Lead

[+Nathan Strum]

Two suggestions:

 

1) On the Catch stages, it would be nice if it told you how many you missed (or your percentage, similar to Galaga on the bonus stages).

 

2) Warning - End sequence spoiler:

 

 

For the ending, when the enemy ships follow the player up and off the screen, it would be nice if they followed it in a tighter formation, so you could see more (or all) of them at once. Maybe even have it be some huge armada, where you see multiple copies of each type of ship following in formation. As if every defeated ship from the entire game were following you. (Well, maybe not all of them, but having hoards of them would be very cool, and a fitting ending for the game.)

 

[Freakservo]

Actually I also noticed that...:

 

 

...Hitting the reset button three times skips you 10 levels.

 

 

Is that intentional?

[Tidegear]

Wow! I have to say this is one of the most amazing homebrew games I've ever seen. Great fun and an amazing use of the hardware in such a small amount of space. I'm definitely going to mention Lead on my blog, Neo Backlash. Lead reminds me a bit of Judgement Silversword -Rebirth Edition- (I mentioned JSRE in my article here) for the WonderSwan in the sense that it's a frenetic homebrew shmup that does amazing things with simple hardware.

 

Oh, and if anyone's interested I figured out that the most recent version of this game's rom would likely have the following filename when renamed with a future version of Good2600...

Lead (8k) (12-08-2007) (Simone Serra) (PD).bin

(Obviously, that's not official I'm just OCD with my ROMs!)

 

Thank you very much for this great game, Simone! I'll let you know when my article is up!

[Tidegear]

Ok, I wrote an article about Lead on my blog Neo Backlash as you can see here.

 

Just wanted to help get the word out!

[r_type2600]

Great new build Simone, thanks again for listening to all suggestions!

 

Just a few small refinement requests and a couple of ideas to enrich the game experience:

 

Presentation

almost perfect now, just a couple of timing issues:

 

- attract screen (e.g. last played stage): this is still a bit too short and is often over before once brain has adapted to it. I understand that it lasts until the first alien hits the bottom. I like this element, but it tends to extremly shorten the attract screen at times, IMO.

Suggestion: after the first alien has hit the bottom, there will be no more entering the screen from top, and the attract screen will end once the last alien has hit the bottom.

The alternate (second-choice) remedy would be to set a fixed longer time period for the attract screen.

 

- game over/ continue screen: optimal solution for the continue option. Only small problem is that it reverts back to the title screen with the end of the game over sequence, which leaves very little time to decide on continuing or not ( especially after a frantic game where one first needs a few seconds to digest the experience).

Suggestion: delay the return to the title screen by a few seconds after the end of the game over sequence.

Suggestion2: flash the continue message rythmitically so the player has a clue when it will end by observing the number of flashes.

 

Catch level

 

- catch effect: thanks Simone for considering and explaining the collision routine problem. Fair enough! Clearly we're expecting magic from you, but not the impossible!

Suggestion: Building on your flash effect (which in light of the limitations does now indeed appear as the smartest approach), maybe you could enhance it by either a) introducing a "desintegration" animation for the aliens (after the flash) or b) cycle the flash through several increasingly brighter shades of white.

Not sure whether it is technically possible and how effective it would be in practice, but it might be worth a try...

 

- catch indicator: just to support Nathan's suggestion. While it's possible to indirectly keep track of the misses (by counting the miss sounds or checking the score), the indicator would add further arcade polish to Lead.

An alternative idea to the percentage counter would be a message like "3 Misses from Perfection".

Just an idea, no preferences here...

 

- bonus intermissions: ok, here's an idea which should not be too difficult to implement but would further enrich the game experience and thicken the game "story" :

In case of a perfect catch, two of the earlier shot aliens (e.g. from stage 1 for catch level 5, from stage 6 for catch level 10, etc.) would enter the screen on top, holding below them a "score capsule" indicating the bonus amount (think of the Lead1K capsule from the options screen, filled in, with the score amount displayed in black).

They would travel until above the status text display (e.g. "Stage cleared/Congratulations/Perfect"), leave the score capsule, and then shoot of to the top (same effect as the player's ship after finishing a stage).

Thereafter the normal stage clear intermission would set in.

 

- increasing bonus amounts. Not much to elaborate here - would be a nice motivation if the bonus score would increase with each catch level (for instance: 250 - 500 - 750 - 1000)

 

Graphics

- I'm sorry to bring this up again, Simone, but...

Would it be possible to design different icons for the ship upgrade and score bonus? It just feels a bit unpolished to have the same smart bomb symbol for all effects...

...would be !

 

Cheers, Eric

[seemo]

Just wanted to help get the word out!

 

Thanks a lot, Adam !

