.S.C.A.G.

[NecroDOME]

.S.C.A.G. (SColling Action Game)

http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Scag/SCAG.jpg

We have completed .S.C.A.G. for the competition. You can find it on this site for download! First of all: .S.C.A.G. stands for SCrolling Action Game. nothing more, nothing less. This game is powered by the Necro3D game engine.
The game has 4 playable levels, 4 weapons and a shopping system to buy and sell weapons and powerups.

You can download .S.C.A.G. from our website:
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Project.nss?project=Game_SCAG


Future of .S.C.A.G.

We have planned to make 12 levels in total, in 4 different worlds: City/forrest, Space, Lava and Ice and maybe some more weapons, powerups and enemies.

Screenshots:

<center>http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Scag/SCAG_Final5.jpg
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Scag/SCAG_Final7.jpg</center>

Edit: Just fixin' the post...

[WILL]

First one to reply, yay! :D

I still enjoy a good shooter. And this is an excellent modernization of the genre. I unfortunately only got to the first boss. :? I loved how you changed up the new style as you play.

Found the booster (the upgrade where you can jump side to side real quick) controls to be rather fustrating. When moving around the incoming shots to avoid them it sometimes goes off without me double tapping the left or right keys. Perhaps some improvements in this reguard would be in order?

I also found that maximizing and minimizing the window is a mistake. :) When you change the dimentions of the screen while in-game all of the mapped button locations do not change with it. So... they don't work properly. When you go back (ie. Hit Alt-Enter again) you lose your title bar on the window and can no longer control the window of the program.

:idea: Maybe you can add an 'Afterburner' type perspective later on? Sort of a behind your ship view, but still a bit on top so that you can have that forward and back distance perspective too.


Great game Michiel and Frank! ;)

[madwoody]

Heey, thx for trying our game. It's true the booster can be frustrating because you can hit it accidently. Happy for us you can sell the booster :) We also know alt+enter isn't working properly but alt+enter isn't an offical key. If you change it in the options it just works fine

We are planning a release with more stages and fix some and look at the booster. Maybe it's better to use another key or something for that.

Grtz

Frank

[aidave]

PROS:
First impression with this game is outstanding,
the first level is well designed and the graphics are really colorful.
The pacing and level flow well, good lighting, nice UFO boss,
the buildings look neat and the perspective change is cool.
In my opinion the best looking level in the competition! :clap:

CONS:
After the first level, the bosses are easier and less lively.
Nothing matched the design quality of the first level,
although the lava looked good (and i think i saw a pack of smokes, lol).
A little ai or random numbers to the enemies would add replay value.
Need an option to turn the music off.


I'm troubled that you guys used music from previous commercial games.
I dont feel thats in the spirit of an independent game competition.
Can you explain that choice? :think:

[madwoody]

Thx for the comments. The first level we made was the most time consuming because we had to made alot 3D models for it. To texture and convert it in the game is really time consuming. In the first deadline we were ahead of schedule and had time to made this, but later on we focused on other parts of the game like adding more different enemies and weapons. Never the less I think the other levels aren't really that bad and differ alot from the other levels. The plan was to also add some ground targets but we think we are gonna make that for another release.

You're right the bosses at the later stages aren't as difficult as the first one. In the lavalevel we tried to increase difficulty by adding some random lavaballs that can do alot of damage when you're hit. The difficulty is mostly found at the number of enemies and stronger enemies. And maybe that's the reason it are not random enemies. Some are moving up and down/left and right.

The music is just simply to explain. We had a band who want to make a soundtrack for us but at the end they couldn't make it before the final deadline :(

But there is hope! We gonna make some more stages for each level and we are gonna make some improvements and bug fixes. So we take some of your cons with us when we gonna make the improvements.

Grtz
Frank

[aidave]

for music there is plenty of free tunes out there,
check www.foem.info for example.
Usually all it takes is to ask the artists permission.

Heres an idea for the future:
I noticed you are using Newton.dll
Make the levels have Newton physical shape with a collision tree,
so that when the enemies crash and have pieces fall,
they would bounce off the scenery. That would look very cool! :idea:

[NecroDOME]

The engine uses newton, but we have not implement it in .S.C.A.G. our next game will use newton as physics.

For the free tunes I will take a look. But we are still waiting on our soundtrack :P

[chronozphere]

Hi NecroDome 8)

SCAG has become a really great game.. congratifulations. :D

This is also the first PGD competition entry wich i have beaten.
The difficulty level is just fine... i had to play the levels a few times over before i beat them, but i was still fun.

