Entry: KYOTO HI-TECH HOMICIDE

lmtf

京都ハイ・テク殺人事件 — KYOTO HI-TECH HOMICIDE

Behold the rise of humanity’s greatest evolution. Discontent with augmenting our reality, we now recreate reality itself from our augmentations. Thus, metadata became data. Data became matter. Now we only see matter.

Kyoto Hi-Tech Homicide is a 2D, vertical-scrolling schmup (that is, “schoot-em-up”). The design is heavily influenced by all those Japanese companies you kinda have to name-drop if you want to be accepted by the schooting community. Like Raizing and Cave! But mostly Ruminant’s Whimper.

Here’s some of the exciting things you can look forward to!

Invigorating three-button system! (four if you count full-auto!)
A scoring system of sufficient depth!
Three whole levels unless that proves too ambitious!
An overblown, incomprehensible, pretentious storyline!
Incredible attention to detail!
It will tate!
I may snap!
HELL YEAH

TarTarSauce

That … actually sounds pretty awesome.

Looking forward to it!

lmtf

DAY 3 — 0 6 • 1 9 • 2 0 1 2

♪ FLY TO THE LEADEN SKY

Well, three days in and I’m doin’ fine. Bathroom breaks have been pretty regular; two poops and I can’t even count the pees. I keep a big bottle of water on my desk which I refill regularly and whose condensation has started to discolor the wood on the desk. Yesterday I woke up after only three hours of sleep and couldn’t sleep any more, so I used my sleep time to get work done. Then I spent my normal work time doubled over in stomach pain. Today, however, was normal.

A: SHOT • hold » focus
B: ボンバー！！
C: CHANGE OPTION FORMATION • front » pivot » wide » track
D?: FULL-AUTO
∅: █████ ████

sparkes

Nice, very Dōjin looking. It could be a Kenta Cho title.

oh, and remember to wash your hands. We don’t all want a dose of what you’ve got. ;)

matt

Great to see some WIP posts :)

lmtf

DAY 5 — 0 6 • 2 1 • 2 0 1 2

♪ PLANET THE E.A.R.T.H.

…er, i mean…

sparkes said: Nice, very Dōjin looking. It could be a Kenta Cho title.

Thanks! Kenta Cho makes some pretty cool stuff, so I’m glad to hear that I was able to capture a little bit of that magic!
(fun fact: rrootage was the game that introduced me to danmaku, and eventually got me interested in the joy of shooting!)

lmtf

DAY 7 — 0 6 • 2 3 • 2 0 1 2

♪ BREEZE

Enemy code IN
Enemy bullet code IN
Particle code IN
ボンバー！！コード IN
Scoring system code IN
WayneWaynePencils.cpp IN
Feeling strongly compelled to go ahead with my idea that will likely alienate the entirety of my playerbase and kill any chance of doing well in this competition
Level loading code IN

Pretty good for a first week, I think.

lmtf

DAY 9 — 0 6 • 2 5 • 2 0 1 2

♪ BURNING HEAT

Some people cater their games toward casual players.

Some people cater their games toward the hardcore.

I think I’m catering my game to piss off both.

YOUR BOMBER:

In place of the traditional bomb stock, you are given 1 (one) rechargeable laser bomb. The bomb has eight charge levels. It takes about 9 seconds to get to the first charge level, then 3 seconds per level up to level 8.

It does damage and clears bullets and stuff. But more importantly, it factors into the scoring in a major way.

HOW TO SCORE:

1. Throw down a bomb. Each enemy killed in the blast will jack that multiplier up! The stronger the bomb, the more potent the multiplier boost!
2. Chain. After the bomb, the multiplier will slowly fall back to 1. Chain enemies to slow the rate of descent!
3. Go to 1. Once your bomb charges back up, you can do it again to push the multiplier even higher!
4. Don’t die? Actually, things killed with the post-death shockwave will slow the fall rate, and dying gives a solid +3 to bomb energy. 死ぬがよい！

matt

Awesome work. Putting us all to shame :)

lmtf

DAY 11 — 0 6 • 2 7 • 2 0 1 2

♪ VISIONNERZ ~HALLUCINATED PEOPLE~

what are priorities

I have no idea what I’m going to do about the music, which sucks because I wanna start getting levels started next week and it’s tough to do that without at least some basic structure. And so far I only have level 3’s musical idea pinned down.

Like, here’s the thing. One of the underlying themes of this game is the concept of delusion. For a while I was struggling to put that idea into musical terms, but I think it might be doable by letting the player come up above for long enough to realize they were under this whole time. And that’s what the core of the third level is all about, but that’s where the problem lies.

