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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsImpdude - Contra-style shooter with randomly generated levels (alpha download)
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Author Topic: Impdude - Contra-style shooter with randomly generated levels (alpha download)  (Read 5537 times)
cmbrgames
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« on: August 11, 2013, 02:53:16 AM »

cmbr games devlog @ tumblr

Impdude will be a Contra-style run’n’gun game with procedurally generated levels.

The goal is to make a varied, fast-paced, skill-based shooter and to release a playable demo with one level and a boss fight.

What I plan to add to the game:
- 10-20 different types of enemies
- 6 weapons including the spreadgun and a sword; each of the weapons can be upgraded once by picking it up again
- Gradius-style powerup system
- Shrines placed around the level that can give you random good or bad effects
- Challenge rooms which if you complete them you'll get a 1up or some other bonus

The game is made using SFML for Windows. There’s possibility to release it for Linux and Mac. If SFML gets Android or iOS support I might port it there as well but I don’t think it will be fun to play without a keyboard or a controller.

Progress:
DOWNLOAD ALPHA 1 VERSION (2MB)
Level generator info




Screenshots:

« Last Edit: September 02, 2013, 09:15:45 AM by cmbrgames » Logged

Impmaster
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« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2013, 06:33:18 AM »

Woah, woah woah. Impdude? Imp is a trademark of Impmaster games. Pay up, sonny. (Seriously, it looks cool.)
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SirNiko
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« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2013, 07:07:19 AM »

The protagonist is pretty difficult to see against all those black backgrounds. You may consider making him a little lighter, or giving him a subtle light-colored outline to make him stand out.

I really like the silhouette heavy aesthetic, though.
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cmbrgames
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« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2013, 09:19:36 AM »

@SirNiko
It might be more pronounced on the screenshots than in-game when you have control of the character, but I'll make him brighter. I'm wondering if maybe I should brighten everything else too because it might look too dark on some screens?

I'm working on the random level generator right now and I'll post an update how it works after I'm finished.
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« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2013, 11:26:26 AM »

As a high concept it sounds very fun, right up my alley. I'd love to try out a demo, even an early one.

You could use placeholder/programmer or creative commons art, music and sfx to help get the game going. Once it is more feature rich, you could use a strong demo to try and find an artist who will collaborate for free.

It won't be a perfect fit, but there is a bunch of creative commons art and music available over at commonly.
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cmbrgames
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« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2013, 02:29:30 PM »

I'll try to do graphics myself for now but thanks for the suggestions. I'll probably use some public domain/creative commons art to help myself with more complicated drawings.  Smiley Quick screenshot with added parallax background and clouds.

« Last Edit: August 14, 2013, 09:00:34 AM by cmbrgames » Logged

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« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2013, 11:49:41 AM »

I've got the map generator going. Generally it's based on a simple idea inspired by Spelunky & Rogue Legacy, but with a few differences.

1. It loads up premade rooms. Each room can be either horizontal, diagonal, or vertical.
2. Puts a starting room.
3. Puts few randomly picked horizontal rooms next to each other.
4. Randomly decides to put a few diagonal, vertical rooms or a pit/tower side-route (or none at all and move to 5.)
5. Go back to 3 and repeat until we have enough rooms.

It can produce a level like this for example:


So basically an almost linear stage through which the player travels by going up or right.
I plan this to be a generator only for the first level and to make different variations of it for each of them. For example the second could be more vertical and the last one could be a maze with lots of dead-ends. I'm keeping it simple for the moment to get a demo out quickly and see if the game will work out.

The levels can have any length (limited only by memory) and are continuous - the screen scrolls smoothly through the whole stage and it's possible to have no loading screens after each one and go smoothly to the next one, but it will depend on how much texture data there will be.

I'll probably put up an early gameplay video after I'll make some more rooms, add shooting and some enemies.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2013, 12:17:39 PM by cmbrgames » Logged

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« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2013, 09:33:58 AM »

Thousands of terribly drawn cthulhu monsters!

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cmbrgames
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« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2013, 09:38:42 AM »

I've redrawn the monsters to look more like slug-blobs and gave them a sliding animation instead of copypasting the legs from the player character  Wink Added some blood effects. I'll be redrawing the player sprite too to give him a less generic look.

