What to do next?

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Hey there. I used to be working on a Flash game called Astro Vulpus. I was going to use 3D animated cutscenes, but the first one caused my Flash CS to crash. So now I want to switch to Unity 3D.

Here is the animation that crashed Flash, and a preview of the sort of things I want to make:

Click to Play
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pepper_demo_anim.swf [ 9.48 MiB | Viewed 2652 times ]

Since switching to Unity would mean starting from scratch. If I'm starting from scratch, I'm not sure I want to stick with the Astro Vulpus idea.

My life is a little chaotic right now. I'm starting the final classes for my 3D animation degree. I've been promoted in my retail job to work 16-20 hours a week instead of 8 hours a week. I don't know Unity as well as I know Flash. So now is a great time to stop and get some feedback from you guys and think carefully about what we really want. Here are some different ideas I could try, let me know which is your favorite.

1) Stick with the Astro Vulpus idea. It's a scrolling shooter. You play as the lone male in a fighter squadron. You can summon your hot squad mates during levels to blast enemies and gain relationship. Back at base, you can access sex scenes based on how much relationship you've gained with each character. It wouldn't be exactly like the Flash Astro Vulpus because I wasn't completely satisfied with how it was shaping up.

2) Top down WASD+M dungeon exploration shooter. You go through larger "dungeon" stages shooting things and collecting things. The things you collect impact sex scenes.
- 2.a: (Simple) There are basically just porn tapes and posters littering the dungeon, you pick them up and watch them.
- 2.b: (Complicated) You play as a lesbian throuple whose multi-species, multi-partner, same sex, machine assisted relationship has been deemed illegal by the government. They escape to a far off planet to build a new home for themselves. You get new sex scenes when you build or upgrade a facility, like building a swimming pool gives you pool porn scenes. You also need to defend your homestead from the government who is still trying to arrest the throuple.

3) Weed & Seed. Based on this comic: https://e-hentai.org/g/860775/ba58d2d7ee/ You play as a space invader, shoot the defenders, fuck the women. This would fit the cityscape and modern 3D resources that I have on hand. Probably Top Down WASD+M, but could be any sort of control.

4) Make Splatformer. Corta recently confirmed that he would no longer be working on the Splatformer. It wouldn't be any more difficult to do Side Scrolling WASD+M shooter than a Top Down WASD+M (well, actually, AI would be different, but still should be easy) I would change a bunch of things, but I could more or less make Corta's Splatformer in 3D. Off the top of my head, WASD+M instead of one-handed controls. Possibly more event animations instead of common enemy animations.
- 4.a: (All Unity) Use Unity animations for everything, and allow players to have different costumes and character changes, like the original Splatformer. Would probably be original anthro characters, instead of the Splatformer's VG costumes that I don't recognize.
- 4.b: (Blender Cutscenes) Pre-animate sex scenes in Blender, and play them like a cutscene during the game (like the sample above). This would mean you play a single character in a single costume, so that it matches the pre-animated cutscenes.

5) To heck with building something related to Astro Vulpus, why should I make something that's sci-fi and shootery because I just failed at making a sci-fi shooter? Make any ol' kinda game.

6) To heck with games! Just work on sex cartoons, at least until my life quiets down a bit.

[napala]

4.a) Splatformer with all Unity animations

The "sci-fi" shooter" idea is as old as these forums, with the many unfinished Metroid projects and even Corta's good ol' Splatformer. Seeing it finally made into a completed project is something many of us were waiting for (at least I hope so).

The WASD+Mouse thing would be a welcome addition to the idea, and IIRC, the short lived "S.W.A.R.M." project made use of it.
I'd say using Unity animations would be better, since it allows the player to customize their character.

I have to admit that I have a bias towards platformer games, specially Corta's, though.

[Gidshiri]

I already gave my opinion, so...

4.a) Splatformer with all Unity animations

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Thanks guys.

