Reisen Rush [360 degree STG] Remilia expansion complete!

[bennelsey]

click banner to go to official page
Remilia version in second half of the post

Screenshots:



Gameplay video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAGRV5mDnco

Download Reisen Rush v 1.1
Reisen Rush v1.1 (7mb)
Version 1.1 Patch (130kb)

note: If the game asks for a d3dx9_43.dll, just run Dx9 mini-setup.exe in the game folder to install it.
If you have the old installer which didn't have that file, you can download just the installer from here
Dx9 mini-setup

Controls:
# left click: move slowly
# right click: basic shot
# left click + shift = move faster
# right click + shift = danmaku
# (shift by itself does nothing)
# Escape: pause + show map

Alternate Controls:
# left + right click: move faster
# right + left click: danmaku
# The game can tell which button you held down first
optional click keys: Z=left click, X=right click


older versions:
http://eastgap.net/downloads/Reisen%20Rush%20v1.0.zip
http://eastgap.net/downloads/Reisen%20Rush%20v0.7.zip
http://eastgap.net/downloads/Reisen%20Rush%20v0.5.zip
http://eastgap.net/downloads/Reisen%20Rush%20v0.9.zip


click banner to go to official page

Screenshots:


Gameplay video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY2OmdnDNEM


Download Remi Rush v 1.1
Remi Rush v1.1 (7.2mb)
Version 1.1 Patch (1.6mb)

note: If the game asks for a d3dx9_43.dll, just run Dx9 mini-setup.exe in the game folder to install it.
If you have the old installer which didn't have that file, you can download just the installer from here
Dx9 mini-setup

- item drops (score and power items), now you need to collect them to get power, score, and lives
- random mode - non-bosses are randomized (type, patterns, bullet types)
- annoying blinking message if there are no enemies nearby "Press Esc to view the map"
- hitbox is visible when moving slowly
- Full keyboard controls (same buttons as the Touhou games)
- Remilia player
- The controls and the player images are actually for my next game, this expansion is a preview
- enemy x2 bullets
- life regen halved
- slightly balanced Mystia and Kogasa to account for keyboard difficulty
- player attack changes
-This is the original difficulty for Reisen Rush, but because the controls were too hard i had to scale it down to easy modo for Reisen
- screenshot button: Pause/Break


older demo:
Remi Rush v0.9 (7.1mb)
-Same as final version, but without the screenshot button
Remi Rush v0.3 (1.7mb)
features:
- new keyboard controls and Remilia sprites
- difficulty and player attack differences from Reisen Rush




Dev comments:
So i started making a game engine half a year ago while aiming to make this really large game that i haven?t even announced to the EastGap group yet. Then some time last month i thought ?Imma test how well this engine will do in a game?, then set out to make a *smaller* version, something like a preview of its power.

I wanted to make it quickly so i decided something really simple like ?kill everything in one large room? will do, then thought up of this.
(planned development time was 1 week, but turns out i didn?t want to make a game half-assed and went overkill)
Long story short, this is just the tip of the iceberg and there?s still more to come that will use this game scheme :3
(And possibly another mini-game before the larger one)



oh yeah credits so far:
Kudos to the massive programming help i got from these EastGap members:
    * Finn
    * SadisticPenguin
    * HydroKirby
    * XDest

Spriting, Images, that simple looping BGM when Reisen appears called reisentewi.ogg are by me
Programming mostly by me, with the help of those four mentioned above

[Suikama]

Control scheme is rather unintuitive. Why not just have WASD movement, shift focus, and mouse aim and shoot?

