[Sokurah]

I had this silly idea for a game on monday. It just popped into my head and I had to make it.
It's not a complete game - just a demo, but I think it's pretty okay for just 1½ days work
(I saved a bit of time by lifting the explosions from Omega Race 2009).

It's kinda a mashup between Space Invaders and an inverted Tempest/Gyruss thing, done with glowing vectors.
I don't know if the idea is original, but I don't remember seeing anything quite like it...or I've forgotten it.

It's a bit hard and you will lose sooner or later. You should be able to manage a couple of hundred kills before dying though.
At this point it's a bit simple and the difficulty could do with some tweaking, but hopefully it can provide a few minutes of fun.

I would like some feedback on how to improve on it and make it into a better game...if you think it's worth it?

Like I said - I hope I can get a few ideas for making it better. I've considered adding powerups (faster shots, spread shots, constant laser beam, etc) and perhaps a UFO (which could drop the powerups?) although due to the untraditional version of Space Invaders I don't know how what movement it should have. The title is also a WIP.

Update July 12th. Removed demo. May attach one again later.

[Minion]

Slower move towards Earth and rotating around the planet would be nice. I like what i see and i like the idea, has potential.

[Martin]

I can't play this (no Windows), but I'm sure I remember seeing a "Circular Space Invaders" game on the Amiga years ago that looked very similar to this.

[Sokurah]

Slower move towards Earth and rotating around the planet would be nice. I like what i see and i like the idea, has potential.

Thanks - good to know I'm not completely off base here (hehe, see what i did there ).

Great idea to have the enemies move sideways as well. I hadn't considered that.
I can easily slow their descent to the planet and make them circle it too.

But what if I have two waves of enemies that meet? (behold my awesome artistic capabilities).

Would it be okay if they overlap and pass through each other, or would it be better to have them change direction if they do? (that would complicate things a lot, though).

Ideas?

[Minion]

if all the invaders drop at the same rate and time, then you set them up so they are "interlaced" and no invaders will ever hit each other. u can have 3 or 4 waves then dropping at the same time, but the "wave" moving left/right in any direction at any time

[Haggler]

I'm sure I remember seeing a "Circular Space Invaders" game on the Amiga years ago that looked very similar to this.

Space Invaders II: The Attack of the Green Smelly Aliens from Planet



The only one that vaguely sprang to mind yeuk

I love soks glowy vectors and it's another awesome looking game, i'd love a rip off (pun intended) of vidal's deluxe galaga done using them too! would be awesome.

*Edit* Atm i think the little swines drop a few too many missiles, had a struggle to get a score above 100. 

[Martin]

Space Invaders II: The Attack of the Green Smelly Aliens from Planet

The only one that vaguely sprang to mind yeuk

That's the one.  God it's been a long time since I saw that; I completely forgot how it looked. :p

[Sokurah]

I've changed a few things in the demo.

Min suggested I'd have the invaders circle the earth instead of moving straight down, so that's what they do now.

Unfortunately doing this meant that you could just fire a stream of bullets and as the wave of invaders would walk into it you would wipe out a whole row of invaders in one go, so I've slowed the speed of fire down a lot. I think it's better now.

I haven't implemented the idea of only spawning every second line of invaders so they can mesh when they meet. Perhaps I will, perhaps I won't. Depends a bit on the feedback. I think it works just fine like this though.

I've also tweaked the rate of descent plus a few other bits and bobs.

...oh, and added a fourth invader. It's a cat.

I've attached the new version to the first post. Could you tell my what you think?

[Tam Toucan]

The circling invaders works better. Though I did like the something about ships coming straight at you. Maybe add a (slow) missile (like the ufo in SI) that flies straight at the Earth.

Good, but bloody hard.

[Sokurah]

The circling invaders works better. Though I did like the something about ships coming straight at you. Maybe add a (slow) missile (like the ufo in SI) that flies straight at the Earth.

Good, but bloody hard.

Great idea. I was thinking of somehow including the ufo, and perhaps shooting a missile that heads directly for the Earth is a way to introduce powerups and more variation to the score.

I've begun coding the powerups, but this will be a small game. I'll keep it simple and accessable and good for a quick blast. I won't keep piling features on as I don't need more big unwieldy projects.
...and because, well...it's Space Invaders.

My name for it may be to big though. Can I get some name suggestions for it?
-something sweet and simple...and cool?.

[Haggler]

'Glows in orbit' 

[RobF]

Invade-o-tron 5000

[Sokurah]

Heh.

Here's a few more that I've been thinking of;

Sphere Invaders
Space In-Vectors
Neon Invaders
Spacehere Invaders (would work nicely with the subtitle "not ace since 2010" )

-and now that I've had a minute to think, I suddenly get the double meaning of your suggestion Bob - no longer just a silly title...there's a pun too. Puntastic!
Unfortunately people might blame me for sucking up to you if I go with that one.
...you should've had Mr. Rules suggest it.

