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|-+ CyberSpace Assault - by pixelizr

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Read March 21, 2006, 02:41:17 am #0
Matt McFarland

CyberSpace Assault - by pixelizr



/*------------------------------------------------------
The Final Frontier
Was The Mind Of The Machine.
Mankind's Insatiable Curiosity
Was His Ultimate Demise.
------------------------------------------------------*/
/*------------------------------------------------------
C Y B E R S P A C E   A S S A U L T
a game by pixelizd productions
------------------------------------------------------*/

Welcome!  This document will hopefully get you up and running.

CONTENTS
[01] Basic Rules and Concepts
[02] System Requirements
[03] Controls and Navigation
[04] Detailed Mechanics and Advanced Strategy
[05] Known Issues
[06] Secrets and Extras


/*------------------------------------------------------
[01] Basic Rules and Concepts

"Man stood in awe at the vastness of the Space.
However, the Space was not for Man."

Cyberspace Assault (CSA) is a horizontal shooter that focuses
on the player's skill.  Guide your vessel through increasingly
difficult challenges and destroy the level's Core.

Depending on the player, one may choose to read the game's
mechanics thoroughly before playing, or play it first to
get a general feel of the game.


The game has 5 main points:

SCORE:  In CSA, the score is the single universal gauge of
your performance.  Killing enemies will increase your score,
as well as grazing through enemy bullets.  The score continually
counts down to zero, and when it reaches zero, the game is
over.  Try using every means possible to slow down or alleviate
the countdown.  Getting hit by an enemy bullet incurs a score
penalty of 1000.  A hit is registered if a bullet hits the
glowing circle in the middle of the player ship.  However,
touching an enemy ship is harmless, though keep in mind that
the enemy ship may fire at you anytime.

SHOT:  Two types of weapons are available to the player.  One
is a straight beam that cuts through enemies, and another is
a flexible beam that can be controlled by moving up or down.
Both beams deal an equal amount of damage.  Only one beam
is allowed to be used at any single time.

SHIELD:  Pressing both weapon buttons together activates the
shield.  The shield renders the player invulnerable and will
destroy any enemy bullets.  It will not damage the enemies
themselves.  Releasing both weapon buttons recharges the
shield's energy; grazing bullets recharges the shield as well.

SLOW:  A button is available to cut movement speed by half.
Players can use this to fine-tune their movement.

GRAZE:  Getting close to (but not touching) bullets gives
a number of advantages.  It causes the score to count up
instead of down, and it recharges the shield.
------------------------------------------------------*/


/*------------------------------------------------------
[02] System Requirements

The game may run on a system below the minimum requirements,
but an optimal experience is not guaranteed.

Minimum System Requirements

* Operating System: Windows 2000 and above
* Processor: Pentium III 500MHz or equivalent
* Sound: Device supporting 8 simultaneous wave channels
* Graphics: Intel i810 IGP or equivalent
* Hard Drive: 16MB free drive space
* Memory: 20MB free physical memory at runtime

Recommended System Requirements

* Processor: 1GHz Pentium-class processor
* Controller: Gamepad / Joystick with 5 or more buttons

A note on "Windowed Mode": This mode, while generally
more compatible, is slower... particularly if you run
the game with your display set to anything other than
16bpp color depth.  If you have a slow machine, try to
use "Full Screen" as much as possible.
------------------------------------------------------*/


/*------------------------------------------------------
[03] Controls and Navigation

For control, Cyberspace Assault supports the keyboard and the
first connected game controller.

* In-Game Controls

MOVE:        Arrow keys or D-pad
STRAIGHT:    [Z] or [LCONTROL] or buttons 1 or 3
CURVE:       [X] or [ALT] or buttons 2 or 4
SHIELD:      Both shot buttons at once
SLOW:        [LSHIFT] or buttons 5 to 16
TITLESCREEN: [Q]
EXIT:        [ESC]

* Menu Commands

STARTGAME:   [ENTER]
EXIT:        [ESC]

A note on "Key Lock": Different keyboards exhibit different
instances of "key lock".  If you find that you cannot press
some keys at the same time, try pressing the alternate weapon
keys.  See which ones suit you best.

A note on gamepad button layout: On most gamepads, the first
four buttons are the face buttons, and the next buttons
comprise the shoulder triggers.  In CSA, buttons 1 to 4
are assigned to the two weapons; find which two buttons
are most comfortable for your specific pad.  The Slow
button is best implemented as a shoulder trigger; in any
case, just press any button from 5 to 16.
------------------------------------------------------*/


/*------------------------------------------------------
[04] Detailed Mechanics and Advanced Strategy

If you are a new player, it's probably advisable that you
familiarize yourself with the game and the level's phases.
In any case, here are some comments and tips:


PERFECT TERMINATION:  At the end of each phase, if you
eliminate all the enemies that appeared, you will be rated
with Perfect Termination.  Killing all enemies will award
you with the full 1000 end-of-level bonus points.  Be
careful, since missing even one enemy will take away a
considerable number of bonus points.

[HINT!]  If you're gunning for perfect bonus points, make
sure not to be obsessed with it.  Missing a couple of
enemies will only penalize you with a few tens or hundreds
of points from the bonus, but getting hit by accident in
the process will remove 1000 points from your present score.
It's not a good tradeoff.


FLEX BEAM:  The green Flex Beam looks and acts like a whip,
and can be wielded as such.  Lesser enemies can be destroyed
with one or two swipes.  In any case, Try to figure out
how to control it in a style that best suits your playing.


LIFE STOCK:  Cyberspace Assault differentiates itself from
other games by integrating your "lives" with the score.
While this may mean that you could potentially have 20
"lives" upon arriving at the boss, using each one up will
have you end up with a lousy thousand points or two.  When
trying to beat your own personal score, keep in mind that
rarely getting killed is a measure of skill, and is hence
reflected in your score.


