I really enjoy the music for this game. The modulation reminds me of Toejam and Earl.

Kirby's Adventure: The Shmup!

I love ability-stealing in any game. Your art is fantasmo.

It does make the powerups feel more momentous.

It is good to see people who have lots of self-motivation.

Ok, there is a small demo up!

Included:

* The background for the first stage
* Our little hero
* The three basic spells

I implemented a version where each firing key did something when pressed by itself - Z was a puny offensive shot, X was a bullet-killing shot, and C was a shield - but then changed it back to my original idea because I want it to stay simple. Plus, then you would have to shoot to execute combos (unless there was a timer system that waited to fire until after a combo failed, which would make each kind of basic shot useless, and a shield useless as well, since they were all designed around immediacy and holding off an enemy until a combo could be executed), and that might mess up scoring. Like, if I want to play Ikaruga as a Dot Eater, I don't want to have my guns fire when I switch colors.

As it stands, I'm planning on allowing each trap to have a time limit before it will home in on the enemy. The more shots you trap before homing, the more damage you do and the more you score. Shoot an empty trap at the enemy and you lose points. Chain together a bunch of traps without missing, get a bonus multiplier. Don't let your traps hit any other bullet types, get bonuses. I'll add funny sound effects when you press the buttons so the user gets some good feedback. I think I'll have the mouth open, too, so it seems like you're combining phonemes into workable spells.

-EDIT-

His mouth opens when pressing buttons, now.

-EDIT EDIT-

Some monster sprites. The first is the tutorial monster, who teaches you how to play and attempts to kill you in a genial fashion. Shimada Mage! I'm going to have her throw random Japanese junk. Then there is a throwing-fireballs animation for Bemular.



               

Do not give up! Your little onion punks are adorable, and I would play your game just to jump the horse over holes.

Little mockup. I'm going to use NES resolution limitations, too, so the screen will be a little taller. Obviously not using sprite limitations; just colors. I'm basing my monster designs off of Ultraman. This is Bemular.

The main player sprite (will just recolor for friends! and possibly add different hats, if time):



His four different poses: flying, slowing down, flying while speaking, slowing down while speaking. Strung together in a gif.

EDIT:

Also, his flying animation, since I didn't want him to be static.




Yes, he flaps his arms.

Using the NES palette, EXCEPT pixen keeps lightening when I make new layers, so I'll have to recolor it in PAINT. RIDICULOUS. So disregard the shifts right now.

The character will barf three different kanji that will capture projectiles, and a fourth for friends:

勇: cheer up! (small)

為: try! (medium)

勝: victory! (large)

曹: friend! (rescue)

I think capturing combos will be the same (for use against projectiles), but friend combos will always be different, to walk the line between Chase Goose and Canabalt, as it were. Friends flying alongside you will issue their own spells in conjunction with yours, so if there are a lot of small projectiles, you shout "cheer up!" and so do your friends. Then those small projectiles that are hit by your spells return to the boss.

[TOGETHER FIGHT! : FRIENDLY HAT SPIRIT]

TOGETHER FIGHT! : FRIENDLY HAT SPIRIT

DESCRIPTION: A boss rush shooter where you start off by yourself and fight a single enemy by executing key combos to send his projectiles back at him.  Different sizes of projectiles have different combos; larger fireballs require larger combos. Every once in awhile the boss throws a friendly character toward you that you can capture by executing the appropriate combo. Doing so adds to your strength and gives you a friend to fight alongside you. Also you wear a flying hat that lets you fly and turns words that you say into magic spells. I'm going super literal for this one. This is basically just an excuse to make a ridiculous shooting game with a happy song, possibly with karaoke lyrics.		INSPIRATION:

CONTROLS:

Arrows: Move!
Z+Z+X = Small Trap!
X+X+Z = Medium Trap!
Z+X+Z+X = Large Trap!
X+Z+X+Z = FRIEND TRAP!

:DOWNLOAD COMPETITION VERSION:

:DOWNLOAD REVISION 1:

OK phew etc. The game is complete! All the content is in. Now it is just waiting for news of some horrible bug that I won't know how to fix.

I did a lot of work on the game balance this time; added some new spirit guides to clear up particularly esoteric challenges. See?

Also, added quite a bit more food and tweaked enemy placement, etc. Let me know what you think!

Went back and simplified the sprites for a game I am going to start working on again; trying to keep styles consistent, etc. Ignore the pea soup background.

I have been waiting for this game for awhile. This game is: JAUNTY: THE GAME.

I really like this, but it did take some figuring out. It took me awhile to realize that only people standing on stone will move onto meteors. I use meteors to herd people around. It seems to work reasonably well.

This game has really satisfying visual feedback. I love weird tiny windows, also.

I am glad that you exist.

I should maybe add a guide rabbit at that spot; a few people have gotten stuck there. Burying all the enemies throws a teleporter up.

Ok, just uploaded a surfaces-optional version; you can turn them off in "views.ini". The pause key is a little weird now, but it should be playable. Let me know if you run into any rooms that you can't see, since the game uses viewport scaling instead of surfaces, or if there's anything else that's weird.

@Saker: ack! thanks for trying. fixing...

-EDIT-

Unfortunately, I'm not able to test on Windows 7, since I don't have it. As far as I know, I'm unloading sounds and music before exiting; I might need some help to fix that particular bug from someone who has Windows 7 and more Gamemaker know-how.

Still working on the surfaces.

It's been a long time since I posted anything, and too much has been added to keep track of. So! I'll just post some screenshots of the underworld and its new, accompanying monsters.

a dragon


a teleporting squid


underwater worms!