yeah I'm looking to partner up with one or more artists to improve the look and work on more content...

About the sounds, i don't want sounds related to the bullets, theres so many flying around that it would be sooooooo annoying.

I'm considering having sound effects when hero gets hurt.

I'm always looking for cool ideas when it comes to guns/power ups/enemies.

One thing I'm currently thinking about that would be kind of goofy, but nice if i can find a way to implement it well, would be a 'pacman powerup', which would turn the hero into pacman for a limited time, and allow him to eat bullets to regain health. It's a little crazy, but I'm looking for a way to implement it that would make sense and not be goofy like actually transforming the hero into pacman.

When it comes to guns, i don't have much idea what i could use that would be different from what i currently have, and at the same time play well and not be gimmicky.

There's the laser gun which most of you have probably not seen yet. The gun is very cool because it fires a focused beam that goes through enemies, damaging them as it passes through them. The gun is extremely powerful.

Talking about the laser gun, it's the main reason i didn't implement free mouse aiming (implemented 8 directions mouse aiming instead). The laser gun is extremely powerful, even with 8 directions aiming. It almost one hit kills anything. When i give it to the hero, i can ramp the spawn speed to about 3 times faster :-)

But with mouse aiming, the player could simply stand in the middle and fire in circles to win. I need to figure out a solution to this and there is no easy way out. Either i scale down the laser strength and allow free aiming, which means keyboard aiming will need to be removed (power will not compare), or i keep fixed aiming and have a less than optimal mouse experience that allows the keyboard control to be competitive too. Hard decision.

Hello !

I've got another little update for you all to show some of the (small) progress I'm making.


First, I'd like to advertise that I'm looking for one or more artist to help me produce the graphics for the game. Programming the AI's, and the programming work that's left to implement bigger sized levels in itself is going to take me a long time, so if i cannot find help for the graphics, the project will not be able to advance at a satisfying pace. I would be extremely grateful if someone would want to hop in the project and help me :-) you could either PM me or reach me through email/msn at louislavallee9@hotmail.com


LINK :
Download Total Carnage (updated 18/2) !

So what's new in this version ?
-New music at the start of each level (except double spider carnage) made by Chimera Music Group (new collaborators who will handle a large chunk of the in game music)
-New enemy (Alien Triceratops). This enemy as the most advanced AI from all the enemies currently in the game.
-New Level (or not, it's just an unbalanced/boring level to showcase the triceratops, but the triceratops itself is pretty cool)
-Faster bullet travel speed/explosion. May seem like little but it helps the gameplay.
-Turret barrel is now perfectly directed toward hero, rather than the old 8 way direction.
-Turret now shoots bigger, different bullets.
-Nice replay packed in the .rar.

Some of you may have tried earlier iterations and thought that the game was really hard/too hard. I've packed a replay of 'Hard Classic Carnage' that shows how nice the game can become once your proficient at it. That replay shows me playing Hard Classic Carnage and dieing at 46%. I just can't beat that level though :-(, even though any other level is a piece of cake. If you want to watch this replay, you will have to start the game and watch it right away, as the replay will be erased as soon as you play a game. You can extract the files from the .rar again so that Replay.xml is overridden if you want to watch it after having played.

I've been having a lot of trouble, and spending a lot of time drawing the alien triceratops, but i think i managed to do an (almost) satisfying job. I hope to be able to touch up it's animation so that it looks a bit better, but it's not so bad.

FEEDBACK :
-Triceratops : I personally have mixed feelings about him. I think he got a nice 'cool factor', but the way he grabs and throws the player kind of disrupts the experience for me. Currently, my plan is to use him sparsely in levels as a way to keep the player moving and add a little 'fear factor'. I also have mixed feelings about his looks. I think the head looks really cool, but the body is so-so. I'd like to get any feedback, good and/or bad, about the triceratops.

-Bigger sized levels : I'm looking for a way to implement bigger sized levels with environments hazards, but i don't want complicated puzzles. I also want to keep the pace extremely high, and force the player to keep moving. I don't want to force scroll the screen. I don't know how to design levels that best achieve all those criteria, but I'd definitely like any suggestions you guys could give me.
I'm also open to any other feedback and/or suggestions you have about the game.

