Galactagirl - a high-speed retro action-platformer!
Join Galactagirl on a cosmic adventure to vanquish the evil Robot Racers and their mechanical minions! In this adrenaline-pumping action-platformer inspired by retro classics such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden you must aid Galactagirl in her quest to be the fastest in the galaxy and stop the invasion of the Galactic Homeworlds by the Robot Racers.
Galactagirl has an advanced moveset including wall jumps, target lock-ons, rail grinding, sliding and more, which allows for a variety of ways to traverse the environment and its many challenges. Move fast, react quickly, and chain your moves together to overcome obstacles, defeat enemies, and beat the levels in the quickest time!
Features:
- High speed platforming with a variety of movement abilities!
- Dastardly robotic enemies and bosses to defeat!
- Tons of explosions and particles and... explosions!
- Gorgeous retro-styled art and graphics!
- Options including windowed mode, volume control and a retro CRT shader!
I'm hoping this demo will provide a good overall blueprint for early players of Galactagirl's moveset and controls, the structure of the game and player progress, and a variety of mechanics and their implementation. No specific release date as of yet but stay tuned at any of the above links for updates on the game's progress.
OGA asset contributors:
- FiveAsOne
- surt
- SubspaceAudio
Links:
DOWNLOAD THE DEMO AT ITCH.IO / INDIEDB / GAMEJOLT!
- Cosmic Crystal Games on twitter
- Cosmic Crystal Games on Patreon
- Galactagirl on itch.io
- Galactagirl on TIGsource forums
- Galactagirl on indiedb
- Galactagirl on gamejolt
Gameplay videos:
I hope you enjoy the demo. Please feel free to follow along with the development of Galactagirl at any of the aforementioned links, and hit me up with any feedback or questions you may have about the game. Thanks for your time!
***UPDATE 29/07/17: Added alpha demo plans and new gifs!
***UPDATE 12/08/17: updated with new screenshots/logo/info!
***UPDATE 18/08/17: new gif + gameplay videos!
***UPDATE 30/08/17: alpha demo + trailer released!!!
I have four questions. ^^
I hope you will take the time to answer them, it's really not meant negatively, even tho it kinda ended up sounding like that :P
I also think you could add maybe some sort of opening story, be it scrolling text or anything, to explain the plot you mentioned above, and who the "Robot Racers" even are, since I don't see them appearing in the game, unless of course they are not implemented yet- ^^
~Spring
Thanks for your feedback!
Thanks for taking the time to download and provide feedback Spring, I really appreciate it! I would also like to say that I am a big fan of your music and hope to incorporate it in Galactagirl in some form.
- uxas_omega / Cosmic Crystal Games
Thank YOU too uxas! Feel free to use any of my music you want.
I also think adding in some sort of area where you can practice the moveset without being timed could be a good idea...
Galactagirl
I have been very quiet with updates as of late due to being very busy with IRL stuff. But I have been making lots of silent progress on Galactagirl :)
Without further ado, some updates in GIF form!
That's it for now! Alpha demo with 4 levels and the boss fight is coming soon^^TM ...
I will try to update more often, you can follow as always on twitter @CosmicCrystal_, on reddit at /r/gamemaker and /r/gamedev, or right here.
You've gotten a good bit farther, and it seems really cool! The screen shaking is a bit too excessive for me, tho.
Thanks Spring, yeah it took a bit of tweaking to get comfortable screenshake values, I am thinking I will put a strength slider in the options or something so people have the choice :)
Very nice! I would just like to suggest, since you're going for the 8bit look, to be mindful of the sprite grid. The portal with the spinning circles breaks the pixel grid both in the infinite circles animating and on the black hole that makes the transition from hub to level. In both cases the resolution of movement is too high, making use of perfect HD capabilites.
Thanks tiagor2! I'm actually not that familiar with this sort of graphics/art stuff as much and the only real restriction I have placed on it is to try and stick to a NES color pallette (demo is a bit chopped together, but this will be more apparent in the next build).
I assume that the changes you are referring to are the screen transitions (which are currently animated in-code, so "tweening") and replacing them with a sprite animation so that is confined to the grid?
Still learning a lot along the way, so if you can recommend any resources for this stuff I would like to read them :)
No problem. You're doing a very good job with the graphics, which is exactly why the tweening pops out so much. So it's a good problem to have hahaha
But yes, I was referring to that. And also the animation on the portal while idle appears to me to be using smaller pixels than the rest, and maybe some impossible color combinations for a single NES sprite. But I could be wrong on that one.
Anyway, it's detail work and not a concern if you're still working on levels and gameplay. Keep it up!
Btw uxas, you mentioned that you might be interested in my music for Galactagirl.
Right now I am practicing Famitracker intensely for a demonstration I have to do at a nearby library. So if you want some NES chiptunes from me, now is the time. ^^
I could even do some original pixelart if you are interested, though rather not too much.
Alright, quick update for today:
Alpha Demo plans
Okay so as many of you may be aware I plan to develop Galactagirl to completion, the next step of which is releasing an "alpha demo" for the game so I have an opportunity to recieve valuable player feedback while working on it.
