"Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Show us what you're working on, (preferably with screenshots).
hikoki
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

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

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

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

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

Post by Kweepa »

I do love punny names :)
Perhaps you could keep the names "in the same family" and change Miya to Trisha?
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tri-shot
hikoki
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by hikoki »

Thanks about the balls!!! I may give them a go :P

Just chatting, what about using a ps3-like controller? you have three joysticks to lock fire directions.
BTW I think 1OPQASpace would be better than MWASDN. 1 key to lock fire directions
Last edited by hikoki on Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

The secret is the sauce! Add cinnamon and nutmeg with a pinch of oregano, olive oil and a dash of lemon juice to chopped tomatoes. Warm it up and add the meatballs. It's how they serve it in Kos, while flat-out denying that 400 years of Turkish occupation has in any way influenced Greek cooking! Or their coffee! :lol:

Sorry, but I wouldn't use the name 'Trisha' for anything! Except maybe a female-led version of Trashman...
(This may be confusing if you don't know that 'Trisha Goddard' is kind of a UK Jerry Springer, without the personality).

As for a PS3 controller, I'm not sure where'd you'd plug that in to a Spectrum! A game that uses a 2-button mouse to fire left/right could be interesting though, and still realistic; I really enjoyed playing Side Arms on the ST like that.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Kweepa »

Trisha - yes, that sounds familiar. Oops.
Trina? Trixie?
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

When it comes to saving the galaxy, you can recruit pilots from all over the world.
It's not a Doctor Who game, they don't all have to come from Sheffield! :lol:
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

Just realised that I think the four diagonal shots fired by Heidi's orbiting Hoon are unique to it; the other spread shots don't use the same angles. That means that (like Amy's Bunny-Butt-Shot) I can use a unique graphic.

It would have to be small - a simple shape I could sketch in maybe 5x5 pixels maximum with a longer trail behind it. But what could the Hoon be firing?
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

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Joefish wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:47 am
hikoki wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:41 pm About colours, sometimes I confuse pilotesses' hair with power-up
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!
I must insist, suits are so small in relation to hair that I cannot "see" them in practice.
Just trying to help as I think this affects playability which is far more important than looking good.
What do you think guys?
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

Can't you just learn which colour is which weapon?

The magenta and yellow power-ups, as well as matching the pilots' suits, match the colour of the Hoon or the KEF-Teddies too.
That only leaves the red pick-up, and none of them have red hair.

The green pick-up has a skull on it, not a heart, so if you grab that one then you're supposed to lose your weapons for not paying attention!

I was also planning a white pick-up as a speed-up, but trying it out, it just seems crap to play the game at any speed other than the default. Making you start slow like Gradius just seems annoying, and going too fast means you crash into things.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by hikoki »

You are right, once you get the first orb, you can learn to follow the orb colour.

As for speed power-ups, I think freezing
Spoiler
could be interesting and technically might allow for lots of things on the screen? For example, there could be lots of enemies who go straight to your ship, you could freeze them for a while after which they'd follow their march, it could be fun to manage which ones to shoot at first.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

Unfortunately you can only draw so many sprites without slowing things right down, so freezing them to stay on the screen longer is a bad idea for Speccy shooters. This sort of thing needs more control buttons too.

A shooter where you could hold FIRE for a completely different type of shot might be interesting - probably for a vertical shooter - but not this game, since that control is already used up.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

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Then not all of the baddies aiming at you. They could be all the same sprite with flock behaviour. There could be two flocks (two type of sprites) When you freeze them the scroll would be freezed too. Actually there would be only two sprites cloned all around the screen.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

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It still takes time to render them all in each frame of the game. And if they're in different positions they'd each need their own collision detection. Making them 'clones' or 'slaves' to a lead object doesn't really save much processing time.

One approach you could take is there are several 'Score-Attack' or 'Caravan Shooter' games where the next enemy wave doesn't appear until you've completely cleared the current one, so you're never overrun with enemies - but you are up against a time limit to get e.g. highest score in 2 minutes. A 'stun' weapon there would mean you'd still want to clear the screen quickly to get on to the next wave. Maybe something for another game. It would also be a good way of giving the player something like a 'smart bomb' extra weapon, but without requiring too much in the way of extra graphical effects!
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

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I don't get why every member of the flock would need its own collision detection. As a flock their positions may be determined at all times. You'd just have to check your ship and last bullet? Maybe make them all disappear at once if any of them are collided.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

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Which is the 'last bullet' when you can fire four at once? And why just the 'last bullet'? That doesn't make sense.

If they're in different positions, and all the bullets are in different positions, then you need to collision check them all individually to see if they've been shot. It doesn't matter if you do it by marking where they are on a map and checking the map, or calculating where they all are mathematically, it still takes time.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by hikoki »

Why just one bullet? To reduce time processing? Check collisions only at certain times, you could make it clear for the player when a check is going to happen by colourising such "golden" bullets. As for enemies to be checked on the flock, there could be also only one at a time, if you managed to hit it the entire flock would disappear.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

If you don't check for every collision for every frame of the game then shots pass right through enemies without 'hitting' them, and you end up with an unplayably crap game.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by hikoki »

I just say that bullets would go out in alternate colours so the player could tell when collisions are going to be checked. This may reduce computing time and still feel precise enough for the player.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Bizzley »

hikoki wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:59 pm I just say that bullets would go out in alternate colours so the player could tell when collisions are going to be checked. This may reduce computing time and still feel precise enough for the player.
Can you expand on this because it all sounds a bit illogical to be honest? When you say "alternate colours" do you mean alternating the game frames the bullets move on (half on even frames, half on odds) or something else because it's not clear what changing the colour of a bullet would have on accurate collision detection? Do you foresee a frame of the game where some bullets are not being checked for collision detection at all?
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hikoki
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

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I don't know maybe you can disguise a ray by drawing a line as a gradient from light (bullet end) to dark (tail end) giving it an appearance of motion so that your fake bullets seem to travel a shorter distance than they actually do each time you check for collisions.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

Done a bit more bunnycoding.
Looks like it'll be all too easy to drop down to four frames where there's a lot going-on on-screen.

I've added some code to draw wall-like obstructions like rock spikes sticking out from the top and bottom of the screen, a bit like what you see in DELTA on the C64. These are like double-height sprites but quicker to draw, so long as they stay in the top or bottom third of the screen and don't straddle the 2K boundaries. I've also started sketching a couple of alternate backdrops, though it's hard to make a screen look interesting while being sure to re-use enough tiles for it to store efficiently. I have made it so the backdrops can be re-coloured on the fly so they can be re-used for later levels.

I've also integrated the Special-FX tune player from Beepola to add some incidental bits of tune between levels. Not sure whether to go it alone or see if someone more experienced with it would like to tune-up my tuneage. For a main tune I found a useful website http://www.musicnotes.com that has lots of simple arrangements of pop songs and popular tunes - though maybe an original piece of music would be better?

I did find a bug in the player though - there's an ADD A,L and LD L,A to step through part of the tune or part of a percussion effect, to add A to HL. But if the table it's using spans a page break it can't do the sum in 8-bits and it crashes. Had to change it to LD D,0 / LD E,A / ADD HL,DE to do the 16-bit sum properly.
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Re: "Go-Go BunnyGun", first screen grabs.

Post by Joefish »

New scrolly level background, new logo graphics:

Image

Just been debugging it for attribute clashes as it pixel scrolls... Quite a pain.
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