Dread! A metroid-style game!

[Solarblade]

Well, this is a game I've been wanting to make since I started GM (Well, almost) and I've decided to start (again. I've started this project 2 times before...)
(Demo at bottom of this post.)
Dread is a metroid-style game (maybe a little too much like metroid ><) in which you play as the green dude in the screenies. (Sprites made by Icicle. Tileset made by SpaceYoshiX.) Haven't got much of a story line, but I got one in the making. (Not complete enough to post yet...)

Now for Screenies!
Cruising through the first room. (http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Solar13lade/Screenshots/DreadScreenie1.png)
Splunking time! (http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Solar13lade/Screenshots/DreadScreenie2.png)
And we are falling down now... (http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Solar13lade/Screenshots/DreadScreenie3.png)
What lies ahead of us? (http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Solar13lade/Screenshots/DreadScreenie4.png)
Omigosh! Shooting! =O (http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Solar13lade/Screenshots/DreadScreenie5.png)

Sorry for not having a demo, but its not ready yet =/

I started re-working on this about a week ago.
As you can see, I've made some progress over the last few days (In-between playing World of Warcraft...), of course in the process, neglecting my other games >< (Not forgotten, heck, I'm almost half-way done with one, and the other one is 5/6 done. Rockman 9 is in my to-do list, as most of that wouldn't take me incrediably long, its just getting the sprites and stuff right ><)

And last, a demo feature list for you!

Demo will contain:
Shooting
Enemies
Crawling
grendes (Not throwable ones, more like a bomb.)
(No rockets...)
A boss
A puzzle (Not much of one.)

The demo will pretty much be the first section of the beginning.
I bet you didn't see this coming =P (http://h1.ripway.com/Solar13lade/DreadPlanetTDemo.zip)
CONTROLS:
A = Jump
S = Shoot
1 & 2 = Switch Weapons (When you get the grendes, which switches to them automaticlly when you get them.)
0 = Debug (It'll unfreeze you if you stop responding.)
Arrow Keys = Movement (mess with all four.)
Any suggestions? Ideas? Comments?

PS: The green dude's name is Dread. Don't ask.
EDIT/PPS: Look further into this thread to find the latest demo.

[Hey! stop that python]

Seems like it'l be pretty cool. Need any help?

[Solarblade]

At the moment, the only thing I need is Backgrounds. Badly.

Other then that, no help is needed. Yet.

[King Reaper]

How many games are you working now?

[Solarblade]

Currently, I have:

This game
My megaman game (On hold till I get a castle/fortress sprite...)
Megaman: Giga Threat (Need to actully start it first though =/)
RockMan 9 (Been working on other things so...)
Another game I may or may not post here... (Haven't worked on it for a while ><.)

So thats 5. Yea...

[Solarblade]

NOTE: Before you report me, I DID ask if its ok to post an update in this topic.

I bet you didn't see this coming =P (http://h1.ripway.com/Solar13lade/DreadPlanetTDemo.zip)

YES, there IS A PLAYABLE DEMO!
That it is, complete with getting an item and beating a boss, ALONG with a HP Increaser. Yea.
The only difference between this demo and what will actully happen in the completed game for this part of it, is that the boss will be tougher/harder, and you'll have missiles when you fight it.
CONTROLS:
A = Jump
S = Shoot
1 & 2 = Switch Weapons (When you get the grendes, which switches to them automaticlly when you get them.)
0 = Debug (It'll unfreeze you if you stop responding.)
Arrow Keys = Movement (mess with all four.)

Thats about it.

Comments and Suggestions please.

Demo added to first post.

EDIT: I forgot credits:
Icicle - Made Dread Sprites and some enemies
Space Yoshi X - Made boss sprites, tileset, and backgrounds
SketchMan3 - Made music.

[ACE_Spark]

Either i'm doing something wrong, or the boss has far too much health for the first fight in a Metroidvania.
The early bosses are always killable in very few shots. Always. Thats just how it works. You never drag out the first fight.

Some suggestions:

Progress should, nay, must be saved when you die, should this work like NES Metroid.
If it'll use save points like the latter Metroids/Castlevanias, then ignore this.

The boss has far too much health, and a lack of a health meter or some form of reconision of the boss's health is very annoying. You also need to know when you've actually hit the thing or not, so some sort of flash for the boss would be nice.

A on screen instruction or text regarding the item you've received. Yes, I know the original Metroid didn't have that, but that had a MANUAL. And back in the NES days everyone read the manual. Now it has to be in game.
It's required.

4 directional shooting seems a bit stiff, but i'm not really going to complain about that.


Game seems pretty good so far, altough more tiles variation would be nice for the background.

[Solarblade]

Either i'm doing something wrong, or the boss has far too much health for the first fight in a Metroidvania.
The early bosses are always killable in very few shots. Always. Thats just how it works. You never drag out the first fight.
Will fix up. Hint: Kill medium size jellys. Jellys + Explosions. Kill all four = Victory.

