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[Amp]

Oh, it's that guy again with his horrible bullet-hell games

DOWNLOAD VERSION 0.6
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/LSS%200.6.zip (21.4 MB)

DOWNLOAD VERSION 0.4
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/LSS%200.4.zip (16.7 MB)



Arrows to move, Z to shoot, Shift to focus, X to bomb.

The engine was built from scratch this time, so go easy on the technical details this time!


I have no spriting experience~~~  
The bosses in the game so far are all trapezoids that read "Placeholder Boss Sprite."
Can someone please come up with some spaceships for it? Thaaaaaaanks~
(there are only three, two are bosses and one is a midboss)

Since the game only has five stages, I'm terminating the demo at the end of 2-2.

The game will be both polished and severely unpolished.
I realize how that sounds but bear with me.
It was started from scratch a little under a month ago, and I've never had the development cycle go this fast.

YouTube videos (slightly old) :

Random runs:



Stage 1-1, 1-2, and first boss:




Screenshots of what is to come:









hold a tick, my screenshots didn't copy...

[Amp]

There is now a new version 0.6.

It includes high score support, two new player shot types, faster loading time (audio is external now), as well as having a new main menu system.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/LSS%200.6.zip

[Pandara_RA!]

 's feedback:

Sound
1. Sound/music is great, had no issues with it, reminded me of this old PS1 game called Raystorm and it's own music =]

Menu+menu additions:
1. Focus mode and bombs are awesome, though it would be nice to learn of the controls  not from the read me of course, so maybe a tutorial explaining how to play  in the menu or even just a control selection in the menu at a minimum would be nice =]

2. I like all the ships, but have no idea what "XXX starbuster laser" translates to in the game itself, so picking a ship the first time is a little clumsy as a new player, maybe adding a little ship in the bottom of the menu shooting would better translate this to the player trying the game for the first time.

3. A practice mode would be fantastic, I feel like the most annoying thing is playing a level and thinking what does this enemy do? only to have something unexpected happen then drop a life to a simple enemy/boss, practice mode could say only allow you to play a level/chapter you have already played once before, this would also help people replay the game or a favorite chapter they'd like to get good at.

Gameplay:
1. This game is very polished in this section, so bare with me if I come off as nit picky =]
2. Focus mode is awesome, feels like my deaths are my OWN fault! amazing. =]

3. a minor issue I have is that the stars/blue/green orbs all sorta look like all the other random killing projectiles, a defined color scheme used for projectiles would solve this, or even have the orbs/stars be dark colored, and have all enemy projectiles be bright etc.

4. on the subject of lives I never feel like I "know" when the next free life is coming in score, I did read that readme, meaning I have the knowledge that it's @ 10,000,000 and 40,000,000 respectively, though I never once felt from the game itself that it was coming up, or when the next would be.


READ ME:
I'll start with that, and come back in with more as I get more time to keep playing then add in more if I find anything it's 3am here though in the morning I'll more than likely add more.

Oh and I will now proceed to play out all version updates from now onward =]

[Amp]

's feedback:

Sound
1. Sound/music is great, had no issues with it, reminded me of this old PS1 game called Raystorm and it's own music =]

I've never identified myself as having some sort of defined composition style, but thanks

Menu+menu additions:
1. Focus mode and bombs are awesome, though it would be nice to learn of the controls  not from the read me of course, so maybe a tutorial explaining how to play  in the menu or even just a control selection in the menu at a minimum would be nice =]

2. I like all the ships, but have no idea what "XXX starbuster laser" translates to in the game itself, so picking a ship the first time is a little clumsy as a new player, maybe adding a little ship in the bottom of the menu shooting would better translate this to the player trying the game for the first time.

Perhaps a little splash of text that tells you what button does what?
Actually, reprogrammable keys are going in here sometime soon, so images won't quite work.

The third player is a person :V
This has been suggested to me before, actually, but I'm thinking "hey why not" seeing as I'm literally not using the right half of the screen in most of the menu. Totally.

3. A practice mode would be fantastic, I feel like the most annoying thing is playing a level and thinking what does this enemy do? only to have something unexpected happen then drop a life to a simple enemy/boss, practice mode could say only allow you to play a level/chapter you have already played once before, this would also help people replay the game or a favorite chapter they'd like to get good at.

