Planet Green

The year is 2XXX, and for centuries Earth has been sending objects into orbit. Today, for unknown reasons, these objects are in danger... of falling back to Earth!
Overt disaster by blasting the space junk to pieces before it causes carnage on the planet below. Use technology found along the way to assist you on your mission. Do well, and you will be handsomely rewarded. Miss and you'll be charged for damages.

On a planet that has worked for generations to achieve self sustainability and a pollution free atmosphere, it is now up to you to keep this planet green!
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So, there's my ideas ^

And here's what I have so far. http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/4519

I need help with a few behavioral issues/creation and I'm not the best at spriting.....

What do you guys think?

Suggestions? Ideas? Wanna help?

edit: I update the link. When I published from a different computer (made on one computer, published and then uploaded to forge. then I switched computers and downloaded from forge, modified and published again), it was treated as a whole new game (didn't prompt to replace)

v0.0.2 New implementations:

• Sound effects
• Music
• Health System
  
  • player get's 3 hits before dyeing with 3 second invulnerable period indicated by flashing
  • 3 lives before game over
• after death, you slide into place from bottom of screen before control is released back to you.
• Final death animation/behavior (really cool btw)
• game over screen with reset game option

will publish once I can find a way to reduce the size of the game. Stencyl.com isn't allowing a game of my size right now.

v0.2.0 New Implementations:

(I may come back and finish listing them later (it's been a while since I've updated the post)

• enemy generation is now random-ish
• random numbers within a certain thresholds (set as attributes) are generated as an interval
• then another rand between 1 and 10. If higher than 5, generate an enemy --> another rand with 1-70 being small enemy and 71 to 100 being large
• so, basically every random interval there's a 50/50 chance of an enemy being generated causing sporadically timed enemies
• power up added with more to come
• upon enemy death a random number between 1 and 100 is generated, if the number is above 93 it will spawn a power up.
• currently with only one power up, it will be the only one spawned. When I have more there will be another 1 to 100 random number generated and if that number is between 1 and 70 do this power up, between 71 and 90 do this power up, and between 91 and 100 do this power up (makes certain more powerful powerups more rare)
• current power up is a double time firing rate. However, it also get's rid of the 50/50 chance of enemy generation on the intervals and makes to 100% chance of enemy generation on the intervals (power up spawns more enemies)
• into screen with difficulty setter
• Score System
• Your score is how much money you've earned from destroying space "junk"
• score is displayed in special font in upper right hand corner
• upon enemy death, the score value of that enemy appears where the enemy once was and floats upwards as it fades out in green (that was tricky)
• If an enemy makes it all the way out of bounds (aka, you missed it) you lose points (money). Typically about half of what you would have earned if you had destroyed it
• missing an enemy causes the lost points to diplay on at the bottom at the x of where the enemy disappeared (in red)
• when score goes up, the main score display "counts" up to the new score (in green)
• if score goes down, the main score display snaps to the new score (and shows red for a second)
• difficulty system
• Normal
• Hard
• Enemies come at you more often
• Shooting costs you money (points)
• power ups don't persist from level to level
• will add more differences for now, for now this is good
• 2 levels with increased difficulty (more to come)
• added a timer. When timer runs out, next level
• added lives and health display
• different enemy explosions (and fewer spawns for better performance)
• different final death explosions with a bigger bang at the end

Right now the levels just loop back and forth until you die. the game over screen will out you back into the game at the same difficulty level you had when you first started. There's lots to do!

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/4519 <-- click to play and please leave helpful comments (praises, criticisms, suggestions)

v0.2.1

Added:

• I made the game less seizureinducing
• The rotating earth was slowed a little bit from 30 milliseconds per frame to 40 miliseconds
• the starfield in the background was slowed too
• explosions now stay relatively contained to just around the area of the object that was destroyed instead of flying to the all the way out of bounds. This give your eyes less to run around with and makes it a little less distractedly busy
• 2 new levels were added
• bonus level was added(3 new levels total)
• you don't get penalized for enemies that pass you
• dyeing doesn't make you lose a life
• in the when10 seconds is left, a large enemy appears that has lots of hp and rewards lots of points

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/4519 <-- click to play and please leave helpful comments (praises, criticisms, suggestions)

v0.2.2

Added:

• Score Multiplier system
• includes custom graphic
• each enemy you destroy fills the multiplier graphic up 1 quadrant.
• after the 5th enemy destroyed in a row, your multiplier goes up by 1 to a maximum of 10
• if you get hit or if an enemy makes it out of bounds on the bottom (a.k.a it passes you) your multiplier gets cut in half
• if the number is not divisible by 2, it takes the floor. (ex. 7/2 = 3.5 but in this case it would  = 3)
• on hard mode it would reset to 1
• on normal, the multiplier persists across levels. If you end the level with a 10x multiplier, you start the next with a 10x multiplier.
• On hard, the multiplier resets every level
• due to the addition of the multiplier, the timer had to be shifted to the left and the score had to be moved slightly as well.

Next on my to-do list:

• add a persisting high score system
• add a win condition
• possibly add some sort of x10 multiplier extra bonus (either extra cool explosion graphics or maybe a better gun [think what happens to Link in the Zelda games when he has full hearts]) What do you guys think I should do? Or should I do anything special at all for when the multiplier is at 10x?

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/4519 <-- click to play and please leave helpful comments (praises, criticisms, suggestions)

v0.2.3
I know I said the next thing to come along would be a win condition with a "you win" kind of screen, but something was bugging me... And that something was the GUI

Once I added the score multiplier, the GUI seemed a little messy and not held together. So I made another actor graphic (an outer circle to go around the first circle) that's separated into 10 segments. And instead of displaying the current multiplier in text, it's now represented by the lit up segments. In the middle of the circle I placed the timer and on two smaller circle to the right I've placed the lives remaining, and the health. I think it looks much cleaner. (Although, my graphic skills aren't very good)

So it went from this:


To this:

The top right smaller number is lives, and the bottom right smaller number is health. I need to find a way to differential the two.