[bennelsey]

Already had another game with WASD movement, shift focus, and mouse for shoot buuut it really didn't catch on
 (it had worse reception in EastGap than this game)
Must've been because it was already done in Touhou dreamer's party, i dunno

Really short answer:
I wanted a to dodge bullets while backflipping like a 2d airplane

And lol, i forgot to explain the essence of the game:
1. Freedom of movement
- having a large room, no gravity, and the actual movement in all directions add up to this
2.  Easy game
- most of the enemy patterns won't hit if you don't move, most bullets are slow enough and dodge-able with normal human reflexes
3. Freedom of movement
- I wanted a backflipping Reisen

It ended up with weird controls since I wanted something unique (again)
people tend to hate my control schemes so i'm pretty much open to suggestions
(that don't go against the entire point of the game)

i wanted backflipping reisen+360 degree shooter and that just wasn't possible without making a 2d flight simulator
To have a backflipping reisen, i needed more than four buttons, and that would've locked me to a keyboard only game and completely got rid of the 360 degree danmaku part  that I wanted ^^


[edit]
tldr; I got greedy and this is the only way to satisfy my thirst for flying and 360 danmaku
[edit2]
I forgot the plan in my next mini-game was specifically the same gametype but full keyboard controls lmfao
(remembered it now since i finally had a flash of insight as to how to do pull it off with only 6-8 buttons total)

[Mjonir]

I couldn't start the game, even with the dx9 dll. When I start it, it errors but without any specific error message (the application just couln't start). I'm using a Windows 7 x64. Perhaps you forgot another dll you're using?

[bennelsey]

Odd, only times i've encountered that error were from missing sprites and using the wrong d3dx9_dll for the system (there are two, only one can be used)
most likely that's just crappy coding on my part, hope it'll be fixed with the next demo (which will come in a few minutes)

[bennelsey]

double post just so i can inform people of the update, but heh fourth demo is up (second public one) in the first post


changes:
- several bullet types (sounds like a little irrelevant update now doesn't it? luckily it isn't \o/)
- Kedama and green fairy can take 3 hits, Blue fairy 1, White fairy 2
- Pause menu, but i forgot to add the ARE YOU SURE annoying confirmation on the quit button
- had to reupload the file to give fairy generator the update to give a random bullet type on click
- options screen, volumes not yet implemented though, looks a little crowded now but that's just because fairy test mode is still there
- multiple resolutions, i personally like the 800x600 one

[Mjonir]

Okay, I got it working, I used the dll you provided for x86 systems and it worked. However I can assure you that I'm on a x64 system :V

It's a nice game, the controls are really original although it was rather unplayable on my laptop. Also, very good work with the background, the result is really nice.

Just a side question if you don't mind: I noticed that the framerate you display is quite stable. Can I ask you what kind of time-management you're using?

[bennelsey]

Just a side question if you don't mind: I noticed that the framerate you display is quite stable. Can I ask you what kind of time-management you're using?

I didn't use anything special, just the one that comes with DirectX ⑨ itself

Code: [Select]

dx_PresParams.PresentationInterval = D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT;
Though it does pose a problem if the game runs faster or slower than 60 fps, hope it runs at that speed for your comp :3
(i need some way to limit this lol, on decent comps i've seen this go to 70fps)

[edit]] and yeah, it's not meant for anything other than mice, but i thought having alternate click buttons woulda solved part of the problem

needs more testing ^^

[Mjonir]

I didn't use anything special, just the one that comes with DirectX ⑨ itself

Code: [Select]

dx_PresParams.PresentationInterval = D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT;

Hey, that's cheating!

Though it does pose a problem if the game runs faster or slower than 60 fps, hope it runs at that speed for your comp :3
(i need some way to limit this lol, on decent comps i've seen this go to 70fps)

From my own experience, trying to stabilize framerate for the consistency of simulation doesn't really work. You always end up with some instability or eating too much CPU so it's not the way to go. Although it's not the easiest solution, the best one is using time intervals for you movements. Something like this:

Code: [Select]

setPos(Coord(id) + DMG["elapsedTime"]*speed)
This always gives you a very precise result without the need for super-complex algorithms (like I did before ^^'). This way the framerate doesn't matter at all, and it'll run normally even if it is very unstable.

However, there's still a need for some framerate stabilization, but this time only to ensure the consistency of smoothness.

Also, although it might be a bit less intuitive for the original programmer to use seconds instead of number of frames, it's easier and more logical on the scripting side.

[KrackoCloud]

Movement is fine, maybe make dashing a little faster. It's hard to get out of tight situations.
Shooting feels pretty unnatural. It's hard to hit enemies with normal bullets because of speed and range limitations.

