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Work in Progress / Helios Meheness - flying saucery, one button goodness.

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geecee3
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Location: edinburgh.scotland.
Posted: 26th Nov 2005 04:42 Edited at: 29th Dec 2005 04:35
Helios is available for download in program announcements!!!!

Hi all,

I'm making this retro shooter called helios mehenes, It's a side on scrolling affair very similar in style to Defender by williams and Dropzone by Archer Mclean. The engine is in an advanced state of development and some of the content is in place. I normally make my games without any help or content made by anyone else, but this time I have enlisted the musical talent of hawkeye to produce a reather groovy alienesqe techno soundtrack. I can't wait to get that in there to add some audio atmosphere to the game. The game will be free when it's finished and in my opinion is my best to date. I hope to have the game ready for you all to play very soon...
screenie from latest tests.



i'll post more information on the game as it nears completion.

thanks for your time, Grant.

but it is broken screenshot

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
Wiggett
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Location: Australia
Posted: 26th Nov 2005 07:05
i copy n' pasted the image into my url, then when i went back to this thread it came up. looking pretty spiffy, keep up the good work.



TEH_CODERER
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Posted: 26th Nov 2005 13:06
ooh! pretty!

[url]andrewneale2004@yahoo.com[/url]
http://www.elbsoftware.dbspot.com
PowerSoft
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Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 26th Nov 2005 14:16
Weird, that happened to me also. When I viewed it standalone it worked then coming back to the thread showed it.... Firefox.



Lookimng nice though

geecee3
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Posted: 26th Nov 2005 17:27 Edited at: 26th Nov 2005 17:30
yayness, I seemed to be having some problems with my site, I expect rich has been working some of his magic on the server, it look like its working now though.

Thanks wiggett for posting a backup screenie, much appreciated.

anyway, more updateness for you:

the joypad routines are in place so the game can now be played properly and it's a whole lot more fun with the pad, the stress test level i'm playing just now has 240 baddies on it and it's very hard. I have also given the enemy an accuracy setting for their firing at you as well as an independent fire velocity, so now the baddies fire at different speeds and accuracies, allowing for better level structuring. There is a bonus object type in place that can be collected to recharge your shield. i will include more upgrades as i think the game needs them, but I want to avoid overloading the game with powerup's and making it too easy. The games this is based on had no upgrades for the firing and never had shields either, come to think of it those games were not agint the clock either. So i'm deviating from the original games more and more. I want to retain the difficulty and simplicity though. I have removed some of the more demanding effects from the game, everthing that blew up used to throw shrapnel across the landscape and kick up dust clouds. As i add more real game content these effects have caused a fair amount of drag on the game, especially if it was loaded with baddies and you had twin firing enabled.

Mnemonix is also helping out on this game were going to impliment a web based high score table for the game, which should be nice. I will also poast new screenies as soon as the next load of additions are in place and working.

thanks for your intrest, Grant.

PS, please excuse my dire spelling and punctuation, moving from writing code to normal text always has this effect on me for a while.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
soapyfish
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Location: Yorkshire, England
Posted: 26th Nov 2005 22:26
Looking shexay. Can't wait to try it out.


The performing seal mafia hasn't got to you aswell has it?!?
geecee3
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Posted: 27th Nov 2005 21:53
heh, i found a bug in the level complete conditions that made the game throw a wobbly if the level came to an end in a certain way, this has now been resolved. I will be issuing a beta for testing in the next couple of days. many things will be missing from the test version, but it will be a pretty much complete game. and it will be harder than the final release, this is really going to be a field stress test and report.

thanks again, grant.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
geecee3
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 00:23
The code i have just updated supported 3 basic enemy types, that code has now been expanded to 3 classes of enemy type each with several sub types, this means i can have the appearance of large amounts of enemy types without too much additional overhead. i have also added 'hits to kill' to the properties of the classes, however the first class kills the enemy off then respawns it elsewhere in the level, giving the player the impression level has more on it than it actually does.

the single weapon you have upgrades fairly quickly by collecting crystal things dropped by enemy that have either been killed or are sustaining damage. crashing into an enemy only reduces the level of your shield not the weapon upgrade. Only enemy fire colliding with the player will reduce the weapon upgrade. your upgrades deplete at half the rate you gain them at. ie enemy fire damage will deplete the upgrade by a factor of 1, but collecting a crystal thing will upgrade it by a factor of 2.

my next task is to introduce behaviour differences to the sub classes of enemy, giving more variation....hopefully.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
geecee3
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 02:15
another update to the code

the behaviour system is in place for the first enemy class and it works a treat. already it's feeling more full up and complete, the models in the game at the moment are just stress test models and are not final. I'm now going to apply the behaviour system to the other enemy classes, my code is starting to get a bit messy now and will soon be in need of some serious commenting, but it has to be done.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
geecee3
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 18:38
oi where's my screenie went :p

looks like rich is still dooing the doo

anyway, another progress update, all the baddies are in place and ready to shoot the crap out of you now, and the game has some basic sound effects and hawkeye's music in place. the level logic is fine and you can now play it like a proper game, i made 10 basic levels to play through and i could only reach level 8 playing with a joypad. that's a good sign The level parameters are now quite numerous and i'm looking to change the landscape every few levels now as well, I just need to find an efficient way of doing it to avoid glitching as the objects hit the screen for the first time.

