Hey guys,
So as it goes, 1 year ago today I released Blazin' Aces. So I thought it would be fitting to announce the new Blazin' Aces I am working on. It will be an updated version which will also be ported to smartphones.
Announcing the new and improved:
New mechanics will be introduced, such as overheating machineguns, missles (limited to 2 per spawn), limited bombs, as well as evasive manoeuvres to make the game tighter and a bit more intense. The game will also feature new game modes, such as team battles (up to 4vs4), uneven team battles (1vs2) as well as a survival mode.
Gameplay Video:
Controls:
Left/right arrows : turn the plane
Z : Flips plane
A: Shoot / Jump
C: Shoot missle
X: Eject
O: Spawn friendly plane
P: Spawn enemy plane
R: Restarts the game
You can check out the original version of the game here: Blazin' Aces
Let me know what you guys think :)
So as it goes, 1 year ago today I released Blazin' Aces. So I thought it would be fitting to announce the new Blazin' Aces I am working on. It will be an updated version which will also be ported to smartphones.
Announcing the new and improved:
New mechanics will be introduced, such as overheating machineguns, missles (limited to 2 per spawn), limited bombs, as well as evasive manoeuvres to make the game tighter and a bit more intense. The game will also feature new game modes, such as team battles (up to 4vs4), uneven team battles (1vs2) as well as a survival mode.
Gameplay Video:
Controls:
Left/right arrows : turn the plane
Z : Flips plane
A: Shoot / Jump
C: Shoot missle
X: Eject
O: Spawn friendly plane
P: Spawn enemy plane
R: Restarts the game
You can check out the original version of the game here: Blazin' Aces
Let me know what you guys think :)
Thanked by 1Nandrew
Comments
Is this gonna be a cosmetic do-over only, or are there new mechanical involvements too?
There will be new mechanics involved as well. I am hoping to make it multiple planes that you can flight against, as well as adding a missle system (will update the first post now).
The AI isn't working properly as of yet, but once I get most of those in I will definitely show off a demo.
I have updated the pilots falling animation, as well as got a bit of a momentum thing going. The parachute shifts in line with the direction the player is moving in the air... Looking pretty smooth, still got a bit to do though.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9633551/TestBlazinAces/index.html
What do you guys think?
The player also loses horizontal momentum while jumping. I like the eject mechanic, it will be cool in big dogfights with parachuting people everywhere.
Are you planning to have wrapping occur smoothly? I think it will really be worth the effort. I'm looking forward to having some enemy planes to shoot :D
Hmmm yeah, I need to set it so that when it reaches certain speed it should keep its direction, especially if it's flying horizontally.
Yes, at the moment, I am using Game Maker's built in wrapping option. It isn't perfect as it has a "bleed" value where it only wraps once it gets to a certain point.
Hehe thanks, I have the AI in the build however it keeps crashing with the pilot ejecting. haven't build that in as of yet.
Will update when I get that working, then you can test it out against the AI :)
You can now spawn planes to fight against, and they will also eject and run back to the barn. The parachute controlling system has also been crafted a bit better to give a more realistic feel.
Same controls as above, with one few additions:
P - Spawn enemy plane
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9633551/TestBlazinAces/index.html
Agreed, art is bloody hard, but when you get it right its so rewarding. I did all the artwork for the "original" version of the game, and man did I struggle to get it the way I wanted.
Try it out, let me know what you guys think :).
Top post has the updated link.
(Press P to spawn an enemy plane)
Does plane flipping do anything? It doesn't seem to change the controls.
Right now it's currently not doing anything, but ideally its there to avoid bullet projectiles, so that it at least gives you a chance to escape an enemy on your tail.
It's also there for when you eject, so that you can eject in an upward direction as opposed to downwards towards the ground.
@Rigormortis:
Yeah it needs some optimizing. At the moment, the smoke particles are rendered as individual objects so it's hogging up the memory. Need to find a mobile friendly version of particles to render for smartphones (not sure if GameMaker does this)
I'm looking into a smartphone friendly particle system for GM. Any suggestions?
http://www.reddotlab.com/BA_Smoke_test_part
EDIT: D'oh! Just realised the html export doesn't support colour blending in particles, hence why the fire is blue.
Have finally made an update (yay!). I've managed to get some wingman AI in, as well as including missles.
