New (old style) arcade game - Alien Swarm

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#1

I’ve been working on this project for quite a while now.
It’s just an old fashioned shoot them up and I’m intending to put it into it’s own arcade cabinet.
If anyone would like to try it out then please feel free.
If you get over 50k then you should get on the high score list.
Feedback is always welcome.
Alien Swarm

Mike

#2

I doubt there’ll be any copyright issues or anything but “Alien Swarm” is the name of a 2d top down game by Valve. I would recommend that you rename your game, if just to avoid confusion.

#3

Thanks for the heads up. This will be the 2nd time the game’s been renamed!

I tried coming up with a few new name choices but it’s quite difficult:

  • Solar Swarm? - turns out to be a band
  • Moon Base Alpha? - already a game
  • Last Stand? - film
  • Last Base - or has that got sexual connotations?
  • Solar System Defence - too long
  • Moon defence - ??
  • I’m getting desperate now…
#4

“[a planet’s or solar systems name] invaders”

Nice little game^^

#5

Old-fashioned shoot 'em up, against aliens?

  • Solar Onslaught
  • Solar Rush
  • Alien Rush
  • Planet Sentinel
#6

The Orion Attack.
:smiley:

#7

Good names for the games guys!

Any feedback on the game? too hard? too easy? boring? etc

Mike

#8

Just saw that “Earth time” in the top right…

#9

Just had a go and found it quite addictive. I think that you have got the balance between being too easy and being too hard just right. All in all, it’s a nice revamp of arcade games. :slight_smile:

#10

Very addictive game…
There’s a nice feeling to it… Well done.
:slight_smile:

#11

I’ve just finished a rewrite of the game and I think I’ve just about finished it now ::slight_smile:

  • It now runs at a higher resolution and has a number of better images
  • Trophies are awarded and you’re shown which trophies you’ve earned in the moving splash screen
  • You can scroll through the various splash screens with cursor left and right
  • There is a global high score for each of the 6 levels
  • The aliens have better fire power with two types of explosive fire
  • There are nice sliding icons telling you useful info
  • More particles
  • More stuff but I can’t remember what I’ve done

It would be nice to know:

  • if the game runs at full screen for people
  • is it too easy/too hard
  • do the levels and trophies make sense
  • does the high score system make sense
  • any other suggestions

Download the zip or just go to it’s home page.

Cheers Mike

#12

This game plays out pretty well, smoothly, and it seems well balanced. I especially like the various background items, and how different parts of the game transition in to each other on the same screen. +1 for style. :slight_smile:

I would like to see something replace those life/weapon/shield buttons though, it just seems to break the theme.

I had a couple problems. Running the game via the .jar means I just have a black screen, but the game still plays, perhaps -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true isn’t set by default when running the .jar. If I run it via the .bat, it draws in a very grainy way, perhaps a low color depth screen mode is being selected, even when effects is set to off.

This is what happens when print screened, but that’s the less important part.

#13

[quote=“Husk,post:12,topic:42846”]
Suggestions?

[quote=“Husk,post:12,topic:42846”]
I’ve just altered the program to take bit depth into account when deciding the resolution. You’ll need to download the zip again. Hopefully it will be less grainy now. You will still have to click the bat file to run the program unless you specify the nodraw option in the command line.

#14

Yup, thanks for the fix, looking much better. There’s some other very minor issues, but if it’s intending to be put in an arcade cabinet, it’s not a problem.

Perhaps the buttons can come down in a manner similar to those guns that appear at the top of the screen for a second. They’d have a more spacy feel rather than a box.

Also you might want some label indicating how the player can find the information about different items, powerups, trophies, and so forth, at the main menu.

Otherwise, it seems pretty solid to me. :slight_smile:

In regards to what you wanted to know…

The difficulty seemed fine, it allowed me to get through some levels, and then certainly got harder. I couldn’t just pick the weapon powerup every time, I actually had to get the shield, and life if necessary, that’s good. The game allows players to get better by playing the game more and understanding how the levels pan out, people will want to play it again. The high scores make sense. The trophies probably make sense, but I’m not going to achieve the others on a MAME scheme. :stuck_out_tongue: