TIGSource Forums

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Join Galactagirl on a cosmic adventure to vanquish the evil Robot Racers and their mechanical minions! In this adrenaline-pumping action-platformer inspired by retro classics such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden you must aid Galactagirl in her quest to be the fastest in the galaxy and stop the invasion of the Galactic Homeworlds by the Robot Racers.

Galactagirl has an advanced moveset including wall jumps, target lock-ons, rail grinding, sliding and more, which allows for a variety of ways to traverse the environment and its many challenges. Move fast, react quickly, and chain your moves together to overcome obstacles, defeat enemies, and beat the levels in the quickest time!

Features:

- High speed platforming with a variety of movement abilities!

- Dastardly robotic enemies and bosses to defeat!

- Tons of explosions and particles and... explosions!

- Gorgeous retro-styled art and graphics!

- Options including windowed mode, volume control and a retro CRT shader!


I'm hoping this demo will provide a good overall blueprint for early players of Galactagirl's moveset and controls, the structure of the game and player progress, and a variety of mechanics and their implementation. No specific release date as of yet but stay tuned at any of the links below for updates on the game's progress.

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• Twitter (https://twitter.com/CosmicCrystal_)
• Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/CosmicCrystalGames)
• itch.io (https://cosmiccrystal.itch.io/galactagirl)
• GameJolt (http://gamejolt.com/games/Galactagirl/261365)
• IndieDB (http://www.indiedb.com/games/galactagirl)
• opengameart.org (https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/galactagirl-a-high-speed-retro-action-platformer)
• ...or here on TIGforums!

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Let me know what you think about the game in the replies, I appreciate any feedback you can provide :) If you like what you see, follow the dev progress at any of the above links or right here in this thread! Thanks for your time!



***UPDATE 29/07/17: added alpha demo plans and new screenshots
***UPDATE 12/08/17: updated with new screenshots/logo/info
***UPDATE 18/08/17: new GIF + gameplay videos!
***UPDATE 30/08/17: alpha demo + trailer now released!!!

i love to plau a game where blaze the cat is the megamen

Haha yep that's pretty much the intention here. I always wanted to play a super-fast Mega Man game so I made one!

I also have FiveAsOne at opengameart.org to thank for the character, enemy and boss sprites which are awesome and have been immensely influential on the development of the game :)

UPDATE 29/07/17: Alpha demo plans and some new gifs!

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**Alpha Demo plans**

Okay so as many of you may be aware I plan to develop Galactagirl to completion, the next step of which is releasing an "alpha demo" for the game so I have an opportunity to recieve valuable player feedback while working on it.
Planned features of the demo so far include:

- A tutorial and hub area for you to practice your moves and abilities
- Four distinct stages/levels
- A boss fight that is unlocked after beating the four stages/levels
- Some totally kickass openly sourced graphics and music

I'm hoping this demo will provide a good overall blueprint for early players of Galactagirl's moveset and controls, the structure of the game and player progress, and a variety of mechanics and their implementation. No specific release date as of yet but stay tuned at any of the above links for updates on the game's progress.

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**Screenshot updates**

Nothing drastically new this week, but been doing a lot of general polishing. Those little bits and pieces of code you don't wanna fix add up! Anywho, some shiny new gifs:

- Gameplay in Stage 2 featuring fans and rails (http://i.imgur.com/12xukNJ.gifv)
- Current state of end level/score screen (http://i.imgur.com/jWxXeIb.gifv)
- Splashing about in Stage 3 (http://i.imgur.com/Vg04TxF.gifv)
- Vehicle section for Stage 4 (http://i.imgur.com/jWxXeIb.gifv)

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Thanks!
CosmicCrystal

NES style game with modern mechanics always intrigues me, Glactagirl looks awesome :handmetalL:.
 
One pointer though, in the first GIF the trees that are in the background moves faster than the foreground, shouldn't be other way round (background should move slower), because that might give a weird sense of depth.

Glad you like it!

You're totally right about the background. Thankfully I've already improved it and an example of the new bg scrolling speed can be seen in one of the latest gifs, the one with the end level screen.

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback!

***UPDATE 12/08/17: updated with new screenshots/logo/info***

I have been working on polishing a lot of things lately as the release of the alpha demo comes ever closer :D Most notable additions in this week's update include more particle effects on enemy explosions (like sparks, pieces and smoke); the addition of Mega Man/Zelda-esque screen transitions that really smooth out the gameplay; a ton of little art pieces here and there; and work on some important settings stuff like rebindable controls!

See the new GIFs in the updated OP for more detail! And stay tuned at any of my links if you like what you see, demo is coming real soon ;)

Whoa awesome! The grinding mechanic also reminds me of THPS, maybe you should add some combos, haha. Nice work, if you need some fun chiptune I'm here!  :gentleman:

Thanks! THPS was indeed a source of inspiration for the grinding mechanic ;) many hours of my youth were spent grinding around those levels haha!

