Re-Structured Deadline

On Yoyogames there are rumors of the fifth competition beginning soon. Because of this, I'm going to wait a small while to see what the theme is, and then I will finish the game. I am going to enter the game into the competition, and hopefully win some money in the progress (1st prize is $1000, 2nd prize is $500 and 3rd prize is $250). I'm currently looking around for music to fit the game, and so I created a topic on the GMC to find ambient loops.

This is mostly just an update to tell you I'm not dead, just waiting!

(Also, I created an all-purpose Game Maker Blog for myself, because this one is specialized to only Blast).

Beginning of the End

Well, I've started thinking about actually taking what I have with the game and only adding a little bit more (such as a final boss) that will allow me to actually begin focusing on finishing the game, rather than continuing to work without a deadline. I so far have 4 bosses, consisting of the Darkforms, Mystics, Spawn, and Norr which will be the four basic bosses of the game. I will add many more levels between them to try and extend the game, and add more attacks that will be added when you defeat them. So far, I have nearly finished programming the move gained from Spawn, and I have completed Norr's ability. The Mystics' gravity move will be added later on, and I don't think it will be hard to program. The Darkform's ability will be a bit tougher, and I will probably make it a grab move similar to the Mystic's arm that will sprout from Rage and grab a nearby enemy (except I will try to make it a dynamic arm that can reach any direction and looks cool).

After I have this all programmed, I will begin programming a final boss (Purity, who will transform into Death) and her bodyguard, who you will fight just beforehand (Vorc, who will be the previous "God Mode"). I will eliminate the Subconscious, as there will be no use for him, except maybe for adding small help comments and then having him disappear, which many of you may like.

To set a deadline, I'm going to say that Blast should be done by July 31, 2009. I will probably release 2-3 more updates in that time, and maybe add bug-fixes after that date, but look for a new blog post then with the final version!

v1.7

I finally managed to pull myself away from other video games long enough to finally finish up the inventory system. Press "I" in-game to open up this menu, which will show several icons displaying moves in slots divided by which player they belong to, and which key the are designated to act on. You can swap these around as you please, with one slight rule. You can not put a Rage attack in a Control slot, and vice-versa. You can tell which is which by looking at the icon, which will show either Rage or Control using the move. After beating Norr, Guardian of Chambers, you will obtain the freeze move, which will be put to use later on in the game.

Current bugs-list:

-Screen flashes after regaining health.

-Distortions sometimes not appearing full-screen.

-Infrequent random freezing.

-Bosses can be defeated by pushing them offscreen.

-Snow begins falling from the top of the screen at the beginning of the level; it isn't fluid at all.

-Snow level door problem.

-Killing Norr before fight.

-God Mode is too powerful

-Moving even with text showing.

Downloads:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

v1.7 Delay

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you a shoutout telling you that I'm not dead! I've done very little work on Blast recently for several reasons, those being that I'm rarely allowed on my laptop because of rules limitations by my parents, my relative disinterest in the content for the update and the difficulty I'm having making it, and last but not least, my beastly Sims 3 character whom I have become obsessed with. This should wear out soon enough, and updates should start picking up to be on a regular basis and fairly large, but this may take up to a week to happen. Sit tight and give me ability ideas for the bosses (moves you obtain for beating them)!

Pause Menu!

I've finally finished a pause menu, which was something that has been seriously lacking in this game for some time. I'm not going to make a release with it until I have more done, but I just wanted to post a screenshot of what it looks like, so if anyone wants, they can tell me what they would like changed. Also, just to give you an idea of what is coming, I'm going to make a sort of inventory of abilities that you will get throughout the game by beating bosses. For example, by beating Norr, you can get a freeze blast ability which will let you freeze enemies. Rather than include a new key for all the abilities and make things get way out of hand, I'll let you change which ability you wish to use with an inventory. There won't be too many abilities, so don't get your hopes up too much, but please put out your ideas! Post in the comments and it's likely your idea will appear!

Here's the wonderful new screenshot:

I should have an update out between now and Saturday night, so keep a look out!

v1.6

Alright, so I decided to do quite a bit of work on this today (really shouldn't have, with finals coming up, but I did) and I've created a new ice level with snow, and a pretty cool new boss. This guy was a lot of fun to make, because he moves fairly fluidly with his four rotating cannons. His name is "Norr, Guardian of Chambers" and he's definitely my favorite boss of the game thus far! He has two basic moves, the first being that he will spin and shoot large cannon-balls randomly out of his cannons. The second is that when you are a bit farther away, he will shoot homing-bullets out of one of his cannons, and it travels faster than the others. The one upside to these over the normal bullets are that they can be destroyed by Rage's blast move, and they can be pushed away by Control's push move, whereas the others can not. Here are some screenshots of my most recent bout with Norr:

This is Norr's secondary attack, where he aims one of his cannons at you and shoots out a homing-missile. These are quite deadly, but can be beaten using Rage's blast attack or Control's push move.

Here, I am using the ceiling spikes to hurt Norr (and weaken his shield)by knocking them off with Rage's blast move. Right here, you can seethat he is using his primary move, which involves him randomly blasting cannons.

Here is one shot I thought was particularly pretty as it showcased Control's push move and the resultantdistortions that look pretty awesome!
One important strength of Norr's that you may want to take notice of is his forcefield. Although the spikes on the ceiling are easily the best move to beat Norr, you first have to wear away his shield, which will eventually flicker and die out. He's a pretty tough boss, and still takes me a few tries to beat, so don't get too frustrated!

Downloads:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

I hope you enjoy, and the next update will be a small one (very small one) on Monday and/or a larger one on Wednesday.

*Website Update!* Anyone can now post comments, so you don't have to have a registered account to tell me what you think!

In case anyone would like to see the websites that GM-Blast is currently on, here's a quick list:

GMC

YoyoGames

GameML

GameCog

TwilightPhantasm

v1.5

Effects getting too much for your computer?  With this update, you can make this run as fast as possible by pressing 'E' in-game, which will disable your effects.  This will restart the level! Also, I've begun some work on ice levels, with a basic one currently available.  I have made one new enemy for this region, which is similar to the Flame Fly enemy, but in a nice ice guise.  It will do what any basic enemy does, which is chase you down and hit you with its gigantic arm!  I'm currently taking my finals for the school year, so progress will be slow for about the next week, but after that I should be busting out maybe 2-3 updates a week, so look forward to some fun stuff and start giving me some ideas!  There's a comments section down there for a reason!

This is the newly created ice section of the game.  Seeing the particles together with this landscape makes me belive that I might start up a new particle stream of snow...

Also, I did a little work making a new distortion effect for when you are controlling an enemy.  This looks fairly nice in my opinion, and I hope you like it too:

As a whole, the game should run faster, as I spent some time updating the particle system.  Sadly, I had to eliminate the particle attractors (were not working for a mysterious reason...) but I really want to get them back in another way at some point.  All in all, I hope you enjoy the update, and please tell me what you think and what you want added!

Downloads:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

v1.4

Updates galore!  I had a lot of time to work today, so I put together a lot of new effects and made 3 new enemies.  The new enemies are the Ground Enemy (name to be decided), the third boss, and a small enemy that is spawned by the boss that hurts you upon impact (like a moving bomb).  The fire levels have been updated with enhanced graphics, with new particles for the lava, making a misty-like smoke that will be attracted to you when you move closer (I don't know why, but it's fun!)  Also, I've created a small blur-like effect on the fire levels for when you move, which looks pretty cool, and it also allows me to tint the screen in layers.  I've got several screenshots for you to look at, so here we go:

I hope you enjoy the update, and please tell me what you think!

Downloads:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

v1.3

Alright, a new update here to show off some graphics I worked on today. I've decided to add a series of lava/fire levels to the game, as I thought it would make a cool new set of levels that would change up the game a bit.  Also, to make things a little prettier, when enemies die, they give off faint blue particles that will float towards you, and the beam particles will also move towards you, which is fun to screw around with!

I was a little hurt after a battle, so it's a bit red, but you can see the volcanoes and beam particles that float towards you.  And of course,there is your Subconscious's helpful advice!