For the platformer fans, I should say that I'm not 100% sure I know how to do a split animation with the upper body doing one thing and the lower body doing another, or how to program a limb to point to where the mouse is. If I can't work it out, I'll have to use a Metal Slug or Cave Story type control set-up. I doubt anyone would have a problem with that, but hey, full disclosure is fun.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

So one of the potential non-sci-fi ideas could be a Legend of Zelda style game. I could make Legend of Zelda. Who says I can't? Was it the potted plant? Fuck that potted plant!

Could be either classic top-down or modern over-the-shoulder 3D. Could be a Zelda parody or just something that follows a similar gameplay design. Except with more focus on beating things up and less focus on puzzles. I hate puzzles. I like beating things up!

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Actually, I just had an amazingly vivid idea for a LoZ style game. (and when I say LoZ I mean mostly Link's Awakening)

You start out at a cosplay convention. 4 girls are on stage for the final sexy cosplay showdown, when all of a sudden a real-life wizard appears and sucks them into an alternate dimension where they have to fight their way out. You select one girl to play as at the beginning, and the other 3 are imprisoned in separate dungeons. Each time you rescue a girl, they join your party, like extra lives.

So there's a LoZ type wilderness where you run around finding the dungeons, 3 dungeons to clear and then a final dungeon where you beat the wizard and go home. Probably also some kind of hub town where you can buy upgrades and do sex things.

Combat will be pretty simple, each girl has a simple button-mashy attack and a hold-down attack, like Link's spin-slash. You'll have some sort of ammo-based attack that's different for each character. You'll be able to jump, because I'm not an animal, Miyamoto, god! like in Link's Awakening or Shock Troopers. I might also give you a guard/dodge button, I'll have to think about it.



Since I'm crazy paranoid about doing parodies of actual characters, each "costume" is named something like "Timeless Hero" instead of "Link". I'll name what they actually are here so that you know what I'm talking about.

Characters would be:

Female Link "Timeless Hero"
Normal Attack = Sword Slash, wide arc, slowish speed
Hold Attack = Spin Slash, Attack in 360 arc
Ammo Attack = Bow and Arrow, quick, low damage

Tifa Lockhart "Bouncy Bouncer"
Normal Attack = Punch, short range, very fast
Hold Attack = Dolphin Kick, knocks things far away
Ammo Attack = Grenade, explodes

Yoko Littner "Bikini Sniper"
Normal Attack = Whack with Gun, a bad attack, encouraging you to use the Hold Attack and Ammo
Hold Attack = Shoot, relatively fast for a hold attack, but
Ammo Attack = Not sure yet, something that's close range to get you out of trouble so you can back up and use the gun. Maybe to do with drills.

Sailor Saturn "Saturn Scout"
Normal Attack = Glaive Stab, Long reach, but no arc
Hold Attack = A slow but powerful chop with the glaive
Ammo Attack = Discus Throw, homes in on enemies

There were other characters that I considered, like Kasumi or Ayane from Dead or Alive, Pikachu or Charizard, Rainbow Dash, Powergirl, one of Josie and the Pussycats. One thought was to do all rule-63 characters, but that's a little too many options for me. Right now I think that the 4 above will be the most balanced team, but I might switch things up if it doesn't work out (Like I don't know if Yoko as a shooty character would be fun). There's obviously no shortage of material to choose from, but I want to keep it manageable.

Since I'm still crazy paranoid about making parodies of actual characters, and I like anthro characters, I might do anthro characters cosplaying. That would also help me balance original characters with recognizable famous ones. No ASV sketches yet, but thank the gods the internet has provided us with some ideas of what that might look like:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

For sex scenes, instead of enemies immediately dropping health or cash when they die, a defeated enemy will randomly "pass out" instead of die, stars buzzing around their head, and you can walk up to them and engage them in sex. Once you've had your way with them, they are defeated and you get their health and cash. There would also probably be things like Great Fairies or Wall Masters that turn sexual. In town, there will be some option to get laid, based on how far you've progressed through the game.



