56 replies to this topic

[wakeskater_X]

Hah, TheUlt just get Pro Version and you can update JD yourself . I only have so much time to work on games D: I've been busy this work I have done has been rough just getting this level going.

HOWEVER, there is a new file on Yoyogames here:
http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/187914-sbx2---return-of-the-fuscians

What you can expect from this update:

1. Level 1 is done! Woot Woot! Well mostly done, I still need to add in a teleporter and in indoor area for the docking station to continue the story line, this also includes making some sprites for a mechanic that you will meet who will equip your ship with weapons and items you find.

2. Generators! The Player now has a generator which is a little rectangular colored item just behind your weapon, sometimes below the addon (as in Radar).

3. Unlockable Items! There are a few items in the game right now, but only the weapons auto equip. For the other items you will need to wait until I finish the auto-docking station where you can go to equip your items (that'll be the next big project after implementing the story line).

4. Easier enemies! Enemies now shoot slower, and have less HP. They were just a bit too beefy before for starting enemies. I may reduce this further, but for now it seems good. (I mostly die from the kamakaze enemies or running into walls too often >_<).

5. Cool graphics! There are asteroids, planets, destroyed piping and FIRE! Hue Hue Hue. Travel around Level 1 and defeat all the enemies and explore some of the segments, but watch out for those damn walls.


I'll try to have a new blog post up tomorrow with screen shots and more info but you can always bookmark my blog:
http://spaceblasterx.blogspot.com/

I have news on updates to my games there as well as video game reviews (occasionally), character design documents, and other interesting stuff. So if you have a blogspot feel free to follow me! And if you don't feel free to leave some comments on my blog, I love hearing from you guys.

Anyway, expect more soon!

Cheers,
~WakeskaterX~

Edited by wakeskater_X, 15 June 2012 - 06:57 AM.

[TheUltimate]

Haha yeah, one day I'll get GM Pro. One day...

Here's some feedback on your game:
- It's way easier now because everything has less health.
- I really like the details the asteroids and planets and stuff add to the world. One thing you can do with the pipes is to add a little bit of colour cause bright pink and dark grey has a lot of contrast and it kind of clashes.
- The map screen is pretty cool. It took me a moment to figure out how it works because you don't use the mouse anywhere else in the game, so maybe adding keyboard-only controls would be something to look into.
- You should probably hide the unlockable stuff a bit more. It's all out in the open or behind like one obstacle; you should make it so you actually feel like you earned them, or add cool stuff like finding all the parts of stronger items before assembling the pieces and using it.
- I have one problem with the movement: It takes like a second and a half to turn around. I guess it kinda makes sense since it's a low-gravity environment on a space station and you can't push off the ground with your full weight. In the right context, this kind of thing can be a really fun feature, but because you have vast areas to explore, it just gets in the way and makes the game harder to play. I know I've mentioned this before, but it's kinda worth bringing up again.
- There's this weird "this program did not run correctly so Windows has applied compatibility settings" thing when I shut the game off.

[wakeskater_X]

Thanks for the feedback TheUlt.

I'll address a few of the concerns:

- Easier yes. That was the idea There will be harder enemies later but you should get good items to counteract this. There will probably be a Hard Mode as well with more HP and better AI. I still need to rework the Hard AI since I changed the enemy movement script.

- Ok i guess the pipes with fuscian matter do clash a little bit, i can see about smoothing that out or darkening up the areas that are on the darker gray parts (cause it'd be shaded too). Thanks I plan to have lots of planets and asteroids and all sorts of stuff with parallax scrolling. I fixed it up really nicely in the latest patch that i'll post later that makes it so the parallax doesn't jump around near the edges of the level.

- The mouse is actually going to be used a lot later. It will mostly be used for add on moves, which more of are coming soon: Teleport (teleports you to mouse location on right click [within a range]), Icebreak (instantly cools your overheat bar on right click), Speed boost (doubles your movement speed [or like 1.5x as much we'll see] when the right button is pressed) and Barrier Pulse (right click to send out a pulse destroying enemy bullets.) I am also making custom cursor sprites for each add on and whatnot.

