Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Work in Progress / [DBP] "D-Zone" - 2D Scrolling Shooter

Author
Message
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 28th Mar 2013 20:54 Edited at: 3rd Feb 2017 00:09
NEW UPDATE ATTACHED: March 29, 2014

NOTE: Font install issue has been fixed thanks to a tip from pcRaider!

I wanted this game to basically be a throwback to the old Arcade/NES days. Something like 'Galaga' meets '1942' might be an apt description. There are many things still to fix (like the enemy turret) and many things I've yet to add (like a boss battle at the end of the test level.) This game remains far from complete.



Send your parents to noisy sprite demo hell... enter the D-Zone

Attachments

Login to view attachments
xCatalyst
11
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posted: 28th Mar 2013 22:56 Edited at: 28th Mar 2013 23:00
Quote: "I will consider any art donations to this game, should anyone like to share their work. I will post your TGC name in the credits."


The purpose of free content production is that it's an easy way for artists to get their real names out there. I wouldn't in my right mind apply for a graphics positions under the identity of xCatalyst lol, that would be contradictory. Just saying.

Regardless, looks like a fair start to a game. I'll give it a test

EDIT: Unfortunately, error. Couldn't try it.


Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 29th Mar 2013 15:14 Edited at: 29th Mar 2013 15:15
Quote: "The purpose of free content production is that it's an easy way for artists to get their real names out there."


LoL.. trust me, you don't want to put your real name on anything I'm making! My skills are limited, and I'm just makin' this stuff for fun. Sprites are a dime a dozen, really. I just like doing the programming more than the graphics.

Quote: "EDIT: Unfortunately, error. Couldn't try it."


Sorry, I have no idea what that error is!

D.D.
Chris Tate
DBPro Master
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th Aug 2008
Location: London, England
Posted: 29th Mar 2013 18:32
You can find sprites via google; some free to use for non-commercial use, some you have to license.

Nabz_32x
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2008
Location:
Posted: 30th Mar 2013 17:25
Same unknown parameter error for me, didn´t got this error myself when compiling my projects yet, so I don´t know what could be causing this.

If you need more explosions, I still have my Gamemaker 2000 explosions generator ready to run in Dos Box, which is capable of creating similar explosions like you included in your game.

If you´re all for coding why don´t you just use placeholder files instead, saves you time and you could focus on the code more.

However I still have a similar game like this made in BennuGD, I could offer you:

animated spaceship sprites
animated jet sprite + parts for explosions
some other animated spaceship sprites + parts for explosions
some sprites of buildings + parts for explosions + destroyed state
laser shot sprites in 3 variations of strength
poorly made level tilesets (-;
animated exhaust sprite

They are all optimised for using on a 320x240 screen. With the proper scaling method they could still look nice on higher resolutions.

A short mentioning of my name somewhere in your game would be enough, as those sprites didn´t took much time to create.

Good luck finding the source of this "unknown parameter" error.

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 1st Apr 2013 17:37
Quote: "If you need more explosions, I still have my Gamemaker 2000 explosions generator ready to run in Dos Box, which is capable of creating similar explosions like you included in your game."


An explosions generator!
Why didn't I think of searching for a generator?!

I'll gladly try out any such apps if you have them handy.

I think I found a decent one here:
http://www.positech.co.uk/content/explosion/explosiongenerator.html

The unknown parameter error may be from trying to copy a font file to "c:\windows\fonts", since not everyone uses "C" as their main drive. I'll attempt to fix this in the next update by using "\..\windows\fonts" instead, unless someone knows how to load fonts directly into DBPro.

D.D.
thenerd
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Mar 2009
Location: Boston, USA
Posted: 7th Apr 2013 17:58
Quote: "EDIT: Unfortunately, error. Couldn't try it."


This error is most often created if you've compiled a program on Windows XP and run it on windows 7. I believe it was fixed in one of the dbpro updates, however.

Kezzla
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Aug 2008
Location: Where beer does flow and men chunder
Posted: 8th Apr 2013 08:17 Edited at: 8th Apr 2013 08:19
The game works on Windows 8.

Quite a good start, most of the space shooter elements are there.

I have a couple of suggestions,

beef up the enemy ai and randomize the spawn point, you can just stay in one spot and shoot and they all spawn in your line of fire, there is little incentive to move around a lot.

at the start, please put up some tutorial text. I spent my first two lives frantically pressing buttons on my keyboard trying to make my ship do something. I then realized you could shoot with LMB and move with mouse move, but did not realize that you could fly with RMB. I thought it was one of those auto scroll shooters.
lol I had clocked up some serious points before even leaving the starting screen.

aside from this there is just tweaking and beautification to add.

add some interesting and overpowered timed weapon upgrades.

add some different squadron patterns and ai behavours for different types of enemy ships.

more visible powerup items that are a little less picky about you being exactly lined up with them.

with some nicely drawn backdrop art and some really bad japanese midi rock music this will be quite neat.

maybe add some random manga comic team mate encouragment/flimsy storyline.

comic strip/manga cutscenes to swap between radically different level styles.

oh yeah, and add the ability to choose your pilot, at least one of them should be a steroid freak westerner.

I like what you are doing. Keep up the good work!

I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 8th Apr 2013 17:09
Quote: "Kezzla: "I have a couple of suggestions""


Thanks for trying it out!

I'm planning on some type of shockwave or EMP blast type weapon, different/more varied enemies, different targets, more sprite detail like an afterburner, possibly more player ships.

Currently working on title screen, music, turret mounts on building and enemy S.A.M.s

D.D.
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 8th May 2013 18:16
If anyone would like to make an original sprite donation to this game, I am currently looking for a decent flying saucer sprite with a top down view.

As stated before, your (chosen) name will be included in the game credits. If anyone donates, keep in mind that I may or may not use your donation. (No hard feelings if I don't!)

Note: This is not a commercial endeavor - this game is just for fun.

Thanks!

D.D.
Nabz_32x
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2008
Location:
Posted: 8th May 2013 22:06
As mentioned before I have quite a collection of unused top down shooter sprites, no flying saucer though (but many other alien looking ships)

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 8th May 2013 22:20
Quote: "As mentioned before I have quite a collection of unused top down shooter sprites, no flying saucer though (but many other alien looking ships)"


Great, Nabz!

I would certainly like to take a look at what you have...
How can i see them?

D.D.
Nabz_32x
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2008
Location:
Posted: 8th May 2013 23:27 Edited at: 8th May 2013 23:59
Here is a scene from my game, to give an idea how the sprites look:



Edit:
To view and export the graphics to png use the smart fpg editor 0.4.5,
here is the download link:
http://code.google.com/p/smartfpgeditor/downloads/detail?name=sfpge-inst-win32-0.4.5-U.exe <-- FPG Editor

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 8th May 2013 23:54
Cool!
I don't know anything about .FPG format, but I look forward to a ZIP file if you're successful!

D.D.
Nabz_32x
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2008
Location:
Posted: 9th May 2013 00:00 Edited at: 9th May 2013 00:01
To view and export the graphics to png use the smart fpg editor 0.4.5,
here is the download link:

http://code.google.com/p/smartfpgeditor/downloads/detail?name=sfpge-inst-win32-0.4.5-U.exe<-- FPG Editor

Just select the image and then use export to png (one of the buttons in the toolbar above)

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 6th Jun 2013 23:02
Just wanted to give a shout out to the many,many "D-Zone" fans out there... there will be an update soon - I know everyone is holding their breath in anticipation.

Ok, it was a shameless thread bump... but an update is coming, for realz!

D.D.
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 6th Jun 2013 23:02 Edited at: 7th Jun 2013 20:00
[duplicate post]

D.D.
Chris Tate
DBPro Master
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 29th Aug 2008
Location: London, England
Posted: 6th Jun 2013 23:11
Hehe, just letting you know that the above post was double posted.

Looking forward to seeing the new sprites in action.

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 7th Jun 2013 19:59
Aye, obtaining sprites has been the toughest part of this project thus far. Unfortunately, Nabz' sprites weren't large enough to match the look of the game.

I glommed a few sprites from some of those "free content" sites, but as we all know those aren't always on the "up and up" so those are just temps. Hopefully the update with the temporary sprites will inspire someone here to donate to this project!

I don't have the artistic talent to draw them, although the player ship I did create myself by sculpting a 3D model then taking a 'snapshot' of it from above. I may try this approach with the enemy ships, although good ship textures are also hard to come by, for free anyway.

D.D.
Pincho Paxton
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Dec 2002
Location:
Posted: 7th Jun 2013 20:09 Edited at: 7th Jun 2013 20:10
The best, and easiest way to make 2D sprites is in 3D. Get Anim8or and you can make a perfect flying saucer in a day. That includes learning how to use Anim8or. It will be rendered with a real light source, so it will look very realistic. My siggy was all made with Anim8or, and Photoshop.

