Author Topic: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01b update]  (Read 10680 times)

Aka Kyuketsuki

  • Team αlternative Σnding
  • Making it rain
Hello everybody!
I'm Aka Kyuketsuki from Τeam αlternative Σnding.
After all this time, I am very excited to present to you our new Touhou fangame!


Touhou Project "Lambda #1"
 「東方命雨滴 (Touhou Meiuteki) ~ Unification of the Artful Rain」


Here is the story:

   -- "Long ago, it was said people celebrated the rain.
   It was said every droplet carried a sparkle of life,
   that every downpour brought a sleet of vitality.

   The sound of the drizzle which carried the hopes
   for a long-lasting life...

   What the rain had given us, do you believe it could
   eventually be taken back?"

   Just as spring has made its leave, downpours have started to drizzle all over Gensokyo.
   However, the human villagers claim to experience fatigue while staying under this rainy weather.
   It was as if the energy from their bodies was drifting away slowly over time.

   As our protagonists went, the sky was already full with eerie clouds.
   It was just a matter of time before the chaos-bringing flood dropped over Gensokyo once more.



This full-scale fangame (6 stages and EX) is a rain-themed fangame with 3 protagonists available to play:
Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame and Komachi Onozuka (Not all characters may be available in trial version).
Each character will have two different shot types with different charcteristics, so don't be afraid to try all of them!

It also introduces the Flow system, a mechanic inspired by Perfect Cherry Blossom.
Destroying enemies releases special items called "Droplets". Collect them to fill your Flow Gauge.
Once it's full, press C to double your score with special items.
If you survive until the end, you can earn a huge bonus based on your performance: items collected, graze, the level of the boss...
You call also gain a spell fragment when surviving long enough too. However, you are not protected from getting hit, so only use when you are sure to shine!


Take a look at the teaser trailer here!
Here are some screenshots too!
(The screenshots are not representative of the released product. Expect some changes for the release.)


DL Link: BulletForge
Blog Entry: ΤαΣ's blog
Stay tuned for more updates!


[Staff]
Aka Kyuketsuki - Main programmer, Story, Music Composer, Danmaku Programmer, Artist, Difficulty Balance, Graphic Designer
Kirbio - System Programmer, Story, Graphic Designer
Tokiko Tatsunagi - Japanese translator, Player Programmer
Popfan - Japanese translator
Gilde - Japanese translator

Thanking all of TαΣ as well for the massive feedback!
Lunarethic, Gizmo the Dragon, Spectral Nexus, Mana Kazami and Talos Mistake.

Special thanks to Medi, Ultima, gtbot, Tres and Frenticpony as well.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2018, 08:51:41 PM by Aka Kyuketsuki »

Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2018, 04:52:37 PM »
Nice, at first I got kind of confused with the Gore's new game (also with Komachi as playable), sorry for that.

I do look forward to this and screenshots do look nice, with your artworks looking lovely as always. I know some people might be a bit tired of seeing new fangame demo/announcement lately, but the more the merrier IMO and I'm still going to judge each one individually.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2018, 05:06:09 PM by Popcioslav »
No.

CrestedPeak9

  • Fangame Advocate
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2018, 01:46:27 AM »
Is it just a coincidence that there are now three fangames that have a plot about rain?

The system sounds like a mix between TD and PCB, which reminds me immediately of PoIB. Looking forward to seeing it in action.
Lunatic 1cc: EoSD, PCB, IN, MoF, TD, DDC, LoLK, HSiFS, WBaWC

WishMakers

  • Myouren's IT Guy
  • printf("h*ck");
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2018, 02:50:04 PM »
Quote
Is it just a coincidence that there are now three fangames that have a plot about rain?
Rain and stars are the popular trends apparently.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing this one!  The Summer of Fangames? just keeps giving, doesn't it?
Return of Eastern Wonderland! Made by a PC-98 fan FOR fans!
1ccs: SoEW (N), LLS (N), MS (N), EoSD (N, H), PCB (N), IN (N, H), PoFV (N, 5 char), MoF (N), SA (N), UFO (N), TD (N), DDC (N), LoLK (N), HSiFS (E, N, L), WBaWC (N)
Extra: EoSD, PCB, IN, PoFV, MoF, HSiFS, WBaWC
Scoring: HSiFS Easy (PB: 1.1b), Barrage Musical Hard (PB: 28.?b)

