[Open Source] AeroNuts v1.2 - now in español!

[abstauber]

THE BARON STRUCK AGAIN!!!
As every Friday, Elfie Mc Millen wants to visit her dad at the military base where he is working as a scientist on a covert mission.
Unfortunately, the Army is not the only one interested in Mc Millen's brain power. Baron Borisov, always mean and greeding for power, doesn't hesitate to get him under his thumb. So he and his henchmen hijacked Elfie's father and brought him to his secret sea fortress.
But Elfie sticks to her guns and tries to find her dad... with your help!

Screenshots:





Credits
Abstauber: Graphics, Story, Scripting and most of the sound effects
DrewCCU: Music

Facts
50% classic low-res adventure
* tricky objectives
* classic LEC-style GUI and still no push'n pull puzzles
* GIRL POWER!

50% Retro Arcade
* Insane boss fights
* Cutscenes like it's 1995 again!
* EXPLO5IONZ!!!


Special thanks
DrewCCU, for creating such a cool soundtrack in such a short amount of time.
Rocco, for writing AGS-Invaders and making the code public. Without your module I'd never made it in time.
Christina, for supporting me through the last weeks and all of your advices.
cireja - Spanish Translation

Download
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1238/

Source Code (AGS 3.3.3)
http://www.sonores.de/reyze/AeroNuts_1.2_src.zip

Have fun

(and post your highscore!)

Changelog:
* v1.01 - bugfixes and adjustable difficulty (slider in the options panel)
* v1.02 - fixed nasty Vista and Win7 bug and the easy mode got easier
* v1.1 New features:
- unlockable, extra tough "arcade-only" mode to make highscore hunting  fun.
- bombs
- alternative controls (wsad-keys)
- extra lives and shields
- pixel perfect collision detection for you bullet dodgers
- no more position reset
+ fixed all reported bugs

* v.1.2
- Spanish Translation available
- Updated the GUI

The game's also now proof read, thanks to Ben304!
(if you still find mistakes, I've been too careless to include Ben's edits)

Highscores Arcade Mode
Dr. White - 505200
Danman - 299200
Discordance - 259000

Highscores Story Mode
Danman - 157600
Crimson Wizard - 153600
Cuiki - 149800
Dr. White - 141050
Mordalles - 133900
SteveMcCrea  - 123900
Travis Anthony - 110850
Nissan123 - 110620
Ben304 - 100650
OneDollar  - 99500

[Dualnames]

Impressive! You've turned out into a scripting machine there!

[abstauber]

Haha, thanks. Although I felt more like a zombie, sitting in front of the screen almost every day

By the way, I should have mentioned, that the arcade parts are not totally from scratch. I've used Rocco's AGS-Invaders as a base. Better I'll update the first post before he notices that I've forgotten him

[Dualnames]

I think it's your first non-dosbox AGS game released! Congrats for that!

[Kastchey]

* classic LEC-style GUI and still no push'n pull puzzles

Yay!

* GIRL POWER!

Double yay!

And the main character adds much to the game, I mean:

Spoiler

a girl who'd carry around a dead squirrel in a plastic bag or mix her mascara with water and be all happy and proud of herself... I love this gal 

[close]

[abstauber]

Okay, as the difficulty seems to be an issue for some of you, I've added a slider to the options, where you can set the arcade sequences to easy-peasy
Of course, that will affect your highscore, but at least you can finish the game without cursing me

@Kastchey
Triple yay for playing Have you already finished the game?

@Dual
Yeah, it was about time to do something more recent

[Kastchey]

* tricky objectives

, so still working on it

[Matti]

This looks and sounds cool, Abstauber. Gonna try it out within the next days and report back.

[abstauber]

@Matti
I've seen, you're making some 2D action yourself,  I can't wait for you opinion!

@Kastchey
Stuck in the adventure part?
I hope you're still enjoy it, so I can make it up for disregarding your efforts on ShattenReyze .
But I promise, I'll check it tomorrow


Btw. Highscores anyone ?

[kaputtnik]

Congratulations on that! I have yet to play it, though (I have only just flattered Stanley...), and I am trapped in a time vortex of considerable proportions right now...But you might have noticed already.

