Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

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Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

Hey everybody! I have been working on my game for a few weeks now and finally decided that I should actually register. Wink

The title is Alien Intent, but that will probably change later on. I haven't really put much thought into a title yet.

This will be my first game using GameMaker. It will be a horizontal scrolling shmup in the style of r-type or gradius. I'm sticking with a pretty standard shooter here. Nothing really too fancy or original to be honest. I don't want to do something really elaborate and then never finish it because it gets out of control. I want to keep it simple. Especially since I am still learning the intricacies of GameMaker.

Here's a screen I grabbed really quick, I'll get a better one later tonight. I was having trouble getting a screen shot with the enemies all on screen because I had to hit alt-print screen, plus space bar to fire the guns and control the ship! Haha!

I'm planning to have at least three levels. I currently have the first level half there. I basically just need to create more artwork for the backgrounds.

You can currently pick up two options. Currently they just fire the regular gun, but rapidly. I'm toying with the idea of them firing missiles or a laser or something. Not sure yet, I don't want the player to be too powerful. I'm also thinking of adding a third option that sits in front of your craft and shields you.

I should have the HUD done this week as well as more backgrounds and possibly a new enemy type. I'll keep posting updates as they come. I love working on this stuff, so they should be pretty quick. Grin

If I get a chance I may have a movie later this week. I'll also put up some concept art and stuff. I always like seeing that kind of stuff, so I'll show mine.

-----------------------------
September 8th update:
The demo is now available, you can download it from my website here:
http://www.andrewgriffin.net/Games/Alien_Intent.zip

--Griff

« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 12:36:51 am by Griff »

August 01, 2007, 10:28:41 pm

#1

Adigun A. Polack

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Re: Alien Intent

Not a bad idea, Griff, and I wish you the *very* best of success on your whole project... take your time, do your best, and do an excellent job, hear me? Wink

=b

And by the way, it is really good of you to learn the ropes of game develoment, and this compo is no doubt the way to do it. As such, I welcome you aboard right here!!! grin2

!

August 01, 2007, 10:56:06 pm

#2

Shoot-em-upper

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Re: Alien Intent

I love your graphics, especially the option, but there seems to be something wrong with the edges of the rocks. They don't look like they're cut out quite right. Could it be a problem with antialiasing on the original images?

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August 01, 2007, 11:44:06 pm

#3

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent

Adigun: Thanks! I'm hoping it will come out pretty good and I'm having too much fun making it not to finish! Grin

Thanks for the welcome!

Shoot-em-upper: Thanks! Glad you like the graphics! I agree with the edges of the rocks. I think what happened is I was going for this "light hitting the edge look" but it didn't really work out. I'm doing it all pixel by pixel, so I can get rid of that edge easy. Thanks!

Anyway, I'll put some more screens up tonight and it should give everybody a better idea of what's going on.

August 02, 2007, 08:02:55 am

#4

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent

Okay, as promised, here are some new screens. I worked on the game a bunch today, so there are a lot of new things going on. I changed the color of the bullets based on some suggestions. I'm not sure if I like it yet. I was so used to the other color bullets! I think this is for the better though. I've now also got the score, lives, missiles and bombs HUD stuff working. It's not pretty yet, but at least it's there.

I did some work on background stuff today, like the rock walls. I think they came out pretty good. I also updated the rock platforms so they didn't have that white edge like Shoot-em-upper (thanks!) mentioned (although, I now notice that I forgot to actually update it in the game). Next I need to create some more variation to the rock walls as well as a rock wall background so it will actually feel like you are in a cave.

I'm now pretty much set on adding a third option that you can pick up. It will act as frontal shields to your ship. Currently the game is crazy hard, so I will need to tone it back and I think the extra option will help with that.

I also want to add a new enemy type. I'm thinking a slow moving missile freighter ship. It will drift out towards you and then unleash a bunch of missiles at you. It will take a few hits to destroy, but it will basically be a drifting target. If you don't take it out though you will have to deal with lots of missiles! Grin

I'm also toying with the idea of enemies dropping power ups as well as finding them throughout the level. Not sure about that yet though.

I'm hoping to have a movie up by Friday! For now though enjoy the screens and feel free to hit me with your feedback, good or bad! I like both! Grin

--Griff

« Last Edit: August 02, 2007, 07:24:08 pm by Griff »

August 02, 2007, 09:10:44 am

#5

Alex

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

Looks sweet, is it playable now?

August 02, 2007, 01:15:57 pm

#6

Matt McFarland

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

I'm loving the visual style so far, the game looks pretty solid as well, it looks finished. This one will be one of the first I download for sure

Matthew A McFarland

August 02, 2007, 01:38:23 pm

#7

errolian

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

Hi, love the look of your game.