This project has a few advantages over doing an ASV Splatformer. Top Down environments would be easier to make, especially if I can "copy" Legend of Zelda style. (Counter argument: there are plenty of side scrolling environments I could copy too, but that's not how I envisioned doing it for Splatformer) This would have a very clear cut ending, which I don't have for Splatformer. (Counter argument again: I could just use this same plot for sidescrolling instead of doing whatever Corta was going to do) Doing a project like this would bring me closer to games that I would like to make, like a beat 'em up game, or a Pokkoloh exploration game. I can tolerate platformer games, but I don't especially like them.

[Gidshiri]

Oh, man. In the end, only you can decide that to do, but if you want ask me - i still vote for some cool good sci-fi shit. Why "sci-fi"? Because we have lack of this genre on site. Why platformer\action? Because i'm just god damn like this genre =_=

[napala]

I agree with Gidshiri on the sci-fi part, but specially, on the "only you can decide", do what's better for you, man. Something that won't burn you up and make you end up abandoning the project. Go for something that you're soure you'll like.

That being said, if you use ponies on your game, please make even seeing them optional. Pretty please, with a cherry on top?.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Well, if I did put Rainbow Dash in it, she would be in humanoid form, not full pony form. Like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As for wanting sci-fi, if I could just pick a genre and make it happen, I would definitely pick space opera or dieselpunk. The problem is that game design needs a well thought out plan, and I just haven't had an idea that I'm really satisfied with. The real issue is the idea of world-building. If a game is sci-fi, I need to show you a sci-fi world. And showing that the world is sci-fi means a lot of extra detail. It's not enough to have a tree, it needs to be an alien tree. It's not enough to have a couch, it needs to be a futuristic couch. All of this gets really tedious.

The main thing is that if it's "Legend of Zelda" I can use a cartoony old Zelda game looking environment, which should be pretty easy to make. A sci-fi environment would be more difficult to think of and to make. I don't have any big problem with sci-fi characters, after all, Tifa and Yoko are sci-fi and Sailor Moon was sort of half-sci-fi. I could add more sci-fi elements if you wanted, like instead of a wizard, there's some sort of multi-verse portal that goes haywire during the cosplay contest.



No promises, but I am wondering now if I chose only sci-fi characters, who would be in that team? Yoko and Tifa could stay. If I wanted someone with a sword, Kasumi uses a ninjato for some of her victory stances. Kos-mos has melee weapons. I could do a female version of Lionel from Thundercats. There have also been rule 63 versions of Ragna the Bloodedge from Blazblue and Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear that I like, but those are kind of obscure. Squall from FF8 also makes a cool chick, but I wouldn't want two Final Fantasy characters, but someone from DoA or KoF could take take Tifa's place. I think Yuri from Dirty Pair had a sword. I've never actually watched that show. If I were to replace Sailor Saturn, I have no idea what sci-fi character would have a polearm like that. (Actually, Kos-mos might have something...)

I could always use completely original characters, but that sounds boring compared to the cosplay idea.

Although, there is a MMO fighting game I really like called GetAmped2, which is sort of a cross between a top down Legend of Zelda and side scrolling beat em ups like Golden Axe or Final Fight. GetAmped2 takes place in a distant apeshit future where alien super technology and ancient magic exist side-by-side on a floating city in Earth orbit that is plagued by a terrorist organization known as "Val Sharks". There is everything from ancient ninja blades to high tech gun arms and joke weapons like killer roller blades and demonic guitars. If I made something as crazy as GetAmped2, original characters could be as fun as cosplayers.



