BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

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BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

Yup. My entry for this compo. Blessed is a vertical shoot'em up featuring a flying girl (as seen in many other games such as esprade, perfect cherry blossom etc.).

You can download the FINAL COMPO EDITITION (1.15) here:
http://www.daikenkai.com/blessed/BLESSED_compoEd115.zip

For those of you who tried the old WIP-version, this one features a true final boss, a lot of new modes, and A FULL GRAPHICAL update. Don't miss this

« Last Edit: January 31, 2007, 03:51:44 am by fsFreak »

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December 16, 2006, 02:23:35 am

#1

junkboy

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Nice work! Very enjoyable and it's nice to hear Strukt busting out some new tunes! Grin

December 16, 2006, 03:21:56 pm

#2

Matt McFarland

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Hey, got any screenshots??

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December 17, 2006, 10:57:52 am

#3

relsoft

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Crashed on my system. After the Intro.

Duron 750mhz
448 MB RAM
Nvidia GF2 Mx400

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December 17, 2006, 11:12:20 am

#4

fsFreak

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Yeah I found out about a bug yesterday that will make it crash on certain computers (when using an additive blending-function). I'm right now working on a fix for this. Thank you for your patience.

December 17, 2006, 12:39:33 pm

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fsFreak

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

And here's the fix (that uses another version of additive blending)
For those who haven't downloaded the game at all: get BLESSED-version_11.zip
For the rest of you who got the old version: get BLESSED-update_from_10_to_11.zip (just replace the exe files in this zip with the old ones)

http://www.daikenkai.com/blessed

GOOD LUCK!

December 17, 2006, 12:56:06 pm

#6

relsoft

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Cool!!

Still crashed though. In the tutorial mode when the character is supposed to do a rage.
Probably an out of bounds pointer access. Are you using a custom additive blend function?
I know you use allegro(based on the DLL) so I guess it's safe to assume you used a special function to blend and pass the function pointer to allegro.

Tried something like this?

Code:

r = pixel >> 16;
g = pixel >> 8 & 255;
b = pixel & 255;
pixel2 = buffer[x * SCR_WIDTH + y];
nr = pixel2 >> 16;
ng = pixel2 >> 8 & 255;
nb = pixel2 & 255;
r = (r + nr);
if (r > 255) r = 255;
g = (g + ng);
if (g > 255) g = 255;
b = (b + nb);
if (b > 255) b = 255;
buffer[x * SCR_WIDTH + y] = r << 16 | g << 8 | b;

Or an ASSERT() for debugging purposes?
If all else fails you prolly should use a debugger like GDB(via insight).

BTW, nice engine!!! Loved the style!!!!

[Edit]

It's definitely the additive blending funk. I disabled it and it ran awesome!!!!
Man this thing is hard! The bullets doesn't follow a straight trajectory.

Great job!!!! Nice music too!

« Last Edit: December 17, 2006, 01:09:30 pm by relsoft »

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December 17, 2006, 01:47:33 pm

#7

fsFreak

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Thank you

Yeah the new addblend function is something like that. The old one (a lib actually) probably uses ways to make it faster (and more non-compatible).

And yeah the bullet-script (the reason I did this stuff in the first place actually

) is really nice and you can create very weird patterns! I'm thinking of turning it into a lib, but I dunno what bulletML can do, and it's probably better than mine anyway Wink

edit:
oh, and "disable addblend" in the loader actually means "USE THE NEW (slower) BLENDER FUNCTION INSTEAD". (to not confuse non-programmers/techies)

« Last Edit: December 17, 2006, 01:51:58 pm by fsFreak »

December 17, 2006, 02:03:12 pm

#8

relsoft

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Yeah, bullet-hells rock! Mine used a different approach though. I made a designer to make patterns then load it at runtime.

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December 19, 2006, 02:40:22 pm

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

Ok. version 1.12

http://www.daikenkai.com/blessed/

Ni som redan har 1.1 (eller 1.0) behöver bara ladda ner updaten.

Läs changes.txt för mer info vad som ändrats.
Enjoy.

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December 22, 2006, 01:42:09 pm

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Re: BLESSED *download available*

had downloaded and played it a couple of time
a nice game (gonna like it!)

reminds me of many doujin shmup with same method... rapid becomes slower

February 04, 2007, 10:39:10 pm

#11

9_6

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

I like the darkish athmosphere in this which is mainly created by the great sounds and music!
The game itself is hard as hell.
I barely reached that judge with the lowest game speed possible (can't believe I got this far) maybe you could change this so mere mortals as me can actually play this?
Without the frustration factor.
A possibility to tone down the difficulty -and if you only gain more lives- would do.

You should make the spread shot have semi autofire.
Like this: You tap the shoot button: you quickly shoot 4 spread shots. If you then keep the firebutton pressed, you start firing that focused shot.
The spread shot should also have a fixed maximum firerate.
That way you could also keep the player from smashing their gamepad in the process of tapping the firebutton like a madman -like I did- in order to get a shot that actually deals propper damage while still remaining mobile.

Nice game though.

February 04, 2007, 11:30:47 pm

#12

fsFreak

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

Yeah I know.. that how mostly cave-shooters work .. I dunno why I never implemented it. Perhaps in the next shoot'em up game

(FM works the similar way as blessed.. also a bit annyoing after a while. We will probably add this into the final version.)