I'm a long time lurker and recent member and this is my first post here. I don't know if this is the proper place to post this but what the heck:

I have some knowledge of C++ and more of c# and would like to write a SHMUP myself. There are a few concepts however I have yet to wrap my mind around. They really all concern the concept of levels. Looking at your game, and many others, is the level defined in terms of a set screenwidth (or height) and you track a moving camera across the level? If yes, do you define the background as a set of fixed tiles per level, and script the enemies etc based on either the elapsed time or screen position? I would assume you would also have to stop the camera movement once you reached the end of a level or when you get to a boss-fight.

Apologies if I have posted this in the wrong area, but am keen to learn the concepts of a vertical/horizontal shooter, and could be inclined to enter the contest (or a future one) once I know exactly how I can achieve the goals.

Thanks in advance, Ian.

August 02, 2007, 06:00:07 pm

#8

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

Sweet! Thanks guys for the awesome complements!

Alex: Yup, it's playable right now. Everything pretty much works. I really just need to build out the levels, create more background artwork, and reel in the difficulty (it's a bit out of hand right now Wink

). Oh and create the bosses! I have an ugly place holder in for the boss right now and he needs to go! Grin

I also want to create some more enemy types and I'm planning on three separate environments: Space, planet atmosphere, and planet surface. Of course, each of those environments will contain all kinds of things.

Matt: Thanks man! Really appreciate it! I still have till the end of September to get it all done, so I expect it to look even better by then. Grin

Errolian: Let's see if I can answer your questions. I'm using a program called GameMaker, so it does a lot of the work for you. I'm more of an artist then a programmer, so for me, that works. I figure that it doesn't really matter how you get there, just as long as you get there. Wink

Basically the way the level works is that it is defined by a width that the camera basically pans across. You can control how fast or slow it pans or if you want it to stop and stuff. You can define the background as tiles or use a large image that stretches across the whole thing. The enemies I place throughout the level and they all have been programmed to do certain things or react certain ways when the player reaches them. I learned C++ a while back, but I don't think I could actually make a game in C++. GameMaker though was pretty easy for me to pick up and it is really artist friendly, which for me was probably the most important thing. You should check it out if your interested, you can try it for free.

August 03, 2007, 02:31:18 am

#9

Shoot-em-upper

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

I heard that GameMaker is inferior to Blitz, but that Blitz is more complex. Do you have an opinion on Flash?

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August 03, 2007, 05:25:41 pm

#10

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

Well, the only thing I know about Blitz is that it is $80 and looks to be more 3d oriented. Since I do 3d art at work all day I find it to be a really nice break to be able to come home and make sprites for use with GameMaker! Grin

GameMaker works really well with sprites and lets me focus on the art and just have fun with it.

As for Flash: I really like Flash. Back when I was in college I used to use it all the time. I've made a couple of unfinished games with it, but I would say that flash is more programming oriented, especially for games. I think that's why I never finished the games I attempted with it. I would get frustrated with all the programming in order to get something to work. As an animation tool though, flash rocks! I actually finished animations. Haha! Grin

But yeah, like I said earlier, I'm more of an artist then a programmer. I just want something where I can worry more about the art and less about the programming, and in this case, GameMaker suits that well. Wink

As an animation tool, Flash is awesome. As a game making tool, for me anyway, it can be a little too programming intensive.

August 04, 2007, 03:09:43 am

#11

Shoot-em-upper

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

Ah. I'll keep that in mind.

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August 06, 2007, 07:26:19 am

#12

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent (new screenshots Aug 2nd)

Here's some updates:

Level one is pretty much there, but next I need to work on the distant background. I'm planning on having nebula or planets or whatnot out there.

I managed to get the level one boss done art wise, but I still need to clean up his AI. Right now it is pretty basic.

I got the "cave" art pretty much done and it looks and plays much better. I added a new option. It is a shield option. It doesn't fire, but it can take a ton of hits before it is destroyed. If you use it strategically, you can protect your ship quite well. Wink

I've added in a new ship weapon, the classic laser.

Added in a few new enemy types. A missile frigate, a power up wave pattern drone (shoot it and it drops a power up), and two variations of the regular fighter drone which come out then move up or down.

Fixed a ton of bugs.

Here's a couple of new screens:

The missile frigate:

Cave:

Level One boss:

August 06, 2007, 08:10:50 am

#13

Five Damned Dollarz

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Re: Alien Intent (update Aug 5th)

Sweet sprites! The outline colour gives it a nice touch!
I hope you release a demo for us soon Wink

Good luck

August 08, 2007, 04:08:46 am

#14

Shoot-em-upper

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Re: Alien Intent (update Aug 5th)

The outlines are cool, they almost make the ships look glowy.

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August 08, 2007, 06:43:06 pm

#15

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent (update Aug 5th)

Thanks guys! I added the outlines because without them the enemies were harder to see. Grin

I'm glad you guys are liking them.

I have had a bunch of friends test the first level of the game and from that I have learned a lot! They have helped me tune the game and make it much more fun. As for a demo, as soon as level 1 is finished up, I will probably release a demo of it. I also want to release a movie, but I have to figure out how to capture one and compress it down first.

