Hi there,
[update] BETA 2 available here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12644619/Trapped_B2.zip [/update]
Here's hoping you like shoot-em-ups. I've been working on this one for some time now and as it is starting to come together now this might be a good idea to talk a bit about it.
I'm not decided yet on how I will distribute this game. There will definitely be a demo out of the first 1-10 stages as soon as I have sounds running; the game is silent now.
The game is created in Blitzmax, using the Retro Remakes framework.
It is an arcade shooter, it will have 25 stages with 5 bonus stages to break the action up a bit. The objective of the game is to charge your portal device with enough energy so you can be transported to the next stage. To do this, you must catch (not shoot) enemies and pull them into the portal device to transfer their energy. For this you have something called a collector device. While using this to catch enemies you cannot shoot. The problem is that the environment itself is depleting your ship energy as well, which you can only regain by shooting enemies. When your ship energy is full, additional enemies you shoot will fill up the weapon power-up bar, so you can earn a better weapon. Which you need, trust me.
Shooter games mostly only let you kill the enemies. Here, you must use them as well to gain access to the next stage. So, apart from being an arena shooter, it will add various needs which the player has to balance. It's fun to play already, I find myself 'testing' more and more, hehe.
There will be bonus stages to break up the action and change the game from time-limited to an endurance test. These bonus stages take place (somehow) inside boss aliens and should be totally different than the main shooter game.
I have a dev blog on
http://wiebo.wordpress.com if you want to take a look now and then, but I promise to post here as well talk about what's happening.
Here are some recent screenshots, and explanations about what's going on:
The circles around the player are energy levels: the outer ring is the portal device energy level, the inner ring is the player energy level. At the bottom you see the weapon power up bar, showing that you currently have the dual shot, and almost reached the triple shot. Nice. The alien at the bottom fires a laser from time to time. Very annoying and deadly when the ship comes into contact with it. Also, the alien is protected by three aliens, acting as a shield. You will have to peel of the shield before you can kill the laser shooting eye.
In this shot some aliens are eating away on the portal device. The weapon power up bar at the bottom is almost filled up, so shoot a few more aliens and get that new gun ... or catch some more aliens to power up the portal device again... Time is running out and the device is in a bad shape... It can still be fixed, but time is running out.
As you can seen here, the portal device is almost kaputt, and there are only 53 seconds left to finish this stage. Maybe spent too much time upgrading the weapon power up bar? hehe. The power up bar is gone, so the player has the triple shot now. The bar will re-appear on the next stage. You gain lots of points for shooting enemies now though.
Developer
