alien breed demake
by @gabrielcrowe
[ warning: main power low ]
[ unable to send message ]
[ transponder offline ]
[ command// re-route,
[ secondary power ]
[ transponder online ]
[ message begin// ]
i've managed to get some
power to my transponder in
order to send this message
to anybody who is listening.
i am a soldier in the
interstellar marine corps.
my ship, the imc durham was
overrun by something we
picked up on ix538. some
wicked fast alien creatures
with big teeth and ferocious
appetites. these things came
bursting out of the the decks
where they had been hiding
below. they moved quick
and bit hard. everybody was
butchered, we had to scuttle
the ship.
i was sorry to see her go.
i made it to a shuttle and
got away. as i was leaving i
detected a distress signal.
i'll attach it to this
message.
[attachment]
\dstrs_sgnlrelay#6527
"anybody out there? this is
the mining ship callisto.
we have an alien on board.
its murdered half the crew
and we are barricaded in
the engine room. they are
smart. very smart. they
have set the ship on
course for earth. somebody
needs to blow us out of
the sky. if these things
get to earth then it's all
over for the human race."
//transmission_end
[/attachment]
so as you can probably
tell i'm on my way to
the callisto. i've
completely run out of
ammo for my rifle. i
can only hope that i
can find some ammo when
i breach the docking bay
or this is going to be one
hell of a short mission.
i've accessed the computer
on the callisto and i
know that their main power
is offline. the transwarp
drive is powered completely
from the backup generators,
positioned throughout
the ship. if i can just
get the them and shut
them all down then the
queen feeding off the
power will be much
weaker and easier to
send straight to hell.
i've remotely powered
the lights in the shuttle
bay and i've got my access
codes the the backup
consoles ready.
hopefully i can get to
the deck lift before the
queen reaches earth.
i'm going to take down
every one of these ugly
green bastards. if i
don't make it, tell my
family...
i love them.
[ /message end ]
Notes: I think I've made this game too hard :/ please let me know, either here or @gabrielcrowe on the twitter machine.
It's a fun homage to the Alien Breed series :).
I like what you did with the tilemap - the graphics are simple, but evoke different areas of the ship well. In general, it feels a lot like the source material :).
There is a bit of a design problem with the ammo - as long as you have it, the fights are a bit easy. Once you run out of it, there is literally no way to not die (but you still have to suicide yourself). I know it's a demake, but have you thought of a recharging weapon? It could solve the ammo problem and introduce a new fight-fight-fight-run away rhythm to the gameplay. At the very least, a recharge station or some other renewable ammo source is needed.
As for the fights - maybe I didn't get far enough, but there is only two types of alien, right? I'd love another type of alien that would put a twist on the tactics - maybe it could lay exploding eggs, or do something else that requires a new approach.
Still - very cool, and I had fun for the fifteen minutes I lasted. What did me in was running out of ammo in the big 12+-room green section, with no leftovers behind me.
This is great - takes me right back to Alien Breed on my A600.
I wouldn't say it's "too hard" - I seem to remember the original being hard as nails (and frequently found myself running out of ammo - the dreaded empty clip sound!)
It looks and plays great! Controls seemed pretty responsive, as was the collision.
My only thoughts were that it wasn't obvious to me what the "terminals" were (for powering down). They just kinda blended into the background. Could be just me tho! :D
Again, nice work! ;o)
krajzeg, you're right, and you do run out. I wanted the game to have the same issues as the original and this definitely happens in that game :)
There are a couple of interesting things to note about the terminals. They aren't really required to finish the game. I put them in as a way to open certain doors without keys. You can miss some and still win.
Thanks for the kind words guys :)
On to the next game!
I've never played the original game that this is based on, but it was super fun to play through this.
My only criticism is that it was a bit too easy (maybe I just played it wrong?). There was never a shortage of keys or ammo, and I very rarely lost any health.
It was still really atmospheric and fun to explore and shoot baddies and I enjoyed it a lot! Well done!
Excellent work for a demake and for a Pico title. Really enjoyed my run... until I was overrun by aliums a died.
Nice! Love the 'insert disk 2' bit ;)
End screen is a little borked, the 'you made it' test is over the top of another row of text.
Anyway, great work!
RGCD, I forgot to thank you for the C64 Super Bread Box I won playing Luftausers at Play Expo 2016.
You guys fucking rock.
This is great! Fun, engaging, good action! Would have interactables blink fast and make it clear to press to interact, but that's a little quibble on a great game!
this was LOVELY. i had a ton of fun with this, and it's remarkable just how much game you were able to fit into the constraints.
i didn't find it too hard - just being tactically aware of the hive positions and getting good firing lines worked out very well for me and i was able to clear it in around 15-ish minutes.
the music - or ambience, really, was perfect for what it needed to do. it definitely beats the silence that the original alien breed had.
i'm gonna say something a little blasphemous here: i prefer this to the original alien breed. that was definitely a relic of its time and suffered badly from sprites that were too large for the screen and gameplay that never innovated on itself and wound up overstaying its welcome.
this game, however, was tight and well thought out, and right around the time i started to feel i've learned all the tricks i'd need, it was time for the boss, and that was that. it was a great time.
if i hadn't dropped what little cash i had on taco bell, i'd be purchasing a pico-8 for myself, because this game really sold me on what the console can do. i've been doing game dev for a while now and this console looks like the exact sort of thing that'll really give me some fresh inspiration, as well as an even lighter platform to prototype game ideas than game maker studio.
my ONLY gripe is that i don't have disk 2 yet!
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yeah boy~!!
Brilliant PICO-8 remake / demake!
The Alien Breed series, especially Tower Assault, was one of my favourite Amiga games. You've capture the look, feel and sound of the original really well.
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