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First room of the first dungeon.
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
Sun Mar 12, 2017 7:32 pm 
First room of the first dungeon.
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:00 am
Virtuous Sword wrote:
Here are some ideas about the "goal" of the game:
Is Shiptauir evil (wew, one slip of the tongue away from a bunch of slime)?
Is Shiptaur the ruler of planets, civilisations, or has an evil base, plans, soldiers etc.?
Is Shiptauir evil (wew, one slip of the tongue away from a bunch of slime)?
Is Shiptaur the ruler of planets, civilisations, or has an evil base, plans, soldiers etc.?
That's more or less the plan, and in the current beta you can see the first part, but the second part is going to be completely off-screen as it were. I outlined my plan for Shiptaur and the player back when Bob said someone else could work on it and you can kinda see it in the current alpha.
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Maybe the game can be focused on rescuing civilians and fellow pilots from the atrocities of space-faring combat?
I like the idea that by shooting a cage or prison, it means that people get to be free (somehow. They'd probably die in space.) and this might make a good focus for the goal of the game. Providing reinforcements to civlisation against the cruel, brutal, tyrannical onslaught of Shiptaur. Something like that?
I like the idea that by shooting a cage or prison, it means that people get to be free (somehow. They'd probably die in space.) and this might make a good focus for the goal of the game. Providing reinforcements to civlisation against the cruel, brutal, tyrannical onslaught of Shiptaur. Something like that?
That's not going to happen, largely due to clashing tonally with the rest of the game.
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POWERUPS
I imagine that getting the powerups should be the main source of points, and that's what the game should be focused towards. That, or there should be some special target that flies on screen and is elusive, like a meteor, satellite, alien, capsule, drone, or something like that which could feasibly spill goodies. It would be nice to have extra life as a powerup.
It'd be good if you incentivised the player to pick up power ups, for example, offering bonuses for successive pickups, perhaps in a short time span, or possibly get more points for collecting one of each kind of power up. Something like that.
Maybe having some flying meteors to avoid would spice it up too! And if you could destroy them that'd be a nice touch.
I imagine that getting the powerups should be the main source of points, and that's what the game should be focused towards. That, or there should be some special target that flies on screen and is elusive, like a meteor, satellite, alien, capsule, drone, or something like that which could feasibly spill goodies. It would be nice to have extra life as a powerup.
It'd be good if you incentivised the player to pick up power ups, for example, offering bonuses for successive pickups, perhaps in a short time span, or possibly get more points for collecting one of each kind of power up. Something like that.
Maybe having some flying meteors to avoid would spice it up too! And if you could destroy them that'd be a nice touch.
I'm not really going to change how power-ups are collected now, i.e., guess how many enemies escaped when Shiptaur asks. Extra lives could be a thing though, depending on how long the game ends up being.
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GRAPHICS
Have you folks considered different backdrops for star dartle?
things like planets afar and up close, a fleet of spaceships in the distance or passing through the mids of some kind of mothership would make good level settings. Heck, why not an underwater level? Starfox had it all, and then some.
Why not have some levels flying near the ground, with the possiblity of crashing into it?
Have you folks considered different backdrops for star dartle?
things like planets afar and up close, a fleet of spaceships in the distance or passing through the mids of some kind of mothership would make good level settings. Heck, why not an underwater level? Starfox had it all, and then some.
Why not have some levels flying near the ground, with the possiblity of crashing into it?
Planets are going to be shown, although less like a backdrop and more like a thing in the background you pass by. Ground levels aren't going to be a thing, given that you're already a fragile, fragile thing in the game.
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And maybe it's quite a lot, but you could have branching paths, secret routes, and some story giving narrative structure to what's going on, even if it is a very simple game.
Well, it kinda has a branching path in the sense that the final boss is different in some cases.
