InterGalaXia - Playtest

Danny · August 23, 2012 at 10:48 AM

Morning Everyone.

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InterGalaXia is now available for playtest. For those who are AppHub members you can download the game here:
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You can download the game (21mb) and deploy it to your Xbox 360 for testing. I have extensively tested it for the duration of the development so I am very keen on any feedback, particularly any feedback in regards to the Evil Checklist.

Official Microsoft AppHub Forum Thread:
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However, I am also keen on feedback to visuals / audio / gameplay.

Thanks in Advance,
Danny

colej_uk · August 23, 2012 at 12:43 PM

Cool, I'll download tonight

Sloxone · August 23, 2012 at 1:58 PM

Hi i test it tonight too
Would you like to test my game?

Danny · August 23, 2012 at 2:34 PM

Sure thing Sloxone, Link meh!

Sloxone · August 23, 2012 at 3:18 PM

Here:
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colej_uk · August 23, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Hi Danny,

I've played the game, here are some of my initial thoughts/suggestions/comments;

-At the start, the game asked me to sign in even though I already was.

-It would be nice to be able to navigate the menu with the left analog stick as well as the dpad.

-The menu & menu controls are nicely layed out and clear which is good.

-Did you build it with the latest beta (released today)? If not then it might help you cut down load times.

-The first time I played it (arcade mode) I didn't know all the controls and so I pressed Y and it restarted the level. Might be an idea to have the restart as an option in the pause menu or at least a promt asking me if I'm sure I want to restart. Even if you know the controls then it's quite easy to accidently press Y, which would ruin your progress. Many lazy players like me just like to jump into a game and learn the controls as they play instead of checking them before hand.

-I don't exactly know why but the weapon selection took some getting to used to. I think I'm just used to having the selected weapon highlighted, where as here the selected weapon is the one which isn't highlighted. I think a little arrow pointing to the selected weapon would work best.

-The purple swirly weapon is cool

-It might just be me being an idiot but I couldn't work out how to quit to the main menu once in-game?

-If you are looking for suggestions, I think a larger variety of sfx & music would be nice. 2 Player co-op would also be really cool but I know that would be a lot of work to implement.

Again, I don't know if you are looking to change the game much, but I think retro 8-bit graphics would work really well with it, I definitely got that vibe from the gameplay.

There are loads of 2D side scrolling shooters out there, so you do have a *lot* of competition. Nevertheless, it is fun and pretty cool

Danny · August 23, 2012 at 4:35 PM

Cole, Thankyou very much for the rapid response.

I will address each point individually for you.

1) I created this initial screen regardless because there could be more than 1 profile logged into and I wanted to initialize and 'set' the active gamepad and active system index pre-title (this is so I could load settings/medals pre-title) and other ones. What do you think I should do? Just have it like a 'mini-title' screen, remove everything and just have a 'Press Start' flashing?

2) I will implement the code for Left-Stick navigation on the menus

3) Glad you liked it, I still have some polishing up to do before Peer Review.

4) I didn't build it with the latest release and I wouldn't be able to take that chance yet. The loading screen you see on the level load was put there on purpose, it's an active screen in front of the engine because the galaxy is generated at random so the user shouldn't get to see this until everything has finished initialising... Is that what you meant? Apart from that I don't get any other long loads... I could always decrease the amount of time that loading screen is displayed if you think that would be wise.

5) Y - Restarts the level yes. I think I may re-design the entire pause menu, at the moment it's quite static so I may just throw in a proper usable menu.

6) Yes, I did that intentionally with the weapon selection however, looking back now you're right lol, I really should dim the ones NOT in use and highlight the active one. Why I inverted these I don't know.

7) Thanks, I do plan for more weapons available in the sequel (which I already have planned) I really wanted this initial release as a sort of 'dipping the toe' into XBLIG

You're right again, you cannot quit. I'll integrate a proper pause menu.

9) I was thinking of ditching the music behind the level and just having an 'airy' type loop? 2 Player co-op I reserved for a sequel. That would take much longer to develop but I am game for developing it.

Could I ask you a HUGE favour? I really need to test the login/logout situation. My game loads the INI file on the title based on the currently logged in system index. Could you have a play about in different circumstances and login, logout, go to select profile, choose a different one etc.? I need to ensure this works.

Have you also tried with a second profile logging in and playing? I can't atm as I only have 1 pad, at the moment anyway!

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

colej_uk · August 23, 2012 at 5:16 PM

I'll do a quick run through with the scenarios in the evil checklist later.

I didn't have an issue with the load times, they are perfectly fine. It's just that the less time spent loading the better, and the latest beta helps a lot with loading times. I've got a game which I am hopefully going to put up for review very soon because with the previous versions the loading time was just too long.

