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[moonmagic]

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:

[Melly]

Yes

Yes

Yes

[moonmagic]

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.

[Melly]

I'm liking this idea plenty.

[moonmagic]

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.

[Curseman]

Looks rad.

[moonmagic]

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.

[Inanimate]

What an awesome idea! Good luck with it.

[miconazole]

1. This is a really interesting idea!
2. I'm pretty sure I'm going to suck at this game already.

[moonmagic]

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.



               

[Inanimate]

This game is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS

I love the light colors.

[moonmagic]

New demo!

Shimada Mage throws some fireballs in a messy sine wave. Match your traps to the fireballs to fight back! Chain for big points! Combo for big damage!

No deaths yet. No collisions with bullets possible. No hat friends. Third bullet / trap is not in. Untrappable bullets: not yet. Working on the trap sprites.

-EDIT-

Two out of four of the Friendly Hat Army:



I decided only to have four dudes to rescue because then I can balance the powerups you get, instead of a generic do-more-damage power-up.

Planned:

+ Frog hat (Allows your spells to draw appropriate bullets toward them from a short distance)

+ Raccoon hat (Don't fire to charge the wave; wave fires with next spell, automatically changing bullets in its path to the appropriate size)

+ Rabbit hat (Allows the "rescue friend" spell to absorb bullets, which power a protective shield)

+ Wolf hat (Fires a blast when charged that does damage based on how many bullets you have absorbed in one shot)

[moonmagic]

Two new screenshots!





Changes:

- Lots of placeholder sprites have been replaced.
- Finalized the chain mechanic.
- Friend rescues are in.
- The rabbit friend actually does something! You get a shield.
- You can kill the boss!
- The boss can kill you.

Demo link at the top of thread.

[Inanimate]

I'd like to be able to just restart in-game, and I actually think it's a bit difficult currently. Perhaps lighten the amount of bullets? I probably just suck at this though.

[deathtotheweird]

Having the friends following you reminded me of the "kids" part of the game The American Dream by newton64

http://www.newton64.ca/games/index.php#awndo

[moonmagic]

@Inanimate:

Yeah, I should have put in a restart before uploading; next version! My next priority is finishing up the rest of the friend powers, and balancing the monster's attacks. I think I'll save the current bullet pattern until the second half of the health bar.

@allen:

I'm always amazed to see what people can do during other competitions. I'll have to try it the next time I'm in Windows (OS X right now).

[J. R. Hill]

Man I really love the way this is shaping up...

[moonmagic]

Things I have done!

- Finished the powers for each of the hat friends.
- Wrote better bullet procedures for the boss; should give me more control and tighter patterns.
- Included a "How to Play" screen.
- Made this title screen:

-Made the introduction screen for stage 1.

Still to do:

- Balance bullet patterns for the first boss (so the scoring isn't totally stupid)
- Pixel a "you win" screen / score tally
- Make a high scores table
- Make a story screen for the attract mode
- Music
- Sound

[belbeeno]

Awesome demo, but sounds and music are just what this game needs.  Can't wait to see this one finished!

Side note, the controls at the head of the thread are different from the ones in game?

[moonmagic]

Oh, you are totally right!

Small trap: z z x
Medium trap: x x z
Large trap: z x z x
Friend trap: x z x z

Also, that's still an old demo, and doesn't have the most recent updates. Will upload again when I make more progress, and modify thread when not on a phone.