Homebrew working on a quick little wii shooter

[newo]

I tried it, and it's awesome, but the menu scrolls too fast. The game plays at the right speed though. Maybe that's because I was playing it on my Wii U's vWii?

I'll try it on a real Wii tomorrow.

testers have mention that the menu scrolled too fast on dolphin but I am not sure what would cause the issue since the menu is on a timer. A similar timer controlls the rate at which the guns fire. The normal bomb should take 5 seconds to reload after its empty.

What controler are you using to navigate the menu? Is the menu scrolling at random speeds? or is it consistently fast? Is it super human fast or does it just need a slight slowing down?

right now the menu scrolls at a quarter of a second each step.

 

[newo]

New build up for testing 1.096; new combo points system, bombs now leave trails in the water and a ring when they explode over water. updated the UI to show the combo level, the level travel distance, and if there is a boss at the end. #wii

Try it on the vWill and tell me if the menus are still too fast

 

[ry755]

I tried the new build on vWii, and now it won't get past the loading screen. It goes to 88%, then stops. If I wait for a long time, it eventually gets to 89%.

I also tried it on a real Wii, and it runs perfectly. So I guess there's something different about vWii, even though it's not emulation, it's a backwards compatibility mode.

 

[newo]

I tried the new build on vWii, and now it won't get past the loading screen. It goes to 88%, then stops. If I wait for a long time, it eventually gets to 89%.

I also tried it on a real Wii, and it runs perfectly. So I guess there's something different about vWii, even though it's not emulation, it's a backwards compatibility mode.

Hmmm thats weird and I dont have a wii u on which to test. No clue what could be tieing it up. Are you willing to test another build? I could print out the loading text to see if its hanging on a particular file.

 

[ry755]

Hmmm thats weird and I dont have a wii u on which to test. No clue what could be tieing it up. Are you willing to test another build? I could print out the loading text to see if its hanging on a particular file.

Sure!

 

[newo]

Sure!

ok, I have updated the test build with version that write out text while the game is starting up instead of showing a %. let me know where it stops loading. you can press a key to reduce the pause times between lines.

When you download that build also download http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Newo_Sky and http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Newo_Escape to see if those older homebrew work. because I might have changed something that the vWill doesn't like.

 

[ry755]

It doesn't show any debug text while it's starting. Also, I noticed that if I let it sit long enough, the number will go over 100%.

In the old builds that worked, the intro screen that showed credits and the controls also flashed by too fast. The bombs also reload instantly. I think what ever timer system you're using might be incompatible with vWii.

Newo Sky and Newo Escape both start, and I can play the game, but they also run too fast.

 

[newo]

So its definitely a problem with the timer code and the vWill that I have no clue how to fix. I will have to get a wii-u at some point inorder to figure it out.


And its been a issue for a long time since those older homebrew have the same issue.

 

[newo]

Updated to version 1.097 replaced all my timer floats with u64. This should fix the issue. Hopefully @ry775

 

[ry755]

It still gets stuck at the loading screen. Personally, I don't think that many people will be trying to play it with vWii, since I'm sure most people interested in Wii homebrew have a real, original Wii to use. So as long as it works on an original Wii, I think it's ok.

 

[newo]

It still gets stuck at the loading screen. Personally, I don't think that many people will be trying to play it with vWii, since I'm sure most people interested in Wii homebrew have a real, original Wii to use. So as long as it works on an original Wii, I think it's ok.

I am finding it really annoying that its not working on the vWii

 

[kaisersozeh]

Thanks for the nod, really put a smile on my face!
One of the music tracks isn't playing back, just silence until the next level starts. I have to day I found some of your earlier music choices a bit more mood enhancing for the game, faster, intense. I may be misremembering.
I'm honestly ignoring the points system, there's no jeopardy because I keep forgetting to use the bombs. It's a thought that if you tied a bonus to clearing a level of all enemies of a particular colour or type, you might have more impetus to use the bombs, and sparingly. There is a lot about the aesthetic that I really like, but I just don't like the easter island head shape. Just dont like. Also seems too abstract a shape to offer an interesting target in a shmup. I'm not a fan of the tank either, tbh, although seeing it from above it works well.

How big are these 3d objects in terms of memory? There might be free library objects you can just drop in, but I'd love to have a go at coming up with something for your consideration, what format do you use for 3d objects? Just in terms of variety, I'd suggest avoiding having two item types use the same colour on the same level, and you can get more milage from the same models by turning vertically and/or horizontally, more exotic spacecraft designs don't have an obvious up or forward!
I don't want to patronise there, I wasn't sure if you planned on playing with this stuff, but changes in the rotation of like oriented objects, ie things coming in nose first but individual objects having differing roll rotations, would give a lot of variety for a (I guess) low cost.
Just a couple more aesthetic choice things. I find the dark laser trail a bit uncomfortable. It might be an artefact against a lighter colour, but lasers don't look like light emitters if they're not one of the brighter incandescent elements. That could be something cool to play with, but it just feels like a weird artefact atm.
Last thing. You get a sense that once an object has established a role - as furniture, set, a passive or moving target, you have to exclusively use it for that purpose unless it's part of a narrative. It just feels inconsistent and unsettling if these things are fluid.
I full on played forty plus levels last time. It's fun.

