Sole Gunner (Public Demo)

I lied. (Well I didn't but...)
I decided to scrap making Baby Spew for the time being and focus my energy on that "Killing Robot" game as I've got emails and people telling me I should finish that off. So instead of carrying on, I've decided to remake it into something looking much more awesome! Also I've decided to upload the first two parts as a public demo/test for everyone to play! =).

Play the demo 'ere:
http://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/606367/
preview

(Controls:)
Arrows-Move
A-Jump
S-Shoot
Enter-Pause.

Now it's still a work in progress, that's why there isn't menus or extra fancy graphics or cutscenes finished yet. It's just a quick showcase of what the gameplay is going to be like. Any questions/bugs/dislikes/likes about the game, please post about them! That's why I'm showing this early.

I'm hoping to finish this flash game around mid November and then with that, hoping to create a full PC version of the game that I'll be submitting to Steam Greenlight. (If this flash game goes down well.) Might start up a kickstarter because I'm really feeling for this project to be something big.

Anyway for people who don't want to play the flash demo, there is a video below as well as a picture.

http://youtu.be/k6IVJWVXCMQ

Anyway I hope you like, =)
-Joel

Sole Gunner (Public Demo)

Comments

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Zuonius 2012-09-16 23:42:17

I'm very excited for this game! Definitely something to look forward to!

SinclairStrange 2012-09-16 23:42:17

Lets hope I can finish it and up to a decent standard! Hehe. Thanks for enjoying what's there so far =).

TomFulp 2012-09-17 11:40:56

Man this is sooooo good! It runs great on my computer, too.

One thought... I always preferred the Gunstar Heroes style of losing health and bouncing out when you fall in a pit. It always feels like harsh punishment to me to die instantly... There's also the option of doing it one way in easy mode and another in a hard mode. :)

After beating the boss you gotta toss in a fun little victory pose for the player and fly in some victory text on the screen, I'm sure you got something cooking there for the level transitions.

Again, really awesome!

SinclairStrange 2012-09-17 11:40:56

Phew, glad it runs ok this time around =).

I've got the falling pit/Gunstar Heroes pit thing planned it's just I couldn't get it to work for some reason on that build/flash file although it's working perfectly fine on this latest build. I was toying with the idea of easy/hard mode but I think I'm going to save time and make it arcade like. (So you get to choose the first three levels and they vary in difficulty.)

Oh yes, I've got the ending victory pose all planned. Hand drawn/comic book styled intros and outros await =).

Glad you like it!

Shantom 2012-09-17 17:49:21

That was AMAZING!
I really enjoyed these 2 levels and I wanted more o,o;
It reminded me of Contra but it was missing a diagonal shooting and ducking. At some parts, I really felt the need of these 2. I mean there was a flying mob that throws rocks at you when it's above you, it's easier to kill it with a diagonal shot (and actually I couldn't avoid being hit by it). Also, there was a ground mob that I couldn't kill because it's too low/short and It was at a cliff that I had to jump to. There was no way to kill it unless I could duck or go to a lower place where I can hit it.

I really hope you consider adding diagonal shooting + ducking.. unless you don't want it to be exactly like Contra :P

Whether you add them or not, I'm really looking forward to this game!! :D
Good luck!

I-smel 2012-09-17 23:01:31

COOL! I've never used the Newgrounds public beta thing. Sole Gunner is a cool name.
Are you a fan of Konjak's games? cos it fuckin looks like ya are!

First: It's unintuitive to press DOWN to pick up weaopns. I think most people will PROBABLY figure it out, but if you really wanted to be safe, you could put an animated pointing down arrow above them, like the Metal Slug [IN] icon. Or you could put them in the air.
OR you could put them in breakable blocks or crates that you have to jump at, or shoot to make the weapon drop out.
...I'm assuming you're having the down button on em so people don't collect them by accident.

I think the bullets look dumb. I know it's what Gunstar Heroes does, but personally I think flickering frames n stuff look dumb. You could fix it slightly by giving bullets a SLIGHTLY random velocity and a SLIGHTLY randomized x and y position when they come out. I think Metal Slug does it with the heavy machine gun.
Speaking of which- some kind of animation or sound for when you pick up a weapon'd be good!

Similarly: It's not super clear when I'm damaging the bosses. I worked it out, but it could have a lot more punch. You want a deep, crunchy sound effect on that and some kind of violent splash or spark.

Shooting a guy who's shorter than me isn't fun. I know you wanna add variety to the enemies, but that's a bad idea! No worries though, just think about what's good on miner-swing dude and design things that help highlight that. Maybe make the swing rope really long, and you have to jump INSIDE of it to shoot at the guy?

How about these floor-sweeper dudes give me some warning aswel? When they first hit the screen, maybe they sit and rev their engines for like HALF A SEC? It's not fun to get splashed out o nowhere (I'm on the ground when they appear).

Sweet skullsplosion, buddy!

SinclairStrange 2012-09-17 23:01:31

Wow, thanks for that huge list! =).
Ah yes Konjak, I know of him, (although I'm not like a huge fan, I've seen his work and highly respect him :3!) Yeah, I guess it's similar style but I've always been spriting in this style and wanting to make a Gunstar Heroes clone so I guess we're sorta have the same agenda...idk.

Indeed I'm having the down button, so you don't accidentally collect them, however no fear with the worry of some people not being able to work it out...as I've got a tutorial level/stage planned. =).

Personally I love flicker, so I'm going to keep that in. I understand it's choice but it gives it a more retro feel imo. (And the bullet to randomly spawn at different x, y points...it's just a pixel differences though :P

I would love to add a puncher sound effect in...however you'll just be hearing that sound-effect a lot when damaging the boss. I've made it now, that the boss flickers like you do when hit.

Enemies are an issues, so I've gone back to the drawing board on this stage and come up with something different. (Although I've kept the cactus in, (and made speed up gradually instead of straight away.)

Rockets should spawn more smoke, but I've accidentally used the wrong sprite! Haha :P

I'm glad you're liking so far!

I-smel 2012-09-17 23:05:20

The rocket-launcher rockets should spawn puffs of smoke every frame at their X and Y co-ordinates, randomized slightly. It'll make the rockets feel like big fat bombs.