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Work in Progress / }:> Total Carnage Demo ! :-O

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Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 02:04 Edited at: 20th Mar 2008 05:54
Hi !

I've been working on a game for some time now, And i got a cool demo with 5 levels to show you guys !

its a 2d action packed gun game in the style of geometry wars. This game was inspired by the old smash tv game.

I'm looking for feedback on the game play, as well as suggestions about what to do in the next levels.


I'm still looking for 1 or more 2D artists to help me with the game ! If your interested, your task would be to create new enemies, backgrounds, bullets, explosions... if your interested, please contact me on email/msn at louislavallee9@hotmail.com

CURRENT FEATURES :
-Movement and shooting directions are independent
-8 Levels, including tips and progress feedback specially designed for each level
-3 Unique Guns (Plasma, laser, bazooka)
-8 Unique enemies (Turret, Fly, Baby Spider, Triceratops, Eye, Electron, Proton, and Sun)
-1 Boss (Mother spider)
-3 Different power ups (Heart, Shield, Super Shield)
-Replays playing in the back of menu
-Packed with sample replays available in 'Watch Replay' Menu
-Support for keyboard ,mouse and XBOX 360 Controller
-Highly energetic music
-Fast paced action packed addictive game play

CONTROLS :
By default, if an XBOX 360 controller is plugged in, it will be used (left joystick for movement and right for shooting). If not, WASD will be used for movement and mouse for shooting. You can also change the settings in the Controls menu.

REQUIREMENTS :
DX9 and .Net Framework 2.0

LINK (updated 2008/03/20):
http://totalcarnage.chimeramusic.net/download.php?file=TotalCarnageX.rar


ScreenShots

Alien Fleshy Robotic Triceratops ! (added 14/2)

http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alientriceratopspd0.jpg&s=1

Incoming Triceratops ! (Added 14/2)

http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=incomingtriceratopsor4.jpg&s=1


Action shot from Classic Carnage ! (updated 17/1)

http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newclassicms1.png

Fighting the Giant Spider Boss ! (updated 17/1)

http://img402.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newspidernl5.png

Atomic Carnage ! (updated 17/1)

http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newatomicbo2.png

Blood Test ! (added 17/1)

http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bloodtestgg0.png

I got some questions I'd like your feedback on :

-Found it fun ?

-How is the difficulty ? Too hard or just right ?

Enjoy the game and please leave some feedback !

TODO LIST :
-Add alt tabbing support
-Add more enemies
-Add more guns
-Add more levels
-Online ScoreBoard with access to top replays
-Find an artist to help me do the above

***EDIT : Fixed links[b][/b]

Zombie 20
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 17:44
downloaded it, couldn't find the file to run it though?


Coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee cappacino, JAVA!
Mr Tank
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 17:47
This is awesome. I'm pretty addicted. Only got about 1/3rd the way though the easier levels. Sure it's beatable though. Will try using the mouse.

I'm a pretty rubbish artist. Sorry. Will have a think about enemies and stuff to do. Best of luck making it. In the meantime i'll practice.

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Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 17:47
Once you've extracted the files from TotalCarnageX.rar, hopefully to TotalCarnageX folder, you will find a file named project1.exe in it. Use that.
Mr Tank
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 18:43
I killed the spider! But the game didn't end after that.

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Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 18:56
Yes i didnt mention that, but i didnt put end conditions to levels yet. its in my todo list.

But you get to know you've done it

congratulations !
draknir_
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 20:39
very cool little game. Any chance of adding mouse controls to aim and WASD to move? I find the current controls to be quite tricky as im a seasoned FPS player and having WASD to aim is really confusing to my muscle memory
Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 20:45
Yes draknir, check out the controls menu. it's already implemented.

Happy that you guys seem to like it !

Don't be shy to criticize things that you think are less good too !
Mr Tank
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 21:24
I killed both spiders! Awesome. Still can't complete other modes.

draknir_ - you can choose controls in the main menu.

About the mouse controls- the cursor is quite hard to see when there is a lot of action. Also with mouse, as the screen scrolls, the mouse cursor scrolls too, so, without moving the mouse, your aim point moves. I think that perhaps the mouse coordinates should be relative to the player character, or the ground, rather than the screen. Otherwise it's a bit inconsistent and confusing. Would be good to be able to shoot in the mouse direction rather than just 8 directions, but i realise this would be unfair to keyboard only players.

