Adding stairs to the up key has been mentioned before, but comes with the flaw that you wouldn't be able to pick up items in front of the stairs.

Doors push items away virtue of a cold gust of wind or something :V

Did some background texture for a friend.

Well, looks like this now:

A friend asked me to do some drawings/sprites for his RPGMaker game. We debated over the next two days over the style, so it went from




to




to

Mmmmm, how about that?



*Edit*

WITH OUR POWERS COMBINED, I AM A SCREENSHOT

And here's the assembled look for Stage 3a.



Well, except that larger distracting pillar is going to take a trip to the background.
The pink wall segments on either side can slide forth in various formations, it remains to be seen how we utilize that.

Speaking of progress 

The work on stage 3a continues.

The level will feature shenanigans based on side-walls.

These to be exact.


Also a small teaser for the boss (Just an seembly of boss parts done, not the actual form of the boss as of yet)












See you next time!

I think Im starting to get a hang of this so-called "pixel drawing". (Draws quotes in the air)

Oh boy dear chaps, what time is it?  

It's a demo release time!  

And now there are 3 weapons!

Slightly polished graphics!

More balance!

And still no new stages. Hmm. Underwhelming.

Anyway, enjoy: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?v6u5lynnnrcl2a5

Any feedback and bug reports are, as always, encouraged :D

Its always better to give subtle nods to a series you draw inspiration from.
Same with the gameplay and maybe some ideas. Right now I was pretty much like "Huh, Cave Story?" when seeing the first screenshot, not to mention the name and the player sprite.

Mmm, rambling. I guess its better to try and make something original building on the ideas from previous games, instead from outright copying it otherwise the comparisons will become inevitable and frankly, very just.

Mind Flayer

?

-

casts low level charm when attacking (this would cause the player to lose control and attack the minion or the minion to attack the player)

Suggestions welcome!

No death due to brainlessness 8O?
Maybe xp drain, preventable by having a better sort of hat?

Oh god this looks sexy...

In other news, Stage 3(A) is under construction.

Without giving too much away, it looks like this:

We've come a long way, haven't we?

So yea, I decided to go try some coding, see if I can make a small rougelike, but already the basics start to act up. Well, one of them.

Basically, all the walls start out invisible. When you walk near them, they become white, when you walk away from white walls, they become dark red. This is basically the lighting system for player, he sees everything in certain distance as long as it's not obstructed.

The problem is, for some reason looking top-right or bottom-left, you are always obstructed, even if its just 1 tile away. Look:



There is the script for the walls. (They start out invisible)

Code:

if instance_exists(Player)=false exit;
if distance_to_object(Player) > 64 or collision_line(x,y,Player.x,Player.y,TileWall,true,true)
{
action_sprite_color(50,16777215)
}
else
{
visible = true
action_sprite_color(16777215,255)
}

(Player is the player object, that white dude on the picture, TileWall is the Wall object)

Great stuff, guys!

Very nice movement speed. I know you guys are already using a lot of manic shooter conventions, but you might want to consider having an increased speed while not firing and/or tapping the button instead of holding it.

Great idea :D

The current attack types are wonderfully basic. Concentrated beam, or weaker spread. Easy to understand and allows for more choice making.

I would opt for additional control over switching attack types. Up+Alt: Beam, Left/Right+Alt: Spread, Down+Alt: Rear, Neutral+Alt: Cycle.

Well, its just the basic system we are using, since there are going to be many wonderful weapons added in the future. We just wanted to keep it simple and allow player to control them all with 3 buttons and 2 different bars. This is heavily inspired by Hellsinker, which is in itself highly confusing with all its bars and counters in the beginning.

The HUD is strolling a little too far into decoration or contrived territory instead of usability. There are lots of bits and irregular boxes and symbols it just seems a bit too cluttered. Generally you want to be able to grab a bit of info in your peripheral vision or a quick glance. The Boss health seems almost hidden despite it being labeled and the meter itself is unique but not helpful.

True :V, will try to simplify it a bit. I think I was too worried that it would look bland. Happens when you look on the sprite alone, without the actions going on right beside it.

Restricting hazardous graphics to Red is a wonderful touch. Keeping that restricted to one or two colors for complex bullet patterns is the path to success!

Yep, red is pretty much the BAD/EVIL/HAZARDOUS/DONT TOUCH color of the game.

I would recommend having rear enemies approach on the outer edges of the play screen when you first introduce that aspect. It just seemed silly when I got attacked out of nowhere.

Actually, touching small enemies at the moment, does not kill you. In future it will also merely bump you away.

Overall the enemy designs were very cool and had unique personalities. May favorites are the fast moving portion of the first boss and the formation boss in the second stage. I'd say this is a real strong point and a key differentiating factor from other manic shooters. I would pay careful attention to making sure enemy and boss movement and bullet patterns reflect their design and personality.

Ohohohohoho, the first two stages are just there to get player used to controls and enemy behaviour. From stages 3 a/b (Yep, there will be path forks) every stage will be loaded with different themes, challenges and stuff. As for enemy designs, thanks I guess xD. Will try to keep it up~

The difficulty ramps very nicely in the first stage but the beginning of the second stage is more difficult than the first stage's boss (for me at least). Obviously equations for game design don't exist but remember that surprises and rising and falling action are scientifically proven to increase fun and pleasure.

This is actually still a point to polish the hell out of.

Finally, while the pacing needs work, you definitely get a terrific feeling of mastery from this game. I felt totally hosed during my first playthrough, but got much better every time and I didn't feel like I had to remember anything. Mastery is one of my favorite aspects in games, so it's truly a treat to see it here.

Well, the plan is to make the difficulty variable so that you don't need too much skill to just beat it.

But when you want to truly win the game, you better prepare to 1cc the hell out of it.

I went back to double check on the movement thing I first mentioned and ended up plaything through the whole thing again! That's a good sign and I can't wait to see more.

Happened to myself alot while testing 

What Pure said , feedback is appreciated!

Exactly.

Well, we already converted the mp3s to wavs.

The problem however is the usage of if_soundisplaying

since there is some delay inbetween each time it checks if the song is still playing or not.

And since songs we use consist of 2 parts (intro/loopable part) it causes it to sometimes jump over intros.

We have no idea if there is any other methods except for using timers, which we fear may lagg.

Good news, the boss is done, stuff done, done, done DONE.

Demo may be up sooner than you expect it  



For impatient people, there's a peek at the musics :D







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-kwcDTlXnM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0b43qZFoxQ

Also a fresh screenshot:

Fraxy
Yume Nikki

o_O Nice that there are other people sharing similar interests there.