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[Sorsy]

Hello guys,

Aliens Eat Bullets is a one-screen shooter where enemies come from sides and your goal is to kill as much as you can before they kill you. In a way it is a sequel to my first real game Spare Parts Maker but now I'm focusing more on making it more enjoyable to play and maybe a bit more skill based.

You see, in Spare Parts Maker you were aiming just by simply taping on the screen. In Aliens Eat Bullets you slide across the bottom of the screen which makes your gun rotate. How long you hold also changes power of the bullet. I hope that this will, with physics, add some depth to the shooting mechanic and make the game more interesting.


Download

Download Aliens Eat Bullets for Android on GooglePlay

Controls: tap and hold anywhere on screen (I recommend somewhere at the bottom) and slide horizontally to change the angle of the gun. Release to shoot. How long you hold down determines bullet's energy.

ALIENS EAT BULLETS is a one screen sci-fi shooter with pixel art graphics trying to bring more skill oriented gameplay and finally some bosses to the mobile market. Shoot down alien enemies who don't enjoy you being on their ship and teleport back to Earth as a hero.

It all starts when aliens invade Earth while the hero is on a walk with his girlfriend. As he sees an alien ship approaching he takes his gun and starts shooting at it. That is when he is teleported inside the ship where wave after wave of enemies are on their way to defeat him.



Gameplay video

Enemies
I already have some interesting base units, which you can see below. I'm also planning to make some more cool bosses.

brainwashed cow | leaping enemy with jetpack | teleporting enemy that shoots at close range | stomping mech | second form of final boss


whole game screen

game music

See older graphics in my imgur album

The game will be out for android and possibly iOS only. The controls doesn't translate very well on Windows, I think.

I hope you like what you see so far, don't be afraid to comment on anything. Thanks for your attention!

[klopgeest]

i like this a lot! the sprites look really neat, though i feel like a brighter palette might suit them better. maybe one of arne's palettes?

[Sorsy]

to klopgeest
Will definitely try something with that. Currently I'm using DawnBringer's 16 colour palette which I really like. Thanks for your comment ;)


Right now I'm trying my hand at making the background for the game. It's still very wip. I might change the palette I'm using because I use some of those dark colours on my sprites too and they might blend in (like the tubing which I'm aware of ;) )

[Sorsy]

Hey guys, I think I'm finished with the background for now. It looks way better then I expected. What do you think? Do enemies stand out enough?

[sidbarnhoorn]

This looks very cool! I love the look. :-)

[Sorsy]

to sidbarnhoorn
I'm really glad you like it! :)

Yesterday I did animation for the first boss in game. He will be just some kind of runner relying on brute force as he will just try to run towards the player and punch you.

"I don't have a name yet. GIVE ME A NAME!!! GRAAAAHH"

Right now I'm working on walking version of final boss so here is just some wip:

[Sorsy]

Think I'm done with this one for today.

Just realized I haven't eaten since morning... :D

[BennFried]

Very cool, love seeing the WIP pixel art.

[Sorsy]

Hey BennFried, I actually wrote a bit more about this four legged boss on PixelJoint forum so check it out if you are interested ;)

[blekdar]

Reminds me of quite a bit of Zigguratt for iOS:



I would call this a good thing, as that game was tight.

But it seems like you have an actual story mode in place, which I like to see. That and the art looks pretty slick. I'll give this a watch.

[Sorsy]

Wow. That's unexpected... It looks really quite the same if I'm honest. Looks like they have the same charging mechanic as I do.
Well, right now I don't have even the smallest desire to continue the development as I'm not really a fan of making clones. Will try to think of a way to differentiate the two, but I'm not sure what to do...

I do have the story mode and I plan on making quite a lot of different enemies but that charging looks like straight up copy/paste. Fck.

Thanks blekdar, I'm glad someone showed me this this early in development

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

Best luck for you finding a good way to differentiate your game. I do think you can make something greater even with keeping some same mechanism. I don't find Ziggurat appealing at all compared to what you've shown here.

this is really cool.
I'd love to play if was a contra-like btw.

[Sorsy]

to bakkusa
Thanks a lot for your support! It means a lot to me.
Don't know about the contra-like though, as you will be on just one screen and static.

[GlaDOSik]

Well, if you don't want to continue with this gameplay, you can change a concept. Your pixel art is awesome. I would like to play a classic pc pixel art (action) platformer with this style. I was actually a bit disappointed that it's an Android game.

[Sorsy]

to GlaDOSik
First of all thank you very much!

I wasn't writting about it yet but since you mentioned it I think I could elaborate on the topic of which platforms I want this game to come out:
At first, I wanted this to be an android game released for free with ads but as I have much more ideas for enemy types I thought I could expand on it and make a PC version that would have all that. So I would treat the android version as a demo of sort with less enemy types but complete with "story" mode and some sort of "how many can you kill before they kill you" and then release a paid version for PC with more enemies. Maybe for like one-two dolars? I'm not sure if I'm treating this right but this is something I was thinking about for the last couple of days.

I would like to know what you guys think about this. If it is viable or not.

Gameplay wise I think I will stick with what I have. I'm kind of scared of how much time making different maps and areas would take. I will try and change the visuals for charging as it is ridiculous how similar those two are. As I said I have some ideas for interesting enemy types that I will show later so I hope that will set those games apart.

[blekdar]

Ok I feel pretty bad for discouraging you. I really didn't mean to point out the similarity as a bad thing, as I liked that mechanic. I would love to see something similar in a more fleshed out experience, and the art looks great.

[Sorsy]

Hey blekdar, yesterday I was sincerely glad I know there is such a game. And today I look at it even more optimistic I guess. Knowing there is similar game shouldn't discourage me. I think it's a good thing since now I will really try to make it stand out more. And knowing you guys like this art style so much is really encouraging me. Don't feel bad ;)

Right now I am working on some music for the game but it's fairly new to me. I'm writting songs for guitar from time to time but this is something entirely different. Will try to post some update soon!

[Sorsy]

Hey guys, today I finished a title image for the game, I hope you like it.

I'm still working on the music but it is more like learning new things every time. It's a challenge I have to go through and I'm actually enjoying it. I would like to have someone to make the music but my budget is non-existing and telling someone I will pay them later doesn't seem cool to me.

Also had some fun while drawing:

I updated the first post to reflect current state of the project.

[Join Indies]

Nice shading on the sprites mate.  I also like the smaller palette used on the background, it makes the sprites stand out well.

[Sorsy]

to Join Indies
I just recently started using restricted palettes in my pixel work and I think I improved a lot as an artist. When you can't/don't want to make darker shade of colour you're using you just have to think what other colour will work the best and that gives a lot I found. Thanks!


Today I finished (first pass on) the music that will play in-game. It's really my first try so don't expect a lot. I can hear some parts that will need tweaking already so I might go back and work on it more. Now I will try to find out how/if gamemaker works with dynamic soundtrack as I would like to change things a bit for bosses.
Check it out and tell me what you think! Thanks guys (: