Red

[Kayvon]

RED - by B. Perry
Based on "Red" by Case Hollingsworth

CONTROLS:
Shoot with the stylus.
Hold any button while shooting for a super shot.
Press [SELECT] to change the soundtrack.
Press [START] to pause.


SCREENSHOTS:



DOWNLOAD:
Click here to download

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Based on the flash game by Case Hollingsworth (www.redflashgame.com), adapted with permission. If you enjoy this game, an e-mail would be greatly appreciated. Please post your high scores in this thread.

[Azenris]

Nice one, damn wind killed me
3min 20 sec :(

[Grey Acumen]

Is there any chance that it would be possible to change the music to what was used in the original flash version? I like the new music too, but it gives an entirely different mood to the game, and I simply loved how mellow the flash version felt.

Right off the bat, I've noticed a few other differences, many of which make the game significantly easier:
1) The ammo refill rate seems to be a little faster than the flash version.

2) There is also the issue that as the game progresses, each proceeding "HUGE" rock should have more inertia than the previous and be harder to deflect. Usually I can keep the 1st and 2nd rocks suspended in the air for a few minutes, but the 3rd one usually takes everything I have just to deflect it.

3) Scale hasn't been retained. The screen size is smaller, but the smallest rocks are much bigger proportionally compared to the flash version, so in general objects are easier to hit and therefor deflect.

4) While it doesn't really make the game easier, I noticed that you only ever get one "assistant" powerup at a time. In the flash version I've had as many as 3 assistants shooting alongside me at a time.

Usually I can't last more than about 10 minutes, but I'm on 15+ minutes right now, no sweat.

Another suggestion I would make is to give the option of not having the stylus fire any shots automatically, but only if you hold the shoulder buttons for a regular shot and the dpad/abxy buttons for a super shot.


The following is merely a "it would be cool if..." rant:

The DS also begs to use wireless connectivity to allow a multiplayer game in which the opposing player uses the stylus to choose where each rock will fall from (the size will show when you touch the screen, and you can then move the stylus around to change what position the rock starts from, but the angle and speed are random from the moment you let go) The left&right/Y&A buttons would be used to change the wind direction and you would need to blow into the DS microphone in order to charge your wind speed for heavier gusts. The Up&X button could be pressed repeatedly as an alternate to using the microphone. Down&B button would activate the "fire" rock which would be the only rock you can manually aim. Holding the shoulder button would(for a limited time) halt the release of rocks as you place them, thus allowing you to place multiple rocks while holding the shoulder button and then release multiple rocks at the same time.

[Kayvon]

Is there any chance that it would be possible to change the music to what was used in the original flash version?

Sadly, no. The original music is copyrighted. While the flash version never got in trouble for using it, I decided to keep everything legit for the DS version.

As noted, there are several differences from the flash version. The worst offender, in my opinion:

4) While it doesn't really make the game easier, I noticed that you only ever get one "assistant" powerup at a time.

Yes, only one miniturret at a time. And the miniturret always appears in the same place. It's hardcoded into the game. Such things are much easier to implement in flash (actually, almost everything about the game is). I almost didn't include the miniturret at all because it was enough trouble, but ultimately I'm glad I did. While I may someday consider adding a second turret on the right side, I wouldn't ever go beyond two miniturrets. There's not enough space on the DS board, for one thing.

Other than that, the changes between the flash and DS versions feel balanced. The asteroids vary in size, instead of the same 6 sizes repeated. You're more likely to get large ones; you can get much smaller ones. And the huge asteroid feels different. But it all balances out in the gameplay without taking away from the original feel of the game.

Usually I can't last more than about 10 minutes, but I'm on 15+ minutes right now, no sweat.

15 minutes?? That's amazing! I haven't passed 13:30. You'll appreciate the "+5" option that appears once you crack the 10 minute mark. It starts you 5 minutes into the game, bypassing the part that would clearly be too easy for you by now.

