I have used Famitracker before. The import function is a mess, and I don't like trackers in general. There wouldn't be a point in making NES-compatible music unless people were programming homebrew NES games. And that's a much more difficult process than using the engines and platforms available today.
The way I do it is to 1. make shooting automatic, and 2. create an invisible object that jumps to the touched position, which the ship moves toward. The ship's handling is as easy as adjusting the speed at which it moves toward that position. Which you could then change dynamically with powerups (if you're so inclined!)
One consequence of this is that bullet SFX get kind of annoying. So you might want to use a dull, low tone, or only play a sound when they hit.
And if you don't mind my making a suggestion, if you want really fierce enemies, you should take four things into account: 1. how long an enemy comes in, and from what angle, before 2. settling into their form of attack (like flying in a circle for example,) then 3. how close and how long they'll move toward the player while also performing that pattern, and 4. when and how they'll break off their attack and fly off-screen. The helicopters from Raiden are a great example - they fly down from the top, hang for a few seconds while shooting the player, then, if they weren't shot, fly back up and exit the screen at the position from which they entered. In a vert, enemy AI is everything. Or even consider the Zanac series, that had a controller which would adjust the difficulty in response to the player's style of play. Bullet AI should follow a similarly complex pattern, although their designs tend to be more abstract. But imagine the gulf between a bullet which simply goes down, from one which starts the same, then moves toward the player by a degree, and explodes on a timer. It's significantly more intense.
Sorry for the rant. Shmups are one of my favorite genres. If you need any consultation or examples, I'd be happy to lend a hand. :)
Also, there was crazy lag on the level 2 boss. Crashed my browser. I'm using Opera 11.62. Two other issues I noticed while playing through it: the black enemies and the level 2 boss are overly difficult to hit, because you get into a match of attrition where you're just mutually destroying each other's bullets (this is where bullet patterns come into play.) And hitboxes. They're too big.
The photos are mine, yes. I was thinking of putting together a hi-res set of photos for menus, visual novel backgrounds and what-have-you, but I didn't think it necessarily constituted useable game art.
If there's a need for it, I've got tons of beach, forest and swamp scenes.
I updated the preview to show the sprites double-sized, as they might be used. Now you can appreciate those sweet, sweet details.
He looks menacing... but also cute! Would fit nicely into a puzzle game. Reminds me of Drill Dozer. Doesn't steampunk use bronze/copper, rather than steel? He might look better in a sepia color scheme.
It would be next to impossible to sort the free tiles from the non-free tiles, seeing as you have no idea where some of them came from. I can say with certainty that the character sprites in several tilesets are ripped or edited from Final Fantasy IV, shown here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588330-final-fantasy-iv/images/screen-2, which raises doubts about the source of the rest of them. The best thing to do is to start from scratch (with exception of anything you know you put together yourself.) There's a reason they call it the seed of doubt - because saplings burst through pavement.
That said, if you find my music suitable, tell me which ones you like and I'd be happy to rearrange them to your purposes. I've been meaning to craft a cohesive JRPG soundtrack anyway. I'm not quite sure what the implications of GPLing my songs are, but I assume having already released the "source," them being MIDI files, there wouldn't be any problems.
http://opengameart.org/content/generic-8-bit-jrpg-soundtrack
This'll more than double OGA's chiptune holdings.
I have used Famitracker before. The import function is a mess, and I don't like trackers in general. There wouldn't be a point in making NES-compatible music unless people were programming homebrew NES games. And that's a much more difficult process than using the engines and platforms available today.
K. Took your advice and changed it. Better? :o
http://opengameart.org/content/dispersion-foundry
Sufficiently chiptuney for the collection?
Changed the file name. Link works now. You'll just have to imagine the apostrophe.
The way I do it is to 1. make shooting automatic, and 2. create an invisible object that jumps to the touched position, which the ship moves toward. The ship's handling is as easy as adjusting the speed at which it moves toward that position. Which you could then change dynamically with powerups (if you're so inclined!)
One consequence of this is that bullet SFX get kind of annoying. So you might want to use a dull, low tone, or only play a sound when they hit.
And if you don't mind my making a suggestion, if you want really fierce enemies, you should take four things into account: 1. how long an enemy comes in, and from what angle, before 2. settling into their form of attack (like flying in a circle for example,) then 3. how close and how long they'll move toward the player while also performing that pattern, and 4. when and how they'll break off their attack and fly off-screen. The helicopters from Raiden are a great example - they fly down from the top, hang for a few seconds while shooting the player, then, if they weren't shot, fly back up and exit the screen at the position from which they entered. In a vert, enemy AI is everything. Or even consider the Zanac series, that had a controller which would adjust the difficulty in response to the player's style of play. Bullet AI should follow a similarly complex pattern, although their designs tend to be more abstract. But imagine the gulf between a bullet which simply goes down, from one which starts the same, then moves toward the player by a degree, and explodes on a timer. It's significantly more intense.
Sorry for the rant. Shmups are one of my favorite genres. If you need any consultation or examples, I'd be happy to lend a hand. :)
Also, there was crazy lag on the level 2 boss. Crashed my browser. I'm using Opera 11.62. Two other issues I noticed while playing through it: the black enemies and the level 2 boss are overly difficult to hit, because you get into a match of attrition where you're just mutually destroying each other's bullets (this is where bullet patterns come into play.) And hitboxes. They're too big.
The photos are mine, yes. I was thinking of putting together a hi-res set of photos for menus, visual novel backgrounds and what-have-you, but I didn't think it necessarily constituted useable game art.
If there's a need for it, I've got tons of beach, forest and swamp scenes.
I updated the preview to show the sprites double-sized, as they might be used. Now you can appreciate those sweet, sweet details.
He looks menacing... but also cute! Would fit nicely into a puzzle game. Reminds me of Drill Dozer. Doesn't steampunk use bronze/copper, rather than steel? He might look better in a sepia color scheme.
It would be next to impossible to sort the free tiles from the non-free tiles, seeing as you have no idea where some of them came from. I can say with certainty that the character sprites in several tilesets are ripped or edited from Final Fantasy IV, shown here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588330-final-fantasy-iv/images/screen-2, which raises doubts about the source of the rest of them. The best thing to do is to start from scratch (with exception of anything you know you put together yourself.) There's a reason they call it the seed of doubt - because saplings burst through pavement.
That said, if you find my music suitable, tell me which ones you like and I'd be happy to rearrange them to your purposes. I've been meaning to craft a cohesive JRPG soundtrack anyway. I'm not quite sure what the implications of GPLing my songs are, but I assume having already released the "source," them being MIDI files, there wouldn't be any problems.
Pages