I used keyboard anyway. Glad you provided an option to switch move/shoot controls. I found wasd for move to be much easier.

It was odd that the player shots travel at fixed speed relative to the ground- if you run forward and shoot, your shots are only slightly faster than you! Maybe make the shots a little faster, and/or add on the player speed to the shot speed.

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Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2008 21:43
Nice !

Killing double spider carnage is hard ! good job !

Your right about the mouse being relative to the hero position rather than the screen, i think i will try working on that.

You also raised my number one current issue about about mouse control : 8 directions or free direction. With the plasma gun (bullets look like baseball balls), free direction aiming would not be overpowered because the bullets spread a lot, and i could live with the mouse user having a little advantage, since it would make the experience less inconsistent for them.

The problem is with the laser gun. That gun fires a perfectly focused beam, and the bullets move through the enemies (doesn't stop when it hits an enemy). it also almost one hit kills anything (very powerful). The only thing that makes it balanced is that you have to line up properly on the enemies. With free aiming, you could simply stand in the middle and rotate the mouse around, and everything would die

The gun is very fun to use with keyboard, but incompatible with free aiming.

Another thing is that if i introduce free aiming, i need to have it as the default control, because it makes no sense to have the better control option not defaulted. Problem is, i think the game play is a lot more FUN with keyboard aiming. And if i introduce free aiming, there is no reason for players to learn the keyboard controls...

This is the biggest decision i have to face. I think i will start by introducing mouse relative to player instead of screen and see how it feels. If it works good enough, problem will be solved. If it doesn't, I'll have to take a hard decision.
Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 15th Feb 2008 05:50 Edited at: 18th Feb 2008 20:20
Hello !

I've got another little update for you all to show some of the (small) progress I'm making.


First, I'd like to advertise that I'm looking for one or more artist to help me produce the graphics for the game. Programming the AI's, and the programming work that's left to implement bigger sized levels in itself is going to take me a long time, so if i cannot find help for the graphics, the project will not be able to advance at a satisfying pace. I would be extremely grateful if someone would want to hop in the project and help me you could either PM me or reach me through email/msn at louislavallee9@hotmail.com


LINK :
http://totalcarnage.chimeramusic.net/download.php?file=TotalCarnageX.rar

So what's new in this version ?
-New music at the start of each level (except double spider carnage) made by Chimera Music Group (new collaborators who will handle a large chunk of the in game music)
-New enemy (Alien Triceratops). This enemy as the most advanced AI from all the enemies currently in the game.
-New Level (or not, it's just an unbalanced/boring level to showcase the triceratops, but the triceratops itself is pretty cool)
-Faster bullet travel speed/explosion. May seem like little but it helps the gameplay.
-Turret barrel is now perfectly directed toward hero, rather than the old 8 way direction.
-Turret now shoots bigger, different bullets.
-Nice replay packed in the .rar.

Some of you may have tried earlier iterations and thought that the game was really hard/too hard. I've packed a replay of 'Hard Classic Carnage' that shows how nice the game can become once your proficient at it. That replay shows me playing Hard Classic Carnage and dieing at 46%. I just can't beat that level though :-(, even though any other level is a piece of cake. If you want to watch this replay, you will have to start the game and watch it right away, as the replay will be erased as soon as you play a game. You can extract the files from the .rar again so that Replay.xml is overridden if you want to watch it after having played.

I've been having a lot of trouble, and spending a lot of time drawing the alien triceratops, but i think i managed to do an (almost) satisfying job. I hope to be able to touch up it's animation so that it looks a bit better, but it's not so bad.

FEEDBACK :
-Triceratops : I personally have mixed feelings about him. I think he got a nice 'cool factor', but the way he grabs and throws the player kind of disrupts the experience for me. Currently, my plan is to use him sparsely in levels as a way to keep the player moving and add a little 'fear factor'. I also have mixed feelings about his looks. I think the head looks really cool, but the body is so-so. I'd like to get any feedback, good and/or bad, about the triceratops.