After that point, you realize that everything else is but a cheap imitation. This turn would work in a normal game where you play it once-through and then you’re done, but not really in a game that’s short and meant to be replayed and re-experienced. Plus, shmups are all about the soundtracks, so it somehow seems unholy to intentionally create two (at the minimum) songs that are supposed to pale in comparison to everything else.

As a final bad turn, my musical style somehow drifted into pseudo-80s destroy everything and cry about it while I wasn’t looking. That ain’t gonna work.

zurashu

Cool to see some action gifs!
The continue screen looks nice.

Drexegar

Nice style, loving the fonts.

tr67

The dates on your posts are from last year? Just wondering if I missed something or if this is an entry from a previous competition.

lmtf

So you know how, after the new year, you tend to subconsciously write the previous year’s date on stuff for a couple of weeks or so? For me, that whole thing tends to last for apparently half of the year.

Posts edited accordingly. I can’t believe I did that.

lmtf

DAY 13 — 0 6 • 2 9 • 2 0 1 2

♪ IN A LONELY PLACE

I’m running out of things to say… Right now I’ve hit the grind-y part, where I’m putting in various enemies that I think will be interesting to interact with, and trying to polish things up where I can. Later I get to arrange them into actual levels!

Still at a roadblock with the music thing. I kinda want it to sound somewhat stiff and digital, but I don’t want to make it techno (way too overdone for futuristic settings—at that point I might as well dress up the cast in spandex). I want the kind of simple, vapid melodies you hear in pop music; I want a very white, non-offensive sound. But I still want those complex undertones. I want to make something with an impact, but not in an in-your-face way that’s stripped of all subtleties. And not a direct impact, either. Just something that grazes past you, without impacting your emotional hitbox.

Dodging music, I guess. What’s music even going to sound like in 200-300 years? I hope I figure these things out soon. I only have so many weeks to get something presentable.

Also, on a final note, I’m sorry for not interacting more with the community. While I have been doing my best to follow everything that’s going on, and am loving everything that I’m seeing so far, I’ve done very little to actually show it. I’m a little bit better on IRC, but that still doesn’t excuse my behavior. I’m deeply grateful for all the attention this project has received from you guys, especially considering that this isn’t a genre that appeals to many people at all. I’ll try my best to pay that gratefulness forward in the future.

tr67

It looks like it’s shaping up really well! I love the concept of fitting some [f*** with your] mind games into the twitch-reaction arena. Great work.

I’ve been spending my free time working on my game, and I read my IRC buffer, but haven’t been conversing much either. Everyone has been really professional and pleasant though, so I’m sure we’re all kosher.

lmtf

DAY 15 — 0 7 • 0 1 • 2 0 1 2

♪ DESPERATE SCHOOL

I looked back at the “what I want” list, and came to a shocking realization. The sound I want…was done to the letter in ESP Ra.De.

In fact, my game shares a number of similarities to ESP Ra.De, at least in vision.

I am not a fan of ESP Ra.De.

But while trying to figure out what I want, the truth is that my mind is split.

I want clean but also dirty.

I want piercing but also intangible.

I want truth but also lies.

I want 表 but also 裏

(i did like nothing this weekend sorry)

dertom

Awesome…and looks like you are really far already. Can’t wait to see the finished product. Keep on rocking…

lmtf

DAY 19 — 0 7 • 0 5 • 2 0 1 2

♪ SKIM THE SURFACE OF THE SEA

(btw: do these threads “page” after a while? if not, as much as i love the gifs, i’m probably gonna hafta start cutting/neutering them or something)

Ideas are great, and it’s good to have a goal in mind. But eventually you just gotta say “screw it” and work with what comes out. It’s never the most thematically consistent. It never conforms to your ideals exactly. There’s always gonna be the pain of knowing that a part of your idea will never get to surface into reality.

When I was younger this used to terrify me. I equated it to being able to only give birth to deformed children. It would wreak so much havoc on my psyche that my creative output flatlined for years. Thus, I never got better, and could never break past it. It still affects me to this day, a little bit.

But eventually you just gotta say “screw it” and work with what comes out.

[CHUNK] 1:
City » Sea » Tunnel
Or maybe Sea » City » Tunnel
I want the tunnel at the end so that I can do cool things with it.
I want to do lots of cool things with the tunnel.
So maybe [CHUNK] 2 will be Tunnel » ?? » ???

Drexegar

@lmtf I used to be like that, then I always try to be realistic with my ideas, except for drawing, I would have to draw something more than once or twice to get it the way I have in my head.

lmtf

DAY 21 — 0 7 • 0 7 • 2 0 1 2

♪ PURPLE TWILIGHT

This is not good.

