Icarus - (Working title) - a shoot-em-up idea I started a few days ago!

Japster

Member
Hi guys! - Well, after being kindly pointed towards @Pixelated_Pope 's FANTASTIC pixel perfect collision blog and project, I thought I'd give an old-skool side scrolling shoot-em-up a go!

I'm a slow coder, but I'm pleased with how much progress I've managed to make in 4-5 days coding, mainly due as usual to massively helpful info from the wonderful peeps on here, but I've had great fun so far in figuring out ways of overcoming removed features (like tile layer alpha blending etc) :D

Thanks also to 'Messhof' for his excellent InputDog extension - by far the easiest I've ever added joypad support, thanks!

It's a shooter with nods (ultimately) to several of my old-skool 8 / 16 bit favourites! - Scramble, R-Type, Gravitar (rescuing spacemen etc), secret areas, optional bosses and boss only modes, sublevel warps, etc all to be added...

Will also have loads of achievements for doing stuff like blowing up all fuel on a level, killing all enemies, finding secrets, 1-credit completions, levels done without losing a life, etc... :)

Short demo here! - Icarus Playable Features Test!

Icarus_Title.PNG

Icarus_5.PNG

Icarus_2.PNG

Icarus_Scanlines.png

Controls are Joypad or Cursor keys - Keys are:-

"Z" =Fire Shot/Missile (5 max at once)
"X" =Launch Bomb (2 max at once)
"C" or Left Shoulder Button = Speed DOWN (minimum 1)
"V" or Right Shoulder Button = Speed UP (maximum 5)

"ESC" =Restart level.
"M" =Toggle example music track.


...Bear in mind that the graphics are mostly placeholders, and that the test level is currently RAMMED with stuff to test out features (like different enemies, hidden areas, etc)... ...so it's a bit busy!... :D ....The end game will be more manageable! :D

Plus, things like objects on a different parallax level being affected by shots etc are temporary, and just to test the theory about throwing multiple tile layers around while still working using Pope's awesome pixel-perfect collision routine on them... :D

Any feedback would really be appreciated, cheers!


Japster
 
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Japster

Member
Link above updated - lots of changes, and fixed scanlines emulation to look perfect in both windowed and full screen (on my 2k, and hopefully 1080 monitors at least!)...

I've also just been given the kind permission to add THIS excellent chip-tune inspired audio track to my game, by !Cube on Soundcloud! - What a cool guy! - really goes with the game - I just took out the intro noise in the game, to get to the 'action' quicker in the track:-

Track Preview!
 
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Elodman

Member
Gr8888!

Now at least I don't have to "port" it, as gladly seeing you are making a perfect conversion / upgrade of the

Hope some tuning will come (redefining keys, etc.), but really cool it is !
 

Japster

Member
Gr8888!

Now at least I don't have to "port" it, as gladly seeing you are making a perfect conversion / upgrade of the

Hope some tuning will come (redefining keys, etc.), but really cool it is !
Thanks mate! - TBH, it's got some elements, but should vastly add to the mix, so yeah, more inspired than a perfect conversion, but I'm stoked about where it's going! - It now has smoothly accelerating / decelerating scroll speeds too!

Link updated, and some other cool stuff added, like not being able to go through level scenery anymore, plus a basic animated title screen placeholder (just fire to play, ESC to quit)... ;)

Ps - Will definitely have redefinable keys, plus controller support is already in... :D

1 and 2 (3 and 4 too) player simultaneous is possible too... :D

Thanks for the kind words! :D
 
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Japster

Member
I've now done LOADS more to the demo if anyone else fancies taking a look!

Added rotating and firing turrets, bigger and smoother explosions, smoke/debris, speed changes (scrolling as well as ship speed), speed change warning indicators so you can get ready, title screen, and much more! - Would be interested to see what people think so far, cheers! :D

Also removed a load of the floating rocks from near the beginning - was just testing them out.... :D
Link updated in the intial post above!... :D
 

Japster

Member
Added some nice big points indicators for shot stuff, added spawners and 'squadrons' of ships to shoot! (get 'em all for a bonus!), Many new things added, like a 'redefine controls' screen, plus a new options screen - SFX toggle doesn't yet work, but 'Lazyfire' (TM) ;) and CombiShot are now nice Quality Of Life additions... :D

Different turret types now added, and if you want a laugh, I've currently set them all on mid difficulty, instead of 'easy' - lotsa bullets flying around now! :D

Dragon animation needs keying to certain frames on state changes, and some silly little visual things sorting, but it's fully playable at the moment!

Same Link as above - Latest Demo Here!
 
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Japster

Member
Well, done a fair bit on Icarus since my last post, and added some more stuff / enemies etc, so I figured a video might give a nice quick indication of how it's progressing!:-

Note - this is a purposely REALLY difficult setting I picked to show more of the stuff off (half of it isn't there on lower difficulties, or enemies fire slower or less damaging weapon types... :) ) - I didn't actually manage to get to the mid-boss, but he's *just* past where I got destroyed... :D ...He's also flippin' tough on the harder difficulty! ;)

As always, I'd be most interested in what you think so far (constructive criticism welcome too!), if possible! - Playable demo is still live and regularly updated in the OP... :D


Cheers all, and take care!
 
V

Vectorhead

Guest
Sieht ziemlich cool aus. Amazing Game.
K.eep up ur work.
 
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