[Ultimortal]

IJI 1.6 :GM5:
Remar Games 2004-2010

Content: Mild animated violence, mild language, themes of war and death
Resolution: Choose between windowed and 32-bit 800*600 fullscreen
Players: 1
Does not use installer, registry, or internet browser
For full credits, see the manual

Estimated requirements:
Windows 98/NT/2000/XP/Vista (may run slowly on XP/Vista/7, try setting the detail level to Low and turning off Gamma effects if it slows down)
1 Ghz CPU
32 MB graphics card
200 MB virtual memory
Webmasters: Mirroring and hotlinking are forbidden, but linking to my homepage is not.



This strategic platform shooter is the biggest and most ambitious game I've ever made. Updated sporadically!

Visit the game's homepage and read more about it

Download version 1.6 from YoYoGames

Download high-quality soundtrack (optional)

Watch the trailer (YouTube)

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3
Screenshot 4

This post has been edited by Ultimortal: 07 March 2010 - 09:47 PM

[Kaminari]

Awesome. Excellent graphics, excellent music and sound effects, excellent control, excellent gameplay. Nice job. I can tell it took four years. Very reminiscent of Metroid.

The only criticism I have is that the story was somewhat weak. Not that it was horrible, especially in the context of video games, but it could have used some more development before you hit the audience with "You are abrubtly a cyborg!" I'm just saying that it's no Hamlet. Maybe a Deathly Hallows.

I didn't get very far into the game, but it looked fairly glitch-free to me. I guarantee this'll receive some attention.

[Ultimortal]

Kaminari, on Sep 2 2008, 01:30 AM, said:

The only criticism I have is that the story was somewhat weak. Not that it was horrible, especially in the context of video games, but it could have used some more development before you hit the audience with "You are abrubtly a cyborg!" I'm just saying that it's no Hamlet. Maybe a Deathly Hallows.

Thanks. I wanted to story to start abruptly so I could get it going and evolve though - I thought it would be better, gameplay-wise, than having a huge backstory which is now only implied. By the climax of the game, the player will hopefully think the same. But I'll be the first to say that I'm definitely not a writer, so don't expect Hamlet.

[Explicit]

wow

that was like, the best trailer ever...

downloading...


umm...wow

that was probably the best platform shooter/rpg game ive ever played.

great graphics. love the story, the aliens were cool, the game was just brilliant, you took the term "nano" to its limits.

10/10

i dont see why its not commercial...(but dont make it commercial)

This post has been edited by Explicit: 02 September 2008 - 03:02 AM

[shockedfrog]

Up to Sector 6 so far, and while I generally don't say too much about a game until I've completed it or given up on it, I feel the need to post immediately to say it's brilliant so far and I hope this topic gets a bit more attention later on.

Edit:
Completed Normal! Now for thoughts that will eventually become a review whenever my site's ready:

First things first - the gameplay is great, paced perfectly, and the story really stands out. The graphics may not be to everyone's taste, but I personally love the general style of the game. The audio is spot on, too - while I've never been one to complain about ripped music where it fits, it's refreshing to hear a good original soundtrack.

What's particularly amazing about Iji is that I actually want to replay it, on the different difficulties, trying different stat builds and such. Many games attempt this, but this is the first in a long time that's succeeded for me. I appreciated the way hints are given, both during the main game and for later plays - the Sector Z one being a particularly good example, giving the player enough info to find it but still making them think a bit.

The ending was maybe a little disappointing, but perhaps that's just to serve me right for taking the easier kill-pretty-much-everything option. I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of any (obvious?) effect of collecting the ribbons. The bosses were also a little disappointing, while there were some subtle changes between each life bar I'd have preferred some nastier twists. I'm looking forward to trying the bosses on the harder difficulties and discovering the other sides of the story, though.

Nothing is perfect, but this is a pretty good try. Definitely the best Game Maker game I've ever played, and perhaps, after I've explored everything a bit further, I'll also consider it the best freeware game I've ever played.

This post has been edited by shockedfrog: 02 September 2008 - 09:04 AM

[Ultimortal]

Thanks, shockedfrog. You seemed to like it despite your gripes.

As for the ribbons, their only use is to further a sidestory; the game attempts to clarify this at one point. A certain game modifier affects the late-game ribbon chats as well.

And on the bosses, I generally thought it would be mean if they pulled out their most powerful attacks by the end of the fight instead of at the beginning (which they do now), and get a cheap shot in when they're nearly beaten. :p Especially the final boss on the higher difficulties.

SPOILERS!: Due to the story though, there's not much Iji can do at the end, so there's no "perfect happy ending" to achieve by playing pacifist. Perhaps that needs to be clarified, but it's implied by the way the story begins - with the cutscene at the end of Sector 2 in mind, being a pacifist won't change what has already happened before Iji even awoke. It will change the final boss's impression of her, but not the overall outcome. /SPOILERS

[shockedfrog]

I'm glad there's no perfect happy ending, I was perhaps actually a little surprised that the ending I got was as positive as it was, though not in an unreasonable way. And I guessed that game modifier would affect the messages, got the positive version first time round so I'll try it the other way next.