And that reminds me, I really like those old side scrolling beat em ups like Golden Axe and Final Fight, so if I were going to make Legend of Zelda but with more fighting, less puzzles, I should really ask myself if it would be better to use a LoZ top-down 4-way or 8-way combat system, or a side scrolling beat em up 2-way combat system. I feel like a lot of modern 8-way combat games are pretty clunky, such as GA2, Rumble Fighters, Lunia and Rusty Hearts. 2-way is a little weird, but very simple once you are used to it. And being simple means it is easier to manage the AI, which means the AI can do more complicated things. And aesthetically, it's nicer to see characters from the side than top down, and WAY better than over-the-shoulder 3D views.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Interesting, there's another vote for "Stick with Astro Vulpus". I had assumed that if I don't like my own game, nobody else would either, but I guess that's not the case. I played Astro Vulpus again just now, and I guess it's not so much that I think it's bad, it's just not what I expected it to be. It would also be a lot easier to make a scrolling shooter than any of these other plans. So I don't know, I guess I could try it again.

So if I did stick with Astro Vulpus, what would I change and what would I keep?

I do feel like the mouse control and barrel roll mechanic is a bit clunky. Part of this is maybe just that it starts slow on purpose so that you've got room to upgrade. I did like the mouse controls in Project Inthri 3 and Ace Invaders where you can jump immediately to the mouse position instead of following based on speed. I also never got around to using circular movement instead of box movement, which might be part of why it feels off.

It's still possible that I could give you some sort of dungeon to fly around in, instead of scrolling shooter levels and use WASD+M. However, then I'm not sure where you would go, besides the tropical alien planet, although I guess you could just stay on the tropical alien planet. The thing is, if you still have the summoning mechanic, I don't know where you would summon people from, instead of the bottom of the machine. They could warp in to somewhere close by maybe, or I could have the machine pick a random spot on the perimeter until it finds and empty space and then they appear there and move towards you. The AI would also be trickier. So actually, if we want to keep the summoning system, we should keep scrolling shooter, if we want to switch to dungeons, we should think of something new. Another possibility is to do a WASD+M scrolling shooter, so instead of enemies only coming from the top, they can appear anywhere, and you have complete freedom of movement. It could also be like Alloy Tengu where allies are around all the time and doing their own things.

Related, I would like to give you some way to chicken out of levels and stop halfway, like in the current Mission 3, if you don't feel strong enough to take on the boss, you could stop half-way.

At one point, I wasn't pleased with the Star Fox based characters, but I haven't been able to come up with anything better yet. I do kinda like the idea of rival Harriet and "big sister" Pepper. Renard is kinda boring, but he's the protagonist of a hentai game, so he's allowed to be. Slick doesn't do much for me, she would probably get replaced. Probably with a shark. I do find frogs interesting as anthro hentai characters though, since they are weirdly the most human, with fairly plain human-like skin and no tail. But then there's sharks...

One of my other problems with Astro Vulpus was the upgrade system. It felt kind of forced and pretty unbalanced. And I've been thinking that most of my favorite scrolling shooters don't actually have upgrades. It could be fun to do something like an old arcade shooter, where you get power ups from defeating enemies and you can lose them by getting hit. I think maybe it would only be specific shots that cause you to lose power ups, like maybe there's an ion shot that causes you to lose power ups, yellow shots have a 25% chance to cause power loss, while red shots and normal enemies don't cause any power loss. Gaining power ups could have something to summoning the girls. I would like for it to be something more natural or random than just scripting in specific parts of the game where a power up appears. However, if there's no upgrades at all, then there's no point in replaying stages, which can be a lot of fun.



Also, I will probably try to do a little mini-game in Unity to get some experience before starting a major project. Something like Strip Pong or Puppy Love & Dildo.

[Lucky777]

Hmm.
I like Star Fox, so a good H-parody of it is also something I'd like.
Speaking for myself, I've little against the current upgrade system, and the idea of having some "all range mode" stages where you can fly as you please seems fun.

And yeah the mouse controls were never my favourite thing.

