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"Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 11:05 pm
by Joefish
Thought it was time to stick up a screen-grab from the 48K shmup I've started on, 'Go-Go BunnyGun'.
The title was going to be just BunnyGun but if it comes down to another software vote I don't want to be in the same place in the alphabet as my only other decent game so far!

Image

There's a lot more to do as so far you can only move around and fire. Once I've got the alt-fire (hold button) working and maybe a bit of scenery I'll try to put up some working code so you can see it animating.

The idea is there'll be three alternate forms you can take on (your sprite changes colour between the three shown) and power-up in two stages (immediate pick-ups like Salamander / R-Type). One has spread fire, the next an orbiting guardian, and the third deployable firing pods like Thunder Cross II. And holding fire will allow for rear or directed fire, depending on form.

You can see the sprite routine is character-based, and allows for partial re-colouring of individual objects.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 8:48 am
by Wall_Axe
it looks good

do you know how you are going to handle scenery yet?

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 11:26 am
by Morkin
At first glance I thought it was multicolour. :o

I like the look of the colour on the sprites.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 11:27 am
by MatGubbins
Looks good!

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 1:01 pm
by R-Tape
That looks terrific. I'll be interested to see what speed you opt for, there's that tricky balance of 2 halts being too fast and 4 being a bit jerky (3 manages a bit of both!).

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 2:02 pm
by Joefish
It's not going to maintain 2 frames. Probably end up as 3 or 4. I haven't really tested it to be sure yet.
I intend to have a slow pixel-scrolling dark stippled background on alternate pixel rows in a band over the middle 1/3 of the screen, with random moving stars above and below.
Scenery will be one-off fast-moving chunks of mountain for dodging. Nothing big or permanent.

I don't really know how long all the different parts of it are going to take. Though I don't want to hold back on the number of sprites just to save the frame rate if it makes for a dull game. It draws to a buffer then copies that to the screen, so just the copy takes a frame and a half. It could work faster maybe with a character-mapped buffer but that's more hassle to design all the sprites in UDG form. Maybe next time.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 2:18 pm
by Joefish
By the way, which looks better, the rocket tail or the bunny-tail?
I might just leave both in, as an option...

I also can't decide on the colour for the shots. I'd like to have white and yellow, or yellow and red, but I don't want them so bright you fail to see incoming enemy fire. So I've copied the colours from R-Type at the moment. Like that, I think my enemy fire will be 4x4 bright yellow dots so they can move in half-character steps.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 3:56 pm
by MatGubbins
bunny tails - the one with the yellow top. It goes with the ears.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 4:28 pm
by Ersh
The bunny tails are cute but the rocket tails look really good as well. I vote to leave them both in as an option. :)

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:47 am
by R-Tape
I think the rocket tails look miles better.
Joefish wrote: Sun Aug 05, 2018 2:02 pm Though I don't want to hold back on the number of sprites just to save the frame rate if it makes for a dull game.
I actually like slow down! When a shmup goes treacly for a few frames it feels like a cinematic effect when there's a lot to see.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 2:34 am
by Joefish
New screen grab - dropped in a scrolling background and some stars:

Image

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 3:54 am
by zxbruno
Why wasn't this amazing use of colour the norm back then? This looks great! Not just the colour, but the sprites too. Everything looks great!

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:47 pm
by Ivanzx
Looking very good so far, really :!:

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 10:25 am
by Ralf
Yep, looking great. And the background adds a lot as it felt a little bit empty before.

And please remember that it's not multicolor but just your regular Spectrum with attributes. Just a very good and careful choice of colours within the limitations.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 12:23 pm
by Joefish
Just to let you know that this project is still alive and making (slow) progress.
This weekend I got the weapon systems working for the three pilots, and there are now four levels of firepower for each character.
My next step should be a quick one to get collectible power-ups working so you can switch between wepaons, and then I'll show some playable code so you can try them out. There are no baddie movement, paths or collision detection yet, so there won't be anything to actually shoot - just try out the firing systems. Each has a different trick when you hold FIRE to get the hang of.

I'm using coloured tokens to switch weapons, and you have to keep gathering the same colour to upgrade. If you pick up a different colour, you'll just swap weapons but not upgrade (i.e. not like R-Type). And if you're on the top level, then swapping weapons will actually knock you down one. I don't want them to be too easy to max-out, but also not have the maximum so powerful that if you lose it you don't stand a chance (Gradius series). And I want to try and tailor the levels to the strengths of the different weapons so you should make a strategic decision when to use a power-up just to swap weapon systems.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 1:11 pm
by MatGubbins
Yup, was wondering if it had been put aside for more interesting ideas. Good to know that it is slowly coming together.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 1:42 pm
by Joefish
It is tempting to just keep writing multicolour functions and never finish any actual games!
I think I'm also happy with my bog-standard-colour version of Buzzsaw+. I need to try it out on the GBA emulator, if I can find my hack cartridge programmer...

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:08 am
by ZXDunny
zxbruno wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 3:54 am Why wasn't this amazing use of colour the norm back then? This looks great! Not just the colour, but the sprites too. Everything looks great!
R-type, Savage, AMC et al would like a word :)

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:30 am
by Joefish
ZXDunny wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:08 am R-type, Savage, AMC et al would like a word :)
Ooh, controversy!

Image

It's kicking off! :lol:

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 2:23 pm
by Joefish
For those who may have missed it, the latest WOOT! included a rolling demo of Go-Go-BunnyGun's weapons for you to practise with:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=34612

Unfortunately you can't do a lot running it on-line in JSSpeccy or QAOP as it needs a Kempston Joystick to control, and neither of them seem to support it. You'll have to download the .TAP and run it off-line.

