GRcade

Hi All!

Just wanted to share with you my next project (in progress). It's a little while away from release yet, but I'm super excited about it and want to let you guys/gals have a sneak peak now.

It's a super fast scrolling shooter with a retro vibe - well it's a Four5Six Pixel game, so you wouldn't expect anything else would you?

I'll be sharing progress over the course of the development.

For those that have been around games since the 80s you may recognise some influences.....

Gameplay video

...yay! Four5Six are gonna rock again .

This looks like it has a touch of Uridium about it, 'Quake. I like the C64-style bas-relief graphic effects! Are the symbols at the bottom of the screen the touchscreen control functions? They appear to be up/down on the left, and turn/fire on the right.

I'm looking forward to seeing more, dude.

Hey, Jawa.

Yeah spot on. Uridium (Andrew Braybrook) is one of my favourite games so it is a big influence for this, as is TLL from Costa Panayi (who was ahead of his time as a game dev).

You have all the controls correct. Your Hyper ship automatically slides forward, and you control with Up/Down and Flip (very similar mechanic to Uridium - but tuned for touch controls). Fire button is indeed the other.

I'll share more media and a snippet of the rockin' bass soundtrack in the coming weeks/months.

Uridium is difficult enough with controls that work.

Hi Turnip,
Just to be clear, the game isn't a Uridium remake. It's its own game with its own gameplay - it has mechanical similarities to Uridium that's all.

So don't expect insta-deaths as soon as you hit into something.

Everything will be tuned accordingly to make the game fun and accessible. I've spent an awful long time with the controls design and am pretty happy with it so far.

Just developing the code for formations at the moment.

I'll post a live gameplay video when I have the first level nearing completion.

Cheers!

I don't think I got past level 2 of Uridium so I like the sound of a more user-friendly, easier-controlled shooter that still has that flavour. I'm looking forward to seeing the first footage, 'Quake!

Some early alpha gameplay footage to give you an idea of how the game plays (hint: fast and furious )

Starquake wrote:Some early alpha gameplay footage to give you an idea of how the game plays (hint: fast and furious )...

It's great to see this first footage, 'Quake - and EXCLUSIVELY in GRcade . It certainly does look pretty intense and it seems that you're progressing really well so far.

Just a few thoughts:
> I believe you have modified the on-screen control icons since those earlier screenshots; up/down and fire don't show now? Are you trying a different approach? Or maybe just hiding the icons...
> I wonder if the soundtrack is a little too bass-y (or perhaps I'm just old); although I'm conscious this is at an early stage.

Looking foward to seeing more of this from Four5Six Pixel!

jawafour wrote:

Starquake wrote:Some early alpha gameplay footage to give you an idea of how the game plays (hint: fast and furious )...

It's great to see this first footage, 'Quake - and EXCLUSIVELY in GRcade . It certainly does look pretty intense and it seems that you're progressing really well so far.

Just a few thoughts:
> I believe you have modified the on-screen control icons since those earlier screenshots; up/down and fire don't show now? Are you trying a different approach? Or maybe just hiding the icons...
> I wonder if the soundtrack is a little too bass-y (or perhaps I'm just old); although I'm conscious this is at an early stage.

Looking foward to seeing more of this from Four5Six Pixel!

Hi Jawa, thanks for the feedback

Yeah agree with the music - the background bass needs adjusting.

No the controls are the same - I forgot to change a setting on my video software so the top and tail got chopped off. There is now a score system which got chopped off the top and an energy bar chopped off the bottom (as well as down and fire buttons).

There are no lives in the game. Instead there is a regenerating health bar - think halo for kind of how it works.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment!

Starquake wrote:...There are no lives in the game. Instead there is a regenerating health bar - think halo for kind of how it works....

I like this idea; it'll be interesting to see a shoot 'em up use that approach. I found Uridium to be rather tough so this setup could make things a little more accessible. Maybe a smart-bomb (kill all on-screen baddies) would make a fine collectible weapon?

Anyway, terrific stuff!

New gameplay video showing a couple of the levels:

Since last update a lot has been going on under the hood as well as creating the levels etc.

- Some subtle lighting has been added to give a little more atmosphere
- Player collision animations updated
- Composed a completely new music soundtrack (fiddling with the bass on the old one was't working out)
- Lots of techie stuff under the hood. At the moment the game is hitting about 30% cpu on an iPhone 4s, so there is going to be tons of room to add extra polish later.

I've re-written and hugely optimised my routines since Medieval Monsters, so I'm getting a lot more performance and room on this game despite it being much more technically challenging.

Currently putting together the level completion scene and score bonuses.
The new soundtrack is still only 50% complete so that will be extended soon.

I have a lot of the other levels planned and designed on paper. So head down for some drawing and coding!

All feedback, gameplay suggestions etc very welcome as ever

Great news...I've just got front page coverage on TouchArcade:
http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/18/hyper ... oot-em-up/

That came out of the blue!

Anyway the game is coming along really well...
It's now up and running on iOS9
Level building is going well
I have some other news to announce on it soon regarding music and sound, all very exciting stuff.

I'll keep everyone posted with some new screens soon and another video...

I LOVE the sound effects you've used spesh the pew pew pew for the lasers.

Love the look of this. Uridium 2 was one of my favourite Amiga games.

Cheers for the comments guys! very much appreciated.

The music is only temporary at the moment .... the aim is to get some authentic (but original) C64 SID soundtrack going.... I'll keep you posted with news and progress over the next few months.

Oh my! More previews of Hyper Sentinel in the press.... this time Indie Game Magazine.



Check it out here:
http://indiegamemag.com/screenshot-week ... cathedral/

Congrats Starquake!

How long did it take you to create this?

Albear wrote:Congrats Starquake!

How long did it take you to create this?

Hi Albear, and thanks.

Development planning started early June, and coding started end of June. So I guess we're about 11-12 weeks in total for the coding and graphics. I started with a base of some of my routines from Medieval Monsters, so I spent a good few weeks upgrading and properly optimising a bunch of that stuff first.

It's all come together pretty smoothly so far thankfully.

The plan is a Winter release - in all likely hood that will be sometime in January.

p.s. talking of Medieval Monsters, if anyone on here downloaded it and was noticing some strange texture issues with iOS 9.0 then rest-assured I've already fixed the issue (iOS 9.0 is causing game devs a few issues at the moment - *understatement*) and it is now with Apple review and should be ready soon.

Game update for October....

-Bonus score system in place
-A bunch of new levels have been completed
-Power-up pickups in place
-Tweaks to player fire power - basically you can now shoot faster (and more lazer bullets) which opens up the design choices for some of the later levels.

Basically everything going smoothly at the moment, I'm spending most of the time right now building up the levels. Each one is different and unique. Just juggling my 'proper' job with game dev time

Anyway.... you don't want the text, you want MOAR SCREENZ....

nice work, i must have missed the previous posts. Looks like you got a nice bit of attention from toucharcade.