The graphics are great.. couldn't be much better. :)

Gameplay (especialy the shopping-system) is also great.
Although, i think the booster was quite annoying because sometimes you suddenly/accidently move up or down and then i get hit allot.
Fortunatly the player can just decide to not buy it. :)

Where did you get the music you used for SCAG, i really like it (commercial or not:) ). Since i have a keyboard and make my own music, these soundtracks might inspire me.

[NecroDOME]

For the music: see read-me.

For .S.C.A.G.: we are currenly making more levels so stay tuned. Also we have our first-non-commercial-free-tune for .S.C.A.G. :p

.S.C.A.G. continues...

[madwoody]

Booster is for pro pilots only :)

[chronozphere]

Booster is for pro pilots only.


Yeah... :) Apparently you dont have to be pro pilot to beat the game 8)

[chronozphere]

I tried your game again.... because i wanted to test the more expensive weapons wich i had not been able to buy yet. Before playing the last level... I could buy a drunkenpod :)... I must say that it looks realy cool.

I wonder.. Is there someone out here who managed to get a devastator or is this only possible for the next version of SCAG (when more levels are included)????

[NecroDOME]

To get the devestator: don't buy the drunken pod and before the 4th level, sell your rockets. Then you should have the cash.

(Or maybe you want to cheat the check it out, then press 'X')

In the next version, the devestator will be more expensive and we have planned to include mure powerfull weapons.

[WILL]

I beat SCAG, I beat SCAG!!! Yay! :P

Nice cinematics. ;) Last level was challenging. Either collision detection is very 'rough' or it's hard to see some of the objects/craft that you accidentally fly into. :? However that is not uncommon with many commercial video games, so not such a big deal.

But overall. Very nice graphics. :)

[NecroDOME]

Well, a long time ago we finished .S.C.A.G. for the compo. It had 4 levels, a few enemys and a few weapons.

We still woking on it. It has almost 12 levels, some are not yet finished. We added some new enemys and more weapons of mass destruction.

.S.C.A.G. is almost finished :)

We still need to finish 3 maps and a boss for the space-map (any ideas?)!

Thats for now! I will post the full version somewhere here...

[WILL]

We still need to finish 3 maps and a boss for the space-map (any ideas?)!
:twisted:

:lol: No seriously though... why not have to fly around a huge battle cruiser (I mean several times larger than the screen!) and have to fight another 'ace' around this thing? The cruiser would have all these guns and turrets firing at you (easy task in it's self), but you have to fight this guy who isn't so easy at the same time.

Make it so you can take out the turrets so they will stop harrassing you, etc...

You could even have a few of these dog fights near the end. Sort of like these pilots are reall good and they want to test themselves against you. I mean... you've proven yourself to be a highly worthy opponent at this point, no?

You know what else would be cool? I don't know how crazy you can get with the view changes at this point. But what about a view behind your fighter? iow viewing the direction that you are flying in. You can event have it switch as you go around the huge cruiser depending on what part of it you are currently. (Forward, Aft, port side, underneath, etc...)

Fodder for thought. ;)

[NecroDOME]

Currenty we have a "deadstar" type of map. (Maybe I'll post screensots soon) thats need to be finished. We had the idea of putting doors in the middle that open and closes.

As for the camera rotaion: we have limited to topdown and side view. We don;t have plans to make it go down or from behind. Maps are not disigned for that purpose :P
(as shown in this screenshot: http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/App_Necro3D/ScagLevel1.jpg (http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/App_Necro3D/ScagLevel1.jpg))

So far we have 4 episodes with eatch 3 maps.
3 city maps, 3 space maps, 3 lava maps and 3 ice maps and a boring story :)
O yeah, we also have a bonus map :) , Only need a place to fit in the game... like when you shoot 70% of all enemys or something. Or you will have the chance to play it when you successfully destroyed the uber boss...

[WILL]

So anything new since the post-PGDAnnual period has passed? Or have other newer projects taken over already? :)

It's a nice enging though, I'd hate to see if go to waste since putting all that effort into it. How about anything new using the same engine?

[NecroDOME]

.S.C.A.G.'s progress is slow... a bit to slow... :P
We have almost 12 maps, new weapons, enemys 'n' stuff.

Things we need before release:
- More music
- 1 boss for stage 2 (space stage)
- a better intro movie...

We still updating our engine...

ps. Some shots of the bonus map:

http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Scag/SCAG29.jpg
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Scag/SCAG30.jpg
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Scag/SCAG31.jpg

[NecroDOME]

Still working on .S.C.A.G....

[NecroDOME]

tiny update:

http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Scag/SCAG33.jpg

Ufo replaced for a helicopter. (ufo is now boss for ep 2 - space)

[WILL]

Very cool! :) Love all the greens.

