Hazardous Attack

PesoPeso
edited November 2012 in Projects - Tools
Hello,
I'd like to present my game project, Hazardous Attack.

I've been working on it for a long time and now it is almost finished.

There is a gameplay video and a short description of the game story in http://oxlgames.com . And also, the most important, a link to download the demo.
The website is very simple as it is still in development.

It would be awesome if you guys could play the demo and post critics and sugestions here. Any comment about anything in the game would be important. And, of course, if the game crashes, which is not so difficult to happen, send me the log file and crash dump.

The game is set to run in windowed mode by default, but you can change it to fullscreen in the HazardousAttack.ini.
I would like to ask iarwain to run the game in fullscreen mode because I am having a problem with it. Maybe you can help me figure it out.

The demo is for windows 7 and xp. I did not test it on vista.

I have a working build for linux, but I don't know how to create an installation package. If anyone could show me a tutorial, it would be really good.

I've also created a Steam Greenlight page for the game. Even though I have no expectations for it to be approved. It is just another way to have more exposure.

Please, send the crash dump to support at oxlgames . com

website: http://oxlgames.com

Thank you.

Comments

  • iarwainiarwain
    edited November 2012
    Hi Peso,

    Nice work. Downloading the demo as we speak but I will probably not be able to give it a try before tomorrow or Sunday.

    If you want some debugging help don't hesitate to give me access to your code base/repository and I'll be happy to have a look if that can help.

    You should have entered Hazardous Attack to the IGF! Maybe next year?
  • PesoPeso
    edited November 2012
    iarwain wrote:
    Hi Peso,

    Nice work. Downloading the demo as we speak but I will probably not be able to give it a try before tomorrow or Sunday.
    OK, no problem.
    If you want some debugging help don't hesitate to give me access to your code base/repository and I'll be happy to have a look if that can help.
    We can talk about that. See if you get any weird render behavior running the game in fullscreen mode. But try the windowed mode first.
    You should have entered Hazardous Attack to the IGF! Maybe next year?
    Yes, I should. But I think my next project will be a better entry.

    Thanks.
  • sausagesausage
    edited November 2012
    Wow, Peso, very attractive looking game. Great video.
  • PesoPeso
    edited November 2012
    Thanks sausage.

    I hope you guys find some time to try the demo.
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited November 2012
    Hey Peso,

    I gave it a try again last night, specifically for the fullscreen issue. Not sure what the cause is and without being able to access your code nor your config info, it's a bit hard to say for sure.
    However when I forced the display resolution to 1680x1050, the viewport was correctly placed. Actually it was correctly placed with any resolutions I tried. Which version of orx are you using, btw, your dll looks much smaller than when I compile the latest from hg.

    As for the game itself, I'm glad you posted a video, I'll explain this below.
    The game looks pretty well polished, nice job there! :)
    I especially love the details such as the smoke on the factory in the background and the different time of the day settings.

    From the trailer, the game looks much more diverse than what I was about to witness. The main reason for that is that the first level feels much too long with a pace that's far too slow. It's hard to get motivated to push any further, especially when one doesn't know there'll be more enemies and weapons. I guess more communication at the end/start of a level introducing what is new or what is going to be unlocked would help a lot in that respect.
    To sum it up, I think the game lacks a bit on the presentation side to keep a player excited about it as the gameplay is pretty straightforward in the end.

    Lastly, but - and I can't stress it enough - there's no obligation, a mention to orx somewhere either as a splash or in the credits would definitely be welcome. ;)
  • sausagesausage
    edited November 2012
    Downloaded this last night and very much enjoyed it. Like Iarwain says, the increase in difficulty needs some tweaking as it takes a bit to pick up. The movement and gameplay are very satisfying, as are the visuals.

    My only minor suggestion to contribute (and you probably have it planned for later) is to have hoggy have some expressions during the game. He could blink occasionally and maybe frown once in a while to make the character more believable.

    Great job, nice game.
  • PesoPeso
    edited November 2012
    Thank you iarwain and sausage for playing the demo. That was exactly the feedback I was expecting to receive.

