R-Type style split screen deathmatch!

JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
edited November -1 in Working with GS (Mac)
The game play is really straight forward. Each person uses a side of the Ipad to engage in 360º space combat. Photon fire is limited to three shots at a time. Each photon takes a second or so to recharge. This forces a little cat and mouse gameplay.

I love shooters like R-type and Super Turrican. I have always wanted to make a shooter but I think there are just so many already. (which isn't a bad thing i just cant compete)
The idea actually came across while playing air hockey. I love the fact you can just fire it up and play. I thought it would be fun to add that kind of two player quickplay to a space shooter.

Name is still tentative - Starship Vs.

image

ps.. the planet is just a place holder graphic - didn't create it but it will be replaced by release!

Comments

  • ChaserChaser Member Posts: 1,453
    I like the idea alot. I haven't played anything 2 player on 1 device. How is the glare factor?
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    That looks very nice, mate!

    When I first saw the iPad, I was excited about the possibilities vis-a-vis multiple players. It takes advantage of the extra screen estate and marks it out as different from iPhone games!

    Was planning Vs. versions of some upcoming games for iPad, but wasn't sure how or if they'd work!

    Glad to see you thinking about iPad specific features though! Much better than just upscaling the graphics, eh?!

    QS :D

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • WeswogWeswog Member Posts: 1,171
    Never mind post can't get images to work:(

    Cheers, Weswog
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    Yeah the ipad seems made for this kind of stuff
    My son and i have played the heck out of glow hockey!
    feels surprisingly natural and un confined.

    @chaser
    Glare doesn't seem to be a problem
    I have tested it in different light scenarios and it seems fine.
    Exception of course outside in the sun, but nothing plays great in direct sunlight.
    Even though it doesn't seem to be a factor, i tried to make the game elements as contrasting as possible. Games where the background art is as busy as the content drive me crazy anyways.

    I may add a few more maps too. Just gotta find motivation to paint a few thousand more stars lol
  • IntelligentDesignerIntelligentDesigner Member Posts: 517
    @James, Killer Idea bro! Love the concept and can't wait to see the finished product.
  • firemaplegamesfiremaplegames Member Posts: 3,211
    @James: your game looks really sharp! The graphics look really professional!

    You mentioned that the planet is just placeholder art...

    Here is a great tutorial to create your own planet in Photoshop:
    http://9tutorials.com/2007/06/20/make-a-real-planet.html

    Here is another tutorial for creating a nice looking starfield in Photoshop:
    http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/articles/make-a-realistic-star-field.3811.html

    Also, I find these Flaming Pear Photoshop plug-ins invaluable when creating space-themed artwork:

    LunarCell, which creates beautiful, instant, random, planets:
    http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html

    And:

    Glitterato, which creates beautiful, instant, random, nebulae and galaxies.:
    http://www.flamingpear.com/glitterato.html

    And:

    SolarCell, which creates suns, eclipses, and light flares. (not as good as the first two, but can be handy)
    http://www.flamingpear.com/solarcell.html

    You can buy all three as a "Space Bundle" for US$59...

    Totally worth it, in my opinion.

    Just in case your hand is cramping up from painting stars...
  • firemaplegamesfiremaplegames Member Posts: 3,211
    test
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    Thanks!

    Yeah I'm pretty excited!
    I've spent a lot time on all the graphics and mechanics.

    Seems a little risky to put this much work into something that doesn't have a single player campaign but i hope people like it. I think its fairly original.
  • scitunesscitunes Member, Sous Chef Posts: 4,047
    I think it is a great idea!

    Is there any way to make a single player system? Could you have bad guys that use vectorToAngle with magnitude or something for AI. So you could have them accelerate towards you using vectorToAngle and use magnitude to control the rate of acceleration so that they accelerate more when farther away. Or you could use a timer with random that switches an attribute called game.Attack. When game.attack is true have the enemy accelerate towards you and fire at you and when game.attack is false have the bad guy accelerate away from you. This could even be triggered by a hit from your weapon. So he attacks until you hit him, then he "retreats" for a random amount of time and then attacks again until hit again.

    Anyways, looks great!
  • IntelligentDesignerIntelligentDesigner Member Posts: 517
    Don't worry about single player at first, I have seen very few apps with a good two player theme. I think I can count them on one hand... Like Scitunes says, you can use simple AI for a trainer. This will be big!
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    Yeah, was playing around with something for a training mode but don't know if ill focus too much on it or even include it for now.

    Just too bad we don't have bluetooth capabilities. I could see that being a big factor even though people dont use the feature as much as they wanna think they do lol
    At best i download something with 2 player bluetooth fire it up and say cool it works and never use it again. Could just be me.