But hey, apart from the barrel-roll and lasers bug, it worked almost well enough.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Well, I think being a Star Fox parody was part of the problem. I never grew up on Star Fox. I liked Fox McCloud and the Star Fox stages in Smash Bros, and I've always liked scrolling shooters and nowadays I'm way into anthro characters, but I got Star Fox 64 on the 3DS and all I thought was, huh, not as good as I hoped DonPachi. So Astro Vulpus was never a celebration of Star Fox, but an attempt to make Star Fox more like what I wanted it to be DonPachi.

And conversationally, I feel this way about most Nintendo games. I think people tend to give them a free pass to be not-so-good because they're nostalgic or because they haven't played any competing games DonPachi.

Okay, I should stop that. DonPachi is a great game, I love the browie narrator and the cool ships and the ridiculous laser beams, but there are dozens of scrolling shooter games that are just as good. Actually, to my mind there is a split within scrolling shooters between pattern recognition types (bullet hell) types, and reflex types. I greatly prefer reflex type, and DonPachi is a pattern recognition type. Unfortunately, the arcade shooters gave up on reflex types early on, Space Invaders, Galaxian and Asteroids do it, but I can't think of any more modern ones. Project Inthri 3 is a great Flash shmup which is more reflex than pattern recognition. And obviously Astro Vulpus was reflex type.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Hey, I'm going to poke around Unity for a while, get a feel for the new platform. I'll share some of my progress with you.

Here is testing WASD+M movement and "dungeon" with the Astro Vulpus ship and some of the jungle BG graphics:
http://www.newgrounds.com/projects/game ... 28/preview

So there are obviously a lot to work on, the map edge looks weird, ground texture looks weird, map collision is not perfect, trees have more polygons than they need now that it's live 3D. But it's not bad for a few hours of free time, I'm pleased. There's definitely a big difference in render quality between WebGL and Windows build, I might think about offering both, as long as there aren't any major changes between the two.

[Lucky777]

Says we don't have "the necessary permissions" to see that preview, laddie.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

God damn fucking shit mothers ass burn pecos bill double fuck

I changed the permissions, it should work now.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Some quick fixes this morning: http://www.newgrounds.com/projects/game ... 28/preview

By the way, would you guys feel about what species of animal the squadron girls are? Rabbit, Harrier and Frog would have the advantage of short or no tail, which is easier to animate, but they're not really my favorite animals.

[Gidshiri]

P-platformer... my precious... nooooooo... "trying not to cry"... "crying like bitch"
Ah.... nevermind. Just some noises that sounds like someone crying. But it is not true. No one here crying. Seriously. Noone.
About girls. If you ask me - my favorites from furry\scaly are reptiles (like dragon girls and lizard girls) and sharks, i think.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Neat, lizards and sharks are my favorites too. I always thought I was alone in that.

Well, it doesn't mean I would never make a platformer, just I won't do it for now. And if I did make a platformer in Unity, my dream would be to make something more like Sly Cooper than Splatformer.

[Lucky777]

As long as the animals are sexy I'm fine with them, and as long as they're not sexy I'm not fine with them, but I like the canon animals.

Rabbit bird frog (with nice flowing locks) is my vote.

: D

...

... Falco REALLY shouldn't have been a fucking Pheasant...


(Also for some reason, though I can see the page and load SOMETHING now, I don't get past a blank screen.

I'm sure there's an answer for "y unity no work in my web browser?" on the internet somewhere, I'll look for it later.)

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Hmmmm. I was under the impression that HTML5's WebGL was automatically installed on all modern browsers. It might get disabled as part of ad blocking, but if this is a common problem, it might make more sense to pursue FlashDevelop instead. Being noticeable is important.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/webgl-b ... ility.html says: GPU blacklists apply. WebGL may be unsupported for specific older graphics cards. Details available on the Mozilla wiki page on Blocklisting/Blocked Graphics Drivers and the Khronos wiki page on Blacklists and Whitelists. (links on the original page)