Arsenal (DS Entry)

Arsenal is a dual-screen 3D shoot em up game for the DS. I'm doing all the code and Lobo is doing all the graphics. The current music was taken from modarchive.org, and hopefully I'll manage to find something a little more fitting by the time the final version is released.

Here's Arsenal version 1.0 ! This is pretty much the final version of the game. I might update it some time in the future if stuff needs tweaking, but basically, that's it, I consider the game to be "pretty much done".

There's a ton of stuff that I've added since the last version (which was released exactly 6 months ago), so here's a feature list :
- full dual screen 3D bullet hell vertical shoot em up
- robust engines capable of managing hundreds of bullets (over 1000 in certain conditions)
- 7 levels, ranging from easy to insanely hard
- massive bosses
- different weapons, powerups
- varied backgrounds : space stations, planets, oil rigs...
- replay system (included are replay files for every level)
- highscore system with online leaderboards; upload your replays and share them with the world
- complete modding tools available : make your own levels and share them on the game's website
- download people's mods directly from the game's menu via wifi

Just to prove that I'm not kidding around when I say there are insanely hard levels :

Don't worry though, this is the fifth boss, and I made the first 3 levels to be easier, so the learning curve should be nice. Level4 gets a little more challenging of course, and then levels 5, 6 and 7 are a whole other world.
As previously mentioned, the game is not quite done yet, so I'll be tweaking a lot of stuff over the next few days. I'll probably be adding new content, in the form of "DLC", so keep an eye out.
I'll also be writing up a full manual for the game editor, which may seem really confusing at first.
Let me know what you think !
One thing I'll definitely be changing is the music, I didn't have enough time to find some that really fit the game.

Controls :
There are two control schemes for the game (you can select the one you want in the Options menu)
- Control scheme 1 : D-PAD to move, A/B to shoot, R to slow down and L to go faster
- Control scheme 2 : D-PAD to move, ABXY to move slower, R/L to shoot
- Autofire : allows you to shoot continuously without having to press the shooting button repeatedly
- Select toggles the hitbox


Here are a few videos : (though shot in an emulator, so a lot of effects don't look right :/)


Special thanks :
- Lobo, of course
- dev-fr.org, especially ludo6431, eviltroopa and vloz
- romain, chervine !
- the guy who made bulletgba, that game is awesome and really helped me find interesting patterns to put in my game
- the people from modarchive.org
- the team maintaining libnds
- the creator of sfxr
- the creators of zlib

Edited by smealum, 08 June 2011 - 09:34 PM.

I like this, it's a fun bullet hell game, and the graphics are nice looking.

I do have a couple of suggestions (since you said yer open),

- touchscreen ship control (though i guess that would mess with moving around on the top screen)
- smaller ship (to manuver through teh bullets)
- Ikaruga style pos/neg polarity for bullets and ship =)

YES.

YES YES YES YES YES.

DO THAT.

Do the other things too but DO THAT.

Edited by personuser, 20 March 2011 - 06:05 PM.

Looks like Aerofighters with laser beams.

This will be a nice replacement for TouHou DS

Edited by ron975, 26 March 2011 - 10:42 PM.

I wish someone would make a Touhou port this good.

Doesn't work on EOS 1.11
DSTWO Firmware version 1.09

Thanks for the support everyone.


- already planning on adding multiple control schemes (mostly in an attempt to allow for more accurate movement), so I'll see if I can work out something using the stylus
- actually I've already mostly fixed this by modifying the collision detection code, the game is now much more playable even with the ship's current size. No demo is available yet though, so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.
- that's a nice idea, but I'm not really interested in copying/porting other games. Ikaruga was awesome, but I don't really feel like making my game just another clone. Plus it would make level design even more of a pain.



I know some people already had trouble getting the game to run on the DStwo, while others managed to get it to work just fine. CannonFoddr somehow fixed the problem on his DStwo, so if you're interested check out this post : http://gbatemp.net/t272516-arsenal-12-31-1...t&p=3391089
(basically all you have to do is try using another micro SD card or formatting the one you're using... I know it's a pain but unfortunately I don't see anything in my game's code that could be causing this :/)

Edited by smealum, 16 April 2011 - 10:29 PM.

This is rlly cool! Add explosions to the ships when they blow up, sound, and a "safe time" after  death, and i'm in~! (In what? Idk. ♥)

Like playing touhou on the DS but this time your controlling a spaceship.
But very nice work,like it.

Looks *very* cool, I'll try it out right now!

Thanks for your support.
The game is entering its final stages of completion and right now I'm working hard on making levels.
I'm not very good at gauging difficulty, so I'm looking for a couple of people who will be available next week to do some beta testing for me. It won't be so much bug hunting as it will be simply testing levels and giving me feedback on how to improve them.
Also, if anyone's interested in making levels for the game you can also ask and I'll provide you with the level editor. The game has extensive modding capabilities (and it's possible to download mods directly in the game over wifi), so it would be cool for some mods to be available when the game is released.
So anyway, I'm looking for :
- beta testers
- level designers

In the meantime, here are a few screenshots :

Unfortunately, stills taken in no$gba don't really do the game justice, but I haven't had the time to take a video yet, so it'll have to do for now. :/

I'll help out with beta testing
looks fricking sweet so far

I'll also be able to help out with beta testing.

It's looking really good!

Even if you read my post you may get confused in what I tried...

Basically its...

• Back-up your MSD
• Have a clean MSD, prefeably one that's had a FULL FORMAT with the 'Panasonic formatter'
• Install your DSTwo EOS software BY ITSELF first
• Install everything else afterwards

I have in fact tried the latest Arsenal above today on my DSTwo (with 1.11 eos) - nope didn't run, got 'red screens of deaths' just like I got with the earlier version(s)
I then back-up my MSD, FULL formatted it, Copied ONLY the '/_DSTwo/' folder from the backup - then everything else from the backup...
....now Arsenal works - as a 'Plugin' anf through iMenu shortcut

My personal theory is that possibly Arsenal need the '/_DSTwo/' folder to be in one continuous 'block' on the MSD & not fragmented (why - I've got no idea) - which might happen if you 'update' the DSTwo over an existing installation.

I've not tried this - but perhaps we might get away with backing-up JUST the '/_dstwo/' folder > Delete the folder from the MSD > Copy over the backup '/_dstwo/' folder onto the MSD so that it's all in 'one block'.... Anyone want to try it ??

EDIT @ smealum: Guess I could be a 'DSTwo game tester' if you can figure out the problem between your game & the '/_DSTwo/' folder although I don't really play a lot nowadays

Edited by CannonFoddr, 21 May 2011 - 10:42 PM.