BlobVaders (development halted)

[NiallM]

Calling quits on this one. Final links:
Windows Download
OSX Download
Video

For an explanation of the changes, see my most recent post.

[original post]
So I watched this, and that led to me making this:

Mechanically it's about as basic as it can be, but it's surprising how much the 'juice' adds to it. It's like a magic trick.

All sounds are generated by a built-in synthesizer, with the music generated from the player's actions in the game.

Video
Windows Download
OSX Download

I'm now trying to decide whether to do more with it. I could see it expanding with things like randomised enemy behaviours, item identification, bosses, and ship customisation, but I can't quite decide if I want to take it further.
[/original post]

[SavageDuck]

Yes, this has a great feel. The visual style matches the audio style really well. Nice work. Certainly worth building on. Get the basic gameplay singing and I'd play it all day!

[jonbro]

it is a neat core idea. I was having a bit of difficulty connecting the sounds to the actions though, I wonder if you could build into the action a bit slower to make this more clear.

I have a similar prototype from a ways back, where you could place the enemies, and they would come onto screen like a drum machine. I am reworking it to be less space hero, and more warning forever though. It is cool to see people doing similar things.

[Señor Barborito]

I really liked that talk too!

anyway, I just watched the video and quite enjoyed the little details and effects.
it seemed to me however that the way the top row of enemies drop in looks a bit weird because the enemies drop down and then bounce out of the screen again. dropping down is fine but imo you shouldn't have the enemies leave the screen again.
It's only a cosmetic change but I found that to look a bit weird.

[NiallM]

Thanks guys :)

it is a neat core idea. I was having a bit of difficulty connecting the sounds to the actions though, I wonder if you could build into the action a bit slower to make this more clear.

I have a similar prototype from a ways back, where you could place the enemies, and they would come onto screen like a drum machine. I am reworking it to be less space hero, and more warning forever though. It is cool to see people doing similar things.

Yeah, the connection between sound and action is kind of obscure. What basically happens is when an enemy dies, the game looks at its distance from the top-left of the screen and uses that to determine a pitch and whether it should be a bass or a lead sound. It then attempts to add a note to that instrument's step sequencer, skipping it if there was already a note there (there's a counter that gets incremented with every note added to determine which step to add the next note to). It's very clunky and I'd definitely like to redo it.

What I was aiming for was something that would create interesting musical patterns from the player's input, so I'm not too fussed about there being no easily discernible connection between sound and action. The fact that it doesn't really create interesting musical patterns is kind of a problem though (the pad sound that appears once you've killed 60 enemies is a cheesy attempt to hide that).

I actually made a similar game a couple of years ago where there was a direct connection between sound and action, but I found it kind of unsatisfying. Hence the different approach I took here.

it seemed to me however that the way the top row of enemies drop in looks a bit weird because the enemies drop down and then bounce out of the screen again. dropping down is fine but imo you shouldn't have the enemies leave the screen again.
It's only a cosmetic change but I found that to look a bit weird.

Yep. This was basically a weekend's work; that's one of the many things I'd like to tidy up when I have some time.

[Jasper]

I really like the look of the invaders, and the overall treatment, although I'm less sure about the missiles, they seem too solid in comparison maybe? Also found the screen shake quite extreme!

I'm interested to see where it goes.

[mcc]

This is super cool. It reminded me of Inside A Star Filled Sky on a couple levels.

I think what this needs more than anything else is a high score screen. As it is it's a really neat experience but I feel like I don't have a lot of incentive, once i've played it once and gotten to like 50 or something, to go back and get an even better score. A high score tracker or some kind of a change that happens every 40 monsters killed or something would create that kind of incentive.

I would suggest considering tossing this to ipad/android tablets.

[Terry]

Windows version crashes for me (on Win7).

Video looks very cool!

[NiallM]

Windows version crashes for me (on Win7).

Oh dear :( I take it it's just crashing straight away? I have had a couple of random crashes in-game that I haven't been able to track down yet, but I haven't seen it crash on startup. It's probably an issue with my framework code; I'll take a look.

I think what this needs more than anything else is a high score screen. As it is it's a really neat experience but I feel like I don't have a lot of incentive, once i've played it once and gotten to like 50 or something, to go back and get an even better score. A high score tracker or some kind of a change that happens every 40 monsters killed or something would create that kind of incentive.

