SirNiko









Level 10 Re: Impdude - Contra-style game with randomly generated levels « Reply #2 on: August 11, 2013, 07:07:19 AM » The protagonist is pretty difficult to see against all those black backgrounds. You may consider making him a little lighter, or giving him a subtle light-colored outline to make him stand out.



I really like the silhouette heavy aesthetic, though. Logged

cmbrgames









Level 0 Re: Impdude - Contra-style game with randomly generated levels « Reply #3 on: August 12, 2013, 09:19:36 AM » @SirNiko

It might be more pronounced on the screenshots than in-game when you have control of the character, but I'll make him brighter. I'm wondering if maybe I should brighten everything else too because it might look too dark on some screens?



I'm working on the random level generator right now and I'll post an update how it works after I'm finished. Logged https://soundcloud.com/cmbrtrance

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cmbrgames









Level 0 Re: Impdude - Contra-style game with randomly generated levels « Reply #6 on: August 13, 2013, 11:49:41 AM »



1. It loads up premade rooms. Each room can be either horizontal, diagonal, or vertical.

2. Puts a starting room.

3. Puts few randomly picked horizontal rooms next to each other.

4. Randomly decides to put a few diagonal, vertical rooms or a pit/tower side-route (or none at all and move to 5.)

5. Go back to 3 and repeat until we have enough rooms.



It can produce a level like this for example:





So basically an almost linear stage through which the player travels by going up or right.

I plan this to be a generator only for the first level and to make different variations of it for each of them. For example the second could be more vertical and the last one could be a maze with lots of dead-ends. I'm keeping it simple for the moment to get a demo out quickly and see if the game will work out.



The levels can have any length (limited only by memory) and are continuous - the screen scrolls smoothly through the whole stage and it's possible to have no loading screens after each one and go smoothly to the next one, but it will depend on how much texture data there will be.



I'll probably put up an early gameplay video after I'll make some more rooms, add shooting and some enemies.

I've got the map generator going. Generally it's based on a simple idea inspired by Spelunky & Rogue Legacy, but with a few differences.1. It loads up premade rooms. Each room can be either horizontal, diagonal, or vertical.2. Puts a starting room.3. Puts few randomly picked horizontal rooms next to each other.4. Randomly decides to put a few diagonal, vertical rooms or a pit/tower side-route (or none at all and move to 5.)5. Go back to 3 and repeat until we have enough rooms.It can produce a level like this for example:So basically an almost linear stage through which the player travels by going up or right.I plan this to be a generator only for the first level and to make different variations of it for each of them. For example the second could be more vertical and the last one could be a maze with lots of dead-ends. I'm keeping it simple for the moment to get a demo out quickly and see if the game will work out.The levels can have any length (limited only by memory) and are continuous - the screen scrolls smoothly through the whole stage and it's possible to have no loading screens after each one and go smoothly to the next one, but it will depend on how much texture data there will be.I'll probably put up an early gameplay video after I'll make some more rooms, add shooting and some enemies. « Last Edit: August 13, 2013, 12:17:39 PM by cmbrgames » Logged https://soundcloud.com/cmbrtrance

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cmbrgames









Level 0 Re: Impdude - Contra-style game with randomly generated levels « Reply #9 on: August 20, 2013, 01:13:40 AM » Early gameplay video:









There's something like 20 level parts (or rooms as I called them above) done right now so they repeat a lot at the moment but I have to finish all other stuff before I get to making more of them. In the demo there will be 200-300 of them for this level.



What I plan to add to the game:

- 10-20 different types of enemies (at the moment there are only 4)

- 5 more weapons including the spreadgun and a sword; each of the weapons can be upgraded once by picking it up again

- Gradius-style powerup system

- Shrines placed around the level that can give you random good or bad effects

- Challenge rooms which if you complete them you'll get a 1up or some other bonus Logged https://soundcloud.com/cmbrtrance

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Elrinth







Level 0 Re: Impdude - Contra-style shooter with randomly generated levels « Reply #10 on: August 20, 2013, 04:38:15 AM »

Love the gore splatters :D If you want more Contra feel I think you need to slow down gameplay a bit and also let the player have a bit longer hangtime in the air. Also enemies shouldn't fire bullets or be fought outside the screen. Unless they are a gigantic boss ofcourse.



Keep up the great work, this is really inspiring to me! Minor critique:Love the gore splatters :D If you want more Contra feel I think you need to slow down gameplay a bit and also let the player have a bit longer hangtime in the air. Also enemies shouldn't fire bullets or be fought outside the screen. Unless they are a gigantic boss ofcourse.Keep up the great work, this is really inspiring to me! Logged

cmbrgames









Level 0 Re: Impdude - Contra-style shooter with randomly generated levels « Reply #11 on: August 21, 2013, 06:48:03 AM » About hangtime - you can control the height of the jumps in the game so that's why it looks like this in the video.



I also tweaked the level generator and removed the sideroutes and made the vertical parts in levels much shorter. The sideroutes don't anything interesting to the gameplay, besides having to backtrack and I'll leave the climbing parts for other levels. Yeah I also thought about that and slowed it down now, because when the player moves fast than I have to make enemies and bullets even faster so he can't outrun themAbout hangtime - you can control the height of the jumps in the game so that's why it looks like this in the video.I also tweaked the level generator and removed the sideroutes and made the vertical parts in levels much shorter. The sideroutes don't anything interesting to the gameplay, besides having to backtrack and I'll leave the climbing parts for other levels. « Last Edit: August 21, 2013, 07:36:23 AM by cmbrgames » Logged https://soundcloud.com/cmbrtrance

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cmbrgames









Level 0 Re: Impdude - Contra-style shooter with randomly generated levels « Reply #12 on: August 25, 2013, 08:47:27 AM »



There's a new enemy type that drops meteors on your head when you let him fly off the screen:





Weapons:

- Upgraded machinegun fires bullets bigger than the characters head:



- Spreadgun (normal fires 3 bullets, upgraded 5):



All of the weapons bullet speed & fire rate will be upgradeable separately through the powerup system.



[edit]

I actually worked some more today and added the powerup system. Monsters drop these ellipse things randomly and when you pick them up the cursor moves to the next powerup. Then you can press a button to use it or wait for more drops. Some of these have instant effects, other will be a power you activate by pressing another button.

Most of the groundwork/engine stuff is done so I'm slowly switching to adding more content to the game. Still there's no powerup/weapon pickups and the challenge rooms mentioned earlier but I'll get to it soon.There's a new enemy type that drops meteors on your head when you let him fly off the screen:Weapons:- Upgraded machinegun fires bullets bigger than the characters head:- Spreadgun (normal fires 3 bullets, upgraded 5):All of the weapons bullet speed & fire rate will be upgradeable separately through the powerup system.[edit]I actually worked some more today and added the powerup system. Monsters drop these ellipse things randomly and when you pick them up the cursor moves to the next powerup. Then you can press a button to use it or wait for more drops. Some of these have instant effects, other will be a power you activate by pressing another button. « Last Edit: August 25, 2013, 03:01:54 PM by cmbrgames » Logged https://soundcloud.com/cmbrtrance

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