Inviyya - OCS Shoot Em Up

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

I also noticed fragments/gfx garbage on the stream.. It is quite noticable if you pay attention..

I noticed as well, but it doesn't have anything to do with whether it's played on an A500 or A1200.

[nikosidis]

Yes, I can confirm. On stock A1200 8MB fast it is smoother when happening lot on screen than A500.

[malko]

Originally Posted by Steril707

[...] Have fun,
and please give me a lot of feedback here...
Michael

Hi Michael,
First of all, thank you for this demo.
After having followed your thread since the beginning, it's a pleasure to be able to give a go with Inviyya.

The grip is easy to handle and you have the choice to avoid or kill as much as you can. Gfx, animations & scrolling wise, the game is really polished. It's a real pleasure to play. Difficulty wise, this first level is easy thus making it a really nice warm-up.
Did you consider having enemies wave coming from the back to harder it a bit ?

[qupe]

It's a nice demo and shows promise, I'm not sure if a little more variety with the enemy patterns, even on the first level, may be beneficial on the first level rather the all the enemies flying straight towards you and maybe the odd turret. It's a very easy first level and doesn't really require much movement but it's definitely going in the right direction

[Tigerskunk]

You have to see the whole picture.
Please remember, It's the first level.

In modern game design, you ease in the first time player (also even counting a noob one) with some time to get accustomed to the controls, mechanics and general game play.

The seasoned player has the opportunity to amass points for getting an extra life at this point for later on.

I am working on a new version of the demo right now, which will feature a higher difficulty.

Looking forward hearing the complaints from the other side then...

I guess it will be somewhere inbetween in the end.

[vroom6sri]

It’s a very impressive product already. Congratulations.

Is there a limit on how long a level can be with these game engine/target hardware? The level seemed pretty short but then so does the first level is r-type.

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by vroom6sri

It’s a very impressive product already. Congratulations.

Thanks, man...

Originally Posted by vroom6sri

Is there a limit on how long a level can be with these game engine/target hardware? The level seemed pretty short but then so does the first level is r-type.

You will run out of RAM somewhere for the level structure data at one point, and even then with the need to reuse the tiles to conserve RAM, the level would look very same-ish after a while.
That said, the levels could easily be much longer if I wanted them to be. And they were in the beginning.

I made some measurements on a typical R-Type level, and they are usually a bit shorter than my levels are. Except the first one, which is longer.

You can play through the whole of R-Types 8 levels in around 16 minutes.

[dreadnought]

Thanks a lot for actually making a demo, and that it's easily accesible on itch. I hope eventually it will be possible to buy it there too.

I'm a great shoot'em up fan, even though I've only started playing them really seriously in the last couple of years. Interestingly, I'm much better now than when I was a kid in the arcade days. I'm a big proponent of difficulty and challenge in games, and while by no means a pro, I think I can hold my own in 1CC high score attacks. Having said that, and contary to most voices here, I did not find the gampelay in your demo too easy. I thought the balance was actually quite okay for a first level. As in, you can get through without too many problems, but also need to pay attention. This is actually on par with R-Type. Few more hits needed on the boss wouldn't probably hurt though.

Overall, it's a great game so far and I'm looking forward to the complete product.

[Tigerskunk]

Thanks for the nice words, Dreadnought...

I will release a version of the game with a few bugs squashed probably after weekend, which will also sport a much higher difficulty level. How I imagine difficulty for around level 3 or 4.

Would love to know how you think that higher difficulty level...

I need to find a feeling for a good difficulty curve.

[MickGyver]

Originally Posted by Steril707

I will release a version of the game with a few bugs squashed probably after weekend, which will also sport a much higher difficulty level. How I imagine difficulty for around level 3 or 4.

Would love to know how you think that higher difficulty level...

I need to find a feeling for a good difficulty curve.

That will be interesting, looking forward to trying it out!

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by MickGyver

That will be interesting, looking forward to trying it out!

And I am looking forward to you guys feedback..

[Lazycow]

Thanks for the demo!
Some feedback: Graphics and SFX are solid and give you the feeling of a classic Amiga game. Nice parallax effect. Difficulty is perfect for level-1, but later levels should be more difficult. (maybe they are)

conclusion: Cool!

