Gunpods Vagabond

Ross

Hi all, Here is my latest project: Gunpods Vagabond: a 2d sidescrolling shooter with something like lunar lander-style movement. I wanted to take a break from the troublesome character animation blending, serious graphics, and performance issues of my other project and test myself with a little "game jam", so I created a working prototype of this game in about three days, and have spent some of the last month developing it further. It's got very simple graphics and not a whole lot of content yet, but hopefully more interesting and challenging mechanics than your average scrolling shoot 'em up. I'm doing everything on this project myself: coding, graphics, and sound, etc. A quick gameplay gif, showing the dash mechanic and two of the weapons: <img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/Dnel1R2.gif" title="Image: http://i.imgur.com/Dnel1R2.gif" height="338" width="600"> Some Current Features:  • Up to 3 player local multiplayer.  • Optional "hot-joining" - other players can join the game at any time.  • Configurable controls  • Analog gamepad support for all players.  • Endless survival mode - divided into loose waves by short breaks, and the enemies get more and more advanced.  • Practice mode, to give you some breathing room to practice the unusual controls.  • 7 Weapons.  • 15 Enemy types At this point I think it's pretty fun to play and I'm looking for some external feedback to keep me pushing forward and make sure my priorities are straight. Have a download and let me know what you think! <h2>Build Downloads: </h2>Go to https://rossgrams.itch.io/gunpods-vagabond for the latest builds.

Sslaxx

Linux works, this I can confirm.

Ross

@Sslaxx - Excellent, thanks! [Edit] I tried it on a Linux (Ubuntu) machine here too. I had to add the executable permissions bit to get it to run, which is sort of annoying. The only way I found to fix that from windows is with certain programs and certain kinds of archive, and I probably should have archived them anyway to make the uploads and downloads smaller. So I've updated the Linux download, it should run out of the box now. I was having an issue with the Switch button for player 1 though, which kind of ruins it. I'll have to fix that ASAP. I think it has something to do with the keyboard layout that the editor thinks it uses, since in the input map it shows up as "colon" rather than "comma". It works fine on windows though. Ugh. By the way, if there's anyone out there not using version control for your project, well, you should be. Even if you're working on a one-man project like I am it's really, really useful. You basically get an unlimited undo feature for any size of change you choose to commit. You never have to worry about messing things up, and never again hesitate to try some changes because you're worried about putting things back if it doesn't work. You can also save as many different branches as you want with different changes and switch back and forth whenever you want. I also find that it makes me a bit more organized about working on things, since I have to commit work in chunks with some sort of description. It encourages me to focus on one thing and keep going until it's finished, rather than make commits of random tweaks to a bunch of different things. It's satisfying to push a commit too, and nice to have a built-in log of what you did when and how much you've gotten done. I'm using Bitbucket. Unlike Github they give you free private repositories. You also get an optional issue tracker and wiki, each of which you can set independently to public or private, and allow anyone to contribute to them or not. For example you can have a private repository but a public issue tracker that anyone can log into bitbucket and report bugs for you. The wiki is quite nice for organizing other notes or brainstorming. If you're like me and find the git command line to be rather confusing and downright horrible to use, there's GUI options. I'm using Bitbucket's SourceTree. It's not as slick as "Github for Windows" (which you can also use for Bitbucket), but I think it has a little bit better functionality. If you're on Linux, GitKraken looks pretty good (SourceTree is win/mac only :/).

Ross

Well, the input issue on Linux is still a mystery. For some reason with the Linux build the comma key is not working in this specific instance. I tried another Godot program that has text input fields and the comma key works fine there. I tried switching keyboard layouts to dvorak and the action worked then, it's just that specific key that doesn't seem to work. I don't know if it's relevant, but in the editor input mapping menu that key identifies as "colon" rather than "comma". Alt also comes up as "Menu" a bunch of the time, so there's something a little screwy there. For now, I've added alternate keymappings for player 1's actions to the Linux build. 9, 0, -, and = instead of m, comma, period, and /. They'll get in the way of player 3 if you're using all three players with the same keyboard, but it's just a temporary workaround. I guess I'll add a key rebinding menu sooner than planned, maybe that will shed some light on the bug. Also noticed a little bug with the Ion cannon(your starting weapon). The shots are so big and the spawn point is close enough to your ship that they stick out the back of your ship on the frame that they spawn. So if you back up against the wall and try to shoot, it doesn't do much since the shots overlap the wall. Will put that on the issue tracker! :smiley: (scratch that, I'll just fix it.)

Kiori

Really cool looking. We need more shooters of this type i think. Good work!