Downloads:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

v1.2

Finally!  I've just finished up my next release, now with a new boss and outside level at the end.  There's also a new cutscene with dialog between Purity and her messenger.  The new bosses are the two Mystics of Purity.  These characters have two attack moves.  The one that will kill you is the black hand move that will grab you and pull you into it, hurting you along the way.  The other is a move that will create a gravitational field that will pull you in so it can attack you.  The best way to avoid the black hand move is to move towards the enemy, rather than away, and you will escape with minimal damage.  Below is a picture of the battle:

These are Purity's mystics.  In the final versionthere will be more of a back-story for these charactersbut as of now, they are the ones who sentenced Crageto life imprisonment.
I will hopefully be getting back on track with this update, making more frequent updates, as I finished my side-project Tower Defense game.
Downloads:WillHostForFoodMediafire
Just thought this might be worth mentioning, I posted a new poll for the new name for Blast.  The candidates are (of course) Blast, Treason, Holomere, and Conagog.  The last two actually have meanings due to their prefixes and suffixes, Holomere meaning  "whole" and "part," signifying that Crage is two parts that make a whole.  Conagog means "leader" and "together," which I thought also sounded kinda cool.

v1.2 Delay

I'm having trouble with getting time open for programming Blast, so I won't have v1.2 out until Monday, at the earliest.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm thinking I may try something new out... Something called GMPhysics ;)

v1.1

This update will include only a few changes, most of the changes being through the storyline with a newly updated cutscene in the beginning (explaining how you and Rage came to be one) as well as improved text on the cutscene with Purity.  Also, there is a new cutscene at the end after you beat the first boss level (which has been completely redesigned to make it a little easier) that shows a little bit more about how you are escaping, and where you are escaping from.

The newly updated boss level is now much smaller, and a little bit easier to handle.

Downloads:

MediaFire

Once again, I'm looking for a composer to make music, as well as a sound effects artist to help make the various sound effects throughout the game.  As usual, any ideas, comments, bugs, glitches, storyline ideas, plot problems, or anything else is highly appreciated!

v1.0.1

Small update here, now with a fixed push effect for both the player and the Push enemies.  This looks awesome (in my humble opinion) and helps make some cool visual effects.  This was my first dive into textured primitives, and I think it went pretty well!  I should have a new update by tomorrow, but I need some ideas for new things to make!  I'm hopefully going to further the storyline with cutscenes for the next update, as I think I may have most of the gameplay down.  Please make suggestions for bosses and obstacles on your way to killing Purity, as I really need some help!

If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to release the source code for the blast effect, just ask here with a comment.

Downloads:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

v1.0 (Character/Enemy Bio's)

First off, sorry for the terrible formatting. Darn thing won't seem to work correctly...

Alright, version 1.0! I've created two new enemies for the update, and created a biography for each of the enemies, as well as Control and Rage themselves. I've also begun creating a new visual effect, which can be seen by using Control's push move. This will make a distortion blast across the screen that... well, doesn't work very well. It looks fairly nice, but upon further inspection, it is awfully wrong. I'm currently trying to get this fixed up, and should hopefully have it altogether done by Wednesday. Or it will be taken out.

Character Bios:

Control: Crage's personality was at first only that of Control which is the first half of Crage's two personalities, and his true self. Control is able to push enemies back, as well as control their minds.

Rage: Rage was originally Purity's champion warrior and general, but after finding out her horrible secret, passed his spirit into the mind of Crage in order to stop Purity's rule. Rage is able to blast enemies with a powerful explosion and also shoot a flamethrower.

Basic Guard: These are weak creatures who rely on their laser batons to bat at their enemies. They have weak mental capabilities, and thus are able to control the batons telepathically.

Large Guard: These are much harder to kill than their smaller and weaker guard counterparts, and are best avoided as they can kill you in but a few blows.

Aggro: This Rage-like beast also does semi-large explosions that are able to damage you and other enemies around you. These are great to control if you want to take out large groups of enemies without the risk of getting hit.

Charger: Chargers are fairly large creatures that have no arms. They will attack on sight and can deal quite a bit of damage to you and send you flying in the process. These are good enemies to control, as they are able to do a lot of damage to enemies.

Flame-Fly: These limbless monsters float around the screen, dealing large amounts of damage with their sprouting arms. They are not very fast, enabling you to kill them more easily before they can hit you.

Ghost: Ghosts are small creatures with very little health that attack using electrical bursts at short range. They are able to do quite a bit of damage, especially to other enemies, but are very easy to kill.

Push: These little beings use an attack similar to Control's push move, which can blast close-range enemies away. There is a small difference, however, in that these enemies do damage with their push move, making them quite a barrier for Crage.

DarkForm: DarkForms are large black creatures that are capable of dealing large amounts of damage quickly with their grab move. Also, they can release a dark bomb that will deal damage to you if you go within its range. These are created by DarkForm Spawners, which can not be destroyed by conventional methods.

