Return of the Crrlee (Beta 1.0)

Akumayo · Tue 21/03/2006 19:26:14

"Good day pilot.Ã,Â We need your skill now more than ever.Ã,Â The Crrle have returned."

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Progress:

Graphics:Ã,Â 100%
Music:Ã,Â 0%Ã,Â (If you're interested in helping out, PM me)
Sound:Ã,Â 100%
Story: 100%
Coding:Ã,Â 95%Ã,Â (I'm sure there's at least 5% worth of bugs still to be fixed)

Overall Progress:Ã,Â 79%

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ChangeList for last updates:

*From Beta .085 to Beta 1.0
Ã,Â -Three new levels
Ã,Â -Three new ships (Class A & S) unlockable
Ã,Â -Created menu screen
Ã,Â -Fixed some errors with the forcefield positioning
Ã,Â -Fixed some bugs that came about because of massive asteroids moving about
Ã,Â -Added sound effects
Ã,Â -Fixed a slew of typos (thanks to Colxfile)
Ã,Â -Various other little bugs fixed

*From Beta .07 to Beta .085
Ã,Â -Four new levels in the Incendium-Feuer system
Ã,Â -Three new ships (Class B) unlockable
Ã,Â -Added a forcefield around your ship to determine how many times you can be hit before being destroyed
Ã,Â -All things in space now move about, making the levels far more dynamic and challenging
Ã,Â -Added a status bar of sorts that tells how much power your forcefield has left, and how many seconds you have (if the level uses a timer)
Ã,Â -Some scripting inconveniences dealt with

*From Beta .06 to Beta .07
Ã,Â -Mouse and Arrow Key ship placement
Ã,Â -Explosions upon ship destruction (via my Particle Engine)

*From Beta .02 to Beta .06:
Ã,Â -Four new unlockable ships
Ã,Â -Four new playable levels
Ã,Â -Updated menu colors
Ã,Â -Updated menu graphics
Ã,Â -New Temporary menu with save/load
Ã,Â -Giant asteroids

*From Beta-Beta to Beta .02:
Ã,Â -Level and Ship select GUI's
Ã,Â -Four playable levels [Mirk System]
Ã,Â -Some scripting flaws corrected

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Screenshots:

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Download:

Click the link below, then find the link "Reutrn_of_the_Crrlee..>", and click that to begin the download.
http://geocities.com/oyamuka/

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Please comment/make suggestions here.Ã,Â Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy!

-Regards, Akumayo

Nacho · Tue 21/03/2006 19:28:46

Will it be open source? I really like it...

Akumayo · Tue 21/03/2006 19:31:31

Wow! That was fast. Thank you. I may make it open source, after I'm finished with it. I still have to build the story and the levels and whatnot. This is just the skeleton with a few tendons.

Sinister · Tue 21/03/2006 20:44:20

This looks very interesting. Making this open source after you are finished with it would be a great gift for people who want to study this type of game.

Also, if you are looking for inspiration or graphics for this retro space shooter.. i suggest you look for "Master of Orion", that game had plenty of little ships designs and would be a nice source for you.

Im sure you can google it.

Akumayo · Tue 21/03/2006 23:30:59

Thank you for the suggestion. I will look into it.

Nacho · Wed 22/03/2006 07:11:23

Master of "Onion"! Sounds good!

Akumayo · Wed 22/03/2006 20:19:41

o_O

Akumayo · Sun 26/03/2006 04:48:29

Update. Version Beta .02 now available. Most notable feature is that the layout is now set, and has four playable levels in the Mirk System, each with its own unique objectives and playtype. Shootemup, retreival, time trial, etc. Let's see how good a pilot you really are...

Akumayo · Sat 08/04/2006 05:30:03

Not another update just yet, just thought I'd drop a line to tell anyone watching this that I've completed the next four unlockable ships, and will now begin on the new system (The Trean System). The new ships in the next update will be (once unlocked by completing the Mirk System):

The Tadpole:
-Speed **
-Bullets ***
The Dragonfly:
-Speed ***
-Bullets **
White Lightning:
-Speed ****
-Bullets *
The Taranchula:
-Speed *
-Bullets: ****

I'll post again when the update is complete.

Akumayo · Sat 08/04/2006 20:42:52

Here it is! The update!

Four new levels, four new ships, a whole new game. The menus look better, the new levels are bigger, the new ships are faster and stronger, the only thing missing?

You.

Take the controls pilot, arrow keys to move, SpaceBar or 'F' to fire, and the mouse to choose your spawnpoint. Sounds simple, but it really isn't. I would be honored if you took the time to complete all eight levels.

Good luck pilot.

