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[UnemployedVillain]

So while the game still looks the same I've gone through a lot of thinking. A lot of code revisions and in the end I changed a lot. It's gone from a shmup to what I term an aerial beat em' up. I've also changed the name to something...a little less "serious" sounding. That's because you control a robot with different shots and melee attacks and specials in can do when it's meter is high enough. The HUD stuff isn't done yet but the basic attacks are.

So a basic recap:
You're in control of a recycle bot who can convert raw materials into energy. This means that enemies when you weaken them enough can be absorbed into energy that you can either use for bullets, or burn to heal yourself.

So the gameplay revolves around going through levels and beating bosses and all that nice stuff. For those times you run out of energy and still have enemies to defeat you have a chain that you can whip in various ways. It's weaker than the bullets but can be more useful in certain situations...

The basic control scheme, kinda follows the old arcade Marvel vs Capcom scheme of weak/strong attacks and specials.

Controls
Arrows - movement, double tap a direction to dash
A \ S - weak shot \ strong shot
A+S - special shot
Z \ X - weak melee \ strong melee
Z+X - special melee
A+Z - charge (recover HP with energy)
S+X - absorb (capture weak enemies and junk and convert to energy)

So another feature of beat em' ups is lots of weapons. As you can see, the melee attack is a chain that you can swing in different ways. At the end is the default weapon, a blade. I don't know exactly how I'll do it (whether you fly into a weapon or unlock them) but you'll be able to change the attached weapon at the edge of the chain and although the chain will act the same, depending on the attachment it's damage will change and the attachment will have it's on special attributes. I already have an easy system in place to make attachments so it should be pretty easy. Anyway, here are some pics of the different attacks

http://i47.tinypic.com/2je5xdc.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/2a66sdg.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/352n0bq.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/28tygi1.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/qzq6xh.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/11ghdft.jpg

I hope in a week I can have some sort of actual demo. I really need some help balancing the bullet costs attack strength.

UPDATE #7 (6/21/10)

Another demo!
Click DemoJar to run the demo

UPDATE #6 (6/21/10)

Click DemoJar to run the demo

I was wondering if some people could try out the short demo and see what they think of it. It's a very early demo with only a couple enemy types (I'll let you figure out what they do). The HUD is just text right now and there's a lot of balancing I have to do with EN costs, damage and stuff.  The controls are what I mentioned above. Use the SPACE bar to reset your HP and EN to max and ENTER to go back to the title screen and reset the demo without closing/opening it again.

Also ideas for enemies would be appreciated. As you can see, the description "aerial beat em'up" is more appropriate than simply shmup as many enemies won't simply fire weird bullet patterns in their attack.

My brother was giving me another idea to consider, instead of having bullets consume EN (energy) they simply consume your multiplier.

The idea is that you have a base multiplier of 1X that can go up to 4X. Using a special attack consumes 1 multiplier level and using bullets consumes variable ammounts (your weak shot less than your strong one). The only way to build up the multiplier is to hit enemies with your melee (small gains) or absorb them (large chunks of gain). It'll be shown as a meter. This way, getting close to enemies and killing them with your melee and weaker attacks, basically putting yourself at risk rewards you more than simply using a strong attack. This is just something I'm considering so tell me if you think it'd be better than the current system.



UPDATE #5 (6/11/10)

MementoMoriDemo.rar
Click MementoMori.jar to run

DEMO TIME! Well not really a "demo" so much as a controls demo and you get to see the intro in non crappy Youtube quality. This is really just to allow people to test out the controls and get a feel for them. At the moment it only has one enemy but there will be more soon!



UPDATE #4 (6/11/10)




Just a video showing off the the different shot types. The first is the wide shot, then the sweep shot then the standard straight shot. At the moment they can be switched between using the number keys (1,2,3). As you know, generating bullets takes up energy. At the moment since each of these shots is created by generating a certain number of bullets, or by changing their path vectors, the cost is the same for all of them. For balance I might make the sweep and spread take up more energy to generate



UPDATE #3 (6/8/10)





Rewrote a lot of the code once I added enemies for efficiency and I like how it turned out. Based on actual testing and some comments I decided the eating idea was a bit convoluted and I changed it dramatically. Now it works like this

Each enemy has a disableZone which is usually some small fraction of their max health (for the drones it's 25%). When an enemy enters this zone it stops functioning so it can't move or attack and it turns red. When it's at this point you simply click the eat button and all enemies on screen are absorbed or you can finish it off. Again, I need to figure out how to "reward" players for killing as opposed to eating. On the other hand, I've found simply holding down the fire button some times causes you to accidentally kill enemies so the fact that you have to somewhat manage your fire helps to make eating enemies not exactly trivial



UPDATE #2 (6/8/10)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9cLemQ0_pY

I added an enemy robot. I don't really know what to call it, so it's just a Drone for now. It basically charges at you when it sees you in it's field of vision (within a certain distance).