    I agree with everything you said. But the thing is that most of the people that played the game so far were casual gamers and I think my game has a more casual feel (give me your opinion on this). Almost everyone that played the game said it was a difficult game. The main reason was aiming with the mouse. They had problems with that.

    iarwain wrote:
    Hey Peso,

    I gave it a try again last night, specifically for the fullscreen issue. Not sure what the cause is and without being able to access your code nor your config info, it's a bit hard to say for sure.
    However when I forced the display resolution to 1680x1050, the viewport was correctly placed. Actually it was correctly placed with any resolutions I tried. Which version of orx are you using, btw, your dll looks much smaller than when I compile the latest from hg.
    I'm not using the latest version of orx. I'm gonna run the game with the lastest version and see what I get. By the way, how did you force the display resolution?
    As for the game itself, I'm glad you posted a video, I'll explain this below.
    The game looks pretty well polished, nice job there! :)
    I especially love the details such as the smoke on the factory in the background and the different time of the day settings.
    Glad you like it.
    From the trailer, the game looks much more diverse than what I was about to witness.
    One of the possibilities for the demo is to put 1 level of each time of the day setting. This way the player can experience different ambients and enemies. What do you think?
    The main reason for that is that the first level feels much too long with a pace that's far too slow. It's hard to get motivated to push any further, especially when one doesn't know there'll be more enemies and weapons. I guess more communication at the end/start of a level introducing what is new or what is going to be unlocked would help a lot in that respect.
    As I said earlier, almost everyone that played the game had trouble with the aiming. So, I dicided to make the first 2 levels very easy in order to allow the player to get used to the controls.

    Did you play the whole demo? Were all the levels too easy?

    Regarding the communication issue. I'll try to show the new enemies before each level.
    To sum it up, I think the game lacks a bit on the presentation side to keep a player excited about it as the gameplay is pretty straightforward in the end.
    Can you guys give me some suggestions on that?
    Lastly, but - and I can't stress it enough - there's no obligation, a mention to orx somewhere either as a splash or in the credits would definitely be welcome. ;)
    Sure, it is on my todo list.
  • PesoPeso
    edited November 2012
    sausage wrote:
    Downloaded this last night and very much enjoyed it. Like Iarwain says, the increase in difficulty needs some tweaking as it takes a bit to pick up. The movement and gameplay are very satisfying, as are the visuals.
    I'll try to fix that.
    My only minor suggestion to contribute (and you probably have it planned for later) is to have hoggy have some expressions during the game. He could blink occasionally and maybe frown once in a while to make the character more believable.
    He actually has some expressions. Maybe I need to show them more frequently.
    Great job, nice game.
    Thank you.
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited November 2012
    Peso wrote:
    I agree with everything you said. But the thing is that most of the people that played the game so far were casual gamers and I think my game has a more casual feel (give me your opinion on this). Almost everyone that played the game said it was a difficult game. The main reason was aiming with the mouse. They had problems with that.
    It definitely has a casual feel to it and it's not a bad thing at all.
    I'm not using the latest version of orx. I'm gonna run the game with the lastest version and see what I get. By the way, how did you force the display resolution?
    Pretty easily! :)
    At the end of HazardousAttack.ini I added: 
    [Display]
ScreenWidth = 1650
ScreenHeight = 1080
    One way to avoid people from tempering with your internal settings would be to actually encrypt this file and from inside it include the user-editable one.

    This way any info set *before* that include will be used as default values, and any info stored *after* that include will enforce settings you don't want user to mess with.
    One of the possibilities for the demo is to put 1 level of each time of the day setting. This way the player can experience different ambients and enemies. What do you think?
    I think it's a pretty good idea. That'll add a much welcome variety!
    As I said earlier, almost everyone that played the game had trouble with the aiming. So, I dicided to make the first 2 levels very easy in order to allow the player to get used to the controls.
    Well, when I played it for the first time, I actually stopped during the second level as I felt it was pretty slow paced and didn't see what it'd bring to renew the game. I watched the video after that and discovered all that I missed.
    Did you play the whole demo? Were all the levels too easy?
    Only 1.5 levels but I'll try to push further tonight. Do you save progress?
    Regarding the communication issue. I'll try to show the new enemies before each level.
    I think that'll help a lot. I can recommend looking how they did it in Plants vs Zombies, it's all about renewing a user's interest and bring a good pacing outside of the game itself.
    Can you guys give me some suggestions on that?
    As I mentioned, looking what's done by the popular casual games out there is probably the way to go. Plants vs Zombies is what comes immediately to mind to me as they nailed the presentation part.
    Having a less static menu and screens will probably help too.

