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TIGSource ForumsCommunityJams & EventsCompetitionsA Game by Its Cover[AGBIC] Burp n Shoot
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edg3
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« on: June 30, 2010, 04:17:51 AM »

Yes, this is yet another Burp n Shoot.


Im working in collaboration with friends of mine Fengol and Karuji, and we're working together to build the game in Game Maker (currently) to later be ported to XNA for the fun of it.

Teaser image:


The game is aiming to mimic the art style of the old TV game consoles (I only ever had one console that took cartridges), and aimed to be in the old shooter style like duck hunt.

Releases:
Prototype 1: http://www.box.net/shared/pgidnrxfqx

Screenshots soon

Current Status: Adding features, content, etc. Also getting player feedback.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2010, 02:56:31 AM by edg3 » Logged

Melly
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« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2010, 11:02:27 AM »

Use the tag with your image link to make the cart show up in the post.
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Feel free to disregard the above.
Games: Minus / Action Escape Kitty
edg3
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« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2010, 02:48:38 AM »

So the prototype is here, in all its rushed art and game play splendour. You can get it here: http://www.box.net/shared/pgidnrxfqx

Updating my first post now
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« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2010, 03:18:32 AM »

Decent for a first prototype, but the aiming seemed a bit sluggish and clicking to reload was tedious.
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edg3
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« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2010, 03:45:43 AM »

We have a suggestion to make it better, the icon will still show, but how about making it so that you just need to move the mouse to the bottom fifth of the screen to reload? So no need to click on buttons or anything like that to reload?

Also for the sluggish movement, is it not the "drunken aim" putting it off for you a bit? The aiming cursor moves around the mouse's x and y position in arcs arbitrarily to simulate drunken aim. Im open to any suggestions to make it better though Smiley
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« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2010, 04:17:38 AM »

We have a suggestion to make it better, the icon will still show, but how about making it so that you just need to move the mouse to the bottom fifth of the screen to reload? So no need to click on buttons or anything like that to reload?
Sounds like a plan.  Would be closer to how reloading in lightgun games works too.

Quote
Also for the sluggish movement, is it not the "drunken aim" putting it off for you a bit? The aiming cursor moves around the mouse's x and y position in arcs arbitrarily to simulate drunken aim. Im open to any suggestions to make it better though Smiley
Ah so that's what it is. I didn't even think of that.  Cheesy
In that case perhaps you could even make it a bit more "drunken" to get the point across.
 Beer!
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edg3
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« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2010, 04:37:45 AM »

A guy in the game dev community Im part of had this to sya about the drunken cursor:
Quote from: Nandrew
(1) Unlike most other sways that I've seen, the targeter here will NEVER pass through the 0,0 centre at any point during the sway path. I find this to be a little unforgiving: I'd imagine the idea is to narrow the window during which you can get an "easy shot" rather than annihilating it entirely. Sure, it gets much closer to the centre when you get more sober (and far easier as a result), but then this brings up a question: why ever get any more drunk than absolutely necessary?
I find his point extremely valid (it may also be the root of your aiming problems too, drunk cursor or not) and will be making some changes to the targetting cursor before I move on to any of the other suggestions he made, and below is what he had to say (in code tags so that it isnt a wall of text in one post.

Code:
I've gone through a few rounds of this (I don't know if you've got any unlockables in there yet, I've played up to the third stage with the standard stuff still in place).

Naturally, I quite like the drunken sway mechanic of the game, but I think with some tightening up it could be better. The detail that I go into here may sound a little too nerdy and nitpicky, but hear me out. Most "sway" mechanics implemented within games (typically the "sniper sway" commonly seen in modern shooters) involve a degree of variability and timing, sure, but the targeting cursor will always have a "centre" -- a 0,0 XY of sorts around which the sway is based (god, I hope this is being explained properly with text, because what I really want to do now is draw a set of pictures). Basically, if you were to superimpose an image of the mouse's current logical X,Y position, it would usually meet up with the reticule on occasion.

After playing this game, I can see what you've done with your centre -- the targeting reticule rotates around it at a steady pace, occasionally randomly swapping direction. The distance from centre is based on the level of drunkenness achieved. I think I've got that correct.

There's a few things which jar me about this particular system, though:

(1) Unlike most other sways that I've seen, the targeter here will NEVER pass through the 0,0 centre at any point during the sway path. I find this to be a little unforgiving: I'd imagine the idea is to narrow the window during which you can get an "easy shot" rather than annihilating it entirely. Sure, it gets much closer to the centre when you get more sober (and far easier as a result), but then this brings up a question: why ever get any more drunk than absolutely necessary?

(2) The random (and SEVERE) path direction changes. In one frame, it'll be going clockwise. In the next, it'll be at full tilt in the opposite direction. This is patently unfair on the player, since even the most meticulously timed and skillfully anticipated shots are often sabotaged by a random direction change. Good players aren't rewarded for quick-thinking aim compensation at all, and at higher levels of drunkenness it becomes nigh uncontrollable, often swapping at least once a second. Again, the player is encouraged to simply be as sober as possible at all times.

(3) The burst of cans that arrives upon super drunkenness simply cannot be exploited properly due to points 1 and 2. For a start, the wave is extremely temporary in nature, and it's a mad dash to try shoot *anything* with very limited ammo, a very limited time window and a (by-then) completely uncooperative targeting system. It again becomes a no-brainer choice: play the game as soberly as possible. There is no incentive to getting more drunk. The bonus that seems to be on offer just doesn't cut it, and any rewards reaped from it just seem to be luck-based.

If I were to revise this system, I would suggest looking for something that (a) passes through 0,0 from time to time and (b) becomes a little more (but not completely) predictable (perhaps half a second or so? Idunno, I'd be a little blurry on that until I had a chance to tweak and observe). What I have in my head is a momentum-based targeter which can have small vector adjustments made to it frame by frame, with a "pull bias" towards 0,0.

Actually, I think a gravity metaphor could do well to describe this. Say you have a spaceship trying to leave a star system, so it's trying to pull away from the sun. Its rockets are pretty powerful, but they're ironically solar-powered. Escape velocity is easily achievable near the sun, but as soon as the spaceship gets too far away, the rockets power down too much, the acceleration will decrease and it'll eventually start getting sucked back.

Assuming that the spaceship can survive being pulled straight into the sun, it'll probably slingshot through and go out the other side to attempt another escape (in terms of actual physics, this momentum plus the rocket power should mean that the escape attempt will gradually become more successful, but IDUNNO SHUT UP, we're ignoring this because my brain's starting to peter out). Maybe the spaceship's direction can be altered slightly and gradually by the pilot during this whole effort (because the pilot likes excitement and variety), but the same thing will happen every time: it will be drawn back towards the sun.

In my opinion, your mouse cursor needs to be the sun. The targeter needs to be the space ship. And the rocket power is determined by your drunkenness. It would establish a more forgiving centre position AND allow better players to be rewarded for anticipating the "flight path".

This seems like a lot of undue attention for a very small mechanic, but it's a really important part of this particular game which players will be regularly expected to contend with, so I think it deserves the focus.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. ;)
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