Ross

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow"></a><a target="blank" rel="nofollow">@Kiori</a> Thanks!      Well, it's about high time for an update. I was away for a week on vacation but I've made good progress in the last week since then. I thought the gameplay was pretty decent when I started this this thread, but I started looking at it more critically after playing some more Nuclear Throne, Downwell, and watching some of Mark Brown's videos (which you should check out if you don't know, most of them are quite good, plus short and to the point). After going through a few failed iterations, the gameplay is now a lot more tactical and interesting.      Mostly I changed the boost mechanics. Instead of just an occasional way to dodge or move quickly, it now affects all parts of gameplay: defense, offense, and movement. Instead of having three charges of a fixed-length boost in one of eight-directions, you now have a continuous boost energy bar, can control the length of the boost, and can steer around however you want while boosting.      The regular thrust and steering controls are now shut off while boosting, which makes it much more reliable and easy to control. Also, in the last build you had to be holding down the correct directional keys at the instant you pressed tho boost button. That caused all sorts of problems boosting in the wrong direction because you let off one button a split-second too soon, or pressed the boost button just before you hit a directional key. All those problems are gone now, you just hold the boost button and steer. It defaults to forward if you don't press any direction keys. The continuous controls allow for some awesome high-speed dodging around and between obstacles. Three other changes to the boost: • You are immune to impact and explosion damage while boosting.     - This stops the instant you release the button. • Anything you touch while boosting is dealt large amounts of damage every frame.     - The large obstacles are resistant, but all current enemies are destroyed instantly.     - You regain a small amount of boost energy for each enemy you smash to death. • While boosting, your weapons are augmented     - The effect is different for each weapon, but they're generally about twice as powerful. <img title="Image: http://i.imgur.com/N6MUSX7.gif" src="http://i.imgur.com/N6MUSX7.gif" alt=""> Two new enemies, more to come soon: • Bombs     Nasty buggers, but they can also be useful. If you enter their sensor radius they will explode, killing you instantly. If you shoot them they also explode, wiping out nearby enemies and obstacles. Since your boost makes you immune to explosion damage, you can boost into their range to dispose of them. But if you run out of energy or release the boost button a split second too soon, you're dead. They'll teach you not to hang around the front of the screen. Watch out for the little red dots that mark the edges of their sensor range. <img title="Image: http://i.imgur.com/f5KU9c3.gif" src="http://i.imgur.com/f5KU9c3.gif" alt=""> • Destroyers     Also a dangerous enemy. They fly through quickly, and have a turret that pumps out bullets at the first player to come into range. You have to keep moving quickly, hide behind a block, or kill them quickly to survive. I made a new weapon too: • Side Gun. It's very powerful, but shoots from the top and bottom of your pod instead of forward. I actually tried a Rear Gun first, but that was just awful. When boosting Side Gun shoots six shots in all directions (except forward of course). <img title="Image: http://i.imgur.com/wZpypgZ.gif" src="http://i.imgur.com/wZpypgZ.gif" alt=""> <h2>Recent Build:</h2>I've opened up a page for Gunpods on Itch. I'll probably just use that to host builds from now on. https://rossgrams.itch.io/gunpods-vagabond

Haplotyper

Both of your games look awesome. I checked our your personal page and, man, your have some skills. Keep up the good work!

Ross

@2D||!2D Thanks a lot! I uploaded a new build today: https://rossgrams.itch.io/gunpods-vagabond I added a whole new instructions menu with a page for each part of the game, so that's good. Now people can hopefully pick this up and play without any trial and error or outside help. For now it's just text and a few images, but I plan to make it fully interactible at some point. In the process I put together some proper menu-switching code, and fixed a bug with the menu buttons losing focus (I had other "visible" but 0.0 opacity buttons around from the other menu). I changed the gamepad controls to use both sticks for movement and the triggers and bumpers for actions, as per a suggestion from tigsource. I'm not much of a gamepad user so it's hard for me to judge. It seems to be a little bit easier to fly now, but harder aim your boost and do other stuff. I really need to add configurable bindings some day soon. Added a new enemy too: the Seeker. A little enemy that tends to spawn in groups and just follows your around and bumps into you. There's a chance for a few to appear early on, but they don't really start spawning for real until late in the game (around 280 seconds). Slowly but surely making progress. I'm trying to start clocking in a good number of hours in every day. <img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/RiiiGbX.gif">

Megalomaniak

Looks very cool again! Great job. :)

Elf_Ears

HOT DAMN! This is amazing looking!

this puts the rubbishy twin stick I've secretly been working on TO SHAME

zadig

The gameplay looks so addictive :). Will download it soon (dial up cet @ home). Keep up the good work!

