SO, WHAT IS THIS? It's a vertically scrolling space shooter. Not the most original of concepts, but i figured i'd start out by seeing if i could make something fun at all. Along the way, i picked up Chartle for additional programming and level design, and Basheman for wonderful chiptune goodness. Start the game, select your difficulty and weapons, and get shootin'!



Where it differs, however, is that your only actual objective is to get through the levels alive, since destroying them all is completely impossible (and i mean that literally). Since this gets way harder as the game progresses, you get money and XP for destroying aliens, which you can spend on upgrades in the inter-level shop, which can help you SHOOT MORE ALIENS.



As you can see, there's both buyable upgrades (costs DOSH) and skillpoints. The upgrades provide the most necessary changes, while skillpoints are there to tune your ship to your playing style, be that a heavily armored and mobile tank, or a not quite as armored deadly glass cannon, or anything in between. Note that the most powerful skill upgrades might require you to specialize!

So anyways, SLIGHTLY OUTDATED GAMEPLAY VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1h_Zwvpi2E

The game has, as of 23/08/2018, reached version 1.0! Version 1.1 has been released on 03/10/2018.

By now you're probably either running away briskly, or hoping for a download link. In the latter case, here you go:

Download here!

Just put the EXE in a folder of its own, it's going to export some files that it needs (and a few other goodies). Feedback most welcome! Hopefully there won't be any bugs, but if you run across any, do tell!

Additionally, Basheman's excellent soundtrack is available for listening and/or purchase at the following links:
Youtube
DistroKid/Spotify
Bandcamp
And Patreon, if you wish to support his future endeavours!

Hah, pretty awesome. I didn't get far at all, it's pretty challenging. I like the idea of the stronger static guns and the slightly weaker controllable gun. Nice job shook.

+rep for you sir.

Thanks for all the love, guys. I really appreciate it.

@Boredpayne: Please do, i'm eager to hear your thoughts. Also, i might switch to WASD in the next demo.

@Ryukendo99: Hee hee. But worry not, for that boss is actually supposed to appear at level 5, not level 1. I might have to upgrade it for that level though. :>

@Slycooper: First question: Not sure, but i think it might be the same codes all round. Just different codes for the various levels to start at. If you don't want a headstart, don't go looking for the codes on the internet. :U
Alternatively, completing the boss fights at level 5, 10, 15 and maybe 20 will just unlock the ability to start at the next level, eliminating the need for unlock codes.
Second question: They already do. :U (Wedges give 10 points, Blockfaces give 20, boss gives 1000)

@sidieldani: Ah yes, i see what you mean. Thanks for pointing it out.

@fistfury: Game Maker 8.

@ivolt: Most of the issues you've mentioned will be addressed later. The version you've played is just a very early beta/alpha, and it's still missing a LOT of content. There will be more levels (20 in total) and more bosses (4 in total), so it's still far from finished.

No news right now, i've just woken up recently and haven't done any developing today. :U
However, i've had an idea. Instead of having a new enemy pop up with every level, one of the current enemies will be upgraded at even-numbered levels, and a new enemy will appear at the odd-numbered levels. Should provide enough variety to keep things interesting, and it saves me a lot of work. =P (Like, the Wedge will be upgraded at level 2, new enemy at level 3, Blockface upgraded at level 4...)

Warblade? Sounds familiar, but i can't quite remember it. I'll have to check it out.

@Samurai: Let's be realistic; how many people have access to two mice as well as enough room on their desktop and keyboard to allow two players at once?

@fistfury: Hmm, decent idea. I'll think about it.

Also, i can assure you all that the next level will give you a seething hatred for wedges. All kinds of wedges. If you thought that Wedge ships were harmless, you will be proven wrong. :U
Level 2 is around... 50% done i reckon.

Yes, but you won't get extra points if you don't perform better than your last try. So like, you can improve your score, but you can't grind the same level over and over to farm cash and XP. An example: You start out by completing a level with a score of 1700. You decide to try again, and score 2100 this time. In this case, you'll end up with 2100 points from the level, but if you were to try a third time and score 1500, then that is the number that will be used. This also means that you could get in trouble later if you perform badly, but rest assured that the game can be completed by an average player. Near the end of the game, you'd have most available upgrades purchased on an average playthrough, and even more on an exceptionally good one. I'm not aiming towards days of grinding gameplay, but rather an hour or two of smooth and intense gameplay that keeps you on your toes.

According to my calculations, the current levels will take around 72 seconds each to run through, and with 20 levels, that adds up to 24 minutes of gameplay. A bit underwhelming actually. Might have to do more levels in light of this, or perhaps make later levels longer. Some levels will probably be replayed, either because of death or wanting a higher score.

