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[Loren Schmidt]

So the game isn't supposed to look like this?

That's what my Ludum Dare entry looked like once, but In that case it was lack of sleep instead of video card incompatibility.

Keep up the good work

[jph wacheski]

   !!New proto 5 ver. posted at the top!! 

Sorry Orel, try now.  It is a small d/l, so no harm done,. ok.

Melly- nope. this game should NEVER look like that!

Pencerkoff- hello.  I could add an option for infinent screen sht,. . Fullscreen works,. it is jsut that if you set it to Use Desktop Res. it goes fullscreen,. probably should not. jst set a size if you dont want fullscreen for now.

Blaizer- see above,. Multiplayer Co-op?  perhaps,. but unlikely in time for the compo, may happen after, it would need gamepad support, and that is always a load of work, everyone wants different layous,. so I have to make it editable,. and,. well. see I have lots of excusies. we'll see.

Sparky- thanks for the encuragment,. it does help!

[yokomeshi]

You fixed it!  Yay!  Turns out it looks absolutely beautiful!

This version is undoubtedly a lot better than the previous gameplay-wise as well; however, it's also a lot easier.  I got 299,800 on my first run through, and never felt the sense of overwhelming dread that was the hallmark of proto4 -- the enemies in proto5 don't spawn as fast, have less health, and just sort of run away if you don't deal with them.

In particular, the biggest ships used to have a very capital-ship vibe, hanging out in the corners and dodging away with a huge spray of bullets when pressured.  This made it extremely hard to hunt one down, and a lot of my games ended when I couldn't kill them fast enough and ended up surrounded by three or four big ships and a horde of smaller ones.  Now, however, the big ones are trivial to kill, since even one shot will send them running off the top of the screen, only to come back a few seconds later, still damaged.

Basically, I can now kill everything as it spawns, which means I never get that big dramatic build-up.  It also means I never feel pressured enough to need to warp out of danger; in order to read my score I had to tap X in order to burn off about 20 warp pods I'd picked up and never used.  Maybe it'd be better if you could only hold 5 or so warps at a time?

In any case, this game is amazing.  Keep up the good work.

[jph wacheski]

Yeah you are right, of course.   

I have striped out a lot of random fireing,. and also all the retaliatory fireing, and reduced the sheild points on most ships, to make it much easier.  I am planing to have it ramp up, perhaps have descrete waves. So there can be a 'wave cleared' bit with some stats. (hits/miss, points, etc.) However it will get more difficult befor I am through with it!  Plus, I want to add many more of the cool sprites!  They each should have different attack patterns and colors and such,. it will just be a question of how much time I have to do all this..,

for the pods,. I am thinking that when you collect 5 or 7 or so then the ship will upgrade to its next level,. then you need 9 or 13, etc.  Ship upgrades will let you take an aditional hit,. and perhaps give some fireing/manovering upgrades?

I also have the idea in the back of my mind that perhaps you should be escorting a small group of ships that you must protect,. not sure about this just yet. (may be another game I make later.)

Glad you have been enjoying it!  Do expect more to come. 

[rfrank.nj]

proto 4 and 5 both crash immediately in atioglxx.dll .. :|

[jph wacheski]

ok,. could you try this; D/l the ZGE beta from here;

  http://www.zgameeditor.org/files/ZGameEditor_beta.zip

and this test file from here;

  http://www.emix8.org/forum/download.php?id=691

open the .zgeproj file (above) in the editor, select the "App.ZApplication" Component in the Project Tree on the left, and hit the Green Arrow Start button in the Preview Window to the right of there,. you should now see some cubes moving about with some feedback effects., if not, look to the lower right in the green window, this is the log,. right click to copy to clipboard, post here.  This could really help as I am working with a beta application,. and we don't have access to all vid-cards to test.  I use a low-end nvidea card (7600) currently, but I may try to get hold of an ati one soon to help with this sort of testing,.  Thanks! 

[Blaizer]

Got 525,770 with Proto 5. Yeah... it's a little too easy. You kinda killed it.

