34 replies to this topic

[Taizen Chisou]

Oh, it's that guy again with his horrible danmaku.

DOWNLOAD VERSION 0.7
http://dl.dropbox.co...SS 0.7 full.zip (32.6 MB)


DOWNLOAD VERSION 0.6
http://dl.dropbox.co...981/LSS 0.6.zip (21.4 MB)


DOWNLOAD VERSION 0.4
http://dl.dropbox.co...981/LSS 0.4.zip (16.7 MB)

Arrows to move, Z to shoot, Shift to focus, X to bomb.

The engine was built from scratch this time, so go easy on the technical details this time!

Since there is no highscores, or Evaluation screen, the game will save a screenshot of your last effort if you clear the demo.


I have no spriting experience~~~
The bosses in the game so far are all trapezoids that read "Placeholder Boss Sprite."
Can someone please come up with some spaceships for it? Thaaaaaaanks~
(there are only three, two are bosses and one is a midboss)

Since the game only has five stages, I'm terminating the demo at the end of 2-2.

The game will be both polished and severely unpolished.
I realize how that sounds but bear with me.
It was started from scratch a little under a month ago, and I've never had the development cycle go this fast.

YouTube videos (slightly old) :

Random runs:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Frg9QReuyyw
Stage 1-1, 1-2, and first boss:
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=DSKavO2s2as

Screenshots of what is to come:

Edited by Taizen Chisou, 08 May 2012 - 09:00 PM.

[Charmeleon]

gamefreek2′s newest work-in-progress, “Lunacy Star Second,” is a bullet hell space shooter featuring stylized graphical effects and short, but engaging stages. With its unique aesthetic and high difficulty, it is hard not to be reminded of a cactus game when playing LSS. However, considering that LSS is actually fun, it would be more apt to compare it to a Kenta Cho game. For anyone who loves shmup games but found themselves falling asleep during “Clean Asia,” this is a must-play.


The best screenshot I could get without dying.

Gameplay-wise, there’s a lot that LSS did right. The enemy ships have interesting and varied shooting patterns, keeping the player on his toes without overwhelming him. There are a few times, however, when I felt compelled to use a bomb just to clear the screen of bullets. One thing I liked in particular is how quickly you max out on power-ups, meaning that death is not a significant set-back as it is in some other shmup games. Getting power-ups, for the most part, serves only to increase the score, but it still feels good to collect them.

Of course, “Lunacy Star Second” is a work-in-progress, and as such there are still significant portions of the game that are unfinished. For example, the bosses are floating trapezoids with the words “placeholder boss sprite” on them, which gave me quite a chuckle. However, I am very intrigued by what the creator has presented so far, and I will be keeping an eye out for the final release. If you like bullet hell shooters, check out this game!

This has been the seventh review in the "Charmeleon's Awesum Reviews" series!

[Taizen Chisou]

Thank you for your generous review, Charmeleon~!

If the difficulty was an issue on the easier of the two difficulties, then surely I should nerf it, yes?
The screenshot suggests you were on the harder difficulty, however!

And death is only a set-back for people who like to score points :3
(Oh, maybe I should have explained the pick-up items...)

Thanks for playing, you can expect the next version (with all 5 stages) perhaps sometime in late 2012!

[Starz0r]

I have to say, I was impressed with the quality in the gameplay and sprites. For the bullet patterns, I was not. The patterns were way too easy and predictable. I think that could be changed, now, I'm off to play 1 and 2 on advanced!

[Taizen Chisou]

The first game had more Touhou-esque patterns and was all around more difficult

Thank you for playing, though

[Starz0r]

The first game had more Touhou-esque patterns and was all around more difficult

Thank you for playing, though :D

I have a question, did you make the music yourself? (In both games I mean)

[Taizen Chisou]

Yes, I did. I'm still learning/improving/blundering about until I get better results, so bear with me ^^;

[Starz0r]

Yes, I did. I'm still learning/improving/blundering about until I get better results, so bear with me ^^;

What program did you make them with? They sound really good.

[Taizen Chisou]

Both games had their soundtracks composed with FL Studio. The main difference is that LS1 has Midis and LS2 has MP3. Thank you very much for the compliments.

[Taizen Chisou]

DOWNLOAD VERSION 0.6
http://dl.dropbox.co...981/LSS 0.6.zip (21.4 MB)

Now with third stage, three shottypes, high scores, a main menu, a working config screen, and some new under-the-hood BS that guarantee extra sexiness!

A notable lack of sexiness would be, unfortunately, the Placeholder Boss Sprites.
But I'll fix those eventually!