I haven't implemented it yet but you might notice after shooting it a while it says EAT OK. This is when it's health dips below a certain point and most enemies do this. When it happens you can either consume them for energy or keep shooting and completely destroy them. I figure I'll think of some reward for destroying to balance out not getting energy

Also I've got the flamethrower animation but it looks...off. I don't know why or how to really fix it





UPDATE #1 (6/8/10)

YAY, it seems this thread did have the effect of making me work. I've made a lot of changes

Have done

• Made the final character sprites. Going to start on enemies soon
• Finalized the style of background
• Implemented many of the characters moves like eating, flamethrower, recharging, shooting
  

To do

• Implement some basic enemies and patterns. Make sure eating mechanic works.
• Work on the HUD interface. Right now it's just text and numbers
• Figure out Phys2D for when I get to bosses

First Build


Background
So you're in control of a modified recycling bot in some near future where trash has gotten to the point that it flies around everywhere. Being a recycling bot you're able to eat anything that comes flying at you and use it as energy

Gameplay
I don't know if I want to make it a full game with levels or just make it a boss rush sort of thing. Anyway, gameplay will consist of:

• Eating trash, small enemy robots, things thrown at you and using it for energy
• Energy can be used to recover health, or power your flamethrower
• Energy/eating objects can be used to create different kinds of bullets

[CyanPrime]

For this I'm feeling levels.

[UnemployedVillain]

Made an update!
I REALLY wish I had remembered to get the name of whoever inspired me to make that style of background. It was someone in the "Show off your pixel work" thread but this was over a year ago (when I started on the game)

Anyway, I'll try getting a video because it looks pretty cool. All 3 "layers" of buildings scroll at different speeds for a sort of parallax type of look

Question
Right now I'm wondering which way I should handle the eating system. If I wasn't clear before, this is a recycle bot so it's able to gain energy by eating small enemies and flying debris and use that to either create ammo or heal itself. This is handled by having the player perform an action when in range of an eatable object.

Currently, when in range of something you can eat you have to mash a button a certain number of times (depending on the size of the enemy and the amount of energy given when eaten) within a time limit to successfully eat the enemy, or it blows up in your face and you're damaged.

I was considering making this maybe a mini QTE ranging from 1-5 keys (I'd make sure they're all within a certain space on the keyboard) instead. So it's a question of whether people would prefer mashing a button or performing a QTE.I know many people dislike QTEs though...

[UnemployedVillain]

YAY, another update. Although minor it took me a couple hours to get working...

[namre]

oooo. So the game's name is Memento Mori. Made me remember about the space station in Gundam00 Season 2.

[Inanimate]

Makes me think of Persona 3.

[I_smell]

Wow this is a WEIRD control scheme, I didn't expect that.
I think you're over-thinking the enemy-eating idea. Like what if you just had to weaken an enemy first, Pokemon-style? Or if you had to beat the enemy, and when it blows up a ghost-spirit-thing flies by and you have to catch that to absorb it?
Out of your ideas I like the button-mashing thing the most.

Fire is like the hardest thing to animate. Yours starts off good, but the best suggestion I can give is to draw the first frame of the fire, then think about how each point on it would morph into the shape of the point infront of it. Like I said though, it's hard to work out.

I'd like to throw a whole bunch of suggestions at this, but I can't get over this crazy idea of clicking on a place to zoom there.
One thing that's buggin me is why was this robot built with arms n legs when it only ever uses it's head? but you're not gonna change that, so nevermind.
I'm also makin a shooter where you eat and fire enemies around, so check out that thread.