Lunarethic

  • Local Trashy Edgelord
  • *
  • I can cut people with all this edge
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2018, 04:28:47 PM »
every time i wake up i see new fangames
いつもニコニコあなたの隣に這いよる!生放送!は好き。月です~す。略してニコニャル
Learned how to use a custom shotsheet : 12/28/13 *clapclapclap*
東方謎佚光 ~ Dimensional Light Abscence Work In Progress Touhou Fangame

Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2018, 07:52:38 PM »
every time i wake up i see new fangames

Tbh I want to wake up to a new fangame everyday, all of the ones being revealed look so amazing!!

Aka Kyuketsuki

  • Team αlternative Σnding
  • Making it rain
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2018, 06:57:50 PM »
The trial version of the game has been released!

Download it here: BulletForge
Blog Entry: ΤαΣ's blog

The first post has also been updated to feature these links.

Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2018, 11:25:33 PM »
 Just finished the demo a few times.  I have to say I'm legit impressed with the quality of the danmaku!  The patters are all so fun and creative. 

Spoiler:
The mechanics are pretty simple, which are always a plus.  A lot of people seem to complain about games where you're forced to play differently because of the mechanics (like chasing UFOs or PoCing for lives).  The whole flow mechanic is quite nice, and even if you completely ignore it you can still get plenty of lives.
Shottypes are amazing, Laser Marisa was by far my favorite.  The focused option for her is sooo good to use, both from a gameplay and visual perspective!

Stage 1 already hooked me up, the music is super upbeat and exciting, which is the perfect stage 1 vibe for me.  The boss is pretty simple, but cute. 
Stage 2 was really interesting, and I loved that you could tell what was going on storywise from the background alone.  The boss is by far my favorite, even if her last 2 patterns are pretty crazy, they're a good sort of crazy! 
Stage 3 was really pretty, and the music was flawless.  The boss is so beautiful, and her danmaku was lots of fun to dodge, too.  My only complaint is that her theme felt a bit dull and lacking energy; it had a little buildup but then it instantly went back to the same note.  Of course, that's just personal opinion, and definitely something minor. 

Difficulty-wise, I'm happy with how things are.  A lot of fangames make you suffer if you're not playing a homing shottype, but I feel like you guys made it fair even for straight shots.  Things are hard but beatable, and I didn't see any patterns that made me think 'man, I'll NEVER capture this'.
I imagine that Komachi's locked for this demo, huh?  I wonder how her shottypes will be.

Overall, amazing work guys!  I'm so happy to see quality Western fangames being made!  Keep up the great work, I can't wait for the full version! 


CrestedPeak9

  • Fangame Advocate
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [Announcement]
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2018, 04:36:33 AM »
This game is incredible.

No, seriously, you guys made an incredible demo. If you can keep the stages as well thought out for the lategame, I'm confident people will try to score it.

All the spells are fun to dodge and some are just bursting with creativity - the stage 2 final spell is an exceptional case of this and I can't believe you guys made it work so well.
Lunatic 1cc: EoSD, PCB, IN, MoF, TD, DDC, LoLK, HSiFS, WBaWC

Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01a released]
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2018, 01:47:04 PM »
I just played all stages & bosses on Lunatic. good show. very professionally put together fangame and I enjoyed the fireworks.

are you a new developer team(?) i've not heard of your games, at least not on your current moniker.
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

CrestedPeak9

  • Fangame Advocate
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01a released]
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2018, 02:42:53 PM »
Okay so I started trying to score the demo and ran into kind of a critical issue.
If you have one extra life left and die, your bomb count doesn't go back to 3.
This is really bad because if you suicide with one life left then you'll end up with 0/0, which I suspect will be very frustrating even in 1cc attempts.
Lunatic 1cc: EoSD, PCB, IN, MoF, TD, DDC, LoLK, HSiFS, WBaWC

Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01a released]
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2018, 05:27:55 PM »
Playing on Normal to get to know the intricacies of this flow system you have in place. What it's like to score this game. Rewarding combos in bullet hell games is always neat, and the point-of-collection-only droplet resource creates simple but effective dodging scenarios.
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01a released]
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2018, 06:53:30 PM »
The only gripe I've had with the game was that the music feels a little unmemorable, but maybe that's just because I focused more on the game on my first go, I'll give it another whirl later.

