Dust and Rocks 2

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#1

Hey there. First post at this forum, so i thought i’d share my game Dust and Rocks 2 with you :slight_smile:



The game is a vertical shooter i have been working on for almost 1 year now (while working on other projects aswell).

The game features:
Multiple levels with a boss you have to destroy at the end of each level.
Weapon buying after each stage.
Multiplayer support for up to 5 players.
Highscore list based on score, version and players.

The game is made using my own game engine. The same engine is used for 2 other games on the website:
Hydro Hydra and the game in the banner.

I hope you guys will be kind enough to leave a few comments on the game.

If you have no idea what to comment on, perhaps the following will help:

  • What did you think of the game?
  • How far did you get in the game? (Did you give up? Did you lose? Did you win? and so on.)
  • What was the most boring experience with the game? (ideas to avoid this would be welcome aswell)
  • What did you find annoying in the game?
  • What part of the games graphics should i work on next?
  • Should any of the sounds be improve? What events should also trigger sounds?
  • Did the game run smooth? (If not, i’d be really happy to hear of your system specs and perhaps a readout from the console, after pressing F12 once while in the game)

Hope you try the game and have a great time :slight_smile:

  • Scarzzurs
#2

That’s pretty slick. ;D Only had time for a quick go, so I’ll give it another go and post some proper thoughts later.

#3

Very nice!

And easy, 5401 points and I finished the game the first time I played.
The first time in the weapon shop I thought I could upgrade my weapons…
I think a “sell” option would be better for freeing a slot and then “buy” new weapons instead of upgrading.
Looking forward to seeing new enemies and (oldschool)-bosses!

#4

Hey, thanks for the fast comments :slight_smile:

I can see quite the change on the highscore list, so i guess it is a bit easy :slight_smile:
That being said, i still have to take the new users into account, so if i am to change difficulty i think it’ll be change the difficulty increase curve rather then changing it by a multiplier…

About the buy menu, it is indeed very weird, crammed and unclear. It was designed with the thought of 5 player into mind.
Comments and ideas on the buy menu are very much appreciated, but please keep this in mind when thinking of suggestions :slight_smile:
I’d prefer not using a sell function instead of upgrade since new users might face difficulties when trying to buy stuff and because it would make it harder to see the wether you could upgrade a weapon or not. Thanks for the input though, i’ll keep it in mind. Further modifications on this idea is also very welcome :slight_smile:

  • Scarzzurs
#5

Cool game, I like the particle effects with the dust.

The boss at the end of stage 2 ate me :frowning:

It wasn’t easy to buy weapons, it’s hard to tell how it works.
For some reason it took ages to load.

The web site looks very good by the way.

#6

Fine game but I’m a little bit disappointed that someone has added one more 2D game here (I prefer 3D games of course). I finished only the first stage. It’s fast. It might be better if you put a progress bar while loading the applet, it’s only a detail.

#7

Random thoughts:

  • I think if you’re going to have fast bullets (compared to most vertical shooters) you should probably damp the ship movement a bit more so it’s less drifty and you can get more precise movements.
  • Most of the higher priced weapons seem to favour slow firing and homing ability. It’d be nice to have something more rapid and focused (like the earlier red minigun and blue rockets) but with higher firepower as an option.
  • Bosses are nicely done. :slight_smile:
  • A few more bullet pattens would make things more interesting. Particularly bullets which aren’t fired directly at the player’s ship (such as just to one side or where they’re heading) keeps players on their toes.
  • You don’t seem to get any score bonus for how many lives you’ve got remaining?

You must be doing something right, I’ve played through it about four times now trying different combinations of weapons. ;D

#8

it’s fun - good work!

played once - stage 4

graphics (still ok, though)

lack of mouse support (at least for menus)

graphics and sound and at the same level (which is good) - but if you improve graphics you can do so for the sounds, too. What about some background sound/music?

yep

#9

@JonathanC:
I don’t remember you commenting by that name, but you’re registered as Steve on GU as of now? :slight_smile:
Thanks for commenting once again :slight_smile:

@Orangy Tang:
The movement is always up for discussion. Perhaps it is time that i start to listen to comments on this :slight_smile:
I’ll try to look into it soon :slight_smile:
I’m working on making a spinning enemy ship that fires vertically, i still have to create the graphics though, which might take a while. Thanks for reminding me of the importance though :slight_smile:
About lifes not adding to the score. I made that choice to make sure i didn’t punish the new players more then possible. Wether the choice was right or wrong i don’t know though :slight_smile:

@gouessej:
I’m sorry you expected something i didn’t deliver. Can’t say i’m going to change the game into 3d though :slight_smile:
I’ll consider a loading bar or atleast something similar :slight_smile:

@Everyone that doesn’t like the buy menu:
You’re all right, the buy menu is messed up, and as i’ve added more stuff to it and changed the funtionality it has become worse.
I am planning on removing a player from the multiplayer version (4 players max instead of 5) to make more room for description and such.
With 4 players as the maximum number i think it’d also be possible to add another key to the controls for selecting and such. This should improve the experience aswell. I’m very interested in seeing prototypes on the buy menu, if people feel like it. I think the players will have 256x224 pixels for their menu.

  • Scarzzurs
#10

Very nice game and ran smoothly on my PC.
Though it is not my kind of game I look forward to seeing more of your creations

#11

hey, v0.89 is quite an improvement. But it got much easier… so easy I got past the last level in the first attempt - will you make more levels? ;D

#12

@Jonathan: Ah i see :slight_smile:

@Overkill: i’ll try not to disappoint you :slight_smile:

@Irrisor: I don’t remember what the upgrade brought, but it is quite possible that it made the game easier. Version 0.90 will probably make it even more easy, as the enemies you kill count less towards what weapons you can afford. Comments on this change are also very welcome. :slight_smile:
I’ll try to add some more levels soon, i just need to get some good ideas for new enemies, draw their graphics and code them. Graphics are probably the hardest part, especially for the bosses. :slight_smile:

Btw. does someone have a good idea as to how i might acquire some good game music for the game for free (or credited)?

  • Scarzzurs
#13

Hmmm, didn’t know if it was ok to update, but since i updated it 2 times in between i thought i’d be aight. Hope i’m not breaking any rules. :slight_smile:

Anyways, updates:
I removed HIVE and added Hunter Missile instead. They may seem similiar, but the algorith is much different and hopefully this weapon will be more interesting.
I made the second and third boss weaker.
I changed the sound played when shots are fired.
The “printer” enemies (red strafing ships at the last level) got removed and replaced by a new type of enemy, which i am much more happy with.
The difficulty of the second last stage was increased, perhaps the last stage should too…
The buy menu got a fix or two and a special action key was introduced to make the buy menu easier… I hope that was the result at least…
Explosion effects and many other effects got fixed up a bit, i’m not sure i’m too happy with the explosions though…

I’m sure i’ve forgotten some pretty important updates… but this should do for now :slight_smile:
There are still some unanswered questions in the previous post. Please give them a look aswell.

Hope you enjoy the updates :slight_smile:

  • Scarzzurs