Gunstar - update

[STEVIE G]

That might be an evolution thing ... maybe in the space era eyebrows are no longer needed ... same for butt hair

Yet I have to explain why I did not nitpick for missing eyebrows: they have some.


bye
Ron

Not in the video footage 

[Derron]

Ohh ....you are right. How can you dare....poor game trump....

Bye
Ron

[STEVIE G]

One for the censorship board 'Derron' - does this meet with your approval?





In other news, I need to add the option to have no comms incase it gets annoying.  Also, I don't  want it getting in the way of your view so have shifted the wave indicator to the bottom right. This will allow comms to come in from the top or bottom - basically the opposite of where your ship is pointing.  Seems like a sensible solution but not 100%. Any thoughts?

[Derron]

If they are too chatty without any "benefits" it should be optional ... some might like it as it "encourages" to play some minutes longer and another minute longer and ...
Yet you need to ensure that the stuff they shout is not too repetitive.

Also I think you should have X choices per "mood". And the "mood" is defined by:
- being attacked by you in the last minute ("short term aggression")
- being attacked by you at all ("long term aggression")
- being almost defeated ("game chances")
- having almost owne ("game chances")
- having a streak


... so all this "states" affect from which "mood box" your choice is to select.
Each of this "boxes" could be a "ring of choices" so once the top most is used it is put at the bottom (to avoid repetition).


bye
Ron

[STEVIE G]

If they are too chatty without any "benefits" it should be optional ... some might like it as it "encourages" to play some minutes longer and another minute longer and ...
Yet you need to ensure that the stuff they shout is not too repetitive.

Also I think you should have X choices per "mood". And the "mood" is defined by:
- being attacked by you in the last minute ("short term aggression")
- being attacked by you at all ("long term aggression")
- being almost defeated ("game chances")
- having almost owne ("game chances")
- having a streak


... so all this "states" affect from which "mood box" your choice is to select.
Each of this "boxes" could be a "ring of choices" so once the top most is used it is put at the bottom (to avoid repetition).


bye
Ron

I don't want it to be as complex as that, it's an arcade shooter not an RPG. Messages do have priority - ie if one of the important characters is taking damage. Earthlings Pilots are the lowest, then Generals, then Friendlies and then the Earthlings leader.  So, priority messages will override less important ones. The Dropship  pilot will chat at the start of each wave if he has a tip to tell and the Friendles can say hello at this point too. The main aim  is to have to have some Pilot Wings style chatter during the battles. When a wave is complete the Princess or Earthlings leader or the dropship pilot can say something too.

Need to keep it simple  but add variety.

[iWasAdam]

possible suggestion

do a flip flop with the chatter.
E.G. left corner first text along bottom in followed by right side, then back to left, etc.

This would keep the main view clear, and use the corner side and bottom more

another way would be to remove the dark background and move the text down

[3DzForMe]

Strong praise from my 18 year old daughter - your game should be on the App Store - I think the NPC's really added a good slice of humour to what is already a most awesome game

[STEVIE G]

Strong praise from my 18 year old daughter - your game should be on the App Store - I think the NPC's really added a good slice of humour to what is already a most awesome game

Excellent,  high praise indeed. If I remember she also influenced your comp vote 

I've been trying to figure out a way to keep the main characters alive for the final battle without making them invincible. Think of it as Battle Beyond The Stars where various factions eventually come together to fight a common evil.  Indestructible 'Escape capsules' for the win. 

You can pick them up like you would a powerup so get points and thanks or leave them on the field. Either way they survive.  I've got 3 mercenaries, an admiral and a Cigar smoking, Stetson wearing robot cowboy, from different planets, who will join the fight.  The later one quotes lines similar to those from unforgiven and has the fastest ship. He won't start as a good guy. 

I've updated the comms so that the most important messages get heard. If their ship is destroyed while speaking their image changes to static. When a relevant event has happened the NPC send a request to the comms system which picks the message depending on the situation and also decides if the message is more important than the one currently displayed or currently in the queue. Seems to work quite well.

Final boss is done, let's just say I had alot of fun with that and hope it goes down well. 

I have a dilemma.  The game has 10 zones, each with 4 waves. I'm guessing you'll be able to complete it in an hour or so. I started by having a zone select where each is unlocked as you progress. The problem with this is that you will have a less powerful ship if you start on the later zones and less chance of accumulating a decent score. So options...

1. I though of having an auto save at the end of each zone which will allow you to continue at the start of that zone with the same points, gems, upgrades you had at the point of save.  Issue is if you only had 1 life left. I could give you at least 5 maybe?
2. No saving. You start from the beginning each time and depending on difficulty have multiple continues of 5 lives each. You don't lose upgrades, gems or score. I think this is my preference so far. Maybe each continue costs you 50000pts or something?
3. Similar to 1 but save file stores your position at the end of all previous zones too. You can then select which one to start from. If you start from an earlier zone and subsequently complete it, your position for that zone is saved over and future zone positions remain intact until you get past that zone and overwrite it.

I think I'm over complicating this so suggestions most welcome.

Cheers Stevie

[Derron]

Other games had level progressing done in a way that you could win a "next" level somehow - but eg not "perfect" (think of a "5 of 5 stars rating") or only if you are very skilled.

Yet you were allowed to play certain levels again - eg. to collect more bonus coins which you could spend to upgrade your items. Or you meanwhile have access to certain items which allow other routes than before (think of the "coloured blocks" which you enable in Super Mario World .. which make paths walkable etc - making shortcuts available then).