[DrWhite]

Started to play it. Very very lovely. I really like the different face-expressions of the speech-views. 

[Kastchey]

Stuck in the adventure part?

Yes. My inferior brain doesn't handle intellectually challenging experiences well. I still enjoy the game though

[Crimson Wizard]

What's the full name for Elfie, by the way?

[discordance]

Man, these graphics really give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Fantastic. It's how I wish I could draw.

The facial expressions are a great touch too.

I dig this very much.

[abstauber]

What's the full name for Elfie, by the way?

@Crimson Wizard
Elfie is her full name. I couldn't bring me to name her Elfriede or something similiar

@Kastchey
That how I felt, when I played Bulbapucks entry

I think I've learned something from this MAGS: thinking in difficulty is wrong. I thought, you will all beat this game in about 10 minutes. But apparently, as a creator, I have missjudged its length and difficulty So I'm really glad, that it's a bit challenging.

@DrWhite
You would love Phoenix Wright!

@Kaputtnik
I hope I don't see any AeroNuts Speedfails on youtube

[abstauber]

Sorry for the double posting:

I've updated the game to v.1.0.2 due to a really ugly bug which actually crashes the game.
So if you have Vista or Win7 and used the installer, you won't be able to get past the first carrier. I didn't know that you don't have file creation permissions in Vista, so when AeroNuts tries to create the highscore file, it crashes.

Anyway, if you have Vista/Win7 and downloaded the installer before I wrote this post, you need to re-download the installer or simply get the highscore file here.
If you've downloaded the hiscore file, you need to place it in the game's folder.

Sorry for the trouble


PS: I should really upgrade my XP someday

[Leon]

Slightly strange behavior: when you click on USE followed by the Nail File, you get: I can't use that. But when you click on the Nail File itself, you get the default Use Nail File with... The USE button seems to work ok for other objects.

[Zyargeikunn]

Great game, but I'm far too easliy annoyed to play action games without causing damage to my keyboard and other surroundings...so the second Baron fight has to wait until a calmer day 

[Kweepa]

Hard to believe this was made in a month!
Beautiful sprites and backgrounds, nice characterization.
The collision detection was a little unforgiving though. And I thought I couldn't use the nail file because of the previously mentioned "strange behaviour". Also, too many, commas.
High score about 94500.

Thanks!

[abstauber]

@Leon
I hoped I could silently fix it without you guys noticing it    In 1.02 that bug has been fixed.
Intentionaly I've planned also add "simple" use interactions on inventory items. Something like "Use" nail file = filing nails and click on nail file = use file with. But I removed it again after realising, that it's too distracting. Well and on the file I forgot to remove it

@Zyargeikunn
Hehe, good thing the easy mode just got easier

@Steve
Punctation has been tought to me like this: Use less than you are used to and you're fine.
And of course I've been far too lazy to buy a grammar book and learn it propely
As for the creation: after I had the story done, which was on Nov. 11th I've been working on it every day - to be honest, without the deadline extention, you would have misssed credits and soundeffects

And wow for the highscore
The collision detection is indeed just a plain box model and the player's sprite is quite big. So maybe in the next day I'll try to add pixel perfection and see how it impacts the performance.

[ThreeOhFour]

My high score: 100650.

Cool game Dirk! The adventurey sections were small enough in scope that the puzzles didn't get too out of hand, and the arcadey sections were cool enough to make me want to wear my spacebar out  8)

Great graphics (as usual) and I really liked all the characters (particularly Stanley, who had me laughing).

A couple of little suggestions:

Proof reading 

Also, I got confused a bit by a few missing interactions:

Spoiler

Especially with the mascara, I realized I needed to throw it at the window, but it would have been nice if Elfie had said something like "That won't spread far enough like that" when using the mascara by itself

[close]

Still, very cool!

[abstauber]

Argh, I never made it beyond 100000  :o

I guess, these unhandled events can be tedious sometimes, but to be honest I haven't expected your missing interaction I'll add that as soon as I'm sending you a certain .trs file


But I'm glad that you had fun and finished it no time

[ThreeOhFour]

Argh, I never made it beyond 100000  :o

I play to win, folks  8)



Edit: Also! Don't know how I forgot to mention this earlier, but:

Great music, DrewCCU!