-Bigger sized levels : I'm looking for a way to implement bigger sized levels with environments hazards, but i don't want complicated puzzles. I also want to keep the pace extremely high, and force the player to keep moving. I don't want to force scroll the screen. I don't know how to design levels that best achieve all those criteria, but I'd definitely like any suggestions you guys could give me.
I'm also open to any other feedback and/or suggestions you have about the game.

CURRENT TODO :
-Add death animation for the triceratops
-make the turret bullets come from the guns end rather than from the center
-Try to make a cool physic effect where the triceratops crashes into the walls rather than running over it.
-allow the triceratops to do damage (currently out only to allow me to test him better)
-add congratulation menu once you complete a level
-Work on new enemy (Giant Alien Fleshy Robotic Snake Boss)
-Do something to improve mouse aiming
-Support Alt Tabbing
-Create bigger/different levels

Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 19th Feb 2008 02:56
Little update (download links in the post are up to date)

Modifications :
-Some music change
-Cleaned up some files that weren't used
-Added death animation for triceratops (pretty neat i think)
-Fixed Triceratops AI so that when one is hurting the player, the others wait
-Fixed Triceratops so that when he is incoming (spinning heads), he is invincible
-Fixed turret so that bullet comes out where you would expect it to
-Modified turret bullet (again) so that it uses colors that won't make you think it's a killable enemy in Atomic Carnage
-Added bounce on walls effect when the triceratops throws the player

Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 07:23
FOR THE MODS : Why don't my post get a bump when I post, is it because I'm a forum newbie ? Give it a little bump please

Another little update !

The download link in the main post has been updated !

Update Content :
-Game now comes with some sample replays. They can be viewed from the new 'Watch Replay' Menu. Packed replays include a replay beating each of the levels, except for Hard Classic Carnage, which I am not yet able to beat. I however packed a replay that goes 45% deep in it.
-Level selection is now a sub menu of the 'Play !' menu.
-Smaller replay files
-When a level is completed, you will now be greeted to a congratulation screen, and brought back to the main menu with your replay playing in background
-Reduced replay file sizes by a factor of 10

-TODO :
-Ask the player if he wants to save his replay once he completes/dies on a level. Then ask him for the file name
-Allow the player to upload/download replays directly from the game on a master server so that everyone can share their replays.
-Reduce replay file sizes by a factor of about 3, making the biggest replay (currently about 60K) down to 20K, allowing for quick access to online replays.
-Improve replay selection interface
-Add more ennemies/integrate triceratops in levels

-TIP : If you want to save your own replay after a particularly great game, until i implement the feature in game, you can exit the game and copy 'Replay.xml' from your TotalCarnage folder to the 'Replays' folder. You can then rename the file in the 'Replays' folder to your liking. IF YOU DO SO, MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT REMOVE 'Replay.xml' FROM YOUR TotalCarnage FOLDER, OR ELSE THE GAME WILL BE CORRUPTED AND NOT WORK ANYMORE.

IanM
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 12:33
Quote: "Give it a little bump please"

Sure

Benjamin
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 13:11
Awesome, it's got a great retro feel to it.

dark coder
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 13:45
Just played it and it's very nice, it feels very polished and things like the replay in the background make it all the more better, however I found the game way too hard, but I was never good at retro games .

Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 19:45
Thanks for the kind words, and thanks IanM for the bump.

Whooo ! I'm now free from the newbie status !

Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 25th Feb 2008 06:38 Edited at: 25th Feb 2008 06:39
New update !

Get the download link in my first post !


I'm still looking for 1 or more 2D artists to help me with the game ! If your interested, your task would be to create new enemies, backgrounds, bullets, explosions... Contact me by PM, by reply or by e-mail/msn at louislavallee9@hotmail.com for more information


UPDATE CONTENT :
-Integrated triceratops in Classic and Atomic Carnage
-Added 'Easy Classic Carnage' and 'Easy Atomic Carnage' to the levels (much easier than before)
-Player can now save replay after death or level success and later access it through 'Watch Replay' option
-New HP Bar
-Classic and Atomic (normal) are now harder due to triceratops
-Improved blood animation (will now fly in the direction of the bullet that caused it)
-Spider boss antennae, neck and head now pushes the player away on contact
-Sun hitting shield will now bounce correctly
-Support for more then 10 saved replays (can now scroll to reach other replays)
-Triceratops now deals damage when swinging the hero on it's pick
-Fixed moments where no music would be heard after a song ends and before another starts (music will now loop)

NOTES
Please note that replays will NOT be backwards compatible. I do not plan to make them backward compatible either. In fact, I've even added a version number in them that will allow me to not display incompatible replays in the Watch Replay menu.

