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Thanks!

The game might be too unforgiving right now because of how random the enemy spawns are. I'm going to try and implement aiming with the mouse, so we'll see if that makes the game less unfair.

As for the seizury shooting animation, I'm pretty sure I can fix that by reducing the fire rate.

Thanks for your feedback!

Aiming with the mouse pointer was something I considered, but I never bothered to implement it. I'll try it out now, but a lot of the difficulty comes from the fact that you have to aim manually, so the enemies would have to be tweaked as well.

No incentive for not shooting is a characteristic of many Shoot-em-ups, so I don't consider that a big problem, but I'm probably going to make it so that the bird shoots automatically. Having to hold RMB gets pretty tiring after a while.

Thank you for your feedback!

It was intended, but only because the enemies had much more health in an old version of the game, so being able to lie on the floor made it easier to kill enemies that spawned on the lower part of the screen. Now that the enemies have much less health and spawn much faster, I guess I could make it so that you die when you touch the ground like in Flappy Bird.

Thank you for your feedback!

Thanks! Was there anything you didn't like?

Thank you so much!

After a long day of fine tuning and playtesting, Flappy Shmup has been submitted! Play it and tell me what you think!

You may not have been able to finish a game, but you still made some great progress. Good luck with whatever you do next!

Thank you so much! ( ^‿^ )

That's a really interesting concept for a game. Good luck!

Day

Sorry for not updating in two days, I've been busy. Yesterday I made a ton of progress on Flappy Shmup, so let's take a look at that.

You know how in Tetris, when you clear a certain amount of lines, you go up one level and the game gets faster? Well, I did something similar with Flappy Shmup. For every 6 pipes you pass by, you'll go up one level. The game will get faster and faster each level until you hit level 4, which is as fast as the game will get.

There are six levels total: Level 0, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5. Each level has a different vaporwave style background, and the background shown in the previous posts is now just the background for Level 0.

I also implemented a text object that will display a random tip when you die, from a selection of six. One of these tips reads: "Something is waiting for you at level 5...", which is a pretty important detail. I'll get to that later, though.

Another thing I did was tweak the enemies a bit. Red was weak compared to Purple and Blue, and also kind of boring to fight, since Red didn't have a special quality like Purples tankyness or Blue's speed. Red now fires two bullets in quick succession instead of just one, which should make Red a more interesting enemy to fight. I also slightly nerfed Purple and Blue, since they were a bit too strong.

Flappy Shmup also has music now! The song Rhinoceros by Kevin MacLeod is the main theme that plays throughout most of the game:

and the song that plays in the Game Over screen is Game Over from Galaga '88:

I'm not sure what song I'll have in Level 5 yet, but right now I've put in King Galaspark from Galaga Arrangement as temp music:

Speaking of Level 5, I guess I should explain what that thing I mentioned earlier is.

Take a look:

I apologize for the crappy phone recording, but it's either that or a GIF at 5 fps.

Anyway, this is Big Green. He's the boss of Flappy Shmup, and I think you can see why. He's big, can take a ton of punishment (you can see how much health he has in the bottom right corner), and shoots a bullet every two seconds. As he loses health, he'll start to shoot them faster, up to a maximum fire rate of one bullet every 1.2 seconds.

Once you take down Big Green, you'll enter Level Extra, an extra level which lasts forever until you die. Dying in Level Extra changes the message at the top of the Game Over screen from "Game Over" to "Thanks for playing!".  I wan't to keep what Level Extra looks like a secret, so I won't show it here.

Now that Big Green and Level Extra are implemented, I think the game is done. Right now, I'm just playtesting it as much as I can to see if there are any bugs and to make sure the game is possible to beat. The only major features I haven't implemented yet are:

• Saving your high score after you've exited the game, and an option to reset it
• Volume slider

I tried adding a volume slider before, but I failed horribly. I also have no idea how saving works. But there are 5 days left, so I think what I'll do is submit the game later today and then work on those features. I'll update this devlog once the game is submitted.

This looks so cool! I can't wait to play it!

Day 5 Devlog 2: Electric Boogaloo

I've animated the UFO enemies. Take a look at Red:

I haven't done much else today, but I figure I should show something in the Day 4 build that I haven't mentioned in the devlog yet.

See the blue circle above Purple? That's a graphic that'll appear when one of the bird's lasers hits an enemy. There's already a sound effect to indicate that, but I realized that if you're playing without sound, it'd be hard to tell if your laser hit an enemy or not, so I added that in as a visual indicator.

When animated, it looks like this:

It'a a lot smaller than that in-game, but you get the idea.

One last thing: while writing this, I left the game open on the Game Over screen in another tab, and I realized that I...

• didn't make it so that enemies stop spawning while you're dead
• didn't put a cap on the amount of enemies that can be on-screen at once

( ౦ ‸ ౦ ; )

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If you want to play the Day 5 build of the game, go here. Press left click to flap and hold right click to shoot. I'd love to hear your feedback!

Really cute art style, and the rooms are very dream-like. I just wish it was longer and more fleshed out. What you have here is a pretty good base, though!

