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[Mr. Yes]

Coobie and The Robots

Hello!

Coobie and The Robots is a simple game in which you play as a tiny blue ball named "Coobie" and shoot robots in space, collecting everything that they drop along the way. The main goal of the game is to get that number at the top of the screen (I like to call it the "score" - but don't steal that term from me) up as high as possible by the time the game ends (which happens when you lose all of your "lives" - again, don't steal these terms from me as I've invented them for my own game).

This is my first game in SFML, and also my first game in C++. I've been making all of my games in Game Maker until now, and have quite recently fallen in love with the beginner-friendliness of SFML (seriously, try it out if you're a beginner!). So, overall, I guess don't expect anything amazing since it's the first time I've programmed a game in this way.

Controls

• Use the arrow keys to move
• Press 'X' while moving to dash
• Press 'Z' to shoot at enemies
• 'Enter' pauses the game
• F4 toggles between Fullscreen and Windowed modes

I would love some feedback on how the game performs, and obviously if it works at all. I can imagine there being some problems. And tell me anything else - is it any fun? Any annoyances?

Thanks!

download here

[Mr. Yes]

Just updated the download with a more recent version, and changed the screenshot to show the change. (basically I just added a new enemy, but I made a few tweaks as well)

Again, feedback is very welcome!

[Nitro Crate]

It's a really great start, but it gets repetitive very quickly.

Perhaps bosses+minibosses and powerups or something.

It looks like it has potential.

[Mr. Yes]

It's a really great start, but it gets repetitive very quickly.

Perhaps bosses+minibosses and powerups or something.

It looks like it has potential.

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

Currently, I'm trying to make this game as simple as possible. Bosses feel like a bit much to me right now, but I'll be introducing more power ups for sure. I'll probably just keep adding in new features as I come up with them.

I'm glad it at least has potential, though. I was thinking of finishing this up today, but I guess I'll be working on it a lot more now!

EDIT: also, I accidentally disabled the background music. Re-uploaded

[KniteBlargh]

Wow, now that I've played this, you know what's really freaky? It kind of reminds me of the game I've been working on. LOL
Anyway, that aside, it was fun! As far as powerups go, I have a suggestion. Perhaps one could be a double shot with the lasers going out diagonally. I was thinking of a triple shot, but then I realized that that might make it too easy, whereas having a diagonal double shot would still leave the front of the player sprite open for attack. I'm kind of brain-dead right now, but hopefully this made sense. Keep it up!

[increpare]

I like the sprites (more would be nice though!).  Hmm.  I don't like the the bigger one is more or less an exact replica of the smaller one.  Seems a bit...lazy...to me...

I like the parallax backgrounds, I find them original and...if not quite delicious at the very least nourishing.

I think it feels quite nice.  The enemies have some solididy to them, which is good.

I think the paused screen should probably say 'paused' somewhere.

The way that the top bar (and maybe entire screen) is duplicated looks like it might be related to the background technique.  Is this the case?

powerups sound good.  as do more baddies.  and new formations.

are you generating them at random atm?

[Mr. Yes]

Wow, now that I've played this, you know what's really freaky? It kind of reminds me of the game I've been working on. LOL
Anyway, that aside, it was fun! As far as powerups go, I have a suggestion. Perhaps one could be a double shot with the lasers going out diagonally. I was thinking of a triple shot, but then I realized that that might make it too easy, whereas having a diagonal double shot would still leave the front of the player sprite open for attack. I'm kind of brain-dead right now, but hopefully this made sense. Keep it up!

Thanks! I may use that suggestion, it sounds neat enough.

I like the sprites (more would be nice though!).  Hmm.  I don't like the the bigger one is more or less an exact replica of the smaller one.  Seems a bit...lazy...to me...

I like the parallax backgrounds, I find them original and...if not quite delicious at the very least nourishing.

I think it feels quite nice.  The enemies have some solididy to them, which is good.

I think the paused screen should probably say 'paused' somewhere.

The way that the top bar (and maybe entire screen) is duplicated looks like it might be related to the background technique.  Is this the case?

powerups sound good.  as do more baddies.  and new formations.

are you generating them at random atm?

Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it!

The larger enemies were created rather quickly just to get another enemy in there; there's no doubt that I'll be fixing them up and even replacing them completely with new sprites. In fact, nothing graphic-wise in this game is final, I'll probably be changing a lot more (the title screen is pretty boring at the moment, for example).

I'll be adding on to the pause screen as well; the main reason why I haven't yet done that is that the empty pause screen has been convenient for taking screenshots of the game - I can easily pause the game and check if the screenshot is worth taking.

I don't quite understand the question about the top bar. What do mean by "duplicated"?

The enemies are indeed being generated at random right now. And I haven't been focusing on any real enemy behavior besides just marching forward so far, but I'll probably be adding in some nicer enemies as well.   

[Terry]

Love the parallax! Gameplay was a bit straightforward, but on a technical level pretty solid for your first C++ game

[increpare]

I don't quite understand the question about the top bar. What do mean by "duplicated"?

two players, two scores, two bars

[Mr. Yes]

Love the parallax! Gameplay was a bit straightforward, but on a technical level pretty solid for your first C++ game

Thanks!

I don't quite understand the question about the top bar. What do mean by "duplicated"?

two players, two scores, two bars

Oh, wow. Creepy, 'cause I'm not seeing that at all. Definitely shouldn't be happening. I'll tell you right now it has nothing to do with the background technique.

