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[tbydxn]

Rad Moon: Rising is my attempt at a 2D jumpy-shooty space adventure.

Yep, it's a game where you're a space person going around collecting loot and shooting aliens with a raygun. Hmm...
But what will hopefully save RM:R from triteness are some fun puzzles and a subtle sense of humour that I'm trying to imbue in it.



I'm trying to keep things as small and manageable as I can, as I'm working alone and time is, of course, quite limited. It's important to me to end up with some sort of finished game out of this because that's not something I've achieved thus far.



So far I've been working on graphics and the mechanics of the gameplay for the most part. That's all still super buggy now but I figure it's time to start trying to shape out some levels for this thing, so that's what I'm focusing on at the moment.
It's a task that I find pretty difficult and likely I'm going to have to make some pretty rubbish levels before I get anywhere with it. I showed my flatmate my prototype for level 1 and I think it's safe to say that it was a confusing experience for him. Ah well.
I guess some sort of screen capture video would be the best way to show level design for critique so I'll try to make that happen for the next log.



If you have any thoughts on any of this I'd be really interested to hear them. Thanks!

[Ohmnivore]

Was the title inspired in any way by creedence clearwater's bad moon rising? 

[Ohmnivore]

But seriously, I dig the tone in the dialog boxes and the pixel art is awesome!

[Lexonite]

It looks like it has all sorts of stuff. I like the colors. I'm not a fan of the blurry background and edges of the screen. The health bar and score seem to take up a large portion of the screen- is that necessary? since that competes with the players attention, I'd try reducing their size.

[tbydxn]

You can shoot upwards and downwards now!

Thanks Ohmnivore. It certainly was, although that's where the CCR connection ends, I'm afraid!

AlexHW, thanks for the feedback! I think you may well be right about the size of the HUD info; I'll be taking another look at it at some point before the end.
As for the background, it's a work in progress still, but I'm going for a bit of a weird abstract effect that I think may prove a little contentious. Hopefully it looks a little better in motion.

I've been able to ensnare my friend Anders to help out with some of the art and level design needs of the project, which is a huge boon. He's been concepting ways to improve the look of the game, and also ways to visually differentiate the first and second half, while I've been fixing odd bugs here and there.
One thing that we're keen on implementing is some sort of foreground graphical element, as seen in the video with the rocks at the bottom of the level.





This is a video of an in-progress level 1, just with generic grey blocks and no decoration. It's hard to know how much stuff to put into one levels and how quickly the challenge should ramp up, but I guess that will become more clear as we make more levels.

[tbydxn]

Piping Hot!

A few developments this week...

- A tube feature that will zoom the player around. This will be used to bookend levels.
- Various graphical improvements, including some new tiles and a new version of the foreground rocks. And a sparkly poof of smoke for when Ghostrilla appears.
- General bug fixing. Player is now slightly less likely to become impaled in a platform.

Onwards!

[tbydxn]

Updated title screen

Link to new gameplay video on Youtube

Quite a lot's happened since I last made a post here.
My computer suffered a catastrophic breakdown that (coupled with my laughably inadequate backup habits) resulted in  a sizeable chunk of work going down the drain. I fell off the horse a bit at that point, and it took me a while just to catch up with where I'd been before Xmas, but progress is going well again now.

I've uploaded a video showing a level that's pretty close to being finished. There's a bunch of new stuff in the game now, largely graphical improvements and bug fixes but also a couple of new little features like the cages of incarcerated friendly aliens and a couple of new enemies. Also you can no longer get stuck forever on the corners of a platform, which surely puts RM:R at the cutting edge of next-gen gaming.

Trevor Black has been making some amazing music for the game that really elevates the feel of quality and fits perfectly with the mood I'm going for. It's quirky and fun and will hopefully fool players into thinking the game is quirkier and funner than it really is. You can check out the theme tune Trev made here: trevor-black.bandcamp.com/album/rad-moon-rising-wip

Moving forward I'm working on getting a small selection of decent levels done in order that I can put together a little demo and try to get some people to have a go at it. I have a couple of levels I'm quite happy with at the moment, so hopefully this isn't too lofty a goal.

[autumnspark]

Space ghost gorilla spiritual guide? Um, hell the fuck yes. I definitely like what you're going for there, it's a tone and aesthetic I am trying to channel myself (and would be easier to do with a gorilla spiritual guide).

[DarkWanderer]

The visuals are dope!

[jovanmilic97]

This looks great,graphics are wonderful,also in a gameplay video I saw a timer.Will there be a leaderboard with results?Is this being made on PC?If it is,im sure you would get greenlit on steam in just a few days.

[bdsowers]

Those are some mighty pretty images.

The title screen is a little hard to read, though. I can't tell if it says Rad or Bad.

[tbydxn]

Thanks so much for your comments, guys.

Yep, it's for PC. I don't really know anything about Greenlight, or distribution in general, but RM:R will be a small freeware game so I'll probably just put it up on my website/here.
My thinking with the timer was to have Doom-style par times to beat for each level, but to be honest having an online leader board would be much better. Hopefully it's something that's not too difficult to implement in GM Studio; I'll have to look into it.

Good spot on the R. It looks bad and it should look rad, I need to change that!

[tbydxn]

Well. It's been several months since I've been able/willing to do a lot of RM:R work, but I've found myself with a bit of time on my hands this week and jumped into it again.
I remember a time when I thought I'd have this project wrapped up by last Christmas... so very naive.

I've rejigged the HUD and generally tried to make the game look more polished and colourful. The three levels included in the test build are pretty much what I'm calling the finished standard, subject to feedback. What I'm doing at the moment is making some more.

If anyone would fancy taking it for a spin, I've uploaded a copy to itch, >here<. Let me know if you have any fun, if it runs smoothly, if it's way too hard, or any other thoughts that spring to mind. I've not really had anyone test it so far so I have no idea if it's actually an enjoyable experience!

Controls:
arrow keys to move, Z jump, X shoot, C talk/doors, S charge (the charge doesn't actually work against enemies yet, just the blocks)
T restart game, 9 skip level, G gibs fireworks