[Taizen Chisou]

*bump

Version 0.8 sometime in a couple of months, featuring Stages 4 and 5, and also backgrounds.


But if someone can make backgrounds for me, that would be excellent :I


Also, everyone should post their high scores. Like, seriously.
I'd post mine but that'd discourage everyone.

[Starz0r]

*bump

Version 0.8 sometime in a couple of months, featuring Stages 4 and 5, and also backgrounds.


But if someone can make backgrounds for me, that would be excellent :I


Also, everyone should post their high scores. Like, seriously.
I'd post mine but that'd discourage everyone.

I was gonna take a picture of mines, hold on, I'll get one for you.

[Taizen Chisou]

Excellent.

On the subject of scoring, it will be more complicated in the next release.

You can chain items up to a 2x additional multiplier atop your normal multiplier.

That 40x that you normally got can become 80x if you collect things fast enough.

It adds more depth.


Also, larger numbers.

[Taizen Chisou]

*bump

Stage 4-1 is done.

It's also incredibly difficult D:

And now the theoretical maximum score is some 360 million.

[Canite]

I'm back again!
I'm liking this new one! It's incredibly easier though, but I was only on standard mode. I used the 3rd ship which was.. interesting lol. I couldn't really tell if the translucent stars shot from the top of the screen were doing anything? They seemed a little useless, but maybe I just can't see the use in them. I made it to the last stage of the boss on 2-2 on my first try, and died with still some bombs left I like the graphics a lot more on this one. My score on my first try was : 12,912,950. Gonna try it again with a different ship and beat standard, then go for the advanced mode.
Btw, I'm always impressed at how many new bullet patterns you come up with, they're very good! It's a great feeling when there's just bullets everywhere, you're dodging like hell and then come out unscathed

[Taizen Chisou]

Hey, thanks!
Third "ship" is actually the 3rd stage midboss from LS1, haha. A person.

An individual blue star bullet would deal something around 5hp damage, which translates to some 400 dps from the top screen familiar.

But that's dwarfed by those special star bullets she has, which do something around 40hp each, so I guess I see what you mean.

Excellent work, by the way. The 2-2 boss's final is probably the hardest thing for a while (especially on Advanced), until you hit the 3-2 boss.

12 million ain't bad for a first try, either! I've only tried it around a couple hundred times and I don't think that much more than 30,000,000 by that point is possible.

You say it's easier, but that's largely the point :V

It's significantly easier than the original, but I'm not complaining. The first was ridiculous even on it's easiest setting.

The third player is perhaps the most technical to use, so switching to one of the other two might be a good idea.
The Solar Hydra's standard shots are more powerful than the Gear Axis, and so is it's bomb, but it lacks the range.

The original plan was to simplify the patterns used this time, as part of the whole "making it easier" thing, as well as making the patterns less akin to Touhou and more to Cave.
They feel a little less like "spellcards" this time, don't they?
Thanks, though~!

All in all, thank you for checking it out, again, and I'm very glad you enjoyed it. I very much appreciate the feedback!

Look forward to Stage 4 if you end up plowing through Stage 3-1 and 3-2 with ease. I'm giving it teeth!

Edited by Taizen Chisou, 23 March 2012 - 10:19 PM.

[Canite]

Right!! I remember that midboss, I thought the stars looked familiar haha. I tried the solar hydra and I found myself doing focus almost 90% of the time, cause without it, it just moves too fast ! Which, I suppose it the point, maybe I just need practice. A few suggestions I've got so far:
-The first one had more feedback when hitting an enemy. I don't remember what's different, but I like to know that a shot is hitting an enemy (especially on bosses) so a little feedback would be nice (small explosion?) as long as it doesn't clutter the screen
-I remember in the LS1, the bombs destroyed all bullets on the screen as soon as it's sent out. I liked this because it made me feel more safe and I didn't have to worry about being on top of a bullet when my invincibility runs out.
-The powerup system seems to need a little work. My first playthrough, I didn't even notice it. You powerup to max so quickly, and then when you die you don't seem to lose it? I don't how it works.

All I got so far! I'll keep playing, keep updating

edit: Oh right, high score is now ~20,000,000, died right after 2-2 boss

Edited by Canite, 24 March 2012 - 12:48 AM.

[Taizen Chisou]

I suppose I neglected to mention the differing movement speeds.

Well, generalized, player speed goes Solar Hydra > Nategasa > Gear Axis from fastest to slowest.
Bomb damage goes Nategasa > Solar Hydra > Gear Axis.
Bomb range goes Gear Axis > Nategasa > Solar Hydra.
Normal shot damage goes Solar Hydra > Nategasa > Gear Axis.
Normal shot range goes Gear Axis > Nategasa > Solar Hydra.

