New Mushroom Republic game: Chu-chi

[Kinoko]

Oh, joy of joys!

The Mushroom Republic has done it again! My dear friend and well-known comic genius Patrick Alexander has finally released his own game, "Chu-chi"!

It's a very unique music-based shooter created in Game Maker. I won't go on about it too much because you ought to see for yourselves, but it's terribly impressive, and I don't even mean in a "for his first game" kind of way. It's incredible that he's managed to put something like this together for what is indeed his first game (it puts me to shame and do intend on self mutilating myself later, rest assured).

Well, here are some screens:







To keep the project managable, it's only two levels long but trust me, you'll spend a decent amount of time playing this. I did the old, "Play it because my friend made it" thing not thinking I would be anywhere near as caught up playing it as I was. It's almost certainly going to be a bit overwhelming at first, but as you get the hang of it bit by bit, it's very rewarding and a real challenge. PLAY IT LONG TIME!!!



Right! Here's the game: http://chickennation.com/chu-chi/chu-chi_102.zip
(Just under 11MB)

...and here's Patrick's LiveJournal if you want to send him any comments, which I know for a fact he'd hate, so do it for me instead: http://community.livejournal.com/chickennation/15732.html

[Buckethead]

This looks like a pretty nice , funny game.... But shouldn't this be in the "complete games announce ments" forum?

[ManicMatt]

No, because it wasn't made in AGS, silly!

What is the object of this game?

[Kinoko]

Well, you can just play it and enjoy killing bugs if that tickles you. It's impossible to die so you can just do whatever you want, but of course if you want the game to progress eventually you can try to get the musical bars that scroll/loop down the screen in order.

You have a certain bullet (not initially but after you build up enough "pink". You'll notice the 'keys' in the side bar light up when you can use new bullets) that changes their colour and thus the bars of music in the game. It also has other effects but that's how ultimately to progress through the game.

As you get the bars in the correct order (rainbow!), you'll see the blocks in the top-right hand corner light up.

As I've seen Patrick say a few times, "It's very much a concept game". It'll most likely be overwhelming at first but once the back of your brain starts to get used to how to do certain things without the front, it'll unfold itself. It's certainly not for everyone, you can't play this in a coffee break, but for those who like a challenge and games with interesting concepts/elegance of design, it's well suited. 'Tis to me.

[Kinoko]

Bumping this, because you people ought to be playing it and leaving comments, damn it!

[modgeulator]

I played it. I find it a bit confusing and I'm still not sure how to play it properly. The idea is very interesting to me, but I think it could benefit from better instructions.

[Andail]

Those screenshots make me nervous.

[Kinoko]

Well, I'm gonna copy the 'instructions' some other guy on the insertcredit forums wrote:

MASSIVE SPOILARS

Spoiler

1. Those things flying at you are the enemies. Graying them out and making them poof increases your power, as denoted on the purple bar to the right. It's a BIG bar, if you notice. Once you catch on, you don't really need to fill it up all the way. Also, musical notes will sometimes appear when they poof as well, which gives a fairly hefty boost to your bar. Grab them when possible.

[close]

1. So no, no pattern to the enemies.

Spoiler

2. Shift projectile changes the colour of the bar of the music sheet scrolling underneath. When that specific colour returns to the top, it changes the loop of music being played. The matrix corresponds to this colour. If you get the sequence completely correct, it will send the bossguy down, plus a better power-up note each time the sequence is replayed entirely.

[close]

2. The Shift Projectile changes the color of the bars, aye. It's related to the matrix in the top right corner. If you pay attention to the music, you can see it changes every so often, even loops. The matrix only lights up if you're doing the music right. It's a guideline of sorts to finish the game.

3.

Spoiler

Your shots are four in total.
The first is your puny pew-pew-pew weapon that causes minimal damage, on D.
The second is S, which is average in all ways. Using it decreases your purple bar a little bit each time it's shot.
The third is A, which is a near one-hit grayout weapon. Using it decreases your purple bar significantly.
The last is the shift button, which changes the colour of the musical bars and is the only way of damaging the boss at the end. It will also do one-hit grayouts on normal enemies.

[close]

3. S, A, shift use some of the purple bar each time they are shot. So yes, using them constantly will downgrade your purple bar to a lower level if you aren't careful.

4. Musical Notes seem to be pure randomness.

[Vince Twelve]

I just went to download it and it should be mentioned that the download location has changed!

http://chickennation.com/chu-chi/chu-chi_102.zip

I didn't try it out yet because there's no option to play in a window that I can see and I feel funny doing that at work.  I likes me some windowed games.  (Sorry, I know I said I'd play it yesterday at home but I didn't get a chance!!)

I'll update later after I can try it out.