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[SpaceBrance]

-When you get back from a checkpoint and die, when you come out, I jump and land in lava, or an enemy, my wanna give the players a second or two to respawn.

Running into lava or dying instantly on respawn is a serious danger. I've considered several ways of cleaning this up.

• Designing levels so checkpoints are safe from attack, and protected from immediate hazards. (The lava pit checkpoint in WhiteEyes' video is a good counterexample of this.)
• Adding a slight delay before respawning (I like the instant respawn, personally, and would prefer not to do this).
• On dying, wait for keys to be released before taking new input.
• Have a 'press X to continue' dialog. This still allows instant respawn if x is pressed immediately, but it's interruptive.

On a related note I think there should be some sort of quiet visual effect for respawning.

I glitched through a ledge(it's near the end of the video near the end of the 3rd level) and died. Said glitch is around 3:40-3:44
Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIbBbxHOB90

Sorry about that. Do you recall if the framerate was low around the time this happened? It's possible that this is a case of there not being enough safeguards in place to prevent the spaceman moving too far in one update.

I have mixed feelings about the widescreen presentation, given the minimalist design graphically

It's funny that you mention the aspect ratio. I'm pretty anti-widescreen on general principle. It's a very specialized screen shape that, in my opinion, shouldn't be the default. The game actually started out in 4:3, but it was gradually widened so we can see further ahead and engage in longer range firefights. I regret that that makes the screen have this shape, I'd prefer a 4:3 or a square.

... the lava sound ...

You're totally right. I hate that sound .

The framerate was perfect(and if it matters, the quality on high)

Also, I'd go with the 'wait for key release' idea if you want to keep the instant respawn.

[Loren Schmidt]

Hi folks, this is just a quick update to confirm that things are progressing.


The game now tracks highscores for each level independently. We can play through the levels in order, or begin at a level of our choice instead of starting at the beginning, and our score for each level will be recorded regardless. Next up is recording time and kill count, and contriving an elegant way to display the scores. The above is the current score table.


The computer controlled spacemen are getting some more attention. They will be featured prominently in the early levels of the game. Due to an extensive regimen of aversion therapy, they are gradually becoming less prone to suicide. It must, however, be confessed that they still jump headlong into aliens from time to time. Another new behavior is that they avoid straying too far off of the screen. They are independent, and will fire at targets off screen, but they won't travel very far on their own.


The large red enemies also received a few behavior tweaks and bug fixes. They deal with ledges a bit better now. And if you shoot a few and wait around for too long, you may find they aren't as dead as they look...

[Gainsworthy]

The Green Dudes are getting more attention? Wonderful! They were pretty great to fight alongside. Surprisingly competent on level ground, and I was somewhat surprised to note very few other sidescrollers (none?) had done this before.

New high score and Zomboids also look cool. Great to see progress.

 

[Tanner]

man, i wish i could play this
so bad

it looks absolutely amazing so far!

[The-Imp]

man, i wish i could play this
so bad

it looks absolutely amazing so far!

Sorry you missed the beta, it was fun!
 

[Tanner]

i think it was because the identity stealing got a little confusing.

[Loren Schmidt]

i think it was because the identity stealing got a little confusing.

True! I thought you were Benzido. I'd be happy to have you on board in the next round of tests.

[Tanner]

thanks!
yeah, i'm done with that identity switching confusion stuff





for now 

[Lazycow]

Download available soon.

Quite some time has passed so far... What about that download link, where is it?   

[Loren Schmidt]

Don't worry, I'm still working! I wouldn't want to tarnish the name of TIGSource by churning out a slapped together second-rate release.

[KniteBlargh]

I'm looking forward to this.

[Loren Schmidt]

Hi everybody! Despite a severe case of Spelunkitis (which I imagine many of you share), Star Guard marches valiantly onward. Old levels have been refined based on the videos provided by the lovely testers. Bugs have been squashed (in the name of progress, not sadism!), and there are many new aliens and hazards I'm excited about designing levels around.


With little regard for their own lives, a group of allied soldiers destroys a bolt turret.

Video
I don't want to reveal any of the new areas yet, but here is an early video showing a test area containing one of the new enemies, borrowed from the generous Mr. Piglet:
http://vimeo.com/2667960

I've been playing Mr. Piglet's 'Jed' lately. I'm very inspired by the level design. One thing in particular that I think he does well is present optional challenges to the player. I played through once and completed all the levels. But I immediately knew, even though it's totally optional, that I wanted to play again and rescue all the hidden robots in each stage.

Star Guard is a really different type of game, but it shares with Jed a focus on replayability. Currently this is encouraged by scoring our kill count and our clear time. The levels, early and late, are designed to accomodate both speed runs and more leisurely play. The goal is for it to be fun to replay the game and discover new tricks and shortcuts, and gradually improve our scores over time. I can't claim to have achieved it yet, but there are games such as Ikaruga (or Jed, or Spelunky) that do a remarkable job of motivating this kind of perfectionism. Somehow, no matter how good we are, it just makes us want to try harder to improve our skills and achieve a higher score.

To that end I'm doing a bit of brainstorming, and trying to think of more ways to make replay fun and rewarding. I think speed, kill count, and pattern learning are a good start. But perhaps the current score system doesn't have enough variability in it. I would also like to add more alternate routes (and alternate ways of completing areas). I'm also thinking about rebalancing the player movement so there's a little more room for virtuoso playing. Specifically I'm considering eliminating all sliding, making precise jumps less twitchy, and slightly increasing air time. But I'm not the best player in the world, and I'm sure I'm ignoring important possibilities here. What else might make the game fun to master? All suggestions are welcome.

[vdgmprgrmr]

I just wanna say that this game looks totally awesome...

[Lazycow]

Hi, these moving blocks are cool. These might open the door for some puzzle-solving in this action centric gameplay. Hope you will put more elements like this in there! 

While the whole graphics-style is very atari 2600-like, what about a scanline-mode? Here is how it could look like:




CU, Lazycow

[Loren Schmidt]

I've got some graphics done for one of the new enemies. These sprites are sort of channeling Space Invaders.

Here they are in the game:
Video: http://vimeo.com/2675081





Lazycow- Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of including some elements with a fast paced, but slightly puzzle-like feel. Thinking aloud, it might be fun to have places where an alternate path is protected by a stream of the patrolling enemies from my last post, and you have to time your entrance carefully. It could also be fun to have a sequence where a couple of them chase you, and you have to quickly navigate a set of hazards. Enemies going in and out of phase also comes to mind.

I like scanlines sometimes. I've also thought about some sort of glow filter, but I don't think I'll use any post effects in this game. I'm probably just in denial, but this game really isn't about being retro. It's more about picking a target spec and trying to hit it as cleanly as possible. So for extra OCD points, I'm avoiding a lot of easy 'retro' effects such as oversized super-pixelly fonts and explosions, deliberately hokey sound effects, and intentionally bad animation.

Any animation that's bad is entirely my fault, not a design feature!