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It takes very little to spruce/spice up the gameplay, even if it just an aesthetic choice, or a few text boxes between waves. Ship pilots chattering nervously about war and politics, reminiscing about their sweethearts, whilst being threatened by Lord Shiptaur or coming up against skilled and 1337 enemy pilots, with possible rivalvry and implications.
I think a good idea might be to have to face off against an anti-Dartle, a fast ship that harries the play as they make their way across the level.
I think a good idea might be to have to face off against an anti-Dartle, a fast ship that harries the play as they make their way across the level.
While the interwave text boxes aren't exactly what you're talking about here, I have done the spirit of both your ideas here if not the actual intention.
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Btw the idea of using rocket thrusters to forward faster seems totally erroneous.
Most of the momentum is already travelling forward. going backwards would require much more thrust because you have to cancel your forward momentum.
Flying backwards and forwards would probably exhaust the ships fuel supplies
Most of the momentum is already travelling forward. going backwards would require much more thrust because you have to cancel your forward momentum.
Flying backwards and forwards would probably exhaust the ships fuel supplies
Spaceships not conforming to the ideas of actual physics is as much of a time-honored tradition in sci-fi visual mediums as sound in space. Though the general idea is the the ship is moving at a constant speed and the thrusters just let you move further. Presumably going backwards and sideways is done via advanced tech like anti-grav. (yes, there's no gravity in space, but if it works in X-COM and probably some book made beforehand, it can work here)
But for fuel, keep in mind this is supposed to be on the arcade-y side, so it's not so much on realism as it is on delicious space magic masquerading as science.
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(now there's a thought! maybe in the next incarnation of Star Dartle. Star Dartle 4000? It would be cool if there was a bar that got depleted as you shot, and it would encourage players to be cautious about shooting. How about a shop, or upgrade menu, and stuff like that? Not sure, but I don't think I noticed any graphical changes to the ship when different weapons were picked up. I think it's kinda naff that weapons just turn into points. You should be able to trade them in, salvage them, and store them for an emergency, like an extra life or something.
I do want players to be cautious about shooting, but I don't want to give them the option of not shooting. Plus that's a fairly out of place mechanic in the NES era. I think most of them didn't care if you were shooting tens of thousands of bullets or doing nothing.
No shops though. It'd be another weird tonal shift.
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Possibly the easiest way to spice up the game is to make it more akin to a bullet hell and throw things at the player, like a randomised barrage.
Now see, the problem here is that bullet hell games were largely a thing after the NES. There is Recca, which slowed the NES to a crawl. (I could be wrong about that though) That said, I'm not terribly fond of bullet hell games and the idea of having to find a path through enemy bullets. Maybe a wave dedicated to throwing a bunch of bullets at you, but not a whole lot of it.
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Actually that's the other thing. How about some randomisation?
Procedural generation can make more content than anyone can do by hand.
I think there are many elements of star dartle suited to more chaotic and hectic battle.
The small ship size allows the player to stay focused on avoiding and dodging.
Lots of empty space can easily be filled with bullets, meteors, lasers, cosmic radiation, psychic slimes or fluffy wamblers. I like parodius :p
Procedural generation can make more content than anyone can do by hand.
I think there are many elements of star dartle suited to more chaotic and hectic battle.
The small ship size allows the player to stay focused on avoiding and dodging.
Lots of empty space can easily be filled with bullets, meteors, lasers, cosmic radiation, psychic slimes or fluffy wamblers. I like parodius :p
I think the current version is good on randomization.
Also, funny thing, while it might seem like the ship is small, by NES standards it's freakin' huge. Most player ships tended to be 8x8 pixels, while Star Dartle is the OHRRPGCE walkabout standard of 20x20. Off the top of my head the only space shooter on the NES with something that big was Silver Surfer, which is probably not a good ideal to live up to.
Tue Mar 14, 2017 7:02 am
sounds cool :p delicious space magic 1000%!
Oh, and fire wouldn't burn in space. So is it a fire elemental ship or something? Burning fire crystals? The pilot is using a fire scroll?