quickmind2020

Very nice game! though it seems like i cant pick up any weapons at all... :neutral: I go over them they light up as green and then i push switch and...nothing saddens me :( EDIT: Well i did some reading... derp.. hope that the bug gets fix. mean while ill be using the alt keys for p1 :)

Ross

<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow">quickmind2020</a> said:

Very nice game! though it seems like i cant pick up any weapons at all... :neutral: I go over them they light up as green and then i push switch and...nothing saddens me :(

</blockquote> Are you on Linux? Can you switch at all normally? There is some weirdness causing the comma key to not work on Linux, so there's alternate keybindings for player 1's action on the number key row: =, -, 0, and 9. There is a note about that at the bottom of the Itch page. I'll hopefully figure that out when I get around to doing rebindable keys.

quickmind2020

Ya I did some reading and found that out! :) Its a bummer when something like this happens and you don't know why it does it... Well good luck to you! (btw This is really fun, and hard...makes it even funner to play)

Ross

Whew! OK, cool. Yeah, it's a weird bug. Thanks!

PCMXMS

Didn't run :(

pcmxms@MainFrame:~/Downloads$ ./Gunpods\ Vagabond_2016_08_29_Linux 

./Gunpods Vagabond_2016_08_29_Linux: error while loading shared libraries: libXinerama.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

pcmxms@MainFrame:~/Downloads$ sudo apt-get install libxinerama1

Lendo listas de pacotes... Pronto

Construindo árvore de dependências       

Lendo informação de estado... Pronto

libxinerama1 is already the newest version (2:1.1.3-1).

0 pacotes atualizados, 0 pacotes novos instalados, 0 a serem removidos e 68 não atualizados.

pcmxms@MainFrame:~/Downloads$  Gnome Ubuntu 16.04

Ross

@PCMXMS Hmm, It looks like it's some 32-bit vs 64-bit issue. http://superuser.com/questions/688871/error-while-loading-shared-libraries-libxinerama-so-1-cannot-open-shared-objec I'll look into it more tomorrow.

Ross

@PCMXMS Shoot, sorry! I forgot about this and got distracted with freelance work. I just uploaded a new version and included a 64-bit Linux build. If you would, try that and see if it works: https://rossgrams.itch.io/gunpods-vagabond @Megalomaniak Thanks again! @Elf_Ears Haha, thanks! Hey, don't put down your own projects! Besides, this isn't actually twin-stick, you aim and steer at the same time. @zadig Thanks! Oh man, I didn't know anyone still had dialup. Sorry for all the big gifs! Well, I think most people get turned off quickly by the unusual controls. The few people with the mindset to keep at it have gotten pretty into it though, which is awesome. I just need to learn how to find those people. <h2>September 9th Build - 10 new enemies</h2>New build up for download from: https://rossgrams.itch.io/gunpods-vagabond It was actually really fast to make new enemies. Most of them are just variations of each other. Some enemies chase after you, some move straight, some move on an angle, some alternate between chasing you and moving straight. Some shoot, some don't. Some aim their shots at you, some just shoot strait ahead or in all directions . . . etc., etc., etc. I started making separate "module" scenes for different behaviors so I can reuse them without copy-and-pasting code. I've got a Targeting Module that takes a nodepath to an Area2D and decides which player to target, if any are in the area. Then I access it from the enemy's main script if I want the enemy to chase the player and/or aim at it. A Pickup Spawner module with export vars for number of drops and chance to drop. Two different Firing Modules for single shots or bursts. I definitely should have started working this way in the beginning, and I have a lot more things I should separate out. Now there are 15 different enemies and it's a lot more work to chop chunks out and "modularize" them! I really wish Godot allowed multiple scripts on one node. It's OK to just use another node for each one, but it adds a bit more code to get_parent() or have NodePath export vars to access stuff in the root node and elsewhere. Extending my own class would work for some stuff, but it screws up the autocompletion, which is a real pain. I also changed the key for picking up weapons to "Reload" instead of "Switch". It was a bit weird at first, but it's much better. Picking up weapons was always a bit tricky before, aside from the necessary careful flying, because you had to get close enough to see what a weapon was, but switch to the weapon you wanted to swap out before you got to close, then get up close and press switch again to actually pick up the weapon. (!) Now you don't have to worry about that, since the Switch and Pickup actions are on different keys. You don't use Reload much, so there's less chance of accidentally grabbing a different weapon too. And I made it so the first weapon you pick up automatically goes in your empty slot. So nice. I should have done that sooner, it was one line of code.