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[Netsu]

We finally reached open beta stage, and because we now want people to give us feedback we're moving from devlogs to here.
The original topic: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=20687.msg587801#msg587801

Hullfire is a 2D arena shooter where players choose from different ships and weapons to battle each other either through the internet/LAN or in splitscreen mode on a variety of maps.
The game is being developed for Windows and Linux using SDL/OpenGL and Enet. It will include a map editor and will be available free of charge.

TRAILER

SITE

DOWNLOADS




Any comments are welcome! I'm not giving any instructions as to how to play the game on purpose, so I can see what is unclear to you guys. If you want to try out playing over the internet let me know. Otherwise you can play in splitscreen or with bots.

We're looking mainly for feedback on user interface and game mechanics but anything you have to say after trying it out please do

[ANtY]

Hi there, gj for reaching the beta stage!

I played it a little and what I have to say is this that the sounds are bugged or badly coded, they're stopping without a reason, etc. It hurt my ears  
But other things are working good, I couldn't find control keys for a while, if only one player is playing it should be arrows + mouse by default, not wsad + f + i-don't-know-what, yeah I couldn't find the second weapon button.

And for the mouse controls I'd advice to make only aiming by mouse and turning the whole ship with keyboard (like if there'd be a rotating turret on the top of the ship).

But that's just my opinion, cheers and keep up the good work  


PS. Internet, not internet ;d

[Netsu]

Hi there, gj for reaching the beta stage!

I played it a little and what I have to say is this that the sounds are bugged or badly coded, they're stopping without a reason, etc. It hurt my ears  
But other things are working good, I couldn't find control keys for a while, if only one player is playing it should be arrows + mouse by default, not wsad + f + i-don't-know-what, yeah I couldn't find the second weapon button.

And for the mouse controls I'd advice to make only aiming by mouse and turning the whole ship with keyboard (like if there'd be a rotating turret on the top of the ship).

But that's just my opinion, cheers and keep up the good work  


PS. Internet, not internet ;d

Hm, I had no problem with sounds on two Win 7 systems I was trying out, but just now I tried another machine and I noticed problems with sounds too. I don't know where it comes from, but will investigate. Hopefully I can fix this before the next release.

We'll try to make the controls better explained to players, having clearly explained controls is one of our goals.
But mouse control is not happening, it's a design decision.

PS: You can play over any internet, not only the Internet

[ANtY]

over any net (Internet, Usenet, etc.) I'd say but I'm not a native English speaker as you already know so I can be wrong.

then arrows + z/x please, if I'm playing alone I don't like using left hand to control the ship if I can't use mouse to aim.

[Netsu]

Sure, we'll change the defaults to arrows + z/x for the next release. This seems to be the most popular input scheme.

If I remember correctly both 'Internet' and 'internet' are correct terms, they just mean other things, 'internet' is a type of a computer network, 'Internet' is the most popular example of such a network

[Netsu]

Based on the bugs people found I put together a patch (took me 7 hours straight). Changelog and download links can be found in the downloads section of the Hullfire sub-site here:

http://doubledude.com/hullfire/download/

I hope this patch contains enough bugfixes to make playing the game comfortable so we can focus on version 0.2.0 which will bring some new features.
Unfortunately I forgot to change the default key settings, because I put it under 'features' and not 'bugs' in my to do list, and this update is focuses entirely on bugfixes.

[AaronLee]

Not too bad. The core game is solid and I found myself respawning again and again in spite of the fact that my eyes hurt from the weird control scheme and perspective. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the turning scheme. With the inertia and absolutely locked camera rotation I often found\ myself trying to turn toward the left when I was really turning CW or CCW or whatever. Locking controls to the player feels like a bit of a mindscrew to me. But that's just my view, others may like the retro scheme you have better than I.

That said I LOVE the weapons. The ships are sort of 'generic scythey hovership. but they still look good. I'd rather see light and heavy frames with different aesthetics and properties but that's just me.

Regardless, you've got a pretty addictive core to this game. So, keep at it, I love this so far.

