Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411196 Posts in 69314 Topics- by 58380 Members - Latest Member: feakk

March 18, 2024, 10:04:52 PM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsSKYCHASERS [PC]
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5
Print
Author Topic: SKYCHASERS [PC]  (Read 27597 times)
WhyNot
Level 0
**



View Profile
« on: August 12, 2015, 02:16:09 PM »

Overview:
Skychasers is a story-driven fast-paced 2D arcade shmup about supersonic jets, intense dogfights and giant bosses.

Gameplay:
You are put in a cockpit of a 6th generation fighter jet, fully armed and capable of performing stunning maneuvers, but you are as fragile as your enemies, so mobility is your best friend here. The game is pretty hardcore but fair at the same time since you always have a chance to react to the upcoming threat and evade it.
The game features a story campaign with lots of unique mission objectives and epic boss fights.

Media:
Sea serpent bossfight:

New background system test:



Some random gameplay from old builds:


Team:
NicolaiGD - programming, game design
And me - programming, game design, visuals, and a general game's direction.


Devlogs:
19.09.17 General vision


Links:
https://twitter.com/skychasersgame - general game's twitter
https://twitter.com/nicolaigd - programmer's personal twitter
https://twitter.com/WhyNotArtDump - my personal twitter
[email protected] - email

P.S.
Sorry for my broken english, non-native speaker here.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2017, 07:02:22 AM by WhyNot » Logged

blekdar
Level 3
***


Decisively Indecisive


View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2015, 02:57:38 PM »

Well shit this looks pretty ruthless. The mechanics seem (somewhat) similar to Luftrausers but I very much like the style and identity the art + gameplay has. Also, giant bullet hell style bosses in a game with more movement control? Yes, please.

I'ma gonna watch this one.

Logged

AD1337
Level 9
****


Lucas Molina


View Profile WWW
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2015, 05:12:09 PM »

DEM GIFS

so pretty!
Logged

b∀ kkusa
Global Moderator
Level 10
******



View Profile
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2015, 05:18:56 PM »

i love the city background. following !
Logged
jxjxjf
Guest
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2015, 05:37:18 PM »

Damn! This looks good. Haha.

Very interested in how it controls. This looks like it could be a really good time!
Logged
kunstberg
Level 0
**



View Profile
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2015, 03:24:59 AM »

The mechanics seem (somewhat) similar to Luftrausers

No, no they don't. Trust me. Plainly speaking, this game has no more in common with Luftrausers than with any other 2d multi-directional shmup. The devs were receiving similar remarks over and over from the very first day of revealing the game to local Russian gamedev communities and they got pretty sick of them by now.
Logged
Oddball
Level 10
*****


David Williamson


View Profile WWW
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2015, 08:03:30 AM »

To be fair to blekdar just from the gifs, youtube vid, and description it looks very similar to Luftrausers in terms of gameplay/mechanics. To me that's not a bad thing, but if you say it's different, and have more insight than is here, I look forward to seeing the differences when they are revealed.
Logged

WhyNot
Level 0
**



View Profile
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2015, 08:25:42 AM »

Thanks for all the positive comments guys! I've never presented any of my project to a public before so i was kinda worried about that.
And about that deal with Luftrausers... I guess kunstberg meant something a bit different. Yes, those games are quite similar in terms of general gameplay and how the planes works. The thing is - i've never heared about Luftrausers before lots of people in ru community started to blame us for shamelessly copying that game. But I don't really care about it since I know that the main source of my inspiration was an old Atari ST game Skystrike.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 08:40:48 AM by WhyNot » Logged

blekdar
Level 3
***


Decisively Indecisive


View Profile WWW
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2015, 10:41:08 AM »

Whoa whoa. To be clear, I did say somewhat similar. I find this similar to Luftrausers as Devil May Cry is to God of War. Mechanics seem familiar, but it looks to be a unique game all on it's own.

Quote
Yes, those games are quite similar in terms of general gameplay and how the planes works

That's what I meant, that's all. Never meant it in a bad way.
Logged

WhyNot
Level 0
**



View Profile
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2015, 12:05:25 PM »

@blekdar Meh, don't worry about that. I was talking about that kind of people who can't understand that similarities of two games might come from the one same source and just yelling "that's a complete luftrausers rip-off!".
But I guess i can take that opportunity to talk a bit about core gameplay by comparing it to Luftrausers. So recently I've grabbed a copy of Luftrausers and playing it. In my opinion, the core gameplay feels quite frustrating since you just can't avoid most of the incoming damage, even though you can always disengage from combat and regenerate your health. Plus controls feels somewhat unresponsive and the plane handles like it's a log with a rocket engine strapped to it's back. I'm not saying that Luftrausers is a bad game in any way, but it's just not my cup of tea.
On the other hand, we started the development with concept of "it's possible to complete the game without getting hit once" in mind. We added multiple ways to avoid situations when you get killed by some random projectile flying from the corner of the screen since it's quite a problem in such fast-paced game.
We made markers that always show locations of all off-screen targets for you, also you got that fancy "DANGER" sign appearing every time missile or boss attack are locking on you. And the whole game designed around that idea in general. So the game is solidly based on player skill with minimized chances of dying from something random that you can't predict and control.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 12:20:40 PM by WhyNot » Logged

Grog
Level 1
*



View Profile
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2015, 12:32:40 PM »

Jesus Christ that art... I really love the aesthetic. It's so clean. Gameplay looks fast and fun. Your design principles seem solid as well. Keep it up guys, excited to follow.
Logged

Eshford
Level 0
*



View Profile WWW
« Reply #11 on: August 13, 2015, 01:58:31 PM »

Sup TIG, I'm the programmer and gamedesigner of SKYCHASERS project and I want to tell you about the first boss we implemented in the game.

