[Necromian]

Hey guys! I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. 2 years actually. In fact, I've actually been saving my 1000'th GMC post for this game. I hope you'll have as much fun playing this game as I had making it!




This is a fast paced space TDS much alike asteroids or geometry wars. It features multiple modes of play, a customizable ship, online highscores, a big ol' store, many different enemy types, and lots of other goodies! It also features really psychedelic and smooth visuals, fluid gameplay and controls, and a rockin original soundtrack by flashygoodness. To grab the game, click one of the download links at the bottom of this post or visit http://www.nfyre.com...ddefender2.html

Genre : Arcade TDS

Fullscreen : Optional

Changes resolution : Optional

Production time : 2 Years

Multiplayer : No

Modes : Arcade Mode, Asteroid Defender.

Controls:
WASD to move
Left and right click to use secondary weapons and to navigate the menu.
Escape to return to the main menu, access the pause menu, or exit the game

Screenshots: [1][2][3]

Gameplay videos (Courtsey of PixelProspector): [Arcade][Asteroid]

Trailer (old): http://www.youtube.c...h?v=M9J4SwbfhSM

Online highscores : http://www.sigmanine.net/gd2/

Download Links:
http://www.yoyogames...grid-defender-2
http://www.nfyre.com...nder_2_v1.0.zip

This post has been edited by Necromian: 10 January 2010 - 03:50 AM

[B Factory LLC]

This is good. I can't belive you saved your 1000th post for this game! Post on YoYo, and maybe it'll be featured!

[RedChu]

It's a really nice game. I particularly liked the effects and the tutorial. Definitely well made.

[D1g1talAli3n]

A truly magnificent game. The only thing I could suggest is to make the tutorial a bit faster, by decreasing the dialog show time.

[LoopStan]

This is great! I saw this game a while back but it wasn't posted here on the gmc. I think its great and I hope you continue to do updates and add levels.

[Dinsdale]

Enjoyed it thoroughly. However, I really can't seem to manage a decent highscore no matter what I do. Any tips?

[hcs89]

Great game, and great job.
Congrats!

[Necromian]

Eh, I guess It's time to break 1000 posts.

B Factory LLC, on Dec 7 2009, 07:39 PM, said:

This is good. I can't belive you saved your 1000th post for this game! Post on YoYo, and maybe it'll be featured!

Thanks! I'm not posting it on yoyo for personal reasons, but maybe in the future.

RedChu, on Dec 10 2009, 07:31 PM, said:

It's a really nice game. I particularly liked the effects and the tutorial. Definitely well made.

Thanks

D1g1talAli3n, on Dec 10 2009, 08:09 PM, said:

A truly magnificent game. The only thing I could suggest is to make the tutorial a bit faster, by decreasing the dialog show time.

Thanks! I'll admit, the tutorial does go a little slow, but it's optional, and only takes a couple of minutes to complete anyways.

LoopStan, on Dec 10 2009, 08:27 PM, said:

This is great! I saw this game a while back but it wasn't posted here on the gmc. I think its great and I hope you continue to do updates and add levels.

Any updates in the future would probably be purely graphical, but who knows! Thanks!

Dinsdale, on Dec 15 2009, 04:19 PM, said:

Enjoyed it thoroughly. However, I really can't seem to manage a decent highscore no matter what I do. Any tips?

Thanks! Try changing your secondary weapons to something that feels more natural to you, and keep playing so you can afford upgrades and get a higher score!

hcs89, on Dec 15 2009, 04:56 PM, said:

Great game, and great job.
Congrats!

Thanks!

[arralge09]

Wondering about this also? Codemaster said on their website that GRiD will be on Steam, but Ive been searching on the store front to pre-order but no images or mentions of it at all. So whats up??

[Necromian]

arralge09, on Dec 26 2009, 04:13 PM, said:

Wondering about this also? Codemaster said on their website that GRiD will be on Steam, but Ive been searching on the store front to pre-order but no images or mentions of it at all. So whats up??

What?

[Necromian]

Added a yoyogames link!

