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[LosGeekosStudio]

!!! UPDATE !!!

Grab the free demo (pay what you want) on the Los Geekos Studio site, Itch.io or GameJolt:

Have fun and tell me what you think about the demo!

!!! END OF EDIT !!!



About the game
The game focus to recreate the feeling of late 80's / early 90's arcade and consoles shmups, with lot of action, colorful 2d low resolution sprites, medium sampling quality sounds and a catchy soundtrack emulated on those old chips.
For the moment, the plan is essentially to finish a full level of more than 5 minutes of gameplay, with variety of enemies, and a big bad boss!

Then i'll release it as a free demo, and depending on the hype, i'll consider making a full game or not.
The game is built in C# with the Monogame framework.

Status
The demo level is done, enemies are too, i'm reworking the weaponry, few POW sprites, doing SFXs, musics and menus.

Features

• Arcade controls for arcade action
• Story & Arcade modes
• 2 players local Coop
• Only 1 long level for the demo version
• Over 16 enemy types plus 1 boss
• 6 Weapons, 4 POWs and 1 Secret
• Playable on Keyboard, and 360/XbOne Controllers (PS4/Steam controllers could be added)

Platforms
Actually only planning a PC release. (Linux/MAC could be added)

Team
Just me.

Contacts
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook or the Los Geekos Studio Site (LIVE!) for the latest news and updates! =)

Thanks you for reading, see you,
Greg

Screenshots

[Retroopla]

The graphics look well done, but the effect on each screenshot irritates a little bit.
Waiting for some animated stuff

[LosGeekosStudio]

Thanks for the kind words, and sorry if the CRT effect "irritates" your eyes!
Animated stuffs will come later, first, because everyone is not on Twitter or Facebook, let's see what happened lately!





Hello again!

In the Hawkwing's demo, you can choose to play in ARCADE MODE or in STORY MODE, the first one focusing on score, the later on... i guess the story! While you can always play in local coop, the ARCADE MODE let you choose your pilot:



In STORY MODE however, Player1 will always be the red protagonist, for dialogues simplicity... Some more characters are present in this mode, for missions briefings, ingame cutscenes and missions debriefings:




I'm actually re-working some impacts/explosions sprites for weapons, doing some more boring coding for options & savegames, waiting to inject some awesome soundtracks made by the composer to the game! I'll also work later on a CRT display deform-like shader, because i totally embraced the retro looking of old 90's games!



See you, Greg.

[BentMyWookiee]

It would be great to see how it looks in motion if you're able to share any gifs/videos.

If you plan on turning this into a full game and decide to monetize it, then I would suggest being careful with things like painting over somebody else's work. Your commander guy in the screen is pretty recognizably Captain Gloval from Robotech. I'm sure it's just an homage, but it looks more like a recolored version of the original Robotech art than your own art.



Anyway, best of luck with the project. I'm a fan of the shoot'em up genre and doubly so of anything influenced by Robotech, so I look forward to seeing how this progresses.

[LosGeekosStudio]

Great you spotted him so fast!

I know i got to be *very careful* with this type of homage/cameo, but i think that as long as the project stay in its free demo form it should be ok/safe to do so. Hawkwing, even in 1 level, got few others, like the Capcom's yashichi you can see in the 3rd screen of the original post, as i'm glad to refer to what i loved when i was a child!

Original arts are credited into the credits tho, but the sprites are not "just" recolored versions, as you can spot if you look closely enough (not talking about colors or insigns).

I'm not dumb enough to take the official Macross's Captain Global's wiki portrait and pretend it's my own art



That said, i'll make some gifs to show animated stuffs, but as the demo is only 1 level, i don't want to show too much of it in a full gameplay video!

Thanks anyway for your interest!
Greg.

[alvarop]

This looks very cool! Tracking.

[LosGeekosStudio]

Hi! Let's talk about weapons in Hawkwing:

When i started the project, i was going for 6-8 different weapons, but after watching a lot of euroshmup's videos, i realized fewer was better (plus there is only 1 level in the current state of the project), as long as i could keep them different and fun to play with...

I also wanted to an additional modules mechanics, going from classic "turn around the ship", to R-Type's or Gradius' ones. I eventually choosed the first one, but i'm thinking about to mimic Gradius' style on the Green ship, still w.i.p.



