Archive: 28 posts

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Strikewing: Operation StarshockJirugameshi http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12800Creators: Gilgamesh & aer0blue An arcade-style, side-scrolling shoot 'em up with a twist. Take control of the super advanced fighter Strikewing to stop the alien invasion. Strikewing: Operation Starshock puts in you control of a transformable fighter capable of three different transformations. You can pick up powerups to increase the strength of your weapons and replenish your health. Learn to master the Strikewing and its different forms to defeat the alien overlords. Single-player only, but additional players can enter the level as spectators. Thanks for playing. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPYA4Tx7z9U Screenshots: http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12798http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12799 http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12797http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12801

2010-02-14 04:58:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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Aha, finally! I got an early look at this level, and was blown away by the ingenuity of it all. I've never seen such creative use of the tethered jetpack. I've just shut down the PS3 for the night, so I'll play it tomorrow.

2010-02-14 05:16:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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I've republished the level with the following change : The second boss now gives more points when killed. Judging by the scoreboard, no one has beat the second boss yet (aside from me) so I figured it was a good time to fix that. I've also been wondering whether I should add special bonuses when a player finishes the level without taking a single hit, or if they finish without picking up any powerups.

2010-02-14 15:55:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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I demand this be spotlighted!!!

2010-02-14 20:10:00 Author: The Gentleman Posts: 360

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Fear not, I have a nagging suspicion that it will be spotlighted. Good job Gil, I'll have to play this one asap. I guess I don't need to worry about making an LBP version of R-type anymore

2010-02-14 20:30:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465

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Very nice level! I played this last night, but i found it to be a bit difficult haha. (I was unable to beat the first boss!) The movement of the ship was a bit choppy and not the greatest, but what would you expect without key mapping? I Also think that maybe the switches that sense the plasma balls hitting the ship are a little off because during the boss fight, I would randomly take damage without touching any of the plasma balls and die. It was a little aggravating. I like the way the ship transforms! If you could somehow make it so it's speed and range changes in each form it would be even better. I'm not sure if it already does because I didn't pay much attention to it except for when its in its upright mode when the plasma balls go much further. It could go like, Ship mode- Shortest range, Fastest movement speed In-between mode - Medium range and speed Upright Mode - Longest range, slowest movement. The enemies were great as well. The ones that open and close are pretty hard to kill hahaha but thats on purpose i'm pretty sure. If you could make power ups that just appeared without having to kill one of those guys it would be a little better IMO. Overall I really liked the look of the level with interesting enemies and a cool ship. I also liked how you made the intro thing like an arcade machine hahah. Maybe when I go to play next time i'll be able to complete the level! 5 stars! If you don't mind, please review my level Canyon of the Three-Headed beast? The link to it's thread is in my sig. Thanks in advance!

2010-02-14 21:05:00 Author: SupaSack34 Posts: 180

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Just in the process of playing it and I think I manged to break it. I beat the first boss, then beat the second boss, and now I've fought about 5 of those skeletal bug things and there's a cityscape scrolling past me but no more enemies. I've let it run for about two minutes and nothing new is emitting. EDIT: oh and what's worse I can't log my score now since the ship can't be destroyed and if I pop I respawn in the area with the ship again.... dang. Well, 1710 for the record