I'm seriously impressed. These are some of the best patterns I've seen in a fangame (especially Stage 3 Boss. Beautiful!) which means a ton in the context of a Touhou game. The art is ZUN style but refined to a level where it looks really cute. The designs are great as well (again Stage 3 Boss in particular), as do the backgrounds.

Absolutely can't wait for the full version! The year of fangames is looking bright. And on that note, imma hop right back in another run.

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01a released]
« Reply #13 on: July 12, 2018, 01:14:33 AM »
My play through (Blind Normal 1cc): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xADDN1WoC5Y

Overall, I found it to be a really beautiful game with superb (as expected) graphics and music. Danmaku-wise, it was also quite good, though having Doremy-style spirals in both Stage 2 and 3 felt a little repetitive (not to mention that having a survival in Stage 2 is a pretty hefty difficulty spike, especially given the nature of the spell).

My biggest gripes are contrast - stage enemies can blend in with the background, and some of the background elements seem like they could have a gameplay impact even though they don't. I recommend having some kind of magic circle/something to distinguish stage enemies from the background.

Looking forwards to the full game!

Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01a released]
« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2018, 11:23:25 PM »
Played the demo 7 times, using every shot type and difficulty at least once. It's truly great, and I don't throw that around lightly. Here are some of my thoughts.

The overall package is cohesive and filled with personality. The title music is melancholy, but with enough drive to remind you that an adventure's about to begin. Art, backgrounds, and all other visuals are great and match the theme well. No complaints here whatsoever that I can recall.

The Flow system is well thought-out and adds an extra layer onto the basic Touhou gameplay without it ever feeling like you have to stop what you're doing to appease the game mechanics. Granted, UFO was pretty much the only official Touhou I had that gripe with (and to a lesser extent 10D, with enemies constantly producing spirits you can't autocollect), but it's still good. Collecting a bunch of droplets at once feels pretty good, especially after you've built up a long chain. The way the droplet-appearing SFX gets higher in pitch as your chain increases is perfect. Absolutely solid video game sound design there. I was confused for a bit why my Flow seemed to be randomly increasing and decreasing until I noticed there's a yellow part that records your potential Flow from droplets you haven't collected yet. I think that's a cool idea, but a small suggestion would be to maybe make that yellow section darker, or otherwise increase its contrast with the rest of the gauge, so it's not mistaken for just more Flow. By the way, I think it's funny how both UotAR and Sapphire Panlogism have rain-themed plots and items called "droplets", but in SP you can't collect them with the PoC, whereas in this game you can only collect them with the PoC. (Incidentally, I planned on posting feedback in SP's thread as well, but after reading the other responses there I felt like everything I wanted to say was already encapsulated.)

I'm not sure how I feel about the counter under the lifebar counting down to the next extend score instead of just displaying the next score you need to get (like in HSiFS). On one hand, it's kind of neat to see it count down several million when I score a lot of points at once, but on the other it's hard to calculate on the fly exactly what score I need to reach for the next extend. I'd be interested in seeing some other comments on this.

Suzume is cute. :3 The whole game's soundtrack is godly, but her theme is also one of my particular favorites. It's hard to talk about musical feelings in concrete terms, but it feels infused to the brim with  "Here's our first opponent! It's the start of the adventure, so let's make sure you can handle what's ahead!" Stage 3's theme is also a favorite of mine. It captures very well the feeling of emerging into a mysterious parallel world where the skies are suddenly sunny and clear, contra what's happening in Gensokyo. I'm quite curious to see where this "alternate version of Gensokyo" thing goes story-wise.