- The unlockable items will be hidden better in Level 1. Perhaps 2 of them will be out in the open and you just have to navigate through some debris, but at least 1 will be in a mini cave that you have to get through in order to unlock it. (I'm thinking a mini space station area with lots of enemies and dead folks on the ground [for effect :)]).

- Ah yes the slow movement. Don't worry, turn speeds can be upgraded with new items, in fact the second booster you get in this level gives you better turn speed. Later ones will give you better turn speed and movement speed, cooling etc. Mostly movement buffs, but minor other buffs depending on the booster (no where near what generators give you though). The idea is that you start out impeded (your ship is weak) but you will get vastly powerful throughout the game.

- Hm, I haven't seen that yet, do you have Vista / XP / 7?


ALSO FOR EVERYONE: NEW BLOG POST: http://spaceblasterx.blogspot.com/2012/06/sbx2-level-1-almost-finished.html

Edited by wakeskater_X, 17 June 2012 - 05:06 AM.

[TheUltimate]

Um... I was talking about the platforming movement, not the ship movement, although the ship movement is too slippery for getting through tight spaces... All you need to do is increase the acceleration and deceleration so the controls feel more responsive. I don't mean increasing top speed yet or anything, I mean the time it takes you to reach top speed. I found the item in the mini-cave by the way, and all the other ones among the debris.

For the pipes, just even out the contrast a bit and avoid using the default colours in the sprite editor. Getting parallax scrolling working at the edge of the screen is just a matter of moving everything with the view instead of the ship. It's how I do it.

And yeah, it's Windows 7. It gives me weird errors with my own games too, so I dunno if it's just a random error (that seems to happen every time) or if it's actually incompatible.

[wakeskater_X]

I get some errors with my old games made with Game Maker 2/3 and they don't open and just sit there taking up ram over and over. Strange.

Oh I see, yeah I can increase the player movement speed, he feels a bit slow sometimes. Tight spaces is supposed to be a little tough, that's the idea of getting in there to get items, but I can try adjusting the variables for movement and see if something feels a little better.

Mm, all of the piping is done with a custom color palette. I can definitely smooth it out a bit, that'd probably help, I made all the sprites in Paint.NET which I use for most of my bigger tile sets.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback I'll work a bit on a few of these things in the next patch, which maybe sometime this week, we'll see how much I can get done on my days off.

[wakeskater_X]

New download of SBX2 is available here:
http://sandbox.yoyog...of-the-fuscians

Level 1 is mainly finished (with a few side quest areas to be added, but not important to the main story line). And you can now enter the Auto Docking Area to meet Floyd.

The Autoshop is still not done yet, so if you want to try out the new addon: TeleJump (instead of the Radar) you'll have to find out how at my blog:
http://spaceblasterx...ump-add-on.html

It also gives some screen shots and detailed information about the latest stuff added.



Coming soon:
The Auto Shop (meaning you can equip and change out all those sweet ass weapons and items), the Beginnings of Level 2, Some Exploration areas in Level 1, More Add-Ons, (Then Later more of all the items in general), New Loading Screen (really need to make this ) and much much more. To get all the latest news and update information check out my blog above and become a follower! As the game progresses those who are followers will be given secret codes for skins, cool weapons and more!

Thanks for reading, and check out the new file!

~WakeskaterX~

Edited by wakeskater_X, 22 June 2012 - 06:23 AM.

[wakeskater_X]

There is now a demo video for SBX2!!!!

Demo Video:


The video is added to the first post as well, and is located both on my Youtube page and my Blog at:

http://spaceblasterx.blogspot.com/2012/06/sbx2-demo-video-1.html

Also hit subscribe to my channel! There will be more videos of the games developed by Wakeskater Studio in the future!

If you haven't downloaded the game yet, try it! Let me know what you think.

[TheUltimate]

Hah, I love how you button-spam while waiting for the title screen to appear. I do that too.