Some technicals:
- My CD32 is broken, but I could test it with FS-UAE. (with A1200 setup) With FS-UAE and A500/0.5 chipmem/0.5 slowmem setup it crashed at the title pic. (everything was freezing and sometimes the graphics were broken)
- It didn't stop the floppy drive motor when playing a level.
- Try increasing the enemy flash time when enemies will be hit by your weapon. (it's a bit too short, I think)

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by Lazycow

Thanks for the demo!
Some feedback: Graphics and SFX are solid and give you the feeling of a classic Amiga game. Nice parallax effect. Difficulty is perfect for level-1, but later levels should be more difficult. (maybe they are)

conclusion: Cool!

Some technicals:
- My CD32 is broken, but I could test it with FS-UAE. (with A1200 setup) With FS-UAE and A500/0.5 chipmem/0.5 slowmem setup it crashed at the title pic. (everything was freezing and sometimes the graphics were broken)
- It didn't stop the floppy drive motor when playing a level.
- Try increasing the enemy flash time when enemies will be hit by your weapon. (it's a bit too short, I think)

Thanks for your feedback, LazyCow...

Wonder why it crashed with that setup. I test the game all the time like this.

[nikosidis]

I see one compare first level of R-type with first level of Inviyya regarding difficulty. Maybe it is long time since you played R-type, it is way more difficult. The level length is close.

[Tigerskunk]

Like I said, I am looking forward to your opinions regarding the difficulty of the next demo.

This time also no auto shoot.

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Steril707

This time also no auto shoot.

Thanks God my joypad has autofire

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Thanks God my joypad has autofire

That's also an interesting thing to consider..

If you make the interval to high, it's difficult because it feels stuttering if you press the button too fast, but if you make it too low autofire joysticks shoot so many bullets it overwhelms the engine.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by nikosidis

I see one compare first level of R-type with first level of Inviyya regarding difficulty. Maybe it is long time since you played R-type, it is way more difficult.

No, funnily enough I've played it (arcade version) about a year ago in a high score competition ;) I think I rememeber it pretty well.

"Difficulty" is of course a rather relative concept. Plus R-Type is much more complex than Inviyya, it has more enemy types, power ups and stuff happening (one man homebrew team vs big experienced studio and superior hardware, so not a big surprise here). But R-Type is still quite similar in the way that it's very easy to survive if you keep your wits about you. You just need to remember a few crucial positions. And the boss can be sometimes taken out with one (1) charged shot.

If you want to talk about "easy" on Amiga, think of Agony. This game is just silly, once you get few powerups you don't even have to move much. A true snoozefest.

@Steril707 Suggestion after playing some more: I'd rather have less of the basic enemy type units but make their movement pattern more varied (sinusoid or some such) or mixed the head-on with it- if that's not too much stretch hardware wise of course. A stray bullet or two wouldn't hurt either :)

Also have observed that the first layer of the background (the colorful one) is kind of jittery, not totally smooth (on my A500 + ACA500+ + Trinitron PAL TV). Just curious if that's planned or maybe something with my setup?

[roondar]

Hope to try out the demo this weekend. Been looking forward to playing Inviyya for a while now

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

@Steril707 Suggestion after playing some more: I'd rather have less of the basic enemy type units but make their movement pattern more varied (sinusoid or some such) or mixed the head-on with it- if that's not too much stretch hardware wise of course. A stray bullet or two wouldn't hurt either

What do you mean by "or mixed the head-on with it"?

Originally Posted by dreadnought

Also have observed that the first layer of the background (the colorful one) is kind of jittery, not totally smooth (on my A500 + ACA500+ + Trinitron PAL TV). Just curious if that's planned or maybe something with my setup?

That's a weird bug that simply didn't happen with my setups here, neither on emulator nor on my real machine.
Weirdly enough.
Ross from this board contacted me about this, since he experienced th same problems, and had a solution for this as well which seems to work on his setup.
Hope it solves it on yours as well. Please gimme feedback on the next demo...