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[Destral]

Hue-N Squadron

I chuckled at this.

How about Shueter? Or Shuet It!. Or just Shuet!

[Theophilus]

Neon Strikers

I really like this name.

Seems pretty cool so far. I'd go more the path of Shock Troopers or OutZone and less Geometry Wars for a better game though (from a general game mechanics/level design standpoint more than an art standpoint).

Looking at Shock Troopers, I like the idea that you can choose to go alone with higher health or have a squadron and have more diverse weaponry. Perhaps I could give each ship a few different stats, like shifting faster (Or slower, to be more precise?), speed, acceleration, rate of fire, shot-speed, etc.). I like this idea.

Another little idea -
I think I shall make the saturation/value of the color be the health. I feel most people, generally speaking, can better discern when something is brighter than another rather than the greyness.

How about Shueter? Or Shuet It!. Or just Shuet!

Shueter? I hardly know her!

[sonicblastoise]

How about CMYK? Since you're using hues and all. And then you could come up with a set of fitting (or completely unrelated) words that sounded cool like

Colors May Yield Knowledge
Chromatic Men, Young Killers
Custom Mecha YK
Crazy Mode Yellow Kicks
Cyan Magenta Yellow Key

I dunno.

As for mechanics, I feel like using hue for health would undermine the mechanic you proposed initially? Unless the nature of the game has now changed. I can't really think of another way to visualize health right now (aside from a conventional health bar), but I think attaching it to hue color would make the game much more...boring.

Unless...it introduces some sort of health vs. score management scenario in which you will purposefully take damage to increase your score, or rely on health powerups to reset your hue when new enemies arrive and vice versa. It seems like a much more difficult thing to plan for though since it will be contingent upon the enemy wave design (unless the level design isn't wave-based?), because if it's random then the best bet for the player to get a high score would be to have max health so as to survive longer regardless of combos.

squadron vs. individual is an interesting choice, but how will you be able to control them all if they have independent colors? As a player, in something score-based I hate the feeling of relying on chance for a bulk of my points.

having multiple ship types is a definite must hahaha

[Theophilus]

Note I said that I am planning on making the value of the player's color represent the health, not the hue. The hue would make the game erratic and difficult, heheh. It would be annoying being shot at red (Hue value 0) and dying.

[wademcgillis]

Logo is crap. It screams "I am plain but with rainbows." You should try using a different font.

You're in the Feedback forum, so I'm giving it.

[Theophilus]

Logo is crap. It screams "I am plain but with rainbows." You should try using a different font.

You're in the Feedback forum, so I'm giving it.

I know, I'm not very good at designing stuff.

actually i'm in the devlogs subforum...

[wademcgillis]

I know, I'm not very good at designing stuff.

Same here.

actually i'm in the devlogs subforum...

but what forum is this a subforum of?...

[Destral]

I'm sure the logo will change and look better in time. Right now the important thing is working on the game! I wanna play! 

[Chris Pavia]

I wants to see this thing in motion. What are you making it in (if you haven't mentioned that yet, didn't see it anywhere)?

[Theophilus]

Not much done today. I have an excuse but you are probably tired of hearing them. OK maybe you do. I had a lot of schoolwork I was behind on. THERE.

Day 6

Today, I did:
-Wrote a blog post about my game
-Made motion blur 10000% more efficient.
-Took a big long think about my game. I think it has potential but it certainly needs a great deal of work.

Tomorrow, I plan to:
-I don't even know.

Right now the important thing is working on the game! I wanna play!  

I wants to see this thing in motion. What are you making it in (if you haven't mentioned that yet, didn't see it anywhere)?

Keep your pants on! Here's a demo (4mb): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9942053/neon_strikers.exe

I've made this with Game Maker 8.1. I currently have no plans to port it, though it would probably be simple.

[Chris Pavia]

Very pretty! Took me some time to get my bearings with the direction cursor (until I realized that's what it was). Gameplay seems pretty random at the moment, but I imagine that's because it's still early in development.

[ANtY]

Neon Strikers is totally better name.

[Destral]

Once you finish it, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to get GM HTML5 and port it to that, if nothing else. Checking it out now.

EDIT: Yeah, damn this game is pretty. 

