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[QuadrupleA]

A weird little game I started last month - the idea is a combination of the short, difficult level style of Super Meat Boy, in a top-down shooter format with some Doom 1 ammo-miser elements, plus a strange psychedelic theme. Featuring ant sacks, pistols, shotguns, beetles, centipedes, pac-man pills and a fractal-vomit background.

See my latest message in the thread for the latest screenshots and new feature additions.

Very interested in any opinions & feedback - positive or negative ("your game sucks my grandma's anus" is fine ).

Latest download:  TrippyTrippyBadBad_v5.zip

And some screenies (check my later posts for newer ones):

[QuadrupleA]

Zero downloads or playthrus so far - sigh - so, barring anyone actually playing it, I'd be curious to know what in the screenshots / description turned people off.

Not enough pixel art, wizards and swords? 

[zebi24]

Hey! I don't know why 0 downloads... I gave it a try, and I find it pretty fun to play and very challenging.

What technologies did you use to make it?

Hope more people will discover this! 

[SirNiko]

You just need to give it a bit longer. I was looking at giving this a shot this weekend.

[Udderdude]

I tried it out, unfortunately for some reason I was unable to shoot by pressing the mouse button, so I couldn't get very far ..

[QuadrupleA]

Hey! I don't know why 0 downloads... I gave it a try, and I find it pretty fun to play and very challenging.

What technologies did you use to make it?

Thanks for playing . It's a custom engine using C++/DirectX. 

You just need to give it a bit longer. I was looking at giving this a shot this weekend.

Cool - yeah I guess this forum isn't that busy. I'll be more patient...

I tried it out, unfortunately for some reason I was unable to shoot by pressing the mouse button, so I couldn't get very far ..

Interesting - did you get to the part with the pistol pickup? Can't shoot until then (it's level 7). If you got there but still couldn't shoot sounds like a bug.

I'm gonna redo the shooting mechanics among other things, I don't really like the current "aim towards the mouse cursor" approach - thinking of maybe a relative movement style where the window traps & hides the cursor and just sets the aim direction. Some of the levels with precise shooting (or a lot of shooting) are pretty tedious.

[Udderdude]

No, I assumed I could shoot right from the start ..

[Majestic]

Hey Quadruple. Good game.


I played it and heres what i thought.



 - Graphics are good, really abstract background image. It adds immersion and feel having a moving background image like that. So thats a nice creative touch.

 - I got a little latency/lag but it might just be my laptop.

 - A pause menu would be a good thing to add. especially if you have a shitload of levels

 - Level 4 is impossible to beat lol. There's no way to beat it with that setup
 
 

Overall a really simple and well done puzzle game

[QuadrupleA]

Hey Majestic - thanks for taking a look.

I got a little latency/lag but it might just be my laptop.

The engine's really GPU-heavy at the moment - that animated background and the lighting + gaussian drop shadow in particular. Might be some things I can do to optimize further (or just offer low-rez / low FX settings). Curious, if you have a sec to try - if you hit tilde (~) it'll show a framerate counter - interested to know what that number is, and what video card model you're using.

- A pause menu would be a good thing to add. especially if you have a shitload of levels

Yeah, agreed - that's in the works - going to try a thing where I capture the mouse input and use a sort of relative-movement aiming, so hitting esc to pause will release the mouse too.

- Level 4 is impossible to beat lol. There's no way to beat it with that setup

Ha - the trick there is to move immediately down, to draw the enemies and create a channel up top where you can sneak by.

[Ancient Account]

I'm ashamed not to download this at the first sight...
This game is great!

The graphics are beautiful, but the weird background hurts the eye a bit...
Gameplay is good... dodging yourself from bugs(beetles) and shooting them too. More of a puzzle game.
Levels are pretty smartly designed.

Interestingly... my computer isn't so good for gaming but there seems to be no lag unlike the other guy(Majestic) said.

- A pause menu would be a good thing to add. especially if you have a shitload of levels

Yep, it would be. I second this.

- Level 4 is impossible to beat lol. There's no way to beat it with that setup

It's easy. Move down, wait and let the beetles gather, then go for the upper portion.
I'm currently at Level 6 or something...

[QuadrupleA]

Thanks - glad you like it so far - that's encouraging, it's still in the pretty rough stages.

Figuring out the performance targets will be a little tricky - my laptop's not a gaming powerhouse but I get about 110-120 fps if I unlock the framerate. My shitty 8 year old integrated-video PC in the living room drops down to about 27-30fps though, pretty jerky. Not sure I could optimize the shaders enough to get that back up to 60...

[Connor]

make a mac build. please. O_O

[Connor]

sorry for double posting, but if you do, ill do a video on it. im kinda looking for content

[QuadrupleA]

Definitely hope to port my engine to Mac / OpenGL - shouldn't be too hard - will probably be a while though, gotta buy a Mac laptop. 

[QuadrupleA]

OK, new version is up:

TrippyTrippyBadBad_v2.zip

Here's what's changed:

* Some new background music I created (the loop that was in there before was one I was using as a "mood test", made by somebody else, possibly copyrighted, so this one's original and legal - but similar vibe hopefully)
* 10 or so new levels, and a bunch of tweaks to the existing levels
* 10 or so boring / frustrating levels removed (let me know if there are others )
* A pause screen (Esc to pause/unpause)
* Mouse restriction when a weapon is armed, so you don't accidentally click outside the window while shooting
* A new background pattern when you reach level 15

One other thing - I was experimenting with a "relative mouse aiming" mode to simulate twin-stick gameplay - I didn't end up liking it, but if you hit semicolon ( ; ) while playing, the game will toggle to that mode. Curious if anyone likes that mode better for shooting - I could leave it as an option, but if there aren't any die-hard fans of it I'll probably strip it from the code. It basically hides the cursor and maintains your aim in the direction you most recently pushed the mouse.

[Ancient Account]

Update! YAY!

Like the new pause screen...
Looking forward to save games along with a level selection screen(which only lets you play levels you have unlocked).

[QuadrupleA]

Cool - level select screen & progress saving is next on the list, should have that up in a few days hopefully.

[QuadrupleA]

Hey guys - curious - so I posted "v2" on indiedb.com and TigSource here about a week ago - got about 800 views and 65 downloads total, but only two comments between the two sites, and no "watchers" - which makes me wonder if something's not working in general with the game. Too steep a challenge curve maybe, or new music doesn't fit as well? I had a silly non-game called "let's play with ants" that got a lot more watchers & comments & reviews and whatnot, so I'm sorta using that as a gauge.

If you are one of the 65 downloaders, would be curious any quick impressions - critical is totally fine - "too hard" or "boring" or whatever. Just to understand the reason for the lack of responses.

I'm slogging through some level-select UI stuff for "v3", but if the core game isn't interesting to people I'm not sure I want to keep putting time into it (I've had a couple games already that ended up being disappointing after 4+ months of work, so trying to keep them small & focused these days).

[Udderdude]

I've already played it but I'd say if there's two things you should change, it's give the player a weapon right at the start, and slow down the background animation.

[Ancient Account]

I've already played it but I'd say if there's two things you should change, it's
1. Give the player a weapon right at the start.
2. Slow down the background animation.

1. Well, the game is about dodging enemies as well. It gives a 'Geometry Wars' feel. Also, the first few levels makes you learn the basics of the game.
2. Agreed, hurts the eye a bit.

Edit: About the new version: You removed some of the interesting levels that weren't as bad as you think. IDK, but it's probably that I have started to miss them. :concerned:
Also, bring the second level back, that was part of the tutorial. Be concerned about the difficulty curve, the current second level(which was previously the third level) will seem harder than it is to new players.