Also, I fixed a glitch that was making the Double Time cost you points even if it wasn't in hard mode.

Let me know what you guys think wither here in the forum, or at my games page:
http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/4519 <-- click to play and please leave helpful comments (praises, criticisms, suggestions)

I like you new gui but as you say you need some way to show that they are health and lives.

Not sure why we need that $ sign in front of all the scores. The font, while sleek, is kinda of hard to read.

Game play quite well. Like to have more variations.

Anyway, job well done. Like it.

I like you new gui but as you say you need some way to show that they are health and lives.

I was thinking about maybe changing the colors of the outer circles. The color red seems to have a universal association to health/HP. But what would I do with the lives? Blue or purple maybe?
Another idea might be to add little icons just to the right of the health and lives indicator. Maybe a very small ship icon next to the lives and a "+" next to the health.

Not sure why we need that $ sign in front of all the scores. The font, while sleek, is kinda of hard to read.

I agree with the font. I need to find a way to fatten it up so it's a little easier. Either that, or just find a more readable font.
As for the $ sign. I've heard this from a few people now and I'm not too sure what to do.
I could just get rid of the $ sign. However, it's supposed to be part of the story. It's how much the hero is getting paid for blowing up the space junk. It's why you're "charged for damages" when something passes you and falls to earth. It's also why (on hard) your charged for bullets. I guess it's what you would call the "main motivation". It will become more apparent as I continue to develop. This is all still a work in progress. Heck, I may eventually add a between-level store. I just don't know yet Thanks for the suggestions.

Game play quite well. Like to have more variations.

Anyway, job well done. Like it.

Thank you very much. I'm defiantly looking for a way to add variation. My biggest set back is art. I'm not a visual artist by any means and that's why I only have two "enemies" right now. To come will be more enemies that offer different challenges, different powerups, and a few things I'm not ready to mention because I'd rather them be a surprise to players

Another thing to mention to anyone that may be reading this: This game is the first game I've ever made. Not just on Stencyl, but ever on anything. So, it's all one giant experiment that I work on during lunch breaks and when my wife lets me It's a lot of fun to work around the logic for the various problems.

How about changing the two smaller circles, one to heart shape for live and one to another shape for health?

I see the meaning of the $ sign. Would it be real $ eventually to buy virtual coins?

On art, there should be quite a few good graphics designers around whom you can collaborate with. If not, remember the game called geometry wars where you just need multiple simple shapes with different colors. They should work nicely too.

That's a very good first game for anyone. Just show you wife what you have made.

How about changing the two smaller circles, one to heart shape for live and one to another shape for health?

VERY good idea! A heart for the lives and a hollow + shape for the health. I can then make the hollow + be "filled" for full health and then have it lower when hit.

Would it be real $ eventually to buy virtual coins?

I'm not sure I understand your question :\

On art, there should be quite a few good graphics designers around whom you can collaborate with. If not, remember the game called geometry wars where you just need multiple simple shapes with different colors. They should work nicely too.

I'm hoping to find someone to help with the graphics. I could do the geometry wars style, but with the way everything else already looks, it might look goofy. Unless everything were redone to the same style

That's a very good first game for anyone. Just show you wife what you have made.

Hey, thanks! And I have shown my wife... she thinks it's cool, but doesn't get why I'm doing it

I'm not sure how I feel about the top level parallax animation of stars. I guess you could argue they're debris or something but they feel out of place, being the same size as the stuff on the background.

Other than that, fun little shooter!  Cool planet graphics.

I guess you could argue they're debris or something

Yeah, that was the idea at least A little space dust if you will. But being the same size at the stars flying around in the background might be a little confusing.

Other than that, fun little shooter!  Cool planet graphics.

thanks!

v0.2.4

UPDATE:

• Enemies now collide with each other affecting trajectory and some enemies speed.
• Enemies now have "mass" and can all spin according to how massive a colliding object is
• "Sparks" now appear when two objects collide
• New "enemy": Satellite  (seen on level 4). Slower and larger, but more health and interesting shape.
• New "enemy": External Fuel Tank. This actor replaces the final bonus level enemy.
• Bonus level small enemies stop generating after External Fuel Tank appears.
• I found a bug with the scoring system when if it was still "counting up" when the timer ran out and the scene changed, you would lose the points it hadn't counted yet. Now, when the timer goes to 0, all remaining points to add are just instantly added.
• The smallest enemy had an oversize collision box, this is now fixed.
• The GUI has been modified to help distinguish with number is "lives" (the heart) and which number is "health" (the +)
• From:
• To:     

Let me know what you guys think wither here in the forum, or at my games page:
http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/4519 <-- click to play and please leave helpful comments (praises, criticisms, suggestions)

Great game!
I had a little trouble hitting the small enemies first, so eventually the game became gradually easier with the bigger enemies. The fact that I first died on the bonus level made me wonder isn't bonus levels usually easy with a lots of points? My only problem was that the game is taller than my laptop screen (fortunately not too much) so I didn't see much of the GUI (First I played without seeing the ship, but that was pretty hard ) Maybe an endless mode would be nice with increasing difficulty. I also hope you plan some ship upgrades with the money that can be collected.

I've played quite a few bonus levels that really make you work for those points/coins/etc. It's like a little extra difficulty to emphasize the score difference between players of different skill levels.