I agree that unpredictable changes allowing cheap shots would suck - I've yet to dodge the final boss's fancy one-shot kill, so I'm quite glad he doesn't use it unless I'm doing particularly badly anyway. :) I was thinking more about how each boss only really has one weakness, which is ok for most but seemed a little lacking for the final boss. Thinking about it, though, the method of defeating the final boss is probably the most appropriate for Iji. Anyway, when I was writing that I'd forgotten that Iosa was a two-parter, and the conclusion of that was excellent.

[gamewizkid]

I want to download.

But I won't unless you tell me how big the filesize is.

[PurpleFuzzy]

File size = 27.2mb (yikes!)
But once I saw that you spent four years developing it, I was a bit compelled to try it out, since it would suck for someone to spend so much time on something like this and then be rewarded with nothing.

While I wait for the download, I shall continue yapping. I really commend you for being able to stick to a project for four years of your life (that's 1,460 days!) and complete it and then give it away was freeware... That's just a very impressive thing to do. A lot happens to a person in the span of four years and to be able to keep this kind of consistency is mind boggling; something I would never be able to do.

Currently the file is at 66%. I'm getting myself a bit excited here. The screenshots look great. 79%... 80%.... 81%... Okay, I'm going to stop typing until I've played the game... 84%... 85%.... Okay...

Okay... I'm playing it now and... Wow. This is a wonderful game. I think the story is a little "blah"-worthy, but the gameplay and the beautiful artwork make up for it, no doubt.

You've got a masterpiece right here.

-PF

Edit: Good to know that GM5 is still proving itself useful.

This post has been edited by PurpleFuzzy: 02 September 2008 - 01:22 PM

[Dannerz]

I just beat normal mode.
The game is great.

[DominicWhite]

A fantastic little game. Some of the art sat wrong with me (especially the faces, which just looked a little off), but the gameplay was excellent. My only real complaint is that the music is horribly over-compressed. Tiny bitrate, and it really hurts a lot of the tracks, especially the ending song.

Any chance of a release later on with higher quality audio?

[Carnivac]

Yup, fantastic. Good graphics with smooth animation, excellent sound effects and superb music (the first game in ages where I don't mind it's mp3's mainly cos the tunes are just so good and really add to the game). It's got a story I'm actually interested in (a rarity for me in video games). A little too much text but it comes up fast and I can read quickly so that's not an issue. Controls are responsive. Great action too and I love the boss battles. The characters are charming too. And the little details like smashing the crates or hitting your head on the lights shattering them, and I love the feel of the speeder bike things especially as they leap over the gaps and plough through enemies. Oh yeah the cutscenes are great too.

Think the only thing bugging me is trying to map this game to joypad. Seem to be too many controls when getting all the weapons, but the majority of it feels great with a console style controller.

Already spent more time than I should have playing the game today (darn college stuff starting up) but every single minute of the game has been a joy. I can see this being a keeper even after finishing it the first time. It's already a fave of mine.

Indie game of the year for me.

[Ultimortal]

Thanks everyone.

DominicWhite, on Sep 2 2008, 09:10 PM, said:

Any chance of a release later on with higher quality audio?

Yes, hopefully an optional download consisting of the full-quality soundtrack will be up in a few days or so.

[dimitri]

Great game. I loved the animation style, it was very fluid and nothing looked too shabby.

[Tahnok]

Really slick game! One of the few GM games that has actually kept my attention for longer than 10 minutes. I plan on actually playing all the way through (just beat sector 4). Definitely stands out as one of the most polished GM platform games out there. I highly suggest posting this on the YYG site, as I think it could become a front page feature and get a ton of traffic that way (or at least a staff pick).

[Necromian]

I wanted to point something out -
I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, but some of the sprites (explosions, shells, bullets) show up as just black boxes.

I'm using windows vista service pack 2.

[shockedfrog]

Finally got the posters and went through Sector Z, fun little place :)

One oddity - I played through Normal again and ended with 7 kills, which was considered 'Killer' rank. Seems a bit inconsistent with the way the other two rank tables work.

[rinkuhero]

I'm at sector 5 or so right now. Probably the best GM platformer I've played since Seiklus. Everyone should try it out!

[dimitri]

Necromian, on Sep 3 2008, 03:27 AM, said:

I wanted to point something out -
I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, but some of the sprites (explosions, shells, bullets) show up as just black boxes.

I'm using windows vista service pack 2.

Forgot to mention that. I too am using Vista with service pack 2.

[Ultimortal]

Necromian, on Sep 3 2008, 03:27 AM, said:

I wanted to point something out -
I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, but some of the sprites (explosions, shells, bullets) show up as just black boxes.

Does this happen as soon as you boot the game, without alt-tabing? In either case, go into the pause menu by pressing Escape in-game, then go to "Options" and use the "Reload Graphics" command. Does that fix the problem?

Quote

One oddity - I played through Normal again and ended with 7 kills, which was considered 'Killer' rank. Seems a bit inconsistent with the way the other two rank tables work.

This is indeed a mistake; the game internally used the number 5 instead of 10 to decide if you exceeded the "Innocent" rank. Thanks for pointing it out! There's no gameplay impact or unlockable for getting "Innocent" though, so luckily this wasn't as serious as it could have been.