It's not really in my position to suggest this, but I'm wondering how these would work:
-Switch the left / right mouse buttons
-Use double-clicking for dashing
-Maybe implement some sort of coordinate lock-on so you can choose to shoot at the same place while moving

[rfw]

This feels a lot like Acceleration of SUGURI...

[bennelsey]

Movement is fine, maybe make dashing a little faster. It's hard to get out of tight situations.
Shooting feels pretty unnatural. It's hard to hit enemies with normal bullets because of speed and range limitations.

It's not really in my position to suggest this, but I'm wondering how these would work:
-Switch the left / right mouse buttons
-Use double-clicking for dashing
-Maybe implement some sort of coordinate lock-on so you can choose to shoot at the same place while moving

if you mean hitting the light blue fairies is hard and only possible with the charged attack or dashing until really insanely close then shooting, that's a feature :3
(I consider them as snipers since they have a shiton of range, it's also why they have few bullets and only one hp)

Then i tried using a faster bullet speed, it really felt like Reisen's shooting a gun but it literally breaks the game since there's already the charged attack version.
So i bothered actually balancing it, blue fairies can now be killed by firing random (non-charged) shots at them from a farther range
(but you'll still need to chase them, really adds some more fun to the game instead of just sniping them with the charge attack)

That's already the fastest i'm willing Reisen to go (any faster and she'll never get hit by bullets)
Not because the bullet or her hitbox is too small, not because the gaps between jumps would be too large, but because the efficient collision system i'm using requires objects to avoid moving too fast ^^

But yeah, it does seem difficult to get out of tight situations, so acceleration is twice what it was before
-the slow acceleration thing was for my larger game after this
-i tried three times the old acceleration, it was almost insta-max speed so i reverted to just 2x


Switch left / right mouse added, it's in the options

There *is* a coordinate lock on system, the normal shot
(to notice this press up to increase power and number of bullets)

double click dashing will take a while to add(because that involves more code rewrite than i'd like to admit), so i'm not going to work on that until after release date (which is in a few hours)


And i looked at videos of acceleration of suguri just now, i don't think that game has acceleration lol
(and i seriously need more effects, oh gawd and sounds)
But i've always hated games with auto lockon because they're mostly crap, ever since higurashi daybreak ^^

Not sure if suguri is mouse controlled, but i'm pretty sure having that auto lock system meant needing less player controls for aiming. Too bad i like to aim :3



It's already the last day of my deadline (which i set myself) and i still haven't started on the bosses xD

[Infy♫]

i played this.

theres this constantly fleeing fairy in the top right (called #81) i have been chasing it all the time but i always stayed away... XD you should do something about that.

[bennelsey]

good point, i'll just add walls at the borders (GAP) of the map so they won't get out

because adding an extra check if the fairy is out of bounds is against my style :3

[bennelsey]

Updated first post with version 0.9, now it actually feels like a game with a point O:
but yeah, i STILL haven't started on the bosses, and it's already the 25th in my timezone D:

changes:
- FIREFLIES
- player can now die
- minibosses implemented (placed in random parts of the map, only a few of them around and the most threatening one is just below the player's spawn point)
- player can now gain lives (kill fairies, gaining lives is slower when you have more lives)
- player can now gain power (through gaining a certain amount of lives for each power level)
- volume settings
- inverted click option
- slightly faster normal attack
- reisen has twice the acceleration now
- fairies don't escape through the edges of the map
- walls that are far cannot be seen on the map (though all enemies can still be seen)

stuff left before game is complete:
- highscores (and the accompanying time record + score record)
- bosses
- special effects with the gaining lives + power
- minor game balancing
- remaking the map

[Infy♫]

got a bug.
it crashed once I had lost all lives.

[bennelsey]

game released even before i could bug test or check if clearing all the enemies in the map would end the game \o/

haev fun bug testing and looking at erro-....i mean, bug test pl0x :3
(though yeah it's already released on my site for public consumption, bug reports coming my way i bet lol)

And Merry christmas to all Touhou fans, this is my gift to you guys

[edit]
minor fix added (was too sleepy to notice this a few hours ago), if you want to download just the patched .exe use this link
http://eastgap.net/downloads/ReisenRush.exe

Otherwise if you haven't download version 1 yet, link is in the first post and its official site

[SP]

Hey, thanks for the credit Benny.  Played it through, it was pretty fun.