[Netsu]

Thanks a lot!
In the beginning I was trying some different things with the camera, like rotating the camera together with the player, so you always aim up, zooming out when you are flying faster etc. but it all felt weird and we settled on what we have now.
Maybe we'll actually try to make the controls turn you left/right regardless of what your rotation is, that wouldn't be too hard and never tried that before.
We also might give the ships unique physical properties and/or hitpoints. Right now the only difference is the shape, which affects physics but not so much (unless you choose the golden ship, which is very hard to control due to his weird shape).

[Netsu]

New version up: 0.1.2! Check the link in the first post for download links. Here is the full changelog so far:

Code:

0.1.2
-changed default key settings
-additional notification on frag/suicide
-mouse cursor hidden when not in the menu
-fixed black screen on options cancel
-sound volume control in the menu
-fixed client physics behaviour after resetting game
-fixed instant spawn bug
-gfx details control in the menu
-camera shake on/off switch
-particles now render over the players
-a tutorial screen explaining controls before each game
-placeholder boost and spawn animation
-fixed bots not announcing their weapons through web

0.1.1
-removed GLEW from Linux dependencies
-fixed max bot amount
-score table is now sorted by score
-fixed server crashing when someone joins a game with bots in it
-completely rewritten sound code
-resolution settings can now be changed during a match
-fixed some serious issues with combining splitscreen with network play
-fixed minor crashes

0.1.0
- initial release

Most important updates: a screen explaining the controls before each game, gfx details and sound volume control, fire and smoke is now rendered over the players instead of under them. We decided to leave the controls as they are, we consider them crucial to what the game is.

All comments are welcome

[Netsu]

Version 0.1.3 up!
Download here: http://doubledude.com/hullfire/download/

Most important changes are: GREATLY improved network play, added repair stations to the maps, acid shotgun buffed.

Full changelog:

Code:

0.1.3
-changed main font
-fixed an issue with multishot weapons in netplay
-game no longer crashes when an unsupported resolution is selected
-fixed game not responding to changing fullscreen option
-fixed name synchronisation
-message log and notifications are now synchronised
-movement sync over net finally works as expected!
-ships can no longer collide with each other, this is necessary to accomplish better sync over the net
-fixed changing tilesheets on low gfx settings
-added repair stations (stay in their vicinity to regain health)
-fixed an issue with server not informing clients that one of them disconnected
-acid shotgun now deals more damage, has a wider spread and a smaller hitbox
-alt+f4 now closes the game instantly
-pickups are now properly synchronised over network

Download and comment away.

[Morroque]

I think there is the potential for a very fun multiplayer game in here, but I unfortunately have nobody to play with.

Thank goodness there is no wall damage. It can get pretty topsy-turvey with the speedy control.

I wonder though... Why are the current selection of maps meant to be underground? Isn't the idea of having a space shooter meant to be in the vast expanse of space? How about a space highway stage? Or something with a more outdoorsy feeling?

[Netsu]

Thee will be open space maps later Currently we have only 2 tilesets for maps done (the rocky one, and the alien one) but there will be at least two more, with at least one of them in space.

We figured wall damage would be over the top, but we considered adding a 'hardcore' mode where hitting a wall damages the ship.
Thanks for the comment, if you'd like to play we can arrange a game although the ping might be quite high if I correctly figured you're from Canada

EDIT: Oh shit, I just figured you are the guy who made Sleights I have a custom board for it and we still play with friends from time to time, although we modified it a lot making the movement and attacking mechanic much more chess-like and shrinking the board to 6x6.

[Morroque]

No kiddin'? Well then, I suppose that's more than enough of a reason to try arranging a match or two, ungodly ping be damned. If you use Skype at all, my handle there is morroquewest. You'll have to pardon me if I'm too shy to use a microphone. Otherwise I'm almost always on Esper.net as just MW.

[Netsu]

I used Skype a few times in the past, but it might be more convenient for me to use irc, any particular channel to look for you in? And at any particular hours?

[Morroque]

Sure thing! My home channel has always been #bchat, but I have a notso secret game development channel #arpgtiar.