Echoes - hints/tips + my thoughts/suggestions

[jaguar]

Firstly, brilliant game, most enjoyable. So refreshing to find some colourful, arcade FUN!

I tend to play on easy and can reach about 1.3m (only a few hundred thousand on normal and even less on hard). I can't help but feel that I should get that on normal, and easy should just be for pure fun and no worrying. I always end up getting to a point where I get hit so much I lose my weapon power-ups and then continuously struggle with inadequate firepower. It seems odd to me that you have to effectively play the game perfectly (i.e. not get hit) in order to keep your power-ups and thus progress. It does add some drama to the game, however!

Of course, it could simply be that I am not very good And I realise that with a joypad, it might be easier. However for me I think movement is definitely best with the mouse. Just an analogue control for firing would be helpful, rather than having to move into the most effective position, not always convenient!

So please, if any of you more seasoned players have any tips, they would be most welcome. I feel like I'm not maximising my enjoyment and I don't want to get disheartened! My thanks in advance and I eagerly await!

Is there any chance of making it open source in any way? I would love to have a look at the code so I can tweak it myself (purely for my own interests, of course).

Thanks for such a great game though. I look forward to all future releases!

[fog]

Thanks for the feedback.

I tend to play on easy and can reach about 1.3m (only a few hundred thousand on normal and even less on hard). I can't help but feel that I should get that on normal, and easy should just be for pure fun and no worrying. I always end up getting to a point where I get hit so much I lose my weapon power-ups and then continuously struggle with inadequate firepower. It seems odd to me that you have to effectively play the game perfectly (i.e. not get hit) in order to keep your power-ups and thus progress. It does add some drama to the game, however!

Of course, it could simply be that I am not very good And I realise that with a joypad, it might be easier. However for me I think movement is definitely best with the mouse. Just an analogue control for firing would be helpful, rather than having to move into the most effective position, not always convenient!

Unfortunately that's one of the drawbacks of supporting so many different control systems and probably why so many games don't so it.  I could have designed it and balanced the difficluty around the mouse/keys control system but then I would have had a load of requests for joypad support

I'm not sure there is a satisfactory way of doing it.  I could adjust the difficulty depending on the control method selected but then some people would probably complain they were being penalised for their prefered control method.

Anyway I'd suggest you try some custom control methods and see if you can find something that suits you better.  I know some people are racking up pretty high score on hard using the mouse/keys combination so it is possibly.

Is there any chance of making it open source in any way? I would love to have a look at the code so I can tweak it myself (purely for my own interests, of course).

Some day possibly but not now.  Anyway the actual "code" for Echoes is just the 87kb script that is interpreted by my "shmup engine".....which will be used for our future projects too.

[The DarkStar]

So please, if any of you more seasoned players have any tips, they would be most welcome.

Fire diagonally tapping two keys to fire at a wider angle. That's a classic.

[fog]

So please, if any of you more seasoned players have any tips, they would be most welcome.

Fire diagonally tapping two keys to fire at a wider angle. That's a classic.

And you can always wiggle the mousewheel to spread your shots easier

[donny]

about the source code, you told me once it was made in dark basic pro, right?
but i think most other people use C++, so they can't do anything with the .dba file
but thanks to fog's advise getting DBpro i'm finaly making my first games

[fog]

Hi donny and welcome

but thanks to fog's advise getting DBpro i'm finaly making my first games

Heh cool.  I assume we spoke over email?

Don't forget to come back and show us what you've written and if you need any help with anything feel free to ask on here too.  There are quite a few people on here that use DBPro.

[TheKhakinator]

So please, if any of you more seasoned players have any tips, they would be most welcome.

Fire diagonally tapping two keys to fire at a wider angle. That's a classic.

And you can always wiggle the mousewheel to spread your shots easier

I've never thought of any of those! wow! I'm gonna have to give that a try.

[donny]

Hi donny and welcome

but thanks to fog's advise getting DBpro i'm finaly making my first games

Heh cool.  I assume we spoke over email?

Don't forget to come back and show us what you've written and if you need any help with anything feel free to ask on here too.  There are quite a few people on here that use DBPro.

yes, those where one or 2 emails
at the time there was only mono, and i didn't thought you could ever make better games then that:)
but i was wrong:p

is there a board for home made games here?
my game is galaxytrader (still beta, need some testers, and people who can code:))
its a TBSST, a turn based strategy space trading game:p

[The DarkStar]

its a TBSST, a turn based strategy space trading game:p

Lol! Before reading the explanation i guessed the first three letters

[fog]

is there a board for home made games here?
my game is galaxytrader (still beta, need some testers, and people who can code:))
its a TBSST, a turn based strategy space trading game:p

Great.  Stick it on the Game Development board and I'm sure a few people will try it out

[donny]

Great.  Stick it on the Game Development board and I'm sure a few people will try it out

maybe later, it still has a lot of craches...

[fog]

Great.  Stick it on the Game Development board and I'm sure a few people will try it out

maybe later, it still has a lot of craches...

Welcome to the world of coding   Anyway if you need any help just make a post.