bosses/AI and 24-25 corresponding, semi-cliche weapons and tools.
-"Endless Attack Mode" that equips you randomly and runs you through another boss every 20 screens or a popular fort boss every 100 (though every boss does have a weakness corresponding to your inventory still)
-"Boss Rush Mode" (simply Endless Attack, without the levels in-between - fort bosses appear every 9th stage and may drop a Yashichi equivalent upon defeat)
and...
-"Legacy Mode" that allows you to select a classic title-inspired lineup and play it, in the randomized levels, as a demake.

It was slow for me too. Are you disabling objects outside of the view? That should help speed things up.

Have you seen how the boulder trap works here? It would break that, so I wouldn't advise it.

If anything, you might take the door object(s), and have a "for all objects NOT (player/GUI): destroy all instances" step before moving to the next room. Also, destroy the boulder once it's below your (maximum y-axis + 64) - out of sight, out of mind. If you don't do that, it will continue to fall and compute until you EXIT THE APPLICATION.

GM does not "auto-clean" objects between rooms like that, so as soon as you exit one level, the computer's still holding on to the old level's objects, and still moving and processing them. This is likely responsible for a lot of the slugginess, too. In fact, all of your old levels are still active and being processed from their creation point on - only difference is that it's "painting the current one in front of the older ones" basically.

Finally, while I understand the spirit of demakes, I know what this game is missing. DAMSEL! For sake of potential spoilers, I'll PM that part to you.

Check perception range. "if (perception = false) <set color_bright = color_bright - 3>" might do it, without adding any objects at all. You could also consider applying it just to the floors, so the walls remain obvious/visible, if you'd like; but I'd try it both ways and see what looks best.

One idea for the long, corridor floortypes is to create two or three paths from start to finish, and block them each off from one another - or maybe allow a single exchange point between each of them. But there would have to be some incentive for path-choosing, like a different type of challenge associated with each path. It's something to toss around for later, I suppose.

How's the berry algorhythm, btw? (PM me if you don't want to spoil it.) I ate one of each in another game or two, and both poisoned me again, consistently. If there's some kind of "safe berry" tag for instance, you might check it's variable for spelling/consistency, just in case; but not knowing if you're doing that differently means I couldn't tell for sure if that's the issue.

It's still a blast though!

Got most of the basic framework in place for my Dynamic Music Generator, just missing a few key GML commands, and cross-referencing notes with music instruments/scales to load and associate "keynotes" with actual sounds. Also, I'm electing to only load the notes/instruments relevant to the songs, instead of preloading everything to begin with; I just need to make sure and unload them upon songs stopping/changing.
__________

I've also finished more screen-building/level-building elements. First off, to get past the obstacle I was hitting with the blackflags, I simply added a higher frequency of them appearing across the top 3 layers and the left-hand 3 layers of screenflags, and I added a couple of additional "insurance" lines to make certain levels aren't generated WITHOUT starting/finish points. Apart from that:

Platformer mode will begin totally open, and every screen besides blackouts will close off one "face" of the screen; never to coincide with the starting point (IE: You can't get boxed in). This will ensure that while somewhat unpredictable in direction, there will generally always be a flow from start to finish, and while dead-ends will happen infrequently, they will always balance by creating another branching pathway. There will also be some rooms that don't generate any closeoffs, either.

Adventure mode will begin totally enclosed, and every screen generated will create at least one new "doorway" which will in turn, modify the next screen over along with it. All except "reinforced" doorways will be collapsable with bombs, and reinforced walls will generally correlate with obstacle-related, key-related, or boss/miniboss encounter rooms. I'm also looking into putting a different key/lock system in every zone - so one or two will feature "songs," but other elements as well. Power-ups ala Metroid? Collect a set of items from many keyrooms to open/unlock the finishing point? These and more are being tossed around, feel free to suggest more!

Since it generally works in layers instead of screendepths anyways, the majority of Racing mode will simply be about generating obstacles and some widgets to make taking different layers more interesting and effective with one another. Instead of objective/keyrooms, however, the different flags for those will generally correlate to your opponents' abilities, much the same way that other levels/zones adapt to yours. Due to this fact, and the fact that they'll be reused more often than any other type of rooms, these "power rooms" will probably account for nearly half the screens in the entire game.