Colxfile · Sat 08/04/2006 23:31:29

I've given it a go and it looks really good so far. The background graphics are very nice (Especially the planet atmosphere one)

Just one thing that came to mind:

I found using the mouse to choose the restart point a bit troublesome. I found the movement much too sensitive: a small movement led to the screen charging to one of the corners. Also, if I'd been frantically trying to shoot don the ships that surrounded me (and subsequently failed) I'd have to move from having two hands on the keyboard, to one on the mouse. Having arrow-keys move the respawn-point would be much better imo.

Edit: I should add that I did get throught the eight levels.

Akumayo · Sat 08/04/2006 23:36:00

I hadn't thought about that being a problemÃ,Â

I, personally, enjoy using the mouse to control the spawn point, but it IS extreemly jumpy.Ã,Â How about if I re-work it so that you can control the spawn point cursor with both the arrow keys AND the mouse?Ã,Â Would that solve the problem well, do you think?Ã,Â (BTW: do you prefer 'F' or SpaceBar to fire?)

Thank you very much for the comments!Ã,Â I hope you are able to complete it.

EDIT: Oh, I see you did complete it. No complaints about the levels/ships then?

Colxfile · Sat 08/04/2006 23:51:53

Okay. It's just I just like to keep my hands on the keyboard if a game is keyboard driven.Ã,Â Combined Arrows and Mouse moving the respawn point sounds fair to me

. I'm not sure if using the arrows would stop it being jumpy, but I imagine there's a way to at least slow it down.

Also, I much prefer spacebar for the fire key, myself. I think it's just what I'm used to. (I say this, my arcade game doesn't use the spacebar...

)

As for the levels... I think they were pitched about right difficulty wise. Initially, I got a little annoyed because my ship would explode in mid-air for no adequately explorer reason (It had collided with an invisible landing pad) but once I got the hang of it and got the hang of how to find them, it was much better. I admit though, I picked one ship that I liked and stuck to it. (I think it was the blood hawk, but upgraded to the Dragonfly.) Again, maybe other players would go for the other ships and stick with them, but I just chose the one ship and stayed with it. Maybe later levels could have a restricted choice of ships to force you to use a different one?

I'll have another run through later with the various ships to see how I go.

Akumayo · Sun 09/04/2006 00:00:56

That is so cool! My favorite class D ship is the Blood Hawk, and my favorite class C ship is the Dragonfly! I considered that perhaps these two ships are more powerful than the others, but when I had some of my friends from school play it, one liked Lightning/White Lightning, and the two others liked The Destroyer/Tadpole/The Taranchula. I suppose it's just personal preference. I like the idea of forcing one ship or another on the player... I may implement it... sometime... maybe as a mini-game of sorts....
I've also thought it would be cool to make it so that bonus ships/levels can be unlocked by completing every level in a system with every ship. THAT would be very hard, especially in the later levels.

Anyway, I'll look into controlling spawnpoint with the keyboard. Maybe it'll be ready by the next update (even if it IS still jumpy).

Thank you for taking time to play and comment, I appreciate it greatly.

Colxfile · Sun 09/04/2006 00:11:40

One last thought before I go to bed, is it worth thinking about randomising where the landing pads are? Or at least having more than one possible layout where the targets are located? Just an idea.

Incidentally, just played with the first ship. (The very slow one with bullets front and back) Got up to about mission 6 so far...

Akumayo · Sun 09/04/2006 00:19:21

I have a test level (where I run new ships before adding them) that uses a randomized layout. I may (when I'm finished with the main game) make a mini-game, where you play on infinitely repeating randomized levels, trying to get a high score or something like that. A good thought.

BTW: I got key-based spawnpoint working. It will be implemented in the next update.

Akumayo · Tue 16/05/2006 02:20:05

Beta .07 now available. The main change is that I finished converting the way things get destroyed. Rather than just being reduced to rubble, they now explode into flames, via my Particle Engine.

Also, I'd just like to say that this project isn't really dead, it's just dragging along very slowly, due to my working on other projects. I sometimes touch it up though, and this release is a display of said touch ups.

So, tell me what you think of the newest style of blowing stuff up!

-Regards, Akumayo

jasonjkay · Wed 17/05/2006 11:16:08

This is absolutly amazing, I love space type game's. Also the explosions are cool.

Akumayo · Sat 20/05/2006 07:44:23

Thank you!

Akumayo · Wed 24/05/2006 22:54:46

Small thing here, in the lastest update, I might have accidentaly enabled the player to unlock two of the three upcoming Class B ships after all the levels have been completed.Ã,Â Thus allowing them to play any of the 8 levels just beaten with one of the Class B super-ships...

But again, it was all an accident.

-Regards, Akumayo