Windows Ascended Dark Matter (Bullet Hell/Shoot Em' Up)

[Sabrina Stoakes]

Ah, that's a shame.

I did wonder about the amount of buttons, you could have charge/fire and the bomb linked to the mouse buttons, but pressing middle mouse is probably a little fiddly.

If I remember correctly the way it worked (There are some controls that aren't implemented into it because I programmed them early,) were the LMB was manual fire/charge, RMB was bomb, MMB was detonate. That could still work as a combined keyboard control though, because spacebar is auto-fire, and shift (any shift) is laser. Maybe I could like add a check where if you move the mouse a certain amount (to keep from accidental movements,) it switches over to mouse controls+keyboard controls, and if you press like WASD, or the directional keys is switches the movement controls back to keyboard only. I'll play around with it :0

 

[O.Stogden]

If I remember correctly the way it worked (There are some controls that aren't implemented into it because I programmed them early,) were the LMB was manual fire/charge, RMB was bomb, MMB was detonate. That could still work as a combined keyboard control though, because spacebar is auto-fire, and shift (any shift) is laser. Maybe I could like add a check where if you move the mouse a certain amount (to keep from accidental movements,) it switches over to mouse controls+keyboard controls, and if you press like WASD, or the directional keys is switches the movement controls back to keyboard only. I'll play around with it :0

Sweet, choice is always a good thing to have in a game. Even if it is a pain to implement. Controlling the menus with a gamepad wasn't the easiest thing in my game, but I got there eventually, even if it isn't 100% how I wanted it.

Your idea of switching the controls seems pretty seamless and I think it'd work well. Games like My Time at Portia do that where button prompts change depending on what input method was last detected, gamepad or keyboard.

 

[Sabrina Stoakes]

Hey guys!

New demo build is up <3
Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h7LHCEqE0rhjzo0g3HwbTuzhTkNhCbsf/view?usp=sharing *I also updated the link in the original post*

-MUSIC, YES, MUSIC!
-Upgrades were added at the end of each level. *The demo loops after finishing level 2 so you can try out all the upgrades.*
-2 almost finished levels with 2 bosses. <3
-Some minor tweaks were made to the style system that makes it easier to maintain your style rank.
-Small enemies now shoot in a pattern instead of directly at you.
-Boss health tweaks.
-Tweaked bullet sound effect to be less samey.

Here is a video of level 1 & 2 as well:

As always, let me know what you think <3 constructive criticism is very much welcome! This will be the last demo for awhile assuming all things are functioning properly, so I hope you enjoy it!!!

 

[O.Stogden]

Hey Sabrina,

Here's some feedback:

- Music is a great addition, really helps liven up the game, which I didn't even know it needed because I get very stressed playing this.

- The music is quite fast-paced, which is good for a bullet hell, but it feels as though the ship is quite slow moving? I know you have tiny star particles that give a sense of speed, but the background moves quite slowly which counteracts that. I don't know if there's anything you can do that's not distracting or intrusive, but a feeling of the ship moving fast like the music insinuates would be good.

- I'm not sure you put the bullet sound variation in this release, your video definitely has the pitch changing, but in the build I just played (BH3), the sound is always the same.

P.S. I made it to level 2, and then died about 30 seconds in.

 

[Sabrina Stoakes]

Hey Sabrina,

Here's some feedback:

- Music is a great addition, really helps liven up the game, which I didn't even know it needed because I get very stressed playing this.

- The music is quite fast-paced, which is good for a bullet hell, but it feels as though the ship is quite slow moving? I know you have tiny star particles that give a sense of speed, but the background moves quite slowly which counteracts that. I don't know if there's anything you can do that's not distracting or intrusive, but a feeling of the ship moving fast like the music insinuates would be good.

- I'm not sure you put the bullet sound variation in this release, your video definitely has the pitch changing, but in the build I just played (BH3), the sound is always the same.

P.S. I made it to level 2, and then died about 30 seconds in.

The sound should be slightly changing every time :0 I know for a fact the code is in this version, unless you're using the keyboard and I forgot to put the code in for the keyboard controls LOL I'll check it out in a little bit <3

Changing the speed of the background would be very simple to do MAYBE, I'm not using the built-in room feature to scroll a background so we shall see how that works LOL

 

[O.Stogden]

The sound should be slightly changing every time :0 I know for a fact the code is in this version, unless you're using the keyboard and I forgot to put the code in for the keyboard controls LOL I'll check it out in a little bit <3

Changing the speed of the background would be very simple to do MAYBE, I'm not using the built-in room feature to scroll a background so we shall see how that works LOL

I was using keyboard, so that might be it.

 

[Sabrina Stoakes]

I was using keyboard, so that might be it.

It was the keyboard controls

I love how I knew immediately what the issue was LOL It sounded like my typical brand of mistake

 

[Sabrina Stoakes]

Hey guys <3 I have another progress update!

Made a minor change to how fast Auto-Fire is, it now shoots 2 frames faster!

To compensate for the added advantages with the faster Auto-Fire and upgrades, I have started working on an alternate version of the main 4 enemies. These alternate versions have slightly more health, act differently, and start showing up after level 3. I'm also still adding 2 new enemies every level in the arcade mode (This doesn't apply to Nightmare difficulty since all enemy types are present in all levels in this mode.) So there will be a total of 14 enemy types by the time you reach level 6.

I have also added another attack to the boss in level 2 that he only does once his health hits 25% or below.

Finally, I am changing the way you get more AP for spending on upgrades. Instead of you getting an extra AP for getting your style points beyond a certain point, you will now only get the extra AP for the number of kills you get in a level. I felt like this needed to be changed because style points already increase your score, and the kills were just there, so this gives the kills variable a little more purpose I think.