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[NiallM]

[edit]
Sorry, all the attention broke my website.  Links now point to mediafire:
Download for Windows
Download for OSX
Download for Linux/Source Code



[/edit]


Okay, I'm posting here to try and make sure I get this finished, though I seem to be taking on a lot of projects at the moment

The idea is it's 2 games in one, starting with a kind of vertical asteroids thing.  Only instead of asteroids it's tiles that are flying towards you.  Before it starts you're presented with a picture of what the next level should look like, and then you have to create that level by shooting the correct tiles in the correct order.  Of course, you also have to avoid getting hit by the tiles, which makes things more complicated.  If you manage to create the level correctly you get a big score bonus, but you move on to the next level whether you manage it or not.

The next level is a kind of gauntlet(/space invaders?) thing, where you start at the bottom of the level you just created and have to make it to the exit at the top.  Only there are (respawning?) monsters between you and it.  The idea is that you should be able to create levels that are easier or harder to play through, depending on which tiles you used and which order you placed them in, on the previous level.  Maybe there are fixed monster spawn points which you can surround with obstacles so you don't have to fight them?

After that, the process repeats and you're back into the asteroids/level creation game.  I thought about having a different game type for each level (platformer, puzzler, etc.), but I think I'll have enough on my plate just getting the above done within the deadline.

Anyway, fingers crossed...  

[Melly]

A very interesting gameplay idea. I can see this having a lot of depth.

[NiallM]

So I've finally got Ludum Dare and (most of) my Christmas commitments out the way and I can get started on this.  So far, I have a title screen:

And I've re-worked my code framework to let me use alternative aspect ratios instead of being fixed to 4:3.

Graphics-wise, I'm going to be using:
Skab's skeleton for the gauntlet bad guys, and the bad guy spawner, plus a shmup enemy.



Mr. Trianglehead's spaceship for the player's ship, plus his lazor and crate.



dbb's tiles for a couple of the levels.



tocky's tiles for a couple of the levels.


Acid's tiles for one of the levels.

Ixis' sprite (bottom left) for the gauntlet-style player character.

Syniphas' fonts.


pgil's Massacre text.

Emilio's 'SHMUP'.

Arachne's Projectile (middle top) for the gauntlet shooting.

Oddball's Heart to represent the player's lives.

Two of Big Lon's Tiles.



Sound-wise, I'm using:
CarvSound's 'Here Come the Arps' tune for the gauntlet section.
mudeth's 'I Wanna Be the Title' tune for the title screen.
Slide20xl's 'Let's Go' tune for the shooter section.

SFX:
Atuun's Machine Gun 1
boomlinde's brip, bupss, dodile, glonk echo, kwaou, ziing
shaktool's explode 2, laser 4, switch, yoink
and my own Ow 1

I'm planning on using a different tile set for each level.  I think that's all the ones that would work top-down but if anyone knows of some more, please let me know.

I still need to figure out which graphics to use for the gauntlet monster generator, and the player's entrance and exit.  I'll figure out sounds and music once the game's up and running.

[NiallM]

Basic level editor (for creating the levels the player's supposed to match):

Using one of Arachne's arrows as the mouse pointer.

I'm wondering if this is too many tiles (300) for the player to shoot down though.  It might make the spaceship levels drag on a bit too long.  Then again, that looks like a decent-sized level for the gauntlet style gameplay.  I dunno, should I scale the tiles up a bit?

[SirNiko]

Maybe you ought to start small, make a level with a small set of tiles (10-20?), shoot it, and see if it gets you eager to shoot more.

The basic concept of building something and then knocking it down intrigues me, but I'm still having trouble envisioning how this concept will actually play out. On one side, I'm seeing a conflict: do I build the level RIGHT for points, or do I build it wrong to make the shooter part easier. Or, maybe the puzzle is entirely about the best way to use the assets to make the shooter part as easy and profitable as possible.

Start small, get it to work, and the rest should flow naturally when you think about of what you want more, and of what you want less.

-SirNiko

[NiallM]

Progress!  Here's the tile shooting bit:

Start small, get it to work, and the rest should flow naturally when you think about of what you want more, and of what you want less.

Good advice, thanks.  Having now played it with 300-tile-sized levels, that's clearly way too much.  It's incredibly slow and boring.  So the next question is, do I scale the tiles up and make them super blocky, or do I make them composites (i.e. groups of 4(?) tiles in a square)?  I think I'll start by scaling them, though I worry it might make the gauntlet levels too small and uninteresting.

The basic concept of building something and then knocking it down intrigues me, but I'm still having trouble envisioning how this concept will actually play out. On one side, I'm seeing a conflict: do I build the level RIGHT for points, or do I build it wrong to make the shooter part easier. Or, maybe the puzzle is entirely about the best way to use the assets to make the shooter part as easy and profitable as possible.

Yeah, it's about the points.  So, hard level equals loads of points, easy equals hardly any.  But the tile shooting will get harder as you get further into the game, and you'll find yourself having to shoot tiles you didn't want to shoot simply to avoid crashing into them.  Hopefully by the later stages of the game you'll find yourself creating levels that are a ridiculous mess, because it was the only way to stay alive in the tile shooting bit.  That's the plan, anyway...

[NiallM]

Okay, I've got the game up and running, but it still needs some work.  It feels a bit clunky, and not much fun?  So I could use some feedback.  Is it too hard?  Too easy?  Should I have mouse shooting for the gauntlet section?  Should I add enemies to the tile-shooting section to make it more interesting?