September 09, 2007, 12:35:31 am

#16

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent (update Aug 5th)

It's been a while now, but I give you a DEMO of Alien Intent. It contains the first level and its boss. There are a number of bugs that I haven't had time to fix yet, they are listed in the READ ME that accompanies the demo. None of the bugs are game breakers though.

http://www.andrewgriffin.net/Games/Alien_Intent.zip

Have fun! Let me know what you think.

September 09, 2007, 01:30:57 am

#17

kemical

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Re: Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

ANDREW YOU CRAZY MOFO!

This is Ezra from work. I never knew.. ! We should have teamed up... I'm still trying to finish my entry.

Anyway, I tried the demo, pretty sweet so far but there are some balance issues that I see (or maybe their are pet peeves with shooters in general), some simple things to do is make enemies unable to fire anymore shots when they are within X amount distance from the left screen, fixes the frustrating issue of getting shot from a rogue enemy that flew past you, also add a check so that certain enemies (the small ones at least) can only fire shots when they are outside a certain distance from the Player, so you don't get point-blanked.

I'd also suggest making the asteroid debris damage enemies also instead of just the player, and personally I don't like how the options can get destroyed by enemy shots, or at least it seemed to happen while I was at the boss. I would make the bomb have a larger blast radius, it is too tactical to effectively use at the moment, usually bombs are a kind of panic-attack usage for quickly clearing an area of enemies or enemy bullets. Both the missile and bomb feel Gradius inspired though, which is very cool.

September 09, 2007, 06:25:35 am

#18

Griff

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Re: Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

Ezra!? Whoa! That's... I... man, speechless! Quite the surprise! We should have teamed up! Haha! Awesome!

I agree with, I think, everything you mentioned. I will fix/add all of it.

The only thing is the options getting damaged. The reason I have it like that is because of the third option being a shield, so it takes the enemy bullets to protect you. I suppose I could make that the only option that takes damage. Yes. I will give that a try. Grin

Both the bomb and missiles don't really work correctly at the moment. I agree with you on the bomb. It sucks right now. I'm planning on changing it so it is more useful. Maybe more of a cluster bomb or a bomb that follows along the ground. Right now I don't even use it when I play. Undecided

The missiles will eventually work better and home in on all the different enemies like they are supposed to.

Anyway, awesome feedback! I didn't think anyone else at work was doing this type of thing, very cool! It's like finding a long lost brother or something... Grin

September 09, 2007, 08:22:50 am

#19

battlegorge

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Re: Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

The spaceship animation is very good.
And your game plays well.

I recommend you to change the roomspeed to 60.
30 is to low for fast games.

September 09, 2007, 11:14:14 am

#20

2dguy

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Re: Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

60? On my system it was lucky to run at 30, it slowed down alot when the screen was buzy. Frickin Intel Onboard. Sad

Cool game, yah it's unbalanced, should be alot easier to get through the first level(s). Graphics could use more smoothing, higher color, etc, etc. But all in all, looks very promising.

September 09, 2007, 04:31:55 pm

#21

Shoot-em-upper

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Re: Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

The bullets should collide with the cave walls, rather than going through them. Otherwise, great game!

I came, I saw, I posted.

September 09, 2007, 10:21:20 pm

#22

Adigun A. Polack

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Re: Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

Griff, I have just tried the demo of your game Alien Intent, and I think it would play a whole lot better if you do these three things:

1) Try lowering the volume on the sound effects, please.
So far, they got too loud and thereby so irritating to me ( embarassed1

), especially where multiple bursts of shots came in from an enemy at the same time! And that is the reason why I am kindly asking you to do this step, please.

!

2) When an enemy or turret is about to leave the screen, DO NOT let that thing fire any more shots period.
Why? Because on the current demo, the fact that the enemy *still* fires after it leaves the screen is what causes your game to be much more of a chore to play than fun ( Sad

! ), so please be careful!!

3) Never “push” your ship with the foregrounds (like the cave walls).
Now it is one thing for your ship to be destroyed when it collides with the foreground (when your ship is not invincible), but you do not have to push your ship around with the foregrounds as well... even as to force it offscreen with them. Because then, it will make the game even less fun to play... so what I would do is to take the “pushing” around with the foregrounds completely off of there, for that reason there.

I am not being mean to you or anything like that, Griff. All I am doing is helping you make this game even better, and I think this game indeed has A LOT of potential to be more seriously great. The controls are fine, though!! Grin

!

I wish you the RATHER best of good fortune in making this game even better, even in doing the three steps that I am suggesting to you, too. Wink

=b

October 01, 2007, 06:53:52 pm

#23

motorherp

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Re: Alien Intent (update September 08 with DEMO!)

You've missed the deadline for further updates and there's been no posts to say if you've finished. Would you like me to submit the demo you've got?

October 03, 2007, 03:48:57 am

#24

Griff

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