It always pours..


There's no playable yet (there will be tho) so I don't know if I'm in breach of feedback forum rules- but I do want feedback so I hope I'm fine . Note there's loads of placeholder imagery so far, including the scary black oval 'space monster'



VID:




ok, so the background is a familiar story: you're a colonist, something's gone wrong and everyone else has gone dead. It's Alien meets Jurassic Park. The thing I want to do differently is *how* you experience this story. You are always inside your suit: it's your lifeline. But the computer is connected to the mainframe, and sometimes *it is the one giving the orders..

you wake up in a 'life suit', a weakly armed defense transport protective against the constant acid rain and native wildlife.

There's 3 main gameplay elements in mind:

1. exploration- the computer is forcing you to reclaim some mysterious data before it will clear entry to an escape pod.. you might also find out a bit more than it wants you to know..

2. local wildlife, security bots: these things are a pain, but you've got a weak laser which can take care of them. If pests attatch themselves to your suit, you'll need to hand-charge an electric burst which flows across the shell and fries them.

3. A giant teleporting space monster. This thing doesn't look like it's local.. maybe something to do with that data? it's attracted to electrical signals like the equipment on your suit. You might need to turn off your cameras and radar to slip by unnoticed / alive. It can't be seen by electrical recording equipment. (think forbidden planet vibe)

huge improvement! keeps the attention much longer this thing is *crying out* for some sound effects man, those bricks need to be shouting stuff like 'whee!' 'yippee!' in high pitch voices as they fly all over the screen

can I suggest something? i think itd be fun if you got points for flipping bricks in the air and catching them again. Maybe even clicking mouse sends them flying upwards

you'd need some way of knowing if the bricks are currently in your paddle or in the air, but tbh I think you need that anyway, as gaining bonus points for lodged bricks doesnt make sense to me.

awesome progress man, keep it up!

thanks Blodyavenger! I've updated the locked aim and the turret aim issues. for now the green angle thing will stay the same tho.

so, this is the first full release! see the original post for download details and spread the word pretty please

-new final level
-improved aim accuracy
-level flow tweaks
-new graphics
-new sounds
-music from Maf:   http://maf464.free.fr/

heres some pics:

bust-a-brain! I like it :D

does it lose it's comedy appeal if it becomes burst-a-brain?? (i just love the juicy sound of 'burst' )

:D
I like the name, but it implies it's a reaction skills game, whereas it's really a more puzzle / judgement type thing with no time restrictions.. you can think as slowly as you like!  Think Slow? hmmm

what platform are you releasing on by the way?

because I don't have a ps3, but I always thought damn, PJS looks fun I'd like to play that..

but I can't because I'm PC only. SO, if you're releasing on PC you might have a whole bunch of people who feel that way, and making it close to PJS is a GOOD thing, because we can't stratch that itch unless they port it to PC

[BrainSplode]

alo! I'd love some naming advice from the experts I'm making a game where you burst targets (which could in theory be anything) but i've gone with making them pulsating brains, sucking the life out of the land.

so, you explode brains- I was thinking BrainSplode?

the other one I was thinking of is Brainburst which I like better, but there's a shareware game called that.. it doesn't look too big- I don't know if itd be a problem calling it the same thing. I guess I could change it a bit like Brain-Burst?

Eya! update time + name update
download link is in the first post

been working mainly on graphics, but there's some gameplay tweaks too.
its much quicker to fire a new rocket after you've taken a shot- you can fire it quickly after the explosion, and grabbing the aimer will set the camera to its aim position

also I've added in these little creature things.. try not to kill them.. (or see how many you can massacre, Netsu )

[EDIT: oops was I using the wrong version??]

awesome game, loving it

EDIT: oops was I using the wrong version??
yes.. i got it mixed up in my download folder. never mind the crits

couple of notes from my first play:

-I spawned, hit a bad guy, then died. 'hmm ok this game is hard, but it looks fun! I'll have another go'

-waits.. game continues while I'm dead..

-starts mashing buttons..
-game starts again. Don't know which button did it
-dies..
-mashes keys again.. ok its in the top left of the keyboard..
-etc.