I can't download the new file right now, so I watched the video, and one thing I noticed is how easily you maneuver through all those tight spots. I just constantly end up crashing into things unless I go at a snail's pace.
Suggestion: If you're using the mouse anyway, why not use W and S to move forward and backward, A and D to strafe, Q and E to switch weapons, and the mouse to point yourself in the right direction? Some other games seem to have this as a control scheme, and it's more convenient if all the keys are in one place. (Yes, I know there's the platforming area too)

And you used GM 2 and 3? Wow. I don't even know how long ago that was. That's pretty cool. I'm still using GM8. That watermark that gets plastered onto your game isn't worth switching to 8.1 imo.

Edited by TheUltimate, 23 June 2012 - 07:31 PM.

[wakeskater_X]

The reason for that is I like having a turn speed. And the mouse is going to be used for directional attacks and for teleporting so you don't want your ship always pointing that direction. Plus shift works well as a weapon swap. For me at least it's right where my pinky rests. And swapping weapons isn't something you have to do all the time.

Plus turn speed is an actual stat that you can upgrade and what not.

Yeah, practice make perfect, that's kind of why I want to make a PvP online version of this game too. Skill games are the most fun in PvP. Also, I significantly reduced the damage you take from walls and added a short timer making it so you don't die instantly if you get stuck or move too slowly up to a wall and die instantly.

Also, last night I coded in a new weapon and the 5th add-on. The 5th add-on is the Frost Shock and the next weapon is the Helix Laser. The Frost Shock add-on instantly removes Overheat and reduces Heat to 0 in addition to firing 8 Icicles out from the player that slow enemies on contact turning them a bit blue. I'll make a video of the new items probably monday when I have some more made. I may make a few more weapons as well this weekend.

I am going to need a long full day to get the Auto Shop done, so I'm holding off for now.



Anyway, there will be a new blog post probably next mon/tues and an update once I get the Auto Shop done. Probably a new cheat code to unlock everything too for my blog readers.

So if you haven't yet (for anyone reading),

Subscribe to my blog at: spaceblasterx.blogspot.com

WakeskaterX

[wakeskater_X]

A new update of SBX2 is available!

You can get the new file here:
http://sandbox.yoyog...of-the-fuscians

What's NEW:
- The Auto Shop is finished! Yes that's right I said finished! Not just started, I sat down and coded and designed it from start to finish last night. It took me about 4 hours but it is where I would like it to be for now.
- Delete File function added to the profile menu!
- Third Space Enemy Type added (if you go to level 2 after level 1, it's a test area that has the 3rd enemy type in it)
- Upgraded back end stuff.

I will release a blog post sometime today or tomorrow including more details, screen shots, and probably a demo video showing the new items to SBX2.

Subscribe to my blog at:
http://spaceblasterx.blogspot.com/

to get updates to SBX2 and when it's going to be released someday get secret content as well!

The game is coming along nicely, the only thing lacking is music and sound effects. I'm not sure if my old sound artist is going to come back to the project, but I am still looking for a dedicated musician / sfx artist to make custom music and sounds for the game. As of now it only has 1 music track for the tutorial area.

Anyway, thanks for reading and make sure to watch for a new blog post soon.

~WakeskaterX~

[wakeskater_X]

New Update to SBX2!

Get the new file here: http://sandbox.yoyog...of-the-fuscians

What's new:
- New area to explore in Level 1.
- New hidden item in level 1.
- Level 2 is now available to play ( but there will be a boss later, and he's not there yet. )
- Bug fixes (Delete File will not delete file 1 if you hit esc to cancel) and other back end stuff.

If you haven't tried out SBX2 Please do try it and let me know what you think!

Also, I just finished a 5 post series on "My Ideal MMO" on my blog, you can check out the reddit for it here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/wdgea/my_ideal_mmo_a_5_post_series_complete/

or read it at my blog here:
http://spaceblasterx.blogspot.com/2012/07/design-my-ideal-mmo-part-1-world-set-up.html

Thanks for checking out SBX2 and any feedback is appreciated.