[Helme]

Wow! You made into the top-download-list of this week. Congratulations!

Maybe I should start making games with cute girls as protagonists instead of stinky, hairy guys with bad teeth.

[OneDollar]

Very good game. The graphics are amazing, the music is brilliant and the characters are interesting. Putting in arcade sequences was probably a bit of a gamble as there's plenty of people on these forums who don't like action games, but personally I thought they added really well to the game. Definitely a good idea to put them in-between standard adventuring sections though. The puzzle sections were pretty good too.

A few bugs I noticed (I was playing version 1.01, so these may have been fixed already)

Spoiler

- While quizzing Stanley about where your dad is, you can say "I'm looking for my dad" at any time which opens up the "Do you know where he is" option again, even if you've opened up the "Dear pride of creation" option, or already found out where he is.
- If you use the mascara on the doggy bag then use the bag with mascara on the bottle, Elfie says "That won't do any good". It works the other way around though.
- After Elfie puts the clipboards down on the ship, she can pick them up again
- Several times in the arcade sequences I died, re-spawned, then immediately died again (re-spawned on top of something). This might (or might not) have been due to me cranking the game speed up to its highest setting on a second play through?

[close]

Also the way dialogue paused the action sequences got annoying after a while, especially when you get hit.

Anyway, a really high quality entry, I enjoyed it a lot. My highscore was 99500 on my first play through. Not quite Ben's level, but not too far off.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Backgrounds and sprites look magically delicious!  And minigames, too?  Wow, did you make this game JUST FOR ME or what?

[abstauber]

@OneDollar
Hey, thanks for your nice words!
Yeah, adding an arcade sequence, not 100% balanced and polished is indeed somehow risky. But I like them way too much, and to be honest: as those games like 1942/3 were new, I begged, that one day I could land on a carrier and explore it
But I'm relieved that not all people have trouble playing it. And today I've reached 98000 somewhat... I'm cathing up

@ProgZmax

[Travis Anthony]

My final score was 110850.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

After playing through it and having fun I have to agree with Steve that the collisions could use some work.  Also, I think having the dialog pop up each time you're hit and resetting your position is far more trouble than any benefit it may provide because:

1.  It pulls you out of the action briefly
2.  It moves your ship back to the center, where I would frequently find myself on top of a bullet or enemy and be hurt again.

Fixing these would make the shooter aspect the strongest I've seen in an ags game and worth possibly making a separate game about!

Great work, man!

[DrWhite]

I finally had time to finish it. I really enjoyed the genre combination, It somehow feels like the kind of game I´d like to make if I wouldn´t suck at scripting ... well done.

PS: setting down the game speed in adventure mode easily gave me a score of 103700, while on the first try, when I had the game speed at maximum, the acarde passage was hardly playable.

[abstauber]

@Travis Anthony
Impressive Score

@ProgZmax
Wow, thanks for your feedback. I'm glad that you enjoyed this little show

Yeah, the missing background speech as well as the player's position reset is something I should change quite soon.
I've also planned an arcade mode which is being onlocked after you finish the game the first time. Let's see if I can do it this week.

@Dr.White
Good to know, that there are some action fans around (some goes for ProgZ of course)   8)
Thanks for hint with the gamespeed as well. I think I'll reset it to 40 during the arcade sequence.
My to-do keeps filling and filling

Man, I really need to reach the upper 100.000....

[Nissan123]

Nice Game! My final score was 110620.

[DrWhite]

Ha! My new highscore is 141050. I think it´s time to confess that I´m mainly here because I thought that AGS means Acarde Game Studio 

[DrewCCU]

@ Ben304 and OneDollar

thank you guys for your  comments towards my music. I'm just happy abstauber asked me to compose for him.

[Khris]

Just finished it, lovely game, very impressive, especially considering the short production time!

I'm not sure what I did, but when I first ran it, I somehow skipped over the

Spoiler

airport part and found myself at the carrier, with the mascara in my inventory.

[close]

I was able to get to the arcade sequence but even when I got to the boss at 70% health, I couldn't beat it.
Then I read about 1.02 and downloaded it and this time, everything was fine. Weird.