CURRENT TODO :
-Add death animation for the triceratops
-make the turret bullets come from the guns end rather than from the center
-Try to make a cool physic effect where the triceratops crashes into the walls rather than running over it.
-allow the triceratops to do damage (currently out only to allow me to test him better)
-add congratulation menu once you complete a level
-Work on new enemy (Giant Alien Fleshy Robotic Snake Boss)
-Do something to improve mouse aiming
-Support Alt Tabbing
-Create bigger/different levels

[Edited by - RamboPowPow on February 18, 2008 7:27:07 PM]

Little update (download links in the post are up to date)

Modifications :
-Some music change
-Cleaned up some files that weren't used
-Added death animation for triceratops (pretty neat i think)
-Fixed Triceratops AI so that when one is hurting the player, the others wait
-Fixed Triceratops so that when he is incoming (spinning heads), he is invincible
-Fixed turret so that bullet comes out where you would expect it to
-Modified turret bullet (again) so that it uses colors that won't make you think it's a killable enemy in Atomic Carnage
-Added bounce on walls effect when the triceratops throws the player

Another little update !

The download link in the main post has been updated !

Update Content :
-Game now comes with some sample replays. They can be viewed from the new 'Watch Replay' Menu. Packed replays include a replay beating each of the levels, except for Hard Classic Carnage, which I am not yet able to beat. I however packed a replay that goes 45% deep in it.
-Level selection is now a sub menu of the 'Play !' menu.
-Smaller replay files
-When a level is completed, you will now be greeted to a congratulation screen, and brought back to the main menu with your replay playing in background
-Reduced replay file sizes by a factor of 10

-TODO :
-Ask the player if he wants to save his replay once he completes/dies on a level. Then ask him for the file name
-Allow the player to upload/download replays directly from the game on a master server so that everyone can share their replays.
-Reduce replay file sizes by a factor of about 3, making the biggest replay (currently about 60K) down to 20K, allowing for quick access to online replays.
-Improve replay selection interface
-Add more ennemies/integrate triceratops in levels

-TIP : If you want to save your own replay after a particularly great game, until i implement the feature in game, you can exit the game and copy 'Replay.xml' from your TotalCarnage folder to the 'Replays' folder. You can then rename the file in the 'Replays' folder to your liking. IF YOU DO SO, MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT REMOVE 'Replay.xml' FROM YOUR TotalCarnage FOLDER, OR ELSE THE GAME WILL BE CORRUPTED AND NOT WORK ANYMORE.

New update !

Get the download link in my first post !


I'm still looking for 1 or more 2D artists to help me with the game ! If your interested, your task would be to create new enemies, backgrounds, bullets, explosions... Contact me by PM, by reply or by e-mail/msn at louislavallee9@hotmail.com for more information


UPDATE CONTENT :
-Integrated triceratops in Classic and Atomic Carnage
-Added 'Easy Classic Carnage' and 'Easy Atomic Carnage' to the levels (much easier than before)
-Player can now save replay after death or level success and later access it through 'Watch Replay' option
-Classic and Atomic (normal) are now harder due to triceratops
-Improved blood animation (will now fly in the direction of the bullet that caused it)
-New HP Bar
-Spider boss antennae, neck and head now pushes the player away on contact
-Sun hitting shield will now bounce correctly
-Support for more then 10 saved replays (can now scroll to reach other replays)
-Triceratops now deals damage when swinging the hero on it's pick
-Fixed moments where no music would be heard after a song ends and before another starts (music will now loop)

NOTES
Please note that replays will NOT be backwards compatible. I do not plan to make them backward compatible either. In fact, I've even added a version number in them that will allow me to not display incompatible replays in the Watch Replay menu.

KNOWN BUGS
There is a little problem with the way the hero bounces on the spider neck. It is mostly right, but in some cases it will be a bit weird. It will be fixed in the next version

FEEDBACK
Especially for those who try this for the first time, how were the easy levels? Too easy, just right or too hard?

Any other feedback would be appreciated too !

New update !

Download link is available in the first post.

This update is quite small but does a lot to improve the game play.

UPDATE CONTENT :
-Improved mouse support
-Support for XBOX 360 controller
-Minor bug fixes

Improved mouse support : You are no longer restricted to aiming in only 8 directions. The gun will now shoot directly towards the cursor position. Also, when mouse control is active, the camera will behave differently by having your player permanently centered in the screen to make aiming easier (at the cost of some visibility).

Support for XBOX 360 controller : This is now the BEST WAY to control the game. The right joystick will allow you too shoot in any direction, and the right joystick allow you to also move in any direction. It also allows you to walk by using less force on the left joystick. Vibration is also activated when getting hit. This way of controlling allows for the old camera to be used, thus maximizing visibility and control. I've had LOTS OF FUN with this controller.

The game also packs 2 new replays of Classic and Hard Classic completed. I couldn't have managed to do it if it wasn't for the xbox controller !

By default, if xbox controller is plugged in, it will be defaulted. If not, mouse control with WASD for movement will be defaulted.

Have fun !