Shifter (Pre-Alpha 0.0.009) MUSIC BREAK


>>>Click icon to test Shifter (Pre-Alpha)

(For those of you that know I’ve been casually making tests for Shifter these last few years, get ready for actual work, now that I have a wacom laptop.)

Shifter is a beautiful mash up of Super Metroid, Contra, Super Smash Bros, Sonic, and many other inspirations, all in one massive game.
The sooner we get background messages, alpha, and animations, the more detail I can add.
If we get more layers, I can make beautiful futuristic sci-fi scenery.

Changelog:
[spoiler] 0.0.005 11.15.17

  • EXTREME BEHAVIOR ORGANIZATION. Completely reorganized the logic system into categories, cleaned up the math system, and removed all bugs from the toggle equations.
  • Expanded the game screen size from 16x10 to 24x14. This game is meant for PC and Console, so this screen size should fill most of a fullscreen at 175% zoom.
  • Added Debug Mode. Now the characters will have toggle angle check, collision check, X and Y velocity meters, health meters, and nearest enemy proximity.
  • Added Save System. Save System Debug mode will display the skeleton mapping and unlocked abilities (Until an abilities menu is added sometime next year.)
  • Removed stick figure and old test room, and replaced with idle Mhx frame and new floating platform.
  • Note - Stick figure logic is slowly being rebuilt into Mhx, organized and improved on. Test room will be divided into Platform Stage and Grid Room where you can test controls and battle new bosses I’m working on before they get released.
  • Note - Debug mode code is D+X+7+Enter. You must press them all at the same exact time.

0.0.004 10.25.17

  • Added better 8 directional aiming math
  • Added temporary walking animation
  • Added temporary placemarker for R1 on controller. Bind R1 to K
  • Added speed modifier. Hold R1 to charge your speed, you will glow green. At 100%, you can run max speed from standing still. Think of this like a controlled spindash, without the release for momentum. Hold R1 while walking to run, at 100%, your speed will boost to max. I will eventually make max speed an add system, so you can boost infinitely in that direction, until you stop or hit something.
  • Added walk aiming for left and right. You will glow green.
  • Added run aiming for left and right. You will glow blue.

0.0.003 10.24.17

  • Added R stick to the controller menu, it is mapped to 7890 up down left right
  • Adjusted display so control layouts won’t overlap and be unreadable
  • You can now go to the logic tester screen by pressing A (U key)
  • Added 8 directional aiming with R stick
  • Added flip number system so 8 directional aiming is not mirrored when facing left
    +Bonus: Having this will allow aiming and shooting behind you while running, jumping, and swimming. This will be one of the first games to ever have running and shooting behind you, using 2 toggle sticks. This will further allow me to create an intense atmosphere for enemies and boss battles that chase you through the area, which would benefit from being able to run away while shooting backwards, without the traditional dpad platformer shooter burden of having to stop and face towards the enemy to aim and shoot.
  • Temporary jump with A for testing purposes
  • Temporary idle animation for logic testing
  • Walking disabled to test aiming accuracy

0.0.002 10.23.17

  • Added two buttons to the controller. Click them to see what keys to map to that button.
  • Left stick (arrows) will be movement, A (U) will be jump controls and “advance” on the menu screen.
  • Controller screen effects
  • Inverted changelog so updates show up first at the top
  • Added game version in bottom left of controller screen
  • Added ? information box

0.0.001 10.22.17

  • Added controller image with neon electric effect
    You will need a controller and JoyToKey to play Shifter
    As I add new controls, the buttons will glow and show what key to map to which button
    [/spoiler]

YEEE BOIIIIIIIII

0.0.002

  • Added two buttons to the controller. Click them to see what keys to map to that button.
  • Left stick (arrows) will be movement, A (U) will be jump controls and “advance” on the menu screen.
  • Controller screen effects
  • Inverted changelog so updates show up first at the top
  • Added game version in bottom left of controller screen
  • Added ? information box

Im excited for this. I had one game from you on my PSvita when I still had it

Have you ever played Metal Slug? That’s how the boss fights will work, with a mix of Super Metroid for weak spots and Sonic for parts of the boss that are immune to electricity, so you have to break the shields first with your melee attacks.

@PixelPizza has made tons of boss battles so far, each one is really good. The hitboxes are very unfair and the bosses die too easily, but the concepts and graphics are amazing. Once I have the basic controls down, I’ll make a test boss before anything.

Isnt metal slug a run n gun game too?