2010-02-14 21:33:00 Author: Morgana25 Posts: 5983

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Very nice level!Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I Also think that maybe the switches that sense the plasma balls hitting the ship are a little off because during the boss fight, I would randomly take damage without touching any of the plasma balls and die. It was a little aggravating.Well, because I have to use key switches to detect the proximity of enemy bullets, it's possible to take damage if they get too close even if they don't explode on the ship, though they generally have to get very close. Were you taking care to avoid the spikes on the floor and ceiling of the boss room? Those can damage the ship too if you fly into them. I like the way the ship transforms! If you could somehow make it so it's speed and range changes in each form it would be even better. I'm not sure if it already does because I didn't pay much attention to it except for when its in its upright mode when the plasma balls go much further.I wanted to make the modes have different movement speeds, but the LBP engine didn't like it unfortunately. Each mode has different weapon powerups, and also some modes are easier to get hit than others depending on where the bullets are coming from (it's generally much easier to avoid things in ship mode). The enemies were great as well. The ones that open and close are pretty hard to kill hahaha but thats on purpose i'm pretty sure. If you could make power ups that just appeared without having to kill one of those guys it would be a little better IMO.I could make those enemies easier to kill if they're really causing trouble, but it's really just a question of lining up to them and firing until they die. If you hit them just right, you can also force open their shell so you can hit their weak spot. If you don't mind, please review my level Canyon of the Three-Headed beast? The link to it's thread is in my sig. Thanks in advance! Sure thing, I'll check it out. Just in the process of playing it and I think I manged to break it. I beat the first boss, then beat the second boss, and now I've fought about 5 of those skeletal bug things and there's a cityscape scrolling past me but no more enemies. I've let it run for about two minutes and nothing new is emitting. EDIT: oh and what's worse I can't log my score now since the ship can't be destroyed and if I pop I respawn in the area with the ship again.... dang. Well, 1710 for the record Well, let me start off by saying congratulations on beating the second boss! That's a very strange bug though, normally you should have been taken to the scoreboard. I'm also not sure how you've managed to fight enemies after the second boss because there's nothing set up to spawn more enemies. Thanks for the report, I'll try to see what might cause it.

2010-02-14 21:35:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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Ok, just got done playing this numerous times. This level is an absolute blast. I think the job you've done on the transformations is incredible, and the graphics are great. I also thought the way you used plane shifting and turning off the jetpack for an additional control switch was genious. The only thing I have a problem with is the controls.... they seem REALLY fiddly. I would suddenly dip down and get hit when I was trying to stay still, or I was trying to go up a BIT to aim at an enemy and go WAY up. I THINK you're using buttons to trigger the directional movement, and the buttons not working consistently when pressing on the sides may be the issue. The only thing I could suggest is maybe using 1-shot grab for firing (to force the player not to grab all the time and allow more free movement) and give the sackboy a bit more room to move inside the container so you could use sensor switches.... but having not seen your behind-the-scenes mechanics I have no idea whether what I'm suggesting would work. Also, once when playing firing stopped working all together on all 3 transformations, so I broke something. However, I gave it 5 stars and a heart. I know it's difficult to get LBP to do exactly what you want when you aren't doing a platforming level, so I'm not holding it against the level. Great job!

2010-02-14 22:00:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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Ok, just got done playing this numerous times. This level is an absolute blast. I think the job you've done on the transformations is incredible, and the graphics are great. I also thought the way you used plane shifting and turning off the jetpack for an additional control switch was genious.Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! The only thing I have a problem with is the controls.... they seem REALLY fiddly. I would suddenly dip down and get hit when I was trying to stay still, or I was trying to go up a BIT to aim at an enemy and go WAY up.I'm sorry to hear that, but I agree. I've tweaked the control to keep direction-sticking and input-lag as minimal as possible, unfortunately I think that's the best that I can do with the system I'm using. I had to add a bit of lag before the ship stops moving in order to allow diagonal movements to work smoothly. I THINK you're using buttons to trigger the directional movement, and the buttons not working consistently when pressing on the sides may be the issue. The only thing I could suggest is maybe using 1-shot grab for firing (to force the player not to grab all the time and allow more free movement) and give the sackboy a bit more room to move inside the container so you could use sensor switches.... but having not seen your behind-the-scenes mechanics I have no idea whether what I'm suggesting would work.Sackboy is actually trapped inside a ring of pink floaty, which is held in place inside a box using springs. I detect which side the ring is being pushed to using four keys. I had a prototype system that used buttons, but it was almost entirely unreliable. Also, once when playing firing stopped working all together on all 3 transformations, so I broke something.That can happen if the gun is snapped off by something. I was pretty sure I had fixed all of the monsters that could cause this so it wouldn't happen. Do you happen to remember if you had crashed into a particular monster? However, I gave it 5 stars and a heart. I know it's difficult to get LBP to do exactly what you want when you aren't doing a platforming level, so I'm not holding it against the level. Great job!Thank you, that means a lot. It's unfortunately true that in LBP the only thing you can ever get perfect 1-1 control over is Sackboy.