[AuthenticKaizen]

Grid Defender 2 and Super Big Gun Adventure are featured in the 100 Game Maker Games in 10 Minutes (2009 Edition) Video...
congrats!
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/01/200...games_in_1. html

[Necromian]

AuthenticKaizen, on Jan 1 2010, 06:21 PM, said:

Grid Defender 2 and Super Big Gun Adventure are featured in the 100 Game Maker Games in 10 Minutes (2009 Edition) Video...
congrats!
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/01/200...games_in_1. html

I saw that, thanks!

[cred13]

Great game, the tutorial and the interface is excellent.

[Necromian]

cred13, on Jan 9 2010, 01:07 PM, said:

Great game, the tutorial and the interface is excellent.

Thanks!

[zeddidragon]

I like this! It's fast. It's smooth. It's pretty. The grid-background effect is mind-blowing, though I admit I hoped for the grid to be more substantial to the game the just being a fancy special effect (I haven't bought the other modes yet, perhaps it will be?)

Music is good and the sound effect fits.

I wanted to try out getting "You are a tree" in which I score 5000 points without moving or using any subweapons. What I found was that it doesn't even take five seconds for an enemy to spawn exactly inside me. Do I just have to be REALLY lucky to get this?

Also, it seems odd that you can't check the online highscores from inside the game. I'm pretty sure I've seen other games do it. Game's pretty addictive, though. Gonna get right back to it now.

One thing that would be nice would be the ability to set the resolution for the game and increase the view. Right now far too much of the difficulty lies in the fact that you can't see a whole lot around you and the playfield seems small enough that it'd fit pretty nicely inside the resolution of most standard PC monitors these days.

Also, I find that the main menu fades in much too slowly. An option to disable the fading entirely would be nice.

Additionally, shield is spelled wrong in the customization menu.

The charge beam kicks much ass. Definitely my favourite weapon.

Allow me to share my thoughts about the different weapons:
It seems to me that by not using the energy-based weapons, the player is gimping themselves. Now, the shield makes you totally invincible and the speed booster does the same with the added bonus of murdering your foes and allowing quick manouvering. These two weapons can be used an infinite amount of times.
On the other hand, the floating mines can be placed at a point and you can kinda hope that the enemy you want to trip on it does (or plan for it, of course) and it will probably murder them. This weapon can be used twenty times (I have yet to upgrade it, though).
The bomb will murder everyone around you. It's pretty damn powerful and can be used five times.
The laser will murder everyone around you if you do a circle with the mouse. It's pretty damn powerful and can be used infinite times.

Comparing these facts, the bomb and the floating mines seems rather underwhelming. You can probably dish out some carnage with them but sooner or later the fun stops and you're short a subweapon slot that could be used to get out of tight spots. Perhaps the enemy should have a certain chance to drop bombs and mines the player can pick up to replenish their stock?

Edit: I've dwelled some more on this matter. Using a bomb has, in essence, the same effect as dying with the exception of the dying in itself. (Or rather, dying has the same effect as using a bomb) which means that every bomb you have is, in essence, an extra life but only if you can react quickly enough to use it. I propose, in lieu of bomb pickups (there should still be pickups for mines before they can be considered remotely useful) a buyable upgrade:

The autobomb. This effect being, perhaps, self-explained. Getting hit will, as opposed to kill the player, simply expend a bomb. I can think of two ways to keep this from being overpowered: The first is that an autobomb will use two bombs (because an extra bomb is used to shield you or other such technobabble). The other is a bit more interesting. An autobomb won't only not grant you the points for all the enemies killed by it, but you'll be deducted points based on all the enemies it killed and as such the player is much encouraged to remember using the bomb on their own, perhaps even foregoing (disabling?) its purchase.

This post has been edited by zeddidragon: 20 March 2010 - 02:05 PM

[XSkulls]

Ahhamazing game. This is something I'd find commercial.
5/5 (Very well polished)

[Necromian]

zeddidragon, on Mar 20 2010, 05:59 AM, said:

I like this! It's fast. It's smooth. It's pretty. The grid-background effect is mind-blowing, though I admit I hoped for the grid to be more substantial to the game the just being a fancy special effect (I haven't bought the other modes yet, perhaps it will be?)

Unfortunately no. The grid is just a background effect, nothing more.

zeddidragon, on Mar 20 2010, 05:59 AM, said:

I wanted to try out getting "You are a tree" in which I score 5000 points without moving or using any subweapons. What I found was that it doesn't even take five seconds for an enemy to spawn exactly inside me. Do I just have to be REALLY lucky to get this?

