I've been working on this all this Sunday, but I had this idea for quite a long time tho

SPACE JACKAL is a shoot-em-up akin to Gradius where there aren't levels to beat; just bosses after bosses. You take off from your planet and have to reach and destroy the enemy base. Unfortunately, the ship will face many big aircrafts on its way, with varied weaponry and strategies.

If you defeat an aircraft, you may take its weapon as a powerup and advance in your mission. Have your aircraft destroyed, the enemy will get your powerup and you'll have to take off from the Earth again. Thankfully, you have infinite ships in at your hands, but if they reach your planet, your game is over.



I also have a mockup:



I decided to go with GB style because it's easier for me to sprite. If it was anything bigger, it probably wouldn't have any sprites for it ever, sooo yeah

Also I love Konami's GB games, which were part of my inspiration for this game.

Sounds fun, love the gameboy style too!
(Has nothing to do with the game but, 200th post!!)

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further explanation on weaponry:

You can have two special weapons at once, a Main weapon (lasers, shots) and a Subweapon (missiles). Main weapons are strong and goes mainly forward; Subweapons take a more oblique path to cover bigger areas. You can choose to able it or disable it with START button (SELECT pauses the game). Disabling weapons makes your ship much weaker, but you will not lose any weaponry if you die. If you die while having special weapons, you'll lose them.

DEFAULT: it's the simple pea-shooting weapon. It shoots rapidly.

LASER: pierces through enemies and is stronger than the default shot.

WAVE LASER: stronger version of LASER, but the shooting rate is limited.

LIGHTNING: shoots electrical discharges in a zig-zag path.

WHIP SHOT: a flexible cable shoots out from the ship and deals big damage, but its range is limited. It also shoots a small wave that does less damage.

CUBE SHOT: shoots a fast spinning cube that explodes in 4 directions in contact.

RIPPLE LASER: circular beam that increases in size. Disappears in contact.

GRAVITY BULLET: shoots a capsule that explodes in a black hole. The explosion deals damage and takes roughly one second to wear off.

SPREAD LASER: laser barrier that increases in size. Divides in half when it hits enemies.

REFLECT GUN: shoots 3-way bullets that bounces around in a fast sucession.

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when DEFAULT, you don't have any missiles.

MISSILE: shoots missiles above and below the ship.

TORPEDO: shoots two missiles that goes back a little and then boosts forward with a fast speed. It explodes in contact.

HOMING MISSILE: weak missiles that track enemies.

CLUSTER BOMB: shoots several weak bombs below in a 'showering' motion.

CIRCLE BEAM: two orbs spawn from the ship and rotates around it, increasing in radius until it disappears. It has limited range, but can protect the ship and pass through enemies.

Well, you seem to have your ideas under control, good luck with this dude

Have you starting coding this baby yet?

no, I would if I knew how to.

Over the rest of the week in my game design 111 class we're being given a rush course on Gamemaker for a game making event this weekend, who knows, if I get the hang of it, I might be able to help you

Shmups are easy in Gamemaker, so it shouldn't give you too many problems. If you do run into any major problems, feel free to skype me.

Um, in order to stay topic-relevant, how exactly does the black hole bullet work? I mean, you've said it's a bullet that creates a black hole (you also didn't specify if it does this on contact, after a short period of time, etc.), but what does the black hole actually do?

(01-25-2012, 12:49 PM)Gors Wrote: no, I would if I knew how to.

Now you wouldn't because if you knew how to you would start ten thousands of games and never finish one.

I actually make a lot of projects because I can't program myself, heh

every time I start a project, I keep making things and things like crazy but once I hit the 'program' part, I stop working on it because welp


maybe if I knew, I'd make less projects, i dunno.

Do you have any design for enemy spacecraft?

yes, they're sketched since 2010. I am also brainstorming with my friend too, so enemies aren't a problem here.

(01-25-2012, 01:49 PM)Splodiatrist Wrote: Shmups are easy in Gamemaker, so it shouldn't give you too many problems. If you do run into any major problems, feel free to skype me.

Um, in order to stay topic-relevant, how exactly does the black hole bullet work? I mean, you've said it's a bullet that creates a black hole (you also didn't specify if it does this on contact, after a short period of time, etc.), but what does the black hole actually do?

exactly what happens on this gif, except it only explodes on contact and not automatically

But still, what does the black hole itself do? Is it like, just a lasting explosion that simply does damage to things that hit it, or does it actively pull anything towards it?

If it's from another game, I haven't played it before ><

it only does damage; it doesn't pull things whatsoever. also, the explosions can act like a 'wall'; shooting capsules into the explosions will also explode.

I'll look for in action examples of it soon.