Heartless Skies

[Battal]

You remember how I made that boss generator and said I might do something with it?  I'm doing something with it.

 

 

Whereas the original was clunky, slow, not very diverse, and hard to work with, I've used my new knowledge of coding to design a way better system.  But since you won't be able to see all that stuff in the actual game, here's the things you will see;

 

Fully animated sprites:  Every boss has its own set of animations for when it attacks, appears, taunts, and dies.  Goodbye crappy shapes that look like they were drawn by a two-year-old!

 

Tons more attacks and movement patterns.  Since the framework is so much better, I can easily add new primary attacks, special attacks and movement patterns.  This current version has over 30 special abilities, 9 paths, and 6 base bullet patterns.  In addition to this, each boss appearance has a special ability for when they get low health; Crystals will drop explosive shards, Saucers will suck in bullets, Illuminators will (ironically) darken the room, so on and so forth.  These abilities also change up the special and base attacks, making the bosses much more diverse.  There are over five million potential boss fights.

 

Improved GUIs and information: As you can see in the GIF, bosses actual have health bars, and names which let you know their attacks and bullet patterns.

Secrets:  There are two hidden bosses in the game.  Can you find them?

Dropping the advertisement act, I am really serious about making this into a game.  I can do the code, but I'm really amateur when it comes to balancing and stuff, so feedback is appreciated.  Feel free to give me ideas for boss designs and attacks, all that stuff helps.  I'll be sure to keep updating this with my progress.

 

I've attached the latest version, give it a play if you want.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uaq3iu69cnya5tf/Heartless%20Skies%20v2.7.1.exe?dl=0

 

[greenglacier]

Generate moar!

[Mobbstar]

I don't know, this man looks like a virus. Besides, the description is in chinaese. Spell innocent backwards!

 

EDIT: the spiral attack is ridiculous. It's too fast and way too dense, immediately drains half health. Other than that, I am throwing pennies at my screen. Seriously, it's extremely polished.

[ImDaMisterL]

the description is in chinaese

It's Mandorkrin.

[Battal]

I'm thinking of getting rid of the Bulletspamming attack, it seems to cause way too many cheap deaths.

[Billythesquig]

yes more pricey extravagant deaths

[Battal]

Yes.  Pricey extravagant deaths are good.

[Derpime]

have you considered getting upgrades for your spaceship? Like bosses will drop stuff ever now and then?

[Mobbstar]

have you considered getting upgrades for your spaceship? Like bosses will drop stuff ever now and then?

 

This isn't a procedual generator. Though a randomized player would be interesting.

 

By the way, of all the special abilities, the UFOs gravity is the most extreme. It is either negligible or devastating. The anti-illumination is always a minor factor, the crystal shards are essentially rare extra bullets (because their behaviour is so well written, they are somewhat predictable).

[Battal]

Yeah, I agree the gravity needs a massive tweak.  I just haven't figured out how to do it.  I was thinking of putting it on a timer, but that wouldn't fix a lot of the issues.  Maybe it only reverses its special attacks?

 

And actually, in the full game, it WILL be procedurally generated.  The player will have a set number of lives, and they have to kill as many bosses as they can before dying.  So yeah, there will be health packs and powerups and stuff.

[greenglacier]

This game is still great. Reminds me of Chicken Invaders and kind Space Invaders.

But, Illuminator? Really?

[Battal]

Lord Battal is loominati confirmed.

[greenglacier]

Lord Battal is loominati confirmed.

http://ringtones.mob.org/ringtone/z-3HqeTgqzOZcU12JsAlmQ/1452232180/43377_wapres_ru/mark_snow-x_files_theme.mp3 

Tu tu tu tum.

[Battal]

Added two new bosses, the Astral Core and the Arachnarch.

 

 

The Arachnarch starts unleashing spidery minions at half health, which follow the player relentlessly until destroyed.

 

 

At half health, the Astral Core calls in its buddies to dive at you from the top of the screen.

[Battal]

Got a new update!  This adds in the Astral Core, the Arachnarch, and the Conductor, an machine focused around lightning!  (Which uses my scrapped Battle-Mode Amorphous Semiconductor design from U&A.)

 

Also added are a few new attacks!  Bouncy Bullets, which shoots three large bullets that bounce off the sides of the screen a few times; Lazer Wave, which summons a barrage of lazers from the top of the screen; Vortex, which sucks in a spiral of bullets from outside the room; and Mazeform, which creates four giant circles from the center of the screen, each having only one point at which you can avoid it!  I also added a new primary attack, homing missiles!  These will (loosely) track the player until they fly off-screen. 

 

Again, all this stuff needs balancing, so please give your criticism!

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qey4nrnfga5lnp9/Boss%20Generator.exe?dl=0

[Mobbstar]

You didn't mention the addition of music. Next time, warn me before you induce the urge to beat something up.

 

Phasing conductors are kinda crazy, since they occasionally phase just before their laser fires, usually resulting in the player getting hit without warning. It's not a biggie, since difficulty is generally rather low.

 

Bouncing bullets is insane (in combination with scattering or aimed regular attacks). I was lucky to only ever get it with saucers, which attract their own bullets towards the center of the screen, saving my cornered a**.

 

The crystal drops shards when hit, right? I had several which stand still for a while (bullet spin), resulting in shard spam. Nice unexpected detail!

 

Still gotta get the hang of lazorwalling.

 

It's a pity bosses don't continue their path routine to the left and instead "reset" and only ever do them towards the right. Kinda defeats the purpose.

 

EDIT: Vortex is exactly lethal. I give up. Corner is only way to survive that. Besides, bosses carry on their path routine, usually blocking the way in doing so.

[Battal]

You didn't mention the addition of music. Next time, warn me before you induce the urge to beat something up.

 

Phasing conductors are kinda crazy, since they occasionally phase just before their laser fires, usually resulting in the player getting hit without warning. It's not a biggie, since difficulty is generally rather low.

 

Yeah, the conductors were added pretty much last minute.  Their special move definitely needs tweaking.

 

Bouncing bullets is insane. I was lucky to only ever get it with saucers, which attract their own bullets towards the center of the screen, saving my cornered a**.

 

I think I'm going to remove the tractor beam attack entirely, and have it only happen in predetermined spots during attacks.

 

The crystal drops shards when hit, right? I had several which stand still for a while (bullet spin), resulting in shard spam. Nice unexpected detail!

 

Yup!  Phasing also used to drop shards, I dunno what happened to that though.

 

Still gotta get the hang of lazorwalling.

 

Yeah, I'll probably slow it down a bit because there's a very small window of time where you can get through.

 

It's a pity bosses don't continue their path routine to the left and instead "reset" and only ever do them towards the right. Kinda defeats the purpose.

 

You mean like when they reach the end of the path, they reverse directions?  That might be an interesting thing to look into.

 

 

[Battal]

Sorry about the lack of updates.  I made a huge mistake which completely broke the game, and I didn't really have the heart to fix it.  I did get it working again, though, and have an update all set up.

~ The game is now procedurally generated.  Every time you beat a boss, another will spawn.  Health carries over through each fight.  Once you die, the game shows your score and restarts.

~ Difficulty levels!  Every two bosses, the difficulty level increases.  The higher the difficulty level, the harder the boss!  Difficulty levels increase movement speed, health, and primary attack speed, while decreasing the amount of time between each special attack.

~ Various tweaks; Vortex is now survivable

~ A few new attacks; Chakramic, which shoots 3 shruiken-like projectiles.  They're easy enough to dodge, but once they hit the sides of the screen they explode into multiple needles.

~ Portalbombing, a very, VERY unfinished attack.  Ignore any balancing issues with it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/upyr0rh24cgklxs/Boss%20Generator%20v2.5.exe?dl=0

 

 

[Mobbstar]

@Lord_Battal Bugs!

1. When clicking "Main Menu" after defeat, the "Play" button of the main menu also gets clicked. This effectively gives it the same meaning as the "Retry" button.
2. I had an saucer with the bullet spiral attack, near its death the spiral would curl and cause immense lag. Don't ask why.
3. Crystal monster with bullet spin attack still drops tons of shards when rapid-firing. Not a biggie.
4. Cat alien robot can summon cat alien robot allies, but the latter don't vanish upon the bosses death like other projectiles do.
5. I found your secret debug buttons
6. Beamblast still makes me want to rip my monitor off the table and throw it against the wall. Not a bug, just me being incompetent by the look of it.

I scored 8 bosses.

[Battal]

1. Yeah, I actually already fixed this one

2. Bulletspinning or Spiraling?

3. That's intentional xD

4. Mainly an oversight, but I felt like if they just suddenly vanished it would look a bit weird.  If it's a problem, like they're killing people after the boss dies, I'll make them not deal damage once the boss is dead or something.

6. Yeah, you need pretty quick reflexes.  I'm changing up their code so their speed is a bit more adjustable.

 

[Mobbstar]

3 minutes ago, Lord_Battal said:

2. Bulletspinning or Spiraling?

The spiral that starts from the center of the screen. It curved more and more, until it did a full loop before going off-screen. The FPS dropped to something along the lines of 15 before I managed to kill the saucer.

[Battal]

Alright.  I'm completely redoing the Spiral Attack anyways, so it shouldn't matter.

[Mobbstar]

Today, I encountered a supernovan aimless (i.e. always at top) crystal.

I call him Bullet Hell Bill.

He's dead now.

[Battal]

37 minutes ago, Mobbstar said:

Today, I encountered a supernovan aimless (i.e. always at top) crystal.

I call him Bullet Hell Bill.

He's dead now.

There's an easter egg in the game now

[Battal]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bjvvnka5wa1ru9v/Boss%20Generator%20v2.6.exe?dl=0

~ Added a new boss _(2spooky)

~ Redid Vortex with new visuals and mechanics

~ New attack: Needlestorming

Spoiler

Don't open unless you want to spoil the surprise.

Spoiler

Seriously.  No going back.

Spoiler

The Formless Abomination is the first conventional boss, with a set group of moves and abilities.  Only the movement path and primary attack are random.  It will also use abilities far faster than any other boss, making it really tough.