Alien Madness (VB-Game): Comments & testers please!

[FinnPanther]

My first big project, Alien Madness has come to it's beta stage.
Alien Madness Beta 2 has been released and I'd love to have some comments etc. about it.

The game can be located here:
The Official Alien Madness Site

Unzip the game where you like and read the readme.txt.
Run the AMInst.exe.

Also comment the installation program. Is it good? Is it nice? Ugly? Tell me!!!

[plenderj]

website looks great. am downloading now.

[Arbiter]

Downloading now. Post back later....

[plenderj]

Looks good, but I cant seem to move around, or move my gun...

[FinnPanther]

Originally posted by plenderj
Looks good, but I cant seem to move around, or move my gun...

Har har har
Quess what?

Let's just say that I didn't know anything about VB when I started making the game. I've been making the game about half a year now and already the engine has been changed two times.
The next game will be a better made one, but that will propably come on next christmas...

BTW: The story how I began making the game:

One of my friends made a simple program where you shoot Stalin with a shotgun. It's just a Stalin's picture taken from Red Alert and the bullet holes are made with PSet. So, I tried if I could do the same. And here we are...

[Arbiter]

Well, I concur with the mad Irishman - it does look pretty but I haven't the foggiest how to move or shoot.

Finn, are you telling me that those bits don't actually work?

You've made a lot of nice looking screens and a pretty install program, yet the game is unplayable?

Gameplay is still the most important issue in my book and I think it's best to sort that out before too much effort goes in to fancy install programs.

Just a thought...

[plenderj]

Anyway looks good. Graphics and what not are great, as is the website. Just cant figure out what im doing etc.

Also, very Aliens versus perdator looking

[FinnPanther]

Originally posted by Arbiter
Well, I concur with the mad Irishman - it does look pretty but I haven't the foggiest how to move or shoot.

Finn, are you telling me that those bits don't actually work?

You've made a lot of nice looking screens and a pretty install program, yet the game is unplayable?

Gameplay is still the most important issue in my book and I think it's best to sort that out before too much effort goes in to fancy install programs.

Just a thought...

Believe it or not, I agree. I still play old games made in the early 90's (due to my P166 ) and I couldn't agree more.

But still I have made this "nice to look, not so nice to play" product... Yep. Read my last message. I simply just didn't have the skill to do the good things. And when I started practicing I made some graphics and more graphics and sounds and...
And then I decided that whatta heck, let's publish it.

The game has been good practice to me and that's enough for me. I of course hope that someone enjoys playing it, at least for an hour

I have tried to hide the poor ideas with puzzles like in mission 5 and 7. I also added the codelocks and the gray and yellow aliens so that the game wouldn't be so simple.

I fully admit that the game could be a lot better. A l-o-t. But then again, I hope that you guys enjoy it. At least it's been fun doing it! But, I'll promise you guys one thing: the next game will be something nice. I have several ideas and I try to get the feeling like when you play for example Monkey Island (1 or 2). That is a hard thing to do, but I enjoy playing those idea-based games, and now when I have the technique to make 'em, I'll make 'em when I have time (next christmas I'll code 24-7 ).

BTW: Thanks for downloading it (keep doing that! ) and thanks for the feedback!

[Sastraxi]

I think it would be worth your time learning Direct3D for Visual Basic. I have compiled a DLL that makes enumeration (a lot) easier for first-time programmers. Therefore you can dive right into the *messy* bits. But even before doing that (!) you should learn at least BitBlt and Directdraw. Then you'll get an understanding for games and graphics. I suggest you take Alien Madness to a top-down 2D game, which would be more playable and more enjoyable.

And I also found that I can only shoot in practice mode...

[RealisticGraphics]

I hate to be a parrot but I have to agree with every one else. Great graphics (can anybody say "infringement"?)... But you really should concentrate on getting that game play down. And the bright green on some of the screens is really difficult to read. Well anyway, good luck with the game, I look forward to being able to more around

[FinnPanther]

Originally posted by Sastraxi
[B]I think it would be worth your time learning Direct3D for Visual Basic. I have compiled a DLL that makes enumeration (a lot) easier for first-time programmers. Therefore you can dive right into the *messy* bits. But even before doing that (!) you should learn at least BitBlt and Directdraw. Then you'll get an understanding for games and graphics. I suggest you take Alien Madness to a top-down 2D game, which would be more playable and more enjoyable.

I think so also Have been downloading all kind of stuff and D3D samples and when I have time I'll get it. Learn BitBlt ??? I don't know how to use it... ???

And that 2D idea: heh heh! I have the same in my head! I've written down some ideas and if I'll make it (Alien Madness 2 ? )
then I'll look like The Ultimate Tapan Kaikki (I bet you guys have NO idea what I'm talking about... It's a famous Finnish freeware game, made by Errorfree Productions).

My goal is something like this: to learn C++ and make some nasty DLLs, make the user interface with VB and kick some ass...

Originally posted by Sastraxi
And I also found that I can only shoot in practice mode...

Did you read the readme.txt??? You have to buy a gun and ammo and load the gun before you can shoot!

I've tested the game so much that it should be absolutely playable until mission 11 (I made a stopper to that point).

BTW: Does the game run well on your computers? On my P166MHz the game doesn't run with three aliens in the screen unless I have minimum details. I actually have no idea what the game looks like on a fast computer.

The reason why I published the game was actually the graphics etc. Otherwise I would have just put it in the Panther Productions section, but I decided to make it this way. I love doing some nasty graphics and sounds and that's why I made it to my learning program (which became AM).

Hmm... One more thing: Does my English look good? Any typos in AM? I'm a 15 years old boy from Finland who has English lessons 3 hours a week. Just for fun, I'll type "I was here when I left and then I returned" in Finnish :
"Olin täällä kun lähdin ja sitten palasin"
Does that say anything to you?

[Arbiter]

Loading the gun!

That's what I must have missed!

Generally people have the first clip in when they go into combat you see so I wasn't expecting to have to load the gun until I'd emptied the clip. I don't have to build it as well do I?

[FinnPanther]

Originally posted by Arbiter
Loading the gun!

That's what I must have missed!

Generally people have the first clip in when they go into combat you see so I wasn't expecting to have to load the gun until I'd emptied the clip. I don't have to build it as well do I?

Heh heh!

I actually "forgot" it from this version, whatever that means...

BTW: I have had this idea for a relatively long time: I'm planning to do a 2-player Arkanoid or something like that with DDraw as a practice. Anyone done it already? (No need to re-make it.)

[Sastraxi]

Well if it's a practice then it doesn't matter if someone's done it.