2010-02-14 22:40:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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That can happen if the gun is snapped off by something. I was pretty sure I had fixed all of the monsters that could cause this so it wouldn't happen. Do you happen to remember if you had crashed into a particular monster? Unfortunately, I didn't realize it happened at first, so I have no idea what I hit. One thing you may want to try (it worked well in Sea Dragon) is to use 4 sensor switches set to 180 degrees instead of the mag switches/keys. You may be able to place them close enough together to allow better diagonal movement and allow the player to change directions easier. Since the floaty pushes the sackboy back into the middle, it may work.

2010-02-15 00:58:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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very cool shmup it is a little tuff moving but the more you try the higher your score gets I got up to 1st place and beat out morgana wooo but 2nd boss got me I always took hits even then I was inbetween em but i made him scream before I went down in flames lol.

2010-02-15 02:09:00 Author: Xeno_Destroyer Posts: 72

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very cool shmup it is a little tuff moving but the more you try the higher your score gets I got up to 1st place and beat out morgana wooo but 2nd boss got me I always took hits even then I was inbetween em but i made him scream before I went down in flames lol. Wow, really? I saw your score and I was really impressed. I was sure you had taken every monster and boss to school. I hope you had fun, and congratulations on getting top score.

2010-02-15 02:28:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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Great to see you guys enjoy the level! Gilg and I have worked pretty hard on this (although it's mostly been him... :]). I just took care of some enemy designs, worked with some backgrounds, playtested and suggested stuff here and there. The real brains behind all this is him. Kudos, bud!

2010-02-15 07:33:00 Author: aer0blue Posts: 1603

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I just took care of the technical/tedious stuff, it wouldn't have looked nearly as nice and varied without aer0's valuable input. I can't take all the credit d00d.

2010-02-15 12:35:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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Fantastic job guys. This is truly a fantastically innovative experience, but I wouldn't expect anything else knowing that Gil was involved in the technical design. The transforming was awesome. When I saw the head poke up for the body transformation I had a big smile across my face. Very very cool concept. The overall design of the level and enemies were also quite impressive. I had a lot of fun giving this a bunch of tries, but it's definitely not easy to master. Given the immense challenge in a technical implementation of this sort, I'll go easy on the jitters behind the controls. I'll just say that a) it was often difficult to take down targets because the firing range is low and targets appear to need many many hits to take out. combined with some fiddling with the controls to get aimed up, It was often easier to dodge them entirely. b) i took damage from a lot of things that I couldn't see... I guess the top and bottom of the screen are also lethal? I got as far as the first boss, and didn't notice any powerups so I can't say much for the differences between modes. It appeared to me the firing range for the bipedal form was superior to other forms, so generally I tried to use this mode as it gave me the best chance of taking out targets. I was only really successful at dropping the floating eyeball critters... everything else seemed to require more ammo than I had time to unload. I'm not sure if the robot form has longer range, but this got me thinking in addition to powerups, maybe by default, each mode could be set up as a risk/reward system. For example, robot form has the largest surface area and [I think] is easiest to take damage in, however, longer ammo range might be the payoff (and perhaps slower rate of fire). Similarly, maybe the plane form has short range, but higher firing rate allowing you to use it to take out targets on short notice. If you choose to do something like this, I would try to make the transformation process more speedy. This would encourage people to use different modes for different applications. Like I said, up until the first boss I didn't see any powerups, and if there are only two bosses, maybe something like this would be a good idea. Overall, I think it's a fantastic effort. It definitely gets 5 stars. If you're able to improve the hit detection system and make some of the enemies a bit more killable, I think this level will impress even more. It might make it easier to reach/beat the second boss, but then maybe this would be a good segue to a multi-level (stage 1, 2, 3 etc) series, whereby the reward for beating the level isn't a highscore so much as it is the key to the next, harder stage.