Btw, whats with the glitch on the 2nd set of shot missiles there? (a peice of the green trail it missing at the back end of the missile models)

[NecroDOME]

That is where the particle emitter starts.... when moving you barely notice it.

[jasonf]

OK...

I've just played SCAG (for the second time) and It's a fekin' brilliant game.

But it needs finishing. It's a little difficult though, I was quite impressed that I got to the Lava world. I think more health is needed or something.

It reminds me very much of Raptor from back in the day ;) only yours is more fun. I got really stuck on Raptor, it had an insanely hard learning curve and didn't offer too much in the reward department.. after each mission, I felt drained.

Mate, keep going with this OK. It's a really good game with some really nice, novel ideas. Just needs that little extra bit of polish (oh and completely original music ;) I lurve the current menu music and I was gonna ask who did it then I checked the credits :( )

Things that I think need tightening up..

1. Sometimes, the screen is Too busy. If I hold down the fire button I can pretty much survive, but the baddies are too keen on the fire button.

2. Some of the graphics could use an update (Hey, I'm no artist either.. but some environment mapping would be really nice) Some smaller, more detailed particles could be used. Visual cues as to when the baddies are going to fire.

3. The boost option is really annoying. I hit more asteroids because of the boost than anything else. The movement should be predictable. The boost should be on another button I think. Then at least you know you're gonna jump.

4. More powerups. Give more health more often. If the player is low on health, make baddies pop out health upgrades. Also, if you kill a sequenc eof baddies, give a money bonus or something :D I noticed you did that on the asteroid level.. that was nice.

The UFO baddie on the 2nd mission was a work of art. I just got into the feel of dodge here, use my missiles from the side.. oh yeah.. this is gonna be easy.. Then the camera panned and he started to use that dish ray-gun on me.. I wasn't expecting that, I suddenly went from feeling in control to feeling scared again.. Good work.

The Lava world needs tidying up a little.. it's too jaggy and shiny. Perhaps some bump mapping could be used.. or smooth out the terrain a little and add more interesting rocks. Perhaps make it so I have to dodge them.. have some exploding volcanoes in the background or something :D

Have some firebolts coming out of the ground. If you're into your shaders, you could add a heat haze and make everything wavey ;)

I didn't get to the ice world. I died :(



I'm currently working through a massive change to Guns Reloaded and as a break (displacement activity) I played your game and it got me thinking. I remember in a previous post of yours that you say you need to get back into finishing SCAG.

I think you're doing an awesome job here and although I can't help, I can encourage.. now put down those cheesy poofs and get back to work ;)

awesome stuff mate, seriously :D

[NecroDOME]

Thanks for playing SCAG :D

However you played the old verions :P (the 4-map version)

1. We have more weapons now, should be easier to keep yourself alive!
2. We have almost 12 (+ 1 bonus) maps, with some nice visual things. We do not use bumpmapping, but we updated some particles effects.
3. True, boost needs a little control update
4. Got that already...
- About asteroids, we have more of them :)

About the lava world, we could add some rocks etc.
- exploding volcanoes, We got it already, however you don't see it exploding, but you have to dodge some stuff

Have some firebolts coming out of the ground. - Good idea!!

Sorry, not using any shaders :(

(Img to large to put here)
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/zooi/UberGun.jpg
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/zooi/Glow.jpg
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/zooi/Bonus.jpg

http://necrodome.homeftp.net/zooi/Scag%20Overkill.jpg

[JSoftware]

Where can I get the one with more levels? is it the one that I can download of your site even though it only says 4 playable levels?

[NecroDOME]

it's still in development :P coming soon...

[sekelsenmat]

Maybe the different sounds could be controled. I find that the weapons sound is too high, so I can´t hear the nice soundtrack. And because if the way the game works, I just keep firing non-stop =)

[NecroDOME]

Yeah, yesterday we worked on level 1 :D :D :D :D so very soon it's finished :D (I hope this week as we really want to start with the next compo)

[NecroDOME]

Yeah, we're still working on it...
We are planning to release .S.C.A.G. in a commercial way. Also we are making a promo movie/teaser :)
+ we gonna make a nice demo so you can enjoy .S.C.A.G. 4 free :P !!

however we are also working on a new 3D engine witch would be "the next generation and i'm gonna beat Unreal Engine and CryEngine" (just kidding).

New 3D engine is far better than the old one, but there's still a lot of work to do before we can show you some fancy eye candy!

a question for ppl who just see this: does anyone has any experience with shader code to make nice and fancy effects? (you may PM me)