From my own experience, trying to stabilize framerate for the consistency of simulation doesn't really work. You always end up with some instability or eating too much CPU so it's not the way to go. Although it's not the easiest solution, the best one is using time intervals for you movements. Something like this:

Generally the solution here would be to use QueryPerformaceCounter/QueryFrequencyCounter and using Sleep() until getting around 60fps, this is pretty accurate, but then throwing a variable time-step on top of it is a good idea in case of lag, unless of course you're using an integration method that doesn't handle fixed timesteps or you're doing frame-by-frame data for replays or something.

[Mjonir]

Generally the solution here would be to use QueryPerformaceCounter/QueryFrequencyCounter and using Sleep() until getting around 60fps, this is pretty accurate, but then throwing a variable time-step on top of it is a good idea in case of lag, unless of course you're using an integration method that doesn't handle fixed timesteps or you're doing frame-by-frame data for replays or something.

I don't know what QueryPerformaceCounter/QueryFrequencyCounter are, DirectX functions I guess? For my own engine I use OpenGL so I'm not familiar with DirectX.

But from what I get, it's a form of busy waiting? I'm trying to avoid that, it's not really a nice thing to do and doesn't work in multi-threaded applications on single-core CPUs (the simulation thread is eating up the whole CPU).

I agree that it works really well and it's easy to implement, but I think it should be avoided

[bennelsey]

update: making the game actually playable,
shift button - handles both dash and danmaku modes (left click + shift = dash, right click + shift = danmaku)
Didn't think it was so simple and i completely overlooked it

just the v1.1 patch here: (130kb)
http://eastgap.net/downloads/ReisenRush%20v1.1%20patch.zip

full updated v1.1 along with a link to just the patch added in the first post


New Controls
# left click: move slowly
# right click: basic shot
# left click + shift = move faster
# right click + shift = danmaku
# (shift by itself does nothing)
# Escape: pause + show map

Alternate Controls:
# left + right click: move faster
# right + left click: danmaku
# The game can tell which button you held down first
optional click keys: Z=left click, X=right click

[bennelsey]

I'm making a stand-alone expansion for this with full keyboard controls because i was disappointed at how reisen rush was not considered awesome :/
(I really loved those controls ;-;)


Not sure if i should make a separate thread for the expansion, but here are the differences
- all enemies have x2 bullets than what they used to have
- separate score file (will just be lazily called score_remi.gap)
- Remilia as the playable character
- full keyboard controls - will be configurable
- gaining hp is slower (lol reisen has more lifesteal than remilia)
- larger bullet and hitboxes for the danmaku attack (the old shift + right click)
- normal attack changes: (the old right click)
*can shoot while in fast-fly
*longer range in fast-fly (player's speed is added to bullets)
- map changes

Also note: these controls will be used for a completely unrelated game with a different goal
(or just a different map, i dunno at this point, i just want people to play this map with my next game's controls :/)

[Mjonir]

I'm making a stand-alone expansion for this with full keyboard controls because i was disappointed at how reisen rush was not considered awesome :/
(I really loved those controls ;-;)

It IS awesome, but perhaps the game still feels a bit... rushed?

The idea is great but I think this game needs a bit more work in order to exploit it correctly. I'd say mainly: more danmaku action and less exploration. The game gets a bit repetitive once you've cleared the first cluster of enemies. But if you want to improve on the danmakus you'd also need a bit of improvement over the controls. They are really original but at the moment they make it very hard to dodge simple patterns. I'm not telling you to drop them, but perhaps find a way to improve them.

Also about the exploration side, it's a bit dull to be in the middle of nowhere and don't have any direction. A simple arrow pointing to the next cluster of enemies would be a nice and easy addition. Moreover, it's also annoying to have to go back the very long and empty corridor you came from. I'd say you should either put some more enemies on the way back, or open a way in the wall toward the next cluster of enemies.