    4 player online matchup would be killer though!
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    tshirtbooth said:
    Loos awesome man. I have been working on a 12 in 1heads up game myself for the ipad. One thing im trying to do that you may want to do also is give the option for the user to set left or right handed controls.

    just a thought.

    cheers

    What kind of game are you doing tshirt?

    Yeah i was thinking about something like that.
    Before i kind of locked down the play area I was thinking about doing something in the options that let you drag the joystick and buttons wherever you wanted. Then have that those attributes save for total customization.

    Unfortunately the placement effects level design on this game. I dont want a scenario where someone can hide behind their hand.
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    I realize this thread is old but I'm getting close to finishing up.
    So I thought i'd share a couple new screens.
    The UI has changed a little and the art is pretty much done.
    Just gotta do the music.

    I am working to give it that 80s rock vibe with a hint of top gun theme to fit the very much robotech / star blazers style.

    image

    image
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    Nice one, James - I like the look of the main game!

    And good on you for resurrecting an old thread rather than make a new one!

    Good luck with it! Love the idea of a Top Gun 80s rock soundtrack!

    You can be my wingman anytime,

    QS :D

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    Dirty boys!

    QS :D

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    DONE!!!

    Submitting tonight
    the video is from a near complete version
  • chosenonestudioschosenonestudios Member Posts: 1,714
    Woot! Can't wait to play! (only need a pad :/)

    Cheers and good luck, looks great!
  • chosenonestudioschosenonestudios Member Posts: 1,714
    Any chance for a phone/touch version?
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    chosenonestudios said:
    Any chance for a phone/touch version?

    Funny you should ask..... :)

    Shhh... dont tell anyone but i actually used "another" engine to make the iphone version so i could use wi-fi. I had to pretty much code it from scratch but it is nearly done. two devices can locate each other and it seems to work so far.

    I anticipate a couple weeks to really clean it up.

    I really want to focus on the Ipad one first though. Apple seems to be pushing these splitscreen games so now is perfect timing.
  • chosenonestudioschosenonestudios Member Posts: 1,714
    JamesZeppelin said:
    Funny you should ask..... :)

    Shhh... dont tell anyone but i actually used "another" engine to make the iphone version so i could use wi-fi. I had to pretty much code it from scratch but it is nearly done. two devices can locate each other and it seems to work so far.

    I anticipate a couple weeks to really clean it up.

    I really want to focus on the Ipad one first though. Apple seems to be pushing these splitscreen games so now is perfect timing.

    AWESOME! Is it going to have bluetooth as well?
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    That looks really lovely on the iPad screen - makes me want one now! :D

    DAMN YOU !!!!

    Good luck with it mate - what did you use for the iPhone version?

    I've been looking at Corona (as have most it seems) and it looks interesting. I'm not sure about the scripting, though it'd be good for me to learn it as it'd be another string to my bow in my profession...

    Cheers,

    QS :D

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • VoidedSkyVoidedSky Member Posts: 1,095
    JamesZeppelin said:
    Funny you should ask..... :)

    Shhh... dont tell anyone but i actually used "another" engine to make the iphone version so i could use wi-fi. I had to pretty much code it from scratch but it is nearly done. two devices can locate each other and it seems to work so far.

    I anticipate a couple weeks to really clean it up.

    I really want to focus on the Ipad one first though. Apple seems to be pushing these splitscreen games so now is perfect timing.

    What is this "Other" engine you speak of?!?
    ;P
  • scorelessmusicscorelessmusic Member Posts: 565
    All the best for the release! ^_^
  • Rob2Rob2 Member Posts: 2,402
    Looks really smooth..looking forward to this one

    @qs the documentation alone says it all about Corona and they understand the concept of a beta.
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    quantumsheep said:

    Good luck with it mate - what did you use for the iPhone version?

    I've been looking at Corona (as have most it seems) and it looks interesting. I'm not sure about the scripting, though it'd be good for me to learn it as it'd be another string to my bow in my profession...

    I actually haven't takin a look at corona.

    I used unity for the iPhone.

    It works quite well for 2d even in 3d.
    You can set all the actors to ignore the z axis. That's basically how games like zombieville are made in unity.

    It's so much work. Even though there is an editor it is all scripting. I have been doing pretty much everything in js but you can use other types. The editor is really just for organization.

    This game was a fairly quick one though as it doesn't contain much and the art and music are already done.

    I actually found a template with the wifi settings to pull apart.

    I'm not that great with scripts but luckily there is enough open source stuff to dig through.
  • JamesZeppelinJamesZeppelin Member Posts: 1,927
    Ok,
    It is now submitted and waiting review
    I think ive worn this thread down over the last three months lol

    At least i didnt start a new thread every month though...

    If you didnt catch it there is a video of the gameplay above (not the youtube of Top Gun)

    Also thanks FMG for the great adobe links!!
    I suggest just about anyone scroll up and check those out!!
Sign In or Register to comment.