This started out as something entirely different but morphed into something pretty personal. It's not the best looking thing and it gets really hectic near the end, even for my shmup tastes, but wanted to get this up sooner than later. I might not return to this before the Jam deadline...hopefully I will.
Controls
Arrows - Rotate player
Z - Fire
X - Continue
P - Options menu
Auto-fire is enabled by default. Use the options menu to toggle auto-fire and music.
Feedback is welcomed. I have a short list of things to tweak like better sounds, difficulty balance, level transitions and extras like power-ups but otherwise there is a goal/end so if I'm unable to get anything else done before the deadline, it is a complete game.
Each level is randomly generated within some parameters I set in the code. And shy of the title screen, there are no sprites...not that that's special, just saying. I think it'd be neat to see this game with some actual art behind it.
UPDATES:
v1.0.1 - Changed up a few difficult settings to make progression a little better. You start with less time and damage takes away more time.
v1.2 - Several wish list things like sounds, transitions, feedback, etc. Plus lots of code cleanup.
v.13 - Added music, courtesy Brian Follick. Minor cleanup and balancing.
I have no idea what I'm doing ...
Do I just shoot at the blinking center circle?
Not sure if it's effecting anything
it makes a high pitched sound when you hit it. if you don't hear that, you have to move around to a side that's slightly closer.
Thanks for trying it out and the feedback.
Yes...just shoot the flashing dot to kill everything at once and move on to the next level. The "cut scene" text story gives you some hints too.
Agreed, the player feedback is lacking shy of some beeps...certainly on my list. Getting sounds just right with the sound editor is tough for me, takes a lot of trial and error just dragging the thing around.
Wow, that's great! I really like the circular mechanic, and had no trouble figuring out what to do (even without sound). One suggestion would be to make the bullets not stop at the center, but continue to the other side.
Thanks for playing. I'm a big fan of Tempest and Gyruss from back in the day...the rotating/360 thing has always been a favorite of mine, not to mention it's not something you see a lot these days. After making this, I got some more ideas for other games that could use it.
I think I want to make a Gyruss clone of sorts that is less about random blobs and more planned out like a normal shmup game. It was tempting to do that with this game but given the theme, I felt that the simplicity and chaos was appropriate.
As with every P8 creation, you keep learning and build on that next time. :)
Just realized I forgot to include the obligatory GIF showing gameplay. D'oh! I'll add that tonight.
| Getting sounds just right with the sound editor is tough for me, takes a lot of trial and error just dragging the thing around. |
I find using tracker mode for sound effects is a lot easier than using graph mode. Are note effects even possible in graph mode?
I haven't really dove into the tracker at all because I just assumed it was best for music. I'll check it out for the blips and bleeps too. Although I often don't even know what type of sound I want, so using the graph is a good way to play around with the different shapes to discover. But I guess once I find something I like, I can transpose that into the tracker.
By tracker mode, I don't mean the music editor. There are two icons at the top of the sound effect editor; one looks like a bar graph (graph mode) and one looks like a grid (tracker mode). Both modify the same data, so anything you do in one mode will remain if you switch to the other mode.
Tracker mode allows you to define the sounds by typing them in instead of drawing them. It also allows you to add note effects, which I believe aren't possible in graph mode. Note effect 1 (slide/portamento) is pretty useful for sound effects.
Thanks. My dad actually beat cancer so it's a good story IRL. :)
@binaryeye - Just checked out the tracker mode for the sound thing...that is MUCH easier than the little graph interface. And I know see all the little extra effects you can add. From reading the manual, using it seems less than intuitive so here goes nothing.
I like it. The circular mechanic helps me to remember the game gyruss. In case you're old enough to have played this one... :-)
Very cool game - it is heavily dependent on sound, but still works! Great job!
Thanks for playing. Yeah, I wanted to do more with the sounds but never got around to it after just learning the programming nuances of Pico8. Hopefully an update in the future will include more.
That is very cool. Wish the flashing cell's hit box was a touch bigger. Love the story idea.
Thanks. I admit I didn't do a very good job at explaining you have to shoot through the blobs to get to the flashing core.
If I go back to the game and revise it, I will certainly adjust the circle detection. I did find that I had to fake the size of a circle to have it detect when a point was actually inside the circle...so like, if the circle was a radius of 5 in the code, it acted like a radius of 4 for hit detection...I think that's just how the math works with the big pixels.
I'm also hoping that if the next Fanzine covers sprite rotation, I can update Mass360 (or make a new game) that uses sprites instead of just shapes...we'll see...
I like the look of this game, felt very fun to play. I included it in my Pico-8 Jam #2 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :)
Was happy to see Mass360 get a shout out on Next Thing Co. blog along with some of the other great Pico Jam 2 games. I'm not sure I belong in such company but I'll take it :)
As such, decided to revisit the game and do a little cleanup while also adding in a few of the wishlist items left over from the jam.
I'm sure we've all experienced the pain of going back and looking at old code - yikes. I've only been Pico8-ing for a few months but have learned so much in that time...it was hard to resist going back to cleanup/refactor more.
cool addictive game! hey i found a bug where if you press Z then X just as the game starts you go straight to the end, finished.
haha, whoops...I think that was my debugging shortcut. Thanks for the find, I'll squash it in an update tonight. Thanks!
Updated to add wonderful soundtrack by Brian Follick (@gnarcade_vgm). Did some balance adjustments and minor cleanup.
This cart has been on a journey from game jam to now. Thanks to everyone that has given it a try and shared feedback.
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