And while they make various terrain layouts and obstacles, Shmup mode will interpret the flags mainly as differing types of enemies and formations. These maps generally have a continuous flow in a particular direction which will autoscroll, give or take some flexibility in perpindicular directions which will move along with you. So if a flow moves to the right, there will be a few levels of up/down you can follow. The bosslike-character will have a route preference involving them too, prioritized by moving "towards" some flags and "away" from others. For instance, areas where you can power up more will be filled more with obstacle-ridden terrain, and be related to a flag that said boss character will move away from, so once you're powered up, you have to find/chase them down again. There will also be corridors which will power THEM up too... so beware!
__________

Finally, I'm a little pressed on the fighting engine at the moment. Cross-referencing different spritesets with different special movesets is a lot more work than I first expected it to be, and so far, I've gotten just about all of the other modes working within the first/older Chumbucket outline. I don't know if he's gotten the "fighting expansion" done for the male/female/newer outlines yet, but I have yet to see it, if he has. If not, I have no idea when such an outline would exist. And finally, while each art style works independently, mixing them together just looks odd.

Fists wouldn't be hard to make, and you could copypaste the sword with an invisible hitbox, and there you go. Having other objects like the bushes interact differently with that could have interesting effects, as well; but not essential to core play for now. Come back to this in a bit.

The fog is a good idea; or at least change the brightness/color of tiles that aren't within the player's view - that way the map is sorta clear, but the contents are not; and you can clearly tell where your visibility/perception begins and ends. I'd also recommend adding a radial range of perception, at least 2 tiles around in every direction, maybe 3 - particularly for the sake of "around the corner fights." After all, nobody's full perception is limited to sight alone.

A perception filter would also be the ideal way to generate monsters, so they aren't already on top of you when they spawn, except on select occasions like traps or an area/monster type specifically meant to do that.

I actually LIKE the larger size of the dungeons, personally. It feels a lot more about exploring and navigating than most typical Tic-Tac-Toe RL's. But I do believe it should be taken into account in level design; IE: you won't need 3 "levels" of a certain environment, one or two will suffice just fine.

I've had the most luck with GM so far as well. One huge advantage you'll be able to use with that, is that there's a decent collection of ready-made, open-source engines for it already, so you can easily develop for it that way by simply changing some of the variables like friction and/or gravity; or by making some duplicate objects with alternative artwork/collision boxes.

And considering you're working with platforming, you may want to browse the "Grandma (GM Platformer Engine)" thread to see a perfect example of this.

Shooting through some problems with parent-childing between "playershot" and "enemyshot" objects, after attempting to idiotically parent one from the other, in a vain attempt at avoiding the "two of every object" thing... just a bit ago it hit me to make a central "shot" object, and simply parent them both off of that, setting each "side" to only respond to the other's shot types.

 

I love/hate this feeling. I mean, I hate it because it makes me feel stupid, like I should've KNOWN to do that all along. But I love it, because when I get that feeling, it usually means I've found the right solution, and it's no longer a problem anymore.

Anybody else here have some moments/experiences (and maybe lessons along with them) like that to share?

My second project is a somewhat simplified approach, but another experiment in Game Design. This unofficially named project attempts to make itself "a game about gaming," and attempts to recreate basic framework of popular games using a limited library of graphics and sounds. Admittedly, it appears to be a little better organized interally than iMAGE Zero, but that may simply be due to incompleteness.

In this game, you're simply a gaming person looking to flex some skill and have some fun. While some randomization may be featured, this project sticks more to core roots of popular titles, albeit sharing similar physics. And I hope to capture different things in the subgames that make them all appealing to different players - both for fun-lovers and challenge-lovers alike.

Some titles I'm attempting remakes/demakes of in this include:

-MegaMan-spoof "Rock'n Guy"
-Metroid-inspired "Vetroid" (or debatably "Wetroid")
-Contra-inspired "Montra"
-"Castle Gaiden"
-"MINE!" (a Spelunky demake)
-GunSaber (a Strider/Run Saber kind of game)
-Silent Death (a more original, stealth-action platformer)

-Helga (a Zelda demake, if such a thing is possible!)
-Labyrinth (a Gauntlet demake, but 4-directional)
-Akari Soldiers
-TimeTrigger
-FirstFantasy
-PokeGon
-SteelGear
-ZaRogue (debating between live-action RL, turn-based RL, or doing one of each)

-Xalaxy (a Galaga demake, with a PvP 2-player mode)
-Braidius (a top-down alternative remake of Gradius)
-SpaceChase (an outer space racing game)
-RoeHoe (a blend between Radrigy and Touhou, with full-contact ships and the deflective idle shield; a fair tradeoff?)