So maybe going "back" in the levels is like going back in time - once you went back you cannot jump back "into the future" but have to live your live from there on. So assume this:
In Level 1 you can kill enemy A - or not. You need to kill him to gain access to Level 1_2 which exposes you some knowledge/skill which you can keep during your time travel (eg how to fly the ship of enemy A).
Timewarp ...Level 1 again.
You can now not just kill the enemy, you can assist him by taking over their ship so that there is enough manpower to kill enemy B (in Level 2_1) which else would only be killed by enemy C "force joining" you in the fight (for some price).
So the time warp allows to "re-choose" stuff with your new knowledge of skills (and also of the story - who is a bad guy and who a good one by their heart).



@ game saving
You could give "coins" ...coins can be spend to "win" levels without playing (until you reach "-x levels of your max reached level"). So you can play the levels you know you can win easily and then "skip" the others until you reach the current.
Or make level skipping subtract lives ... so it is up to you if you skip here and there..


bye
Ron

[3DzForMe]

I like the sound of No. 3, bit like a rewind. Also, the NPC s sound very intriguing 

[Steve Elliott]

As far as the characters are concerned, they add some more interest.  But will they quickly become annoying?  You cannot possibly have an endless supply of dialogue without it getting repetitive...Almost like getting heckled when you're trying to play...Some will appreciate it I guess, but definitely something that needs an off option.  Having said that I've often thought of adding brutal heckles to a game, to wind a player up and in some way encouraging the player to try harder next game...It's a fine line to tread.

It seems your game is evolving though (and it's a really good game already) the only true feedback we can give I feel is after playing, rather than a description of how things happen.

[STEVIE G]

Other games had level progressing done in a way that you could win a "next" level somehow - but eg not "perfect" (think of a "5 of 5 stars rating") or only if you are very skilled.

Yet you were allowed to play certain levels again - eg. to collect more bonus coins which you could spend to upgrade your items. Or you meanwhile have access to certain items which allow other routes than before (think of the "coloured blocks" which you enable in Super Mario World .. which make paths walkable etc - making shortcuts available then).

So maybe going "back" in the levels is like going back in time - once you went back you cannot jump back "into the future" but have to live your live from there on. So assume this:
In Level 1 you can kill enemy A - or not. You need to kill him to gain access to Level 1_2 which exposes you some knowledge/skill which you can keep during your time travel (eg how to fly the ship of enemy A).
Timewarp ...Level 1 again.
You can now not just kill the enemy, you can assist him by taking over their ship so that there is enough manpower to kill enemy B (in Level 2_1) which else would only be killed by enemy C "force joining" you in the fight (for some price).
So the time warp allows to "re-choose" stuff with your new knowledge of skills (and also of the story - who is a bad guy and who a good one by their heart).



@ game saving
You could give "coins" ...coins can be spend to "win" levels without playing (until you reach "-x levels of your max reached level"). So you can play the levels you know you can win easily and then "skip" the others until you reach the current.
Or make level skipping subtract lives ... so it is up to you if you skip here and there..


bye
Ron

Hmmm, too complicated and not in my plans.

As far as the characters are concerned, they add some more interest.  But will they quickly become annoying?  You cannot possibly have an endless supply of dialogue without it getting repetitive...Almost like getting heckled when you're trying to play...Some will appreciate it I guess, but definitely something that needs an off option.  Having said that I've often thought of adding brutal heckles to a game, to wind a player up and in some way encouraging the player to try harder next game...It's a fine line to tread.

It seems your game is evolving though (and it's a really good game already) the only true feedback we can give I feel is after playing, rather than a description of how things happen.

Agreed. I'll be looking for some Guinea pigs shortly. I've settled on a new game / load game style.
New game starts on zone1 and load game allows you to select zones 2 to 10, assuming you've made
it that far. Once you've completed a zone, the game will create a new save file or overwrite any existing
 save file for that zone.  Max of 9 files. The save file will include player info (score, lives, gems etc.) but also difficulty. 
It means you can effectively rewind / wind fwd time and retry a zone to improve your score but have to start again
if you want to up the difficulty. As you progress at the new difficulty the old save files will be overwritten.

Sounds complicated but it's not.  I think it works well.

[Derron]

It means you can effectively rewind / wind fwd time and retry a zone to improve your score but have to start again

Hmmm, too complicated and not in my plans.

Seems time rewind is not too far of my idea (albeit I of course "deepened" it a bit)


bye
Ron

[STEVIE G]

It means you can effectively rewind / wind fwd time and retry a zone to improve your score but have to start again

Hmmm, too complicated and not in my plans.

Seems time rewind is not too far of my idea (albeit I of course "deepened" it a bit)


bye
Ron

Yeah, similar. I just didn't want it used as a gameplay element as that would give me a headache. 

[STEVIE G]

Progress update ..

The Load Game screen works like so ... where you're given details of how you were doing.  If you started  a new game on Hard and made it to the end of wave 4 the zone 02 slot would be overwritten so difficulty would show, Hard, Easy, Easy etc...



The New Game splash is the following.  I've reworded it a few times but it seems ok.  Noone ready these things anyway!!



In terms of the comms obscuring the view, I've gone with bottom left (as suggested by Mr Strange) and less dark so that you can see through it and the writting and characters are alpha 0.5. 
I've also put the wave no back at the middle top where it belongs. I'm not going to alternate left/right bottom but I think this works.  In reality, during the normal game you will only see the comms occasionally. 
I think I'm done with the comms for now.



Next up is a fancier screen fade and improved wave start and end text transition.

Cheers,
Stevie