The collision detection's a bit iffy in the gauntlet section, since it seems I can't code a decent detection routine to save myself.  Also, creating the correct level in the tile-shooting section can be pretty hard, though you obviously don't have to match the level in the background.

The borders around the tiles in the tile-shooting section refer to what kind of tile it is - black means a ground tile, yellow means a wall tile (walls can be destroyed if you shoot them enough), red means an impassable tile (cannot be destroyed, but bullets pass through it).

And sorry the screenshots have disappeared from this thread - my site's gone over its bandwidth limit, so it won't be back up till Friday.

Download link in the 1st post.

[jamatthews]

This game is great fun. I think the difficulty is a good mix of reasonably easy(just blasting away) to very hard (trying to tile correctly).

I did manage to mess up the 3rd level on my 1st go though, by blocking my path to the exit in the gauntlet.

[Syniphas]

I think the game is reasonably good, but incredibly difficult in many aspects.

My only suggestions are:

-In the tile shooting mode, you could make it so not all tiles have to be replaced, but only a few, scattered around.
-The enemies in the following part should move a bit slower, giving you more time to shoot them.

[NiallM]

Thanks for the comments guys

I did manage to mess up the 3rd level on my 1st go though, by blocking my path to the exit in the gauntlet.

Yeah, I've noticed that myself.  I'm going to make it so the game inserts ground tiles if you block the way to the exit with impassable tiles.

-In the tile shooting mode, you could make it so not all tiles have to be replaced, but only a few, scattered around.

I agree it's probably a bit too hard to match the background level in this bit, but I think reducing the number of tiles you need to hit would go against the main idea, which is that you can make the next level harder or easier depending on how you play this part.  i.e. Blocking the enemy spawners so you don't have to fight any skeletons.  I think I'm going to try and ease the player in better, maybe start with a level which only has 2 tile types, and make it clear that matching the background level is not a requirement, just a way of maximising your points.

-The enemies in the following part should move a bit slower, giving you more time to shoot them.

Yeah, I agree.  I might start by slowing down the spawn rate rather than the skeletons' speed, see how that goes.

[NiallM]

Okay, changes in this version (as far as I can remember) are:

• All the tilesets are in, and there are 7 levels now.  Obviously, please let me know if you've seen any other tilesets that could work.
• I modified the way the tiles fall in the shooter section so it's a bit more interesting visually.
• The first level only has two tile types and no enemy spawners, so it should be an easier entry into the game.
• Skeletons are periodically generated at the top of the level.
• There are now bonuses for completing the levels in particular ways (4 in total).
• There are now high scores.
• There are pickups in the gauntlet section - a heart that gives you an extra life, and a crate that gives you a limited supply of extra powerful big bullets.  These only appear in wall tiles, to make things a bit more interesting.
• On starting a level, the author of the tileset it uses is displayed.  This game is all about the tilesets, so the authors clearly deserve the credit.
• Escape now pauses rather than quitting straight to the title screen.

There's probably more, but those are the main changes.

Still to come:

• Sound and music (time to listen to all the music that got made...).
• 20 levels in total.
• Some kind of tutorial.
• Enemies in later tile shooter levels.
• Giant skeleton boss for the final level.
• Full credits.

[J. R. Hill]

This game is brutal.

[NiallM]

This game is brutal.

Still too hard?  I tried to make this version easier   Where is it you're having problems?

The difficulty's meant to be dependent on how you play - you can just hold down fire in the shooter sections and it's very unlikely you'll die.  Though you'll get fewer points than if you tried to match the background level.  And also you can make the gauntlet sections very easy on yourself if you block the skeleton spawners with walls in the previous shooter section.

[J. R. Hill]

It's a good brutal, but mostly on the levels with two skelly spawners if you don't blow up one fast enough you get totally swarmed.

[NiallM]

It's a good brutal, but mostly on the levels with two skelly spawners if you don't blow up one fast enough you get totally swarmed.

Yeah, on those levels you have to be careful to give yourself some cover in the tile shooting section or you'll run into trouble fast.

The later levels are going to be even harder, and it's going to culminate in a penultimate level with 7 spawners, blocking your way to the exit and forcing you to destroy them to get out

[hyperduck]

Sound-wise, I'm using:
CarvSound's 'Here Come the Arps' tune for the gauntlet section.
mudeth's 'I Wanna Be the Title' tune for the title screen.
Slide20xl's 'Let's Go' tune for the shooter section.

Nice choice! Especially the gauntlet tune.


This project looks tasty, watching!

[NiallM]

Right, it's done!  Download's in the first post.

Here's the list of changes for this version:

• Sound!
• Music!
• Giant boss, with pixels the size of your head!
• A total of 12 incredible levels!  (I know I originally said 20, but that seemed to be far too many, so I cut it down to 12)
• Enemies for the later tile shooting stages.
• Credits scroller on the title screen, allowing me indulge in a little nostalgia for my amiga-owning youth.
• Basic tutorial text scrollers.  Hopefully it's enough that people don't get confused or lost.

Have fun!

[NiallM]

  Sorry, there was an embarrassing threading bug in that build which I only noticed when I tried playing the game on my dual core machine

It's fixed now - you'll want to re-download if you're on a multiprocessor/core machine and don't want random crashes.

[NiallM]

Right, Linux(/source code) and OSX versions are up now.  Enjoy!

[Skab]

Hi !

the osx version crash when i press Z at the title screen (i send you the bug report via pm)

i'm going to play it on my pc for now  .