Downloads: 

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

v0.9

I have worked throughout today as much as I could to try and make a good update.  I did a little bit of editing to the movement of the character and enemies to make things a bit easier, adding more friction to the player, which should make him slow faster, and also the enemies move significantly slower.  Also, I believe I have (again) fixed the glitch where the player/enemies will stick to walls.  On the previous post, I believed the same thing, but now I really think I've fixed it (after a report from a player saying that I failed last time).

Now to completely new changes!  I've created a new boss/enemy which is able to grab you (ouch!) and also to drop a bomb that will hurt you if you get too close.  These are spawned by spawners (creative name, I know) that are destroyed by bombing them with launchers beneath them.  You will need to destroy all of these spawners to beat the level, and I'm interested in which of you can ;)  Also, there's a new graphical spike background for the level, which was new as well.  Here's a screenshot of the new level:

Downloads:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire

I hope you enjoy, and please vote on the new name for the game!

Here's a recent review that I used to help make this update:

Graphics: I liked the graphics a lot because the marks on the walls were really good, and I liked how the enemies died. 10/10

Gameplay: way way too hard, when an enemy gets too close, he glitches onto you and kills you.  I would also like it if the moving was more sensitive because it was hard to move through the winding levels. The enemies should also move slower, it almost feels like you have to panic or else they’ll kill you in a second, I thought you were supposed to be all powerful! 7.5/10

Storyline: Seems promising, but all is lost because the game is too hard. 10/10

Overall: 9/10

v0.8

Today I decided to do a bit of polishing, as I'm releasing this version on the GMC with a "Work In Progress" topic.  I've made the opening scene only continue if you press "Z" while it is playing, and made a change in controls (I'm a lefty, so the previous controls worked better for me, but it is now a more mainstream type).

Controls:

General:

Arrow Keys: Movement.

Space: Switch characters.

C:  Toggle God-Mode.

X:  Attack as a controlled enemy.

H:  Open the help information.

Control:

Z:  Take control/Lose control of an enemy.

X:  Push enemies away from you.

Rage:

Z:  Shoot a fire blast in the direction (left/right) that you are facing.

X:  Blast the area around you.

In the future, I will add options for changing between the original controls and these, but I don't have a main screen as of yet, so I don't have a place to put this option.

There is also a tutorial room that I created to help give newer players a better feel for the game.  There are red messages on the walls that will give you control information, and will allow you to use them on enemies and such.  Here's a screenshot of the tutorial room:

Tutorial room (May 6, 2009)

As you can see, the red writing on the walls will help show you how to shoot flames, once you get this far into the level.  The enemies won't be able to attack you, because of the blockage, making this easier for newer players.

Also, I've made a new graphical update, consisting of wall-interaction with the basic enemies' lightsabers.  For those of you who stuck with this game from the beginning, you may recognize the yellow/orange scratches and scrapes on the walls from these lightsabers, but for most of you, this is new.  When a lightsaber hits the wall, now it will create a burn mark where it hit, as is shown below:

Major Bug Fix! I believe I have fixed the bug where the player will stick to a wall sometimes, which will make you have to start the level over again which is, to say the least, very annoying.  I have solved this problem by moving the x-offset of the sprite over one pixel, amazingly causing this problem not to come up again!  Please tell me if you still experience this problem (I'm more concerned about whether it works with the player or not, as the enemies might still have problems).

Download Links:

WillHostForFood

MediaFire 

I still need a composer!  If you are interested, please send some of your example works to c.ullmann@hotmail.com!

v0.7

I generally spent today working on making the gameplay more efficient (you should see very little drop in FPS throughout the game) by improving the enemies' artificial intelligence, as well as improving the blood effects on the walls.  I fixed a couple bugs, such as a god-mode glitch when switching between characters, and I added a full cutscene in the beginning of the game (which can be skipped with ) that outlines the storyline for how you were imprisoned.  Also, I lightened up on the first level, making it a little easier for beginners, and added a help menu by pressing in-game.  This will pop up a little window that will have all of the controls for the game with a small description.

All in all, this was a little bit of a clean-up version, but I hope you still enjoy it.

Known Bugs List:

-Random crashes (very frustrating, I know).

-Catching on walls.

-Enemies catching on walls.

-Sometimes crashes when an enemy hits a mine.

"Problems" that can be seen as bugs but are not:

-Mines not being able to hurt you.

-Some enemies can't hurt you when they attack you as you control them.

Download: Willhostforfood.com

Please post any bugs you find, or anything that you'd like to see in Blast!