I would suggest considering tossing this to ipad/android tablets.

As far as incentive goes I'm actually thinking of adding a kind of hybrid Weird Worlds/Binding of Isaac-style structure to the game, where you have a solar system to protect and fleets of invaders en route to multiple planets. There would be a kind of strategic pressure to get to vulnerable planets before they're overwhelmed, and you could have random items like defence satellites which would buy you some time to save one planet before you come back to another etc. Each invading fleet would be made up of a selection of enemy types with a unique boss at the end, and I'm thinking you could scavenge bits of enemy ships to upgrade your own ship.

I like the idea of making it into a randomised (mini)epic coffeebreak/lunchbreak game, though I do wonder if all this extra stuff would detract from the minimalist aesthetic it has at the moment. iOS is definitely a possibility; I think I'll want to add autofire if I'm porting it to a touchscreen though.

[Aaron Santiago]

Windows version crashes for me (on Win7).

Oh dear :( I take it it's just crashing straight away? I have had a couple of random crashes in-game that I haven't been able to track down yet, but I haven't seen it crash on startup. It's probably an issue with my framework code; I'll take a look.

I think what this needs more than anything else is a high score screen. As it is it's a really neat experience but I feel like I don't have a lot of incentive, once i've played it once and gotten to like 50 or something, to go back and get an even better score. A high score tracker or some kind of a change that happens every 40 monsters killed or something would create that kind of incentive.

I would suggest considering tossing this to ipad/android tablets.

As far as incentive goes I'm actually thinking of adding a kind of hybrid Weird Worlds/Binding of Isaac-style structure to the game, where you have a solar system to protect and fleets of invaders en route to multiple planets. There would be a kind of strategic pressure to get to vulnerable planets before they're overwhelmed, and you could have random items like defence satellites which would buy you some time to save one planet before you come back to another etc. Each invading fleet would be made up of a selection of enemy types with a unique boss at the end, and I'm thinking you could scavenge bits of enemy ships to upgrade your own ship.

I like the idea of making it into a randomised (mini)epic coffeebreak/lunchbreak game, though I do wonder if all this extra stuff would detract from the minimalist aesthetic it has at the moment. iOS is definitely a possibility; I think I'll want to add autofire if I'm porting it to a touchscreen though.

As far as incentive goes I'm actually thinking of adding a kind of hybrid Weird Worlds/Binding of Isaac-style structure to the game, where you have a solar system to protect and fleets of invaders en route to multiple planets. There would be a kind of strategic pressure to get to vulnerable planets before they're overwhelmed, and you could have random items like defence satellites which would buy you some time to save one planet before you come back to another etc. Each invading fleet would be made up of a selection of enemy types with a unique boss at the end, and I'm thinking you could scavenge bits of enemy ships to upgrade your own ship.

As far as incentive goes I'm actually thinking of adding a kind of hybrid Weird Worlds/Binding of Isaac-style structure to the game,

Weird Worlds/Binding of Isaac

I think you mean to say Star Fox. Because that's what that would be.

Also AHHH WHY SO MUCH SCREEN SHAKE

[NiallM]

An Update!


Windows Download
OSX Download
Video

It's still a work in progress and doesn't do any hand-holding yet, so I'd better explain a little:

• There are 6 fleets heading to the 6 planets in your solar system. The goal is to defend all the planets (you only have 1 ship to do so; cutbacks...).
• Time is pausable on the solar system screen. Travelling between planets (click on the planets to travel to them) takes a certain length of time.
• Hovering the mouse over the invasion fleets gives you an estimate of which planets they might be aiming for and how long it'll take them to get there (though for the time being it just goes nearest fleet:outermost planet->farthest fleet:innermost planet, unless they succeed in destroying a planet).
• When your ship is near enough a fleet, you go into the original space invaders-style part of the game.
• The invaders are procedurally generated; there are various behaviours they can have, and these behaviours can be combined. The Vader Encyclopedia lists all the invader types you've encountered during a game.
• My random name generators are terrible.
• You can play the solar system like a musical instrument.