I can totally add bullet hit effects. Since of course this is like the fifteenth time I've been told to add it >_>

Enemy bullets are deleted at the end of bombs so they can be used as a supergrazing tool, as graze factors a little into your score.
You see, you bomb, and it gives you invincibility; you still get graze points even if you're invincible. And then the bomb terminates and the bullets delete to give you a chance to reorient yourself.
A general rule of thumb would be that bombing immediately makes you safe, and after it ends, you have about one second to get back into it.

Powering down only occurs when you die, and since the 75% increment is the same as the 100% increment, it'll only seriously affect you if you die twice in a short period of time. 100% power is for (1) insurance for your damage output, and (2) so Power Items become Point Items when enemies explode.

If an enemy drops power, it's drop Points if you're 100%.
Similarly, if an enemy drops Multiplier, it'll drop Points if you're x99.99. But good luck with THAT

Do remember- you lose 25% Power on death, as well as 25% of your current multiplier!
And, in the new version, that there's an item chaining mechanic!
You know how the pitch of the items goes higher? I've tied that to score now :>

The second extra life is at 40 million points. Keep at it!
It'll come in very handy for when you have to fight Masagara



0.8 is confirmed to feature a stage select practice mode.
So you can skip all the way to 5-2 in the new version!
Just as soon as it exists.

Also, you will not be allowed to practice 5-3.
Maybe if I can get the Extra Stage in, I can skip right to 1.0 :>

The next stage I have to work on would be Stage 4-2. And the fourth boss will be... fantastic.

Edited by Taizen Chisou, 24 March 2012 - 01:31 AM.

[Taizen Chisou]

*bump again

I've moved the extends a little, to even out the increase from the chaining mechanic.

15,000,000 > 60,000,000 > 125,000,000 > 250,000,000

Also, the bomb extends were made slightly easier.

500 > 1,500 > 4,000 > 8,000

Stage 4-2 is currently underway, but I'm having problems not making it too difficult. Also toying around with the idea of having an actual midboss.

Given, the 4-1 boss can also be referred to as the Stage 4 midboss- but if one appears in the middle of 4-1, what do you call that? :V

The fourth boss will only have you go through eight attacks, and since they're all short, the fight will probably be shorter than Masagara's. But do keep in mind that it's not necessarily going to be easier, and that there are like 40 ways to approach the fight.

[Starz0r]

How many stages are you planning?

[Taizen Chisou]

1-1, 1-2, 2-1 ... 4-2, 5-1, 5-2, 5-3, Extra-1, Extra-2, Extra-3.
I'm calling it five plus one bonus level, but some people might say fourteen.

[TheUltimate]

Alright, you. I promised I'd play your game, and now here I am.

It's a lot better than the first one, that’s for sure. It’s more polished and nicer to look at. It's much easier too, which I guess is good for people like me who don't play these kinds of games often, although I kind of liked the shot patterns from the first game better. Also, is it just me, or do you get to play as one of the bosses from the other game? The one with the really long name, I mean, cause if you do, then that's kind of cool. I didn't have the sound on so I'll comment on the music next time.
One suggestion: Please make the bonus collectible things more distinct, at some points I can't tell them apart from the bullets. Oh wait, actually I have two: add continuous shooting so I don’t have to let go of Z every time I want to go diagonally.

So yeah. I like it. I'll play through the rest of it sometime.

◊ TheUltimate ◊

Edited by TheUltimate, 04 April 2012 - 03:09 AM.

[Taizen Chisou]

Alright, you. I promised I'd play your game, and now here I am.

It's a lot better than the first one, that’s for sure. It’s more polished and nicer to look at. It's much easier too, which I guess is good for people like me who don't play these kinds of games often, although I kind of liked the shot patterns from the first game better. Also, is it just me, or do you get to play as one of the bosses from the other game? The one with the really long name, I mean, cause if you do, then that's kind of cool. I didn't have the sound on so I'll comment on the music next time.
One suggestion: Please make the bonus collectible things more distinct, at some points I can't tell them apart from the bullets. Oh wait, actually I have two: add continuous shooting so I don’t have to let go of Z every time I want to go diagonally.

So yeah. I like it. I'll play through the rest of it sometime.

◊ TheUltimate ◊

I've been told the deal about items looking similar to bullets before :V
I'm not sure how to approach that, seeing as I've already made tons of adjustments to them, but I'll think of something.