The start screen is fine, it's just that even though I was already logged into my profile, after I pressed start it still came up with the xbox log in pane thing. I'll double check this later.

vittix · August 23, 2012 at 6:58 PM

Quote from colej_uk

-Did you build it with the latest beta (released today)? If not then it might help you cut down load times.

hi there is a new beta for xna exporter? where can i get that?

colej_uk · August 23, 2012 at 7:52 PM

The XNA owner's lounge forum.

Danny · August 23, 2012 at 7:54 PM

ColeJ_UK - I spoke with Francois and he agreed it wouldn't be wise to update to the latest BETA for something so close to Peer Review. I use over 600 images so far, as long as it works that's all that matters. As soon as everything is ironed out and the game is released I'll update.

Yes I forced an xbox profile login after Start or A is pressed to ensure a profile was logged in.

Looking forward to the feedback regarding controllers and MU particularly. I'm getting to work now on the changes above.

vittix · August 23, 2012 at 8:51 PM

where do i access the owner's lounge forum? i've registered in my account the serial of the mmf2 and xna xporter but i did not find it

colej_uk · August 23, 2012 at 9:40 PM

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Sloxone · August 24, 2012 at 12:08 AM

Hi, Tested your game.

Colej_uk said almost everything.But in loading game,when i Press Y button,i see another screen.
I think that after you purchase game,he should disappears.

Good Luck

Danny · August 26, 2012 at 11:58 AM

Cole - Apologies if I'm being a pain in the ass but could you just run over the controller checking for me? If that is fine then I can iron out all the details above (majority already done) and submit for peer review. I just need to check login on controller 2, different profiles etc. If you go into Medals screen on a different profile I need to ensure it loads up the correct INI. I also need to ensure the game uses the right controller index in-game too.

Sloxone - I am testing your game as we speak dude. I'll post results on here as soon as I collate everything!

colej_uk · August 26, 2012 at 12:42 PM

Hi Danny,

Problem- I tried playing the game with 2 controllers, playing with the second. The space ship only responds to the first controller. The second controller vibrates when you get hit.

Also both controllers can navigate the menu, I don't know if that is intended?

Edit: Also the weapon selection doesn't work with 2 controllers. The weapons don't fire properly either, it's quite tough to see what's going on- the fire button only seems to work about 5% of the time?

Danny · August 26, 2012 at 12:45 PM

Hi Cole, Yes menu navigation is intended with dual controllers, but I assigned only 1 control to the index that pressed 'start' on Arcade Mode, OSK Mode or Mission Mode... I'll have a route through the code now see where this issue could lie... hope I get it resolved, I'm seriously gonna have to go and buy another pad!

Danny · August 26, 2012 at 1:01 PM

Hi Cole,

From Help File:
XBox / Affect gamepad to player

This action only works on XBOX. Use it to change the number of the gamepad affected to a player : the default user-controlled movements will use the given gamepad after this action. The parameter is NOT the number of the gamepad, but a list of flags indicating which gamepad to test. Use 1 for gamepad 1, 2 for gamepad 2, 4 for gamepad 3, 8 for gamepad 4, or any combination of the values to test multiple gamepads at the same time. For example, 9 will test gamepads 1 and 4, 3 will test 1 and 2, 15 all the gamepads.

I have 2 global values: (Joystick = Gamepad Number for game (1,2,4,8) -- (ProfilePlaying(1,2,3,4))
So, from the title screen 'Arcade Mode' 'OSK Mode' 'Mission Mode' I test for joypad for every player index 1,2,3 or 4 pressing 'Start' or 'A'.

So, with my events if you enter the game frame with player 2 pressing start it should currently be: 2,2 (Joypad 2, Index 2)?
In frame I then do:

Start of Frame:
Set System Player Index to ProfilePlaying
Assign gamepad(s) joystick to ProfilePlaying

Which should result in gamepad 2 assigned to player index 2. According to the above quote from the help file this should work no? Or have I read it wrong again...

The rumbling uses the same action as everything else:
Rumble Left Motor (100,joystick) (joystick in your case of pressing start with pad2 would be pad2).

If I didn't read it wrong above and it should work, would I be right in assuming maybe the above information supplied in the help file is not corresponding as it should be?

colej_uk · August 26, 2012 at 1:13 PM

What you want is for player 2's controller to be classed as player slot 1. So in your example you would want Joypad 2, Index 1.

I think I said to you once that the player index corresponds to the lights on the xbox, but that's wrong (sorry- it had been a while since I used the XNA and it's easy to get muddled up with this stuff!) Instead think of the player index as the number of people playing. So the first player is 1, the second is 2 etc (regardless of which controller they are using).

So if you have a single player game, it's just as case of assigning the correct gamepad to player index 1.

Danny · August 26, 2012 at 1:20 PM

Cole,

No Problem, just a huge thanks for letting me know lol... I'll just be glad to put this to bed. I really want to submit for Peer Review as soon as I possibly can.

I'll re-write another system now and update this thread when the new playtest is available. I am hoping then in this case I can insta-switch all the code to just Index 1 and we'll be cooking on gas.

I'll let you know asap.

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

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