There are three weapon types to pick up. Get the red, magenta or yellow tokens to switch pilot between Amy, Heidi and Miya. Wait for another token of the same colour to upgrade the weapon. There's also a green penalty token that rests the weapon to the base level.

As well as standard shooting, you can hold down FIRE for an alternate operation. This does something different for each weapon. Note that Heidi's flying 'Hoon' will act as a defensive shield or battering ram; Miya's two outriggers won't. But you should be able to get these to lock in position by holding FIRE, releasing briefly, then holding again.

You might notice I've ditched the 'fat shot' sprite and gone for a twin-shot instead. I think it looks better as an upgrade from a single shot since the next option is a triple shot. Still not completely decided though. I think the colours are staying though.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:41 pm
by hikoki
Very cool and easy to manage, what else can I say? I always liked Hellfire.
About colours, sometimes I confuse pilotesses' hair with power-up

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:47 am
by Joefish
hikoki wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:41 pm Very cool and easy to manage, what else can I say? I always liked Hellfire.
About colours, sometimes I confuse pilotesses' hair with power-up
Thanks, I'm glad someone else could work it! Sorry about the colour confusion, but only certain colour combos work for the characters. After I'd designed the characters how I wanted, I tried to match the pick-ups to hair or rocket colour, but had to settle on matching the suit as I wanted to use white for the pick-up surround and have green free for the penalty pick-up. I tried swapping the magenta/green suit/hair combination but it just wasn't as good. The code now makes the pick-up change colour if it stays on screen for too long; a bit like Raiden, but I thought it was too much hassle to make them float around in a circle too!

Good spot about the game influences - I really like Hellfire but I think that 4 is too many firing options - it's just a little too hard to work out how many times to hit the switch button to get the weapon you want. They should have kept it to 3 (e.g. Panzer Dragoon Orta is much easier to manage). So instead of e.g. four diagonal shots you've got Amy's Spread Fire and reversed Bunny-Butt-Shot. (Although that triangular pattern of fire comes from the Spread Bomb in Wings of Death).

I also like Side Arms and Raiga: Strato Fighter where you can turn around and shoot backwards - that's how I settled on two modes for each pilot. I did try having you hold the button then selecting UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT for firing pattern, or automatically turning around when you move into the right third of the screen, but kept coming back to wanting everything controlled precisely from just the one FIRE button. Crosswize lets you change direction then hold FIRE to keep facing that way, but that changes the whole nature of the game. So that leaves holding FIRE as a special weapon (like Air Buster or R-Type).

Hedi's orbiting creature is a bit of the destructive orbs/'options' from Gradius, Cybernoid and R-Type, and a bit of the weapon pod from Prehistoric Isle, that changes function depending on where you move it to relative to the player (forward shot, bombs, mines, etc.). So in mine you can upgrade it to fire on each of the four diagonals. But it doesn't latch directly in front of you, as that could give you a huge advantage over the other weapons (like picking the R-Type clone ship in Pulstar makes it much easier). I guess it's also some kind of Pokémon... :?

Miya (yellow) is an obvious copy of one of my favourite shoot-em-ups (after R-Type), which is Thunder Cross II. I once tried writing a vertical shooter in STOS on the ST and worked out how to control outrigger drones with a single fire button; holding it to deploy them, then releasing and holding again to keep them at a distance. I keep forgetting I gave her teddy-bears in flying saucers as outriggers though! I guess they come from The New Zealand Story but they fitted the attribute squares nicely. They were always meant to be floating cannons like the ones in the Thunder Cross games, but I found it so much harder to design colours into a 2x2 sprite compared to all the 3x3 ones. Then I got something stuck in my head about 'Kill Enhancement Force' or 'KEF-Teddies' and it had to go somewhere.

(And yes, there's a reason behind each of the pilot's names. Who can explain all three??? :mrgreen:
And can anyone familiar enough with a Greek menu explain 'KEF-Teddies' ?????? :mrgreen: )

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:39 pm
by hikoki
Thanks for the shmup references!
I can be smart-ass enough to know Hedi is a Jedi and Miya seems to come from a rpg game called Goddesskiss :
Spoiler
Image
Perhaps you can flash powerups between bright/unbright if that makes sense.
this is speculation spam, wasdnm could work if you use n to lock shoot direction while pressing any wasd combo

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:17 pm
by Joefish
No, it's more literal (and a bit more daft) than that. It's not from other media. Lucky find of a 'Miya' with a teddy-bear though!!!
I did want them to sound like different nationalities. I don't suppose anyone else is going to try?
Amy
'Amy' because she 'Aims' in multiple directions (spread fire, turning round).
Heidi
'Heidi' because she 'Hides' behind a cuddly toy / shield creature. (Sorry, 'Hedi' was a typo!!!)
Miya
'Miya' is the more complicated one. It's a Japanese girl's name that's written as a single character meaning 'Temple'. But written as two separate characters 'mi ya' means 'three arrows', which is her firing technique.

And as for the:
KEF-Teddies

As for pressing keys or anything, I wanted everything to be done with the joystick. I find it far too distracting in a fast game to have to find a keyboard key. I suppose emulators that can map an extra joypad button to a keypress can take care of that, but it's not authentic.
And particularly at retro game fairs most people don't read instructions, and I don't want them bashing the keyboard of one of my machines!

But I do like different control mechanisms - I've always wanted to do a twin-stick shooter, tank-control, or even better, twin-stick mech-driving game.

Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:47 pm
by Kweepa
I do love punny names :)
Perhaps you could keep the names "in the same family" and change Miya to Trisha?
Spoiler
tri-shot