-PicMan
-Winball (various pinball-table-style games, similar to Rock'N Ball for NES)
-TowerScour (demake of Treasure Tower; look that up now if you haven't!)
-Mr. Digger (Mr. Driller alternative)
-Behexed (a lazy Bejeweled demake using various powerup icons from within the game)
-Hogan's Valley (a point-and-click shooting game)

...and maybe a couple more!

Using different, minimal sprites (like basic GM defaults, for the most part) and "limited animations," I am hoping this can provide a fun, simplified alternative project to i.M.A.G.E. Zero with this that can capture much of the fun and excitement I fully intended to include there, but found myself limited from executing a certain way within it.

Both of these projects are forebears to a bigger, more cohesive project down the line that I'm working and building towards. We're talking 3-5 years or so from now, and that's if it all goes right. But for now, these are simply design experiments meant to test my ability to execute on such an idea; to get a basic framework put together for creating the outcome I'm aspiring to, and to test and develop some interest and playability in such a thing.


FYI: Yes, iMAGE Zero is still in development. I don't give up that easily!

If it helps any, I know the feeling. I've been gamedev'ing since I was 14, and I'm 29 now. I've yet to cross any kind of professional barrier either. In fact, what I've learned of the profession, as a set of organizations, is that much of it is pretty cutthroat, and surrender of IP is expected upon entry. Thus, I dropped it to more of a hobbyist level, but creating and sharing the joyous experiences that gaming brings about is something that drives me perpetually, as well.

Struggling at 19 isn't much of a shock, either. That's about when it becomes apparent that there's a total difference between the school-taught ideology of how life should be, and the (somewhat disappointing?) reality of what it is, and the way it really does work. I mean this, not JUST in a real-world sense, but in a sense of the professional gaming community, as well.

One lesson at 19 I would've kicked myself in the teeth over: You don't have to "be the best there is." You just have to "do the best that you do." If that makes any sense. And if you're getting negative feedback - it means you're getting feedback. They're real thoughts and feelings that are worth considering, even if you don't agree with them. And for everything that's good and well, you're gonna have haters.

It's kinda like the "MegaMan Legends" issue - it's a great game, but it's a terrible "MegaMan game."


Though somewhat of a mixed one, this place has been a tremendous blessing, both as a developer and as a gamer. I will admit to a bit of envy at just how easily/quickly a lot of these talented people can crack out projects here, and how much better at art/pixart they are than me. And playtesting dozens (not exaggerating here) of these titles creations is a little side-tracky, but totally worth it, especially as you see them blossom into solidarity and enjoyability. You know your turn is coming, too; and sometimes you hear just how long a good, polished-product takes to make - generally 2 years or so seems pretty normal; but there's titles that undergo 5 YEARS of on-again-off-again development.

Having 5 fully-developed titles by twenty by itself is really something to be proud of.

  Bugged and froze.

What happened: Pushed off the screen upwards *while* collecting a P(Survival) increase power-up. Result, total hangup. No Esc, Alt-F4, nothing responded. Had to manually crash it. Really liking it, however.

My "Talent" set:

-Fighting Stance
-Block Breaker
-Knees
-Spike Shield

Top score (for first day): 335 pts/0.208 km and 286 pts/0.315 km

That is freakin' hilarious! I do concur, however, that it runs very sluggish. Check anything off that doesn't require pixel-precise collisions, and make a *destroy all instances besides player* in your doorways. That's probably why it runs so sluggy. You could also consider smaller level sizes as well; like maybe 3 across by 5 deep.

EDIT: Also, it spawns me in the middle of the level, rather than the top for some reason. Is this intentional?

  I'll be watching this one, too.

EDIT: You may consider pre-equipping the sword, or at least warning others that they have to equip it themselves. Cheap death #1 came from that.

Cheap death #2. Your algorhythm, for one whole game, generated nothing but single-wide downward passages with intermittent critter rooms. Wouldn't be bad, if not for the fact that it generated NO food (within reach?), and 2nd floor was littered with mines and spike traps, and no way to maneuver around them at all.

And either your RNG really hates me, or your berries all have 100% poison rates. Whether intentional or not. Even different types of them in the same game. Finally, it's rather insulting that the little basic slimes begin both with more HP than you, and doing more damage. XD Finally, either energy should drain slower, or food should appear more often. About 200-300% either way, if you expect the playability of that to even out. I did supposedly do a fire sword upgrade, but no effect seemed present.

All in all though, the pacing and physics of it feel dead-on. Your inventory system is nice and easy to navigate through, as well. Just a little fine-tuning's all it takes. I'm looking forward to this moving on!