Can you move it along? I'm all out of time cards.

I'm gonna try something different today: instead of writing one big update, I'll split it into multiple small updates.

I've implemented the difficulty ramping, but it only affects the pipes. The pipes will start at a speed of 255, and every second, that speed will increase by 2. They'll still spawn at the same rate (one pair of pipes every 3 seconds) but they'll move faster as time goes on, making them harder to dodge.

To test this, I implemented God Mode. Press G, and you'll turn yellow and become invincible.

Here's what the list of features I want to implement looks like now:

• A counter that displays how many pipes you've passed,
• Tips on the "Click to start!" screen,
• Saving your high score after you've exited the game, and an option to reset it,
• Multiple backgrounds,
• Difficulty increasing the longer you stay alive,
• God Mode,
• Bosses, etc.

I'll post more later.

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If you want to play the Day 4 build of the game, you can do so here. Press left-click to flap and hold right-click to shoot.

One word:

Enemies!

They come in three colors, and each one has different properties:

the Reds have average speed and health,

the Purples move slowly, but are durable,

and the Blues are weak, but really fast.

Every two seconds, a random enemy will spawn at one of 6 points just outside the right edge of the screen, and head left from there. Once they reach a certain point, they shoot the purple orb that I showed in the last post, which heads towards the position the player was at when it was fired.

The player dies in one hit from touching either a bullet, an enemy, or a pipe.

You get different amounts of points depending on which enemy you kill, with Blues (and pipes) giving you the most points, while Reds will give you the least.

Now that I've made the enemies, the game is basically done. I'm not gonna submit it now, though. There are 9 days left in the jam, so I'm gonna try and implement some more features, like...

• A counter that displays how many pipes you've passed,
• Tips on the "Click to start!" screen,
• Saving your high score after you've exited the game, and an option to reset it,
• Multiple backgrounds,
• Difficulty increasing the longer you stay alive,
• Bosses, etc.

I most likely won't be able to implement all of those, but I'll try and do some of them. In the meantime, if you want to play the current build of the game, you can do so here. Press left-click to flap and hold right-click to shoot. I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback!

I'm running out of ways to say thank you. You're all way too nice!

Your pixel art is great! And I love the idea of a shmup where you fire words instead of bullets. Like NNChan said, lots of storytelling potential there.

I'm glad you like it!

Thanks! っゝω・)っ～☆

I didn't get much done today for a couple reasons. I'm not going to explain those reasons, though. Instead, let's look at the bright side and see what I did do today.

First off, here are three screenshots showcasing the current state of the game. There's a lot of new stuff in them, so let's break them down one by one:

Screenshot #1 shows the "Click to start!' screen. This message will pop up when you start up the game. This screenshot also shows our bird protagonist and the background.

The Click to start screen isn't actually new, and neither is the Game Over screen in Screenshot #3. I made both of those yesterday, but I haven't shown them until now.

Screenshot #2 is where the new stuff begins. I'm holding right-click in this screenshot, which continuously fires those wide, blue projectiles you see above. Those are the bird's lasers! You can also see an enemy in the bottom right (the magenta box) and a bullet fired by an enemy in the bottom left.

Screenshot #3 showcases the game over screen. Notice how there are 3 enemies now. That's because enemies spawn every 2 seconds and they wrap around the screen, so if you're not careful, enemies can quickly pile up on screen. Clicking the retry button just takes you back to Click to start.

I really wish I could share a GIF of all this, but I tried to record it and it was lagging waaay too much.  I really need a better computer.

That's all that I've been working on for now. But before I go, I'll leave you with the enemy bullet sprite in all it's fully animated glory.

Trippy.

A tutorial for a Flappy Bird/Shmup hybrid? That's pretty specific.

I'm limiting myself to a pallete. I didn't make the pallete myself, though., it was made by someone called natsukis.

I probably won't be using vaporwave music, since it tends to be relaxing and laid back, and I want the game to have a fast pace. I'll probably use something more energetic, like this song I found on Incompetech.

Thank yooouuu! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

"It's not so much retro for me as it is familiar in a very good way."

But... isn't that what retro is? The definition of retro doesn't change with each generation, the thing that's considered retro changes.

You consider 8-bit retro, while I consider the GBA retro, but what we both have in common is that we're both familiar with those things and we both have nostalgia for them.

Yep.

If the color pallete is reminding you of something retro, then it's working as intended. Thank you!

Unrelated, but I just scored 29 points while playtesting. That's the highest score I've gotten while playing any version of Flappy Bird! I feel compelled to tell you about this for some reason!

I know it's Day 3 of the jam, but I started this yesterday.

Today I've been mainly working on the art for Flappy Shmup. I probably should've focused on getting the shmup part of the game done, but I guess I just got sidetracked.

Remember when I said the aesthetic would be "Galaga but with a vaporwave color pallete"? I think I should demonstrate what that looks like. Behold:

Galaga but with a vaporwave color pallete!

The art isn't going to look exactly like that, though. I've been making some of the assets, and I've decided to go with the thick outlines that Flappy Bird's artwork has. Take a look at my bird sprite:

Since our bird's going to be firing lasers from his eyes, I decided to give him a Cyclops inspired visor. My brother said it looked like Geordie from Star Trek, though.

Now take a look at my pipes:

I'm really happy with how they turned out. I think the bird could use some work, though.

If you have any tips on how to improve my pixel art, don't hesitate to share them with me! I could also use some advice on how to come up with a better name than "Flappy Shmup".

I'm making it in Construct 2. There's no way I'd be able to write everything myself.

Thanks! Removing the pipes entirely could also work. I really just need to experiment until I find something that I like.

Thanks for replying! I was thinking of making the gaps between pipes more forgiving, but maybe having less pipes could work too. I'm looking forward to playing around with the design and seeing what works best.

"It's grayed out. Why is it grayed out? WHY IS IT GRAYED OUT?!?"

God, I feel your pain. I didn't know that GMS2 couldn't export games until the day before the jam, so I had to make a last minute switch to Construct 2, an engine I haven't touched in months.

Good luck with your game, man.

I didn't make a devlog in the last jam, mostly because I hadn't decided what type of game I was gonna make until well into the 2 weeks. This time, however, I have a semi-clear idea of what I'm gonna make.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Flappy Shmup!

Please ignore the awful framerate, my computer apparently can't handle recording a simple GIF.

Okay, so it's a bit lacking in the Shmup department at the moment. But the Flappy part is almost done, and that's pretty much the base of the game.

The idea I have for the final game is a Flappy Bird clone where, along with dodging pipes, enemies will come from the side of the screen which you have to shoot down, preferably before they shoot you.

None of the artwork has been made yet, but the idea I have for the aesthetic is something retro and/or space themed.  Think Galaga, but with a vaporwave color pallete. Of course, that's if I decide to make the art myself.

As for sound, I'll make the sound effects using Chiptone, which is a tool for creating chiptune sound effects made by the Super Flash Brothers. It's like a web version of bfxr, if you're familiar with that. I'm not sure what background music I'll end up using.

I'll try to keep this devlog updated, so expect updates around once or twice a day. I think that should be enough, considering I have 13 days to finish this game.

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hello! I'm Sir Floof, but you can just call me Floof.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

I did participate in the last jam. I want to actually submit something this time.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

Asking me to choose my favorite games is like asking me to choose my favorite child.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?
In the last jam, I made a short, 1 level platformer called The Forest Treasure with Construct 2. I didn't submit it because I finished it after the jam had already ended. You can play it here, if you're interested.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

I'd say video games, but then "passionate" would be an understatement.

6. What are your goals for this game jam?

Make something better than what I made last time, and submit it. I'm proud of The Forest Treasure, but I want to improve upon it.

7.  Any advice to new jammers (if you're a veteran)?

I'm only technically a veteran, but I still have some advice.

If you're watching a tutorial on how to use an engine, try to get through it quickly so you have more time to actually make your game.  I spent way too long on a Construct 2 tutorial last time, and as a result, I wasn't able to finish my game on time.

So, I finished my game, but as it turns out, I finished it after the jam had already ended.

So yeah. That sucks.

But hey, I published a game! It's missing some sound effects, but I still published it! You can play my game here. Its title is "The Forest Treasure".

So, my thoughts on the game. Overall, I enjoyed the game development process, but there are two things I could've done better:

1. I didn't take this seriously enough. By that, I mean that I kinda slacked off a bit when making this game. Because of that, I didn't make full use of the 2 weeks I had to make it, and I feel like my game could've been a lot better if I had.

2. Real life got in the way. This isn't exactly my fault, but it was still a detriment to the quality of the game. By the time I had gotten serious about finishing my game, there was homework to be done, quizzes to study for, and a quinceañera that I had been invited to. As a result, I had even less time to finish and polish my game.

As for what worked, that would be:

1. I had enough resources to finish the game despite my time loss. OpenGameArt was a blessing when making this. I don't think I would've been able to finish it had I tried to make my own assets.

2. I'm mostly satisfied with how the game turned out. My game isn't perfect by any means, but I'm still okay with how it turned out in the end, even if there's a lot of room to make it better.

In conclusion, while I'm not 100% satisfied with how the game turned out, I'm still proud of what I made, and I'm glad that I more or less know the basics of how to develop a game now. In the future, I hope to make better games for people to play and have fun with.

Now I just need to learn how to code.

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hi! I'm Carlos, but on the internet, I usually go by Sir Floof.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

I did sign up for the last jam, but I didn't actually do anything. This time, I'm going to actually make something, hopefully. I just hope school doesn't get in the way.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

I've always been inspired by indie games that are mostly made by one person. Stuff like Cave Story, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Stardew Valley, etc. Those types of games always make me want to try and make my own game.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

I have practically no experience in game development. I messed around a bit with Construct 2 in the last jam, but that's about it.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

A couple things that I like are music and visual art, but above all else, I love video games.

6. Any advice to new jammers (if you're a veteran)?

Don't be lazy like me. Actually submit something. Even if you didn't finish it, you can still be proud of the fact that you made something.