The result seems to be a fun, rather chaotic shooter, check it out and let me know what you think:
http://www.reddotlab.com/Blazin_Aces/PublicBeta/
And, as a bonus, I have a version of it working on Android (still working on the icons, you just have to experiment to see what everything does :D ):
http://www.reddotlab.com/Blazin_Aces/PublicBeta/Android/BlazinAcesHD_PublicBeta.apk
Anyone :)?
EDIT: I just realised the holder that describes the controls I created isn't in my HTML. So weird...Will fix this evening.
In the meantime, the controls are as follows:
Controls:
Left/right arrows : turn the plane
Z : Flips plane
A: Shoot / Jump
C: Shoot missle
X: Eject
O: Spawn friendly plane
P: Spawn enemy plane
R: Restarts the game
Why is something as game-ending as eject right next to the other controls, when shoot is on a whole different line? Swap shoot and eject! Also, I had no idea what I should have been doing after I ejected. The ejection animation of the dude panicking and the parachute popping was pretty cool as a feel moment, but after that it was a bit annoying. Running around on the floor didn't let me do anything specific and I didn't know where to go to actually achieve anything (maybe an arrow to the nearest plane?). Also, there's a slight hitch in the sideways movement of the screen when you land from a jump.
Not super sure about the missiles and the flipping, Sopwith's bombs made flipping a strategic decision and most of the game's piloting skill came in with aiming bomb trajectories. Right now I'd wonder why flipping is in Blazing Aces, as it doesn't seem to have much impact on the game... If you added back bombs and bombing trajectories, flipping could be a serious decision - especially if flipping meant you were locked into a specific path and couldn't "turn" while it was going on. Tradeoffs are good :) Right now I'd expect planes to auto-flip according to their orientation (which is a shame, because that's a detailed animation you've got going there)
The plane movement seems a little too fast and not really very variable: You don't stay on one section of the screen for any appreciable period of time, so there isn't scope for much dogfight maneuvering. I feel like if you slowed the planes way down and added some speed controls to the game in general (so you could fly slow, really slow and OMG backwards slow) that would help in creating more interesting screen movement patterns for players to predict how a plane was going to behave. Right now it feels like there isn't really any aerodynamic risk to moving the plane around - you don't have to worry about staying in the air or doing cool moves. I'm not saying "Be like Luftrauser", but OMG, Luftrauser... Such neat play feel!
Some things about terrain and random graphics: The flatness of the terrain feels a little boring. I can't fly into or over or around things, so everything rests on the enemy plane AI (and what planes themselves are capable of doing, right now they're all too capable of staying aloft), Sopwith's bombing score and the terrain that made that difficult were the real gameplay in that game. The clouds feel too low - they're in the distance, obscuring the second row of background mountains, but when I fly up I leave them behind and there's nothing there but the blue gradient, that seems strange. The parallax scrolling is neat, but it made me notice the edging around all your sprites. Is that intentional or are we looking at GM transparency artifacts there? (If so, that's not too hard to fix)
I so wanted planes to have trails. Also, bullet trails and hit effects so I know when I've clipped a plane ;)
Alright so initially, the original version was plain and simple 1vs1 dogfighting. I'm trying to upscale overall, having perhaps larger battles. I know that the beta doesn't convey everything I want, but its a start :).
So to get back to your feedback @disleksia:
-The keys will be swapped for a gamepad. Last year at amaze Matthias mapped a gamepad to the keys, and it changed the game completely. Will definitely look into getting that sorted!
-Will look into the weird hitch when jumping. Also, the point of ejecting is so that you don't get killed. It gives you an opportunity to spawn (by running back to the barn) with a new plane without losing a life.
-As for the missles, it's still a WIP. I was actually thinking more along the lines of having a shotgun style weapon, that when you line up your enemy at close range you can one hit kill them.
-The flipping is actually used to avoid getting hit with a bullet. So if someone lines you up from behind, you at least have a chance to avoid some bullets.
-As for the speed and view of the game, I have had some feedback from people saying it's difficult to see whats going on. I think I'm going to have to zoom out the view a bit, and perhaps add some sort of indicator as to where the nearest enemy is. I'm also trying to set a "slow down" button, which will reduce the players speed for a bit to help out-manoeuvre the enemy.
-And last but not least, the graphics. I was really trying to see how much I could push game maker's backgrounds system. There's still plenty of tweaking and stuff to be done :). The artifacts only seem to happen in the HTML5 version, but I will go back and clean them up for the next HTML test.
I like the idea of trails, could be quite nice when you have like 8 planes on screen making these cool trails. Hit indicators are a good idea too. Will look into it :D.