And yes, Nategasa is in from the first game. Third stage midboss and whatnot.
Her attacks even resemble what she used in her boss appearance :]

The shot patterns were deliberately made simpler, so I see what you mean. They get more complicated later on ( -> Fourth boss on the harder mode ), so you know. I figured that I'd make the patterns less trickier, so I can distance the format of the game from games like Touhou and bring it closer to Cave shoot-em-ups.

Oh, right, autofire. I was supposed to trigger that too.
Well, the new control handling system will more than allow for that, so I'll make the autofire button "a" or so.

Thanks for playing it, hah.



also update the highscores on your games
but not too soon because i'm about to crack ten minutes

[Canite]

Hey, been getting back into playing this, but I've been wanting to use my NES usb joystick! I tried using joy2key and it almost works, but for some reason the shift (focus) does not work with a joystick. When I press my button set to shift, as soon as I press the movement keys it stops focusing. Not sure if this is a problem with joy2key, but this only happens when I push the button assigned to shift (no matter what button it is). So, it'd be nice if you could put in some customizable controls so I can reassign the focus to a letter key. Thanks, and now back to playing!

edit: One more thing, add sound control! :D
Sorry if these are low on your priority list, but I think having lots of settings is very appealing to most people.

Edited by Canite, 05 April 2012 - 03:36 AM.

[Taizen Chisou]

The only control is on / off ^^;

You mean like a volume slider?

As for key remapping, I've made all the controls remote. A feature to change which keys do what is planned already :]

[Taizen Chisou]

Aah, *bump
You can't fault me for my persistence...

Anyway, an intermediate 0.7 release instead of 0.8 might be in order
I'll be taking Quite Some Time off to pursue a competition entry, that will last three months

Convienently, I have nearly finished Stage 4-2 entirely, so yay.
I only have two attacks to put together, and then it's downtime in preparation for this contest.

Thanks for all of the support :V

[Taizen Chisou]

*Bump

I've completed the Stage 5-1 and Stage 5-2 themes, as well as plotted out all of the attacks for the final boss.
It uses "destroying the universe" as a weapon against you.

I'm tabling the project briefly for the RPG competition on 64Digits, however. Look forward to that :V

I've made slight adjustments in the meantime.
Stage 1-2 is easier. Stage 2-1 is easier. The third boss is easier. Stage 4-1 will trap you less. Stage 4-2 doesn't drive you into the bottom of the screen anymore.

And it's easier to score more points

[Starz0r]

*Bump

I've completed the Stage 5-1 and Stage 5-2 themes, as well as plotted out all of the attacks for the final boss.
It uses "destroying the universe" as a weapon against you.

I'm tabling the project briefly for the RPG competition on 64Digits, however. Look forward to that :V

I've made slight adjustments in the meantime.
Stage 1-2 is easier. Stage 2-1 is easier. The third boss is easier. Stage 4-1 will trap you less. Stage 4-2 doesn't drive you into the bottom of the screen anymore.

And it's easier to score more points :D

Why is there no download link to this version D:

[Taizen Chisou]

I'm still ironing out one stubborn problem.
If it works out I should have it up tomorrow morning at the soonest.

It's with the scoring system...
I guess with the new score handler the game can process scores up to 100,000,000,000,000... But of course a billion is about as high as you can get...

[Taizen Chisou]

Here's the final update before the Big Hiatus, because starting now, the project will be tabled for the 64Digits RPG competition.

As you may have noticed, the graphics are still the same.
Sorry.
This is more or less an "intermediate" release, seeing as there's not an awful lot of new things, but here is what's different:

Easier to get extra lives
Easier difficulty period
Extra bomb bonuses
A continues system (You can try again after you game over?! What?!)
A new score handling system that supports scores up to 100 trillion
Stage 4-1, 4-2, and the fourth boss
Edits to the player scripts, such as damage and homing shots when the Gear Axis focuses

http://dl.dropbox.co...981/LSS 0.7.zip

You do require 0.6 first, seeing as this package is just an updated .exe with the relevant new songs.

If you don't have 0.6, it can be found here:

http://dl.dropbox.co...981/LSS 0.6.zip

Edit:

Whoops! I screwed something up in the original upload of 0.7, pertaining to continuing at the fourth boss.
The error has been fixed, and the link is the same:
http://dl.dropbox.co...981/LSS 0.7.zip

If you downloaded it before this post, then I implore you to update your .exe again, unless you enjoy the stage progressing in the middle of the boss fight.

Edited by Taizen Chisou, 03 May 2012 - 01:25 AM.