There was actually a stage practice mode in the first game. It was cut out of this one because "lol i don't see why not"
The first game, however, allowed you to access every stage whether or not you've actually gotten that far.
I'll probably end up doing that again, but I'll have to do something weird regarding practice mode and the stage 5-3 that you're actually supposed to get to to practice

Gameplay:
1. This game is very polished in this section, so bare with me if I come off as nit picky =]
2. Focus mode is awesome, feels like my deaths are my OWN fault! amazing. =]

It's a "second time through" sort of thing regarding the gameplay :V
Focus mode is there for that, really. I don't quite enjoy deaths that are completely out of your hands and it's also a borrowed concept from the touhou series

3. a minor issue I have is that the stars/blue/green orbs all sorta look like all the other random killing projectiles, a defined color scheme used for projectiles would solve this, or even have the orbs/stars be dark colored, and have all enemy projectiles be bright etc.

I have gotten this before- earlier, there were no borders around the items, and they were brighter. I've made them darker since then (I'll have to do that again ha ha)

4. on the subject of lives I never feel like I "know" when the next free life is coming in score, I did read that readme, meaning I have the knowledge that it's @ 10,000,000 and 40,000,000 respectively, though I never once felt from the game itself that it was coming up, or when the next would be.

There's no "current high score" indicator, so I was planning on adding that, and having it blink out with a "Next Extend: ---,---,---" display if you're close enough to it. If it turns out to not be distracting, then awesome.

READ ME:
I'll start with that, and come back in with more as I get more time to keep playing then add in more if I find anything it's 3am here though in the morning I'll more than likely add more.

Oh and I will now proceed to play out all version updates from now onward =]

Awesome, thank you for playing it.
I'm very glad that you enjoyed the game~ 

[Tynan]

I did enjoy this game.

Sometimes it was hard to tell what was what. I know decoding visual noise is sort of part of the skill of this kind of game. But sometimes I would look at a blob and wonder if it was going to kill me or not. e.g. the points pickups look a lot like bullets.

Other than that, it's a competent but extremely traditional shmup. I wonder what you could do different than others?

[Amp]

I did enjoy this game.

Sometimes it was hard to tell what was what. I know decoding visual noise is sort of part of the skill of this kind of game. But sometimes I would look at a blob and wonder if it was going to kill me or not. e.g. the points pickups look a lot like bullets.

Other than that, it's a competent but extremely traditional shmup. I wonder what you could do different than others?

Separating the bullets from the items is probably going to be something I'm going to struggle with for a while.

I think honestly the most different this game is going to get would be the stage progression, and the fourth boss (but maybe not even then.)

The stage progression, as in the 1-1, 1-2, 2-1 etc etc etc

Thank you for playing~

[noah!]

Wow, this is quite the improvement from your first game! The music is nicer, the gameplay feels tighter, the placeholder graphics are even more placeholder than before...It's like a Christmas miracle in a Game Maker package!

In all seriousness though, this is shaping up to be a good shmup. The gameplay is fun, the ship types are creative and useful, and I absolutely adore that one that shoots from the top. The bullet speed feels right for the pace of the game, and the enemies are interesting. I do kinda wish some of the enemies did more; every so often one enemy might get through my fire and I would be kind of disappointed that they're just sitting there waiting to be destroyed.

However, this game has one seriously fatal flaw, which negates all of its good points. Simply put, the high score table will not accept exclamation marks. For someone like me who lives and breathes exclamation marks, to the point of emblazoning them upon my name and forehead alike, this is about the single greatest insult you could make. It's this kind of discrimination that makes me categorically refuse to play Cave games, and to see it here is just unforgivable.