[Minion]

Cyclaxains ? (any game with an X in it is kewl)

[caffeinekid]

They Arc In Space

[Sokurah]

Nice one, Caffy. A bit of DW cleverness there. Great.
Keep 'em coming. Who'll be the winner.

Unrelated to the title I've just implemented two types of shields for the player ship.
-one that absorbs enemy bullets and one that deflects them back. Simple stuff, but adds a little depth nonetheless.

Too hot to do more tonight.

[spacefractal]

damn, I was to slow to download the demo. I guess its due the secret iPhone game :-D (you know which one talking about, sokky) and is not looking so much in RR as I should.

Look actuelly very cool.

How many vector games do you created, buts its a good idea to hold with vectors as well, since they cool.

[Sokurah]

damn, I was to slow to download the demo. I guess its due the secret iPhone game :-D (you know which one talking about, sokky) and is not looking so much in RR as I should.

Look actuelly very cool.

How many vector games do you created, buts its a good idea to hold with vectors as well, since they cool.

Removing the demo has nothing to do with the iPhone game, but I'll make an updated version of this one for you in a couple of days.
Then, perhaps you can also decide if you'd like to do a bit of music for it.

Oh, and I have 3 of these glowing vector games in development. I'm starting them faster than I can finish them.

[Haggler]

Update July 12th. Removed demo.

That's the best update of a thread i've ever seen  , as well as working on them you're a swine

Oh, and I have 3 of these glowing vector games in development. I'm starting them faster than I can finish them.

Glow fest!

[spacefractal]

Sokky, its our iPhone I working with the great team you know.

I might look into that, but like to see the game as well the two others.

Sad its so hot here, so I dont work so much.

Buts its a cool SI idea.

[Sokurah]

Update July 12th. Removed demo. May attach one again later.

That's the best update of a thread i've ever seen  , as well as working on them you're a swine

Well, I did actually write something apart from just editing the first post.

Glow fest!

...and as long as I keep showing cocaine into my eyes I'll keep them coming.

Sad its so hot here, so I dont work so much.

Phew, I know what you mean. I'm not getting much done these days. It's so hot I can't concentrate until after 10pm.

[Sokurah]

Here's another WIP piccy showing two of the powerups (although you're not supposed to have more than one available at one time).

• One of the two types of shields. They both pulse and this one reflects the enemy bullets back.
• The powerbeam weapon (also pulsating) that allows you to wipe entire enemy formations out in no time.

In the picture it has just wiped 9 enemies out in one sweep, but one lucky invader survived.

In the bottom right, I've pasted in the powermeter that shows how much energy is left, in whatever powerup you're using.



I found a function called GetIntersectionLineCircle which I worked all last night to adapt to my collision between the beam-weapon and the invaders, but when I was finished it didn't work and it wasn't my fault. What a waste of time. The sample delivered with the function worked just fine, but it hadn't been tested thorougly enough and just didn't work as it should in a "real" enviroment. I scrapped everything and rewrote it to work another way this morning. I think this is better. Now, at least, I know how the code works...and it's probably faster now, too.

[Sokurah]

It's taken me a few days to get back into this one, after getting back from vacation, but I finally sat down last night and programmed two more powerups.

• Double-base. When you take this powerup you'll get an extra base at the opposite side of the planet.
• Power-shots. These are a bit like the normal shots, but they will stay after hitting something, so they can take out an entire vertical row of invaders.

I started programming the extra base with the intention of continuing with just one of them if the other got hit, but unfortunately that didn't work too well with some of the code I'd already done, so I decided to have the player lose a life if either one is hit. I actually like that better, since you have to be twice as careful now that you have the double firepower.

So...things are moving forward.

I still haven't decided on a name yet, though.

[highlander]

Would love to see this come out on Android

More glowing vector games plz!

[Sokurah]

Would love to see this come out on Android

More glowing vector games plz!

It won't come out on Android as I have no idea what that would take.

Speaking about vector games I had an idea during the vacation I just got back from. I decided that Rally-X would be a great game to do a vector version of, so I made a vector car, thinking I could start prototyping the scrolling vector playfield - which would be perfect as I'd love to do a scrolling vector game.

Unfortunately (or perhaps 'luckily') I realised that doing the map would need a whole new editor and I don't really wan't to spend all that extra time on just an editor...not for this game anyway. So...no Vector Rally-X.

Which is probably for the better. With 3 of these neon vector games in development I think I need to do an oldfashioned pixelgame soon...if I don't want to be labeled as a one-trick-horse.