Progress should, nay, must be saved when you die, should this work like NES Metroid.
If it'll use save points like the latter Metroids/Castlevanias, then ignore this.
It'll have save points.

The boss has far too much health, and a lack of a health meter or some form of reconision of the boss's health is very annoying. You also need to know when you've actually hit the thing or not, so some sort of flash for the boss would be nice. See first quote.

A on screen instruction or text regarding the item you've received. Yes, I know the original Metroid didn't have that, but that had a MANUAL. And back in the NES days everyone read the manual. Now it has to be in game.
It's required.
Never thought about that O_o... Will add.

4 directional shooting seems a bit stiff, but i'm not really going to complain about that.
Yea, I justput that today, so its a bit weird still ><

Game seems pretty good so far, altough more tiles variation would be nice for the background.
I'll see what I can do.

I hope you people CAN find the energy tank thingy. Oh, and grendes stick to walls. And the explosion hurts things.

[ACE_Spark]

Right, then my suggestion for the boss still stands. It has far too much health.
Make it a bit more obvious that the lead monster is invunerable. (Let your weapons bounce off it.)
Each minor beastie should have 2 hits required at the most, this is after all the first boss.

Especially considering its actually quite difficult to hit the thing without being hit yourself.

[Solarblade]

Don't stab me in the eyes for posting in this long dead topic! IT'S AN UPDATE! NOT THE EYES!! AGH!
*cough*
Anyway, I bring to you, an update.
...
And as in update, a demo =o

Pretty much the same as the previous demo. Engine and graphics wise.
Here is what I did to the game in about 6-8 hours:
REDID the whole level design thingy. (You go through doors now. Joys.)
Has a different boss (MUCH EASIER!)
Spikes (That hurt, not kill)
Icons!
Descriptions of the item when you get it! (woot.)
Ducking now works only if you hold the down button down.
Um... I think that's it besides for a few things here and there.
Controls: Same as the last demos.
Yea. I think thats it...
Please don't kill me if this link doesn't work. (http://h1.ripway.com/Solar13lade/DreadPlanetTV1.zip)
PS: There is no boss music. The previous one wouldn't work with this battle.
PSS: Please take a screenshot if you encounter a bug. (press the button that says Print Scrn on it above the arrow keys at the top part of the keyboard. At least, for American keyboards >.>. Not sure on any other keyboard...)
EDIT: I DID make the boss sprites >.>
EDIT EDIT: Press down to go through doors.

[Dead Panda]

How do you go through a door?

Edit: When I close the application, my screen goes black for 5 seconds...

[Solarblade]

Press down. I knew I forgot to put that part in the previous post @.<

EDIT: I would not know what would cause that. That'd probably be a problem on your side.

[Novacrash]

Good game, but the boss was still really hard oO...

[Dead Panda]

Oh, it's down? I thought it was up, and I accidently pressed down and found out...

[Worenx]

Is this the end of the Demo? (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wtfftwjk1.jpg) I can't jump high enough.

Well, much better than the first demo (considering I managed to beat the boss this time. xP) Might I suggest a 'Pause' button? I was choking and couldn't drink water during that boss fight! xD;

[Solarblade]

Is this the end of the Demo? (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wtfftwjk1.jpg) I can't jump high enough.

Well, much better than the first demo (considering I managed to beat the boss this time. xP) Might I suggest a 'Pause' button? I was choking and couldn't drink water during that boss fight! xD;

Yes. That's the end of the demo =X

Pause button in next demo. Will do.

(And Dread would probably say that too XD)

[Blues Light]

Pause button would be a nice addition.
Like the art style in the game. Very nice.

[ACE_Spark]

Good good. Not that I can remember much of the first demo but that was pretty fun.
Loving the music! Very jungle like. I wonder what that would sound like run through media convert =D

Boss is definately alot easier, altough he could do with a more fearsome design.
Still, it was overall more fun. Just up the ante maze wise - you're supposed to get lost in Metroidvania games damnit :p

Backgrounds still need some more variation though.

Oh, and get a few more sound effects in there. When I play someone else's game I realise how badly my own need them XD

[Rags]

The Green Biker Dude
http://www.sympato.ch/~dark-ax/temp/greenbikerdude.gif
approves of this demo!
*shot*

I like i, very much so. The boss is very annoying, and the music gets a tad repetitive, but very good.

[ZetaZero]

Wow, nice game. Just downloaded it and played through it and got to the "Wtf?" part. xD The screen is too big and the character is too puny. Oh and the doors are kind of weird, they go into the jungle... At one point I cross the spikes (and nearly died) and it was a dead end, was there suppose to be something there?

[ACE_Spark]

Game Killing Glitch Located:

After being hit, I crouched. I then found I couldn't jump.

Ergo, I was stuck.

Getting hit again did not correct this problem.


Second Glitch:
You cannot get hit while crouching?

[Hausuke]

http://img458.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dreaduc9.png
The bombs can go through the walls sometimes, I think only when your up at the wall though.

[Solarblade]

Thanks for the feedback and bug finding guys!
I'm pretty sure I've gotten all the bugs pointed out so far. (I've never ran into that game killer Ace O.o. I think...)
I have Cave Part 1's level design done, but it needs some cave-themed enemies and a boss (the 2nd boss!)
So if you guys want, GO MAKE ME SOME ENEMIES!!! Rar.
And I'll post some screenies to make you happy.
EDIT: I got a boss for Cave Part 1. It's a story related boss =o

[Solarblade]

Well, I have THE OFFICAIL DEMO NOW DONE!!! =o
Which means, there shalt not be any more demos after this. (unless I decide otherwise.)

So, this demo contains:
3 sub bosses and 1 major boss.
3 upgrades (2 weapons and something else)
2 Health Tanks
1 Rocket Expansion
I think those are the general things.
New controls: Press Up to talk.
Um, yea. That'd be it.
Should I remove the 3rd sub boss? (it's the spinning one)
Don't hurt me if this doesn't work... (http://h1.ripway.com/Solar13lade/DreadPlanetTOfficialDemo.zip)
EDIT: Oh yea, it ends after the 4th boss. There is no where else to go. You can just explore and such, but nothing else.
EDIT EDIT: The 3 sub-boss's music isn't quite done, so it's open for suggestions.

[King Reaper]

Uh...
When I try to open it, it says the ZIP file is invalid or corrupt or something to that effect.

EDIT: NVM. It just opened... now to start the demo.

EDIT2: The demo won't start for me.

[spaceyoshix]

I like it, tis cool.

a bit rough, but cool

[King Reaper]

Well... realized that the demo won't start for me because... well... exe files seem to cause my computer to crash. Strange, huh?
Oh well. I'm sure it's great!

[ZetaZero]

Very, very hard. Because the enemies don't drop life refills. >_< I'll put the rest in spoilers.

"Mary" was a bit hard and...meaningless. She doesn't give any info off besides of "Save me" and her name... And you've got to make new "Lock" objects, comeon, rocks that appear out of nowhere? O_O anyways, nice game. But I suggest you make the font color of the amount of ammo white, it's a bit hard to read while in the jungle. At first I thought I had infinite. xD

[SketchMan3]

Mary was hard...? Wow... I thought she was easy.
And I'm sure she'll do more in the final version. Solar13lade wouldn't want to give away important plot points in such an early demo.

[ACE_Spark]

Cool beans.

The maze dungeon is a little on the annoying side (thank god you didn't put enemies in that place..) , but w/e nice game so far otherwise.

The final boss seemed a bit weird in hot you switched from shooting the walls to hurt it to shooting the thing itself, that threw me off as i couldnt figure out what I was doing "wrong".

The rockets are a bit pointless at the moment, and the lack of enemies dropping items made me waste all of the rockets on the third suboss.

Still kudos to the music. Did you make it?

[Rags]

No, I think Sketchman did.

Also, you can't die....FUN!

EDIT-Dide you get Mar'y attack patter somewhat from Protoman?

[Solarblade]

Let's see, fix things so far:
Some animation thingys (Yea. Those are kinda last on my list of things to do.)
Added Boss HP bar.
Refills drop (+20 health and +3 rockets.)
And probably a few other bugs.
The major one besides the HP thingy is the size of the screen. It's resizable, so don't worry if it's too small for you.
You know you didn't think I'd put a new version of the demo up. (http://h1.ripway.com/Solar13lade/DreadPlanetTOfficialDemoV1.1.zip)
Yea. There are probably a few things I forgot (I tend to get distracted easily >.>)
Mary was NOT based on Blue's attack pattern. I kinda made it up on my own >.>
And you DO die. Yea. Kinda anti-excitement there.
The jelly fish boss's attack patterns are kinda weird as the way they go, but I probably will put something there to show how it works (like why killing the 4 med. jellys would make the big one chase you, etc. etc.)
[credits]
Me = Programmer (expect for the text boxes.) and spriter. Yay for me.
SketchMan3 = Music maker (I made the base song for the sub boss music. He just rockified (is that even a word?) it.)
Icicle = Spriter (of Dread and a few enemies)
Spaceyoshix = Background and tilemaker (along with Jellyfisher spriter.)
[/endcredits]

PS: If you wanna make an enemy (or even a boss!), PM me it, and I'll decide if I'll use it or not. Doesn't mean you'll get a reply though...
PPS: Do you people wanna know what the main villian's name is? It's not a spoiler. He's kinda the whole reason you're on the planet in the first place >.>

[spaceyoshix]

woo, great job.