As for music, thanks kindly for your offer! The alpha demo currently has a soundtrack set in place, but as the game develops further more music may be required. Stay tuned at any of my dev links for updates on this front :)

I really like the art on this! Your main character is a girl and reminds me of a teen Zero from the Mega Man series, if he, was a she. Her run seems a bit stiff but other than that I really like the way this looks! Cheers!

Thanks so much! Glad you like the art :) Lots of thanks go to FiveAsOne at opengameart.org for the excellent character spritework. Huge inspiration in developing the gameplay and its mechanics :)

***UPDATE 18/08/2017
So I've been trying to record some footage for trailer-making and I thought that in the meantime I might just share some gameplay with everyone to better demonstrate the mechanics in motion... and show off the current levels too ;)  

Stage 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTewHvbIoJQ

Stage 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vo2medv7Uw

Stage 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJSK48OvHQs

Stage 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Annr-vT_IrY

Tweeted this. Keep up the great looking work!

 :beg:

oooh right back at ya! Classic Adventure looks marvelous! Sonic x Gunstar?? hnnnnnnnngg  :-*

I'm super down!

Hi!

Thanks for the support everyone! I am happy to say that the alpha demo is now available for download! Check it out at my itch.io, indieDB or gamejolt pages!

- Itch.io (https://cosmiccrystal.itch.io/galactagirl)

- IndieDB (http://www.indiedb.com/games/galactagirl)

- GameJolt (https://gamejolt.com/games/Galactagirl/261365)

The trailer is also released if you need a quick preview of the game and want to spread it around to your friends! Watch it here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1yUyzgI2Pk


Much love,

uxas_omega / Cosmic Crystal Games

Pushed a quick update with some much needed bugfixes/improvements. including:

- Much more responsive grinding behaviour and movement;
- Repaired game crash on using gamepads;
- Fixed drawing and saving of player times;
- Much improved projectile deflection;
- Faster zoom attack targeting;
- Galactagirl now takes less damage from enemies;
- Fixed Rocket enemy collisions;
- General level geometry collision improvements.

Hope this improves the experience for everyone a bit, and keep that feedback coming! I have a playtester feedback thread here on TIGforums: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=62306.0


Thanks kindly,

Cosmic Crystal Games

I've stuck at tutorial were teach player to use lockdown, I found balloon enemy respawn instant after my character lock and hit them which on only prevent me from chain jump but also damage character I'm not sure if I did anything wrong...

the game look pretty good so far I like gameplay concept behind this.  :)

Sounds like a bug with the enemy respawning in the tutorial area. Will do some testing and get onto a fix asap. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

ok I'll looking forward to see next version. :D

Hi everyone!

I'm currently very tired and I suck at devlogs so I'm just gonna run through some bullet points here real quick about what's new in Galactagirl version 0.12!

• Galactagirl physics refactored - movement and jumping physics are quite different now, but are much more "Sonic"-like. Much better acceleration and turnaround speed!
• Target collision system refactored - Ughhh. After many headaches I hope I finally have a more fool-proof checking system which should shunt you away from solids if you get stuck in them after using the target/zoom attack. Please work.
• Grinding physics improvements - generally snappier/more responsive.
• Boss attacks and glitches fixed - Some of the boss' attacks were failing to trigger which has been fixed. Missing sound fx in boss fight also fixed.
• Score screen sped up - just sped up the values for the score count screen to get through it a bit quicker.
• Screenshake values toned down - Ahh, much better :)
• Water visibility and performance improved - Much easier to see in water now, and should cause less slowdown.
• Room transition drawing band-aid fix - Some room transitions were drawing funky. Stage 3 should be fixed now, and stage 4 has a band-aid fix to make it look a little more palatable. Room and transition drawing is currently being completely redone for the full game build, so stay tuned for updates on this front!
• Added Galactagirl stage opening and closing animations - IT'S SO FRIGGIN' COOL!
• General level geometry and enemy collision improvements - yada yada yada, etc.
• Updated splash screen - shiny new logo on the splash screen, it's nice ;)

The response to the demo so far has been really great and I am very humbled by all the kind words and feedback! But the GG train ain't stopping anytime soon so keep that feedback coming in and we can make this the greatest game we can :D

Thanks again peeps! Check itch.io/indieDB/GameJolt pages for download links! GO GO GO!