~WakeskaterX~

[TheUltimate]

Man, those autoshop icons are so small I can barely tell what they're supposed to be. There's so much room between them that you should make them bigger and only leave the symbol, then when you click on it, you could have a textbox with the name, description, and stat increases on the bottom half of the left side, plus buttons to upgrade (with money?) or equip it. On the same note, the stat numbers aren't really useful to me since I don't have a baseline for comparison. You could add something like a scanner that lets you collect information on all the enemies you encounter, listing their stats and stuff for future use. Or make a levelling system and display that above enemies. That'd work too.

I mean, the shop's good already, but the main thing is that there's a lot of information, and stuff like this is easier to absorb and more fun to look at when it's more visual. Kinda like this really bad Photoshop:



...you still get all the numbers, but you can easily tell how good it is.

It's probably just personal preference, but I also think that instead of making you fight enemies the first time you get in the spaceship, the first space level just lets you fly around and get used to the controls. The reason could be that you have to get an item at the other end of the map or something.

Also, if you check the Transparency box in the game options, you can do away with the white square around your loading image.

Edited by TheUltimate, 14 July 2012 - 12:24 AM.

[wakeskater_X]

Oh good idea about the transparency thing. I am planning to replace that anyway though, a buddy of mine is making me a loading screen.

For the first level, I'm gonna reduce the amount of enemies you need to kill, and maybe the size of the level as well. It'll be like 2-3 enemies to get used to combat, and how to move about and fight, should be pretty easy.

I can work on streamlining the shop, and yeah I didn't realize how small the icon's were going to be, but I think I am going to add mouseover descriptions somewhere on the Autoshop page. So the buttons will still be small, but you can mouse over and see the description and Stats and all that. Similar to the first game, plus that is just an addition, I don't need to change the current thing.

But I also can fix the stats page so you can see the base numbers as well as the +amount for each stat and then a total. I'll polish it up a bit.

As for enemies, perhaps later on I can make a scan item that gives you stats about the enemies in a level and then you have a button to press on the Map Screen that takes you to your data log of enemies. That's not a bad idea, but a feature I can add later.

I can also experiment with increasing the button size for the Auto shop too.


Thanks for the feedback!

[TheUltimate]

"It'll be like 2-3 enemies to get used to combat"
Do you mean 2-3 enemies out of 6? I've always found those "kill and/or collect EVERYTHING in the level to advance" type stages to be really irritating, because you end up spending ages hunting down stragglers when all you want to do is go to the next level. Another thing you could do is make a wave-based practice area like SBX. The farther you get, the tougher the enemies are, and if you make it to a certain point you get rare items or something.

I like the idea of mouseover icons in the shop btw. That'd probably be really easy to make too. The size of the icons would be okay if you could tell what they're supposed to be, but yeah, I still think you should make them bigger.

Also, instead of making you go all the way back to the map screen to see your stats and change stuff, why not make some sort of status screen/pause screen when you hit Enter?

[wakeskater_X]

I can make a pause screen, but it wouldn't let you change anything.

There might be a temp pause screen at some point, i'll have to figure out a way that I like.

And 2-3 enemies total, i'll reduce the size of the map so you don't have to travel that far. Plus you have radar, it helps with not having to track enemies down all the time.

[wakeskater_X]

Updated the game (after so long haha).

You can download the file here:
http://sandbox.yoyog...of-the-fuscians

What's new:
- L2 Boss!
- New on hit effects! (if you have a shield it will glow, if not, explosion!)
- Sound effects!
- Smaller Level 1 area.


Let me know what you think, probably some slow trickle in updates in the near future.

Also look for a new blog post at:
spaceblasterx.blogspot.com


~WakeskaterX~

[wakeskater_X]

New Update to SBX2!


What is new this update:
- Level 3 is started (just need to add explorable areas and boss)
- A new character is introduced in Level 3.
- New items are scattered around that restore HP and Shield Power. (these can drop in mini form off of bosses too)
- New enemy added to the game (Turrets)
- Increased damage on a few items.

I'll have screen shots and a blog post later (check for it at spaceblasterx.blogspot.com ) but for now you can download the new file at:
http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/187914-sbx2---return-of-the-fuscians

Enjoy the new level and keep blastin!
~WakeskaterX~