[UnemployedVillain]

Haha, thanks for the comments. They've caused me to reevaluate some things. Mainly the eating concept. As for why it has arms that it doesn't use? At the moment...it's laziness. I made the mouth open sprite, realized it worked for other functions and was too lazy to make one that utilized the arms. I'll probably eventually make shooting use the arms, especially since I'm considering making different shot types

Video uploaded!

Oh, btw, does anyone know of any GIMP tutorial that could help in making my backgrounds look more pixelated? Like to make it so the gradient wasn't so smooth maybe?

[baconman]

Last non-indie shmup I got into was Radio Allergy (aka Radrigy), and it had an interesting tactical system of shoot/slash/shield. I'd say keep the mouth/alternative animations for shooting, and consider using the arms for slashing and shielding. In case you haven't played it: Shielding is essential for unavoidable shot combos, and has a "pong" kind of effect that returns blocked fire, but only covers you from mostly-direct fire, and is positioned a full tile in front. This is activated by NOT shooting/slashing for a second, and only until you do (you can move, however). Slashing can take out crowds of weaker enemies in one slash, and can block bullets, deflect things, and even juggle power-ups, but it only goes out two tiles, and kind of arcs around you, covering one tile above and below.

The look of this, along with your character design also makes me think of something like Bubblegum Crisis. As a shmup, it's understandable that much of the action would take place in mid-air, maneuvering around. But it could be interesting if say, within every ten seconds, you had to make contact with the not-always-there ground (or the side of a tall building while crashing through/against it), and bounce yourself forward again; or that doing so would enable you to clear some levels quicker (IE: initial momentum is fast, but it slows as you travel forwards). Perhaps a boss setup somewhat like Doomsday Zone in Sonic could be interesting to use with that, or a boss that chases you from behind, and you have to continue outrunning it, while attacking it (directly or indirectly).

Just a couple of things to consider, maybe.


EDIT: For the flamethrower, try changing frames 2-3 so the colors are inverted. IIRC, red is usually on the inside, the lighter part is more on the outside (though a red or orange outline may not be so bad). You might consider a purple/blue/white one in case of multiplayer potential, or as an enemy weapon (so as to not confuse them with your own). And finally, move the core parts forward a bit, so they're the "base" of the hitbox, and the graphical outer part is just flashy trails.

[UnemployedVillain]

Thanks for the comments. I've looked at some Radrigy vids and it looks pretty cool. I was thinking about some sort of melee attack that took no energy to perform because when I've been testing, when I didn't hack unlimited energy I found I ran out pretty fast and was left with enemies and no way to kill them. It might be a punch or something cool. I feel using a sword is overused for melee (it's done in Radrigy, Sin & Punishment, and other games)

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has any vids to shmups to get some ideas for interesting shot types. I don't want to simply go with the more bullets type of shot, because using ammo wisely is part of this game, unlike other shooters where it's usually unlimited/for a certain time period

[baconman]

Well, perhaps some kind of upgradable axe, that you can recycle robot junk to increase it's power and range (like Castlevania whips, but with an arc range), but the effect is semi-permanent. You only lose it if you die. But in turn, you can only upgrade it so many times (like 5 or so?). EDIT: Like "Level 0" axe is just a hammer punch, and "Level 1" is just a handle/staff. Perhaps "Level 4/5" could add a chain that increases the range of the forward arc, but doesn't really effect the top/bottom ones. If you're going for a "ground contact/takeoff" (assuming that is factored in) and you're about to undershoot one, this can be used to pull you to the edge instantly, as a last-second save, as well... but the save and the contact/takeoff is practically instant - you really don't lose much/any momentum in doing so. (/EDIT)

On that note, I can see a time period kind of thing working if nothing else does, but I also understand the value of conserving ammo that you're going for here, and how that would be counterproductive to that. (IE: The "use it or lose it" logic.) The game DOES require some kind of margin of error to retain playability, though it can be reduced as levels go on. I suppose you can counter that by turning defeated enemies into an amount of scrap that's a little more generous that you'd spend to defeat it (if you did it right!), but also make it impractical/impossible to get it from all of them when a crowd appears.

That way, as long as you're accurate and efficient in wasting (and recycling!) your foes, your ammo will remain at a fair, balanced level for the most part. It's wasting your ammo that will cause you to run out. Perhaps include a variety or two of enemy that does NOT produce any at all too, so the main tactic involving them is to kill them off as little as you can get away with, and avoiding them altogether is the beneficial thing to do for your ammo levels. Then MAYBE one or two, for use in early levels primarily, that will be more gracious about it - taking few shots (or just one) to kill, and spraying a fairly generous chunk of junk to beef you up. (If used later in the game, consider making them easy to kill accidentally in the wrong place, and HARD TO COLLECT.)