Walk and gun, yeah, like Contra only comically realistic

Changelog update:
0.0.003 10.24.17

  • Added R stick to the controller menu, it is mapped to 7890 up down left right
  • Adjusted display so control layouts won’t overlap and be unreadable
  • You can now go to the logic tester screen by pressing A (U key)
  • Added 8 directional aiming with R stick
  • Added flip number system so 8 directional aiming is not mirrored when facing left
    +Bonus: Having this will allow aiming and shooting behind you while running, jumping, and swimming. This will be one of the first games to ever have running and shooting behind you, using 2 toggle sticks. This will further allow me to create an intense atmosphere for enemies and boss battles that chase you through the area, which would benefit from being able to run away while shooting backwards, without the traditional dpad platformer shooter burden of having to stop and face towards the enemy to aim and shoot.
  • Temporary jump with A for testing purposes
  • Temporary idle animation for logic testing
  • Walking disabled to test aiming accuracy

Slowly making progress each night. I really only have free time from 2am to 6am, but when I didn’t have a laptop, I never had any time, so this is far better than nothing. 4 hours a night is still almost 30 hours a week, so this is basically a second job for me.

Really quickly, just want to say this to @grazer :

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ADDING COPY PASTE SELECT IMPORT FOR BEHAVIORS
Dude, you don’t even understand. I just spent the last few hours editing my game, and looked out of the corner of my eye and in horror I realised I was signed out. The remember me tick doesn’t work for Facebook logins. I was immensely upset at the idea I was going to lose hours of work if I refresh or leave the page. I was so mad. Then I remembered I can copy paste import selected behaviors, and copied every single behavior over a separate window that I was logged into. This just saved me hours of redoing tons of work. Thank you for adding this amazing feature.

For those curious, I’m currently working on a massive math number system for walking and running while 8 way aiming and shooting. I spent hours playing around with this and now have it working so smoothly. You have no idea how mad I was when I thought I just lost all that work. Phew.

Changelog update:
0.0.004 10.25.17

  • Added better 8 directional aiming math
  • Added temporary walking animation
  • Added temporary placemarker for R1 on controller. Bind R1 to K
  • Added speed modifier. Hold R1 to charge your speed, you will glow green. At 100%, you can run max speed from standing still. Think of this like a controlled spindash, without the release for momentum. Hold R1 while walking to run, at 100%, your speed will boost to max. I will eventually make max speed an add system, so you can boost infinitely in that direction, until you stop or hit something.
  • Added walk aiming for left and right. You will glow green.
  • Added run aiming for left and right. You will glow blue.

I will add all 8 directions next time I have a few hours to spare.
After that, I will add more temporary animations for aiming while midair.
@grazer before I get too deep into this, is there an animation limit? I need 8 animations per aim, that’s 8 idle, 8 walking, 8 running, 8 in the air, 8 flying and 8 swimming. That’s 48 animations for aim. I also need idle, walk, run, swim, fly, charge, shield, climb, every type of punch, every type of kick, and even more if I make transformations. I’ll have to double that if I decide not to use flip, so the right arm is always the one aiming. I’ll have to double all that if I make a player 2. This is well over 200 animations for just two players, not including flipped animations, if I even bother. This isn’t even counting animations for enemies, bosses, grass, weather, clouds, etc. If flowlab has a limit, I’m going to end up running into it. This game will seriously push flowlab to the edge over and over until it can handle the game. I’ll try to avoid using too much emit, so it won’t lag like Vortex.

a

It was huge when he added those things.

But I must warn you, copy/paste behaviors are still weird. One time I used an emit… and it instantly dropped 100 and lagged out the game

@CrimsonBlackGames
I know, I’ve always hated emit.
It lags, it’s unreliable, and if you look at @PixelPizza 's Awakening, the arrow spawns way too far behind the character. Emit sucks for ship trails, it sucks for bullets, it sucks for just about everything. It’s gotten better over the last few years, but I still don’t like it. I always waste hours tweaking it with a onced position.

It never does that though.

Copy pasted behaviors seem to trigger a lot (all at once too) more than what normal behaviors do

Did you drag your pasted behaviors to make sure there wasn’t anything underneath? I always drag the main behavior and pull the whole group to check for any accidentally doubled behaviors. @CrimsonBlackGames

No behaviors underneath

After a couple days of thinking, I’ve decided not to do the traditional Super Metroid graphics I have been doing for Shifter. I’ve decided to make my life harder and make 2.3D graphics. The difference between 2.5D and 2.3D is 2.3D has no perception to the left or right, only further behind.
In 2.5, a platform would look like this
/\
In 2.3 it looks like this
ll

There is no skew, there are no diagonals. You just see more in the background, because the world isn’t flat repeated boxes.

Think of it like this, without the skew.

I’ll have to make oddly complicated tiles that repeat and don’t look weird, but I can pull it off. I’ll also make blowing grass bits on layer 1, 2, and 3, so you can run through it behind and in front of you on layer 2. If you tried my Shifter v3 test, walking past a sign while running causes it to sway back and forth. I was thinking of doing that with grass so it moves as you walk by, but honestly that’s a lot of proximity checks, and I can’t use collision until @grazer does that group type system I mentioned in another topic.

I just saw a trailer for the new The Mummy game, and it directly rips off Super Metroid and Contra with the graphics level of Metal Slug. This is basically what I’m going for, but my game will have running, swimming, flying, and powers instead of guns.

No promises on that high quality of graphics, but I’ll do my best.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AvbtUfqam5g

That looks pretty sweet

uuuuhhhhhhh hell yeah