EDIT: Oh, too hard? really? I had (it broke, when I changed the players hitbox and made it 1 px bigger) a replay saved when I beat the game at challenge mode (normal speed, true final boss etc.) so it's definately doable

« Last Edit: February 04, 2007, 11:57:13 pm by fsFreak »

February 05, 2007, 05:28:23 am

#13

relsoft

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

WOW!!! New sprites!!!
Hard as hell though.

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February 07, 2007, 05:17:46 pm

#14

Bob

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

Yup, this game is the best and also the most good looking! Gets my vote Grin

If you guys think it's hard, wait till you get to the Final Boss in Challenge mode, and later the Super Challenge mode... THOSE are really tough nuts to crack!

My hands hurt from playing too much Sad

EDIT: I'll add my review of the game sometime later, when I've completely beaten it ^^

« Last Edit: February 07, 2007, 05:54:53 pm by Bob »

February 08, 2007, 10:56:15 am

#15

fsFreak

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

While we're waiting for bob's "super challenge" replay, check out mine (from ordinary "challenge" mode)

http://www.daikenkai.com/blessed/video/

Either get the .REPLAY-file (and put it in your blessed\replay-directory), and play it from blessed (it's only 56k).

OR get the .AVI file (encoded with xvid4, 118mb) if you for some reason want to look at it in your movieplayer instead.

It's a full replay of the ordinary challenge mode. I manage to beat the game with my last life

. This is not a really good replay, but I think I play at least the first level very well ... on all other I manage to screw up and I break the combo like a 100 times ... Still a good way to see the later enemies and bosses. Check it out.

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February 10, 2007, 10:07:42 pm

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

I finally got around to playing your game. Excellent stuff, very polished. Its pretty hard, but the bullet patterns are very well designed which kept drawing me back for just another go ^TM because theres always a way to beat it if you studied the patterns. This created a really nice challenge in my opinion. The only critisms I really have is that some of the sound effects really started to grate on me after a while but thats no biggie. The other thing was I felt the reflect shield was much more usefull if you kept it slightly drained rather than letting it power up fully. The reason being when its not fully powered you can use it sparingly to keep power in it and avade bullet after bullet. If let it reach the top though then it would trigger the super power and drain the bar completely leaving you defencless. Kind of made the super power less super than the normal power which destroys the risk vs reward aspect of it (ie, trying not to use it thus taking more risk so you get the super which is supposed to be the reward). Anyways, top stuff, keep it up.

February 11, 2007, 01:11:48 am

#17

fsFreak

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

Yeah I know what you mean ... I'm seriously thinking of switching the 'rage' to a third button... But maybe it's a bit too late for that. Well I will definately think about it for 'blessed II'

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February 11, 2007, 09:48:20 am

#18

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

I was having a little a think about this last night and here's the idea I came up with to try and balance this. The super power would work like the normal power in that the power bar drains for as long as you keep your finger down and is active for this length of time. The super power only kicks in though when you start to press the button when the bar is full. Given this change though you'd also have to change what the super power does, so instead of reflecting all bullets it would only reflect the bullets you touch, where as the normal power just absorbs bullets. I dont think this alone would solve the problem though since most players would likely just let the bar fill to full power once and then use it sparingly when needed so most the time they use it they get the super power. The trick is to try and encourage the player to take risks for greater reward where as the above method promotes the 'play it safe' strategy as the best option. We can change this by adding in a scoring mechanic with the super power. What I propose is that every bullet reflected whilst using the super power gives you a score bonus along the lines of baseScore * timeMultiplier. So the longer you hold down the power button and the more you drain the power bar the higher time multiplier you start to get and your score increases exponentialy. This will encourage players to drain the bar completely to get the maximum score which promotes a risk vs reward style play. It also lets you add in some cool features to the game. You could design sections where its possible for the skilled player to keep a super power chain going by using the reflected shots to kill enemies which keeps topping up the power bar before it drains completely and ends the super power, thus letting the score time multiplier get higher that you could do on just one full bar and sending your score rocketing.

Anyway these are just some of my ideas on how to balance gameplay. I'm not saying everyone should make games like me, but if you want to pinch this then please be my guest.

« Last Edit: February 11, 2007, 09:52:27 am by motorherp »

February 11, 2007, 11:02:22 am

#19

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

Yeah that's a really good idea! And you're totally right on this risk vs. reward thing ... It's not really well-implemented in Blessed. I won't change anything in this version since I've sort of considered it final (even with flaws), but it's definately something to have in mind for the next game. Thank you for taking time and writing feedback

. I really appreciate it!

February 12, 2007, 06:47:42 am

#20

relsoft

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

A side note though. Where's the fast blending thingy used?

The effect when you do a "rage". You know the distortion effect?

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February 12, 2007, 07:24:42 pm

#21

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Re: BLESSED (FINAL VERSION ONLINE!)

The additive blend is only used like two places in the game. The first one is the spinning cursor in the menu, and the other one when you're meter is all charged up (the big white circle, getting bigger, and the girl says 'chaaaarged!').

Actually I could've gone with alpha blending instead ... and just skipped the option completely.