I like the idea that it's super advanced tech. Why have fire/boosters? You could have some kind of energy/laser propulsion system all glowing and sparking or whatnot... It's okay the way it is, but hardly zings of "something special"... something good maybe, something fun, sure, but to get that unique feel you have to take it to places never been before... I ain't trying to cast aspersions or something like that. Just my thoughts and ideas (I have very little filter between my brain and my mouth!)
don't feel restricted by NES era capabilities/limitations.
Just make up some stuff!, the best you got. It doesn't have to make sense.
More nonsensical is actually better, and much more reminiscent of that era :p
Making a game is one of those things only limited by creativity.
I like it how it is, but it possibly needs more "framing" for dramatic/narrative reasons.
I played the version uploaded to the game section, not sure if it's the most recent one or what.
It's cool anyway :p
Maybe just chuck some stuff over it and pretty it up a bit is what I'm saying. Hope you're not offended :p
Maybe the ability to choose the skin of the ship at the beginning, or adding some modes such as a hard difficulty with LOTSA BULLETS or something? or just changing the number of lives. If there's music it might be cool to be able to choose it before starting a la tetris.... coders in those days were quite ingenious and innovative!
If you like, I could come up with suggestions until I hit on something more acceptable or easier to implement? Or I'll just leave you to it! :p seems like everyone is busy with this compilation... I was actually thinking of making an entry, but there's like.... a fortnight in it... so maybe not.... I really feel impatient for the next contest (for which I will have a decent shot at entering!) so I just came all up in your thread to makeing suggestions ya?
p.s. Craptactics was actually good. Don't know why it's called that. It'd be better with expanded features, and I'm happy to suggest them (...because it's much easier to suggest something than to write, code and implement it! much, much, much easier.... in most cases... but I'm still happy to share my thoughts.... perhaps too happy... no filter, right here.)
"Imagination. Life is your creation."
Oh, and fire wouldn't burn in space. So is it a fire elemental ship or something? Burning fire crystals? The pilot is using a fire scroll?
I like the idea that it's super advanced tech. Why have fire/boosters? You could have some kind of energy/laser propulsion system all glowing and sparking or whatnot... It's okay the way it is, but hardly zings of "something special"... something good maybe, something fun, sure, but to get that unique feel you have to take it to places never been before... I ain't trying to cast aspersions or something like that. Just my thoughts and ideas (I have very little filter between my brain and my mouth!)
don't feel restricted by NES era capabilities/limitations.
Just make up some stuff!, the best you got. It doesn't have to make sense.
More nonsensical is actually better, and much more reminiscent of that era :p
Making a game is one of those things only limited by creativity.
I like it how it is, but it possibly needs more "framing" for dramatic/narrative reasons.
I played the version uploaded to the game section, not sure if it's the most recent one or what.
It's cool anyway :p
Maybe just chuck some stuff over it and pretty it up a bit is what I'm saying. Hope you're not offended :p
Maybe the ability to choose the skin of the ship at the beginning, or adding some modes such as a hard difficulty with LOTSA BULLETS or something? or just changing the number of lives. If there's music it might be cool to be able to choose it before starting a la tetris.... coders in those days were quite ingenious and innovative!
If you like, I could come up with suggestions until I hit on something more acceptable or easier to implement? Or I'll just leave you to it! :p seems like everyone is busy with this compilation... I was actually thinking of making an entry, but there's like.... a fortnight in it... so maybe not.... I really feel impatient for the next contest (for which I will have a decent shot at entering!) so I just came all up in your thread to makeing suggestions ya?
p.s. Craptactics was actually good. Don't know why it's called that. It'd be better with expanded features, and I'm happy to suggest them (...because it's much easier to suggest something than to write, code and implement it! much, much, much easier.... in most cases... but I'm still happy to share my thoughts.... perhaps too happy... no filter, right here.)