It's really an honour to be featured on such a committed and loyal blog like yours

I'm glad you appreciate the variety of the gameplay, since it came out as a result of great teamwork, between the contributors of this, and the 1k version thread.

If you haven't already, I suggest you try all the other great games developed/in development here, I'm sure you'll feel right at home.

 

@Freakservo : thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix that... ahem... feature in the next build

 

@Nathan & Eric: thanks for your great feedback, as always . I wish I could do 'everything'... but I will have to work on the code, and see what I can do

 

Simone

[Nognir]

how are the chances that we can get this game on cart? Al?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

how are the chances that we can get this game on cart?

I would say 100% as soon as it is 100% finished.

[Nognir]

how are the chances that we can get this game on cart?

I would say 100% as soon as it is 100% finished.

 

I hope so!

[+Nathan Strum]

I'm still hoping for Simone's other games to show up on a cart.

[Tidegear]

Possible bug report: Does anyone else notice the game occaisionally (fairly rare) making the ship continue toward the left (I don't recall it ever happening when moving right) for a brief moment or so even after releasing the "joystick"? I suppose it may just be the emulators I use (Stella for my Windows PC and PSP2600, which based on Stella, for my PSP) but I kind of doubt it. It's rare enough and brief enough to where I don't recall it ever causing me to get a gameover but it definitely could some time. I'd consider it somewhat of a high priority to fix this problem.

 

Oh, and what's everyone's highscore without using savestates in-game? (I only use savestates on the title screen to save my score) My highest so far is 4396 which seems like a lot, to me, but I have little to compare it to.

 

Thanks again for the great game, Simone!

Edited August 22, 2007 by Tidegear

[kirin jensen]

I'm still hoping for Simone's other games to show up on a cart.

You and me both.

[Heavy Stylus]

Hi there,

 

Just thought I should drop you a message to say that I've previewed Lead in a Retro-Gaming CD-based Discmag that I've been working on over the last couple of months. When complete, the ISO of the discmag will be available from www.rgcd.co.uk. As your game has been featured in the third issue, I would ideally like to send you a properly presented CD copy via snail-mail as a gesture of thanks for your hard work (and of course to promote the magazine itself). If you are happy with this, please send me a postal address.

 

Oh, and if you want financial sponsorship to get this game on a cart drop me a line.

 

All the best,

 

James Monkman.

[seemo]

Hi,

here's the last version of Lead to feature some changes, I think

 

Here's what's new:

- changed some option labels

- envelope option '1/0' replaced by 'tick' (try it !)

- attract mode time is longer now

- the game over screen waits longer before returning to the title screen

- reworked the title bitmap vertical movement (it looks more 'even' now)

- power-ups have their distinct icons now

- smart bombs / bonus icons don't 'block' the missiles anymore

- smart bombs / bonus don't move horizontally

- if you miss an enemy during 'catch' stages, the stage ends: it should add tension to this 'bonus' stage

- at the end of a 'catch' stage, you can see how many catches you made

 

I have checked my joystick code, and played the game a little, but didn't experience the strange behaviour that Tidegear mentioned: did anyone else noticed it ?

 

Simone

 

@James: WOW ! What a great magazine ! It remembered me those magazines about the 8-bit home computers videogames, that I used to read many years ago

I really like your style, I think your reviews are focused and competent (finally someone who explains what happens during the game, rather than contemplating some 'cool press release' ).

...and thanks for mentioning the great teamwork that happened here about Lead, it made a great difference

lead_8k_20070908.bin

[Tidegear]

Fantastic Seemo, I was looking forward to an update! As for my possible bug report, I was recently playing Yars' Revenge on the same emulator I've been using to play Lead and if I'm not mistaken it did the same sticky joystick thing. So, I think it's the emulator, not your code. Anyway, I suppose it didn't hurt to check your code, eh?

 

Thanks for the update!

[Tidegear]

Quick possible bug report... At the very beginning of stage 4 (Scramble!) I was holding to the right and managed to go way past where the wall would be if it was at the bottom of the screen. (Which it wasn't yet) The game then kicked my ship back in to the confines of the walls at which point they moved all the way inward. (As they normally do when you touch them with the ship) So, the game continued just fine after that, but such a delayed collision detection can't be good. Not sure if it would happen when holding to the left and/or on other stages.

[Rom Hunter]

Great game, Simone.

 

One thing: please let the ship's horizontal left/right movements also respond to the joystick's left/right diagonals.

 

The gameplay is quite hectic and sometimes you push the joystick into a diagonal position which results in blocking the ship's horizontal movement (and with that the flow of the gameplay).

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Edited September 9, 2007 by Rom Hunter

[+Nathan Strum]

Great update!