ARMADA mk2 - is a tank armed with HMG turret, giant laser cannon and guided rocket pods hidden in it's back track.



As you can see at the first mockup, WhyNot animated a cannon such way that it looks like it's a single-shot weapons able of firing only horizontally. But we quickly realized that such massive cannon would look strange if it would constantly track player and move really fast around it's rotation axis.



After some deliberation, we came up with two new types of attack for Laser Cannon.

NORMAL MODE: Cannon rotates straight up and shoots massive laser beam that divides into 6 separate beams and each of them starts to move back to the cannon. You got two ways to avoid this attack: aether stay away at the safe range or fly straight through beams using aileron roll.

RAGE MODE: Cannon moves up as well, but then creates a barrage of lasers slowly rotating from top to the bottom of the cannon's centre. Fortunately, you got a blind spot right below the cannon which additional laser beams can't reach. It's quite hard to stay in that safe spot but you can survive the ultimate attack without much trouble. The beams moves slow enough so if you struggle to keep yourself in a safe spot you can evade each one of them by doing aileron roll at the right time.



The main boss pattern is quite simple. It picks random waypoint on a map, moves there, stops and then does one of his attacks.

Every huge boss in SKYCHASERS has modular system. You can destroy it's modules to prevent it from using attack or action assigned to that module. But you don't need to destroy every single module to defeat the boss. For example armada mk2 has 4 modules (yellow - HMG Turret; blue - Laser Cannon; green - front track; orange - back track).



Every module has it's own health variable, but the sum of all modules HPs are greater that actual boss HP. So you can defeat boss without completely destroying it. You can pick the most "nasty" parts of the boss and target them first, so they won't bother you.



What do you guys think?
Until next time!  Gomez
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 03:01:45 PM by Eshford » Logged

sriden
Level 0
*



View Profile
« Reply #12 on: August 13, 2015, 03:06:04 PM »

That evil smile when the screen flashes...  Grin
The rage mode attack seems to be pretty nasty (you have to 'struggle' to stay in the safe spot and if not, you don't survive!). The tank itself looks cool.

 
Logged
darklight
Level 0
***



View Profile WWW
« Reply #13 on: August 13, 2015, 03:17:33 PM »

...the main source of my inspiration was an old Atari ST game Skystrike.

Hmm, never thought I'd see anyone mention this game again - it was my favourite too, and I too am making a game inspired by it, along with Wings of Fury and Sopwith.  Good luck with your game - it looks very fast & furious, not sure if that appeals to me so much, but I hope it goes well!
Logged

Storm Clouds over the Western Front - forum & dev blog | Twitter: @DarklightXNA | YouTube: 2D Flight Sim
WhyNot
Level 0
**



View Profile
« Reply #14 on: August 13, 2015, 04:09:45 PM »

...the main source of my inspiration was an old Atari ST game Skystrike.

Hmm, never thought I'd see anyone mention this game again - it was my favourite too, and I too am making a game inspired by it, along with Wings of Fury and Sopwith.  Good luck with your game - it looks very fast & furious, not sure if that appeals to me so much, but I hope it goes well!
Well actually, the first concept of this game was born in 2011, when I've met my friend Eshford for a first time. Back then the gameplay was really different, it was more Skystrike-like, with more focus on air-to-ground combat since it was some kind of Close Air Support simulator with much more complex physics and flight model. I was really bad at art back then and i was just mostly throwing random ideas to Eshford and explaining how things must work since both of us didn't knew much about game design, and he was in charge of both graphics and code. The game it self looked like this.

 I always thought that this game, no matter how dumb it looks, was our best project. So recently I've refined the concept and came back to him with new ideas because I knew that he is the only person i know who can turn this project into real thing and can have a full vision of the compete game as a game designer.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 04:41:30 PM by WhyNot » Logged

darklight
Level 0
***



View Profile WWW
« Reply #15 on: August 13, 2015, 06:35:32 PM »

Hey WhyNot that looks awesome!  Can I please please have a download?  I also run a website that lists what I call 2D flight sims (AKA side scrolling flight games), but I'm very lazy in updating it.  I'd like to add your game(s) at some point, if that is ok.
Logged

Storm Clouds over the Western Front - forum & dev blog | Twitter: @DarklightXNA | YouTube: 2D Flight Sim
Canned Turkey
Guest
« Reply #16 on: August 13, 2015, 08:34:09 PM »

Seeing a good 2D flight game recently that isn't directly copying luftrausers is refreshing. Keep up the good work, it looks amazing.
Logged
mzn528
Level 2
**


Dark Souls, Berserk and Vagabond Ultimate Fanboy


View Profile
« Reply #17 on: August 13, 2015, 08:53:55 PM »

Damn Macross feeling right here, this is sweet, good luck and keep us updated!
Logged

Noob Game Dev and Pixel Artist, twitter @mzn528

Soul Appeaser, a combat focused story rich ARPG
DevLog
Thomas Finch
Level 8
***


@slowcircuit


View Profile WWW
« Reply #18 on: August 13, 2015, 10:34:31 PM »

This looks soooo coool! :O
Logged

jctwood
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #19 on: August 14, 2015, 05:57:14 AM »

Aerobatics look sweet!
Logged

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic