Maidens of the Kaleidoscope

~Hakurei Shrine~ => Rika and Nitori's Garage Experiments => Topic started by: professor_scissors on December 03, 2011, 05:18:52 PM

Title: Luminous Dream v1.0.1 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: professor_scissors on December 03, 2011, 05:18:52 PM
Update (5/8/13): v1.01 released.

Hey! Long time intermittent lurker, second-time poster. I dropped by somewhere in the area of three years ago with some pretty lackluster WIP EX boss battles, which were mostly (and appropriately) ignored. As it happens, I never really stopped working on the project, and suddenly I have a mostly complete game!

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/professorscissors/ld-demo3.png)

Luminous Dream is a full-length Danmakufu 0.12m script, attempting to the best of my ability to emulate the feel of a main-series Touhou game. Features include:

(http://i.imgur.com/sklIEWO.png)

The game follows the story of the two usual heroines, on a day when Gensokyo was consumed by an unexplained darkness. It borrows heavily from the Heavenly Rock Cave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amano-Iwato) myth, and is pretty laid-back. I didn't try to do anything too special with the story this time; it's just another Incident.

Get it here:
CtC-style complete package
Luminous Dream v1.0.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?z46s7m2jsv929si)

Just the script and resource directories
Extract this into danmakufu folder (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4bvji6r1zl644rl)

Soundtrack
Click here (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fr5i8puftdmn8wu)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/professorscissors/YayoiYajima02Spell-c.png)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/professorscissors/AkenoSuzuokiB03Spell-d.png)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/professorscissors/EmiKingetsu04Spell-c.png)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/professorscissors/HoukoNagazui01Spell-d.png)


You may find the game surprisingly easy! The reason for this is that I have a lot of friends who are interested in Touhou but too intimidated by the actual games, so I wanted to make something that's accessible to more people than normal Touhou games. Each difficulty level is intended to be about half a grade down from normal - Hard should be between Normal and Hard, and so on. Easy was balanced by getting test data from actual beginner data, and so is aimed towards beginner players. By Lunatic, though, it should be hard enough for seasoned players.

So please, download, play, enjoy! This baby has been over four years and about six team members in the making.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: MMX on December 03, 2011, 06:37:17 PM
At first i raged and wrote a wall of ffffuuu text, but then i calmed down so:

The whole game is awesome. The whole except final spell. I mean seriously WTF? I've enjoyed playing through it on normal (wich is really easy compared to most touhou normals), the patterns are fun, the characters are cute. I came to that survival(!) card with 2 lives and 4 bombs and it took me 2 continues to pass it! I didnt get how that "shield" works. Sudden change in game mechanics - never a good thing. If it was some kind of trolling - it was successfull :(

P.S.: You forgot player scripts as separate downloads.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 03, 2011, 06:53:51 PM
The whole game is awesome. The whole except final spell. I mean seriously WTF? I've enjoyed playing through it on normal (wich is really easy compared to most touhou normals), the patterns are fun, the characters are cute. I came to that survival(!) card with 2 lives and 4 bombs and it took me 2 continues to pass it! I didnt get how that "shield" works. Sudden change in game mechanics - never a good thing. If it was some kind of trolling - it was successfull :(

Yeah, I've spent a long time struggling with how to effectively execute that card. I really want to keep it in the game, both because I like it and for the homage value, but it's an endless challenge to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't invariably slaughter people on their first run through...

P.S.: You forgot player scripts as separate downloads.

Whups! I'll get that up in a bit.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: MMX on December 03, 2011, 07:34:16 PM
Yeah, I've spent a long time struggling with how to effectively execute that card. I really want to keep it in the game, both because I like it and for the homage value, but it's an endless challenge to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't invariably slaughter people on their first run through...
Replace it with something more reasonable and then call it as optional last spell like "impossible request" or something :)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Kumori on December 03, 2011, 08:04:07 PM
I have been waiting so long, buddy. (Actually a week or so, but that feels like an eternity to me, so yeah.) Downloading now.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 03, 2011, 08:33:53 PM
This game seems promising. LOL but I fail at Lunatic. Oh well, guess I'll play hard mode then. So, where's the download link? LOL I have fail eyesight
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 03, 2011, 08:49:59 PM
Hey there.

Glad to see you're still working on it, heh.

(Now I wish I could just get started on my own fangame <.<)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Kumori on December 03, 2011, 08:51:01 PM
Just played. Very interesting and original danmaku; I like! But because I'm so bad at Touhou, it was hard to dodge.  :blush: Somehow, I made it. The last spellcard, the one with the circle, was incredibly fun! I loved it so much. I feel this game would be better if it had the stage graphics and different backgrounds, though.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: I have no name on December 03, 2011, 09:28:54 PM
Alright...
Just played through this on normal, and some of the patterns felt above normal (namely the single fist one in Stage 2).  Overall it was pretty fun, I died twice before the final spell (Stage 3 boss, stage 5 boss final card), which I got the hang of pretty fast and got to the second to last phase before dying once (btw, you can go through the walls on that phase).  The final phase felt like hard mode at the very least, and that's hard mode from UFO.  It seemed kind of unbalanced between the shot types, there were many points where I was dealing no damage (because I chose Marisa) because I couldn't target the boss.  Reimu doesn't have that problem due to homing.  Nice job on this.

On the extra stage, the spells (except the survival I saw, I got to the 4th spell) took too long.  There's also almost no way of getting lost power back-at 2 power I couldn't kill the first death fairy.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 03, 2011, 09:47:16 PM
Hm...You added spell backgrounds but what about stage backgrounds? I'm sure it'll look nicer if you do. ( In case if you don't get what I mean, is that a stage background will be nice and show the areas of the story a little bit. ) Anways, great game!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 03, 2011, 09:49:35 PM
Added the player scripts to the above post. Addessing some of the points above:

-I like the idea of turning Silhouette Fantasy into a Last Word, actually. Lets me preserve it while not screwing over players who don't mesh with its unusual play style. If I do this, though, I'll probably make Monochrome Universe a bit longer...
-Yes, the game is in dire need of stage backgrounds, but I have no artistic ability. Anyone interested in helping me out on that one?
-I actually have had problems with Rocket Punch too, I've been meaning to nerf it. I probably will on the next version.
-I'm not sure how to really deal with Marisa being underbalanced in a solid way without just getting rid of certain interesting spellcards. Royal Rainbow is especially problematic... any thoughts?
-Good call on the EX stage, I hadn't really considered the effects of losing shot power when I designed that bit. Perhaps some rebalancing is in order...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 03, 2011, 10:16:49 PM
Quote
-Yes, the game is in dire need of stage backgrounds, but I have no artistic ability. Anyone interested in helping me out on that one?

I'd like to help in that one. I do have time actually. So, what you have in mind for stage 1?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 03, 2011, 10:22:40 PM
I'd like to help in that one. I do have time actually. So, what you have in mind for stage 1?
I'll throw you a PM with my thoughts when I can gather them. Thanks!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 03, 2011, 10:25:17 PM


Are the bullets the default Danmakufu? If so, I can give you a ZUN shot replace sheet for you to update on the bullets.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 03, 2011, 10:26:36 PM
Are the bullets the default Danmakufu? If so, I can give you a ZUN shot replace sheet for you to update on the bullets.

The only real change I particularly want to make for the bullet textures is for the lightning on two of Kyokukou's spellcards. I'll fiddle with expanded bullet sheets on my next project.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 03, 2011, 10:42:35 PM
The only real change I particularly want to make for the bullet textures is for the lightning on two of Kyokukou's spellcards. I'll fiddle with expanded bullet sheets on my next project.
Okay then, best of luck!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 03, 2011, 11:40:38 PM
I do say, I think stage 1 should be the Hakurei Shrine. If that's what your thinking
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Schezo on December 04, 2011, 01:26:14 AM
Wow, this is awesome.  I really enjoyed playing it and for the most part, it wasn't bullshitty on Normal which was nice.  I like some of the creative danmaku you have going and the last bosses final spell was really fun, and after I spent the first 20 seconds figuring out what to do, almost captured it. :V
I will back that stage backgrounds and such will make this shine in an amazing way and it was fun for me.

I think off the top of my head only a few stage 3 boss spells and like 1 or 2 stage 5 spells really made me go "lolwhat (die)" and that the final spell itself doesn't balance to one difficulty as it switches from hard to harder etc.

Initial Normal playthrough replay if you want to use it for reactions to things and stuff.

Overall, really good job on this.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 04, 2011, 02:12:41 AM
Say, are you going to say in like the music room, where from and who made each piece of music of your game?
I plan to be doing that in my own project, so yeah.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 04, 2011, 03:12:56 AM
I think off the top of my head only a few stage 3 boss spells and like 1 or 2 stage 5 spells really made me go "lolwhat (die)" and that the final spell itself doesn't balance to one difficulty as it switches from hard to harder etc.
Could you name which spell cards? I know a lot of Akeno's stuff I've had trouble with having unclear mechanics, most notably the ones with the red detection circles. And also, if you can think of it, ways to make the cards more fair?

Thanks for the replay!

Say, are you going to say in like the music room, where from and who made each piece of music of your game?
I plan to be doing that in my own project, so yeah.
I don't have any plans at present to add a music room, but I link back to the source in the readme.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: I have no name on December 04, 2011, 03:35:21 AM
-I'm not sure how to really deal with Marisa being underbalanced in a solid way without just getting rid of certain interesting spellcards. Royal Rainbow is especially problematic... any thoughts?
These cards are split into 2 catergories: boss movements and player movements.
For the ones where the player has to move, you could have the boss move towards the player, like a lot of ZUNs spells.
For the boss moving ones, replacing the boss with a familiar and leaving the boss above the player fixes it, unless that's too much work.