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From playing newoshooter, it's really missing that stage boss that shoots back

 

[newo]

The music doesnt start until a new level so if it level ends before the music then it stays silent.

Some people really like the bombs so the points system allows them to fire off 10 in a row. Its really a choice left up to the player and how the like toplay. Some play for points others for explosions.

The 3d objects are lowpoly obj files. Roughly 200 polys max. You can see/edit them in the game folder. If you have skills with creating 3d models you could try creating one but its hard to get low poly stuff that fits into the specifications. So I made my own shapes and also used the old models from newoshooter created by julian ages ago.

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Nothing shoots back at the player in this game. I want the player to focus on shooting objects rather than dodging bullets. Just like in my previous game "newo escape" where the focus was exclusively on dodging to gain points.

I think enemy that shoot back might distract from the arcadey shoot festness of the game.

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The colour of the lazor used to be yellow all the time but last week I make itso that a different colour is chosen on each stage so you will end up with a bad colour combo or a stage where everything is red or dark. I see it as a part of the challenge.

There is a stage where the lazor is blue and the entire stage is like silver. I think some player will like the variety. And I try to make the stages appear the same everytime you play the game, so they are not random.

If you turn on the random jump setting you get to experience the choas of not knowing which level will appear next.

 

[newo]

Models are easier to dodge if they have a consistent position so I made some fixed while others rotate especially in the space stages. If you play the game on hard you will notice that there are more indestructible obstacles. I could rotate them on hard mode but I do not think it would help the funness in the normal mode. I added the asteroids to mix it up a bit.

There are 10 types of shapes to choose from and 71 colours so there are bound to be bad combinations as long as it doesnt prevent the player from beating the level.

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I worked hard on preventing the objects in the levels from being randomly generated because that was a complaint I got from newoescape. The randomness made it impossible to get good at the game because everything would be different everytime you played.

In this game the more you play the better you will get because every event happens in a consistent manner. The first stage will always be red on a planet above shallow water. And such is the case for every stage unless I change the algo.

 

[kaisersozeh]

A lot of the pleasure is enjoying the environments you've created. Blowing shit up is beautiful too.
Honestly it's an achievement.
When I said rotation, I meant that the objects would be static, not each one rotating, but perhaps at a fixed rotation factored on their distance to their origin from the center. It's just that all the objects have the same straight up down orientation.
I'll fo shizzle have a look at the 3d artwork. Does the app load the obj files from the app folder, I could just drop in my experiments?
Also had a thought, without effecting actual game play, you could map the rotation of the vehicle to the rotation of the wiimote. That could be immersive or distracting!
Thanks for taking the time to explain your decisions, don't feel you have to, but it's good to hear your reasoning.

 

[newo]

Yes all of them are fixed. I will try to mix them up a bit on the hard mode in the next update. This latest build is for testing loading issues on vwii with @ry755

Yes all the obj files load from the folder at the start of the game. All the obj models are centered on zero. Meaning zero is the middle of all of them. If you go into the menu - display - debug -and select the bullet object collision option. You will see that they all rotate around thier center. So if the model is not 2 units tall then it will not work correctly. You can know the model is the right size when you open the obj file in a text editor and look at the vertex positions, the biggest number should be at most 1 or at least -1. If you see verts at 5 or anything above 1 you know that the model is going to fall out of the bounding box. I have another homebrew called "newo model viewer" it might be easier to use, it uses the same loading code.

Keep the poly count on the model low or the whole game will start lagging (see debug menu). Also big triangles create collision holes so you have to have a balance between density and poly count. You will see how the the current models are designed. No textures are loaded.

The most dense models are the stargate, player and the enemies.

Motion controls could be easily mapped but it would most likely be turned off by default to not confuse people. Probably a version 2 feature at this late stage of development.

 

[newo]

Ui changes

In the screenshots below the score is on the left, with your combo meter which give you more points the higher it is or you can fire more bombs which decrease it. You will notice that the higher the combo meter the faster you lazer will fire.

The hearts are for your hits - 3 hits and you die. The hearts are a little transparent.

The white bar on the right is how far you are along the level path. The numbers on the right are the current level and stage. There are 100 levels/stages and you can play them in order or randomly so thats why there are 2 numbers. The first number goes up to 100 and second is the actual stage number if you are playing in random jump mode.

View attachment 119571 View attachment 119572 View attachment 119573 View attachment 119574

 

[newo]

working on clouds for some of the land stages this weekend. Land stages only appear in Hard and Normal difficulty settings. game is basically done just working on the details and cleaning up bugs.

 

[newo]

Updated test build to 1.098. Added clouds to some stages. fixed a bug in the loading screen/leaderboard. optimized explosions and particles.

 

[newo]

updated to 1.0981 previous build had incorrect file load directory.