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[goshki]

Here's a game I've been working on for the last couple of weeks and I believe it has reached a state in which it can be shown to a wider public. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present a prototype of: Unevasible Exodus!



Basically it's a game about evading obstacles for as long as you can. The density of obstacles increases with time. The longer you survive, the more points you get. The amount of points is also multiplied by your velocity - yes, you can accelerate and decelerate (but there is a minimal velocity, you cannot fly slower than that). Velocity is controlled by the horizontal position of the mouse cursor. When you move the cursor to the horizontal center of the screen the ship goes with minimal velocity. But as you approach the right edge of the screen the velocity increases and the more points you get. At higher velocities the screen pans to the right, so you see more in front of your ship and you have more time to react. There are also some bonuses right now but I leave it to you to find out how to get them.

So I guess it's time for the link. Here it goes:

Prototype 03: http://bit.ly/gDuUdb

Prototype 04: http://bit.ly/eAjQ5d (with screen-shaking and horizontal streaks at higher velocities)

New prototype: http://bit.ly/gDUp7y (with remapped throttle area, revamped velocity streaks, and obstacle ships divided into waves of increasing density)

Or you can just watch a (little outdated) video showing the game in action:



Now some technicals. It's a flash game and I'm using Flixel engine to create it. The game requires Flash Player 10. Currently there are no sounds, no menus, no scoreboards, just core gameplay. The graphics are WIP because I have yet to decide the final style. But I guess it'll come out pretty close to what it looks like now. I'm also trying to come up with the structure of level (actually it's just one infinite level but I think there should be some wave structure of obstacles so the player gets a moment to rest from time to time).

All right, it's all for now. Comments, suggestions and criticism is welcome! Please let me know what you think of it and how much points you got!

If you have an impression that you have seen the player's ship sprite somewhere else then you're right - I've used the sprite from FlashGameDojo's intro game as a reference. I hope AdamAtomic won't be mad at me about this.

[rudy]

Pretty decent prototype you have I scored 742 points. Beat me!

[oyog]

I got 329 till my mouse slipped off the screen and the ship stopped responding.

Aside from that, it's pretty great!  I especially like the controls and the visuals.

Any thoughts on whether there will be larger structures in the game, Gradius style land masses, for example?

Any ideas on variation in gameplay?  Will there be levels or stages?  Would bosses be feasible in a game based on avoidance? 

I would assume you wouldn't want levels to be separate, since the scoring is based on arcade-style unbroken gameplay.

For some reason I imagine the player being able to reach higher and higher speeds as one progresses through the game.

I just noticed the bonus for glancing off other ships.  I got a little carried away and died because of it.    Do you have any other combos or bonuses worked out?  It'd be interesting to find ways to encourage different gameplay styles.

[Altemore]

Lovely prototype you have there. 423 points.
I like the different ships but the particle effect for your ship contrail could be improved. I'd suggest a jet effect rather than smoke, as it seems more fitting in outer space.
The effect when scratching other ships is wonderfully dramatic. I think you could improve the feeling of speed a lot by making your parallax scrolling a bit more extreme, for example you could add some dust particles that move faster than the stars?
I can see this becoming quite a bit of fun  

[James Edward Smith]

I found it more fun to smash into something and then watch the cool multi particle space floaty explosion than "play the game".

[goshki]

Pretty decent prototype you have I scored 742 points. Beat me!

Now that's a pretty good score! Did you scratch your ship a lot?

I got 329 till my mouse slipped off the screen and the ship stopped responding.

Aside from that, it's pretty great!  I especially like the controls and the visuals.

Any thoughts on whether there will be larger structures in the game, Gradius style land masses, for example?

Any ideas on variation in gameplay?  Will there be levels or stages?  Would bosses be feasible in a game based on avoidance? 

I would assume you wouldn't want levels to be separate, since the scoring is based on arcade-style unbroken gameplay.

For some reason I imagine the player being able to reach higher and higher speeds as one progresses through the game.

I just noticed the bonus for glancing off other ships.  I got a little carried away and died because of it.    Do you have any other combos or bonuses worked out?  It'd be interesting to find ways to encourage different gameplay styles.

You're right, getting the cursor off the game area can be quite frustrating. I'm not yet sure how to remedy that. I was thinking about enlarging the flash area around to get a kind of an error margin.

I also thought about larger (longer) ships and some space station structures that would require precise fly-through. Also no stages per se but regular obstacle density drops so the player has some time to rest. As you said - it's an arcade style gameplay so there is no point in separate levels.

As to bonuses and other combos - I'm working on few others and I also think about some kind of achievements that would be awarded at the end, after you crash.