Attaching my normal replay because other people did.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Schezo on December 04, 2011, 03:36:56 AM
You can see where I got raped on stage 3 :V

But yeah that first one with the red circle detection, I didn't even get that was the gimmick the first time I saw it, I thought they just shot out after some time.  Which I guess could balance it out, have a charge up effect or some warning as to when they will fire instead of just, step here and die. :V
Her second to last one actually got really hard my first time seeing it because I guess I got lost from the trail you're supposed to follow which makes it way easier but yeah, I don't know how to make that easier.
Her last card is like rape on a stick if you touch one of the circles, which I guess is the point it's just not obvious that's what sets all of the bullets off, maybe have her back up or slow the bullets or something?  Again maybe a warning that could say "You set this off" like maybe have a red glow effect around your character after you touch it, then fire the bullets could work.  A warning Sound Effect may be helpful too.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 04, 2011, 03:42:12 AM
These cards are split into 2 catergories: boss movements and player movements.
For the ones where the player has to move, you could have the boss move towards the player, like a lot of ZUNs spells.
For the boss moving ones, replacing the boss with a familiar and leaving the boss above the player fixes it, unless that's too much work.
The familiar thing is a good thought! I'll at least do that for Royal Rainbow, maybe a couple others. Akeno could stand to move towards the player, too... it's not like she's doing anything up there most of the time.

And the replays really help, guys! I'm looking at Schezo's, and it's making me think that the latter half of Stage 4 is too busy, among other things.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 04, 2011, 04:22:11 AM
OK, after this thread so far, and watching both replays, I'm thinking these are the changes to make:

-Nerf Rocket Punch on Normal.
-Make Akeno move on some spellcards to follow the player.
-Make Royal Rainbow fire out of a familiar while Houko floats around the upper screen.
-Stretch out the pacing on the last half of Stage 4 a bit.
-Change Akeno's detection nets - when you step in, an alarm will sound, and it'll start spinning faster and faster. After a second or two, game time.
-Make Houko's final attack a Last Word.

Any other suggestions before I get cracking on this set?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 04, 2011, 02:10:08 PM
OK, after this thread so far, and watching both replays, I'm thinking these are the changes to make:

-Nerf Rocket Punch on Normal.
-Make Akeno move on some spellcards to follow the player.
-Make Royal Rainbow fire out of a familiar while Houko floats around the upper screen.
-Stretch out the pacing on the last half of Stage 4 a bit.
-Change Akeno's detection nets - when you step in, an alarm will sound, and it'll start spinning faster and faster. After a second or two, game time.
-Make Houko's final attack a Last Word.

Any other suggestions before I get cracking on this set?

Make the first boss have a slightly longer delay before vanishing. And maybe a little harder.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: touhoumaniac on December 04, 2011, 06:24:09 PM
So please, download, play, enjoy, give feedback!
Played hard and extra(fail @ final spell for both).

I liked attacks that:
*require thinking, dodging, reflexes
*unfold fast enough
*have character
*were cleverly designed

Many regular enemies get to escape which is something i have to get used to. The stage portions progressed at a good pace - not too fast or too slow.

Music - was ok; sound effects - good.

Story - skipped/dont care; art - dont care.

There were some unenjoyable attacks:
*sometimes damaging the boss was very difficult - either time out or bomb to pass
*reminds too much of something from touhou
*boring
*a bit unfair (could also be just me not understanding the strategy for some)

Game dynamics - slightly negative due to it being exactly like touhou.


Overall i would say it was fun. I will probably play it again later :)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 05, 2011, 04:44:04 AM
Ok, played through a bit of it, just up to stage 3.

Um... Would you like a shotsheet to use? Danmakufu's default bullets are sorta ugly, so I'm making my own shotsheet for my own game.



Eh... I lied about that. I put it off up until now. I just finished playing up to Stage 3.

[22:12] <Trickysticks> Luminous dream has some pretty good ideas
[22:12] <Trickysticks> But *default bullets*
[22:12] <Trickysticks> xP
[22:12] <~Konyllis> Never played it :V
[22:12] <~Konyllis> (I lied to him)
[22:12] <Trickysticks> But then
[22:13] <Trickysticks> How did you know the extra stage boss had your old theme
[22:13] <Trickysticks> :V
[22:14] <~Konyllis> Hmm?
[22:14] <~Konyllis> I watched the video.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: The Greatest Dog on December 05, 2011, 09:35:57 AM
I randomly decided to play this at 1 in the morning. LET'S GO.

First notes...
Stage 3 boss? The one with the detection nets? Yeah, those are already mentioned here.
Stage 6 boss's last pattern? I read some of the earliest posts here and I wasn't expecting... That. My reaction to encountering it for the first time was
IKARUGA FUCK YEAH
. I captured it first try, by the way.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 05, 2011, 05:31:45 PM
I noticed that
// Set point goals for extra lives
// Full game: 200, 400, 600, 800, 1200
// Extra stage: 250

task TnormPoint(extra) {
   if(extra) {
      SetNormPoint(250);
      while(GetPoint < 250) {
         yield;
      }
      ExtendPlayer(1);

      SetNormPoint(9999);
   } else {
      ..........

You only get one extend from Extra stage. Shouldn't you follow Touhou 8 and go from 0 > 250 > 666 > 9999 points like that? Or do it like Touhou 7, where you just get lives normally (50 > 100 > 150 > 200 > 250 > .....)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: I have no name on December 05, 2011, 08:41:18 PM
You only get one extend from Extra stage. Shouldn't you follow Touhou 8 and go from 0 > 250 > 666 > 9999 points like that? Or do it like Touhou 7, where you just get lives normally (50 > 100 > 150 > 200 > 250 > .....)
PCB extra has extends at 200, 500, 800 and (unreachable) 1400 (I think this is the value)
PCB main game has extends at 50, 125, 200, 300, 450, 800 and every 200 thereafter.
The extra stage definitely needs toning down though, especially that last midboss spell.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.6 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 06, 2011, 05:25:02 AM
New version!

Luminous Dream v0.61 (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BQRH87WS)

or

Extract this into your root danmakufu folder (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0MRK195P)

Changes:
-Stage 6 boss's final spell is now a Last Spell.
-Furious reworking of Stage 3 boss's first and last spellcards. They're probably too easy right now; current updated version is more of a proof of concept for the new mechanics.
-Changed the extend points on the Extra stage to allow one more life, and made it easier to recover power after the midboss, hopefully.
-Changed the pacing a bit on stage 4.
-The stage 3 and stage 6 bosses are now easier to fight with Marisa on certain spellcards.
-Very slight increase to Marisa's attack power.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 06, 2011, 11:51:33 PM
I'm gonna go attempt Lunatic now.
Watch this post!

Stage 1 pre-midboss portion: Ok.
Midboss 1 Non 1: Almost timed it out, even though I'm constantly hitting her. WTF? (Power at 1.54)
Midboss 1 Non 2: Ok.
Midboss 1 Spell 1: Reminds me too much of Shikigami Shot "Unilateral Contact".
Stage 1 post-midboss portion: Ok.
Boss 1 Non 1: Cool. Also, ahahahahahahaha Incarnation of Soul.
Boss 1 Spell 1: Hmm, perhaps a bit too sudden with the big bullets. Probably have them start slow and move faster.
Boss 1 Non 2: I detect possibilities of Wriggle Kick. I can't be sure, though. I never got tackled yet.
Boss 1 Spell 2: Good, but there should be something out of which the blue bullets come from. Possibly place a familiar between the horizontal lasers?
The background stops weirdly during the boss's explosion.

Stage 2 stage portions: Ok.
Midboss: Ok. What is she doing here again? Random bomb giving is random.
Boss 2 Non 1: I detect possibilities of walling.
Boss 2 Spell 1: Not too sure with the fist graphic. Cool.
Boss 2 Non 2: And then will there be none?
Boss 2 Spell 2: Not too threatening. Ok.
Boss 2 Spell 3: Not a good card. Too random. Perhaps put lasers where rocks will bounce on.

Stage 3 premid: Uh... enemies from behind. Not good.
Midboss 3 Non 1: Walls.
Midboss 3 Non 2: More walls. Reminds me of Uwabami Breaker's second boss.
Stage 3 boss: All ok.
Stage 3 boss final spell: Not good, really. I think I got walled on the very first wave of red bullets.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 07, 2011, 12:30:46 AM
Thanks for the feedback!

Midboss 1 Non 1: Almost timed it out, even though I'm constantly hitting her. WTF? (Power at 1.54)
Hm. Decrease life, or increase time? Also, Reimu or Marisa?

Quote
Midboss 1 Spell 1: Reminds me too much of Shikigami Shot "Unilateral Contact".
Looking it up on youtube, these seem different enough to me that I'm not too concerned. It's the slightly askew bursts of lines of shots, isn't it?

Quote
Boss 1 Spell 1: Hmm, perhaps a bit too sudden with the big bullets. Probably have them start slow and move faster.
Not a bad idea. It's supposed to give the feeling of a surprise attack, but there's such a thing as too much.

Quote
Boss 1 Spell 2: Good, but there should be something out of which the blue bullets come from. Possibly place a familiar between the horizontal lasers?
Sure.

Quote
The background stops weirdly during the boss's explosion.
A consequence of how it was coded. I could probably figure out a way to get around this, but I'd have to redo all my background code.

Quote
Boss 2 Spell 3: Not a good card. Too random. Perhaps put lasers where rocks will bounce on.
Hmmm, tricky... the rocks bounce at set times, not at set locations. Then again, since they fall at a fixed rate, maybe some kind of horizontal line type indicator would do the trick......

Quote
Stage 3 premid: Uh... enemies from behind. Not good.
Enemies from behind, but from far off to both sides, and then move to the top center to be destroyed. Is this really a problem?

Quote
Stage 3 boss final spell: Not good, really. I think I got walled on the very first wave of red bullets.
Are you on v0.60 or v0.61? In 0.61, the only red bullets that appear should be if you spend too much time inside one of the detection circles.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 07, 2011, 04:49:36 AM
Hm. Decrease life, or increase time? Also, Reimu or Marisa?
Decrease life, of course. Just increase time by like, 5 seconds.
Also, Reimu, yeah. 1.54 because I accidentally bombed and died without knowing.

Looking it up on youtube, these seem different enough to me that I'm not too concerned. It's the slightly askew bursts of lines of shots, isn't it?
Basically, yeah. Double Black Death Butterfly is that, too.

Not a bad idea. It's supposed to give the feeling of a surprise attack, but there's such a thing as too much.
Actually, yeah. Do what you think is good enough.

A consequence of how it was coded. I could probably figure out a way to get around this, but I'd have to redo all my background code.
One function.... SetEffectForZeroLife.

Enemies from behind, but from far off to both sides, and then move to the top center to be destroyed. Is this really a problem?
Not really. But the most I'm comfortable with is enemies coming from the center sides.

Are you on v0.60 or v0.61? In 0.61, the only red bullets that appear should be if you spend too much time inside one of the detection circles.
I should really go ahead and update now, heh.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 07, 2011, 05:17:42 AM
Ok, updated.

For now, I'm gonna just go review the bosses.



Stage 4:
NS01: Ok. Maybe you should make the bullets waver in a sine wave instead of switching from one side to another. Just a "looks more beautiful" thing.
NS02: Hey there, Chen. Too glaringly obvious a reference.
SP01: Umm... ok?
NS03: This is what I like to see. Good.
SP02: A bit awkward movement there. Fairies might have to move slower.
SP03: Good. A bit random, but that's not too bad.
SP04: Too Keine-like. Good otherwise.



Stage 5:
NS01: http://i.imgur.com/soSXm.png
SP01: The mirrors are lasers. Didn't catch that, so I ran into one.
NS02: Much easier. Thank god.
SP02: Danmaku Centrifuge. Enough said. Ok, though.
NS03: I swear, I'm not going to rush up to near Emi and dodge from there. Instead I'm gonna squeeze through the gaps in between the orange bullets.
SP03: Reminds me of Pokemon. Really cool.
SP04: I officially render Luminous Dream impossible to try no-vertical runs with. Good spellcard, though.



Stage 6:
NS01: Good.
SP01: I'm curious as to why you removed bomb resistance from the lasers...
NS02: Very very bad! I can't keep up with the bullets going slow and fast and slow and fast. It's always random where they stop as well. It's literally too dense to move between the bullets when they're slow, too.
SP02: Demon Binding Ring.
NS03: Mima used Tackle! It's a critical hit. Marisa fainted.
SP03: Eh... Ok.
NS04: A lot of spellcards are referenced in this. Nondirectional, Delusion Butterfly, etc. Ok, though.
SP04: This is actually really brilliant.
SP05: Hah, everything but the player is greyscaled.



Attached is a way to cheese the first part of the last spell card of the main game, ending with a purposeful (?) ram into a familiar (which strangely has a hitbox). Perhaps you should do something to prevent people from doing that? [attach=1]
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 07, 2011, 05:11:23 PM
Oh new version. I regret to inform you that  I will not download this version due to my half way done in shot replace and the backgrounds are basically getting cel shaded and Hazy.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 07, 2011, 11:53:25 PM
NS01: Ok. Maybe you should make the bullets waver in a sine wave instead of switching from one side to another. Just a "looks more beautiful" thing.
I would, but it'd be too similar to NS2. Maybe I'll just keep it to one direction.

Quote
NS02: Hey there, Chen. Too glaringly obvious a reference.
Crap, I wasn't even thinking of Chen. Hmm.

Quote
NS01: http://i.imgur.com/soSXm.png
WHUPS

Quote
SP01: The mirrors are lasers. Didn't catch that, so I ran into one.
Is it more intuitive to assume the mirrors are damaging or non-damaging? I might just make them non-damaging.

Quote
SP03: Reminds me of Pokemon. Really cool.
I'm curious - what's the pokemon connection?

Quote
SP01: I'm curious as to why you removed bomb resistance from the lasers...
Did I? Odd, they're supposed to have bomb resistance. I'll fix that.

Quote
NS02: Very very bad! I can't keep up with the bullets going slow and fast and slow and fast. It's always random where they stop as well. It's literally too dense to move between the bullets when they're slow, too.
Bluh! I'll touch this up. Maybe on other difficulties, too, I have some ideas.

Quote
NS03: Mima used Tackle! It's a critical hit. Marisa fainted.
This has always been my least favorite of her nonspells. I might just scrap it and replace it with something else entirely.

Quote
Attached is a way to cheese the first part of the last spell card of the main game, ending with a purposeful (?) ram into a familiar (which strangely has a hitbox). Perhaps you should do something to prevent people from doing that?
I'll check this out when I get home from work.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 08, 2011, 12:53:30 AM
I would, but it'd be too similar to NS2. Maybe I'll just keep it to one direction.
Eh... Maybe fire some kind of half-wall of bullets between the phases, when the direction changes?

Is it more intuitive to assume the mirrors are damaging or non-damaging? I might just make them non-damaging.
I dunno, I was thinking they were just some wall that you can't move through.

I'm curious - what's the pokemon connection?
this (http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ranger_Sign)

Did I? Odd, they're supposed to have bomb resistance. I'll fix that.
You specifically put it in the code (setbombresist, false)...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on December 09, 2011, 06:05:24 PM
Oh wow, I'm really loving the game so far ^^ Being a disaster at dodging, i'm really happy to see there's an ease easy mode and a cool normal mode that I can play ^^ I can even venture myself in some hard and lunatic spellcards XD So far I'm really liking it~

Since I'm not a really good player, my feedback would be more about the looks...
I'd love if the mid-boss only chars had some dialog... I mean, they're so well drawn and cool looking, they could get a bit of attention ^^

Akeno is my favorite boss so far, I simply love her danmaku system with the radar circles~ The only things i'd suggest would be... maybe make her shoot the curvy bullets during her spellcards, it's odd to see them coming from nowhere while she moves towards where you are shooting (even if that helps a ton when using Marisa), so maybe make her shoot and move around, not necessarily being a sitting duck in front of you... Also, in her last spellcard, I dunno if that'd be possible, but maybe the red bullets could come from her or her light instead of the detection circle, so it'd be like, she hears the siren and shoots herself... I really miss the red bullets in the center during that spellcard ^^;

I honestly like how Emi's mirrors are damaging, it'd be odd if you could just fly through them... If you can make them act as non-damaging walls that don't let you fly through them, that'd be cool, but if not, that's fine with me XD I'd just suggest making she shoot less bullets in some of her non-spells, they can wall you pretty easily...

But anyways, it's pretty great so far, the music is really fitting for all bosses and stages, and the art is awesome ^^ The story is pretty great too, I can't wait to see it finished~
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 18, 2011, 07:43:28 PM
This thread is dead. Oh well, I'll just tell everyone that shotsheet was used.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Chronojet ⚙ Dragon on December 18, 2011, 08:30:54 PM
.....

You sure?
Scissors is just busy with life and he's still busy making the shot definition script for the shotsheet I made. As well as waiting for backgrounds.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Yukari-Chan on December 18, 2011, 09:11:59 PM
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I told him I can't do the backgrounds anymore do too school work. He did get a new artist. I wonder if the new artist is done yet.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: ablancore on January 27, 2012, 07:24:41 PM
Any chance we could re-upload this on another sharing site? Megaupload isn't gonna cut it anymore...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on February 27, 2012, 03:37:26 AM
Sorry for deadness! I've been taking a break from working on this for a few months, but I'm kicking development back up again.

Currently working on implementing a proper shotsheet (suggestions, anyone?). Once I have 0.62 done, I'll re-upload.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on February 27, 2012, 04:26:02 AM
YESSSS I love this game, I'm really happy seeing you're back and that a newer version might come up soon *-*
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on February 28, 2012, 01:36:19 AM
To clarify on my above suggestion request:

(http://i.imgur.com/glA7S.png)

In a PM conversation, somebody slapped a shotsheet into my game and gave me this and a few others as examples of what it'd look like with a proper shotsheet. I like the look well enough and particularly want those raindrop bullets for Mahiru, but I didn't at the time get around to asking them for the full sheet, and I can't now since they were apparently banned during my absence. Anyone have a clue what sheet that is, or have a link to another sheet that has similar raindrop bullets?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: ExPorygon on February 28, 2012, 01:46:53 AM
That shotsheet looks a lot like the sheet that kyuu developed. Since you mentioned that the user that made it has been banned, I'm now pretty sure that I'm right. I've used it before in my as of yet unreleased project. He may be banned, but you should still be able to find him on IRC.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on February 28, 2012, 05:28:36 AM
After some investigation, I am going with TinyShotData. I am already blown away by how much better the huge bubble shots look.

What's the etiquette with custom shotsheets? Do I need to ask for permission before using this thing? I'm obviously going to credit in the readme...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: ExPorygon on February 28, 2012, 06:23:37 AM
I've never specifically asked permission to use a sheet, but then again I've also never finished anything as big as Luminous Dream. I don't think it will hurt to ask, but anyone who has posted their shotsheet on this forum probably won't take offense to someone using it without explicit permission.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on February 28, 2012, 06:37:50 AM
I've never specifically asked permission to use a sheet, but then again I've also never finished anything as big as Luminous Dream. I don't think it will hurt to ask, but anyone who has posted their shotsheet on this forum probably won't take offense to someone using it without explicit permission.
All right, I'll just be sure to credit them and call it good.
Working on stage 3, things look much better already!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: draganuv15 on February 28, 2012, 05:13:43 PM
Could you upload this to another website because Megaupload has been taken down :(
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on February 28, 2012, 05:59:33 PM
Could you upload this to another website because Megaupload has been taken down :(
Gonna do that when I get home from work tonight, with a new version! Should be about 8 hours from now.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on February 29, 2012, 02:24:46 AM
Version 0.62 release.

Extract this into your Danmakufu folder (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oos7zh19jtp1s57)
or
Standalone link (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cgohcaf9ww5nnxs)

Pretty small update, but I needed to get back into the swing of things, and also get any download up at all. Main changes are a proper shotsheet and a fix for the awkward background freezes at the end of boss fights.

For the next steps in my adventure, I need your help!


Beyond that, I have a long laundry list of balance tweaks to make. Updating first post now.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.61 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: I have no name on March 06, 2012, 06:06:48 AM
It's about time for me to put up a new set of videos. For the next set, I want a Lunatic run, but I'm not good enough to pull that off myself! Thusly do I appeal to you, fellow forumgoers, to play through the game and leave me the replay files. Individual stages preferred, but a full game run is also OK. Marisa run preferred. Let dialogue run slow enough for someone watching as a video on youtube later to read it. Doesn't have to be a perfect run or anything like that, although a capture of Silhouette Fantasy would be aces.
Is a TAS run acceptable?  If so, I'm up for doing this.  If not, well, I've been meaning to give the higher difficulties a go, might have to get Silhouette Fantasy in 'spell practice' though.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Zil on March 06, 2012, 10:28:18 AM
Well, I just tried this out. You said that Lunatic was supposed to be between the Hard and Lunatic of Touhou, right? My impression was that it is almost humanly impossible. I don't think anyone's going to 1cc this. If you want replays, I could get through the individual stages, but it aint gonna be pretty. Anything past stage 3 would be a bomb-fest.

I don't want to come up with a list of problems, but there are two things you should probably be aware of.
- Many parts of the game can be "cheesed" with weird tricks. The most common is the classic "stand at the top of the screen and nothing can hit you" deal.
- Even more of the game, in particular the bosses, seems outrageously difficult, if not impossible.

Then these two things go together to make some fairly ridiculous situations. For example the stage 4 midboss's laser attack with the bullets floating up the screen. There is no way to stay under the midboss for long enough to damage her. You can, however, stand on top of her head and micrododge the crystals, damaging her the whole time. I'm pretty sure that's not how you're supposed to do the spell, but as far as I can tell, it is the only way to capture it.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 06, 2012, 04:28:22 PM
Well, I just tried this out. You said that Lunatic was supposed to be between the Hard and Lunatic of Touhou, right? My impression was that it is almost humanly impossible. I don't think anyone's going to 1cc this. If you want replays, I could get through the individual stages, but it aint gonna be pretty. Anything past stage 3 would be a bomb-fest.

I don't want to come up with a list of problems, but there are two things you should probably be aware of.
- Many parts of the game can be "cheesed" with weird tricks. The most common is the classic "stand at the top of the screen and nothing can hit you" deal.
- Even more of the game, in particular the bosses, seems outrageously difficult, if not impossible.

Then these two things go together to make some fairly ridiculous situations. For example the stage 4 midboss's laser attack with the bullets floating up the screen. There is no way to stay under the midboss for long enough to damage her. You can, however, stand on top of her head and micrododge the crystals, damaging her the whole time. I'm pretty sure that's not how you're supposed to do the spell, but as far as I can tell, it is the only way to capture it.

Could I get a second opinion on this? I don't consider myself a Lunatic player (my best 1CCs are TD and IN on Hard), but I just tried Yuzuki's laser attack on Lunatic and captured it on my first try - replay attached. Tried again with Marisa, managed it in two tries. I am, however, interested in being alerted to easy cheese strategies, and good workarounds to seal them.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: I have no name on March 06, 2012, 04:45:56 PM
Second opinion on that one card: way too hard to inflict damage.
You either have to do what Zil said, or stay unfocused for most of the card.

In addition, even some hard mode cards are FAR beyond Touhou lunatic difficulty-Royal Rainbow among them.
The game is still unbalanced between Reimu and Marisa. since in many cases being under the boss while not getting hit is next to impossible.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 06, 2012, 05:52:35 PM
Second opinion on that one card: way too hard to inflict damage.
You either have to do what Zil said, or stay unfocused for most of the card.
Well if the people are in agreement, I do have some ideas for how I can retain the core concept (bullet spread being thicker farther away from the boss + challenge to avoid getting pushed too far out of the "safe" zone) while making it easier to follow her, so I'll fiddle with it.

Quote
In addition, even some hard mode cards are FAR beyond Touhou lunatic difficulty-Royal Rainbow among them.
What would make this card better? Slower sweep? Lower density? Different difficulty gimmick than incerasing the number of lasers? Better AI for Houko moving to in front of the player?

Quote
The game is still unbalanced between Reimu and Marisa. since in many cases being under the boss while not getting hit is next to impossible.
Examples? I've been trying to work on this, which is why a number of bosses were changed to periodically move horizontally towards the player (notably Akeno and Houko) in some cards.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: I have no name on March 06, 2012, 06:22:08 PM
What would make this card better? Slower sweep? Lower density? Different difficulty gimmick than incerasing the number of lasers? Better AI for Houko moving to in front of the player?
Much lower density, a slower sweep and better AI, although density+sweep could be fiddled with.
Examples? I've been trying to work on this, which is why a number of bosses were changed to periodically move horizontally towards the player (notably Akeno and Houko) in some cards.
I can't think of any specific examples (rush from 90 FPS SA), but I do remember that the small range while focused made hitting bosses difficult in a lot of cases, even when they move towards you, you just have to move out of the way again.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 06, 2012, 06:45:59 PM
I think I can improve the tracking AI on Royal Rainbow (predict where the player will be in the near future based on rotation around the center point, move towards there instead of where the player is now), and I'll fiddle with speed/densities. I may also just generally increase Marisa's damage output, at least when focused.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Zil on March 06, 2012, 07:03:37 PM
I found some more cheese strategies. I'm not sure if some of these are how you're meant to do it or not, but I think they're all cheesy. For the most part it's just standing over the boss and that kind of thing. I wasn't sure how replays are supposed to work in Danmakufu, so I made them all numbered differently. I guess that was unnecessary though.

Silhouette Fantasy seems to be glitched. As the second phase ends the bullets will hit you regardless of what color your shield is. As you can see, the first two phases can be abused, and there may be more further in. I didn't get that far because the glitch I just mentioned kept killing me.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 06, 2012, 07:10:27 PM
I found some more cheese strategies. I'm not sure if some of these are how you're meant to do it or not, but I think they're all cheesy. For the most part it's just standing over the boss and that kind of thing. I wasn't sure how replays are supposed to work in Danmakufu, so I made them all numbered differently. I guess that was unnecessary though.

Silhouette Fantasy seems to be glitched. As the second phase ends the bullets will hit you regardless of what color your shield is. As you can see, the first two phases can be abused, and there may be more further in. I didn't get that far because the glitch I just mentioned kept killing me.
That's odd... the phase end problem you describe was a known issue from 0.61, but I thought I had fixed it. I'll look into it.

As for the rest of these, I'll check it out when I get home tonight, and see what I can do to de-cheese them.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 07, 2012, 02:28:03 AM
Looked through all the cheese point replays!

Yayoi mid nonspell
Looks like I can fix this by having her move a bit further to the left and right.

Gara nonspell 1
Got some ideas for how to fix this attack in general.

Atomic Punch
Hmm... trying to think of ways to fix this one. Any ideas?

Atomic One-Two Punch
Presumedly, whatever I come up with for the other punch will work here, too.

Stage 3 fairies
Hmm, tricky. Maybe if I give the fairies a half-second or so of invincibility when they first appear, and make them fire their bullets in both directions?

Akeno mid nonspell 1
Purple shots going up as well as down?

Yuzuki nonspell
Should be a non-issue once I rework this attack.

Reflection Dimension
Hahahaha, should be easy enough to fix.

Refraction Laser
I've got a pretty good idea of a simple way to fix this one.

Houko nonspell 3
No problem if she just goes a few pixels higher.

Silhouette Fantasy
Interesting. I think I can fix both of these easily enough. I need to tone down bits of this card, though, along with fixing that end-of-phase-2 glitch.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Zil on March 07, 2012, 03:37:30 AM
Gara's first nonspell was one of the attacks I found to be too difficult. It's fine at first, though when she's low on HP she's goes crazy and the attack seemed pretty impossible when that happened. Strangely, you can avoid that by timing it out, when normally I think an attack going nuts like that is the penalty for trying to time it out. (Gengetsu Rape Time comes to mind.) It's also very difficult to hit her with Marisa, which is a problem in many other places as well.

For Atomic Punch, I'm not sure. Since it's a big aimed thing, the natural response is to misdirect it. Since nothing else is going on, you can go pretty far with that. It's kind of the same situation as with Hollow Giant "Wu" from IN. The first thing that comes to mind for fixing it is to reduce the bullets per punch but increase the frequency of the punches, so the player won't have time to fiddle around at the top, and still won't be overwhelmed by doing it properly. Or you could have a few bullets emanating from the boss, so it's not possible to get right next to her. There's alot you can do with it really, so it's your call.

The next one, Atomic One-Two Punch, is really an entirely different problem. That spell is completely static, so the player just has to memorize safespots. You can have memo-spells if you want them of course, but there just happens to be a very easy path through that one.

Making the stage 3 fairies healthier and having them shoot both ways would probably work there.

The rest should be simple fixes, as you said. I haven't looked at the Extra Stage yet, but I intend to. I'll let you know if I find any more exploitable attacks.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 07, 2012, 04:27:03 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/BbSUt.png)

New nonspell for Gara gets rid of both the cheesing and trapping issues. Also, more fun.

EDIT: For when you check out the EX stage - yes, I know Mahiru's last card is exploitable. I'll fix it in 0.63.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 07, 2012, 05:54:13 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/gO951.png)

Updates to stages 1-3 complete. Gara's rockslide has shadows indicating where the boulders will bounce now. All reported cheese strategies so far have been sealed. Next up is Yuzuki's nonspell, one tweak on Emi, and then it's off to the endboss balancing...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Zil on March 07, 2012, 10:24:04 PM
Searchlight Paranoia - It's easier at the top becuase the bullets come from above and the searchlight can't reach you.
Darkness Vortex - I don't think you're supposed to go through the laser like that.
Crystal Shower - I don't know if that's how you're supposed to do it, but if it is the unfairness to Marisa is extreme.
Cascadia - Camembert or Munster, take your pick.
Mirrored Fury - The orange bullets don't really reach the right side. Also the bullets get stuck on/go through the mirrors sometimes. That doesn't really matter though and prevents you from hiding behind them.
Reflection Penta(gram/gon?) - Being in the outermost part is easiest. I'm not sure if that's what your meant to do or not. Also, the name says pentagon when you choose it from the list, but pentagram during the spell.
Shine Buster - Only viable for the first wave, but funny regardless.
Houko Danmaku 2 - Bizarre. Not reliable at all, but it's interesting I guess.

Sorry to keep finding weird stuff, but I guess you should probably know about it.
I take back what I said about Lunatic being impossible. I could possibly do it as Reimu. Marisa is almost unplayable in comparison.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 08, 2012, 02:00:52 AM
Searchlight Paranoia
Hmm, got a plan for this.

Darkness Vortex
Oops! Have to move the origin point a few pixels out.

Crystal Shower
I've never really liked how this one works. Putting it on the to-fiddle list.

Cascadia
Simple enough, I just gotta randomize it a bit.

Mirrored Fury
Is this really easier than taking it straight?

Reflection Pentagram
I think this is fine, there's no particular intent of where you're supposed to stand for it.

Shine Buster
Gonna leave this one in. It's funny, and fairly harmless.

Houko NS 2
Whoa. How did you find this? No issue, though, I'm gonna be totally reworking this attack.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: ExPorygon on March 08, 2012, 04:30:13 AM
Here's a little something I ran into. I don't know if this is intentional, but apparently the player loses 0.5 power if he/she dies or deathbombs.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 08, 2012, 05:03:15 AM
Here's a little something I ran into. I don't know if this is intentional, but apparently the player loses 0.5 power if he/she dies or deathbombs.
Yeah, this is a known bug. I'm gonna fix it in 0.63 if I can.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 08, 2012, 04:25:51 PM
Argh, the more I fiddle with it, the more I realize how frustratingly out of alignment the mirrors in Reflection Dimension are. Considering that rotating the mirrors means that the bullets will strike them at a different spot, the math for the targetting is just this side of impossible. No amount of tweaking seems capable of preventing comically obvious cheese spots from emerging on all difficulties. What to do with this thing...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.62 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 09, 2012, 07:22:52 AM
v0.63 released.

Full download (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?obx706elvj4gfv6)
Scripts and resources only (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2w7cq3iq49r92m2)

Notable updates:

Stage 1
No significant changes.

Stage 2
Yayoi nonspell: De-cheesed.
Gara nonspell 1: Rebuilt from the ground up.
Rocket Punch: De-cheesed on Hard and Lunatic.
Double Rocket Punch: Randomized to prevent memorization.
Landslide: Added indicators of where the rocks are going to bounce.

Stage 3
Akeno mid nonspell 1: De-cheesed.
Stage, post-midboss: Toned down, especially on Lunatic.
False Light: De-cheesed. Toned down on Lunatic.
Ensnaring Whirlpool: De-cheesed on Hard and Lunatic. Life decreased.
Detection Net: Alarm bullets now come from the lantern instead of the circles.

Stage 4
Yuzuki nonspell: Rebuilt.
Waterfall: Heavily retooled.
Hailstorm: Heavily retooled.
Cascade: Randomized to prevent memorization.

Stage 5
Emi nonspell 1: Made less trappy.
Emi nonspell 2: Made less trappy.

Stage 6
Emi nonspell: De-trapped.
Reflection Dimension: Replaced with Hall of Mirrors.
Refraction Laser: Cheese-B-Gone.
Houko nonspell 2: Heavily retooled.
Royal Rainbow: Improved Houko's tracking so that she's easier to shoot.
Silhouette Fantasy: Fixed the bugs involving un-shieldable bullets at the end of Phase 2. De-cheesed Phase 1 on Lunatic. Toned down difficulty a bit on Lunatic, but probably not enough.

General
Increased the power of Marisa's core shot by 25%.
Deathbombing no longer reduces power.
Increased the dropped power items on a lot of bosses.


Still looking for plenty of playtesting. Still looking for texture artist. Probably dropping Overdrive, since it seems that Lunatic is hard enough.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Esper on March 09, 2012, 10:34:49 PM
Alright, I played the last version of this (Aka before the update) and all I have to say about Lunatic Stage 6 is this

WHAT KIND OF ASS BACKWARDS GAME ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE

These nonspells are ludicrous and the Last Spell is unfuckingdoable.

If these problems haven't been fixed, please work on them.

However, I will say that some of the spells are very unique

For instance, the nonspell which has a six-angle laser option following your position is actually very fun.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: XephyrEnigma on March 09, 2012, 10:56:29 PM
Alright, I played the last version of this (Aka before the update) and all I have to say about Lunatic Stage 6 is this

WHAT KIND OF ASS BACKWARDS GAME ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE

These nonspells are ludicrous and the Last Spell is unfuckingdoable.

If these problems haven't been fixed, please work on them.
1. Go play the most recent version. Edit: Maybe you could explain what you find so ridiculous?
2. I'm sure you haven't played enough. Everything takes practice. You can't expect to capture everything in your first try.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 09, 2012, 11:37:28 PM
Alright, I played the last version of this (Aka before the update) and all I have to say about Lunatic Stage 6 is this

WHAT KIND OF ASS BACKWARDS GAME ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE

These nonspells are ludicrous and the Last Spell is unfuckingdoable.

If these problems haven't been fixed, please work on them.
The game I am trying to make is one that I'm specifically taking here to be tested because I don't have a good sense of what's reasonable for Lunatic difficulty. Balancing the difficulty in any one-man game project is extremely difficult - the more you play it, the easier everything seems, because you're used to understanding how it operates in your own head, since you're the one who made it. Difficulty balance is only possible with the help of players like you, especially since I don't play other Touhou games on Lunatic very often.

I strongly advise getting 0.63, which specifically tones down the difficulty on the last spell and one of Houko's nonspells. If there's more that needs balancing, I'd love some non-shouted specifics as to what parts were unreasonably hard or frustrating and what could best be done to bring them in line with the flow of the rest of the game.

Thank you for your feedback!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Zil on March 09, 2012, 11:51:34 PM
Late response here...

The path I had for Mirrored Fury looks a little complicated but works every time. The main thing about it though is that the orange bullets don't reach the right side of the screen, so with Reimu's homing it's much easier over there.

I guess I need to get v0.63 and see what's new. I'll go for a 1cc now that I have some time.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 10, 2012, 12:03:08 AM
Late response here...

The path I had for Mirrored Fury looks a little complicated but works every time. The main thing about it though is that the orange bullets don't reach the right side of the screen, so with Reimu's homing it's much easier over there.

I guess I need to get v0.63 and see what's new. I'll go for a 1cc now that I have some time.
Aha! I'll put that on the path to fix for 0.64.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: I have no name on March 10, 2012, 12:17:32 AM
Just tried the extra stage again-much better than the last version I tried.

Random thoughts:
Midboss's last spell is brutal
The whole post-midboss stage part is what is this I don't even bombspam
Some of the nonspells end before the threatening part at full power, none of them are difficult
First survival seems a bit unfair?
Polarizing gates (whatever the one with the laserbox is called), a way of telling the player to go INTO the bullet pile before they're trapped outside would be nice.
Storm Gates is fun but I don't like having to dodge bullets that only just spawned a half second ago.
The last spell...I remember you saying it could be cheesed.  How.  It's brutal, I couldn't figure out how to dodge it.  Thankfully I had 2 lives going into it, so I still 1cced (mostly) blind.

I'll test hard mode next.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 10, 2012, 12:33:42 AM
Midboss's last spell is brutal
Last one, really? I always had more trouble with the second one, interesting.

Quote
The whole post-midboss stage part is what is this I don't even bombspam
This whole segment was sort of an experimental gimmick sequence. If you stand still during the entire red/blue spam sequence, you won't take any damage... maybe it was a bad idea, I dunno.

Quote
Some of the nonspells end before the threatening part at full power, none of them are difficult
Which ones in particular end prematurely?

Quote
First survival seems a bit unfair?
Will look into it.

Quote
Polarizing gates (whatever the one with the laserbox is called), a way of telling the player to go INTO the bullet pile before they're trapped outside would be nice.
Will look into it.

Quote
Storm Gates is fun but I don't like having to dodge bullets that only just spawned a half second ago.
Maybe if I cram the gates a bit closer together to leave more room in the outer gaps?

Quote
The last spell...I remember you saying it could be cheesed.  How.  It's brutal, I couldn't figure out how to dodge it.  Thankfully I had 2 lives going into it, so I still 1cced (mostly) blind.
I was talking about the last card in the midboss battle. And yeah, Aurora Blaze is too hard and too random. I need to fiddle with it a fair bit.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 10, 2012, 01:48:28 AM
Actually I think I know a way to make the second half of the EX stage more inuitive as a puzzle and less bomb-spammy. Will update in 0.64.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Zil on March 10, 2012, 02:02:04 AM
So I went through and checked a few things...

Nice fix on Akeno's nonspell.
Searchlight Paranoia can still be done from the top of the screen.
Darkness Vortex may need more health or something. If you follow her the whole time it ends very soon.
Atomic Puch still has a fairly trivial approach. Lanes open for you and you just go left and right. It would take forever as Marisa. That was a clever idea to prevent the player from hugging the boss though.
The double punch is now random, so that's good.
Royal Rainbow has a weird trick. As you can see, I suck at it, though I got it going for a bit. With practice a skilled player might be able to abuse that. Making the bullets last just a bit longer before vanishing should eliminate the problem.
If you die or bomb in Typhoon you can pretty much cheese the rest of the spell by going under the "floor" of bullets.
I guess the idea in Crystal Shower is now to avoid the attack completely? It works, but Marisa is gonna have trouble with it.
Houko's nonspell is much improved.
Refraction Laser also seems good now. My only complaint now would be the ghostly lasers are hard to see.
The last spell in the Extra Stage felt unfair. You could be running at full speed and she still launches into you and there's no clear way to prevent it. You already said you were going to look at that one though, so that's good.
I'm not sure what's supposed to be so tough about the second half of the Extra. Those bullets won't shoot from the fairies if you stop shooting and for the end part you just stand still.

I haven't played Marisa or the other stages yet.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 10, 2012, 03:40:14 PM
Searchlight Paranoia can still be done from the top of the screen.
It barely seems worth the effort now that the spotlight goes up there with you, but I can make the spotlight presence a bit more oppressive at the top.

Quote
Darkness Vortex may need more health or something. If you follow her the whole time it ends very soon.
I'll fiddle with this. I wasn't counting on the player hugging that close to the boss.

Quote
Atomic Puch still has a fairly trivial approach. Lanes open for you and you just go left and right. It would take forever as Marisa. That was a clever idea to prevent the player from hugging the boss though.
Hrm.

Quote
Royal Rainbow has a weird trick. As you can see, I suck at it, though I got it going for a bit. With practice a skilled player might be able to abuse that. Making the bullets last just a bit longer before vanishing should eliminate the problem.
Haha, kinda weird. I'll fix it and also decrease the density a bit, since a lot of people seem to have trouble with this one.

Quote
If you die or bomb in Typhoon you can pretty much cheese the rest of the spell by going under the "floor" of bullets.
Easy enough to fix.

Quote
I guess the idea in Crystal Shower is now to avoid the attack completely? It works, but Marisa is gonna have trouble with it.
Blargh, still not happy with this thing. To the heavy retooling bench!

Quote
Refraction Laser also seems good now. My only complaint now would be the ghostly lasers are hard to see.
Rendering them twice on top of each other seems to clear this up.

Quote
I'm not sure what's supposed to be so tough about the second half of the Extra. Those bullets won't shoot from the fairies if you stop shooting and for the end part you just stand still.
The sequence isn't hard at all if you figure that trick out, but there's no real clue to that, so it can be unintuitive if you don't pick up on it. I've got a new schema cooked up for it, though, so that should be fun.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Zil on March 10, 2012, 06:06:12 PM
It barely seems worth the effort now that the spotlight goes up there with you, but I can make the spotlight presence a bit more oppressive at the top.
It doesn't seem to go up there when you do. Near the edges it does but it sinks down across the middle, so you can ignore it from there. You could use ZUN's trick for dealing with things like that, which is to just have the boss shoot thousands of bullets if you get too close to her. Or you could have a second spotlight on/around the boss.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on March 10, 2012, 11:58:57 PM
Oh wow, loving the new looks! The sprites are perfect, the water drops made stage 4 a whole new thing XD The revamps are awesome IMO...
Now for the feedback for someone who isn't that skilled in danmaku XD

Gara's first nonspell is a LOT better, and her landslide card is so much better now with the lines showing where the rocks bump~ Her second nonspell is okay in easy, but the difficulty just rockets up in normal...

Akeno... Oh I love her XD Maybe placing a detection circle around Akeno herself would prevent doing the spellcard in the top of the screen... I still think it'd be cooler (and maybe would make the spell a bit harder) if Akeno shot the bullets herself, instead of them coming outta nowhere... It's still funny to me how she's blind, but she always rushes to stay in front of the player XDI know that's so playing Marisa isn't too harder than using Reimu, but yeah...

I noticed that in easy, Mahiru's last spell can be captured by just staying under her, nothing hits you XD Her other spells are pretty great, Waterfall is better now that the extra bullets are a bit random~

I have a thing for mirrors, so Emi is a special someone to me~ Her nonspells are a bit overwhelming... but the rest is great, I like how her spell in stage 6 changed.

Houko improved maaaassively... Her tackle nonspell is great, and the one with the rushing bullets is pretty great too~
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 11, 2012, 12:28:17 AM
I still think it'd be cooler (and maybe would make the spell a bit harder) if Akeno shot the bullets herself, instead of them coming outta nowhere... It's still funny to me how she's blind, but she always rushes to stay in front of the player XDI know that's so playing Marisa isn't too harder than using Reimu, but yeah...
I can see where you're coming from, but making the bullets originate from Akeno would 1) make the actual bullet waves awkwardly uneven, and 2) make it insanely hard to program the Lunatic version, because the bullets would need to know wher Akeno WILL be about 5 seconds in advance. As it is, I'm going to prioritize making life tolerable for Marisa over that bit of consistency.

Quote
I noticed that in easy, Mahiru's last spell can be captured by just staying under her, nothing hits you XD Her other spells are pretty great, Waterfall is better now that the extra bullets are a bit random~
Are you using 0.63? If so, the actual bullet distribution is, in fact, random, so that has a chance of working but is far from guaranteed to be safe.

Quote
I have a thing for mirrors, so Emi is a special someone to me~ Her nonspells are a bit overwhelming... but the rest is great, I like how her spell in stage 6 changed.
I nerfed her nonspells in 0.63 a bit, but it might not have done the trick.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on March 11, 2012, 12:49:39 AM
I can see where you're coming from, but making the bullets originate from Akeno would 1) make the actual bullet waves awkwardly uneven, and 2) make it insanely hard to program the Lunatic version, because the bullets would need to know wher Akeno WILL be about 5 seconds in advance. As it is, I'm going to prioritize making life tolerable for Marisa over that bit of consistency.
Are you using 0.63? If so, the actual bullet distribution is, in fact, random, so that has a chance of working but is far from guaranteed to be safe.
I nerfed her nonspells in 0.63 a bit, but it might not have done the trick.

Yep I downloaded 0.63 and played it :3
Oh yeah I see what you mean~ Maybe a familiar shooting the bullets then? Like a bat or a second light?
So I guess I just got lucky in the last spell then XD
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: steamcat on March 11, 2012, 04:51:26 PM
Your script (all of them) seems to make danmaufu give some kind of illegible error for me. Idk what is going on...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.63 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 16, 2012, 06:23:17 PM
v0.64 released.

Full download (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?way56b23n36yksy)
Scripts and resources only (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?707w3y2ommytmza)

Overall Game
Dropped Marisa's power down by 4%. Overdid it a bit last time.

Stage 1
No changes.

Stage 2
Fiddled with Rocket Punch, should be even less cheesable now.

Stage 3
No changes.

Stage 4
Redid Crystal Shower completely. Less anti-Marisa now.

Stage 5
No changes.

Stage 6
Made it easier to see the curving lasers on Refraction Laser.
Removed a cheese strategy on Royal Rainbow.

Extra Stage
Totally revamped the second half of the stage.
Beefed up the HP on all of Kyokukou's nonspells.
Made Kusanagi more fair.
Replaced Aurora Blaze with Chain Lightning. Balance is still experimental, but I think this is more workable as a concept than the old final card was.
Changed the song for the boss battle. The original song had been taken down on NicoNico, and I'm uploading videos of the game there, so I figured it'd be best tof ind something I can properly credit.

Next version:
Rebalancing the health on Darkness Vortex.
Guiding the player into the danmaku box in Pole Reversal.
Writing out a proper prologue.
Looking into framework for stage backgrounds and an ending. Where do you draw something to make it appear above the HUD?

flandreremilia8709 - gibberish error or Japanese error? If it's the latter, I might be able to decipher it.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: TheTeff007 on March 17, 2012, 01:02:58 AM
ObjEffect_SetLayer(Yourobjecthere, 8 ) should make any Effect Object appear above everything, even the frame.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 17, 2012, 04:27:29 PM
ObjEffect_SetLayer(Yourobjecthere, 8 ) should make any Effect Object appear above everything, even the frame.
Thanks! Got an ending image rendering above the frame but below the event text frame, so I don't need to store every line of ending dialogue as an image. Now I just need the actual art...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on March 20, 2012, 05:59:39 AM
Going to be between a few weeks and a couple months until the next release. Getting some more art assets done.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: on March 22, 2012, 11:02:03 PM
Quote
Luminous Dream
I have been enlightened by danmaku. So, maybe I could send you a few extra effects and what not?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on June 27, 2012, 11:35:51 PM
Will there be any more updates? I still love the game and wanna have more X3
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: KaiserKnuckle on July 01, 2012, 05:04:40 AM
If i may help, if you need some things to help out on some of the sort-of small tidbits then i think Tsalop and Hele's Spell circle thing which i cannot recall due to the searchbar is a god-tier scrub :V so you have a more practical way of using everyone's other cut-in and have sprites to replace them with in boss fights.

I am also planning to PM you stuff to help with some stage doohickeys Scratch that, there is too much on my hands at the moment. I'll try something in the future.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on July 01, 2012, 09:04:00 PM
Long overdue update:

(http://i.imgur.com/Wb0EA.png)

Finally got my contacts in order for background art and music. Next version (probably v0.9) is going to have stage backgrounds, original music that wasnt stolen from NND, and endings.

I'm aware that the game balance is far from perfect, but at this point I'm close to just calling it good enough after a few more tweaks. I want to eventually finish this project so that I can get started on a new one using ph3.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on July 02, 2012, 12:59:41 AM
Oh wow looking awesome so far *-*
Aw I like the music you've used X3 But I understand that original music just gives an extra charm to the game~ Can't waiiit!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on July 02, 2012, 01:55:28 AM
Oh wow looking awesome so far *-*
Aw I like the music you've used X3 But I understand that original music just gives an extra charm to the game~ Can't waiiit!
More to the point than extra charm, I had put videos of the game up on NND, and one of them actually got taken down for content violation.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on July 07, 2012, 01:07:06 AM
Hm this is probably just me, because I'm awful at dodging... but Akeno's Detection Spiral is harder in Hard then it is in Lunatic... At least it took me longer in Lunatic to bomb, and I captured it before I could do so in hard.

Actually nevermind XD I think it was just impression... Lunatic is harder...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on August 30, 2012, 11:31:00 PM
Any news on the progress of the game? o.o
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: BlueDigitalDragon on September 12, 2012, 01:59:36 AM
So I tried this out and it was very well made! Would I be allowed to possibly make playthrough videos of this on my Youtube channel?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on September 19, 2012, 10:58:29 PM
Progress has been very slow. By unfortunately-timed scheduling on my part, both of my artists began entering the final months of wedding preparation (for two unrelated weddings) right as I entered the final leg of the project. Final build will be in November at the earliest.

So I tried this out and it was very well made! Would I be allowed to possibly make playthrough videos of this on my Youtube channel?
Go ahead.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Pirate on September 22, 2012, 04:37:07 PM
Yes, yes, yes yes! Holy this game is amazing. You are a genius.

I'm playing on lunatic now. The stage 1 boss's first non-spellcard felt a little like bullshit though, the danmaku's too fast for me to dodge both sides


EDIT: Holy, lunatic is seriously hard. I love this.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: PhantomSong on September 29, 2012, 03:41:22 PM
I'm rather impressed by your work. Great boss designs, great patterns! I love this! Amazing job!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: JmLyan on October 02, 2012, 08:53:54 PM
Really great. Many of the patterns were really creative. As for the difficulty, I played on normal and would say stages 1-3 is above the difficulty it usually has while 4-6 has a bit lower than usual.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Danmakuer on October 03, 2012, 07:34:36 PM
My comments on some spells:
Gara's two first spells. They seem to have based on the Ex Rumia's exemplar spells. Might revamping these with more randomize?
Emi's last stage spell has reflective walls, that are actually too static for me. Aren't they?
Houko's second spell, "Refraction Crystal", is really easy even on Lunatic. Why not replacing it with the her own third nonspell, that seem to be way too difficult to being nonspell?

What you are thinking about these?
And I'm really curious about the original GST. Is that even started?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Shikieiki on October 06, 2012, 07:48:59 PM
Great game, the spells were very unique, especially the Stage 3 boss' with that circle of doom thing. Extra Stage boss was really cool too, loved Storm Gates. =)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on October 23, 2012, 06:33:09 AM
Version 1.0 teaser. (http://youtu.be/NE6eVJi8KTY)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on October 23, 2012, 01:51:02 PM
Version 1.0 teaser. (http://youtu.be/NE6eVJi8KTY)

Aw yis, been waiting for the final version of this game for a while o/ Looking awesome~
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on November 06, 2012, 02:42:46 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/4ADRY.png)

All art and music done for stages 1 and 2. BGM title popups and scene transitions complete.

Things are progressing much faster now, and I officially have a release date that I'm going to be targetting for the final release: December 31st, 2012. Let's see if I can make it!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: BlueDigitalDragon on December 10, 2012, 04:26:46 PM
Whoo! Can't wait for it! Man I've been playing this constantly, trying to go for a perfect Lunatic playthrough. Though when I get home I have to see which version I have. If it is an old one I'll update.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on December 30, 2012, 05:37:41 AM
Status report!

(http://i.imgur.com/QyJd4.png)

Not going to make the stated release date at this point.

Art: I'm still missing three in-game images. My new artist is a fast worker, but has been very sick for the last month, which has slowed down progress a lot.

Music: I have all but two of the songs done for the new soundtrack, and a rough draft for one of those two. After that, I'm going to be doing a lot of final tweaking before I call any of these tracks complete.

Gameplay: I need to difficulty tweak a few spell cards, but after that I'm calling it done.

Story: I still need to write and code the Bad Endings.

All in all, I think I can shoot for a January release, but it all depends on my artist's health improving, She sounded optimistic.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on January 07, 2013, 02:29:45 PM
Any chances we can get like, a preview, more videos or a sample download? I'm always really curious and looking forward to this project~
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Soul Devour on January 08, 2013, 07:46:31 AM
Any chances we can get like, a preview, more videos or a sample download? I'm always really curious and looking forward to this project~

Heh, you made me think of all the trial versions of the official games that have up to Stage 3. While I also would totally love that, I can patiently wait for the finished product instead. Played this a long while back (like 6 months ago or so?) and have been silently watching its progress. Thanks for the great game!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on January 26, 2013, 04:13:08 PM
I'm not going to put out any more videos or sample downloads until the game is done. Things are going slow with my artist right now. There's not a lot of work left, but I'm not making any specific release date promises at this point.

Please wait warmly and accept Mahiru's new theme, Tears of the Stars (http://tindeck.com/listen/apel), as an offering.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Toyosatomimi on March 22, 2013, 04:35:58 PM
Any news on the project?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on April 09, 2013, 10:20:35 PM
Any news on the project?

Thank you for your continued interest, and apologies for my lack of updates!

The game is more or less definable as vaporware at this point, but that doesn't mean it's abandonware. The new soundtrack is 100% complete. The remaining work is three textures and a half hour of coding. However, I've just had to move from Artist #4 to looking for Artist #5 to get those last couple images completed. I don't know what it is about this project, but it seems to be consuming artists as if it were the Bermuda Triangle of graphic design.

If I can get a new artist and they can output the remaining work I need, then I can release the finished game almost instantly. Please continue to believe that the release is just around the corner.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on April 10, 2013, 02:31:16 AM
Ignore everything I just said, Artist #4 just suddenly delivered. I have all art assets. Expect a final release before the week is over.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Sparen on April 10, 2013, 08:41:35 PM
Ignore everything I just said, Artist #4 just suddenly delivered. I have all art assets. Expect a final release before the week is over.

Wow. That came out of nowhere. Maybe a sudden thread revival did something after all. I look forward to the project!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Lavalake on April 10, 2013, 11:41:30 PM
I really love the game, though the stage 3 boss's mechanic took me about 2 years to find out about. I used to think that when the circle started spinning, to get to the middle.
You game is an inspiration. And if ZUN sees this, he would be proud.
I've been following this game for about 2 years now. And I'm really excited to see the version 1.00 of this game.
But can you tell me:
What inspires you in your character development?
What inspires you in spellcard making?
Also, do you have any soundtracks/music you listen to while making the game?

Can't wait for the final result.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: Helepolis on April 11, 2013, 09:54:46 AM
Normally I would spear the gungnir people for bumping old threads, but since the author him/herself has responded in a fashionable time I am going to let it slip here.

Please don't bump threads, send a PM to the author. The forum gives a warning for "this thread is old " for a reason.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on April 12, 2013, 04:47:45 PM
What inspires you in your character development?
The characters, for the most part, are inspired by mythology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amano-Iwato). In the original story, Susano'o plays a prank on the sun goddess Amaterasu, and in her anger, she hides herself in a cave, covering the world in darkness, until she can be convinced to return.

Kasumi came from the idea that I find excessively funny of a low-level bat youkai who everybody thinks is a vampire due to her appearance.
Yayoi was largely because I needed a weak throwaway youkai for stage 1. When I read about the Otoroshi (http://www.obakemono.com/obake/otoroshi/) and its mythical penchant for hanging out on top of shrine gates, the stage 1 scenario of a wayward Otoroshi taking over the Hakurei Shrine came together quickly. The Otoroshi's penchant for leaping out and surprising people inspired her ability to hide in plain sight, which in turn inspired her disappearing/reappearing danmaku attacks.
Gara plays the role of Tachikarao-no-mikoto, the god of strength who pulled the boulder out from in front of the cave in the original myth. Her rocket punch attacks come from a combination of her role as a strength-based god (punching), her proximity to the kappa due to being on Youkai Mountain (technology), and my love of mecha anime (Mazinger). She's a yama-uba because I needed a nice mountain-like youkai.
Akeno is because I wanted an animal youkai, and asked myself, what kinds of cool animals live in dark, secluded corners of the world? The angler fish was the obvious option, which inspired both her blindfold and her lure. Hers is probably my favorite visual design to come out of my lead artist.
Yuzuki was created because the game is very earth-heavy, so I needed an earth youkai of some sort. Her attacks were created after conferring with a friend of mine who was big into geology (liquefaction!).
Mahiru plays the role of Ame-no Uzume-no-mikoto, the goddess who danced to lure Amaterasu out of the cave, hence the dance theme. I honestly can't remember why I made her an ame-onna, but it determined the theme of her rain danmaku.
Emi is very much a product of Houko's design - every endboss needs a right-hand girl, so for a light youkai, why not a mirror? Also, in the myth, the divine mirror Yata-no-Kagami is hung outside the cave during the revelry that lures Amaterasu back to the world.
Houko, in case it wasn't obvious by now, is playing the role of Amaterasu. The entire game concept actually developed from the idea of a Touhou boss with a "light and darkness" visual motif, although the darkness half was dropped. In the original concept for Monochrome Universe, the entire screen would be white, while the lifebars, sprites, and danmaku were all black silhouettes over it, but I couldn't get it to work. Her color scheme is a nod to her role as a sun goddess, her horn is because she's a kirin, and her rainbow orb and rainbow danmaku represent her power over light in all its forms. Her final spell is an obvious tribute to Ikaruga, flagship game of my favorite studio of all time.
Kyokukou, if you're putting the story together, fills in the last role as Susano'o, the prankster who caused an incident by trolling her sister. She's meant to be a bit tomboyish - the name Kyokukou is an old-fashioned but androgynous name, and she's got the vest and the very rough-and-tumble attitude in her dialogue. Her wing design and danmaku patterns are based on the fact that she's playing the role occupied in the original story by a god of storms - which transferred into Touhou Superpowers as control over electromagnetism, which I used to have some fun with sciencey crap for her later spell cards.
There was originally going to be an extra Phantasm boss named Dojaga, a dragon filling out the mythological set in the role of Yamato-no-orochi, but I decided I'd rather move on to a future project than stretch this one out any further.

Quote
What inspires you in spellcard making?
Touched on that a lot in the spiel up there.

Quote
Also, do you have any soundtracks/music you listen to while making the game?
These days I mostly listen to the music Joel wrote for the game.

I've got a list of tasks I need to complete before I can release the final game written down. There were 11 when I made it on Wednesday, and it's since grown to 17, but I've completed 8 of them, so 9 to go. If everything goes well, we should be looking at a Monday release.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v0.64 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame
Post by: professor_scissors on April 14, 2013, 02:32:54 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/lBZFi1A.png)

Touhou Luminous Dream 1.0. (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fuxk8qytw5jsal7)

Thank you, all of you, for your feedback and patience over the past four years.

Luminous Dream is still far from a perfect product, but it always will be. I'm officially done with it, because I could keep tweaking it for another two years if I let myself. Consider this the final version, and any flaws in it unfortuately permanent.

Alternate download type and high-quality OST will be uploaded later tonight. I will now immediately begin work on my next project, Tree of Life.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Sparen on April 14, 2013, 02:37:02 AM
YES!

~~~Finally, the game I spent so many hours trying to understand, the mountain of code to study...

The game is done.

Now I have to hope that the BGM doesn't screw up.

Look forward to your next project~ Good luck!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: professor_scissors on April 14, 2013, 03:36:03 AM
Scripts-only download (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?8ccf15qskcxio4g) for people who already have Danmakufu.

Soundtrack (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fr5i8puftdmn8wu).
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Soul Devour on April 14, 2013, 04:01:02 AM
Played this final version. I gotta say, some of the backgrounds are absolute fantastic. The rain effects in Stage 4 and the Extra Stage, as well as the background for the final boss stand out as some excellent eye candy. Speaking of the background for the final boss, I feel like it really works extremely well with the bullets being fired and for the most part, a lot of stages follow this pattern. Overall, I'm liking a lot of the art in this game and I'd be hard pressed to nitpick on it...although if you *really* want me to...is it me or was the background of Stage 5 and Stage 6 the same? Eh, not a huge deal.

The music is strong and makes its presence known throughout the game. Of all the pieces, I think I like Stage 4's theme the most if only because it's a lot more distinct when compared to a lot of the other pieces (although Stage 5's theme is great as well). If you were going for a central theme (or a set of themes) you certainly got it across, since some of the songs sounded similar at times, particularly in the entrances of several boss themes (I'm looking at you, Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 4). While I like variations (Oh hi Dai, how are you selling this version of Hope to me?), just make sure it's unique from each other. Also, you have a lot of strong, powerful pieces and you know what you're doing with them. That's great. But the later stages lose impact when most of the early stages are just pound you with epic, high paced music. Don't be afraid to do more stuff like Stage 4's theme, it was both a really unique and fun piece of music and broke up the momentum that charging through from Stage 1-3. The music was probably the weakest part of the game but composing is no easy task. I personally can't stand to do it if only because I lack the patience and time to learn the software and get my thoughts down. I say the music is the weakest part but I bet you could easily improve upon it in the future. Diversity is a good thing...typically.

The gameplay. Ah, I've gotten rusty at a lot of Bullet Hell games if this and my re-run of Shoot the Bullet is any indication. It's been a while since I played v0.64 so I can't really comment on to many changes (if only occurred) but I really don't have any complaints on any patterns or spellcards, which is good because it seems like a lot of them are similar to what I remember. The only thing I do have a comment on is continuing. If you grab that first extend and game over, you're pretty much screwed in getting another extend, making a run to clear very difficult. But hey, if you're going for a 1cc, this isn't even a concern. Not only that, but the scripts for the stages and all non-cards and spellcards are on the menu so there's not even the concern of unlocking stages for practicing. Just mentioning, is all.

Anyways, I had a lot of fun with the game and look forward to seeing what you put out in the future. Thanks for not giving up on this (I know I'm glad!) and hopefully the next project goes smoother for you!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Lavalake on April 14, 2013, 04:28:05 AM
I look forward to your next project.
And, congrats on finishing this project. My projects end with my laziness.
Also, since I'm trying to finish my project, I want to know what music program you use to compose music, unless someone else does that for you.
But anyways: I look up to you.  :3

Also, is Reimu breaking the fourth wall during the third boss talk?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Sparen on April 14, 2013, 02:55:29 PM
I look forward to your next project.
And, congrats on finishing this project. My projects end with my laziness.
Also, since I'm trying to finish my project, I want to know what music program you use to compose music, unless someone else does that for you.
But anyways: I look up to you.  :3

Also, is Reimu breaking the fourth wall during the third boss talk?

He got music composers.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: professor_scissors on April 14, 2013, 03:25:03 PM
Indeed, I did not write the music myself. I don't know what program Joel used, but I know he was tragically unsuccessful at finding a proper Touhou Trumpet soundfont. I've got him on board for my next project, and this time I'm taking the ZUN approach of music first, then danmaku to fit the image of the music, so hopefully they'll be more in sync.

Also, is Reimu breaking the fourth wall during the third boss talk?
Absolutely.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Toyosatomimi on April 15, 2013, 01:44:08 AM
Aw yis, our patience has been rewarded! Game looking awesome, tea did a really awesome job <3 I knew it'd be worth waiting :3
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: BlueDigitalDragon on April 15, 2013, 03:11:54 PM
Man I was so looking forward to this for more than a year or so now. The last attack is balls for me, just because I suck X3 The music composition was beautiful, though Yayoi's theme seemed very repetitive, though it wasn't bad! Seemed totally badass for a stage 1 theme.

Love the background art, was done so well. The final stage background, those flowers, so many! Hmm not sure what else to talk about. What was the music you used for the game in v.64? And I really like the story you used, especially when based on the folklore.

Great job! And can we get a hint towards your new project? :3
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Bang Jan on April 15, 2013, 03:16:43 PM
Yay! I can play it now!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Jaimers on April 15, 2013, 05:55:47 PM
Uploaded a video of a lunatic 1cc for those interested. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_KDx_PTds)

Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: professor_scissors on April 15, 2013, 09:30:33 PM
Uploaded a video of a lunatic 1cc for those interested. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_KDx_PTds)

Damn! I think that's also the farthest I've seen anyone get into Silhouette Fantasy. Quick, impressive work.

I also see a couple glitches that might warrant a 1.01 release at some point, like how you managed to get into the Last Word with your shot button still enabled. I'm on the fence about whether or not to rebalance Unfocused Marisa Abuse, though.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Lavalake on April 15, 2013, 10:59:23 PM
The spellcards didn't change much since 0.64 so we actually had a lot of time to practice for a 1cc.
But still, This game is impressive. I hope the next game will be easier to make. I'm following in your footsteps with my Touhou game.
I can never get through the last Ikareimu spellcard. I always lose on the flower shape part. There is always that one stray bullet that is camouflaged in the flower-shape making bullets.
And I think I've told this before, but the stage 3 boss gimmick was a little hard to catch on to. At least for me. I just thought:
"Run to the center of the circle when the fast bullets come out." I never realized I triggered the bullets. I've only got through one wave of fast bullets once, without dying by running to the center of the circle.
I love the dialogue. Seems to capture Reimu's grumpiness at incidents. I love the next project "Tree of Life" will start soon, and maybe a sneak peek at stage one.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Yao-Kun on April 16, 2013, 08:24:58 AM
Manage to 1cc Normal Mode in 2 try, it's a good game.
And for Extra stage, I guess you need to extend the wait time for start of non spellcard, and for 2nd survival spellcard (which I'm dead suddenly before grab any item)

EDIT : Manage to clear EX Stage with 1 life left, but replay desync...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Maths ~Angelic Version~ on April 17, 2013, 08:55:15 PM
This is amazing,  :] I love the danmaku. The patterns are fun, varied and gave me a feeling about who the bosses are before I read anything about them. I don't play games for the plot, but I still like how you based it on legends. The stages too are nicely designed (they don't feel repetitive or boring). The backgrounds and music add to the atmosphere of the game and contribute to making it an enjoyable experience.
Thank you very much for making and actually finishing this project. It was well worth the wait~
By the way, good luck with your next project!  :)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: PhantomSong on April 18, 2013, 01:01:32 AM
AWEEESOME! Time to do that Extra Stage! I will post it when I'm able to beat it! Fun~Fun  :derp:
*Edit*:
You are quite talented, I love your simply, yet beautiful patterns. How does it feel to get done with a project you worked so hard and long on?
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Kaze_Senshi on April 18, 2013, 03:01:20 AM
Oh man nice job with this game, I had fun playing it. There is a lot of good danmaku patterns since the first stage.

Uploaded a video of a lunatic 1cc for those interested. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_KDx_PTds)

And I did a Normal 1cc, tomorrow I'll try to watch this video and play the extra mode.

PS: I think that you should change the 3rd boss's last spellcard with the spellcard that comes before because it looks harder :P
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: ExPorygon on April 18, 2013, 10:14:05 PM
Just uploaded a Let's Play of your game to my youtube channel here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhch4WNL4JQ).

I really enjoyed playing it and have been waiting a long time to do this. I hope you enjoy my playthrough!
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: Maiden Synnae ミ☆ on April 19, 2013, 02:34:35 AM
Really good script and I enjoyed it a lot, congratulations Professor_Scissors, I think this is the best full danmakufu game done by a western Touhou fan that I have played so far.

However... I saw a couple of flaws with the game (not sure if it'd really be considered "flaws" to the others, but for me it kind of is)

1)
The background of both stage 4 and 5 are the same. Or is it just my impression? Well, anyway... I think the game would be improved a lot if you change that. Stage 6 uses the same background as well, but at least it changes to a garden during the final battle, to compensate it.

2)
The final and ex boss' designs are too similar. I know they're sisters, but I think you could change their designs a bit to make them look more distinct from each other.

Apart from those, the rest is pretty good.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: The Noodles Guy on April 19, 2013, 02:08:00 PM
D'at spells.

gotta try this on Normal if I've got some free time.

also, Kyokukou reminds me of Yuugi :derp:
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: I have no name on April 19, 2013, 04:24:35 PM
No one seems to have shown off the extra stage yet so I went and recorded it.  Sadly replays seems to desync on the midboss so my first clear which ended 3/0 is unable to be recorded, but I cleared pretty easily next run anyway even with trying to capture everything  :V

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diGCMtdnIig for those interested.  It's a pretty fun stage, I really like the second half.  There's a few parts of the boss that almost feel cheap (Kusanagi, final nonspell, whichever one has the silver bullets fly down really fast and turn into arrows) but everything is doable.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: PhantomSong on April 21, 2013, 05:12:38 AM
Started to record the OST... It can be found here (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5XvBqNAvJbr4ImKUxlcFQoSBuY87872N&feature=mh_lolz)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: ExPorygon on April 21, 2013, 06:38:59 PM
Started to record the OST... It can be found here (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5XvBqNAvJbr4ImKUxlcFQoSBuY87872N&feature=mh_lolz)
professor_scissors already gave out a download link to the soundtrack. Check the 1st post.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: PhantomSong on April 21, 2013, 08:59:51 PM
professor_scissors already gave out a download link to the soundtrack. Check the 1st post.
I know that, but so you don't have to download it, or if you're causally strolling through Youtube and you happen to come across it you can find the game~ And even download the OST! I thought about this XD


Really good script and I enjoyed it a lot, congratulations Professor_Scissors, I think this is the best full danmakufu game done by a western Touhou fan that I have played so far.

However... I saw a couple of flaws with the game (not sure if it'd really be considered "flaws" to the others, but for me it kind of is)

1)
The background of both stage 4 and 5 are the same. Or is it just my impression? Well, anyway... I think the game would be improved a lot if you change that. Stage 6 uses the same background as well, but at least it changes to a garden during the final battle, to compensate it.

2)
The final and ex boss' designs are too similar. I know they're sisters, but I think you could change their designs a bit to make them look more distinct from each other.

Apart from those, the rest is pretty good.

1) It's mainly because it's a large path, to the garden in a cave, so it'd seem weird to change a lot of the background...
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: professor_scissors on May 08, 2013, 07:41:51 PM
Touhou Luminous Dream v1.0.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?z46s7m2jsv929si). Lite download pending.

Changes:
-Kyokukou drops more shot power now.
-That one fairy in the second half of the EX stage no longer massively lags the game.
-Song titles weren't appearing on stages 6 and EX.
-One of Houko's nonspells and all of Kyokukou's nonspells now give more time for the player to collect point items.
-It is no longer possible to have your shot active during Houko's Last Word.

Also, just for fun, here's (http://i.imgur.com/bBOwvAZ.png) a tiny preview into the design work going into Tree of Life. I'll open a proper dev thread for it once I have something playable to present.

Edit: Lite package. (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4bvji6r1zl644rl)
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: ExPorygon on May 08, 2013, 09:03:54 PM
-One of Houko's nonspells and all of Kyokukou's nonspells now give more time for the player to collect point items.
This wasn't in response to my Let's Play, was it? I appreciate the changes regardless, especially since I know you must be wanting to put this project behind you now.
Title: Re: Luminous Dream v1.0 - Full-length Danmakufu fangame (COMPLETE)
Post by: professor_scissors on May 08, 2013, 09:38:17 PM
This wasn't in response to my Let's Play, was it? I appreciate the changes regardless, especially since I know you must be wanting to put this project behind you now.

I think I had seen it before the LP, but that was what led to me basically saying "yeah, OK, I'd better fix this".