Edit: about the collision detection: just use two boxes, one for the wings and one for the fuselage.

[abstauber]

@Dr. White
Wow - for how long have you encountered the baron!? Totally insane score, congrats on that!
I bet you'll like the "arcade only" mode, coming up with v1.1. Or you won't like it, since you've already mastered the game

@DrewCCU
And I'm still amazed how great it sounds

@Khris
Hehe thanks. I'm currently switching to pixel-perfect detection, although your hint seems to be far easier to implement.
About skipping the airport. I've added some debug modes and it seems that you've triggered one of those. However you did it

About the boss fight

Spoiler

You have to fight the baron parts in a certain order

[close]

[abstauber]

Hey everyone! I've just uploaded v1.1 which adds a lot polishing to the arcade part.

First of all, thanks again for your bug reports. I hope I've fixed them all - or at least I've tried

Now the arcade-part has a very fair, pixel-perfect collision detection, so bullet dodging is actually fun again. You can also keep the space-bar pressed for autofire and best of all: bombs 

There's also an "arcade-only" mode you can unlock by completing the game once. After that you can directly access the arcade part, also all cutscenes are skipped. And for, that you'll need the bombs

Also, I think having the dialog pop up each time you're hit and resetting your position is far more trouble than any benefit it may provide because ...

Done
Speech is now in background and there's a shield, which keeps you save for about a second.

And the comma-count has been cut in half Thanks for the proof-reading, Ben!

[Ilyich]

What a lovely little game! Pretty graphics, adorable protagonist, arcade mini-game and an evil russian communsit-aristocrat(!) who wants to take over the world. What else can one ask for? Maybe, a dead squirrel? Oh, wait!
Very nice way to spend half an hour, thanks!

[abstauber]

If there will ever be a retail version of Aeronuts, I'll print your comment on the box
Thanks for your nice words and welcome to the board by the way!

[ThreeOhFour]

And the comma-count has been cut in half Thanks for the proof-reading, Ben!

Dozens of innocent commas were mercilessly slain in what is being referred to by historians as "The Proof Read". 

My pleasure, Dirk

[Victor6]

*Comments effected by blood-alcohol*

In short:-
An excellent combination of genres with lovely characterization.

Long version:-
Each update has steadily polished the original concept, even if I did love it for its original faults.  The recent improvements to the arcade section ironed out the major (ten thumbed) bugbears. There's wonderful room for expansion, turn the clock back 10 years or so and this would've been the kind of shareware demo that would've encouraged me to break out my credit card for the full version.

but....1995? 1942 was ported to 8-bit if my memory hasn't faded.

Any chance of an extended version Astauber?

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Wunderbar!  I will download this new version immediately!

Edit:  The arcade mode now works quite smoothly.  Good work.

[Kweepa]

Ah yes, much better with pixel perfect collisions! (And less commas!)
I still can't believe how polished this is. The scene in the battleship drifting up and down slowly is genius.
New score for me 123900.

Thanks again,
Steve

[abstauber]

@Victor

but....1995? 1942 was ported to 8-bit if my memory hasn't faded.

Yup, but didn't have cutscenes at all, just a (nice) pixelart endscreen for each stage. So I was referring to the cutscenes, starting to appear on the arcades in the beginning 90s, and later being ported to the home consoles.
But to be honest, I didn't do much research before I wrote this punchline

Any chance of an extended version Abstauber?

Umm.. never say never again But I've neglected my other project way long for this game.
Although it would be fun to extend the game with a stage or two...  :

@ProgZmax
Cool  8)
It's really incredible, how much you have to polish an action mode until it is finally fun.
(now just somebody has to tell the rating panel ... of course not for the cup-score, that is already amazing)

@Steve
Yay, you're on the second place now!
Although you could triple that score in the arcade mode

The scene in the battleship drifting up and down slowly is genius.

Hehe, thanks. Actually most of the movement is from AGS-Invaders

[Lufia]

That was a sweet little game. ^^

[Bulbapuck]

Finally had time to play this

Amazing game! Though I suck, and my score was below 50 000 :

[ALPHATT]

very cute. Downloading

[Crimson Wizard]

Ouch, finally I got my hands on this... sorry, had no time earlier.