Cosmic Crystal Games

Hey everyone,

First off I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to check out and download Galactagirl! The respone has been awesome and the feedback provided so far has been very helpful in making this the best game that I can. Secondly, I would like to apologize for the poor experience provided by v0.12. It has a number of a collision issues and crashes that can break the game and this leads to an overall poor experience for the player. But, I have been hard at work listening to feedback and implementing new systems in hopes of alleviating these issues! So without further ado, v0.13 is here! Here is the changelist for the update:

- New collision checking system for exiting target lock and loop states
- Fixes for crashes/hangs caused by particle generation
- Fixed hoverboard section and impossible spawning bugs
- Updated boss behaviour
- Changed Galactagirl damage values/balancing
- Optimizations for texture/background/music loading
- Added analog stick support for gamepads
- Fixed infinitely respawning enemies in tutorial area
- Adjusted sound fx, new hub level music
- Fixed invisible player bug on exiting levels
- Can no longer take the hoverboard with you when you exit Stage 4

Known issues:
- Respawning tutorial enemy issues still sporadically occurring
- Loop exit collision is still funky
- Attacking while in the fast roll state in an enclosed area can get you stuck

Hope this update improves the game experience for everyone and make sure to keep that feedback coming! I ain't going anywhere and neither is Galactagirl ;)

As usual, you can stay tuned at any of my channels for updates on the demo and the full release!

Thanks,
Cosmic Crystal Games

I've only played the Wandering Woods stage so far, but..."high-speed" seems like a major misnomer: it feels very sluggish to me.  High speed compared to super sluggish games like the Mega Man series, maybe.  But I don't think it's as fast as Super Mario World, and it's certainly nowhere near as fast as the original Sonic the Hedgehog.  I like the idea and the mechanics you've chosen, but the implementation has a long way to go.

• The movement is too slow.
• You slide way too much for how slow you move.
• The loops feel like things which grab you and zip you around if you touch them at a certain point, rather than feeling like loops of floor tile which you can run around or not as you like the way they did in Sonic. Also it feels like you go through the loop fairly quickly but then immediately slow back down.
• It's often not very clear what is a wall and what is background fluff: (http://www.arestlessmind.org/2017/09/17/galactagirl-walls.png)
• The level design feels like it's aimed at a character with much more precise control.  There are lots of little platforms which you can fall down between, there are lots of short little moving platforms to land on.  Is this Mario or Sonic? Make up your mind. If you're going to have a fast slidy character, you need long smooth lines with different layers to jump between and some obstacles to miss.
• There are several places where you put a tentacle right after an opportunity to slide, but it feels like you can't slash immediately after sliding, so you have to time it right or you get hit? Maybe that's deliberate, but I just want to slide through and smash the tentacle as I come out.
• The spring platforms feel underpowered to me.  They're these giant bright red things: shouldn't they have more oomph as Sonic's do (https://youtu.be/CqOlpQ7sepE?t=2m23s)?
• The countdown from three when you start the level is horribly annoying. It's bad enough waiting for the energy beam to fade and your color to change back to normal, but adding a huge delay on top of that? Why??!?!
• It's kind of annoying that if you quit all the way back to the start screen that it forgets your control configuration...good on you for having menus that wrap around top to bottom though: so many people leave that out.

Haven't had a chance to play it yet, but it looks quite neat from the videos.

One thing that does jump out are the "non-retro" elements, such as rotating pixels, zooming and transparencies... they seem out of place with the general "nes-style"  look of the game. I feel like some sort of a particle effect or like a shifted outline might look better instead of that transparent trail when running. Also those large red lock-on things that zoom in seem to obscure the things they lock on to... perhaps they could look like this: [ ], possibly with 4 corners and just sort-of come in from the sides to indicate the lock-on.

In general - have you tried rendering the game at a "native" resolution for the pixel look?

Creator of Retro City Rampage, Brian Provinciano has a good talk about this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa7XFiC8A_M

@jgrams: You're right, the implementation does have a ways to go. This is all very good feedback. In regards to physics/speed/etc, I am currently re-doing the code base for the game with the planning and feedback in mind. The demo is sort of just ideas stacked upon ideas so it is quite messy. Expect much faster movement and bigger levels in later releases! RE: art stuff. Working closer with an artist now and this stuff is of course being polished as we go along :)

@ydobemos: A lot of those "non-retro" elements are being polished up and replaced with more authentic spritework. This is good feedback, and an awesome video resource to boot! Thanks!

Nice retro vibes there! :)

Heyo! I gave the demo a download and got through two stages (1 and 3.)

This is probably going to sound very harsh, but I literally found the game to be "Hold enemy lock to win." I quite literally just bounced from enemy to enemy using the lock on, ignoring projectiles and at times even the stage geometry (though it appears you have to initially have line of sight.) Its a shame because it looks like there are several cool momentum-based mechanics here with the downward thrust and rail grinding, but its not very rewarding when I can just breeze through 90% of everything with "lock-attack" on repeat. Maybe the attack lock just needs a small nerf, but I still think we should consider what makes it enjoyable in the first place.

Might I suggest looking at a game like Freedom Planet (http://store.steampowered.com/app/248310/Freedom_Planet/)? In my opinion, its a great example of incorporating combat into the "high-speed" platforming niche. Its not exactly the same as what you're trying to do per se, but pay attention to how the combat and movement mechanics are intertwined. The character previews for the upcoming sequel (especially Lilac's and Carol's) might be worth a look too:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMgiDqI2E6EMLVoeS5dMaZQ/videos