"Imagination. Life is your creation."
Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:18 am
Nathan Karr wrote:
First room of the first dungeon.
Pleased to see some progress on this.
Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:12 am
Ultra Frontier QQYYZZ is done. The only thing I need to do is beat it! I can make it to the last (24th) level, but I haven't beaten it yet. Once I've done that and made sure it is feasible, I'll release it to you guys.
Sat Mar 18, 2017 6:20 am
One alarming trend with my game is that even though I haven't had a player/NPC getting knocked through a wall more than twice in the past couple of months during development and heavy playtesting/debugging, almost everyone who I've had play it (about 6-7 people so far) have said "huh, got knocked into a wall" or something similar within minutes of downloading it. So apparently I've... unintentionally developed a play style that is exceptionally good at avoiding a specific bug?
At this point I'm not sure if the game is going to be OK to release without the bug being fixed. I can fork over all the project files involved if anyone (maybe TMC?) wanted to have a look at it and try to fix it.
Otherwise, progress is going swimmingly. Two out of three boss enemy types are mostly complete, here's the latest:
(Still can't figure out how to make the projectile in the boss's eye during the shooting part, without screwing up the shot angle)
At this point I'm not sure if the game is going to be OK to release without the bug being fixed. I can fork over all the project files involved if anyone (maybe TMC?) wanted to have a look at it and try to fix it.
Otherwise, progress is going swimmingly. Two out of three boss enemy types are mostly complete, here's the latest:
(Still can't figure out how to make the projectile in the boss's eye during the shooting part, without screwing up the shot angle)
Sat Mar 18, 2017 2:02 pm
I just tried to reproduce the wall bug. In order to reproduce it, walk back and forth against a wall or edge. It seems to happen sometimes when you get hit during movement, but it doesn't seem to be a guaranteed occurrence. This explains why it happens for most at least once, but after the first or so, the player avoids it. Newbs get backed into a corner, while the veterans know to give themselves space. I'd say there's some small moment during movement that the player is in a different space, but the engine thinks it's the previous one. So hopefully that'll help.
Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:17 pm
Thanks for that, now I know how this is happening. As far as why it's happening? ....no clue. I wouldn't even know where to start, since TMC added the wallcheck commands and also wrote the improved knockback scripts.
I'm going to make a separate thread in Q&A and link it here, so I don't fill up the multicart project thread with bugfixing stuff.
Link to the post: https://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=127636#127636
I'm going to make a separate thread in Q&A and link it here, so I don't fill up the multicart project thread with bugfixing stuff.
Link to the post: https://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=127636#127636
Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:45 pm
Ultra Frontier QQYYZZ is now done. Give it a try! Let me know how you feel about it. I'm especially curious to know if any particular level is too hard or too easy.
I'm also curious if you guys have any idea on how to spice up the graphics without making it hard on people's eyes.
Download it here.
Sat Mar 18, 2017 8:01 pm
I played Ultra Frontier QQYYZZ. It's really hard. Being able to move halfway between blocks is a nightmare because it can be really difficult to tell in a split second whether you're on the grid or slightly off it. I made it to zone 7 and couldn't even get past the second obstacle. The sensory zone is evil.
I love the music. It fits perfectly and really completes the experience.
EDIT: Are the menus messed up for anyone else, or is that still just a Mac-Nightly thing?
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
I love the music. It fits perfectly and really completes the experience.
EDIT: Are the menus messed up for anyone else, or is that still just a Mac-Nightly thing?
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
Sat Mar 18, 2017 10:01 pm
There was a problem with palettes not working in recent Mac nightlies (so maps and backdrops still displayed correctly, but text and sprites didn't). I fixed it about a week ago.
Sat Mar 18, 2017 10:30 pm
TMC wrote:
There was a problem with palettes not working in recent Mac nightlies (so maps and backdrops still displayed correctly, but text and sprites didn't). I fixed it about a week ago.