Yes I noticed for some reason the AI was acting strange sometimes. I'm not sure if it is because there are too many of them on screen at once, but so far I've only noticed it when there are 3 or more enemy or wingman planes.
Not sure if it has been pointed out but the missiles seem to explode as soon as they hit the top of the screen, making it seem like there's a ceiling. I can't recall if there where cases of this happening or if the planes just explode mid-air (admittedly I was going crazy with the missiles), but in flying games it's quite rewarding to be able to shoot down a plane so that it crashes to the ground - for your own plane being out of control would also give a chance to eject before you hit the ground.
- Are the AI supposed to be shooting? They didn't seem to be attacking me?
- I feel like the arena is too low, like there could be more vertical space to it all -- you are flying planes after all, though the tension with the possibility of crashing into the ground is a good thing to have
- On that, perhaps the controls are a bit too tight, too good? Turning circle is super tight, and I seldom feel like I'm ever in real danger, and the plane controls more like a zippy little micro machine, except there's no course to be zipping around.
- Oh yeah, on that, how about in-air collectibles and obstacles?
- There are outlines around everything... Including the clouds in the backgrond? That makes the art feel less depthy, it feels. The parallax is great though.
- Give pilots something to do on the ground beside the barn? I love the idea but it kinda doesn't do anything. Maybe AA guns, or the ability to launch a missile or something that can hit a plane from below? And can they be killed while on the ground, by planes' guns or bombs? They should, or else it's kinda 1-dimensional.
- Would this be multiplayer or single-player? Because if multiplayer it'll be SO much better, but harder to implement any kind of "bullet time" feature.
- I do feel like everything is a bit fast, gives the player less chance to respond to situations.
- The flip thing - it does feel superfluous as a flip. A suggestion: If you made it hold down to barrel roll you can barrel roll and doge for an extended period of time, perhaps sacrificing maneuverability (like you turn slower or drop from the sky) - that way if a player IS lining you up and trying to shoot you, you can hold it down instead of jabbing the button like mad. And there should be a sacrifice when you get to be invincible.
- Guess like my own game much of this is under construction so when it gets worked out it'll all make more sense :)
Keep rocking! :D
Will try get one up tonight :).
EDIT: Cool, I have uploaded a short gameplay vid:
http://www.reddotlab.com/Blazin_Aces/PublicBeta/
Big fixes:
-AI tweaked, now should act more realistic
-Pilots can be shot in mid air and on the ground
-Included an arrow to indicate where nearest enemy is
BETA 0.4 Features:
- Powerup weapons, both offensive and defensive
- Local splitscreen gameplay (with xbox controllers)
- Proper scoring system
- Various bug fixes
ETA: 15 September
Will update again when demo is live
Edit: I'm having a nightmare sorting out the parallax scrolling on splitscreen, will upload the latest version once splitscreen is working...
I've managed to record a new vid for the game - it's the final version for what will be playable at rAge:
(please ignore my shoddy video capture software, such a mission to get it to start capturing when I start the game...)
You can also download the new version that will be shown at rAge here:
Blazin' Aces rAge demo
You need at least 1 xbox controller to play the demo :)
Changes from last release:
- Xbox controls! (Just for the rAge demo)
- Large amount of new sound effects and music throughout the game
- Instructions and how to play screen
- All special weapons added: 3 offensive and 3 defensive weapons
Let me know what you guys think :D
What do you guys think?
I think I'd look at making the lines a bit thicker, especially on your text. If your screen gets shrunk for whatever reason (like if it's going to be on mobile at some point), I think that could get quite hard to read.
Still need to tweak the colours and stuff but I think it's working together nicely...?
Hoping to get a playable version out soon, just having issues with the spawning at the moment.
Nijman: There’s a couple of things, but the most important factor would probably be sound. On Nuclear Throne we’re working with a great audio designer called Joonas Turner, who manages to produce super realistic but over the top sound effects that really suit this game. A good, punchy, bassy gunshot does wonders.
Other than that we always make sure our projectiles move at relatively high speed, look huge (the bullets in most of our games are about the same size as the players), and communicate clearly (with some animated effects) when hitting something. There’s also screenshake. Just moving the screen around a bit randomly, and offsetting the camera away from where you’re aiming can be so powerful.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/10/21/interview-jan-willem-nijman-on-nuclear-thrones-feel/
It's what we spoke about at rAge 2013 :)
I'll definitely read into it! I have made the bullets bigger as well, but kept the collision mask the same size.
That way it doesn't make it too easy to hit an enemy plane.