« Last Edit: August 16, 2013, 09:44:35 AM by cmbrgames » Logged

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« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2013, 01:13:40 AM »

Early gameplay video:




There's something like 20 level parts (or rooms as I called them above) done right now so they repeat a lot at the moment but I have to finish all other stuff before I get to making more of them. In the demo there will be 200-300 of them for this level.

What I plan to add to the game:
- 10-20 different types of enemies (at the moment there are only 4)
- 5 more weapons including the spreadgun and a sword; each of the weapons can be upgraded once by picking it up again
- Gradius-style powerup system
- Shrines placed around the level that can give you random good or bad effects
- Challenge rooms which if you complete them you'll get a 1up or some other bonus
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« Reply #10 on: August 20, 2013, 04:38:15 AM »

Minor critique:
Love the gore splatters :D If you want more Contra feel I think you need to slow down gameplay a bit and also let the player have a bit longer hangtime in the air. Also enemies shouldn't fire bullets or be fought outside the screen. Unless they are a gigantic boss ofcourse.

Keep up the great work, this is really inspiring to me! Smiley
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cmbrgames
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« Reply #11 on: August 21, 2013, 06:48:03 AM »

Yeah I also thought about that and slowed it down now, because when the player moves fast than I have to make enemies and bullets even faster so he can't outrun them  Tongue About hangtime - you can control the height of the jumps in the game so that's why it looks like this in the video.

I also tweaked the level generator and removed the sideroutes and made the vertical parts in levels much shorter. The sideroutes don't anything interesting to the gameplay, besides having to backtrack and I'll leave the climbing parts for other levels.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2013, 07:36:23 AM by cmbrgames » Logged

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« Reply #12 on: August 25, 2013, 08:47:27 AM »

Most of the groundwork/engine stuff is done so I'm slowly switching to adding more content to the game. Still there's no powerup/weapon pickups and the challenge rooms mentioned earlier but I'll get to it soon.

There's a new enemy type that drops meteors on your head when you let him fly off the screen:


Weapons:
- Upgraded machinegun fires bullets bigger than the characters head:

- Spreadgun (normal fires 3 bullets, upgraded 5):

All of the weapons bullet speed & fire rate will be upgradeable separately through the powerup system.

[edit]
I actually worked some more today and added the powerup system. Monsters drop these ellipse things randomly and when you pick them up the cursor moves to the next powerup. Then you can press a button to use it or wait for more drops. Some of these have instant effects, other will be a power you activate by pressing another button.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2013, 03:01:54 PM by cmbrgames » Logged

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« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2013, 09:02:19 AM »

Here's the download for the current state of the game:

DOWNLOAD (2MB)

The game should work on Windows XP and newer, and it needs shader support.

- Controls: arrow keys - move, aim and duck, Z - jump, X - shoot, S - activate powerup, C - use the powerup (the nuke or the 8-directional shot), Alt+Enter = fullscreen, ESC = quit. There's controller support but I only tested it with VJoy and the button bindings might be wrong. You can't change the controls at the moment.

- Powerup system: you can get very overpowered. I'll either tone it down, remove it or maybe replace it with a different system. I hope to make it in a way that won't remove the challenge from the game. Some of the icons are probably not very explanatory and the effects are not immediately obvious, so from left to right: player speed up, bullet speed up, bullet fire rate (reload time), double jump, nuke, fire shield, option, shield (+1hp), 8 directional shot, immunity from spikes and lava.

- There are only 21 level parts for the level generator. You can look them up in lvl/f/roomset.txt and add your own if you want but keep the syntax (there's a info.txt there) and leave no empty line at the end of the file or the game will freeze on startup. The demo will have a room editor and support for multiple roomset files so you'll be able to create and share them or download new roomsets.

- I'll need to add another background layer or change the current ones to indicate progression through the level. You see the game scrolling forward but the random level pieces don't indicate how far you're into it and it feels like watching a Hanna-Barbera cartoon Smiley For this type of game adding a minimap is pointless so I'll try to work around it.

- The weapon box can sometimes spawn behind walls and you can shoot it inside a wall losing the gun pickup. It spawns every 10 rooms in a room with no monsters. If the 10th room has monsters than it tries the next ones until it can find an empty one. The problem is that the currently made empty rooms are too narrow and the weapon box always spawns at the edge of the screen.
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« Reply #14 on: September 03, 2013, 08:27:15 AM »

I've started working on the room editor because making them with Notepad sucks.

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