*UPDATED DOWNLOAD LINK* My bad! The old Windows ver. download link a few hours ago didn't provide related DLLs, It's working now!
This is my first ever LD. :)
I made a prototype bullet hell game, with playable side REVERSED, annnnnd.. I hope that's enough for explanation. :p
Use z, x, c button and mouse to control, there are some info/hints on screen as well.
There's no sound, the art is crap, I just want to try out my idea :p And encountered some programming issue... so time flies by. The current gameplay is somewhat playable, and the game is pretty short, so please try out and leave some comments, thanks :)
Made with Love2D, windows executable included, .love source as well, but I don't have the executable for other platforms.
I cant run this game, getting the following error:
--------------------------- bullethellreversed(1).exe - System Error --------------------------- The program can't start because DevIL.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem. --------------------------- OK ---------------------------
@angelk Thank you! Hope you get around to implement this kind of game in the future!
@Sheep Yes, it was a literal transposition from "Hero" to "Minion & Boss" in bullet-hell kind of game, and I just want to try out the idea and didn't give it much thought beforehand. After implement it I think I have to take this idea to some other direction, but there's potential.
I really liked this one! Really good to be the bad in an R-Type game, and hero AI is good enough to make it a challenge! I think it would be good to go forward on the control of the enemies you send at the beginning, maybe planning further ships tactics? Simple assets but addictive!
@Freakill Thank you! Yes, I had a few more ideas for minion ship formations or even more ship types, but I was hoping to at least understand what it would be like with only 3 archtypes of formations.
Then I spent time to fix programming issues and balancing, so I ran out of time. :P
@Atomic Currently the first part of the game is pretty random yes. When I had the idea I was thinking if the player can actually corner the hero using some strategy of calling different formations into the battlefield, if you count all the directions of the 3 archtype formations, it'll be like close to 10 choices and I can't think of a better UI in time, thus the randomness you felt.
really awesome! I wish you had more control over attacks you were creating though. Maybe have more aiming in the 'level part' not just the boss part? Or draw with your mouse where baddies will go, bullets will go n some such. really fun too. keep it up!
@Digiraze I tried to calculate the speed (vector) of the nearest "incoming" bullet (IMPORTANT: not leaving bullets) to the hero, and basically make the hero go perpendicular ways to that vector. There's another vector to keep in mind: the vector from that particular bullet to the hero.
Make hero go sideways to the bullet's speed vector only, is not good, when you have to "go around" the bullet.
I am sure there are better ways to develop the AI, currently my method don't work when the hero is surrounded with bullets. In that case the information of any particular bullet is not useful, AI has to find a breach in the bullet wall. I think it's a lot harder than what I did.
@radmars Thank you :) I played NONEX (which replied to me up there, his entry is 8733), and he got the drawing control, which is super great. However, I kinda loved the old school minion formations in bullet hell games though, I'll try harder to find a better UI for it.
@bushmango Sorry! I am not sure what happened, by thus far I didn't find any problem with Google Drive... maybe it's account setting and/or region related issue on google's part.
Anyhow, I uploaded the same version of game to dropbox, plz check the download links again if you see this. :)
I've wanted to play something like this for a while. Despite the lack of audio, it's still pretty good. The graphics seem appropriate for this kind of game, and it's pretty well balanced, although you can win by pressing random buttons. Giving the Good Character bombs might make it more challenging, especially if you add more levels later. Giving the boss more attack options would be cool, too. It was still pretty entertaining with what you had~
@Shugor I appreciate the feedback! I wish I had the time to carefully design strategic usage of different minion formations. And of course more weapons & abilities for both the Hero & Boss would have been nice. I'd definitely looking into this part. :)
Thanks you very much for the explanation. I really enjoyed this game, hopefully you will continue with it.
My thinking right now on the whole AI is, yes do what you are currently doing, but when the hero is surrounded by bullet (or minions in my case), put those bullet/minions into tiles, and use djikstra pathfinding to get out of it. That's what I would try next.
@Digiraze I think that's pretty clever. Since you mentioned partitioning the objects into tiles, I am also thinking maybe simple BFS (to the exit) works?
Is miss the audio (In a shooter! How could you!), but I like the idea and it's rather fun to watch your hordes decimate the hero and later on finish the slaughter. He's pretty evasive though! (I'm quite sure that's not his first time embarking on this mission.)
The graphics are decent - not pretty, but they serve their purpose.
I'd have loved to have a bit more control over the movements of my minions. Right now I feel like mashing the keys and hoping for the best works best. A few more attacks for the boss would've made that fight more entertaining, but I understand that there's only so much you can do in 48 hours.
Oh, and what does the "cost" in the boss battle mean? Does it cost my health?
The winning strategy for me was to mash z,x,c in the first phase, then mash z and hold the mouse while dragging up and down the window like a madman. Or like a mad villain, if you will. Nice implementation and AI.
@Tobias Thank you for the praise! I should've at least record some pewpew sound or just use bfxr to generate one quickly... :p And yes, I guess I'll have to find some time to do a post compo version just to add sound and more strategy or attacking options. About the cost it's just one of my lazy mistakes... There's no cost for using bullet waves, I just forgot to take it out. orz
@zenmumbler Thank you! Sometimes the mashing can be done more efficiently (like when the hero is camping one spawning point of the minions then don't use that formation), but yes overall it's just mashing currently.
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bullethellreversed(1).exe - System Error
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The program can't start because DevIL.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.
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OK
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