[Theophilus]

Thanks guys. I forgot to mention you can use the RMB to do that shifty thing.

[Theophilus]

Day 7

Today, I did:
-Added an enemy: The Dasher. If you are in range, he will dash through you, causing damage.
-Added health for the player.
-Made that neat logo-thing you see in my signature; getting closer to the final product as far as style I think.

Tomorrow, I plan to:
-Make a new enemy: The splitter. It splits, but it also merges with other enemies. The spawn can also merge, so these (hopefully) can make a real mess of things if you don't kill it right away.
-Figure out some gameplay, how it will play. I'm thinking wave-spawning, but I have some more ideas.
-If I have time, proof of concept for the below ideas.


So here's some new ideas.

Each ship will have statistics, right? Speed, rate of fire, hue-shift rate to name a few. I'm thinking you could collect something to level these up to gain higher scores.

Collecting these earn you experience which give you skill points to spend on your various stats. It's a standard system. I am trying to add a twist on it though, not through restrictions but through the use of another stat - experience point multiplier. If you level this stat up, you get more experience = more skill points to spend. If you choose not to, you can level up your core stats early.

Good idea or no?


If you'd like to try out the new enemy, here's a demo: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9942053/neon_strikers.exe

LMB to shoot, RMB to speed-shift, WASD to move.

[Chris Pavia]

If the gameplay revolves around your hue relative to the enemy's hue, why do you have both shifting so quickly (or at all)? It seems like this basically negates your intended gameplay because it's impossible to plan ahead at all (compounded by not knowing what hue I or the enemy will be shifting to next), leading the player to just shoot at everything as if it were a typical arena shooter. Unless I'm missing something.

[Triplefox]

I feel like I'm in vertigo playing this. The scrolling of the background against the sprites looks like a special effect or animation; the cursor's size only adds to this, making it look like an element in the game world, not UI.

I also most definitely did not "get" the hue-shifting mechanics. I just shot at stuff and it died.

[Theophilus]

(compounded by not knowing what hue I or the enemy will be shifting to next)

There is a consistent order; red to orange to yellow to green to blue to violet to red again, in the spectrum. You bring up a good point about having the enemies shift; I'll play around without them shifting and see how it is.

I feel like I'm in vertigo playing this. The scrolling of the background against the sprites looks like a special effect or animation; the cursor's size only adds to this, making it look like an element in the game world, not UI.

I also most definitely did not "get" the hue-shifting mechanics. I just shot at stuff and it died.

Yeah, I'll change the crosshair in time. The background doesn't actually scroll... Maybe you mean the camera? Any suggestions for the cursor?


Thanks for the input.


EDIT:

@Chris Pavia
A quick test and this seems to make a lot more sense. Thanks a lot for the suggestion?

[ANtY]

@Theo: looks like it's gonna be ur most successful game   gratz!

[sonicblastoise]

I tried it a bit for a bit and it does have its good and bad.

the good:
-looks great. I like the old vertex/vectrex/whatevermajiggy vectrodrome look that it's got going on.
-colors are looking good, very vibrant and distinct (even for someone who is partially color-blind, like me!).
-controls are mostly smooth and intuitive(more on that in the bad).

the bad:
-the crosshair. I think this is what's contributing to the feeling of vertigo or "lost in space". It's hard to find a reference point as well since the screen isn't centered on anything particular but rather scrolls as the player nears an edge. It just feels disorienting (I don't know if my rationale is accurate, though. only a thought)
-the shifting. Not the speed, but rather the random seizing mode that accompanies the hue shift. I think this was an attempt at balancing, but it actually makes hue-shifting an extremely undesirable tactic because, as Chris Pavia said, the enemies don't remain static. So when you shift, you have to fight 2 semi-unpredictable (or dynamic and difficult) factors as opposed to just one.

I think if the goal is to make it more tactical and less "shoot everything in sight for high score!", then the current direction might be ok, because it makes the whole shifting thing a really difficult skill to master (but it's also difficult to learn). But if it's supposed to be like a crazy bullet hell arena shooter type thing, I would suggest removing the seizing part of hue-shift and focusing on adding more enemy types.

Still, more good than bad!