Things still to come:

• Procedurally-generated bosses at the end of each fleet.
• Pickups for the player (better weapons etc.).
• (Possibly) resources to manage on the planets.
• Some kind of AI directing the invasion fleets. The idea is that the AI will try and make life difficult for you, trying to flank you and draw you away from vulnerable planets. There will also be things like nebulae which obstruct your view, allowing the AI to surprise you.
• Maybe more traditional game modes e.g. survival, boss rush etc.
• Better difficulty curve.
• Screen shake amount slider ;)

The thing is, I'm at the point where I'd like to make some money from the games I'm making, and I don't think I can justify spending a lot of time on this one if it's going to be another free project. So the question is: is this good enough to become a commercial project?

My big concern is that it's not distinctive enough; there's a lot of shooters out there, and I don't know if there's enough here to set it apart from all of them. Help me out super friends?

[Aaron Santiago]

So the question is: is this good enough to become a commercial project?

Commercial has such a negative connotation. But if you want to try to sell this game for a few bucks, it's wholly possible, especially with the surge of new (and legitimately exciting) platforms, the best of which coming to mind is Steam Greenlight.
You're far from that point with this build, I think though. If you haven't played Star Fox 64 ever, I suggest you do so (you're on a computer, find an emulator) , because it provides an excellent model of what I feel would work well for your game. The problem is that if you want to continue in the direction of the space-invaders-micro-to-the-simplified-rts/towerdefense-macro, you're going to need either a whole new art style, or a really clever way to make each planet and invasion feel unique. Right now you're throwing things on top of a black background, which is acceptable for tech demos, but will get you nowhere when you try to envision a lively environment that works with your blobby-pixel approach.
(side note, you absolutely need new sound effects)
Also, the defending-invasion thing really makes no sense with the meta game you've implemented. If you're intercepting invasion waves, why are they heading directly for you and in such small groups? A sense of scope and location would do wonders.
And why stop at pickups? Go for upgrades. Big, over the top upgrades. One of the few shooters that I've legitimately purchased did this (Really Big Sky), and man-oh-man did it work well. Customize-able everything like I've seen in a few flash shooters is generally not a bad idea, and if you're drawing out a meta game to save multiple planets, you might as well be collecting gold and spending it on a 5-shot homing missile set up firing 32 times per 5 seconds with a secondary laser beam that can be fired after 4 seconds of down time.

Hmm. That's my two cents, if I think of more I'll return.

[Ian Snyder]

The game as it is now moves too fast for me to keep up. If I beat a level, it's almost always because I simply got lucky. I'm playing on a laptop touchpad, which obviously isn't ideal for your control system, but I also won't be the only one.

I really really like that the map functions as a musical instrument. I think I had more fun with that than I did with the space invader segments. What's most interesting to me about this is the musical element. I think the top-level space strategy game could be cool as well, but the space-shooty bits are a weak link for me.

Fair warning: I don't know a thing about selling stuff, so what follows is total conjecture.

When it comes to selling this, keep in mind what you're trying to sell to people. It's space invaders with prettier sound, essentially. That's not a very attractive pitch. I think your concern over whether it is distinctive enough is justified.

If you rethought the controls a bit I could see this doing ok as an iPhone/iPad app, but as a desktop downloadable I find it less attractive. In the end, if you're looking to make a commercial project, I think you would be best served to work on something else.

[NiallM]

Okay, I think I'll shelve this one then. Here's a final version (all I've added is autofire):
Windows Download
OSX Download

@Ian: I think the music stuff is where my heart lies. What I'd really like to do is a big collaborative music game, but I reckon I've got a lot of prototyping to do before I get something workable in that direction.

@Aaron: I've never really been a console gamer, but from watching a couple of let's play's it looks like starfox just has a (fixed) branching mission structure? That's kind of the opposite of what I wanted to do with this game. The point of the solar system setup was to try and provide the player with a kind of narrative impetus derived from their interaction with the game's systems rather than from a wall of text, or cutscenes. So rather than following a set path, you wind up reacting to a particular formation of fleets. And maybe one of your planets is experiencing a famine and has no resources to aid you, or one of the fleets is hit by a meteor as it exits the nebula it was hiding in... The point is, each time you play you should wind up with a unique story, rather than something I wrote myself.

Of course, as it stands there's only the bare bones of that structure in the game, and I was never entirely sure it made sense to tie that kind of meta-game to a space invaders shooter.


Anyway, thanks for the feedback guys. I really appreciate it :)