i hope my site is back up soon so as i can post an up to date screenie or 2, i am also going to add a boss enemy class to the game to make it even harder. it's all coming together nicley now.

almost ready to add Xarcade support for player control too. will this be the first DBP game to nativley support Xarcade controllers?

thanks, grant.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
Hawkeye
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Posted: 28th Nov 2005 20:32 Edited at: 28th Nov 2005 23:05
oh my GOD it's da FUNKY ALIENS !!!


I am but mad north north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw - Hamlet, Hamlet
Steve Fash
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Posted: 30th Nov 2005 17:47
Looking and sounding really cool Grant. As a great fan of Dropzone on the C64 I'm looking very forward to having a blast (blast being the operative word) on this !
Steve

For game/demo music for YOUR PC productions visit:-www.futuredevelopments.org.uk
geecee3
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2005 00:44
much yayness and awsomeness, the preview copy I sent to rich was newsletter worthy. bonus.

seeing as it made the newsletter in an unfinished state, I'm going to put a bit more effort into making it a lot better and released in time for christmas.

Thanks, Grant.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
Darkbasic MADPSP
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Posted: 2nd Dec 2005 16:49
This looks neat hope it get's finished

Experienced DB http://www.greatgames3d.com (work in progress site)
Van B
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Posted: 22nd Dec 2005 13:21
Looking damn cool Grant, if it's anything near as good as your last shooter it'll be a vital download .

I've never heard of X-Arcade sticks being directly supported before, should be an ideal control method. I have rigged up my old favourite Atari joystick (The Arcade) to use on the PC in emulators, it only has 1 button though - would that work? (Oids just isn't the same with arrow keys ).


Van-B

Put away, those fiery biscuits!
geecee3
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Posted: 22nd Dec 2005 21:14
Hi Van B,

one button is all your going to need to play this.
X-Arcade is basically a top end keyboard controller wired to industrial grade microswitched sticks and buttons, so it's accessed via scancodes, it can detect 27 keys at the same time in virtually any combination. a wonderful investment

I have gone for 8bit style gameplay using only a single button. I decided to do away with all the extra level stuff i had added as it detracted too much from the oldschool kill factor. Now the game has 2 modes of play,

normal mode : collect all the pods and take them to the saucer within the strict time limit(with acceptable losses). If you do this you will get a bonus for shield remaining, time remaining and a perfect round bonus if you kill all the baddies before recovering the final pod from the level. collecting the crystals left over from when you kill some aliens will increase the rate of autofire and the size of the player fire also gets a little bigger, your shield cannot be recharged in this kind of round

survival mode : every fifth level is a survival round, just survive for the duration of the timer and you will be rewarded with a bonus for any remaining shield and an extra ship. If you kill all the baddies before the timer expires you will get an additional bonus for time remaining and a perfect round bonus. collecting the crystals on this round will also add a little to your shield helping you survive a little longer as well as making you fire faster and your fire getting bigger.


anyway, it's almost ready now, just a few more little tweaks and tests then it'll be uploaded. I had planned to release the source for the game but it's overly messy and the comments are totally missleading, so i'll mabey tidy it up and release it at a later date.

expect the finished thing here within 36hrs

thanks, grant.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
Van B
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Posted: 23rd Dec 2005 11:17
Quote: "expect the finished thing here within 36hrs"


What an excellent christmas present!

I'm planning on buying the raw parts of an X-Arcade set (2 joysticks plus buttons for $30!) for a MAME cabinet, I was thinking about having some X-arcade supported games on there too as well as a few emulated consoles, maybe you should go looking for a website with other X-arcade supporting games as this seems to fit the bill nicely.


Van-B

Put away, those fiery biscuits!
Steve Fash
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Posted: 23rd Dec 2005 19:22
ooh, the clocks a tickin........


For game/demo music for YOUR PC productions visit:-www.futuredevelopments.org.uk
The Nerd
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 01:00
I've tried it... Got to level 7! This game is hard! But it's soo adictive! I can't stop playing it!

Good job mate! This game is soooo good!

-The Nerd

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Hawkeye
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 03:21
I managed to get to level 6 with 13k points before I lost all three of my lives


I am but mad north north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw - Hamlet, Hamlet
geecee3
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 03:57
er, it's in program announcements folks

cheers, grant

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
The Nerd
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Posted: 24th Dec 2005 11:03 Edited at: 24th Dec 2005 11:05
<Ignore>

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here

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