TIGSource Forums

Shoot The Core - WIPBPMF (Work In Progress But Pretty Much Finished)

This is a quick and easy arcade top down shmup abstract thing based around time attacking a single boss. Right now it has no music. Was made in about a day. First Game Maker 7 Pro game (used to use MMF.)

You play a dot, and have to shoot the core. I want people to be able to play the game without much external instructions so I'll not post a wall of text.

(http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/323/coreshot1ww3.png)
(http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6017/coreshot2re9.png)
(http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6729/coreshot3wt7.png)

I would like to know if anyone had any trouble understanding what was going on, if their are any bugs, if it runs well and if you think that it's too easy or hard. Or ugly. Also, scores would be nice. Be brutal. I'm not going to learn otherwise.

Link here (http://www.box.net/shared/mzv9m5zwgg)

It's pretty tough, but I'm bad at shmups. Maybe you should move a bit faster.

Also, I have no idea how to kill the boss. What am I to do? The goal is not clear enough!

I like the game idea, however i thought that the window of core openness time was a little bit too short. It was really hard to hit even before the enemies spawned. I think luke skywalker had an easier target when he shot the photon missle into the death star's core.  ;D

I also thought that the player did not stand out enough. Whenever lots of enemies come it is easy to lose yourself in the mess of enemy ships and projectiles. Maybe making the player bigger or a color that stands out more. Also, whenever you die it is almost impossible to find the player. I think it would be helpful to pause for a few seconds or have something blink that shows you where you are at before the enemies start attacking.

Again, I like the game concept and it would be cool to see this expanded apon. ;D

Right., changes have been made! (Most of which I should have made before releasing the first WIP version, but let's overlook that)

Boss starts off easier.
The difficultly cerve is more of a curve, less of a cliff.
Player is now solid. Makes it much easier to see.
Easier to find player after you have been hit.

Link here (http://www.box.net/shared/gtnztu348s)

???

I don't get it.

I beat it on my first try, but its really one of those games where the SCORE is what matters.


It's really quite difficult  :beer:

Also, I liked it a lot. Only thing it could use is some sweet music  8)

I generally don't like shmups, but I liked this. Quite difficult too. I was going to post some complaints but it looks like you took care of some of them at least.

No, go on. Post them.

This is pretty fun, and addicting.  Managed to get 281 after a few tries.

So, I'm playing, and I just can't win! I'm shooting all of the sides and everything! What am I doing wrong?

Nice one  :beer:

You see guys, this is funny because the goal is so obvious that nobody wouldn't be able to figure out what to do.



Beat it with 7 seconds left. Improvements make it much better, nice job.

I know, I thought it was pretty clever myse-oh. :(

Glad to see that people are enjoying it.

I've updated it (http://www.box.net/shared/50ru3gp44w), but all that's new is some font changes. It's not really worth changing to. All I really think it needs now is some music, but I'm not sure how to go about that.

Unless there's anything anyone wants to bring up? Please be brutal, it's the only way I'll learn.

I am up for it  :beer:

If you are okay with some Chiptune-Metal  :gentleman:

That would be perfect! Thank you very much you wonderful person!

coolz  :beer:

I liked this, though the mouse+keys controls gave me a slight pain (I'm not a big FPS player!). In arena shooters I generally prefer dual-stick, Geometry Wars-style controls, but I don't think that would work so much in this case, because it's more about shot accuracy than spraying bullets everywhere. I don't know how useful my feedback is to you, seeing as you're pretty much finished, but here's a list of stuff:

- You should make the Hi-score table viewable from the title screen. Currently the only way to see the high scores is to complete the game. It's not shown when you fail, either.
- Speaking of failing, I get this error whenever I lose:
- The bottom of the font on the Hi-score screen is being cut off, so the bottoms of y's, g's and so on, are missing.
- I've never been a fan of shooting systems where you can't fire while your previous shot is still on-screen. If you miss everything, it can take a while for your shot to reach the edge of the screen. I'd suggest a fixed fire rate of about one shot per second.

I think that's all I've got for now.

Your feedback is very useful, it's exactly what I need.

I've made a new version (http://www.box.net/shared/b1nzzl1xc0) that should fix all that.

Fixes are:
Can access hi-score from title.
Debug thing removed. You could press space to give yourself a game over in old version. It was meant for testing but I forgot to remove it. Opps.
Error message should not appear anymore. Tell me if it does.
Hiscore should now fit probably.
You can now only shoot once every second. I was going to keep it running the old way until I managed to defeat it in 5 seconds during testing.

for who doesn't get it, here is A VERY OBVIOUS HINT

(http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6017/coreshot2re9.png)

i had 107 seconds left by the way

The core is very tough, I like the concept and how you implemented it. Toughness factor + 1 :)

An even more awesome core could be a moving labyrinth, please include such a core in the future!

I understood perfectly what to do, the title and idea is brilliantly done.

The green lines in the background were psychedelic, and attacked my eyes. My eyes suffered then. ;(

The player character is a bit difficult to see when moving, and often I didn't notice when projectiles were heading towards it. Maybe it should be as visible as the core, or at least more visible than the enemies.

That's details though, in the end your game has a lot of potential.