Archive: 5 posts

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Hi there. As some of you are aware, I have been working long and hard on a vertical shooter level of which the first zone is about to be finished soon. In the hope of inspiring other creators and to create a bit of anticipation for the level’s final release, I’d like to create a bit of insight into the design process that went on behind the first boss that a player will encounter in the level. http://i7.lbp.me/img/ft/0673486a071a8aa59e65fc64cdb54dc3c9464bae.jpg But first a summary: Craftworld Aleste is inspired by the game series from the nineties titled “Aleste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleste)” - in some regions known as Power Strike - created by a small Japanese company named Compile. The game focuses on fast scrolling action and overwhelming numbers of enemies. There are a few crucial aspects that influenced the design decisions I made: Three manual difficulty settings: EASY) practice mode, for novice players; NORMAL) the way the game is supposed to be played, and; HARD) bullet hell, for veteran players, high score players or repeated play. An upgradeable arsenal: the player has a choice between 6 unique weapon types that can be upgraded during play by picking up corresponding (red) weapon pods. Also, yellow powerups gradually increase the power and spread of the player’s main gun. Red and yellow powerups drop from certain enemies, during boss fights as well. Temporary invulnerability: a secondary property of yellow powerups is that picking one up makes the player’s ship invulnerable for a duration of 1.5 seconds. I have a specific goal in mind with the manual difficulty system: replayability. I want the player to be able to learn and improve his skill, enjoy the game at whatever skill level he is comfortable at and to give him an incentive to try harder difficulty modes by rewarding higher scores, make boss battles gradually more engaging and create more of a challenge overall. http://i.imgur.com/PTuDX.jpg This is the dam boss in the original game (Aleste 2, MSX2, 1989). One of the flaws of that game, in my opinion, is that it was too easy. For the most part, one was never in any real danger as long as one blasts everything that is in front of the ship. I wanted more focus on dodging skills and - at higher difficulty – strategies. Phase one I started out with a duplication of the mechanics of the original boss: six eyes fire destructible bullets at you directly, while the large middle one fires a spread of slow bullets that require focused fire to destroy (and therefore should be dodged). In the first phase the player needs to destroy the six smaller eyes after which the second phase starts; the middle eye becomes vulnerable. http://i1.lbp.me/img/ft/1018b80b5203366b2a5fd1c9bf706daafbdf0a56.jpg With the manual difficulty system in place I increased the firing frequency for all eyes, leading to bullet hell on HARD mode; if you stay in one place for too long, you will get overwhelmed by enemy projectiles. And the more you have to move, the more you will have to mind the spread bullets from the main eye. During the first phase, as the player destroys small eyes, the fight becomes slightly easier with less projectiles hurled at him. Phase two Cue the second phase: there are no more small eyes, the large eye becomes vulnerable and just continues doing what it already did. In the original game a player would just blast away at it with little need to dodge and that turned out to be the case in my version as well. The challenge was gone and the destruction of the main eye became anticlimactic. In order to bring back the challenge I wanted to force the player to use his dodge skills as well during the second phase. http://i.imgur.com/v4IWh.png It was another game entirely that inspired me to a solution: a classic Gradius boss. In this fight the player needs to aim for the core of the boss ship and has to move away from its front when it fires off a laser beam. http://ie.lbp.me/img/ft/ede48675c23d8cb53dfcf8f950a7096aecaf7dab.jpg This brought back the challenge and put the focus back to dodging the attack (the beam and the bullet spread). Now, all that was missing was a teaspoon of strategy. The main eye charges up his laser which gives the player just enough time to get out of the way. The laser then tracks the player on a slow pace, creating a lethal wall closing in on him. The higher the difficulty level, the longer the laser’s duration and the faster it tracks you. On HARD mode that means that the laser will be able to chase you across almost the entire screen. In order to not be walled in and destroyed, the player will now have to position himself on one side of the screen until the laser discharges and then use the short window for an attack on the eye as the beam follows the player all the way to the other side. Upgrades http://i3.lbp.me/img/ft/4b32ec7ecf4110bbf2f3c034c181b93eb5e1a8e4.jpg Throughout the battle enemies appear in limited numbers. These drop red and yellow upgrades that entice the player to alter his attack pattern and upgrade his arsenal. It is up to the player to decide whether to take the risk of dying while pursuing an upgrade. On harder difficulty modes, the short burst of invulnerability that yellow upgrades give will help the player breaking out of a tight corner unharmed. Conclusion I hope you enjoyed reading about this backstage design process. If you create boss fights for your own levels, whatever genre it may be, I hope this article gives inspiration. I cannot yet mention a date when the level will be released, except that it will be soon. It is currently being alpha tested and I’ll be tweaking small things. If you are curious, then keep an eye on my activity stream. But I will make an announcement here on LBPC as well.

2012-01-12 12:25:00 Author: Antikris Posts: 1340

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Look great and only project that advance that keeps tradition of arcade conterparts

2012-01-12 12:44:00 Author: Shadowriver Posts: 3991

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I noticed the alpha on lbp.me, nice to get some more news. I think I liked Aleste 2 because it was easy. At least there I could get past the first level.

2012-01-12 16:01:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284

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I must say I've been waiting for this level ever since you first showed me some time ago. It plays very well. The boss fight is absolutely epic. Too bad I'm terrible at these scrolling shooters (that you already know ). Oh, and the giant eye laser of doom... I'll be back, this time with a strategy that actually works.

2012-01-12 16:16:00 Author: SSTAGG1 Posts: 1136

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I'll be sure to queue this up when its released. This is my type of game

2012-01-14 04:55:00 Author: CardboardBoxMan Posts: 60

Posts: 1077139    Threads: 69970    Members: 9661    Archive-Date: 2019-01-19

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