I think you could improve the feeling of speed a lot by making your parallax scrolling a bit more extreme, for example you could add some dust particles that move faster than the stars?

Yes, there will be a couple of background layers to help the player get the feeling of speed. I've also experimented with a screen-shaking effect at higher speeds but it made the game too hard to control.

I found it more fun to smash into something and then watch the cool multi particle space floaty explosion than "play the game".

It may sound funny but I also like to watch the particles float after explosion. I belive it's a good thing.

[goshki]

For those of you who haven't got the chance to see it in action, I've recorded a video showing scratching combos. They're quite hard to perform (and the current graphic style makes it even harder because player and other ships have dark outline) but can get you a whole lot of points! Link to the video below:

[Helmeted]

I love the way the score multiplier shakes as you go faster.

Sounds like you you've got some good ideas for the future of it, and it's already pretty fun.

[diki]

liking it, too!
feels responsive, and the idea of 'scratching' opponents for points is neat.
and yes, it definitely has a canabalt vibe to it, in a good way. funny how big pixels, fast scrolling to the left & a wide image aspect ratio can do that ;D

[goshki]

liking it, too!
feels responsive, and the idea of 'scratching' opponents for points is neat.
and yes, it definitely has a canabalt vibe to it, in a good way. funny how big pixels, fast scrolling to the left & a wide image aspect ratio can do that

Yes, Canabalt is one of my inspirations (although Canabalt's theme was "minimal" IIRC). Just as in Canabalt I'm trying to achieve the same "just-one-more-try" addictiveness but I'm aware it's going to be ultra-hard!

[goshki]

I've fiddled around with the feeling of speed. I've added some screen shaking at higher velocities and also some horizontal streaks when the velocity is near maximum. I've written earlier that screen shaking made the game harder but I think I've hit the sweet spot with current implementation. Screenshot does not show how it feels so here's a link to a new prototype:

http://bit.ly/eAjQ5d

Also, I've removed the dark outline from player's capsule so now it is easier to feel the distance to obstacles when doing scratching combos. Comparison below:

Old/new:

And bigger old/new:

And a sprite for one of the obstacle ships:

[diki]

i think the visual changes work great & improve the sense of speed.

two other things i've noticed:

• to achieve maximum speed, the mouse has to be at the very rightmost edge, where it easily slips out of the frame, leaving the player without control
• at high speeds, i often found myself rapidly glancing left & right to be able to see both where the ship was currently at & where the next obstacle would appear

it would be interesting to see wether a more generous padding of the mouse controls, or a different mapping for the throttle (e.g. leftmost-edge-to-center instead of center-to-rightmost-edge) could improve usability and still remain intuitive…

[goshki]

Another day, another prototype. As diki suggested, I've shifted the throttle mapping area. The screenshot below shows the current situation:



I guess the suggestion was right. Now the whole velocity range is accessible without the risk of mouse cursor slipping off the game area.

The new version can be tested here: http://bit.ly/gDUp7y

Apart from the change described above, I've also slightly modified horizontal streaks that appear at higher velocities - now they are more subtle yet they still add to the feeling of speed.

Another notable change are ship waves. Now obstacle ships appear in waves with increasing density but every minute the wave ends and a new wave starts few seconds later with a little drop in density).

[oyog]

It occurs to me that, visually, it's a little strange that you're the only ship with exhaust.  It gives the illusion that the other ships are stationary, or in the cases of ships moving past you at different rates, moving in reverse.  I think the second illusion is simply that all the ships are facing the same direction.

Apologies if that wasn't the clearest description.  I've had a little too much coffee and it makes it a bit difficult to keep my thoughts organized.
 

The updated controls are much more comfortable.

[goshki]

It occurs to me that, visually, it's a little strange that you're the only ship with exhaust.  It gives the illusion that the other ships are stationary, or in the cases of ships moving past you at different rates, moving in reverse.  I think the second illusion is simply that all the ships are facing the same direction.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Properly animated ships (with flaming jet engines and flashing windows) are on my todo-list. :-)

[goshki]

Meteors:



A high velocity random event between ship waves.

[goshki]

Finally the project got reactivated as I've been focusing on the Versus Compo entry for a while. Unevasible Exodus just got its own starfield generator. Earlier I had a prerendered 2-screens-wide bitmap which run out of screen after about 6-7 minutes. Now I generate 2 continuous one-screen-wide patches at the start of the game and regenerate the leftmost after it gets out of the screen entirely. That way I have an infinitely running galaxy in the background. Yay!

I also consider removing waves of ships and any distractors such as meteors so that the game is infinitely continuous with the ever increasing ship density.

[goshki]

Added a simple title screen today. Gonna work on it a little more later.