    I also agree with sausage: more expressions and maybe some eye following would help on Hoggy?

    Lastly, concerning the aiming, you need to cheat here to help people. You should adapt slightly the trajectory of your missile allowing for a small error from the player. You need to take into account the velocity of the target while doing so, of course. It has to be subtle enough that players won't notice it when playing it but it'll make the game feel good and more smooth.
    It's all about providing an enjoyable experience to the player while still not appearing like the game is obviously cheating/helping. :)
  • PesoPeso
    edited November 2012
    iarwain wrote:
    It definitely has a casual feel to it and it's not a bad thing at all.
    That's what I thought.
    Pretty easily! :)
    At the end of HazardousAttack.ini I added: 
    [Display]
ScreenWidth = 1650
ScreenHeight = 1080
    One way to avoid people from tempering with your internal settings would be to actually encrypt this file and from inside it include the user-editable one.

    This way any info set *before* that include will be used as default values, and any info stored *after* that include will enforce settings you don't want user to mess with.
    That was my intention, but now I see I did it wrong. :P
    Only 1.5 levels but I'll try to push further tonight. Do you save progress?
    Yes.
    Regarding the communication issue. I'll try to show the new enemies before each level.
    I think that'll help a lot. I can recommend looking how they did it in Plants vs Zombies, it's all about renewing a user's interest and bring a good pacing outside of the game itself.
    Do you mean the plant cards shown at the end of each level in Plants vs Zombies?
    Can you guys give me some suggestions on that?
    As I mentioned, looking what's done by the popular casual games out there is probably the way to go. Plants vs Zombies is what comes immediately to mind to me as they nailed the presentation part.
    Having a less static menu and screens will probably help too.
    I'll see what I can do about it.
    I also agree with sausage: more expressions and maybe some eye following would help on Hoggy?
    I'll show them more frequently and add the eye following.
    Lastly, concerning the aiming, you need to cheat here to help people. You should adapt slightly the trajectory of your missile allowing for a small error from the player. You need to take into account the velocity of the target while doing so, of course. It has to be subtle enough that players won't notice it when playing it but it'll make the game feel good and more smooth.
    It's all about providing an enjoyable experience to the player while still not appearing like the game is obviously cheating/helping. :)
    Actually, one of the weapons is a guided missile that do that in a more explicitly way.


    I will try to implement your suggestions until the end of the week and upload an updated demo.

    Thank you for you help.
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited November 2012
    Peso wrote:
    Do you mean the plant cards shown at the end of each level in Plants vs Zombies?
    I was actually referring to the zombies shown before starting a level, but yes, showing the new cards or having access to the list of plants and zombies are part of the whole presentation to make a fully polished game in the end.
    Actually, one of the weapons is a guided missile that do that in a more explicitly way.

    That is different though, the aiming aid won't change the trajectory of the missile mid-air and will actually go unnoticed from the player. An example is that most 3D platformers have some hidden jump helps that will slightly modify the jump trajectory if it was slightly off at the beginning. It's all about removing that "barely" missed zone to make the player succeed when he wouldn't have quite done it.

    Other example of subtle cheating in favor to the player is Splinter Cell Conviction: when the player has been seen and disappear near two doors, we'd send the first NPC look in the door we know isn't the right one to give an opportunity to the player to either escape or try to get the situation under control again.

    It's all about making it feel good without making it too easy. If you tone down too much the difficulty, the game will become too boring for other players, whereas if you give a small help for those who are close to succeed, that will make the game more appealing to more players.
  • PesoPeso
    edited November 2012
    iarwain wrote:
    Peso wrote:
    Actually, one of the weapons is a guided missile that do that in a more explicitly way.

    That is different though, the aiming aid won't change the trajectory of the missile mid-air and will actually go unnoticed from the player. An example is that most 3D platformers have some hidden jump helps that will slightly modify the jump trajectory if it was slightly off at the beginning. It's all about removing that "barely" missed zone to make the player succeed when he wouldn't have quite done it.

    Other example of subtle cheating in favor to the player is Splinter Cell Conviction: when the player has been seen and disappear near two doors, we'd send the first NPC look in the door we know isn't the right one to give an opportunity to the player to either escape or try to get the situation under control again.

