eXigent concept beta (don't leak)

[AnonymousTipster]

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a4/anonymoustipster/exigentjpg.jpg

Exigent is an abstract shooter which generates it's levels based on any mp3 file; kind of like a playable visualisation. This version is a very early concept beta, so it still needs a lot of work (especially framerate).


-- how do I play? --
The ship in the middle of the screen is you, accelerate by pushing the analog nub up, and turn by pushing the nub left and right. This can also be achieved using the d-pad, but the analog stick is much more precise. You shoot at enemies using the R-Trigger button, and can use square and circle to strafe left and right. Use Select to toggle camera modes (near,far, top near, top far). Start pauses/unpauses. You need to shoot the green enemies, and dodge the red shots. You can pickup power ups that are dropped by enemies.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a4/anonymoustipster/exigent001.jpg

-- mp3 files? WTF? --
At the music select menu, it shows all mp3 files in PSP/MUSIC (sorry, no sub-folder support right now). The mp3 affects the way the game plays in these ways:
Size: the player and enemies 'beat' with the music, when the music is loud, the enemies are large, when soft, they are small. 'I predict a riot' shows this well.
Speed: Loud music will play faster than soft music. Infoscape.mp3 is good to show the differences that loud/soft make
Spawn: Enemy spawn patterns are also dictated in part by the mp3 file, although this isn't obvious as there are only 2 types of enemy (shooting and non-shooting). This means some mp3 files will be more difficult than others.

-- What are the powerups? --
Health (pink): Adds 20% to your health bar
Fast Shot (blue): Gives you double the amount of shots per second for a period of time
Lightning (yellow): You turn into an invincible bolt of lightning, that destroys anything near it for a period of time.

-- What do the difficulty levels change? --
The harder the difficulty, the faster the play speed and the more numerous and difficult the enemies.

-- What are all the options of the pause menu for? --
Reset: resets to the song specified by mp3file:
Level Mode: Shape of the playing field: either flat, sin*sin or cos*sin
Mp3file: song to play upon reset
Dynamic: When yes, the playing field will move dynamically
Dynamic Speed: How fast the playing field moves when Dynamic = yes (try setting this to 8 with sin*sin and try NOT to feel ill :p )
Exit to Main Menu: Exits to Main Menu

-- notes about the beta --
*Framerate isn't too good right now, especially when there's lots happening.
*Game is framerate dependant, so goes slower when under load - not in final (hopefully).
*Under load, the music may scratch slightly, I'm looking into fixing this soon.
*If you've changed settings in the pause menu, be sure to 'reset' rather than just unpausing.
*There will be plenty more power-ups and game modes in the final version.
*In the final version, I hope to have the song dictate the shape of the level, but for the moment, you decide.
*Infoscape is probably the hardest of all the songs I've included, but is pretty fun once you're good at it.

Please have a play through this, I'm not overly concerned with bugs right now, but more on impressions of how the game plays, and what can be done to improve it. If you think it's rubbish, please say so!

Download: www.anonymoustipster.com/exigentbeta001.zip
Password: mp3wtf

[DPyro]

Sweet! You gonna enter this into the compo? :D

[PSmonkey]

Checking.

AT,
If you wish. You can use the new kohkai engine. Just needs Mp3 suport added (Actualy going to add in at3+ player suport next week).

I should have an improved kohkai later next week. Currently got md2 back in. I am going to add in texture page manager (so you can load images or multiple images to compress or break up that will use a chunk of vram like ps1 texture pages). I also will be rewriting new clipping code soon.

[PSmonkey]

Ok gave it a go.

Eh, sadly it comes off as a not clean clone of the 3d tank game hidden in Nba Jam.

I Think you are onto something but it needs to be forced into a bit of a linear track ala rez or tempest. There I think you could make the game even better.

Also the powerups were cool but kind of buggy. The lighting was not very functional for the fire button. The multishoot last too long and a quick spin could take out all on the map. Also i think the game should move a bit faster.

Regarding the music. I felt no effect in the game other then the stuff changing size to the music. I think the music should play a much larger roll on the game.

[AnonymousTipster]

Ok, thanks for the feedback.
Couple of notes:
The lightning power-up isn't supposed to shoot, you just rush around into enemies so they explode.
Have you tried another game difficulty? Easy is too easy for a lot of songs, and okay and hard go faster.

I hear what you're saying about fixed track, which might be good, as it hasn't been done for PSP yet, but I might like to keep this mode as an alternative game, as it's half complete.
What do you think I could do to make it feel more like the music is driving the game?

[PSmonkey]

One more complaint. Don't let the music dictate movement speed. It makes the game feel broken. :P

Not sure how you can make the music play a larger role in the game under the current setup. I would have to think about that one for a bit.

--edit--
Maybe 1 way would be sampling the music every once in a while (like say 10-30 seconds) and deform the playing field based on that. Also use this sample to determin what to do with the AI. Either make them more agressive but stupid, Or more easy going but tactical. Also if the music is intence maybe spawn more AI or less.

[DPyro]

Hey AT have you updated this project lately?

[AnonymousTipster]

No.
Clearly, it needs a lot of work before it's properly releasable, so I don't want to rush it for the competition. I'll take my time with it and hopefully get a good end product out of it.

[LordSturm]

I think mabye, music should shape the level, and the obstacles, but in no way effect the vehicle.

Also the "racing" should be rather linear, rather than freeplay arena. I'll check this game out more thoroughly once i get my psp again. :P