Oh, and the scoring system is a tad lackluster too. Even though the point SFX initially make it sound like it might be based on some sort of item chaining (à la Mars Matrix), after trying to piece the scoring system together via some experimentation as well as seeing the Shmups post, it seems rather basic. As long as you pick up the point things, your score essentially depends on your survival skill. Personally, I think a sort of weak chaining for point items would make the depth of the system shoot up remarkably, especially with the item pickup line in place. (one way could be by having the multiplier start falling after so long passes without a point item pickup)

Another major problem is that, when moving around in focus mode, the hitbox circle lags behind the rest of the sprite. Yes, it's only by a couple of pixels or so, but it still breaks a bit of trust in it. But that's a minor glitch, and you've seemed to fix it in one of the ships already.

Also, why give the player a powerup system when the player can literally go to max power in the first five seconds of the game? Just out of curiosity, maybe there's something I'm missing...

All in all, I had a fun time playing this one, even seeing it through to the end. When posting feedback here, sometimes I have trouble making a proper feedback sandwich and trying to overemphasize the potential in a particular game but no. You've made a good game. And I hope you make the rest of the good game. :-)

[Amp]

I've slowed down the player power gains in Stage 1-1, but you still max out relatively quickly.
The main point would be the power loss when you die.

I tied the scoring system to the sounds that it makes- you can double your point values on top of your multiplier if you collect your items quickly enough.
The idea was to have a simpler scoring system compared to the beast that was the scoring system from the first game.


I've actually swapped the alt-fire for the third player; the shots come from the top when you are focused now.

I have no idea what causes that hitbox business, and I was honestly hoping no one would notice until I got it squared away :I

I'm not sure what you mean regarding the enemies?

I cut symbols out of the high score handling object so it wouldn't take so long, but I can stick it in

Thank you for playing~
I don't remember if you played the first, but if you say it's better than mission accomplished! :D

[Amp]

Whoops, the game still exists

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/LSS%200.7.zip

Version 0.7!

You need to replace the .exe in your 0.6 folder and add the packaged music to /hqmusic for it to work.

Differences include:

* You can opt to continue when you game over now
* Stages 4-1, 4-2 exist
* Scoring is increased slightly
* You can graze for bonus bombs
* You can practice any of the available stages
* Difficulty edits made to many of the stages and also to Masagara and Saeiretore
* The Gear Axis uses homing shots while focused
* Nategasa uses top shots when focused
* Player shottypes made slightly stronger
* Item pickups given animation (I hope this helps distinguish them)

And lastly, this starts a brief hiatus during which I will be hard at work on my entry to the 64Digits RPG Competition. Thank you for playing ~



@Noah!
The high score table still doesn't support symbols quite yet, but I'll add it, I promise! ;_;b

[noah!]

@Noah!
The high score table still doesn't support symbols quite yet, but I'll add it, I promise! ;_;b

GODDAMMIT AMP

No but seriously, man, this is shaping up to be pretty cool. I don't think I mentioned it last time, but I really like the creativity you've put into the bullet patterns. They're visually appealing and encourage different types of dodging! Keepin' it fresh. Gotta have it.

Honestly, right now the only negative things I noticed were just tiny issues with pacing and balance, but those are the kinds of things that can (and should) be ironed out later.

Oh, and the continues thing. Personally, I have a strong belief that, if you're gonna put in continues like that, you should either limit it to one, or give the player infinite continues. Anything else is just arbitrary and illogical. (one day i wanna write about this, but essentially it hinges on player psychology. one continue = another chance, while more than one turns continues into a weird extension to the lives system) If you've thought about it, and if you have a good reason for the number you've chosen, then that's OK. If you don't right now, well, I guess it's something to think about.

Anyway, just poppin' in to give you the thumbs up. The light is green, the flag is lifted. Plane takes off from the runway. Orange cones, flashing cones, and it's a beautiful sight indeed. Keep it up! I'm looking forward to the 1.0!

[Amp]

I assure you, I have taken an excessive amount of steps to make sure the difficulty curve is as exponential as possible.

In all seriousness, I would love for you to elaborate on your concerns regarding the "pacing and balance" because I can't assess this flaw if there's no explanation

On the subject of continues, the idea is that you should strive to beat the game without needing them, but if you do, you can still experience the remainder of the game, provided you don't burn through all of them.
You start with three but are rewarded with two more as you progress. The game won't tell you, but extra continues will factor into the Game Clear bonus at the end
This is me implying that stage five will be intentionally designed to make people cry. "Oh, you didn't need continues? Well, let me give you extra points, because I was so sure that you would need them.

