v0.83 is out for both supported platforms, the documentation is up to date, and there's a new tutorial on textures and sprites, and more is underway.

v0.84 and the opensourcing is happening very soon, too. No, really.

I really like the character designs! I guess the difficulty was just right (compared to Poyo or Banana Nababa), although bosses 2 & 3 were a piece of caek each.

Some criticism if I may:
- The sfx are a bit repetitive bordering on annoying.
- I didn't see the point in most weapons. I used the boomerang against the chicken, but that was it.
- I've never seen the need to use dash. When I tried (again, chicken boss), it didn't take me far enough from harm's way.

This game made voting very easy for me. Such excellent execution, consistent style and fun gameplay. There's nothing I don't love about it, except for the spaceship controls which sometimes could be, idunno, more responsive.

The fact that you've pulled this off in AGS (which I don't know up close and personal, but am sure it wasn't intedned for such use) just makes it more awesome.

Nice little platformer. The controls are okay, the graphics are neat. I particularly enjoyed the music, although it does get a bit repetitive.

Enjoyed playing it. The World Tree is a great story element, the graphics, as others already said, are fun. Don't stop making this gaem!

Thanks for the reply! So, if I get what you're saying, the sprites are not textured quads rather than triangle strips, that are created based on the chain's curvature (or so)?

I hoped somebody would do this cover. I really love the atmosphere you've created here.=)

How did you achieve this amount of fluidity with the critters' animation (when they bend for a turn)? Is is procedural?

Yeah, I think the darkness (presumably invited by the chosen name for the game) isn't really helping the bright, cheerful atmosphere of the game.

In the case of the jump, it's the sensitivity. It's nice to jump higher by pressing the jump button longer, but I felt it rockets away very quick. You're right, it isn't that inconvenient on the other levels.

Fun concept! It wasn't really favoured by the design of the pieces combined with an isometric view, though. Also, the AI has consistently been moving his pieces to fields I can instantly attack with my Knights.

(I guess I would've done the UI differently:
- the difference between moves/attacks can be determined from what's on the field you're moving to -> one button rather than two.
- multi-attacks can only target adjacent units -> single button click without having to target.)

It's a brilliant idea. The Flight of the Bumblebee level is genius and I didn't enjoy speeding through a level since Sonic 3.

The jumping is still a little painful though, and it'd be nice if the the bullets(?) were a bit more visible.

Nice cover, Melly!

I always figured voting for yourself was a given.

(But I won't do it this time.)

Well, I dunno about the given thing. Times I was pleased with what I've created, I voted for myself. When I wasn't, I didn't. But the more I think about it, the more I reckon that voting for self should not be allowed.

I have a full time job and two kids and I've made it to MADRIS already :p

I wants your job.
OR your kids.
No, the job.

thanks for compiling this, belbeeno.

downloaded it, seeding it.

Implemented the enemy scripting. It can do with some fine tuning, but the system feels and looks good and only serializing objects from polymorphic classes was a pain in the ass. I opted for a cop-out. (Kids, always opt for a cop-out.)

Each enemy is comprised of a starting position, a hull (defines shield, guns, acceleration, speed) and a behavior.

Sample (eksample):

Code:

move = "2.0f 90 .5 'move for 2 seconds, to the right (expressed in degrees, relative to 12 o'clock), with 50% of its full
 speed (depends on the hull.'"

aim = "'turn guns in a manner that their average direction will be towards the closest player. no need to specify time for aiming, it's
 instantaneous.'"

attack = "2.0f 'keep shooting for 2 seconds'"

accelerate = "1.0f 270 1.0 'accelerate for 1 second, to the right, with its full acceleration (depends on the hull).'"

die = "'Happens instantaneously. The program doesn't care about these comments so long they are after the arguments
 it does care about.'"

'follow' (accelerates towards closest player) and 'wait' (this one's a surprise) and whatever commands I can come up with will also be supported (suggestions are welcome).

Next thing I'm going to implement is the level / timeline format. Once I've done that I post a demo to play/script around with. I love how my enthusiasm keeps creeping back with this project.=)

I've also tampered with music -- I'll post some soon.

An ever so gingerly bump. v0.82 is released with some optimizations and added functionality. Mac OS X version later on today.

After finally getting Mercurial working, and having sufficiently cleansed the code of bugs, I have decided to open up XRhodes' source. It's happening shortly (faster than the framework itself anyway).

 

Crunching on.

Reimplemented the modular shmup system (with indeed multiple shots per gun) so that your ships (hulls) and gun( classe)s can be serialized from text files, like:

Code:

hWidth = "4.0f"
hHeight = "6.0f"
shield = "100"
acceleration = "600"
maxSpeed = "140"
gunCreator <
position <
x = "5",
y = "6"
>
direction = "2"
classFile = "gc_jack.xrsf"
>
gunCreator <
position <
x = "-5",
y = "6"
>
direction = "-2"
classFile = "gc_jack.xrsf"
>

The engine is coming together, with some visuals also added. Next up is the AI.

A little less conversation, a little more action, and no bitmaps at all (for now):

thanks.=)

I had some hard time getting back to wanting to code at all, but I've tackled some challenges in the last couple of days (with not a lot of free time).

Implemented a modular shmup system comprising of ship Hulls (shield, acceleration, max speed etc.) that can have an arbitrary number of Guns, which, in turn, can point to an arbitrary direction. Maybe I'll up it to support multiple simultaneous shots per Gun.

Next is to code some enemy behaviour; presumably Phase based. With the last shmup I've been working on, the inspiration wore out before I got around to implementing bosses. This time around, all enemies are based around the same logic; that should make it easier.

A game about dancing around alpacas can't be anything but awesome.

I wonder if the yellow japanese text on the case is intentionally made to look like the word "Plush".

I could somehow totally see you doing this one.=)

Really cool concept with awesome touches (particle whale and singing mechanism FTW) and, as others said, lightning fast. Congrats!=)

[two]

You can't have enough StarCats, right? RIGHT?

「 Star Cats IV 」 Sebastia` Lo´pez／Graphic Designer　Official Site In Star Cats IV you have to return to the Feline Galaxy to save it from the Evil Mice Empire. This is a 8 bit shooter where you control a spaceship through 8 levels full of enemies, explosions and tuna fish!

In Star Cats N you have to return to the Feline Galaxy to save it from the Evil Mice Empire again. This is a 32 bit shooter where you control two spaceships through levels full of enemies, explosions and tuna fish!

A C++, SDL, OpenGL and XRhodes love affair.

First screenshot with not a whole lot of action:

although I've always preferred the stairs, this looks fantastic.

and the links are very inspiring and useful, thanks.