The "You are a tree" challenge only states that you cannot move or click the mouse. You're free to move the ship around.

zeddidragon, on Mar 20 2010, 05:59 AM, said:

Also, it seems odd that you can't check the online highscores from inside the game. I'm pretty sure I've seen other games do it.

Yeah, I've seen this too. However, I don't know anything about the 39.dll (the online highscores were coded by a friend of mine), so I don't really have any idea how they work.

zeddidragon, on Mar 20 2010, 05:59 AM, said:

One thing that would be nice would be the ability to set the resolution for the game and increase the view. Right now far too much of the difficulty lies in the fact that you can't see a whole lot around you and the playfield seems small enough that it'd fit pretty nicely inside the resolution of most standard PC monitors these days.

You can change the resolution in the options menu, but the field of view will stay the same. I don't think it's too constricting though, you should look at the screenshots from the first game. Now THAT was a small field of view.

zeddidragon, on Mar 20 2010, 05:59 AM, said:

Also, I find that the main menu fades in much too slowly. An option to disable the fading entirely would be nice.

Additionally, shield is spelled wrong in the customization menu.

I can change these for the next update.

As for the weapons - I feel they're all fairly balanced, since you can have two weapons selected at a time. Even though the energy weapons are generally better than the non-energy weapons, you only need one of them equipped at a time, since using both the shield and the speed charge at the same time is pretty useless.

It might seem that the floating mines are a little under-whelming, but if you think about it - once you upgrade them to the highest level, they get you 75 kills by doing absolutely nothing. On the other hand, even though the bombs can get you more kills, they actually require skill and timing. Therefore, the floating mines are more of a "free gift" weapon.

Also, I think the auto-bomb is a good idea, but it might be a little counter-productive. For example, imagine a player that is only good enough to survive up to 100,000 points, after which they will constantly die. If they have the auto-bomb equipped, rather than losing all their lives and finishing the game with around 100,000 points, the auto-bomb will have decreased their score to somewhere around 90,000. It's a good idea, but I'll have to play around with it for a while before I put it in the game.

XSkulls, on Mar 21 2010, 11:25 AM, said:

Ahhamazing game. This is something I'd find commercial.
5/5 (Very well polished)

Thanks!

[zeddidragon]

Necromian, on Mar 21 2010, 05:22 PM, said:

The "You are a tree" challenge only states that you cannot move or click the mouse. You're free to move the ship around.

It seems my reading comprehension is terrible. I thought for certain it meant to not move the ship.
Edit: Yeah, got it pretty quick now. It's a lot easier for me than one might think because my playstyle mostly involves huddling in a corner in the bottom of the screen while strafeshooting anyways.

Necromian, on Mar 21 2010, 05:22 PM, said:

You can change the resolution in the options menu, but the field of view will stay the same. I don't think it's too constricting though

Well now, changing the resolution to just 800x600 is hardly what I meant, but I'm sure you understand that. I'm certain I can't be the only one who'd find the ability to increase the field of view more pleasing.

As for the weapon-balancing again, they were mostly a stream of thoughts. Using booth speed booster and shield doesn't seem wasteful in the least from my standpoint since you can use the shield while waiting for the speed boost to recharge. The mines are probably just suffering from the hardly criminal problem of being "not my style". They'd be more style if you had a severely reduced max limit of them (full upgraded being 12 or 16 perhaps?) and enemies dropped some for you more often than they dropped the weapon powerups, though that's just me being completely unreasonable obsessive about not ever using limited resources.

It's largely academic because you'd have to pry the charge laser from my cold, dead hands with a crowbar.

This post has been edited by zeddidragon: 21 March 2010 - 05:44 PM

[Iwin]

Wow really amazing game!

I noticed in Geometry Wars however, you could move around the shapes/enemies would follow you, just like in your game - you could easily rack in like 50 shapes following you at once and than pull them to one side and shoot them all at once. However, I noticed, in your game, that the cursor or "gun" rotates when you move around, making it somewat impossible to tag many shapes and have them follow you because your cursor ends up randomly shooting them. Maybe there should be an option to disable/enable that feature?

This post has been edited by Iwin: 27 March 2010 - 10:46 PM