Basically, they're there to assist people who need it to beat the game.
The only deal is that it'll reset your score (which shouldn't matter to most people anyway) and block you from unlocking the bonus level, which, and let's be honest- if you needed continues to beat the game, the Extra Stage would be beyond your abilities.

[noah!]

In all seriousness, I would love for you to elaborate on your concerns regarding the "pacing and balance" because I can't assess this flaw if there's no explanation

Really, those pacing and balance issues are just super-tiny things like "oh, that boss form died more quickly than I expected" and "that gap between enemy waves felt a bit too long" and whatnot, most of which last less than a half-second. If they were more general (like one ship being super overpowered, or bosses spawning like ten seconds after enemies stop coming) then I would've probably brought 'em up. But these are the kind of things you'd handle case-by-case, and are highly dependent on personal feeling, and if you obsess about them now you'll end up like me and spend all your time fiddling with numbers and never get anything done. :-)

As for how you want to do continues, um, OK? Like, what's the point of awarding a score bonus for continues? Wouldn't the not-having-your-score-reset be enough of a bonus? Also, if you're OK with letting people feed through the game, why not just cap continues at infinite? I guess I just find continues to be a weird and arbitrary mechanism when removed from their original context. Anyway, like I said, if you've thought all this through and can defend your choices, that's enough reassurance for me.

[Amp]

Ah, okay.
The continues bonus is there because it's there :V

Having all five at the end translates to clearing the game on one credit, and the game celebrates by fluffing your score a bunch and unlocking an extra difficulty level that hates you.
"You deserved it!" it would say. "Now try this because clearly that was too easy for you!"

On the flipside, burning through all five credits  translates to dying at least 25 times and a potiental bombing at least 100 times and having the game pull the plug because there's no real hope.
I apologize if someone is reading this, creditfeeds, still fails, and feels offended at this.

Alternatively, I'm just limiting it because I'm being traditional or something.

IN OTHER NEWS!

I am the worst programer. Please to not attempt to save scores in excess of 100,000,000 points until tomorrow.
Not only will the evaluation screen eff up and tack on another digit, but the highscore table DOESN'T ACTUALLY SUPPORT THE NEW SCORE HANDLING SYSTEM BECAUSE I AM A SMART PERSON.
So you'll be forced to abort the game in the case that you end with more than 99,999,990 points on the results screen, until tomorrow, when I fix it.
Sorry! ~

[Amp]

Those of you who downloaded 0.7 before this have a horrible copy of the game that bugs out when you try to save and view highscores that exceed 100,000,000 points.

A patched copy of the .exe (and only the .exe) is available at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/LSS%200.7%20(exe).zip
(but the regular link works too)




Also, this might also support symbols in the highscores.

[Amp]

The links have been updated. This time, I remembered to convert the game to be compatible with Windows 7 ._.
Also, I've fixed a bug pertaining to continuing at the end of the game and at the end of stage practice. The high score bug is now fixed as well.

[Pandara_RA!]

Wow this whole time I was waiting for .7 to come out to do the video then finally I look down and see a patch making it .7 haha, wow.


edit: I cant get .7 to run ps I'm on windows 7!

[Amp]

I updated the file earlier today with an updated version... You need the 0.6 files as well, to note...

- 0.6 download
- 0.7 files added to 0.6 folder

I'm just gonna package everything for convenience from now on, this was a failed experiment :I

[Pandara_RA!]

I updated the file earlier today with an updated version... You need the 0.6 files as well, to note...

- 0.6 download
- 0.7 files added to 0.6 folder

I'm just gonna package everything for convenience from now on, this was a failed experiment :I

good plan lolol

haha, so I did what you said and it keeps telling me an unexpected error occurred. I'm confused

[SirNiko]

When I saw the first post in the thread, I had imagined it was a flash game embedded in a page where the play window was so tall you had to scroll it up and down to find areas where action may be occurring.

[Amp]

All right, this here's a revised package for 0.7 that features every file required. Delete the existing folder, though.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/LSS%200.7%20full.zip