Entry: Famikumo

caiys

So I’m makin a gam inspired by this…

Gameplay plans…
• Randomisation, everywhere. Though it will be partially controlled when it improves gameplay.
• The core game revolves around simply surviving. The longer you survive the faster you travel and the harder the enemies. You gain points based on your position on the screen, keeping to the right will earn you more points but you’ll need quicker reflexes to avoid the oncoming obstacles.
• One of the main enemies will be the walls above and below which must be avoided and are ever-changing. There will also be regular enemies to provide more variety and can be shot down for currency.
• Your ship can be upgraded in many ways, such as speed, shield and lots of weapon varieties. Your main weapon will have infinite fire, while your secondary weapon has a power gauge which can run dry.
• Bosses.
• Co-op.
• Deathmatch.

Here’s a quick mockup to show the style of graphics. I’m hoping to add a lot of content so I wanted something simple. I’ve also never really attempted this style so it’ll be interesting to see how I get on.

Feedback is always welcome. :)

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> Download Current Build
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Arrow keys to move. Shift for main weapon fire, ctrl for secondary fire. Enjoy. :)

caiys

Oh and by the way this is made in GameMaker (sorry Mac fans).

I’m working on a prototype right now, hopefully I’ll get something playable up next week, mid-week at the earliest.

matt

I’ve also had an idea for this, but for totally different gameplay style

caiys

It’ll be interesting to see your take on it matt. :)

Oh and I have absolutely no idea what to call this game…

matt

@caiys the Japanese katakana spells out Famicloud, too

caiys

Cheers for that matt.

I just read that the japenese for cloud is kumo so I think I’ll probably just call it Famikumo.

matt

Here we go… ;)

フ = Fu
ア = a
ミ = mi
(Fami)

ク = Ku
ラ = Ra
ウ = u
ド = do
(Kuraudo)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana#Script

But I like Famikumo :)

caiys

Got a prototype up now, updated the first post with the link. There’s not much content, just a few different wall types and two enemy types but it gives you an idea of the basic gameplay though future versions will feel much more shmup based.

The current idea for the gameplay is that the level speed will start at say 1 then slowly increase until it hits say 2 then a boss appears. Defeat the boss and you can buy a random power up and the speed will go back to 1 but the next boss won’t appear until the speed reaches a slightly higher level. This is repeated with each round also increasing the chance of coming across more difficult obstacles like tougher enemies.

Drexegar

Nice colors, the game reminds me of gradius. Like the speed idea.

caiys

Cheers Drexegar. I’ve been looking at a lot of the old shmups like Gradius, though I’d say Hyrdorah has probably been the biggest influence really.

caiys

So I’ve got the bare bones of a game now. The round system is in, I added a boss and some basic buyable upgrades just to test everything. It’s still all pretty unbalanced at the moment.

Next up I’d like to work on the weapons and add a few more enemies.

caiys

So I have been continuing to work on this… thought I’d give an update now since I’ve got pretty much all of the core stuff done and it’s just reached half way through the jam.

So the game now has three game modes, Survivor, a co-op version of Survivor and two-player split-screen Deathmatch. Survivor now has 8 enemies, 2 bosses and 9 powerups. Deathmatch has little content right now, but the idea is that it will be a 5x4 grid of rooms each with something random, maybe just walls or a few enemies to navigate, but also rooms that have more difficult enemies that protect a powerup and hopefully lesser bosses will protect weapon options and health restore pickups.

So what I’m mainly working on now is getting in alternatives to the weapons. The idea is that they will mainly be of equal power but will offer something different, like a spread shot instead of concentrated fire. These will able to be picked up during the level instead of being bought like regular powerups. I’m also working on getting some of the existing enemies into Deathmatch as well as just making it feel less ‘room’ like in regards to walls.

caiys

I’m moving on to another project so this will be the last update for Famikumo. I added some alternate weapons so there’s 8 in all and added all the Survivor enemies into Deathmatch, except for the bosses, most of which guard the powerups.

matt

Congrats on finishing the game! Fantastic work.

Dingo

___________________________________________
ERROR in
action number 1
of Begin Step Event
for object SW_Laser:

In script sSW_UseEnergy:
Error in code at line 2:
   if argument0.object_index = Player1
                ^
at position 15: Unknown variable object_index

Dingo

Oh, also, i remapped the fire keys to Z and X, and apparently you didn’t clear the input buffer before taking input for names, so my high score is zxxxxxxxxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzxxzzxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxzxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxzxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzxxzxzxxz

caiys

Cheers Dingo, should be working fine now. I also squashed a bug where the laser refused to stop when using custom controls.

matt

This game is ridiculously polished - so smooth! And to think it was the first finished game. Crazy skills! Very well done indeed.

caiys

Cheers Matt, that’s most kind of you. :)

And yeah I’ll probably do a quick update once the comp is over adding music, sounds and some more enemies.

Twiddly

Hello :)
i was wondering if you would allow me to play thing game on my youtube channel?
i want to start up my youtube channel playing indie games and it would be amazing if you would allow me to use your game :) yes i will put all links to you in the description. Thanks for your time and consideration

Howdy, Stranger!

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