    It's all about making it feel good without making it too easy. If you tone down too much the difficulty, the game will become too boring for other players, whereas if you give a small help for those who are close to succeed, that will make the game more appealing to more players.
    I think I got it. When the player shoots, I check whether the bullet trajectory would barely miss the target and then I adjust the bullet's initial direction in order to make it hit the target. Right?
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited November 2012
    Yep, but don't forget to take the target velocity into account.
  • duenezduenez
    edited December 2012
    A bit of a zombie thread, but I just decided to play it because we are trying to get a feel of how a complete (or close to complete) game in orx would look like... Here are my thoughts:

    It lacks a bit in the fun element. Casual gaming is not bad, but the stages are too long and the difficulty packed too tightly towards the end.

    It is a bit frustrating to play... too slow at the begining... power-ups can become power-downs if you accidentally shoot them, etc. And then, by the end of the stage, a gazzillion enemies arrive.

    I actually died against the boss of stage 4 because I was interrupted by somebody. A pause button would be welcome. So, in stage 4 I lost me main weapon (3 homing missiles) and when I restarted the level, I am at the boss, with the crappiest weapon and even when I hit about 90% of my shots, the boss still manages to get to the tree and kill it. So I am stuck!

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers,
  • PesoPeso
    edited December 2012
    Hi duenez,
    thank you for taking your time to try the game.

    Most of these issues are being handled by me. You can pause the game by hitting the ESC or P keys, but a pause button is needed for sure. I just have to think how to solve the "power-ups can become power-downs" problem. Maybe you guys have some suggestions.

    I will upload an updated demo soon.

    Thanks.
  • duenezduenez
    edited December 2012
    I also thought about another thing. You say people had problems using the mouse to aim... I experienced a bit of that myself and have a theory.

    Most of the time, my vision of my character was at the face, as is usual. The problem is that the cannon from where bullets are fired is at the bottom of the chopper, which means every time I fire, I am actually expecting a slightly different trajectory for the projectile.

    Cheers,
  • PesoPeso
    edited September 2013
    Hello guys,
    sorry for being away for a long time.

    I have good news. Finally I released my game. It was a long and painful journey, but I am really proud of the end result.

    I'd like to thank all you guys here, specially iarwain for putting out such a great engine.

    I've fixed lots of bugs and features you suggested here in this topic and I think the end result is mush better now.

    And I think all the effort is starting to compensate. The game is featured by Amazon.com in the Indie Games section.

    Here is the link:
    http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sa_menu_indie_games/188-2807033-1770415?_encoding=UTF8&node=6923534011

    I am still in touch with people at Desura and Indiecity trying to put my game there as well. I'll let you know if it happens.

    That's it. Later.
  • jimjim
    edited September 2013
    Hey, congrats, wonderful job you have done there :) Yeah, I can see its been long since you started but point is you have completed it. And that's a great achievement. Best of luck !
  • PesoPeso
    edited September 2013
    Thanks Jim, it is really hard to release a game when you have only a couple hours per week to work on it.
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited September 2013
    Nice to hear from you Peso, and congrats for the release of your game! :D

    Have you already started the next one? ;)
  • PesoPeso
    edited September 2013
    Thanks iarwain,
    I've started with some prototypes. Let's see what happens.
  • iarwainiarwain
    edited September 2013
    Looking forward to hearing more about those! :)
  • krousty_batkrousty_bat
    edited September 2013
    Awesome News and Congrats !!!
    Do you have a small video trailer or some in game video capture of it ?

    :woohoo:
  • PesoPeso
    edited September 2013
    Hi krousty_bat, thanks.

    Yes I do. The Amazon people should have included the video in the game's page. I'll talk to them.

    You can see it on http://oxlgames.com
  • krousty_batkrousty_bat
    edited September 2013
    Coooool !!!

    So how did it worked for Amazon ?
    Did you had to go though an approval milestone, was the entire process easy or hard to put on this Store, is there some exclusivity rule, do you control your page or the price of your game ?
  • PesoPeso
    edited September 2013
    The process was actually easier than I thought. I sent them an email and they asked me to send them information about the game. Than they send me an agreement to be signed and some docs to be filled with company and game details.

    There is no exclusivity. The game's page is controlled by them, but I set the price.
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