KNOWN BUGS
There is a little problem with the way the hero bounces on the spider neck. It is mostly right, but in some cases it will be a bit weird. It will be fixed in the next version

FEEDBACK
Especially for those who try this for the first time, how were the easy levels? Too easy, just right or too hard?

Any other feedback would be appreciated too !

Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 25th Feb 2008 07:46
dunno how i missed this early on but i caught it now. i'm short on time atm so i'll just say "nice start!". i played a couple times and it's a bit tough for me on the easiest level. it DOES live up to it's name for the most part, cept i wish there was more explosions, blood-splatter, body parts flying, etc. you know? CARNAGE! heh. i'll try again during my normal coffee-consuming hours. and, i may have a go at some artwork for this, if you're still looking.

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MadrMan
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Posted: 25th Feb 2008 09:22 Edited at: 25th Feb 2008 11:40
It's a great game n all, but its TOO HARD, seriously
I played the easy carnage and at 10% of the time i got overrun by 2 triceratops..

I really love the game though!!

EDIT: i got to 30% now, but its still hard ^^

EDIT2 : i got to 60% now, but its insanely hard after that, and i beat the spider challenge ^^ its MUCH easier with the mouse mode
Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 25th Feb 2008 17:18
Thanks for the comments. I agree with you on the more carnage suggestion. I'm definitely still looking for more art. You can contact me at louislavallee9@hotmail.com, ideally on msn so that we can discuss what can be done. There is a lot that I'd like to be done so according to the time you have to dedicate and your preferences, we can settle on something.

I think i will try removing the triceratops from easy mode, or at least make them really rare, because they are harder and trickier to handle than usual enemies.

Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 20th Mar 2008 05:52
New update !

Download link is available in the first post.

This update is quite small but does a lot to improve the game play.

UPDATE CONTENT :
-Improved mouse support
-Support for XBOX 360 controller
-Minor bug fixes

Improved mouse support : You are no longer restricted to aiming in only 8 directions. The gun will now shoot directly towards the cursor position. Also, when mouse control is active, the camera will behave differently by having your player permanently centered in the screen to make aiming easier (at the cost of some visibility).

Support for XBOX 360 controller : This is now the BEST WAY to control the game. The right joystick will allow you too shoot in any direction, and the right joystick allow you to also move in any direction. It also allows you to walk by using less force on the left joystick. Vibration is also activated when getting hit. This way of controlling allows for the old camera to be used, thus maximizing visibility and control. I've had LOTS OF FUN with this controller.

The game also packs 2 new replays of Classic and Hard Classic completed. I couldn't have managed to do it if it wasn't for the xbox controller !

By default, if xbox controller is plugged in, it will be defaulted. If not, mouse control with WASD for movement will be defaulted.

Have fun !

dark coder
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Posted: 20th Mar 2008 07:58
Much better, the only annoyance now for me is that it's too hard to see the crosshair, especially when you're fighting off many enemies. But it's much better now .

Mr Tank
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Posted: 20th Mar 2008 22:48
Seems cooler. Haven't played new version much yet. Want to try mouse, because should make it easier when i get the laser/plasma gun, but like dark coder says, the crosshair is practically invisible. Please make it clearer!

NB, a bigger thicker one that is partly light and partly dark (eg black and white) should show up over most backgrounds. I tried to find the crosshair in the images folder and edit it but couldn't see it.

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Rambo Pow Pow
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Posted: 21st Mar 2008 03:20
Yes i'll try to get a better icon for the crosshair. To be honest, i went the lazy way out and used a default windows icon, that's why you couldn't find it.

Until about 10 minutes before before uploading, the game used the the default arrow crosshair which was big and ugly, but easy to see. I made the change and tested it for about 20 seconds before concluding the new one was better

Next version will have a better custom crosshair

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