I’m spending less and less time working on my game.

I only got, what, a month and a couple weeks? And I have an engine. Good, yeah, but the content is what matters. The content is what will (hopefully) separate this from all those shitty “SPACE SHOOTERS” you guys are inundated with on a daily basis. They drive the perception of this unique and beautiful genre straight into the ground, and that makes me sad.

And so far…I don’t really have anything.

I only have like 10 seconds of the first [CHUNK]’s song in a listenable state (but at least the idea’s now here). I have a smattering of enemies in different shapes and sizes, but a lot will still need to be custom-made for the levels themselves. I have the scenery, but I still don’t know why the player is traversing that scenery.

In fact, I don’t know much about the story at all. I mean, I’ve got the backstory in place (world, location, rough idea of the titular murder mystery), but that doesn’t make for an engaging narrative. And we all know that the narrative is the most important part of the shooting experience.

Sorry guys. I’ll be sure to try harder. Even though that’s a running theme here, that’s really all I can do at this point.

So: My new goal is to get [CHUNK] 1 done by next week. In its entirety. Enemies, music, backgrounds, protagonist motivation, the whole ordeal. I can do this. There’s no excuse for me not to be able to do this.

Drexegar

I have this problem myself, the only way I have of solving is, I just use willpower, which means I stop my distraction or whatever useless thing I may be doing that’s is not helping me and continue working on my game. Kinda of like struggle or punching procrastination in the face. Keep up the great work!

matt

You can do it. You gotta believe! #parappa

Alternaria

Hi! If you want, you can use my song “Enter the vortex” for your game:

http://soundcloud.com/kyotoconnection/04-enter-the-vortex

It’s creative commons licensed… you can use it freely…

Hope it helps to motivate you!

Facundo

lmtf

DAY 23 — 0 7 • 0 9 • 2 0 1 2

♪ INVASION

Recently I realized that one of my big time-sinks is, ironically enough, these posts. For some reason it takes me like an hour to put one together, and I don’t even know why. So instead, let’s not write up all my feelings for once!

@Drexegar I think one of my big problems is that I’m kinda afraid of the editing process. I almost think I have this subconscious thing that I have to get it right on the first try. Thus it slows my output down to a crawl since I’m essentially doing nothing during the time when lightning isn’t striking, so to speak. And even though I speak like this is some thing I’ve gotten over, the truth is that these neuroses are still there. The only difference is that they’re only disturbing and not downright paralyzing.

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you break through these problems? Was it just through sheer willpower, like you said, or is there some other mindset that helped you get to that point?

@matt Man, you gotta love PaRappa. Through sheer ambition, he managed to get the girl, get the drivers license, learn self-defense, and put on a bumpin’ concert. In a world where most dogs are content to simply pee on things, he is a true inspiration.

@Alternaria AUGH you kinda put me in a jam here. Like, it’s one thing to get offers from someone who is just OK at what they do or something, since you can just let ‘em down politely, you know? But your stuff is actually pretty damn good! And I know that I won’t be able to pull off music like that any time soon.

However, while I do want this game to be the best I can be in all its aesthetic areas, I also kinda want to use it as a learning experience; a study to improve myself in all the areas of game development. So, I wanna try my hand at making the music for this game myself. I hope you understand. But on the plus side, you’ve earned yourself a fan, and your music will have a hand in shaping what I come up with in the following weeks. And who knows, if I ever work on another game in the future, perhaps we might be able to collab or something?

Alternaria

Hey, don’t worry, man! You can count on my music whenever you want to ;)

Best luck with your game!

Drexegar

@lmtf The best way I can say is, we have full control on the way we feel about any situation, and our perspective in life is what really effects our reality. getting things right the first time is good, I like it, but if I spend too much time, I just try to finish it off like a place holder and come back to it later.

Like in my game my backgrounds are always half finish (I spent about 3 - 4 hours on the bedroom!) , and here and there in certain moments I come back to them and add the little details, so I can make sure most of my time is invested into programming.

Change the way you are seeing things, and change them in a way you want to see them that can work to your favor. You are in control, and reality is your playground.

Drexegar

@Alternaria Your music is awesome!

Alternaria

@Drexegar Thank you!!!!!

lmtf

DAY 27 — 0 7 • 1 3 • 2 0 1 2

♪ VISION

Meet Ormus.

1x • Body
2x • Wing
3x • Bridge
1x • Tail

Destroy it your way

Cliché lines aside, I love bosses that you can disassemble. I think they are the snacks, and are certainly better than bosses where you’re essentially enduring a countdown until the thing implodes.

