Author Topic: 東方封魔再録 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Update on translation!)  (Read 22545 times)

WishMakers

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  • printf("h*ck");
東方封魔再録 (Touhou Fuumasairoku) ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland

PC-98 fans rejoice!  To celebrate its 20th anniversary, there will be a reimagining of the classic Story of Eastern Wonderland, complete with modern Touhou elements implemented into the gameplay!

Program: Wish
Art: yeashie, PeppermintCandy
Music: VYCM
Helepolis shot sheet used, maceknight's spell circle used (temp)


This is an incredibly ambitious project, and it is also one I have been working with for a few months already to make sure it is ready to be announced.  For those worried about the lack of Danmakufu, my engine is in tip-top shape and is ready to be put to the ultimate test.
My goal with this project is to make the original Story of Eastern Wonderland accessible to everyone?new players and old players, crossing language barriers, and especially bringing a game to those who currently have no other option but to pirate. 
This seems fairly fruitless on the surface, as it has been attempted before with the Jynx recreation and at least one other fangame that I can think of, but one is not playable by the masses and the other didn't really capture the feel of the original in my eyes.  This project is to take what made the original game so great, and combine it with some newer Touhou mechanics and potentially even some completely new mechanics.  It's more of a reimagining than a remake.

Goals of the project:
  • To accurately represent the original Story of Eastern Wonderland, including innovations from newer Touhou games.
  • To reinvent old, less creative patterns and make them something a bit more polished and maybe even more difficult.
  • To give characters new patterns to work with as well that reflect them better than rings and rand(0,360) of old.
  • To provide in-game translation into numerous languages without the need of a translation tool.
  • To have a game that both the Western and Eastern community can enjoy.

I am not alone in this project.  Some personal friends are helping me with some art assets and bug testing.  But I am not without need either.
Some important roles that need to be filled are:
?   Music Producer (This is incredibly important because in its current state, we are using the SC-88Pro recordings of the original midis)
?   Translators: If anyone can provide translations for other languages, my goal is to include as many as possible (Contact me first, we are limiting languages for now and implementing more later) (See post on 6/14/18)
?   Sprite Artist: Sprites are difficult to come by, and I want to make sure that all the assets are 100% original and/or complying with ZUN?s guidelines
?   Portrait Artist : Old artist completely dropped the project
?   Background Artist: 3D backgrounds should probably look nice!
?   Game Tester: This is the easiest to fill but still very important.  As soon as I release a demo, I would highly appreciate it if I can get feedback on it!  In addition, I will need some high-level players to test the Hard/Lunatic difficulty to ensure it isn?t too easy or too difficult and to ensure good pattern design.
If you fit any of these roles, please contact me on Discord!  My tag is WishMakers#0426.

Follow this Twitter for updates on the game >Twitter<

Trial (3 stages) will be released soon.  Please wait warmly.




« Last Edit: July 26, 2018, 02:13:07 PM by WishMakers »
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)

Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2017, 01:23:51 AM »
Oh, wow, that's actually pretty cool. Please tell me you are adding the ability to focus, at the every least!? Just that alone would make the game way more accessible(and, in my opinion, better).

Das

  • w e w
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2017, 02:19:44 AM »
if this trial isnt like the original soew trial (marisa and reimu dialogue after s4, showing patterns and stage layout of s4, accompanied by pretty hilarious dialogue) ill be 200% depressed

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2017, 04:10:00 PM »
Quote
Please tell me you are adding the ability to focus, at the every least!? Just that alone would make the game way more accessible(and, in my opinion, better).

Focus mode is very much included.  There will be an option for seeing/not seeing hitbox as well.

Quote
if this trial isnt like the original soew trial (marisa and reimu dialogue after s4, showing patterns and stage layout of s4, accompanied by pretty hilarious dialogue) ill be 200% depressed

Haven't personally seen it but I'll tell you what, the second trial will include that as soon as I see it.  First trial will be the first stage as well as completed menus and such.
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)

Lollipop

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2017, 12:05:10 AM »
I'll playtest. This sounds great!
Touhou 1CCS:
Hard: LLS, EoSD(NB), PCB(NB), IN, MoF, TD, DDC(NB), LoLK
Lunatic: EoSD, PCB, DDC, LoLK
Extra: LLS, EoSD, PCB(Extra&Phantasm), IN, MoF, SA, DDC, LoLK
Current Focus: 1cc SA Hard, or an Extra

Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2017, 04:19:46 AM »
Do you have a French translator yet? I could try providing a translation in that language if there isn't one already.
Either way, I can also serve as a play tester if you still need some.
And... that progress document link leads me to a file not found error. You may want to fix that.

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2017, 06:14:04 PM »
Quote
I'll playtest. This sounds great!
Awesome, thank you!  A demo should be out right on schedule, I just finished the stage and most of what I have left to do is within the menus which won't take long.

Quote
Do you have a French translator yet? I could try providing a translation in that language if there isn't one already.
Either way, I can also serve as a play tester if you still need some.
And... that progress document link leads me to a file not found error. You may want to fix that.

I do not have French yet, that would be amazing!  Thank you!  Also I was recently cleaning up my Google Drive which led to the missing link.  I'll fix that today.
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)

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2017, 01:38:10 AM »
FYI to those watching the thread and waiting for a demo.
I have HS graduation tomorrow woo!, and I'm still working on replays, so at the latest the Stage 1 demo will be uploaded at the end of the week.
Thank you for your patience!
In the meantime, I have gameplay from a recent livestream that will be up very very shortly, before tomorrow.  The thread will be updated before I go to sleep.
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)

WishMakers

  • Myouren's IT Guy
  • printf("h*ck");
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)

WishMakers

  • Myouren's IT Guy
  • printf("h*ck");
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2017, 04:03:41 PM »
A DEMO HAS BEEN RELEASED!  See first post.
This demo includes:
  • Up to the end of Stage 1
  • All three shottypes
  • English and Japanese language options
  • Music room mode

More coming in the trial version soon!
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)

Das

  • w e w
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #10 on: June 17, 2017, 08:39:18 AM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi390-HwyZw&feature=youtu.be - video of lunatic

So, the 1 stage demo is out, cool. But uh theres a few problems I have.

First off, the game is visually boring, I know this is alpha and all but wheres the thunderstorms and rain? wheres the particles from grazing and killing enemies? I hope you add these into the game, as SoEW has a lot of background effects that really make the game pop.

Second, the PoC system and the PoC's themselves, Why can a PoC be cancelled if you move down from the line? that's pretty awkward to handle on some sections, and I have a feeling the system wont work very well on some sections (stage 4 comes to mind) but will work beautifully in others (stage 2 and 3).

Next, the shots. As a ReimuA Players in SoEW I was sad to see this game's reimuA be... homing, when in the OG game she didnt get any extra options until max power, where she becomes much more interesting instead of just... more amulets

And lastly, the difficulty. What did you do, the stage 1 boss of a game shouldnt wall you like it does to me, the game has seen a tremendous difficulty increase and honestly I dont think it's balanced correctly and that the difficulty is too high currently and should be worked on (I dont want the game to just be a bomb spam memefest)

It may seem nitpicky but these were my main issues with the game so far.


WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #11 on: June 17, 2017, 11:46:27 AM »
Das, I appreciate all your criticisms, because some of them are things I hadn't even considered, nitpicks or no.

Quote
First off, the game is visually boring, I know this is alpha and all but wheres the thunderstorms and rain? wheres the particles from grazing and killing enemies? I hope you add these into the game, as SoEW has a lot of background effects that really make the game pop.

Iirc there aren't any weather effects within the first stage but I get entirely what you mean.  Unfortunately, a lot of graphical assets are currently in limbo due to my lack of art skills and a lack of someone to tackle this task.  They are 100% planned, they just need to be completed is the problem.  Particle effects are something that I can work on easier, so I'll start with those.

Quote
Second, the PoC system and the PoC's themselves, Why can a PoC be cancelled if you move down from the line? that's pretty awkward to handle on some sections, and I have a feeling the system wont work very well on some sections (stage 4 comes to mind) but will work beautifully in others (stage 2 and 3).

The PoC system has gone through a lot of reworking for a little while now, and that's simply a leftover bug.  My bad, will fix immediately.

Quote
Next, the shots. As a ReimuA Players in SoEW I was sad to see this game's reimuA be... homing, when in the OG game she didnt get any extra options until max power, where she becomes much more interesting instead of just... more amulets

That is a very good point, and it wouldn't take much to implement.  To compensate I'll probably have to rebalance the amulets' power or something, but I very much like the old ReimuA shot so I'll figure it out.

Quote
And lastly, the difficulty. What did you do, the stage 1 boss of a game shouldnt wall you like it does to me, the game has seen a tremendous difficulty increase and honestly I dont think it's balanced correctly and that the difficulty is too high currently and should be worked on (I dont want the game to just be a bomb spam memefest)

My question is what difficulty are you playing on?. (Whoops, just noticed you said Lunatic.  My bad)  I balanced Normal in particular around a bit below my skill level (I've completed several successful Normal 1cc's so I figured that would be alright, and that's about the peak of my skill).  For Easy, I had a couple of my friends who aren't great at bullet hells help me balance it to make sure there isn't anything super cheap. 
As for Hard and Lunatic...I had to guess.  In all honesty, I knew that those two difficulties were going to be difficult for me to balance by myself, as I don't usually play at those levels.  If Hard and/or Lunatic is way too hard, I'll do my best to retool the boss to make it more fair. 
Rika was a boss that I wanted to have a bigger focus on macrododging, since it's easier than going brute force through the bullet patterns.  I also thought that even on Hard/Lunatic in the original game, Rika was way too easy even for myself, so I attempted to match the difficulty of a modern Stage 1 boss.

I hope I answered all of your questions.  I'll be out of the house for a week or so so I'll probably have a bit of time to work on these issues.
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)

Zigzagwolf

  • Kuruminist Touhou Player
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #12 on: June 17, 2017, 01:43:07 PM »
Demo on lunatic

Decided to give this a play after seeing Pearl's video and commenting to WishMakers, it looks nice so keep it up!

Though I do think Rika's second pattern (the one with triangle pattern-shaped red bullets) can be a little unfair (kind of can literally wall you) so I think that needs to be just a little bit less spammy, or atleast allow gaps I guess. overall it seems fine to me, it is nice to see a fangame based on the pc-98 games.
Raid Kappatalism for great Kurumi!

Youtube channel My Youtube channel, I hope you enjoy my Touhou runs.

Das

  • w e w
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #13 on: June 17, 2017, 03:57:58 PM »
Iirc there aren't any weather effects within the first stage


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZugVKMSNKBE&feature=youtu.be - Some particles and the weather effect.
(Also the gold sparkleys are used for grazing in LLS/MS so maybe you can use both to save time)
also i'd be interested in maybe playtesting lunatic or something to help make it more balanced
« Last Edit: June 17, 2017, 04:01:36 PM by Das »

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #14 on: June 17, 2017, 04:08:52 PM »
Quote
Though I do think Rika's second pattern (the one with triangle pattern-shaped red bullets) can be a little unfair (kind of can literally wall you) so I think that needs to be just a little bit less spammy, or atleast allow gaps I guess. overall it seems fine to me, it is nice to see a fangame based on the pc-98 games.
Thank you for playing!  Looks like I've gotta balance her fight a bit haha.  Will work on it.

Quote
Some particles and the weather effect.
(Also the gold sparkleys are used for grazing in LLS/MS so maybe you can use both to save time)
also i'd be interested in maybe playtesting lunatic or something to help make it more balanced

Thank you for correcting me!  I'll get on that asap.
Thinking of making a Discord group or something so people can test and help me balance the higher difficulties.  I'll be at a place with proper wifi soon so I'll do that then.
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)

Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #15 on: June 17, 2017, 07:19:42 PM »
Lunatic Demo video (yes, Lunatic again)

It's pretty cool, but there are quite a few issues.

1) You can't go back in the title screen. So, you pressed Game Start? You'll have to reset the game to change options. Want to select another difficulty after pressing the first one? Reset the game. It's not very convenient.

2) You can get stuck in the stage upper/lower boundaries (not sure about the side ones) by smashing your player into them.

3) Stage difficulty is just too low. Streamable bullets from the first batch of enemies are not nearly fast enough to be threatening on Lunatic, second batch falls to your shots easily and is not very effective without some other type of enemies supporting it, turrets appear when everyone else should be already dead and so their space restriction is useless, Shrine Tank can be evaded just by tapping left or right, rings are not effective 1-2 at a time, and repeat of the first batch basically generates resources for you when you already have 2 power. And that set of blue fireballs at the end is just lol.
And it's not like it's just Lunatic; Easy stage, for example, is about this difficult.

4) Flower Tank is weird. Balance-wise, first pattern is an easy "dodge a few random circles and stream" (maybe too easy for Lunatic); second pattern can easily wall you, third pattern completely overshadows everything the demo threw at you so far and the fourth suddenly dials back the difficulty a bit. Design-wise, it's pretty much all about spamming bullets, which doesn't mesh very well with the "it's a tank" part (is the cannon used anywhere at all?). And... it's heavily "rings and rand(0,360)" anyway. (first pattern: rings, third pattern: random rings, fourth pattern has random walls)

5) Dialogue and portraits go over the pause and game over menus.

All things considered, though, this is really good for what is essentially a tech demo. Keep up the good work!

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #16 on: June 17, 2017, 07:33:45 PM »
Searinox, thanks for the bug reports and difficulty balance wisdom.  I'm glad I'm hearing a lot about the Lunatic difficulty because that is easily where I have the most trouble balancing anything.

As said prior, I'm out of town for about a week without WiFi aside from phone data, so I'll get as much done as I can and update the demo asap.
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)

Das

  • w e w
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #17 on: June 17, 2017, 11:03:52 PM »
One more small thing, make attacks have a little delay before eachother so you can PoC the items.

CrestedPeak9

  • Fangame Advocate
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #18 on: June 18, 2017, 01:23:47 AM »
A few criticisms here:

The lack of sound effects really is throwing me off, but I know you'll implement those later.
It's difficult to distinguish between an 8 and a 0.
If you're going to use a DDC system, then make sure you can PoC without much risk between boss attacks.
...and having blue and red squares for items feels really odd.

Other than that, all of which you can probably fix, the demo is very promising. It's an ambitious project. I can't offer much help in difficulty balancing yet, maybe when there's more content.
Lunatic 1cc: EoSD, PCB, IN, MoF, TD, DDC, LoLK, HSiFS, WBaWC

Bro

Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #19 on: June 18, 2017, 03:16:35 AM »
I feel like the enemies feel a little lifeless. Instead of just having the enemies abruptly switch to a new direction I feel like they should curve towards that direction. It's kind of hard to code something like that unless you know the right calculation in which case it becomes super easy. The equation is this:

<angle of enemy> = <angle of enemy> + Max(Min(( ( ( <desired angle of enemy>  - <angle of enemy> + 540 ) mod 360 ) - 180 ), <desired turn speed>), -1 * <desired turn speed>)

 Reimu's homing amulets also usually curve in a similar fashion, so you could use the same equation. Reimu's amulets seem to move way too slow. They usually reach the top of the screen in a really short amount of time but here they take more than a second. Reimu's bombs feel like they were cheaply made. Making bombs is definitely hard and usually require special visual assets, but I hope that the bombs are improved in the future.

The danmaku is pretty good and I liked the new danmaku from the boss. Sure, it's quite a bit harder compared to normal, but LoLK's first stage is much harder. If you do plan on having it be that hard though it might be a good idea to make sure that the player can get plenty of lives. I would recommend making it only a little easier and maybe decreasing the number of life pieces needed to gain a life down to five, but that's just me.

The engine is really good. I tried playing it on a six year-old laptop on the lowest power settings possible with several programs running in the background and it only lagged when it reached nearly 700 danmaku (yes, I counted) with Reimu A's bomb going off, so it's a pretty good engine.

Taking DDC's gimmick is actually something that I think will work quite well. Sure, there will be some spots or stages where it won't work so well, but you would just need to change up a few things in the game and then it will work fine. I think that it would be a bit better to have an original gimmick or just none at all, but this one is fine. The scoring is incredibly basic, though simplistic scoring isn't always a bad thing.

Anyways, this reply is long enough, so I will stop writing it now.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2018, 03:33:53 AM by Bro »

Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #20 on: June 19, 2017, 12:17:03 PM »
I tried your game wish, it's looking promising! It's in desperate need of animations and SFX though.

  • Going below the PoC line causes power ups to stop coming towards you.
  • Volume numbers often show .00 after them (try rounding them).
  • The player shoots a lot of amulets.. maybe try less? It would be cool to recreate the shot types from SoEW!
  • It might be nicer to have the player respawn at the bottom after dying.
  • The 2nd song in the music room doesn't seem to work?
  • Lots of power up items drop but in PC-98 games they only dropped 1 every few enemies.
  • Maybe re-do the sprites for the power up items.
  • The background looks a bit bright. SoEW was darker and gave it a more threatening feel.
  • After the first phase, the boss seems to teleport instantly to a position rather than move there properly.

All things considered it's looking good. How are you doing the replay system? I have some experience with replays in game maker and would be happy to help.  :V


<angle of enemy> = <angle of enemy> + Max(Min(( ( ( <desired angle of enemy>  - <angle of enemy> + 540 ) mod 360 ) - 180 ), <desired turn speed>), -1 * <desired turn speed>)

I've never done this properly before. I put this in GML and it works flawless.  :3 http://i.imgur.com/s894WnW.png

WishMakers

  • Myouren's IT Guy
  • printf("h*ck");
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #21 on: June 19, 2017, 08:12:20 PM »
Thank you all for your criticisms, it seems like I have a good amount to work on haha.

A_bro, I will definitely look into your stuff when I have decent WiFi, I'm currently on vacation in a house with no internet so using YouTube is really data heavy haha.  Regardless, I'll contact you!

Tyrz, I'll post the replay stuff in a PM or something once I get my laptop back from my family lmao.  It's probably a bit too simplistic for what I'm trying to accomplish, so I could really use the help!
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)

WishMakers

  • Myouren's IT Guy
  • printf("h*ck");
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #22 on: June 21, 2017, 07:16:04 AM »
A quick update on what I've been doing while on vacation, since it's 3 AM in my time zone, I can't fall asleep, and I have been working for a couple hours.
The changelog will be updated very shortly, as soon as my Google Drive syncs all the game files in a low data zone. (Still working with no WiFi in this house)

I've taken what time I haven't been spending taking a break and starting with some graphical upgrades before I get into the heavy changes.

For starters, Reimu now has an original sprite, as well as all of her shots (orbs pending for a little bit).  Unfortunately they are all made by yours truly, so they probably don't look as good as they could, but I think it's better than seeing standard Reimu sprites for everything.  These sprites were made based on the main art in the new style that I currently have, which is Reimu on the title screen.

Next up, I have incorporated a handful of particle effects which will become more numerous as I continue work in the next few days.  This is surprisingly my first time working with them, as I've been using sprites and objects for them for some dumb reason up until now.  The new particle effects as of this post are shot deletion effects, enemy and boss explosions, and graze. (I may be forgetting one or two...)  Soon to be added are the weather effects in the first stage, delay clouds, laser particles, and some other miscellaneous effects.

Another small graphical change (particularly for Rika and Magic Stones, which is the only other boss to not have spell cards) is that I will be including on the boss' healthbar a little blue mark instead of changing the color of the second part of the bar to avoid confusion in thinking that this attack was a spell card.

Finally, I would like to announce a shift in how danmaku and stage patterns will be handled from now on.  It's been brought to my attention something that I haven't been really paying attention to, even though it's something I should be making a priority.  Up until now, I have been trying to make patterns that are extremely similar to the ones from the original game, with a few things added here and there to add flavor to some boring patterns.  What I should have been doing from the start is using the original patterns as a base and flexing my creative muscle a bit by making the patterns more differentiated.  This will be evident in the next balance release (for balance testers) and the trial version when that is eventually released. 

Speaking of, I'm setting a goal for myself to finish the trial version by the end of July or early August at the very latest.  Ideally I will be able to finish the game by the 20th anniversary of SoEW but realistically that may not happen.  It all depends on how often I can work this summer and how much time I have at my disposal.  Stages (and potentially bosses) can be finished relatively quickly but if I'm making big changes to my engine that could be slowed, thanks to the necessity to change each individual object.  Nevertheless, I think it was important to give a quick update since when I was receiving a lot of these posts I was not able to communicate very effectively.

Thank you all so far for checking out my project and being patient with me!  More details as soon as they arrive.

(Quick note to A_Bro and Tyrz, since you're awaiting details from me, PMs will be delivered asap.  Just so you know)
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)

Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #23 on: June 21, 2017, 09:19:42 PM »
I've tried the demo on Hard and Lunatic for a bit and it's pretty cool.
The graphics in their current state actually reminded me of this MS Paint remake of Perfect Cherry Blossom. Just sayin'. I won't really criticize them because they are subject to change anyways. One funny anecdote, however, is that the enemies that shoot those spirally blue bullets seemed like collectibles to me. I actually tried picking them up, got hit and, due to the lack of a death sound (which feels surprisingly strange) actually thought I had picked them up and the green box that appeared around me was some sort of effect they gave me :D
The player character is one of the strong points imo. The first thing is that it just feels good to control. Now I'm sort of picky when it comes to my players (PCB used to be a meh game for me because none of the playables felt right) so this is definitely something worth mentioning. The unfocused speed could be a bit faster, I guess. Or maybe it could vary depending on the shot type? The shots themselves seem standard but the bombs are nice (and Reimu A's bomb looks really, really sweet) which is always a plus for me.
I totally want to agree with what has been said about the stage portion being too easy. At some points it is about right but those ghosts in particular could use some more speed and those blue fireballs out of nowhere at the end are completely pointless too. The midboss could use some more HP and is also really easy (potentially even easier on Lunatic than on Hard?)
I don't know if it has already been mentioned but there are enemies coming in and shooting during the dialogue. Ouch.
The bossfight was definitely the better part. The first attack was unspectacular but fitting. Only problem is that the movement of the boss here is a bit annoying with non-homing (though trying to follow it all the time was fun on Hard). The second attack has a huge difficulty spike between Hard and Lunatic. On Hard, it feels like it allows you to be too high up on the screen (but at least it does not wall you). The third attack was the best one, it hit this spot of keeping me on my toes while not being too hard for me. Overall, the boss fight felt nice. Nothing too special but it's not like a Stage 1 boss was expected to be special anyways. Looking forward to seeing more of this game.

Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #24 on: July 18, 2017, 10:52:11 AM »
Hello, can i help you by translating this game to Russian? :D

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #25 on: July 18, 2017, 05:00:12 PM »
A bit of a status update, since this project has been at a standstill for a little bit.
I've had a lot of stuff going on in my personal life, and it's kept me from my work.  But now that I have a good chunk of time to work, I can probably work really well!
Stages and bosses don't take a whole lot of time to implement once I have my ideas down on paper.  What does take a while are big sweeping changes to the gameplay, and that was a lot of my criticism from the first demo, especially when I'm fine tuning them.  Don't fret, however, because nearly all of those are done.  The next big step is gameplay balancing for the first stage (testers, you will be sent a new build within a couple of days), and then finally working on Stage 2 and 3.
There are a few problems I am currently facing.  As we know from some other fangames, finding a good artist to help with a project (especially one on a budget of zero) is nowhere near easy.  My sprite artist has a lot of personal problems he is facing, and thus has left the team (he helps me on so many other things that I should really give him a break).   That said, my portrait artist is also going through a lot, and work on that is slow.  Music progress is little, but if it will work I think I'll keep the Romantique Tp recordings as the music source.  I've checked with him/her, and there seems to be little problem using the SC-88Pro recordings for this project (specifically with ZUN's guidelines).  Just in case, I will likely attempt to contact ZUN just in case, as I want to keep this project as much under his guidelines as possible.  Sound effects are not a problem, as I have created the majority of them and the new pichun is a free asset (see the main thread).  Ideally, if I can get some sprite art for this project, that would be spectacular, but I don't expect anyone to just step up.  If you are really interested, please PM me so I can work with you, that would make the process a lot easier.  Portrait art will most likely be in the trial version but I can't say for sure.
Thank you to everyone who has been bearing with me!  I realize I'm pretty slow considering my self-imposed deadline, but I'm working as efficiently as I can!  :)  Testers, you will soon receive a PM with a Dropbox link to the new build, once I have ironed out the kinks.
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)

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #26 on: July 30, 2017, 03:28:19 AM »
All testers who have currently signed up will be receiving the newest build of the game in their MotK inboxes within the hour.  Personally, it's a lot easier to communicate through Discord, so if you wish to be a tester and haven't already signed up (or are a tester already), add me on Discord at WishMakers#0426.  I'll make sure I get you a link of the newest build.
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)

WishMakers

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  • printf("h*ck");
Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #27 on: August 15, 2017, 10:01:22 PM »
Happy 20th anniversary Touhou!  Here's an update about the project, considering it's the due date.
So, obviously, the game was not done within the deadline.  However, the game progress is good considering I was gone half the time!  We have a sprite artist now, and all testers are now a DM away to get test results faster.  Portrait art is on its way soon.  I'm not sure when the trial will release, but I'm shooting for October 2017 (but I'm not going to set a date).  My goal for the full game is simply to finish it within the year.  That way, I can work with my new college schedule to work at a decent rate.
My promise is by the end of the day, I will have new screenshots open on this thread for comparison purposes to the initial demo.  As always, I recommend checking the changelog (link in the first post) if you want to see my progress as I make it.
Thank you to the people who want to support this project!  I won't disappoint you all.
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)

Tengukami

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #28 on: August 15, 2017, 10:14:00 PM »
Just wanted to add that the demo runs fine in WINE 1.6.2, for what that's worth. Didn't even get slowdown.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

WishMakers

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Re: 東方封魔返 ~ the Return of Eastern Wonderland (Demo released!!)
« Reply #29 on: August 15, 2017, 10:27:56 PM »
Quote
Just wanted to add that the demo runs fine in WINE 1.6.2, for what that's worth. Didn't even get slowdown.

Oh, that's fantastic!  I was planning on porting it to Mac and Linux so Wine isn't necessary, but it's good to know that it works well in Wine regardless.
(Of course, the problem with this is that GM:Studio has a terrible Mac export process, but hopefully it'll be fine)
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)