The danmaku is, for the most part, superb. Just about all the patterns stand out with a unique identity and fit the character they're assigned to. The way Kousen's nonspells all start with those curling tendrils that break apart is beautiful. As Sparen pointed out, having a Doremy-style spiral as the last spell in Stage 2 and then immediately again as the first spell in Stage 3 felt rather samey. I do love both spells, but maybe Kousen's midboss spell could be slightly modified. And in spite of how much I like the idea, I agree that Mirerym's last spell is too difficult for its placement. I'm not sure if others had this same experience with it, but if I happened to die or bomb on it, the resulting bullet deletion made it hard to read the pattern, which meant I'd probably either die again or say goodbye to all my bombs. I'd suggest keeping the idea the same but just reducing the difficulty, and maybe experiment with making the bullets bombproof? Not sure how much that would fix things, but you could try it.

A few miscellaneous notes and suggestions for fine-tuning:
?The main title screen menu is (I think) the only menu that lets you continuously cycle through the options by holding an arrow key. I think that should be extended to all other menus.
?In the official games, dialogue causes all items to be auto-collected, which is most noticeable after you clear a boss's last spell card. It would be nice to have that implemented here.
?The game doesn't save the names that you input for scores and replays. This is particularly bothersome if you save a score and then immediately save a replay.
?Also on the name input screen, there's a pair of hyphens where the brackets should be, and trying to enter one of them into the name crashes the game. I suspected this was because of how Danmakufu parses certain characters in text objects, and putting some spaces at the beginning of a name confirmed it; the characters are inputted but the first non-space character you input will appear at the beginning of the line as if you hadn't inputted any other characters. You should be able to fix this by setting ObjText_SetSyntacticAnalysis to false for the text objects used in this screen, and then you can put all the [][][]]][[][][]]               []'s you want in them, no syntactic questions asked. While I'm at it, there should be a square or something representing the space; it's just blank right now.
?Pausing and unpausing the game repeatedly can sometimes screw up the music looping. This has happened in my Danmakufu projects as well, and I don't know what the cause is. Just figured I'd report it and maybe someone can figure it out.

To conclude, there are a few things that could use small improvements, but UotAR is looking to be a great game. I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest of it.

Aka Kyuketsuki

  • Team αlternative Σnding
  • Making it rain
Re: 東方命雨滴 ~ Unification of the Artful Rain [v0.01a released]
« Reply #15 on: July 24, 2018, 08:51:11 PM »
Hello! Thank you all for your feedback! We did as much as we could for the time being and fixed major issues for now, as well as some slight changes.
Patch 0.01b is now released, which can be downloaded from the same Bulletforge link above.
Here is the changelog:

Quote
Issues and Bug fixes:
- Reimu's Rain Event ability no longer consumes a bomb when getting hit during a Rain Event.
- The bomb count now resets correctly after losing your last extra life.
- The shot sheet and the dialogue cutins now load properly.
- Stage 1 should now be spawning fog properly and thus lag much less.
- Spell Practice no longer displays on occasions a 4th Spell Card on stage 1.
- Stage particles have their alpha lowered to be less distracting.
- Rain Events can no longer be activated during the STAGE CLEAR animation.

Gameplay changes:
- The difficulty has been adjusted overall, especially on the Stage 2 boss fight.
- Some tough stage fairies are now faster to take down.
- Player bombs deal more damage overall, except for Reimu A and Marisa B which deal less without shooting.
- Reimu A and Marisa B can shoot during their bombs. Reimu B is faster during hers.
- Reimu A had some of her default shot damage move over to her amulets. Her total damage remains the same.
- Marisa's Rain Event bonus damage has been increased.

Additional functions:
- Language can now be switched between English and Japanese in Option.
(Asked automatically before launching the game with no data.)
- You can now press R during the pause menu for a quick retry.
(Also includes other small shortcuts like pressing the pause button again to resume the game and more.)

Note that 0.01a replays might be obsolete as a result of these changes. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Issues like bombs and dialogues not giving auto-collect can't be fixed for now as the way we coded items wouldn't allow them to be auto-collect at max value.

Thank you for playing! We'll now try our best to focus on the full version of the game!
« Last Edit: July 24, 2018, 09:00:53 PM by Aka Kyuketsuki »