Unfortunately, the problem is that these bosses tend to be prone to milking, which is usually as boring to do as it is to watch. However, I think my scoring system does enough to discourage milking, if somewhat in a brute-force way.

To explain, remember that the scoring system hinges on killing as many targets as possible with the beam-bomb. So, in order to get the most out of the boss, the ideal strategy is to weaken all of its surrounding parts, then blast them all away in one swoop.

But there’s a catch: Obviously, weakening all these parts while leaving them alive takes time. However, if you leave a part alive long enough, it’ll switch to a more deadly attack formation; usually the one it would switch to upon death of some other part (to compensate). This essentially enforces a timer to your efforts, as leaving too much alive for too long makes the battle somewhat impossible.

Of course, if you don’t care for that sort of thing, you can just shoot the core and get it all over with.

Drexegar

Psychedelic… Looking awesome man. Keep it up =^w^=!

lmtf

DAY 31 — 0 7 • 1 7 • 2 0 1 2

♪ SURPRISE ATTACK

Whoa, are we at the halfway mark already? And there’s still so much to do!

I didn’t get that whole [CHUNK] 1 thing done—in fact, right now I only have the level design up to the midboss done, and half the backgrounds done. I do not know how to generate a city that doesn’t look garish and I do not have very long to figure out the solution. Oh, and I’ve started programming in the level boss. And got about a minute into the first song.

I know it’s probably best to do these things in phases of polishing, instead of completing each individual step to relative perfection (well, good enough to live with). At the very least, it makes for a more exciting devlog…

Also, if I may indulge myself: Recently I’ve been thinking about the nature of the shmup within the indie community, and I find it rather fascinating. It seems like shmups are mentally considered a sort of “kiddie genre,” and a great way for people new to game development to get their feet wet with the hobby. Yet, at the same time, there aren’t that many good indie shmups out there (at the moment I can only think of like four that aren’t doujins). Yet, it’s such a simple genre! How can you not make something incredible?

I think it all comes down to content, really. Or maybe pacing and subtleties. While shmups are easy to implement in terms of mechanics, the downside is that you’re giving the player a limited set of mechanics to play with. So, as a designer, the game then becomes about how far you can stretch these simple rulesets while still creating an enjoyable product.

I honestly don’t know how to concisely explain what makes a good shmup. I know this stuff subconsciously (at least I hope so—if I didn’t, I’d be boned), but it’s tough to put into words because a lot of it has to do with feel. Or maybe there is some way to quantify the feelings (there always usually is) but I can’t see it because I’m tired and probably shouldn’t be waiting until midnight to write these things.

Maybe I should write up a thing later to clarify all this. Or maybe I should just shut up, keep working, and write something once I’ve proven that I can back up my talk.

lmtf

DAY 35 — 0 7 • 2 1 • 2 0 1 2

♪ YOU CAN’T FXXK ME

Yeah, this isn’t getting done in time.

Drexegar

Sorry to hear that man, maybe cut some things out you don’t really need, get rid of level or two or something, anything to get this game done!

lmtf

Does it matter if a game is “done?” What does that even mean? Mechanically, the game pretty much is “done.” And I pretty much have enough content that, if I really wanted to, I could just place a bunch of enemies wherever, hack up all the crud you need around a game (title screen, config options, etc), change the name to something less morbid, and push it out there.

But I can’t bring myself to do that. Whenever I get emotionally invested in something, I wanna make it the very best I can. And I’m not willing to let time get in the way of that.

And unfortunately, that ended up happening here. Is this wrong? I’ll keep working on this, and I’ll be sure to put something out by the deadline, but is it right to knowingly hype a game that will be released in an incomplete state?

I think what I’ll do is cut the devlogs. It’s not right for me to take advantage of this sort of visibility for a project that won’t get done. I’ll cancel the project, and when the deadline hits, I’ll post what I have.

I’m sorry. It’s like a mistake-a-minute up in here and nobody needs to have that pushed towards them. I’ll admit, I thought I was better than this by now. But I guess I am not…

matt

It’s looking good, so please keep on with it. Nothing is ever finished, and the final 20% takes 80% of the time but that’s why we all do this, right? For the love of it.

Keep going! :trophy

Drexegar

Wether you do finish it or not, when you release it your going to end up doing what you suppose to be doing and that’s getting the people to feel and have an understanding of your idea for the famicase. So do what you have to do to polish the game, maybe you can spend time on a psychedelic title screen, Have different ending screens for different scores. Have a very crazy end boss, with lot of graphical effects. You have plenty of time and you dont need to keep adding more stages.

I’m cleary am not going to do everything I want with my game, but I’m going to work on full version when I’m done and it will be official!

Howdy, Stranger!

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