Zero Base, Side Scroller Shmup Options

[Kazesui]

Zero Base

Engine: RPG maker 2003
Playtime: around 30 to 60 minutes
Genre: Side-Scroller Shooter


Story
MAD CATS are out to destroy the COOL MUTTS, and they are succeeding at it. They have managed to take all their bases and are hunting them down to deliever them the final blow. Their only hope now is for RAD DOG, a crazy intergalactic hero, to help them...

You control the ship of RAD DOG in the journey to eradicate the MAD CATS and to regain the lost bases

Screenshots






Video:


Features:
- 3 Levels
- About 20 different enemies
- Pixel based movement
- 5 different powers ups, 4 of them being different weapons

Download:
found here

Credits:
- The Gradius 3 team, from which I got most of the graphics and music, with some extra credit to the contributors of vgmusic for the midi file versions of the tracks
- Zero Wing for giving me the idea to make the game, as well as something to parody for my opening.
- Miracle for testing and some chipset edit.

Note:
Due to this being rpg maker 2003, which isn't exactly an ideal engine for these kind of games, it might lag on older computers.

This post has been edited by Kazesui: May 3 2011, 02:33 PM

[Kazesui]

a single bump for great justice

[TheBen]

Hmm... the download link appears to be broken, but what I can see from the game's presentation, we have a well-thought-out game here. "30 minutes to an hour" does seem to be rather short, so adding more levels or possibly expanding on the game's core features (e.g. adding more power-ups and weapons) would be recommended at this point in time. Of course, it's already a full game and all, but seeing as it is only barely enough to warrant a long demo...

Still. Pretty good, especially since the engine used is designed for turn-based RPGs.

[Oceans Dream]

http://rpgmaker.net/games/2972/

Should be a download for it there. Plus it also made featured game there, so I guess it should be worth a try!

[Kazesui]

Fixed the link, not quite sure how that happened.

The reason the game is so short is because it was made in one month for a certain event. That said though, the 30 to 60 minutes is more of an estimate of how long I expect people to be playing it, rather than how long it will take to complete, as the game is apparently hard enough to last longer if you really want to beat it (or are good at these kind of games). A short game can still be a complete game though

Also, while there are only 4 weapons, each of them is upgradable to 3 levels, so if one add each variation of a weapon to the count, you'd have 12 weapons, and up to 3 speed upgrades. All the weapons cover different aspects as well and any weapon on equal upgrade level isn't meant to be better than the other, but rather better for different situations, so I don't think there's any actual need of adding more weapons.

[Ratty524]

... How in the world did you make something like this in RM2k3?

I've already seen this on RMN. This looks amazing. I'll download it when I get the chance.

[Pinoxpie]

This game is really amazing.

[Rob_Riv]

Pinoxpie, you should try to elaborate on your posts.

[Brent Murray]

I remember playing this a few days ago back when RMN hosted this up for 'Featured Game' -- and I was really impressed by it! It's been awhile since I've played a shmup, but I found this game to be quite fun and I only managed to get to the 2nd level before I gave up / rage quit. For a game that was made in a limited time frame, you did an excellent job, and I wouldn't mind you completing this game by adding a few extra levels and some other goodies to make this a classic.

The only problems I have about the game are:

1.) The ship's speed going backwards. Going forward wasn't TOO slow...but going backwards just seemed to be really sluggish, for some reason. I think it would be a good idea to start off with the speed power-up and just make the original power-up just a faster version of the latter.

2.) Dying. Yep, dying. When your ship blows up, you have to respawn at a checkpoint, right? Well, I would like it if when you crash and die, you should be able to continue on the same screen, again, instead of just starting at the checkpoint. It's pretty annoying that I managed to make it pretty far and have to go back to the checkpoint to do all the shit I just did before -- UGHHHHHH!!!

Other than that, this game was excellent. The lack of story didn't really bother me considering most shmups have no story.

But kudos.

[Heaven Miracle]

Bahahahaha this game was so much fun! xD I dunno what you did recently (or whether it was something that happened to me 0-0) but this game doesn't lag anymore, which allowed me to complete it... almost ._.;;

But I would totally recommend this thing to anybody who enjoys shooters, it's a triumph for all of Rm2k3 kind :0

I would like it if when you crash and die, you should be able to continue on the same screen

^This, in case you ever make another shooter again. ^^

[Kazesui]

The going backwards bit seeming sluggish is an optical illusion. You move just as fast in any direction relative to the screen, but since you follow the direction of the background when going backwards it looks like it's going slower. If the background had been completely black, you wouldn't have noticed this effect.

And yes, originally I wanted to let you continue at the same screen as well after you die, but there was some issues with this which made me decide otherwise. If you die you lose your power ups, and respawning at the same screen can then cause problems if you're at a boss.
I thought about creating some kind of power up which your exploded ship would leave behind, which you could use to recollect some of the power ups, but was afraid of doing it as my experience tells me it could have costed quite a bit of time to implement, as well as the floor/roof itself could prove a problem at narrow points ( Especially true for level 3 ).
Time wasn't a luxury for this project, so I tried to keep it simple, but if I make a similar game I might Do something about it.

Probably won't be too soon though. Got tons of finals to take care of, and have started on a micro machines-esque game as well (already made a shmup now, so time with genre change).
Someone did request a Starter Pack for this kind of game though, so I'll probably try to release one heavily based on this game once my finals are over.

btw. how far is "almost" completed it :3