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 7th Jun 2013 20:21 Edited at: 7th Jun 2013 20:22
Side note:
There is a 3D version of D-Zone in the works also, but I'm still in the early planning stages. (The skybox is borrowed... it may look familiar to many of you.)









D.D.
Nabz_32x
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2008
Location:
Posted: 7th Jun 2013 23:55
wow 3d version looks good,
it reminds me a lot of rouge squadron.

Looking forward to some updates on this!

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 8th Jun 2013 00:28
Thanks Pincho, and thanks Nabz!

All my stuff is done on an old Dell Dimension 2300 with a lousy graphics card. I can't even use shaders because the FPS is already so low. My fault for being broke, I guess. LoL

I like the challenge, though, of making decent looking low budget (no budget) games that will run on any PC.

D.D.
Pincho Paxton
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Dec 2002
Location:
Posted: 8th Jun 2013 00:47 Edited at: 8th Jun 2013 01:00
My siggy has no shaders, that's what I mean by rendering lights on the 2D image.

Here's an example that I just rendered in Anim8or, and no shaders. Then I use the render as a texture. Although the ship isn't all that great, it looks metallic just from the texture. This picture is also very old, on a very old graphic card, and for DB Classic which had no shaders anyway. The shapes on the wing are embossed in Photoshop. I used emboss instead of a Normal Map.



Attachments

Login to view attachments
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 10th Jun 2013 20:35 Edited at: 10th Jun 2013 20:41
That looks great!
I should probably download Anim8or and give it a whirl.


BTW: I've (re)attached the latest update in my original post at the top.


D.D.
wattywatts
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th May 2009
Location: Michigan
Posted: 10th Jun 2013 20:38
Anim8or is a great little tool, by all means try it out!

http://mattsmith.carbonmade.com/
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 22nd Jun 2013 00:18
A more current screenie:



D.D.
Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 11th Jul 2013 22:34
(Bump)

Anyone tried this recently?

There's a glitch regarding the saucer enemy; If you pick up and use a "shockwave" while it's onscreen it won't retreat. There are also 'alpha holes' in the saucer but I've since replaced that graphic for next update.

Level 2 will probably have a water/ocean background and large ships instead of buildings to destroy. I thought about adding Godzilla as the boss for that level as a goof.

I'm also working on an idea to generate spaceship textures and shapes on the fly. Who knows how that'll turn out.

Next update should include a main boss battle and better scoring system. So far I can beat level 1 on the first three difficulties, but haven't beat the hardest setting.

Update in 2-4 weeks, if I can stay off the long enough.

D.D.
Nabz_32x
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2008
Location:
Posted: 11th Jul 2013 22:43
Hello,

I tried the new Version and I found it extremly hard.

I would get hit by enemies every time, because they always aim perfectly with their lasers.

I like the new Option, to stop the map Scrolling, however I would prefer it to be dependant on the ships Position on the Screen like it has been done in Xenon2.

Maybe I like my 2D srolling shoot em ups more straight through with a greater Focus on evading enemy shots at high Speed. So this is just my personal opinion on the new Version.

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 12th Jul 2013 00:35
Quote: "Nabz: "I like the new Option, to stop the map Scrolling, however I would prefer it to be dependant on the ships Position on the Screen like it has been done in Xenon2.""



Thanks for trying it out again!
I'll have to look up some vids of Xenon2, I'm not familiar with it.

I do think the gameplay feels a bit messy at times, and you're right, there is no way of avoiding enemy lasers when they're in range, but I would imagine futuristic laser weapons to have such accuracy.

Navy Laser Weapon

D.D.
Nabz_32x
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 25th Oct 2008
Location:
Posted: 12th Jul 2013 00:58
Quote: " I would imagine futuristic laser weapons to have such accuracy. "

Absolutely true, I would suggest you add a Energy ball on the tip on the laser weapon which appears when you are in firing range and grows or gets brighter, before the laser is actually fired. This would give the Player some warning, that he is in range, before he has to take a hit to know this.

Derek Darkly
12
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Sep 2011
Location: Whats Our Vector, Victor?
Posted: 12th Jul 2013 22:59
Quote: "I would suggest you add a Energy ball on the tip on the laser weapon"


Not a bad idea!

It's hard to see, but currently there is a single pixel in the center of the enemy that turns bright red as their laser "charges." It's so hard to see that I don't really notice it myself. Maybe I can improve it.

D.D.

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-03-19 04:58:18
Your offset time is: 2024-03-19 04:58:18