2010-02-15 15:17:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465

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After putting quite a bit more time into this one, I've started to really appreciate it. I've concluded that the gameplay is deeper than it appears at first, and transforming into the different craft types and saving up the power-ups until they're needed is much more important than it first appears. I've also noticed that you've balanced some of the landscape to compensate for the tricky controls, so thats a plus. Although for the first several playthroughs I had no idea the landscape that was passing by was hurting me... I thought I was getting hit for no reason. Since the landscape is passing in front of you it appears more as scenery to the player, and therefore the player may not realize why their health is going down (they aren't hitting it, they're passing behind it) The only thing at this point I've found a bit cheap is the 2nd boss.... it's not a matter of how fast he fires the plasma, but that accidentally maneuvering into a plasma when I KNOW I could have avoided it with better controls is frustrating. However, I'm going to keep trying to beat it...

2010-02-16 13:35:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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Oh! The scenery hurts you!? D'uh. Okay, looks like I need to try again.

2010-02-16 14:33:00 Author: comphermc Posts: 5338

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Very difficult, but I liked it alot. Some fiddly controls, yet the transforming is genius, in that I don't know how it works, but a little pointless, because Each form didn't do anything different. am i missing something? 4.5 stars Great work.

2010-02-16 14:39:00 Author: KQuinn94Z Posts: 1758

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Thanks for all the feedback! I'll try to think of a solution to make it more obvious that flying into the spikes will damage the ship, but unfortunately I can't simply extend it into the main layers because then it would collide with the ship and break all sorts of things. As for the second boss, defeating it is really a question of learning when to attack and when to retreat. The safe areas where you won't get hit by any plasma balls will put you out of range of attack, while getting in range to attack will put you in a position where you can get hit. I hope that helps. @killzonequinn07: The different forms have different shapes, so this affects where the bullets can hit you. Also, each form has different powerups, and the robot form's basic weapon has a greater range than the others.

2010-02-16 14:53:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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My boy and I had all the same issues/gripes as mentioned above... seemingly unfair hits (we didn't realize the scenery was hurting us either), control issues, aim issues, and a lack of any visible power-ups. We both thought it was a nice design and an interesting implementation of it. The visuals are awesome and the transformer is very cool. I've seen the inner workings on this, and it's really quite ingenious. Also, no one has really mentioned the HUD - well done!! Now... A little thought on the intro/instructions. Both my son and then his friend bypassed the instructions not realizing they were bypassing the instructions. The initial screen says R1 to Skip, and they both thought that all they were skipping was a credits/intro. They didn't realize there were instructions as well. So you might want to consider rewording the text on that front panel in some way. Just a thought. :star::star::star::star::star:, Hearted and tagged Brilliant (from me) :star::star::star::star: and tagged Tricky (from my son)

2010-02-16 17:43:00 Author: v0rtex Posts: 1878

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Wewt I tied Morgana! DD

2010-02-17 02:21:00 Author: SupaSack34 Posts: 180

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I've republished the level with the following aesthetic changes: There is now a red glow behind the spikes in the first stage and the boss room. Hopefully, this should help make it more obvious if you get damaged by the spikes. As an added bonus, they are now easier to see in the boss room. The "R1 to Skip" message now only appears after the instructions have started to be displayed. You can still press R1 at any time to skip the instructions. I know I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record by now, but I really appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks for playing.