Keep going! ()/

[KrackoCloud]

I think the mouse control is for the most part perfectly fine. The only improvement I can see at the moment is maybe invert the speed scheme - Use Shift to slow, like in the STGs.

Like Mjonir said, it's mainly that the game needs more depth.
If you want to make this bigger, maybe turn it into a rooms-and-corridors type of game? Of course, the rooms and corridors would have to be pretty large, but they'll provide a better sense of progress and exploration. Diverging paths, unlockables, boss rooms, etc. would also be good to put in.
The point is, the game needs direction. A goal, maybe even a storyline if you feel like it.

[bennelsey]

Naw as for the depth part, that's something i can't avoid with games planned out to be small from the beginning
I just wanted something that would kill time

As for the pointer to the next cluster of enemies thing, i guess i'll either make a map button or a minimap that's visible without pausing the game.
(yeah the map isn't too obvious, i've had people play the game and didn't notice there was a terrain map when pausing)

Anyway, got the Remilia version running (note do not overwrite on your reisen rush installation yet). This will not play bgms
Menus are still mouse controlled, options related to the mouse are removed, but the offsets for the options are still unchanged so it'll look weird

I'm definitely implementing that visible map/pause button on both games
(In the Remilia expansion, it'll be just a notice where Escape=minimap)

Reisen Rush - Remilia expansion v0.3 (1.7mb)
http://file.eastgap.net/index.php?action=download&file=Remi+Rush+0.3.zip

- Full keyboard controls (same buttons as the Touhou games)
- Remilia player
- enemy x2 bullets
- life regen halved
- slightly balanced Mystia and Kogasa to account for keyboard difficulty
-  attack changes

[edit]
-This is the original difficulty for Reisen Rush, but because the controls were too hard i had to scale it down to easy modo

[edit2]
updated the first post
first half has Reisen, second half has the Remilia expansion

[edit3]
updated first post with gameplay video of reisen rush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAGRV5mDnco

[bennelsey]

uploaded Reisen Rush - Remilia expansion v0.9 (7.1mb)
http://eastgap.net/downloads/Remi%20Rush%200.9.zip
*final version if bugs aren't found or massive gameplay balances need to be made or a really cool feature that i missed again

- uses the same music as Reisen Rush because i'm too lazy to remix another batch of music for the same game ^^
- annoying blinking message shows up when there are no enemies nearby, "Press Esc to view the map"
- hitbox is visible when moving slowly (only in Remi version atm)
- yes it's intended that Remi would be overpowered compared to Reisen, to make up for the difficulty increase
- I can add the last two stage 2 bosses that haven't been included yet, but i'll need someone to design a square map that can accomodate 6 bosses (the current Reisen Rush map is for four bosses, one on each tip of the square, with two of them having quirks of their own)
- curious note: placing the Reisen Rush exe file inside the Remi Rush works perfectly fine, doesn't work the other way around because Remi Rush has a few new images added, can be used to save space since both games use the same music (more than half the game size)
- I'm treating this as a stand-alone expansion, because it really can stand alone :3
- I'll give a separate page for this game on my site


[edit] uploaded v1.0 version and released on my site, along with a gameplay video
only difference between v0.9 would be the screenshot buton (Pause/Break) since i couldn't find any bugs

[bennelsey]

Remi Rush v1.1 uploaded

changes:
- Added random mode - non-bosses will be randomized (enemy type,danmaku patterns, bullet types)
- Lives/score/power now depend on item drops(score and point items, they're red and blue P items lol), also balanced to be mostly the same as before cept you'll need to pick them up ofc
- Power number now shows a decimal value so you'll know how close/far you are to the next power level
- Balanced the fairies that use portals, they're not as much BS now
- Mystia is now "reasonable" when compared to the other three bosses, she used to be near impossible to get close to

I like the way the item drops makes me OCD at picking them up :3

[edit]
I made something for people who get missing d3dx9_43.dll errors
a mini-setup for DirectX9 (1mb) has been added to the zip files in download links, and can also be downloaded separately from here
http://eastgap.net/downloads/Dx9%20mini-setup.zip