Alright, I downloaded the new one. Forgot I had an older version.
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:27 am
OK, I played Ultra Frontier again. I agree, the music is great, especially the title music! I'm listening to that on loop.
I got wiped on Zone 4 with a score of 274. I certainly was playing badly and kept falling for the same trick over and over and over. I should be able to pass this zone next time. Although the high speed of Zone 4 is quite a step up, I think the difficult ramp is fine, although zones 1 and 2 seemed the same difficulty.
Regarding graphics, yeah, the coloured blocks don't look great. I think there's no reason you can't use textures, like those graphics you already had, just make them lower contrast instead of yellow-on-black, etc, so they don't flash violently. Like Metroid and other NES games where each tile has a palette of similar colours. Worst case, you can use horizontal lines. You could also put something (like stars or distant abstract shapes) in the background of the empty space instead of black. You could even use parallax to make it scroll slower, which would make it less of a distraction.
I notice the instructions say "You are QQYYZ" while the title of the game is Ultra Frontier QQYYZZ 1.0.
Regarding the half-tile movement: pixel-based movement would be much harder, so I can't complain. I think it's a good compromise.
I think that when you die, the location of the exploding wreck is one step past where you actually collided? Seeing this sort of thing might anger some players:
I got wiped on Zone 4 with a score of 274. I certainly was playing badly and kept falling for the same trick over and over and over. I should be able to pass this zone next time. Although the high speed of Zone 4 is quite a step up, I think the difficult ramp is fine, although zones 1 and 2 seemed the same difficulty.
Regarding graphics, yeah, the coloured blocks don't look great. I think there's no reason you can't use textures, like those graphics you already had, just make them lower contrast instead of yellow-on-black, etc, so they don't flash violently. Like Metroid and other NES games where each tile has a palette of similar colours. Worst case, you can use horizontal lines. You could also put something (like stars or distant abstract shapes) in the background of the empty space instead of black. You could even use parallax to make it scroll slower, which would make it less of a distraction.
I notice the instructions say "You are QQYYZ" while the title of the game is Ultra Frontier QQYYZZ 1.0.
Regarding the half-tile movement: pixel-based movement would be much harder, so I can't complain. I think it's a good compromise.
I think that when you die, the location of the exploding wreck is one step past where you actually collided? Seeing this sort of thing might anger some players:
Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:35 am
I support parallax stars in the background. It'd look very cool, although maybe a bit too much on the eyes. Have to try to find out though.
I didn't mean to say the half-tile movement was a problem. It's a feature of the gameplay, it's the part that creates the most difficulty. It really gets the job done, is what I was trying to convey. I like it and hate it at the same time.
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
I didn't mean to say the half-tile movement was a problem. It's a feature of the gameplay, it's the part that creates the most difficulty. It really gets the job done, is what I was trying to convey. I like it and hate it at the same time.
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:33 pm
TMC wrote:
I think that when you die, the location of the exploding wreck is one step past where you actually collided? Seeing this sort of thing might anger some players:
I just fixed this.
kylekrack wrote:
I support parallax stars in the background. It'd look very cool, although maybe a bit too much on the eyes. Have to try to find out though.
I want to try a parallax background. I almost have it, but I'm stuck. Care to give me a hand at this thread? https://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7166
kylekrack wrote:
I didn't mean to say the half-tile movement was a problem. It's a feature of the gameplay, it's the part that creates the most difficulty. It really gets the job done, is what I was trying to convey. I like it and hate it at the same time.
I've tested the 1/2 tile movement exhaustively. It really is the best solution that I could figure out. Also, the levels are designed so that all the necessary gaps are 2 tiles wide. You will never need to use any gap that is only 1 tile.
The difficulty seems a little much at first, but I hope that you'll keep playing. I think you'll discover it isn't as hard as it seems. Memorization might be just as important as reflexes, especially on the super fast levels.