2010-02-18 01:14:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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I liked it. I thought it was important to say that 'cuz I'm about to criticize it and I can sound like kind of a jerk when I do (it's not intentional: it just sort of comes across that way). The control lag was very difficult to get over. It was only a fraction of a second, but at times it felt like an eternity between when I pushed the thumbstick and when the ship started moving. Have you considered instead of using a control box, actually having the player move the ship with the jetpack? It can be a little difficult because it severely limits how heavy you can make the ship, but it makes the controls much more responsive. It's already been mentioned, but the hit detection was annoying. The thing is a plasma ball lends itself perfectly to making a contact switch. What I did was glue the plasma to a tiny, thin layer square of pink floaty with a mag switch and emitter. I put the key on the plasma. It's basically a p-switch but with a plasma ball instead of dissolve. Once the plasma pops, it triggers the one-shot switch which emits a short lifetime spark effect (tiny led) with a different colored mag key. It's this key that actually triggers the ship to take damage. That way it's impossible to take damage without getting hit. You wouldn't even really need to make a spark: it'd be easy enough to make an invisible bit of material with the key instead, so it's all transparent to the player: they just know that the plasma ball hit them and they took damage. The terrain and boulder damage is fine the way it is (I liked the red lights or gas on the spikes: I knew right away that I should avoid them). Loved the design of everything: the ship, enemies, and terrain. I did kind of wish I could shoot a bit further (especially since the controls weren't responsive enough that I wanted to get too close to enemies 'cuz I wouldn't have time to dodge), but I suppose that's just part of the difficulty. I also really liked the hud at the bottom of the screen. I guess if I'd read the instructions (pressed R1 as soon as I entered the level: didn't know I would be skipping everything) I would've been able to figure out the powerups and the transformations. Also, I was very glad to receive a full health bar powerup after the first boss fight. [EDIT] Played a couple more times. Had a better experience after paying attention to the instructions. I find that it's difficult to know whether I'm actually hurting the enemies. They don't have a hp gauge and the plasma balls don't seem to actually hit them (mag keys again?). There's no feedback whatsoever until they just fall down and die. I got stuck up on one of the glowing three dot things where the cave splits into two paths. I couldn't back off 'cuz I was already on the edge of the screen and I couldn't shoot 'cuz they were blocking the emitter. My ship ended up breaking and falling in a heap at the bottom of the level. I watched for a while: seems like the level is pretty cool after that part: smashed up buildings and all that. Eventually enemies quit spawning and there was just the scrolling background. So yeah, seems like it could use some work.

2010-02-18 23:03:00 Author: Sehven Posts: 2188

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lol at first look I thought those pics was a old nes game:-P I so got to try that when I got my net working agian for me ps3

2010-02-27 19:42:00 Author: Delirium Posts: 349

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Hey Gilgamesh, were you inspired by RRR300000's levels to make one of this side-scrollers? I'm just askin'. Haven't played it yet though, but from your pictures I can tell it sure deserves 10 stars at least. And a heart!

2010-03-01 06:11:00 Author: Botak_boy Posts: 56

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This is definitely like R-Type and Gradius. One of the greatest arcade game style level ever. By the way, I might have told you this in the comments of your level but the 2nd boss didn't show up but it somehow did after I restarted. Yeah it's a bug that interfered with the 2nd boss. Great level though. Oh yeah, I came in 3rd place in the scoreboard the last time I played this level. :>

2010-03-06 18:07:00 Author: JustinArt Posts: 1314

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Necroing my own level thread? Oh noes. But I do have an important update: I added a video to the first post! Since I just got a capture device I decided to go ahead and capture this level as a test. I think the video turned out great, and it should help those who struggle with the second boss (even though I played badly). Hopefully bringing this back to light might also inspire new creators that are planning on making shmups for LBP2 to get some ideas.

2010-08-19 03:31:00 Author: Gilgamesh Posts: 2536

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