Aye, it is a hard game, but it should be completable. Especially when i give the bosses levels of their own. Every ordinary level is going to end with a special encounter though, meaning a pack of the new/upgraded enemy you'll see in the next level. Not nearly as hard as a boss, but still enough to provide a sense of surprise. HOWEVER, no lives will be provided, but at least you can try as many times as you want. You'd just have a limited number of retries if you had lives. I'd hate that myself.

Also, i'm nearly done with level 2, but the new enemy type is currently giving me hell. But when it's done, you'll get a new demo, which is a little bit easier to complete.

Basically.

@dragoblade: Well, it's the first game i've made from scratch. I've fiddled a bit with a few of the Game Maker tutorials, but they came with pre-made graphics and such. This time around, i'm making it all, except music and sounds. :U

Also, the new demo is ready. Get it here and very soon in the first post.

New features:
- Two more levels (one of them is the boss level)
- Level 1 no longer contains a boss
- Two new enemy types (see help file for info)
- Slightly higher rate of fire on front guns
- Some polishing here and there, and a new shiny button on the main menu

Thanks!

@Chartle: Oh snap, bugs. Oh well, bugs are to be expected in any version short of the finished one. I'll see to it that it's fixed. Also, the problems with the turret was that the gun graphics (separate of the base) were very hard to remove individually along with the turret on death, but i managed to fix it. Thanks for offering to help, though.

@Zapachoo: Prepare your tissue papers, for i'm using drag and drop. :U
If there is anything in particular you'd like to have explained, do tell. Making shots travel towards the mouse is dead simple (on creation move towards mouse_x and mouse_y with speed blahdiblah), but making the sprite rotate to fit the movement is a little bit trickier.
[Game Maker talk]
It involves making a sprite that faces right, and then have Game Maker make a 360 degrees rotating (counter-clockwise) animation with 360 frames. This sprite is given to the shot, and after the shot is set in motion, make it change sprite to subimage "direction-1". The sprite will then correspond to the motion of the shot.
[/Game Maker talk]

@ivolt: There will be at some point. I'm going to be unoriginal and call it Nightmare difficulty, ala Quake. Ridiculously hard, but earns you mad bragging rights. :U

@sidieldani: Don't worry, the boss will be improved soon. Among other things, it will have autotracking lasers like those of the turrets, but the lasers move much faster. It's going to be a holy nightmare, because once i get the shop and XP system made, you're likely going to have something better than your starting weapons to fight it.

Also, i just received a response from the music artist, Aureametaphus on Newgrounds. I've been given the green light to use his music from Newgrounds (provided that i give credits), so you can look forward to some damned sweet 8-bit goodness in the next demo.

I've achieved about the same (probably less actually) with Python, so don't feel bad. :U

@Muffindo: Oh right, you silly AZERTY users. I'm pretty sure that QWERTY outnumbers AZERTY, but i guess i shouldn't be discriminatory like that. I think i've found a decent way of switching between the two layouts, because there's really only two keys i need to worry about. Keys like E and F are in the same place, and are prime candidates for special weapons.

@Splinter: Thanks brah. Don't hold your breath though, because i can't really make more than one level per day. Plus, my vacation in Spain is drawing near.

@MADrBOT: The upgrades will be implemented later. Things like achievements and secrets i'm not quite sure about, though.

@Ghiita: I'm glad you're enjoying it.

@Blam: You won't be needing faster gameplay when the higher difficulties get implemented. What you're currently playing is the equivalent of Normal, and i'm thinking of making 4 different difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard and Nightmare. If Hard doesn't challenge you enough, Nightmare will. Nightmare is the kind of difficulty that isn't even remotely fair, as you'll have problems with just plowing through a few lines of Wedges. If anyone completed the game on this difficulty, they'll get crazy respect in my book. =P

Anyways, current progress:
- Fixed the bug Chartle mentioned
- Working on QWERTY/AZERTY compatibility

uhh yeah. I'm also going to put on music, and make a neat credits list.

Yes indeed, all graphics are by me so far. I might need a hand later on with the large-scale art, but we'll see by then. Also, thanks.
Goddammit multi-ninjaing anyways i'm using the Pro edition. Very nice, but i haven't actually used a lot of the Pro features. =P

@Bilza: Perhaps a bit surprisingly, this idea just came out of the blue, not really inspired by anything in particular. The aliens, however, are the ones i would originally have made for your game, which is probably what tipped you off. :U
And yes, that means you'll eventually encounter this ship and this ship. The latter is likely to have an instakill weapon (have you seen the SIZE of that gun?!), so i may change its coloration to red. But why red? Because red is typically a color associated with danger. And i'd say that an instakill weapon is equal to danger.

@Splinter: Noice. I'm not sure i can beat that without cheating. :U