Planned features of the demo so far include:
- A tutorial and hub area for you to practice your moves and abilities
- Four distinct stages/levels
- A boss fight that is unlocked after beating the four stages/levels
- Some totally kickass openly sourced graphics and music
I'm hoping this demo will provide a good overall blueprint for early players of Galactagirl's moveset and controls, the structure of the game and player progress, and a variety of mechanics and their implementation. No specific release date as of yet but stay tuned at any of the dev links for updates on the game's progress.
Screenshot updates
Thanks!
UxasOmega / Cosmic Crystal Games
Your latest tracks have been great Spring! Enjoyed them muchly. Currently art and music are pretty set in stone for the alpha demo build so no worries yet! But after it is released and I begin expanding the content of the game, I have your stuff bookmarked for inspiration and potential use! Hope that's cool :)
It's fine of course!
Gives me time to work on my own game.
But maybe making a custom title logo was worth considering?
Definitely interested in getting a logo for the game done. Do you do logos per chance Spring?
EDIT: Also, what are you working on? Would love to check it out if it's up anywhere!
I did all the logos for my own games, the one I'm working on currently is a bad example tho.
It's called (in Danish) "Bogstav Spillet", and is a letter-matching game, and while it's in very early development still, here's a link: (I willl not provide the source)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1Kx6IlBrkGQQkptYko1SXRIbEU
The other game which I am working on currently is a strange sort of plaformer called "Kung-Fu Prince", which is not yet really playable.
Before sunday I plan on updating both games.
Just tried whipping one up myself and this is the result. Pretty happy with it actually :) Thoughts?
Also, super cool stuff Spring! Now if only I could read Danish...
Nice logo, probably a lot better than what i can do!
Btw, by clicking on the Danish flag in the game you can change the language to English, if you would be interested.
***UPDATE 12/08/17: updated with new screenshots/logo/info***
I have been working on polishing a lot of things lately as the release of the alpha demo comes ever closer :D Most notable additions in this week's update include more particle effects on enemy explosions (like sparks, pieces and smoke); the addition of Mega Man/Zelda-esque screen transitions that really smooth out the gameplay; a ton of little art pieces here and there; and work on some important settings stuff like rebindable controls!
See the new GIFs in the updated OP for more detail! And stay tuned at any of my links if you like what you see, demo is coming real soon...
Also Spring, I managed to switch the language and Bogstav Spillet is awesome! Never played a letter-matching game before and I became quite addicted playing it with my morning tea haha
***UPDATE 18/08/17: updated with new gameplay videos!***
So I've been trying to record some footage for trailer-making and I thought that in the meantime I might just share some gameplay with everyone to better demonstrate the mechanics in motion... and show off the current levels too ;) Dive in!
Gameplay videos:
- Stage 1 -
- Stage 2 -
- Stage 3 -
- Stage 4 -
As usual, follow along at any of the aforementioned links, although Twitter is probs the most frequently updated ;)
Thanks everyone!
You make this look so easy but damn is this game hard. XD
Anyways, the srages have a good bit of length to them, which is of course just great if you've already mastered the game, but for a fumbling newbie who has to start over many times in a row, i reckon stages this long might get tedious. Just my 2 cents, anyways the game seems to be shaping up nicely! It has a nice level of polish to it.
I'll jut upload changes for you here.
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This is another idea for a boss to your game.
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You can try these out.
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Those look like edited Mega Man 2 tiles?
I suppose they're not tho.
Heavily influenced from the game for a failed Megaman project lol
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I'm not sure if these will benefit you, but you are free to use them as well.
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this looks promising. when you finish could you provide a link to the demo or something? I would LOVE to play this
@FiveAsOne: Thanks bro, good stuff as usual :)
@Tyran: Glad you dig it! Demo is coming real sooooooooon haha
While I'm here may as well throw up a new gif!
Beat the boss and GTFO!
OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! and god said "Let there be a demo of this game!!!"
I found these, too.
I'm sure if you ask you'll be able to use these.
https://opengameart.org/content/swapshot-unused-tiles
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Thanks for the support everyone! I am happy to say that the alpha demo is now available for download! Check it out at my itch.io, indieDB or gamejolt pages!
Itch.io
IndieDB
GameJolt
The trailer is also released if you need a quick preview of the game and want to spread it around to your friends! Watch it here!
Much love,
uxas_omega / Cosmic Crystal Games
Here is a big list of stuff I've made you can use.
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Since you had Sonic loops, I decided to take a Sonic art style to this.
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Also, another boss/enemy idea.
Made a few edits.
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Preview of next Dread Runner. Violet Pop!
I just thought of this one before going to bed!
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A little opening animation for each stage/mission.
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Nice nice nice anim @FiveAsOne
@FiveAsOne: Violet Pop is my favourite Dread Runner yet! I love it! And the stage opening is looking SWEET!
Here is what you requested.
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Yellow Guy. Not sure what to name him. Basically only one that does not fight directly.
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How is everything falling into place?
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@FiveAsOne: Everything is coming along nicely :) Haven't had much time to implement new stuff as I have been responding to feedback/updating the demo/planning for the full game. The demo is of course a bit buggy still, as it is really bunch of ideas built on top of each other (the code is a mess). Work has begun on refactoring the code with the planning in mind for the full release and it's going awesomely :D
I am sure if need be you could aquire another programmer to assist you? Maybe one that can iron out boss physics while you work on enemy physics and level aspects?
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cool, I like it you good job :D