 

Although I'm not sure I like the Catch stage ending if you miss. I like the opportunity to at least try to catch the rest. I also like the idea of increasing the tension, though.

 

How about each time you miss, the level speeds up?

 

One thing: please let the ship's horizontal left/right movements also respond to the joystick's left/right diagonals.

 

The gameplay is quite hectic and sometimes you push the joystick into a diagonal position which results in blocking the ship's horizontal movement (and with that the flow of the gameplay).

I agree, but I'd suggest it only be for the "up" diagonals, so you wouldn't accidentally trigger the smart bomb.

Edited September 9, 2007 by Nathan Strum

[+SpiceWare]

hadn't checked this out in a while - wow

[Tidegear]

One thing: please let the ship's horizontal left/right movements also respond to the joystick's left/right diagonals.

 

The gameplay is quite hectic and sometimes you push the joystick into a diagonal position which results in blocking the ship's horizontal movement (and with that the flow of the gameplay).

I agree, but I'd suggest it only be for the "up" diagonals, so you wouldn't accidentally trigger the smart bomb.

 

Both great suggestions but I think even better than those would be...

 

joystick left, up-left, down-left > left

joystick right, up-right, down-right > right

joystick fire > fire

joystick down ONLY (no diagonals) + fire > smart bomb

[seemo]

Quick possible bug report... At the very beginning of stage 4 (Scramble!) I was holding to the right and managed to go way past where the wall would be if it was at the bottom of the screen. (Which it wasn't yet) The game then kicked my ship back in to the confines of the walls at which point they moved all the way inward. (As they normally do when you touch them with the ship) So, the game continued just fine after that, but such a delayed collision detection can't be good. Not sure if it would happen when holding to the left and/or on other stages.

 

I put a test in the code way back to cope with this situation: the ship is not allowed to move until the walls reach the bottom of the screen .

 

My playtesting attempts, both with Stella and z26, confirmed that I cannot move the ship until such condition is met... so could anyone please check if they experiment the behaviour Tidegear mentions ?

 

Thanks a lot !

Simone

[r_type2600]

Thanks for the superb new update Simone!

I'd say it's 99% perfect now

After playtesting it for one week I really could not find any reasonable wishes left open

(just a minor issue indicated further down)

One tends to forget that this game is only 8K and it's amazing how much gameplay and atmosphere you managed to cram into that space!

 

I was at first also a tad sceptical regarding the revised "catch" level rules, but was quickly converted - the no-miss condition definetely adds a lot of punch to the gameplay, keeping the player on his toes, therebey (finally) fully integrating the catch level into the overall flow and feel of the game.

An excellent design decision

 

The only request I would have is that you could hopefully manage to free a few bytes to polish one rough corner I noticed in the catch level:

- catching all items does greet you with an adequate message, but there's no signal whatsoever what effect it has. What I mean is that your score does increase, but more or less invisibly, as there is no visual or accustic signal informing the player about this.

There is no need for anything fancy, but a simple effect like an extra text line: "+500" and/or a flash of the score and/or a short jingle would be desirable...

 

One more comment...

Lead's gameplay is so immersive and captivating, that one tends to overlook the great "jazz synthesizer" provided in the options screen. Only starting to appreciate it now: it's really great fun fiddling with the different combinations.

[Tidegear]

Seemo, ever consider boss stages and/or a final boss?

[seemo]

Hi,

here's an updated version of Lead:

 

- some little work on the code (also fixed the 'out of side' bug that Tidegear found)

- diagonal directions now work

- changed the object you have to catch on 'catch' levels

- new enemies for stage 13

- stages have been re-tuned

- at the end of a perfect catch stage, you will see a '500 bonus !' message

 

Let me know what you think...

Thank You !

Simone

 

Seemo, ever consider boss stages and/or a final boss?

Hi Tidegear, and thanks a lot for finding the 'out of side' bug: it took me a little more time and attempts to verify it, but luckily I could find and fix it. Again, thanks a lot !

Regarding you request, I'm afraid I have really already done everything I could...

So, I'd like to apologize with you and all the great people here who made suggestions for additional features...

lead_8k_20070916.bin

[Tidegear]

Hi Tidegear, and thanks a lot for finding the 'out of side' bug: it took me a little more time and attempts to verify it, but luckily I could find and fix it. Again, thanks a lot !

Regarding you request, I'm afraid I have really already done everything I could...

So, I'd like to apologize with you and all the great people here who made suggestions for additional features...

 

Aha! I was starting to feel like the bugs I was finding were all in my head! It's nice to see that my slow inevitable descent into insanity may be put off for a bit longer! LoL, I kid...

 

...ANYWAY, thanks so much for listening to everyone's suggestions and doing all you can do. You don't need to apologize for anything. You've made a great game!