How You Can Help: I need a musician or composer so that I can start getting a good soundtrack for this game!  Please send me a sample piece of music at c.ullmann@hotmail.com if you are interested!

v0.6

I've been working hard for the past two days to put together another version before I take a little break.  This version includes a really fun "God Mode" that allows you to become a cool character who has the most powerful attacks in the game, including a blast that kills any enemies/mines it hits, and also a powerful "Angel Summoner" move that will bring 8 angels down who will attack enemies and who can fly through walls.  There have been a few smaller updates as well, including one-way movement blocks that will only allow you to move in one direction through them, as well as a button-activated door that has to have enemies on the buttons to open.  I'm trying to optimize the surface code to speed up the game, and have asked a few questions on the forums, but I don't seem to be getting any responses, so I might have to figure it out on my own.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please tell me what you think!

http://willhostforfood.com/?Action=download&fileid=64869

v0.5

The first post!  Well, here's where I will be posting future releases of Blast to the public where you can play the game, and tell me what you want to have added or changed in the game.  I just released v0.5 on GameCog, a wonderful site for projects, and from here on out I will be posting them both here and on GameCog.  So, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the current storyline, here we go!

You are a dual-personality being that lives in an underground city led by a benevolent leader Purity. Purity is a great politician, and generally a good leader, but there seems to be something about what she does that is... off. You're name is Control, but you also have the ability to change into your other self, Rage. Control can control peoples minds and take over their bodies, but he is fairly weak. Rage is a powerful being that blasts things to pieces with his powerful darkness flames. The problem with Rage is that, well... he isn't terribly subtle, like Control. Anyways, when you were at a young age, Control became angry at another person in his class, and he took over their mind. He made them commit suicide by beating their head against a while until they died. You were discovered nearby the dead body, exhausted, and Purity's secret police took you away and began running tests on you. After turning into Rage and blowing half of the testing facility to pieces, it was decided that you would be forever imprisoned inside a giant metal sphere, one that gave no holes for you to see people that you could control, and with a metal that was resistant to your flames. This was put in the bottom-most layer of a prison, and you were forgotten. Purity continued to reign for several generations, never seeming to age. You stayed in stasis inside your metal prison, losing yourself in your meditation, also not aging. 

For a long time, you sat there, your hatred for Purity festering, until one day, a young guard found your cell, and was confused. He touched the outer layer, never having seen the metal alloy that contained you, and the bottom portion of the sphere opened, having been triggered by the touch. After it opened, the guard peered inside into the darkness, to see a small creature floating inside with no arms and no legs. Control. You open your eyes, and blast him to pieces, free at last! 

You fight your way through the prison, defeating its defenses using your unique powers and blowing the guards away. You eventually escape into the underground city, the giant stalactites and stalagmites reminding you of the home you haven't seen for centuries. From there, you begin your search for Purity. Along the way, you meet Death, who helps you along your way to Purity, as he is also trying to kill her, but has been unable, her power to strong for him to get a hold. You eventually find Purity, who unleashes her guards. You kill them all, and go after her and attempt to take over her mind. Her mind will not give in, for as Death had said, her power was too strong. You attack, but stop abruptly as you see her begin to change. Her gold headband and dress decay and a black robe appears. Her flesh melts away until all that is left is a skull on a black robe. It was Death himself! 

From there, you engage in a large battle, eventually defeating Death. You find out that along the way, the people's love for Purity had been misled, as the city had been slowly degenerating into rubble with Death's leadership. All the same, the people are furious, and you are captured and imprisoned once again. 

Please tell me what you think, and also any holes in the storyline and how they can be fixed! I think the end is a bit bad, with you being recaptured and all, but I don't know how else to end it! Also, I need to find a reason why Death would help you get to Purity, as he knows you're pretty strong and such. Any ideas?

So far, I've only reached the point where you break out of jail for the storyline, but I'm hoping to find some way to fill in the gap between jail-break and reaching Purity, since I really don't have anything there.  Any ideas?

Here's v0.5: http://willhostforfood.com/?Action=download&fileid=64768

Screenshots:

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x239/drizzt8/Blast_Screen1.png

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x239/drizzt8/Blast_fire.png

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x239/drizzt8/Blast_Screen4.png

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x239/drizzt8/Blast_Screen6.png

v0.1 - v0.4

Here are all the old versions of Blast, if anyone wants to see a blast from the past (no pun intended). 

Download:

v0.1

v0.2

v0.3

v0.4