I found a typo: when you observe a bench on the backyard, there's an unreadable character in the phrase "And the beautful, yet inescapable noise...".

When speaking with Stanley Elfie sometimes sais "what had happend"; shouldn't it be "happened"?

On flying level Borisov sais "turrents" once.


Ambient sound is really good. However, I don't quite get why are there sounds of aircrafts flying when you are in air carrier? I thought Borisov and his men already left at that point.

Anyway, good game, and graphics are pretty! I only wished adventure part was a little bit longer.

My score after finishing game on Hard level is 153600
Proof screenshot - http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/crimson_aeronuts_hiscore.png



EDIT: I tried Arcade only mode, but for some reason after 20 seconds or so game starts to lag terribly and sometimes completely freezes. And it looks like HDD is working all the time. I haven't met such behavior with any other AGS game before.

[Jared]

As a Raptor: Call of the Shadows fanboy from way back I plan to play the hell out of this. Dl'ing now.

[abstauber]

@Bulbapuck
Hehe, so the easy mode did it for you

@Crimson Wizard
Hey! Congrats on the new highscore  8)  I'm glad you liked it, since the stereotypes I used in the game aren't 100% political correct
Also thanks for the typos, I hope I get them fixed today or tomorrow (since I don't have any new content to offer, I just do it silently)
About your performance problems: I've tested the game on a very old computer (celeron 1000 ghz) and have manged to finish it there. Can you give me some more details on your machine? (OS, processor etc) Does it happen all the time? Have you tried DX5?

@Jared
Don't forget to post your score

[Mordalles]

really great game. enjoyed the action sequences, and the adventure sections had some really logical puzzles and fun dialogs.  The backgrounds and sprites were super. 
and the background sound on the ship creaking was really great.
oh, i played it on a celeron 800(ghz? very old) , and it worked perfectly.
my score was 133900. 

[abstauber]

oh, i played it on a celeron 800(ghz? very old) , and it worked perfectly.

Great to hear, also the arcade mode? There's a much shorter spawn time there...
But first of all congrats on the second place in the highscore and thanks for your feedback

btw. Merry Christmas folks!

[discordance]

I'm addicted to the arcade mode now. It's threatening to destroy my life.  High score of 259000. Ish.

[moshboy]

Really enjoyed what I played of this. Nice hybrid game and challenging puzzles.

[Danman]

Good game abstauber     .I like how you did the old retro style feel. The scripting for it must be scary to look at too. I completed the game once through the story mode and my high score was 157600 on hard.

Proof: http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/1d68998083.png

I don't know if that is good enough proof?

Update: OK now I have played on arcade mode now. And my highscore is 299200  :o 

Proof: http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/f8f1a45bd5.png

This game reminded me how much I miss old arcade games like Raptor.

[Crimson Wizard]

I completed the game once through the story mode and my high score was 157600 on hard.

Proof: http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/1d68998083.png

I don't know if that is good enough proof?

Arg, Danman, you beat me
As for proof, lots of people around just told their high score without giving any proof. You can think everyone 's a gentleman here 

[Danman]

Sorry Crimson Wizard  I couldn't resist downloading this game just to beat your high score     .

[abstauber]

Great Highscores everyone! I'm glad that some of you have finally discovered the arcade mode

It's also really really cool that this game is still being played, even after one month of its release


As for the proofs - since you won't win anything, I simply rely on the people's respectability.
Although screenshots are nice indeed

[Matti]

It's also really really cool that this game is still being played, even after one month of its release

Yeah, I still have to play it too, and I will, in a few days. I started to play right after it was released but unfortunately couldn't load my saved game - I think that bug was mentioned in the MAGS thread. Well, since I didn't want to start all over I discontinued playing it, but now I got interested again.

Reporting back when I finished it 

[DrWhite]

I´m still not getting tired of playing this game. The new maneuvres you put in make the enemy planes a lot more tricky...
My new highscore is 505200.
Proof:

[abstauber]

@DrWhite
Hey! You just beaten the internal developer highscore by more than 100000 points 
Congrats on that! Whenever I polish the arcade mode again, I shall add power ups and some chain bonus. I don't want to know for how long you've kept that boss alive for that score

@Mr Matti
Did it crash again or have already made some progress?