[Grey Acumen]

The music issue is a serious shame. it would be nice if you could find something similarly mellow. The stuff that you currently have is almost too invigorating.

The reason why the increasing inertia of the biggest rocks is important is because you can exploit the fact that no other rocks will fall when the biggest one is falling. As long as you keep your shots aimed carefully and at a light pace, you can keep the huge boulder suspended in the air for numerous minutes at a time. I think I got anywhere from 50-80% of my time through this method.

[Kayvon]

By "intertia" do you mean "gravity"? The later asteroids do have increased inertia in that their starting speed is faster. (Classical intertia = mass * speed.) Do you mean increasing the mass?

I played around with increasing the mass rather than the initial speed of the huge asteroids just before release, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. It seemed to make things worse, not better.

I considered increasing the gravity, but it wouldn't prevent the exploit you described. Either the gravity would be so heavy as to ensure you got hit, or it would be light enough that you could still float the huge asteroid above your turret.

Lastly, I considered simply starting the next level at a certain point, even if the large asteroid were still on the screen. This seemed unfair to novice players who weren't intentionally exploiting.

Eventually, I decided that no one would have the patience to just float the asteroid for a while. (I was wrong!) You can also use the same exploit just before the huge asteroid arrives (in the flash version, too) by floating the last of the small asteroids to stall the arrival of the huge one.

BTW, do you have a good, small .MOD file to suggest for an extra soundtrack?

[Grey Acumen]

I haven't worked with .mod files before, so I'll have to do some searchign to let you know. I actually only found out about the ability to use select to change the music that is playing, but so far the music that comes in the game already lacks the feeling of... either isolation or desolation that teh original managed to capture.

I actually mistook the slower increase in starting speeds of the huge asteroids as being no variance at all. It's not that your huge asteroids don't come in faster each proceeding time, it's just that yours have smaller increments. It wasn't until the 4th or 5th huge asteroid that I was being strained to keep it from hitting, wheras the flash version put me on the spot within the 3rd huge asteroid. That's kinda my mistake.
I suppose you're right about not making it too hard for those who aren't intentionally exploiting. what might be worth while is when the huge asteroid starts coming in, you have gravity slowly increase as time progresses, but then you reset gravity back to what it was before the large asteroid starts dropping. Each proceeding asteroid has the gravity increase faster. This would limit the juggling you could do with the large asteroid, and thus limit the amount you could exploit this, even if it didn't get rid of it entirely.
With this I would recommend allowing the huge asteroid to come in even if the last of the regular asteroids is still floating around. Make it so the time at which the huge asteroid stars falling is based on a set amount of time from when the last of the regular asteroid starts falling instead of when it finishes, just make sure this set amount of time would normally allow the regular asteroid to finish falling with an extra second or so for pacing.

Another recommendation I would make is to tone the refill rate on the ammo down just the teensiest bit. In teh flash version, running your ammo down to zero actually meant that your rate of fire was drastically reduced, whereas here, your rate of fire barely changes at all when you run your ammo down to zero.
An alternate possibility is to make the refill rate on the ammo faster when your ammo is higher, but slower when your ammo is lower. Dunno if that would be totally practical though.

BUG REPORT!
It's not so much a bug as a major irritation. When you close the lid to the DS, and then open it again, the game is always unpaused, even if you specifically paused it before closing the lid. Whatever it is that is going on there needs reversed, cause it would be far better to make sure that the game always pauses when you close the lid, even if you didn't manually pause it prior to closing the lid.
I know most people won't play long enough for this to ever be an issue, but if you're ranking up a new high score and have to put your DS away for a bit while you deal with something else, it would be a real pain in the ass to come back to your game only to have it unpause itself before you can get oriented and have your high score ruined.

[KillerMapper]

Nice game, no bugs for me during 11 minutes.

Just some asteroids are overlapping, dunno if you can fix that.