Author Topic: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution  (Read 30927 times)

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Offline JamesV

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Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« on: September 25, 2013, 04:19:19 am »
About a year ago I released Alien Breed 5. Whilst I was quite happy with it, there were a few ideas & features that I had in mind during the development process that didn't make it into the final product for various reasons. I figured I'd come back and further develop the game again at some point, and based on my track record of Alien Breed games on TI calculators, I guess it was inevitable anyway! Those that have either finished all 12 levels of AB5 (or looked through the source code) will know that I decided to subtitle the v1 release "Episode I: Rebirth".

Episode II: Evolution is a major update to Alien Breed 5. The battle against the neverending alien horde continues, and will be taken to new levels of fun!

There will be a number of improvements and additions to the game. For this reason, it will be available only on the TI-83+/84+ calculators, as a flash application. The game has now outgrown it's previous "RAM program" life due to memory constraints. In terms of how the game will be changed, think of it like an "expansion pack", ie. all the previous levels and gameplay features of AB5 v1 will be there, but there will now be additional content and things to do in-game.

Features:
- 12 brand new levels which form Episode II: Evolution. This brings the level total to 24 across 2 campaigns.
- 2-player co-operative play.
- "Retreat" firing.
- Intex Entertainment "Space Pong".
- Achievements.
- In-game tips for new players.
- Smooth walls/soft corners for easier navigation into tighter corridors.
- Increased tileset, animations & interactive objects.
- Improved interface.
- Boss AI re-written.
- Game balancing adjusted.
- Cut scene type segments and improved epilogue when finishing a campaign.
- A bunch of minor bug fixes.

« Last Edit: January 23, 2015, 12:16:32 am by JamesV »

Offline tr1p1ea

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2013, 04:58:10 am »
One word: WOW!

That teaser is awesome! I love the way the heading is slowly revealed with the story text.
"My world is Black & White. But if I blink fast enough, I see it in Grayscale."


Offline Sorunome

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2013, 05:45:47 am »
Wha, awesome teaser! :D

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Offline JamesV

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2013, 09:18:25 am »
Thanks guys! :) My inspiration was the effect used in the first ALIEN movie.

It doesn't matter how many times I've seen that movie over the years, this trailer (from 1979!!) still gives me goosebumps! The sign of a true classic.


Offline Sorunome

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2013, 12:24:23 pm »
oh, so /that/ is why the slowley appearing lines for the heading seamed so familiar :P

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Offline Streetwalrus

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2013, 03:37:35 pm »
Awesome teaser, James. This sounds really cool ! :D

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2013, 12:07:45 am »
Awesome teaser JamesV. :D Glad there is another AB5 episode in the works. :)

Offline JamesV

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2013, 12:44:27 am »
I mentioned in the original post that AB5 v2 will include all the levels from v1 (Episode I: Rebirth). It will also include another set of 12 new levels (Episode II: Evolution)!

Whilst the Rebirth levels were based on the Alien Breed Special Edition '92 levels from Team 17, the Evolution levels will likely be a mix of the Team 17 Alien Breed 1, Convergence, Valiance & Synergy levels. I'm intending to make the difficulty curve slightly sharper on these levels, although I have no idea how easy or hard people found the Rebirth levels.. I find them pretty easy, but then I know the levels inside out from playing ABSE'92 through hundreds of times over the last 20 years!

When starting a new game, a new selection screen comes up, and you choose whether you want to play the Rebirth or Evolution episode. Passcodes from v1 are still valid in v2, and entering a passcode from a game you had been playing in v1 will simply work as it did before, whereas any passcodes you receive when playing the Evolution levels will automatically load you back into the appropriate Evolution level. This is because internally the passcodes calculate the Rebirth levels as 0-11 and the Evolution levels as 12-23.


Offline Sorunome

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2013, 07:02:22 am »
pretty awesome!
I like your font for the 'Alien Breed 5' :)

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Offline JamesV

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2013, 04:00:24 am »
What's could be better than Alien Breed on a TI calculator? How about Alien Breed on 2 linked TI calculators?

The main new addition in AB5 v2 is that I've gotten around to implementing 2 player co-operative link play! This is something I've wanted to do for many years - back in 2000 I even attempted to make an Alien Breed "deathmatch" game, but failed miserably. The co-op feature of the Team 17 games was always an awesome feature that I enjoyed; Dad and I spent many years blasting away at aliens together when I was a kid!

I owe many thanks to Timendus for his Bell link library which I'm using. It's proved invaluable and syncing between the two calculators is running smoothly. In terms of performance, a link play game runs a couple of frames slower per second, due to the small packets being sent back and forth, but it's still nice and smooth.

With gameplay, it functions almost identically to the original Team 17 games. Both players must work together in the same area, ie. you can't venture more than a screen length away from each other, and you can't shoot each other. The only difference to the Team 17 games is that in the calculator version, the two players don't have collision detection with each other - you can walk through one another. This is simply because the levels in the calculator game are exactly half the length & width of the originals, thus the corridors are often narrower and so getting around each other would often be impossible.

In the event that one player runs out of lives, quits, or unplugs mid-game, the other player has the option to continue in single player mode. Once you revert to single player mode, you can't return to two player mode without starting a new link game. 2 player games can also be played on the original Episode I: Rebirth levels.


Offline Sorunome

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2013, 04:33:26 am »
Are you serious? O.O
This is freaking amazing! O.O

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2013, 12:15:06 pm »
Wow this would be the first ever calc game to support coop gameplay if you pull this off! O.O

Offline chickendude

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2013, 01:48:55 pm »
That is looking incredible! I love how the camera centers around the two players. BomberKidz is finally going to have some competition!

Offline TIfanx1999

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #13 on: October 04, 2013, 02:20:26 pm »
Wow, new levels and now link play? That's awesome! :D

Offline Streetwalrus

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Re: Alien Breed 5 Episode II: Evolution
« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2013, 04:34:49 pm »
THIS IS SO FREAKING EPIC DUDE ! *.*
Please excuse the caps but it's really awesome. :D