[DrWhite]

Hey! You just beaten the internal developer highscore by more than 100000 points 
Congrats on that! Whenever I polish the arcade mode again, I shall add power ups and some chain bonus. I don't want to know for how long you've kept that boss alive for that score

Cool! I´m really glad to hear you´ll continue working on that game. I´m shure it´s worth it - there aren´t many AGS-action games that have such an original acarde feeling.

[Erenoth02]

Is it just me or is there a bug in the beginning, i was trying to mix the water bomb with the mascara but it kept giving me i cant do that, eventually she finally mixed them after a few i cant do thats but i ended up checking the hints to find out thats what i needed to do, which is why i kept it up untill she finally mixed them, however i might have mixed them backwards and finally clicked the correct sequence ne way, it might b somting to look into

[abstauber]

Hi Erenoth,

which version are you using (you can see it in the readme.txt) ?

I just tried it in v1.1 and it worked both ways (Mascara->Waterbomb and Waterbomb->Mascara), but I remember that there has been a problem in older versions.

btw. you'll have much more fun in the arcade mode, playing the recent version

@Dr.White

I've just realised that chains and powerups would need a complete new way of enemy spawning. If I limit the firepower from the beginning, it would get quite hard. For the next level of arcade feeling, I need to create enemy groups which attack in formations. Then I can give chain bonuses and or power ups.
But I'm afraid that won't happen too soon - of course if you want to make a low-res telespiel out of it, be my guest 


I've just spotted this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgGOhfSW6tw

Somebody made a video covering the first arcade level. Nice, Slumlord27

[Igor Hardy]

The mix of adventure and arcade levels works really great for me (I am a big fan of the underrated Insecticide), especially since the arcade sequences are very well done.

[SuperDre]

Just finished the game, and I loved it.. Love to see a bigger adventure with the same characters.. It really looked great, and the arcade part was also very fun (I love 1942 kinda games hehe..)...
thanx for creating such a marvelous little game.. keep up the great work..

[Matti]

@Mr Matti
Did it crash again or have already made some progress?

Yes, it did crash again after saving/loading right after the first arcade sequence. My laptop has a serious overheating problem (since quite a few month) and I haven't let it be repaired yet - that's why I can't play most games for too long.

Now I decided to play a little further before saving again but it crashed right after said sequence, without saving or doing anything else...  :'(

But since it's time to repair my laptop anyway I will play all the way through after it's done.

[abstauber]

@SuperDre
Thanks for your kind words

@Mr.Matti
What a bummer. Just in case want me to send you a savegame, you know where the PM button is

I hope you'll get your machine fixed soon.

[qptain Nemo]

Well, I'm obviously super-late as usual, but I also want to express my utter amusement with Aero-Nuts. It is very charming and fun game of the kind which we should see more often. Congrats with winning the maggie and being nominated, you deserved it

[m0ds]

I had a wee go and it was good fun abstauber & team, thanks! Nicely made in every way. Though I never managed to land on the carrier before blowing up, so I can't say I've completed it yet  

[abstauber]

While shamelessly bumping my old threads, I've decided to open source AeroNuts
Please excuse the messy MAGS code.


http://shatten.sonores.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/AeroNuts_OSS.7z
Cheers!

[Ghost]

Awesome! I had a lot of fun with this little gem back in the days. Thanks for making it open source

[amateurhour]

Thank you for making this open source, and for bumping the thread, because I never played this so now I get the chance and so far it's pretty awesome!

[abstauber]

Glad to hear that you like it so far Make sure to post your highscore, once you've finished it

[abstauber]

Hey, who had thought that I'd ever post a major update again
Thanks to cireja, you can now enjoy AeroNuts in Spanish!

The download links (both source and compiled) are in the first post.

[AprilSkies]

Thanks also from me for making this pearl open source! <3

Also.. Happy Birthday ^^

[abstauber]

Thanks also from me for making this pearl open source! <3

It's actually an honor to hear that you guys give the sources a go.

Also thanks for the birthday wishes