Feeling Underpowered? Weapon Updates!

Update: Lots of changes recently. Too many to list, but overall, changed several Weapon/Buddy behaviors, added more Weapon power levels and alternate fire modes. Working on adding special attacks in addition to all that. You can also switch your main Weapon at will!

Your life will be easier if you actually do take advantage of switching your main Weapon and enabling the alternate fire modes (in addition to pairing it with a complementary Buddy). The level enemy spawns will now be aggressively tailored to take advantage of your new capabilities. In other words, yes, switching  your Weapon/Buddy combo will actually be useful AND necessary in some cases! This makes everything more tactical and strategic in that you now have to think about what Buddy to keep for later or discard for another, as well as when to switch to your main Weapon, in addition to activating your alternate fire mode to get out of a given "situation"! Whew!

Due to the Weapon and Buddy changes, there are now 336 unique Weapon/Buddy Combos. My math may off on that (it's really, really late), but even so, there's a lot. Forgetting the technicalities, there are 8 main Weapon/Buddy combos, plus adding bombs and special attacks to the mix give you a lot of options. Remember, these numbers are not for show - the level spawns/patterns are being redone to take advantage of that! The combinations will be key to making your job easier, but you always have the option to just use your default Weapon and leave it not powered-up if you want... Good luck with that!

The bad news: adding and tweaking these features may delay the release date, but its ok because it will make the game better in the end! (maybe...)

Oh, how about a screenshot of the newly maxed-out Magma beam (and "City" level):
 

Screenshot Backlog (from twitter)

Updating the blog with screenshots I've posted to twitter already (playing catch-up!):
  

Not the time to lose one's head...

 

Austin Powers: "That's not the way to get ahead in life."

Snops Attack! Zombie Defense Squadron Video

Posting video to blog now since I was too busy to do it last week.

Pig Buddy Weapon Defense System™

It's hard to see in this screen shot, but if you look really carefully you'll see the Pig Buddy Weapon Defense System™ equipped! (click for a larger view)

ブタはともだち! Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack スクリーンショット

ブタはともだち! In Snops Attack, you don't just save Pigs, they will bravely help you in the Zombie War! Collecting the special Pig Buddy Weapon System™ will reduce your offensive capabilities, but will greatly enhance your enemy "bullet eating" abilities!

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack: 爆弾!

Some more development images. Top one is the new bomb artwork.

This shot shows the result of poor bomb management... You can see the chain BONUS award value in the upper left going off (since the chain has ended with the player's demise!).

The boss "WARNING" message. It's big, and has a big sound to go along with it.

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack Screen Shot: Level 2 Images

Just some shots of level 2. You can see the new Hit counter in the upper left under the score. The bottom image shows the "Side" shot weapon at it's weakest level.

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack: Gameplay Video, now with Boss

Still in heavy development (I've already tweaked and replaced a lot of stuff in this video from 2 days ago). Getting real close to first creator's club play test, finally!

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack Screen Shot: Level 1 Boss!

Level 1 boss having a good hair day.

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack Screen Shot: Zombie Onslaught!

Hopefully, I can get the game up on playtest by the end of next week. Haven't gone through much of the Evil checklist yet, but need some feedback on gameplay/difficulty/bugs at this point.

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack Screen Shot: New Weapon

Pretty much finalized a new, (yet unnamed) weapon. It is faster and more powerful than the default spread, but doesn't cover as much screen real estate. Also added additional layer of parallax (spent all day saturday on the giant tree branches!) and redid the power up icons.

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack: Gameplay Video

This is not a trailer (besides, my video editing is really bad anyway). This is just an early gameplay demo which shows some typical action on level 1. All the enemies and their patterns are subject to change (still working on the bosses). Mikki told me to make it better, so I guess I'm not done with level 1 yet!

Xbox Indie Games Snops Attack: The "Bomb"

A frame of the player's "Bomb". The Bomb is tentative at the moment, as I seem to change the way it looks and works every few days.

Xbox Live Indie Games: Snops Attack Giant Fish screenshot

This screen shot shows the zombie giant fish (cue "Like a Boss") you first encounter on level 1. The zombie fish are able to fly due to the jet engines attached to their bodies (it's a game!), all the while spitting out deadly acid bubbles in multiple directions.

The transparent clouds are separate objects and scroll at different speeds over the background, which creates a nice blending effect when two clouds overlap. The green enemy planes are just placeholders (I'll try to get around to replacing the graphics sometime this week or next). If you notice very carefully, you can see small round explosions and tiny bits of particles falling off of the green plane on the right due to damage from the player's shots.


Note: The game is still currently under development so all graphics are tentative (as is the title). I will post more pics everyday, as well as some behind-the-scenes info.

Xbox Live Indie Games: Snops Attack screenshot

I have commandeered Mikki's blog for now. Here's a screenshot of I've what been working on for 8 months. It's a vertical scrolling shooter (a.k.a. Shoot 'em up, shmup or STG) which explains the multiple bullets, enemies, and explosions!

It is still currently under development so all graphics are tentative (as is the title). I will post more pics everyday, as well as some behind-the-scenes info.