I really think once you're dead, hitting either z or x should restart the level. and escape should take you back to menu

also the menu navigation isn't very consistent- I find myself using a combination of r, enter, z and x which gets confusing. I would make esc / z = back (ingame, esc would do what r does) and enter / x confirm (or restart once you're dead)

aaanyway, the actual game is fun and hard It could really do with some oldschool chiptune beats

UPDATED:
I've uploaded a new version (same download link) with UI based aiming, and also a 'laser sight' aiming aid

UI aiming does seem to sharpen things up, since you get a much bigger area to control the values. Ortoslon: I know you said you want seperate controls, but does this version feel like you have more precise control?

the laser sight: ideally, i'd like a little 'arc predicter' which shows the first part of the rockets predicted trajectory. For now though, this straight line will have to do. It does help though


Blodyavenger: hmm, I do like the idea of limited rockets but with rocket pickups if you're running low.. The other thing I was thinking about is items you *don't* want to hit. This would be pretty hard given the blast radius. I might just add little cute creatures in.. there's no penalty for killing them, you just feel bad about it . Or you get a bonus for how many you managed not to kill

pretty fun! I didn't quite understand the 'bonus' score. I thought it related to the number of bricks in the paddle but sometimes I would shake them all out and the bonus remained high? how is bonus computed?

if you want to shorten play sessions, I would try:
- make it harder to drop bricks- increase their friction, mass, the size of the barriers at the sides of the paddle
- increase the player's lives quite a bit
- lose a life every time you drop a brick

that would be quite frantic- but you'll need to wrestle with that issue of the paddle moving too quick. you could try adding some inertia to it so at least the accelleration is never 0 to 60 in no seconds

edit: I also thought it would be cool if the bricks themselves could disloge new bricks, bein the same colour as the ball.. if you shake the whole lot and some fly upwards

hi ortoslon! is it the control of power you're referring to that feels imprecise?

I kind of like the simplicity of one input to control everything.. hmm- maybe if I increase the distance of the 'puller' then the resolution of the power would be greater.

OR, I could try moving the whole aim/power thing to the UI? then it will always be fairly large and give you that added control resolution

I'll try messing around see if I can give greater control without adding more inputs- if not, I'll give mouse wheel a go.

thanks for the feedback!

hi, thanks for playing

yeah I hear you. The scoring method isn't really set at the moment, but one thing I have in mind is a par system a bit like golf. So in most cases, its possible to hit the targets without hitting the obstacles, but if you hit one it will increase your number of shots to clear a level. Then your number of shots fired is used to rate your level clearance (eg, gold silver bronze)

I'm playing with a few ideas around this, but I'm open to suggestions too

i liked the mood of the game, but the scrolling was quite offputting to me, quite jerky..
also I didn't really enjoy moving the character- since that takes up most of your actions I ended up giving up playing before I made much progress.. I think in a platformer the number 1 thing should be the character is fun to control just moving around

the jetpack is the best bet here- I found only being able to trigger it at the apex of a jump a bit dissapointing, and often it didn't trigger when I wanted to use it. There are lots of fun jetpacks in games, I would use them for inspiration.

loved the spookyness though, and the visor torch

DOWNLOAD PAGE:
http://www.redprodukt.com/blog/?page_id=100

BrainSplode is a new game from Rust Red Games about rockets and busting some alien brains! They came to suck the life out of the planet, but they didn’t expect to be BrainSploded!

As the game progresses, more stages are added to your rocket allowing for complex and exciting manouvers! Then, choose your own configuration to burst the brains!

-physically simulated explosion funnels down tunnels and around scenery!

-bouncy yellow pads!

-multiple solutions!

just got round to trying this.. really nice work!

I thought it was going to be fairly small when I loaded it up, then there were missions and a shop and an inventory.. love the dialogue humour

Ok, I'm calling it done and releasing it! I've added it to the great games experiment:

http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/PlasmaPig/

onwards and upwards!
thanks to everyone for the encouragement and advice. I know there's plenty of flaws in there but I'd rather keep moving and gather what I've learned for the next battle
particular thanks to ortoslon for the many reapeat visits for advice and ideas!

here's some final screens:

thanks for the comments!
latest beta is available:
game is released!
http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/PlasmaPig

changes:
one more music track for variation
various menu updates, useful stats, updated graphics
balancing changes including:
more enemies
enemies have less health
enemies do less damage

which should make for more franetic but not more difficult gameplay (i hope)

This is probably my last test version before release, so if anyone has any last feedback, get it in now! I really want to hear how you find the difficulty curve and general experience, and what could use the final polish

tyronehenrie:
I've made killing baddies a bit easier, not sure if that'll help your sense of being in control. I wonder if my style of play is quite different to people who are first experiencing the game.. I tend to change quite frequently and move about a lot. There are some new hints at 'ready' screen, and a tutorial screen at the beginning which might change the way new players approach the game (maybe)

great work!

agree about more jetpack checkpoints, first couple gos I was like 'this is fun' but after the 6th,7th, 8th death I was cursing a bit under my breath 'just put in one ($%^$% checkpoint in the middle'

I didn't figure out what the painting squid was about, i guess I missed something.. I did see the cloud goat though :D

ah well, i guess I'm just in that camp of people who don't find iq tests enjoyable imagination or no. Must be a thickie . I didn't get 'iq test gone wrong' from the presentation though in the same way that say, portal managed to convey tests gone wrong.

well done for making this though . I agree with yaio about hints for people getting stuck