So for the moment, we got 4 different weapons, in order (demo in autofire):



1- Dual Red: Your primary weapon, not too much to say about it, it's the weakest one.





2- Homing Blue: Faster, better, stronger... and a little homing!





3- Dual Green: Shot in front & back, pass through walls, but have a range.





4- Cyan Lasers: One laser that touch anything in front of you, plus some rear to front ones! (not homing)



Then, we got the additional modules that you collect with power ups, they have two purposes, the first one is to add fire power...









...the second one, is to detonate as a bomb that destroys every enemies AND bullets:





The bomb really makes a lot of damages, plus it totally clears the screen, potentially giving a lot of points to your score, but also reduce your firepower by consuming 1 module, so it becomes a strategic decision to use it or not!

So there it is, that's what Hawking GR3 prototype (the ship) got to offer you atm in term of weapons, but there's also two other game mechanics that i got to tell you about!! ...in another post soon!

Cya all, Greg.

[VertexZero]

This is so great! I grew up playing this kind of game in the arcades. Sweet artwork!

[LosGeekosStudio]

@VertexZero: Thanks dude. Glad you like it.

[joemusashi]

I am REALLY interested :D.

[LosGeekosStudio]

@JoeMusashi: Thanks too!

Updated the first post as the Site is now officially LIVE!
(my first *website* btw...)

[BentMyWookiee]

Good work! I'm really digging the look of it in motion. The upgraded versions of all the weapons look great too. Definitely looking forward to seeing more as this progresses.

[marcgfx]

maybe you could make that CRT effect optional. looks fantastic though, I especially like that flying snake/dragon, are those hairs individual elements?

[sbeast]

The games looking pretty cool so far. I would love to help out with the music, unless you already have some?
You can check out my portfolio here: www.sbeastmusic.com/portfolio

[LosGeekosStudio]

@BentMyWookiee: T.Y so much!

@marcgfx: The CRT field in options already exists, but disabled, as i created all the game with it, it's now officially the way it's meant to be played! The "snake/dragon" is made of body parts, and hairs are onto those body parts, not individuals.

@sbeast: I've already someone on the audios, but maybe on some next projects!


Thanks guys for the kind words.  

[Tuba]

Love the artstyle, the CRT filter makes it look like one of those later SNES games

[LosGeekosStudio]

Hello there,
last time we talked about Hawkwing GR3 prototype's weapons (the ship ones), but there's few other mechanics to talk about!




First one is the Shield PowerUp; you have to know that one hit kills you in Hawkwing, no life meter, you have to dodge every single bullet and every single collidables. so to help you, you got shield power up acting as a joker. You can stack it two times, cyan for one bonus hit, gold for two bonus hits.




Second is the Speed PowerUp; because you could need to dodge more things you can handle (or kill), speed is always the key. Speed ups stack two times too, one shadow ship following your ship for each stack.




Next one is the Dodge mechanic; you can dodge bullets and enemies with this dodge, you become invincible for a short time lapse by pushing the [X] button, but can't fire/bomb while in the roll.




Ahh, big guns! here comes the Ultra Cannon; the only pickable/carryable weapon of the game ATM, giving you the maximum damage possible, but while you're connected to it, your ship is at 40% of its TOTAL max speed (Speed POW anyone?), you can't dodge, you can't bomb, or fire with your ship's weapon, nore your modules... you can still "disconnect" from it.




And then, the core score mechanic, Multiplicators; in Arcade mode, you play for score. based on your distance with the enemy you hit, you get a score multiplicator for this impact displayed, 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x near melee, so to make better scores, you'll have to take risks!


So that's all for this time!
Thanks, Greg.

[LosGeekosStudio]

Hi, here comes what i was working on for the project lately!




I worked on a CRT shader to include rounded shape like old school TVs.




Then i tried to do a "16 bit like" boss intro shader, accidentally making this anomaly:



 




And last but not least, i'm refactorizing a lot of code to allow difficulty setting to pass different values to entities/enemies.


Don't be shy to ask or comment, feedbacks are importants for me!
Thanks, hope to see you in a next DevDiary!
Greg.

[LosGeekosStudio]

Updated the SITE, give it a look if you love shoot em ups! 

[suny]

Looking great!

I'd love to see  more!
S.