[jph wacheski]

Cool,. here it is with the FBO hardset to 512x512 for ATI users to try;

   proto 5b (49kb)

Otherwise the same as 5.  Please let me know the results,. and thanks agian for helping test, Ville (ZGE developer, and great guy!) has just posted that he has ordered a new machine with an ATI card, so we should have less compatability problems in future,. 

Yup ZGE is very powerfull, albeit with some severe limitations in some areas (i.e. currently no sting functions at all), and produces non-bloated .exe files (XNA,. I'm looking at you!) I find the interface very fast to work with, I have been useing it almost two years now.  One thing to try is set the Properties Editor Window to the Middle,. (tools=>settings=>middle) this just makes more sence to me, in fact I suggested it, and Ville added the option like the same day.

Blaizer- I will re-entoughen the enemies for the next ver.

[cheapshot]

This is looking real sweet now! 
nice one!!

[jph wacheski]

UPDATE to proto6 is at the top,.

New in 6:
-player Ship now upgrades (1 level) you need 5 warp pods to upgrade, and can now only hold 9. At level 2 your ship can take one shot and not die,. it will be reduced to level one. you also gain a Firing BONUS (hint; only if gun is cool!)   
-also added a new dynamic involving the single hit enemies, but I will let you discover it.
-plus it is more tougher again due to retaliation shots from the larger enemies,. etc.

Orel- glad it is working now., thanks for finding the cause!

cheapshot- thanks,. we aims to please.

[HED]

I really like this game! Good overall aesthetics and gameplay. The upgrade system is good: you get tougher but also bigger, hence easier to hit.

I'm currently writing an article about assemblee for my french webzine, and this game will be in!

[jph wacheski]

HED - thanks., post a link to the article.

some images of the latest ver.


detail after death,.  .


some gamep[lay




Some fine fireworks,. and the newest target, the dark ones coming from the right out of the purple plasma.

update to .exe after lunch. trying to get a net scoreboard working.

[Mikademus]

Works great, except that it will not shut down its window or process properly when quitting, so it has to be terminated by force.

Absolutely beautiful! The slight trails add a lot to the otherwise to sparse game, and the combination of space invaders and classic shmup with a slight touch of bullet hell is a good dish! Since I am not a hard-core shmupper I'd enjoy some easier difficulty levels, and if you have time, some more movements and variation in the BG would be nice. Music?

[jph wacheski]

I gota go shovel snow,. so I will just post the non-highscore ver. today. See the top post.
The game is much changed,. and will likely change some more.,

cheers.

[J. R. Hill]

It's so pretty.
 

[cheapshot]

It's so pretty.
 

Agreed. It looks real swish!

[jph wacheski]

Thanks guys,.

 I posted proto 7 as the 'final' for the perposes if this compo,. I did not get the Leaderboard in   it is working, i.e. the game can post the scores to the server where they are mesured and ordered, however I still need to have the game get the table from the server and display it.., as well as add a way to enter the players name for all to see. 
Guess I will just do an update in a few days when I have it all nice and working.  Time and energy are just to limited of comodites.  Anyway another fun compo,. and looks like loads of cool games built for it,. now I will try some of them!  Peace.

[feeblethemighty]

Slick!  Well polished.  I thought this style was familiar and then i saw your link to LockOn which i have also previously enjoyed.

[Melly]

Game's pretty polished and fun, though I felt the mechanics were a bit obscure at first, and took a bit of time to grasp, not that that's necessarily a bad thing. The use of the assets was superb and I love all the graphical effects.

 

[jph wacheski]

Melly- I just played it again, after taking some time away from it to do my Gamma IV game and the gameplay mechanics are indeed "obscure"!  I took a simple game and made it sorta hard and overly complex perhaps.., I will have some time wokr on this again in a few days,. and perhaps it will change some more? I find when I work intensly on something for too long, then not look at it for a while, and then come back to it, I then see all my mistakes.  Well at least I will add the net highscore table, as in the time since I finished this competition version, Ville has added string suport to ZGE and that should make the table building a tad simpler for me.

feeblethemighty- thanks man,.