A few things like this put together will let you formulate different, but simple depth and strategy for different levels, especially just by putting two of them together. (Like a level that features BOTH the junk-spewers AND the junkless ones, almost exclusively; but making it tricky to collect the junkers while avoiding the non-junkers - perhaps at one point or two, only possible with NEAR-EXACT precision. Or maybe just some secret spots you can do something in to produce/discover a little extra junk.

Weapons! I think a shrapnel or blast-zone kind of shot would work nicely, maybe a cleaving shot, too.

Shrapnel shot is a big ball, and when it makes contact, it breaks and splits apart, damaging other enemies in the vicinity. Kinda like MM8's Arrow Shot, but a little less stalled/broken (IE: not persistent after splitting). The blast zone shot pops out in front of you, fairly quick but with a little stall time, then it explodes and burns with a circular/radial range that can take out a small group, or do concentrated damage to anything in it's range (possibly including some of the junk), as it persists for a period of time before it dissolves. Cleaving shot is just a shot that contines to travel forward or in the appropriate direction, taking out whatever's in it's pathway.

Perhaps even a super-blade form, where shots still damage you (IE: you're NOT invincible), but you can inflict heavy (often insta-kill) contact damage on enemies instead of the other way around for awhile. But the junk flys all over - so you'll always be able to collect a bit of it, but not a lot; you'd have to nail at LEAST 8 enemies (or a lot of tricky collection) just to even out. (You could do some neat animation for that too, like the Top Spin! Or Junk Shield?)

RE-EDIT: A BOUNCING WALLBALL ATTACK! You shoot it forward, and as it hits enemies, it wastes them and bounces back in your direction. From there, you hit that with your axe/hammer/punch to send it flying back (directly) at more of them. Or maybe have it go all the way across at an appropriate angle, and bounce off the screen's edge back at you. Rinse and repeat. This way, a pro bouncer can conserve more ammo utilizing this technique and having fun with it, but you can't really spam it to death, and keep missing it, either. Allow for as many as the player can manage to keep in play. THERE'S YOUR CLEAVING SHOT!

I'd say, require a total defeat prior to eating an enemy, and go with something like a "chew" button, where different enemies take different, but consistent numbers of "chews" to get down. Weaker/smaller ones you just tap once, but bigger mouthfuls, you have to hit it 5 times or so, before you can shoot again (since that ALSO comes from the mouth). A type or two may even insta-blast you just for trying to eat them. Or, shooting during that will cause it to be spit like a shot itself. But they all begin to fall at that point of defeat, and if they go off-screen, tough cookies. You can use the axe/whatever to juggle them (or try to), if you need some time to collect them, or you plan to save one to devour later. One chew gets you 2 pts. of junk, and each additional chew gets you one more.

Finally, award a score bonus for having unused junk remaining at the end of the level. I'm not saying take it AWAY from the player, here - just reward them for having it built up, and not having to spend it (yet). Perhaps even a 1up or special bonus for having it totally full when you finish a level. Or totally empty at the end of the game, as that shows you HAVE done your job in recycling correctly. And for players that REALLY want to show off, one for each piece of "juggled junk" still in play once the boss is beaten.

[UnemployedVillain]

I made a logo and the video!

[UnemployedVillain]

Put up a movement demo. I'm not entirely sure if it'll actually run though...Oh, to run it, click the MementoMori jar file

[UnemployedVillain]

Update tiem!

[UnemployedVillain]

Play the demo, tell me what you think. General comments on the direction, idea for enemies. Ideas for shot patterns, ideas of chain attachments!

[UnemployedVillain]

Another demo.

I've got a lot of enemy types in now. The idea is that they'll be a set of different enemy types, enemies with different behaviors and attacks and that all the enemies in the game will be different versions of those types (meaning altered stats and different sprites, not simply recolors)

This demo kind of just dumps in the types I have created. I figure levels will be split into zones, which will contain a certain number of enemies of different types in different locations and once you clear a zone, by defeating all the enemies, you can proceed, in a Final Fight type of progression