The top bar is transparent, I guess that's part of the cause, but that's very strange! Might be an SFML problem, but I'll take a look anyway because it's more likely that I just did something stupid.

Anyone else seeing this when you play the game? Because I'm certainly not.

EDIT: made some slight adjustments to the game. And see if the top bar is still screwed up - there's a chance I may have just fixed that

[Nitro Crate]

The top bar is still screwed up.  :D


Hmm, I think I actually liked the fact that all the enemies are kind of the same.
Can't really explain it. (I think you can pull off some kind of interesting gimmick with the flying debris thing you had going on)


Also, I don't think the music is really fitting. It sounds too melancholy where it should be really fast paced actiony.

[Mr. Yes]

The top bar is still screwed up.  :D

Well gosh darn-it!
Very frustrating! I don't know how I could possibly fix something I can't see for myself. I guess my only option for now is to take off the top bar's transparency.

Hmm, I think I actually liked the fact that all the enemies are kind of the same.
Can't really explain it. (I think you can pull off some kind of interesting gimmick with the flying debris thing you had going on)

Hm. Well I don't know, I kind of want to make some diverse enemies now. I'll think about it.

Also, I don't think the music is really fitting. It sounds too melancholy where it should be really fast paced actiony.

Yeah, I was thinking about that. Maybe I'll make some new music and use the current song for the title screen.

EDIT: re-uploaded without top-bar transparency. If that didn't work, I don't know what the hell could be going on

[increpare]

The top bar is still screwed up.  :D

Well gosh darn-it!
Very frustrating! I don't know how I could possibly fix something I can't see for myself. I guess my only option for now is to take off the top bar's transparency.

or you could let use learned fellows have a look at it?  (it's your first project, you've nothing to loose from making the source public I think, and a lot to gain in the form of general advice).

[Mr. Yes]

The top bar is still screwed up.  :D

Well gosh darn-it!
Very frustrating! I don't know how I could possibly fix something I can't see for myself. I guess my only option for now is to take off the top bar's transparency.

or you could let use learned fellows have a look at it?  (it's your first project, you've nothing to loose from making the source public I think, and a lot to gain in the form of general advice).

Yeah, maybe that's my only choice. The source code is a bit... frankly, embarrassing in its current state, unfortunately. Would be difficult to follow, all that jazz.

I will explain what I think the problem is, though (in fact, I KNOW it at this point). When I'm drawing the screen's contents to be 2x its size, I'm also drawing the normal 1x sized image on screen before that (there are functions in SFML to draw to the screen, not to another image - I would have drawn everything to a buffer image instead of drawing it to the screen, but at this time there is no such function as SFML is still in development). So, what I did is, I drew the normally sized image to the screen first, then copied the screen to an image, then scaled that image and drew it on the screen.

It worked, and I didn't notice anything weird, but somehow the normally sized image is showing through when there are transparent objects on the screen.

(Also, I like the fact that typing out your problem in detail brings you to some solutions. I just uploaded it again, this time clearing the screen after it's copied into the image. Maybe that worked?)

[Hinchy]

hey, guys, Mr. Yes just told me over AIM to redownload it, and it works properly now! Hoosrayg!

[increpare]

When I'm drawing the screen's contents to be 2x its size, I'm also drawing the normal 1x sized image on screen before that (there are functions in SFML to draw to the screen, not to another image - I would have drawn everything to a buffer image instead of drawing it to the screen, but at this time there is no such function as SFML is still in development). So, what I did is, I drew the normally sized image to the screen first, then copied the screen to an image, then scaled that image and drew it on the screen.

It worked, and I didn't notice anything weird, but somehow the normally sized image is showing through when there are transparent objects on the screen.

:D

[Mr. Yes]

When I'm drawing the screen's contents to be 2x its size, I'm also drawing the normal 1x sized image on screen before that (there are functions in SFML to draw to the screen, not to another image - I would have drawn everything to a buffer image instead of drawing it to the screen, but at this time there is no such function as SFML is still in development). So, what I did is, I drew the normally sized image to the screen first, then copied the screen to an image, then scaled that image and drew it on the screen.

It worked, and I didn't notice anything weird, but somehow the normally sized image is showing through when there are transparent objects on the screen.

:D

 

Well it works now, forgive my stupidity.

[Melly]

Played it for a while. Here be feedbacks :

I don't think the double-tap to dash control scheme works right now, because this being a twitch-happy game it's too easy to misuse it and it's mostly necessary to tap the directionals quickly to have more control over small movements. I'd suggest using a separate key for the dash.

The top bar obscures part of the action a bit much. It made me die a few times.

Overall it seems like a good start.

[Mr. Yes]

Played it for a while. Here be feedbacks :

I don't think the double-tap to dash control scheme works right now, because this being a twitch-happy game it's too easy to misuse it and it's mostly necessary to tap the directionals quickly to have more control over small movements. I'd suggest using a separate key for the dash.

The top bar obscures part of the action a bit much. It made me die a few times.

Overall it seems like a good start.

Thanks!

I actually didn't think of changing the double-tap controls in such a way. Will do! As for the top bar, would making it a bit more transparent help with that?

[Mr. Yes]

Small update: All I did was make the top bar smaller and change the dashing controls from double-tap to X. But I thought it was worth uploading.