Xenon 2 (part build)

Sabnock

Member
Thought i would have a little fun and do a part build of one of my all time favourite Amiga games Xenon 2.

I am not taking it any further than this as it was just a bit of fun and also experience in how to make a SHMUP but i thought i would share what i have managed with the community as it has turned out ok.

There would be a lot of work to get it to work absolutely correctly but i am moving on. :)

XennonII 01.JPGXennonII 02.JPGXennonII 03.JPG

Link : https://www.dropbox.com/s/hy2x03beoh0m4lo/Xenon2 07032020 Build 1.06.zip?dl=0

let me know what you think.

Controls are : Cursor Keys and Space to fire
 
This is the first time I've come across your post, just so you know!

It could be considered a hassle by some to download, unzip, and play the game. I know, I know, it seems like a simple thing...but unless there is something to really grab the attention, it may not be enough to get people to do this process.

I suggest posting some gameplay videos(try to capture the most dynamic/exciting bits, edit the video if necessary), and have a look at other WIP threads and find some that you consider eye-catching, and try incorporating what they do into your posts.

You're asking people to divert their time and attention, give them a reason to get pumped and excited enough to do it! :)

You said your project was "just a bit of fun" and it "turned out ok", and that "you're not taking it any further".

What about "I've made a fan-game of the all-time classic Amiga shooter Xenon 2, it's not 100% done, but I'd LOVE for you to check it out. Download it now to experience the action for yourself! - free biscuits for the first 10 feedbacks posted here!"

I also think maybe that you said you're not doing any more work on it, so any feedback is not really going to be used because of this?

I could be completely wrong of course, I don't read minds!

I really don't know what it could be!!!! Angry Birds was the 52nd or so game that Rovio made which finally gave them a hit. I think in the end its to do with having a bit(or a lot) of luck and a lot of marketing.
 
Yeah, you might just have been unlucky with the timing, the SHMUP fans may have not been online at the time you posted.

OH! and I just remembered, if you have the time, you might want to see if you could post over at a dedicated SHMUP forum. The one I know of is : https://shmups.system11.org/index.php

They have a Development thread. Plus they are your target audience :)
 

Japster

Member
Classic 16-bit shmup! - I'll definitely take a look... :D

All fair points by @IndianaBones as always... - Personally, it's hard to get excited by something that you say you have no intention of taking further, but purely out of my retrogaming interest and respect for you making a homage to a classic shoot-em-up, I'll take a look at the demo so far!... :D

I had the same issue with ALL of my own games - TetraLogical has even been released on steam for over a year now, and I offered everyone free keys (even now), but nobody has ever really took me up on any, so I think it's just the way... ...you get used to it... :)

Don't let it get you down! - ie. I've got several game ideas on the go, and even then it's hard to stay motivated with no outside input, but I think being able to create something from nothing (or something tangible from just an idea / something in your head!) is awesome / addictive, so I always come back to my game dev in the end, despite finding it hard to get motivated / feedback (I think we all have this issue), plus everyone on here is generally so focused and busy on their own projects, we all probably find it hard to justify taking time away from them, even just to look at anyone else's game and feed back on it, because in reality - to be fair to everyone, it's really MANY games we (yourself included, for example :) ) would all need to check out and feed back on every day, to make a difference.

In short, I tend to have little time, but like to keep up to date on the forum, so it's hard to spend time formulating a response / commenting, and typing it out, scanning it, changing it here and there, then POSTing it... ...but it's VERY quick to click on 'Like' - so the Likes / Loves (and even neutral etc) are also good - it means fellow users have seen it, digested it, and decided they actually care enough to respond officially to your post...

All the best!
 
Just had a playthrough of the game. Wow, not too bad. It takes me back to when I played Xenon 2 on my mates Atari ST when I was a teenager.

Controls feel about right, graphics look like they must be borrowed from the original game.

Enemy movement patterns seem pretty much spot on. The audio is not included I assume? There was no sound when I played. And there is no shop. Otherwise looks like a faithful recreation.

I see you've dropped the upgrade parts throughout the level in the absence of the shop. Mega firepower once all the weapons are collected!

Also it is in god-mode, right? I couldn't die or get hit. So its not possible to fully judge the "feel" of the game without that.

What was the hardest part to get right? I imagine its the enemy patterns maybe. Did you just use GMS paths for their movement?

Oh the one other thing that's "missing", so to speak, is the scrolling is very smooth, whereas the original moved in increments of one pixel at a time. That would complete the old-school effect, but I've tried to do that myself in one of my games and found it pretty hard to pull off so far.

I can see why perhaps you are calling it a day at this point. It seems much of the engine is done. Most of the rest of the work would be adding in the rest of the enemies, the shop and other frills that is more or less busy work and not really adding much new code, so you kind of achieved your objective in making a working version at this point.

The rest is just padding it out to complete the game.