BOSS:  The Core has 20000 hit points, with five different
types of attacks, depending on the damage it has incurred.
Master a dodging and grazing style for each, to maximize
your score.  The score stops its countdown upon reaching
the Core.  At this point, time will not kill you.  It's
only either you kill the Core, or the Core kills you.
The Core's hit points will slowly drain even if you're
not firing at it.  However, firing at the Core will
naturally destroy it quicker.

[HINT!]  Are you feeling dangerous today?  Keep in mind
that the longer the Core stays alive, the more bullets you
can graze.  The risk is definitely there, but if you pull
it off, you may discover something good!


COUNT DOWN:  There may be times in which your game is
hanging on the balance, with your score in the hundreds,
slowly ticking away.  While killing enemies is the best
way to keep you afloat, another way is to hang around
enemy bullets.  Most bullets are slow, and grazing them
causes the score to count up instead of down.  If you're
playing a "dot eater" style game, grazing is the only
way to go.  Furthermore, if the high score is already
approaching the game's upper limit, you'd probably want
to slow down that countdown using any means possible.

[HINT!]  Oops! I gave away an easter egg right there.
------------------------------------------------------*/


/*------------------------------------------------------
[05] Known Issues

* Switching out of the game (Alt+Tab) then switching back
may sometimes cause sound synchronization problems.
Things will re-align themselves over time, though.

* The game assumes that all data files are present.
Expect unpredicted behavior if one or more data files
are deleted.

* The game does not recognize buttons 17 and up, for
game controllers with more than 16 buttons.

------------------------------------------------------*/


/*------------------------------------------------------
[06] Secrets and Extras

* The game directory contains an "omake" (bonus extras) folder.
It contains two remixes of the game music, encoded in
160 kbps MP3.
------------------------------------------------------*/


Thank you for downloading and playing Cyberspace Assault!
I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

~ pixelizr

Download it Now!
« Last Edit: March 22, 2006, 04:45:36 am by Matt McFarland »

Matthew A McFarland
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Read March 22, 2006, 04:31:04 am #1
pixelizr

Re: CyberSpace Assault - by pixelizr

Hello, this is just obsessive-compulsiveness, but the official title of this game does not have an exclamation point. Grin

In any case, I hope you like it. Smiley

-----

EDIT: Wow that was fast! Seems like Matt renamed the thread already! Grin
« Last Edit: March 22, 2006, 06:53:01 am by pixelizr »
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Read March 25, 2006, 01:24:20 pm #2
jph

Re: CyberSpace Assault - by pixelizr

WOW what a great bit of work this is,. I like the wall of bullets game play with the 'grazing' dynamic, as well as the score = lives bit.  You do come up with a lot of neat game mechanics ideas that together create an interesting over all gameplay.   It took me four or five starts to get to the BOSS,.system failue on the mode that looks like your avitar here.  i lov the REZ homage with all the questions! gave a nice nostalgia to the experiance even though i had not played this before.  My only criticism is the minimal use of sound effects,. the music is cool and works very well, however a few more effect sounds on events such as the beam ( on, held, off ) and shild, etc., would help to reinforce the game play events.  Thanks for this!


iterationGAMES.com
 remember when we used to play ?
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Read March 25, 2006, 10:44:18 pm #3
pixelizr

Re: CyberSpace Assault - by pixelizr

There are sound effects... the beams and shield sounds are slightly distorted sine waves, and it modulates its frequency up/down when using the green beam. Though they did sound faint when I ran it on my laptop's speakers, they're audible using headphones, and more so with 2.1 speakers. The intensity level for these effects was also a difficult decision point for me, since setting them too loud would have made them drone away and probably hurt the listener's ears and/or sanity. Creation of sound effects probably is my weakest point in game development as of now; I actually was struggling in the creation of what few sound effects are present.

Anyway, here are the sound effects that I programmed into the game. You could probably use it for verification or something:

* Shield: low distorted sine
* Pierce Beam: steady, mid frequency distorted sine
* Flex Beam: distorted sine that frequency modulates as the beam bends
* Enemy Hit: Filtered Noise
* Graze: Filtered Noise (higher frequency)
* Enemy Kill: High square wave click with reverb and decay

I have no effects for beam and shield activation. The droning waveform just "fades in". I think the relative "purity" of the sine wave was what made it faint. I'l learn from this and add more frequency content for droning sounds in my future projects.

I'm happy that you liked the game! Thanks for the comments! Smiley
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Read April 02, 2006, 05:46:02 pm #4
pixelizr

Re: CyberSpace Assault - by pixelizr

Uhhh... I don't mean to look so obsessive compulsive, but my username was misspelled in the "All Entries" page. Grin
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Read April 08, 2006, 03:32:50 am #5
Erratic

Re: CyberSpace Assault - by pixelizr

Just checked this out, cool stuff, really nice n chaotic bullet patterns! The curling lazer beam is cool and really useful. Graphics were nice, no real comments on that.

I wasn't such a fan of the music, it seemed to be missing a little "drive" imho, but it wasn't all that bad. I thought the soundfx were clean, but maybe they could've had a bit more interesting texture. I'm a soundguy myself which probably caused me to be critical in this department (sorry).  Roll Eyes

I had to laugh when i read "destory them all", which immediately brought Every Extend to mind (never played "Rez" for very long so i wouldn't know about homages to that but they're the same creators). It's also cool to have the boss talk to you in it's own weird mis-translated japanese language (you forgot to put in "all your base..." Wink)... adds to the atmosphere/tension of the game.

All in all i'm keeping this one on my hdd for another while (which is supposed to mean something)!  Grin
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