"Our Dear Paper Fighters" - Top down shooter

[AFS]

Hello.

This is a a pet project of mine. I've been working on this since August 2015, although the code behind it is much older.

The game itself is nothing fancy, just a top down shooter inspired by games like Desert Strike and Urban Strike, which I played on the SNES when I was a kid.


- One of the first screenies. January 2016


- A more recent screenshot. It has a different HUD for the healh and fuel, plus the adition of ammo. April 2017


- The first gif of the game, when buildings were just part of the background and the screen-shake was obnoxiously strong. For some reason the GIF came out too dark. January 2016


- First gameplay video, with awfully loud sounds. February 2016


- Making a small part of the level with the editor. May 2016


- More recent gameplay, showing the general structure of a level. April 2017


Sorry for not sharing the source, this is made on a personal engine-of-sorts. Feel free to ask how anything is made, though, and I'll try to answer the best way I can

Cheers!

[Hapax]

I love this art style. I hope the final game always looks this good!
I saw this in the screenshot thread too but got too distracted to comment 

I think you should add a video of the gameplay. It will allow all users to see what the game looks like, even if they can't play using your provided binary.

[AFS]

I love this art style. I hope the final game always looks this good!
I saw this in the screenshot thread too but got too distracted to comment 

Thanks man, I'm really glad that you like the art style. I really struggle with graphics as I'm not an artist, so hearing that people like it is a huuuuge relief, so thanks again

I think you should add a video of the gameplay. It will allow all users to see what the game looks like, even if they can't play using your provided binary.

Good idea. Considering that the game barely has sounds, I decided to make a GIF instead. I edited the main post, thank you

[Satus]

Wow, art looks really cool.

[Elias Daler]

The art looks very good, yeah.
I tried to play your game, but it crashes for me after I press "Play". Grid appears and then some rectangles and it all crashes. Would like to check the game out, though.

(I wish I knew how to make music )

There's no need for that, search for some music there: http://opengameart.org/art-search-advanced?keys=&field_art_type_tid%5B%5D=12
If you want original music, search for a composer, I think some people might be willing to do music for free.

Sorry for not sharing the source, this is made on a personal engine-of-sorts. Feel free to ask how anything is made, though, and I'll try to answer the best way I can

No need to feel sorry for that, it's completely okay to make closed-source project.
Just a suggestion: maybe you should store all your data in English. It looks like your project is very data-driven, which is awesome, but this make it almost impossible to mod for people who don't speak Spanish. And I think that your game may interest some modders.


So, nice project overall! Would like to be able to play it later (maybe you should make some log file which will help identify the problem).

[Mario]

Yep, very nice. Once tried to make some  "paper cutout" graphics as well, although I didn't think of adding scribbles for detail. Makes it even better looking for pretty much no work to be done.

But I'm  curious: How do you draw the island outlines? Haven't had time to try the actual game, but I assume those aren't pre-drawn?

[Resethel]

Wow looks so cool! I wish I could play it :/
It would be great as Apax said to post a small preview of your game on Youtube!

As for music, you can find some great ones here for free: incompetch.com and some free sound there freesound.org (quite well known hehe)

[AFS]

Thanks for the good vibes, guys

Wow, art looks really cool.

Thanks!

I tried to play your game, but it crashes for me after I press "Play". Grid appears and then some rectangles and it all crashes. Would like to check the game out, though.

That's... weird.

Can you describe to me what appeared on screen, please? How was the grid, and of which size? How were the rectangles? Was the background color blue/cyan?

Or, if you don't mind, can you upload an screenshot?

This has never happened to me, but then again I haven't tested it much. I have a desktop with Win7 and a laptop with Win10, and I have also tested it on my sister's laptop which has Win8, and it's all good on those, but that's all the testing I can do.

By the way, did the main menu (the one with the "Play" button) have any background or was it just a blue color?

Just a suggestion: maybe you should store all your data in English. It looks like your project is very data-driven, which is awesome, but this make it almost impossible to mod for people who don't speak Spanish. And I think that your game may interest some modders.

Yeah, translating the files to english is on my to-do list

Initially I was thinking of just hiding those files, but then I thought: "what the hell, let people do whatever they want". But yeah, I need to translate it.

Also, the format of the data files is made "by hand", because back then (two years ago) I didn't know about XML, JSON or things like that, so undertanding the files may be a little complicated, even after the translation to english. I need to write some instructions or something if I want people to get their hands dirty. Still, my main worry right now is actually finishing the game

So, nice project overall! Would like to be able to play it later (maybe you should make some log file which will help identify the problem).

Thanks a lot!

I have no idea how to make a log file, though. Is there a library to do that or something?

Wow looks so cool! I wish I could play it :/

I'm thinking of doing a Linux build soon (I already have Ubuntu installed, but I have never used SFML on it). A Mac build is more unlikely, as I don't own a Mac machine (unless there's a way to compile for Mac on Windows/Linux, or better yet, a way to compile for all three operating systems on one go.)

As for music, you can find some great ones here for free: incompetch.com and some free sound there freesound.org (quite well known hehe)

There's no need for that, search for some music there: http://opengameart.org/art-search-advanced?keys=&field_art_type_tid%5B%5D=12

Thanks for the links, guys, I'll take a look, because playing a game without music feels so weird to me. I still want to learn how to make music, though.

Yep, very nice. Once tried to make some  "paper cutout" graphics as well, although I didn't think of adding scribbles for detail. Makes it even better looking for pretty much no work to be done.

Thanks, glad you like it. I guess the choice to use this art style was due to lazyness more than anything, because it's so quick to draw (and I can't draw better than this anyway, haha).

But I'm  curious: How do you draw the island outlines? Haven't had time to try the actual game, but I assume those aren't pre-drawn?

The outline is actually a pretty small line:



It's white so I can change the color using sf::Sprite::setColor().

I have a map editor of sorts. At first it worked with tiles, but I found them to be kind of tedious so eventually I got rid of them and switched to a "free-placement" approach, allowing to place sprites at any position and to change their color, their size and their rotation.

So, the island outlines are made somewhat like this in editor:



It's a little tedious, but I can make islands of any shape without drawing more textures, and considering that I hate drawing, that's good enough for me

[Hapax]

Wow, nice clip!
I have only just noticed the tape holding the sheets together and that's not my favourite part 

I think you should re-consider your helicopter graphic, though. Seeing it in action, it shows that you can't really see that body under the rotor blades so you can't easily see which direction it is facing. You could reduce the length and/or thickness of the blades but I think the most important part would be making the tail stick out past the rotor (especially as it tilts forwards).

[AFS]

Wow, nice clip!
I have only just noticed the tape holding the sheets together and that's not my favourite part 

I think you should re-consider your helicopter graphic, though. Seeing it in action, it shows that you can't really see that body under the rotor blades so you can't easily see which direction it is facing. You could reduce the length and/or thickness of the blades but I think the most important part would be making the tail stick out past the rotor (especially as it tilts forwards).

That has been bothering me for a while but I never took the time to fix it. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll do that now.

[Elias Daler]

I tried to play your game, but it crashes for me after I press "Play". Grid appears and then some rectangles and it all crashes. Would like to check the game out, though.

That's... weird.

Can you describe to me what appeared on screen, please? How was the grid, and of which size? How were the rectangles? Was the background color blue/cyan?

Or, if you don't mind, can you upload an screenshot?

This has never happened to me, but then again I haven't tested it much. I have a desktop with Win7 and a laptop with Win10, and I have also tested it on my sister's laptop which has Win8, and it's all good on those, but that's all the testing I can do.

By the way, did the main menu (the one with the "Play" button) have any background or was it just a blue color?

Here's how main menu looked: http://i.imgur.com/FNJ1A4T.png
I can't screenshot what happens after I press "Play" because it's one frame and then a sudden crash. It's just a dark grey background with some dark blue cells. My system is Windows 7.

I have no idea how to make a log file, though. Is there a library to do that or something?

Just make something like LogManager class which stores std::ifstream which can be used to write to simple .txt file which will be a report about the stuff which went right ("Loading textures... OK") and wrong ("Can't load texture.png!"). This way it would be easier to find what goes wrong.

[Satus]

I have no idea how to make a log file, though. Is there a library to do that or something?

You can just use Boost log.

[eXpl0it3r]

The Dropbox link for the binary just 404.

[AFS]

Sorry for the late reply, I was on a break.

Here's how main menu looked: http://i.imgur.com/FNJ1A4T.png
I can't screenshot what happens after I press "Play" because it's one frame and then a sudden crash. It's just a dark grey background with some dark blue cells. My system is Windows 7.

That's bad :/

Normally the main menu has a background (which is actually an unplayable level). If the background is all black it means that for some reason the level files didn't load (which also *kind of* explains the crash when you hit "Play").

It's weird, because the menu buttons ("Play", "Options", and "Exit") are good. The text of those buttons are also stored in files, and the game apparently loaded those files just fine, otherwise the buttons wouldn't have text at all.

Another possibility is that the levels loaded fine but it was the textures that didn't load, but again, the buttons are fine, so I really don't know.

Thanks for giving it a shot, though.

Just make something like LogManager class which stores std::ifstream which can be used to write to simple .txt file which will be a report about the stuff which went right ("Loading textures... OK") and wrong ("Can't load texture.png!"). This way it would be easier to find what goes wrong.

You can just use Boost log.

Thanks to both!

The Dropbox link for the binary just 404.

Ooops. I was cleaning up my Dropbox folder (I'm always near at the 2 GB limit), so I probably deleted the file by accident. It's fixed now, sorry.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vad812s5e072fsy/Our%20Dear%20Paper%20Fighters%20%28WIP%29.zip?dl=0

The build is actually a little different now, as most of the data is temporally hard-coded to avoid Elias' problem until I find a solution. Also, I made sounds and music using LMMS, although the music is kind of crappy, but hey, it's a start.

I also set up a Game Jolt page a few days ago if anyone's interested: http://gamejolt.com/games/our-dear-paper-fighters/132839, but you can just download the game via Dropbox, same thing.

Cheers!

[Tukimitzu]

Looks great!
My impressions:
- The art is very nice, well done.
- I like the humor hehe.
- I wish WASD controlled movement only and use the mouse for aiming.
- I wish the camera shaked only when explosions happen. When you shoot it does it and it's a little anoying I think. But hey, that's me!

Good luck!