It was nice to be playing such a faithful re-creation in the comfort of my own PC.

One thing I would like to see would be a crt-filter on the graphics. The pixel art back then was designed to look best on CRT's, the raw-pixels feel a little exposed to me, but that's just my personal taste :)
 

Sabnock

Member
Classic 16-bit shmup! - I'll definitely take a look... :D
You are absolutely correct i should have made more effort to make it interesting and avoid the negatives. i get that if every one commented on every post it would leave no time for anything else. it is just every now and then you need that boost to give you the drive to carry on.

Thanks for giving the game a go. i hope you see the the effort that has gone in to it and enjoy the game. hopefully it gives you that sense of nostalga.
 

Sabnock

Member
Just had a playthrough of the game. Wow, not too bad. It takes me back to when I played Xenon 2 on my mates Atari ST when I was a teenager.
This is exactly what i was going for. that buzz of nostalgia.

sound is in my version but it makes the file large and i was worried about copy writes.

i dropped the power ups across the level as i haven't coded the shop but wanted to see if i could get the weapon system up and running.

The hardest part was realising that you can use paths as a data stream rather than having to use path_start(); also offsetting the paths to work where the current camera position is and keep the coordinates relative to that rather than the path position. but once understood (and with some help from a friend) it is actually relatively simple.

i want to achieve a 60fps smooth version as the original was something like 17 fps so i wanted to modernise it.

you are bang on with your comment as to why i wasn't to keen to carry on with it. i had achieved what i wanted to achieve and can now use it in the future to make something new.

crt_filter is a cracking idea. i will look at that.

thanks for giving it a go and appreciate the feed back :)
 

Japster

Member
@Sabnock - Well, downloaded and tried it! - It's great, and clearly a labour of love - Completely agree with @IndianaBones comments - certainly, a filter would help give an authentic look, and lessen the harshness of the original size chunky pixels...

Yep, it felt good having close to Super Nashwan Power!.. :D

Great stuff!
 

ReidDC

Member
Big fan of the Amiga, used to be and slightly still a fanatic. Unfortunately I never played Xenon but after playing this I can tell you what you got is good! Really solid movment and love the art style! Couldn't take damage, but I can imagine it being tough. Keep it up please, its always amazing to see people bring back these gems.
 

Sabnock

Member
@Sabnock - Well, downloaded and tried it! - It's great, and clearly a labour of love - Completely agree with @IndianaBones comments - certainly, a filter would help give an authentic look, and lessen the harshness of the original size chunky pixels...

Yep, it felt good having close to Super Nashwan Power!.. :D

Great stuff!
Big fan of the Amiga, used to be and slightly still a fanatic. Unfortunately I never played Xenon but after playing this I can tell you what you got is good! Really solid movment and love the art style! Couldn't take damage, but I can imagine it being tough. Keep it up please, its always amazing to see people bring back these gems.
Thanks Both for downloading the game and the great feed back.

The player damage is turned off for ease of play through whilst developing the game and yes at the time it was a brutally difficult game. something that the Bitmap Brother team were famous for. they were the From Software of their time.

Unfortunately i can't continue with this remake as i have learned recently that Rebellion Software have bought the rights to all the Bitmap Brother back catalogue. i am really looking forward to see what they do with it. hopefully not mobile, micro purchase games as games like Xenon, Speedball and Chaos Engine deserve better.
 
yet again no comments.

is it the projects i do or the way i post?

advice please lol
I found out they were giving Tomb Raider, a AAA game, away for free a few days ago. I thought "whoa, cool!" and then instantly "wait, no, I don't care at all." Couldn't be bothered to download the game, even for free.

So it's nothing personal or wrong with your game - it's just REALLY hard to catch people's attention. It's the way you post mostly, though: where are the exciting gifs and videos?! We're all mostly scrolling through the forums while we're bored, probably. Your screenshots are all tiny on my phone, and there's no movement. It's easy to jump to another thread!

That said, the pixel art actually looks good! If it's yours, you did a nice job on it! : )
 

Sabnock

Member
I found out they were giving Tomb Raider, a AAA game, away for free a few days ago. I thought "whoa, cool!" and then instantly "wait, no, I don't care at all." Couldn't be bothered to download the game, even for free.

So it's nothing personal or wrong with your game - it's just REALLY hard to catch people's attention. It's the way you post mostly, though: where are the exciting gifs and videos?! We're all mostly scrolling through the forums while we're bored, probably. Your screenshots are all tiny on my phone, and there's no movement. It's easy to jump to another thread!

That said, the pixel art actually looks good! If it's yours, you did a nice job on it! : )
Hi, Thanks for the feed back and i will review how i post things in the future.

Unfortunately the Pixel art is not my own :(
 
E

edusword

Guest
Very well done!
Would it possible to share the GMS project?
Thank you!
 
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