Duality ZF 2011 Trailer (Xbox LIVE Arcade; Shoot 'Em Up; Shmup; 2D Shooter; STG)

[FetusZero]

Another shmup on Steam? Count me in, this is a definite first day purchase on my part. Finally a bullet hell/shmup I won't need to import from Japan, that'll save me some shipping money.

[JDoucette]

@FetusZero Thanks bud, we appreciate the support and interest in our game! We're excited to get this out! Right now we're working on Score Rush which is due to come out on Turbulenz, a web browser platform, so in the meantime, you'll be able to have fun with that! =)

[FetusZero]

@JDoucette Funny because when I received the email for this reply, I had just downloaded the trial from Xbox Live lol. But then I started watching an anime and fell asleep. I have yet to actually try it (alongside the tons of other trials I downloaded lol).

[cloudskipa]

Is Duality ZF still coming out to XBLIG? I think you are among the best devs XBLIG has to offer, your game Score Rush is my favourite by far. I've been looking froward to Duality ZF for ages now, I just hope it comes out!!

[JDoucette]

@cloudskipa Hey thanks for the interest. Love that like Score Rush so much! Duality ZF will be even better with more content. We're working on a Score Rush port to Turbulenz at the moment, and then possibly porting it and Decimation X3 to the PC and possibly PSN. But it's onto finishing Duality ZF after this. And we're shooting for XBLA and Steam, maybe PSN for that. You'll get it for sure in some manner or another! =) Thanks for the support, it is appreciated!

[cloudskipa]

@JDoucette Thanks for the reply, so XBLA now? That's great news, I'm glad to see you moving in the right direction. Xona Games deserve to be in the same place as PixelJunk (your games have better gameplay though imo)

I'm not familiar with the programming side of things but does the move to XBLA open up the tools you have available to you or it is the same for XBLIG? Also can you at least hint toward a rough release date? (like me, I'm sure the fans are happy to wait so long as it's coming!)

[JDoucette]

@cloudskipa Hey, thanks I appreciate that. I have never played the PixelJunk games but have always wanted to. XNA works for XBLA yes but there's no option for DLC with XNA... I hope they fix that. It's looking like near end 2012 the game will be done (or sooner) but actual release date depends on Microsoft if it's going to XBLA.

[CellineLayonaire]

Awesome shmup you made there ^_^b

(but that video makes my eyes really weary and tired. So much GFX/explosion effect going on and players bullets seem to penetrate the enemy. Furthermore, the HP bar or tention gauge on the bottom didn't disappear. Is it intentional?)

[JDoucette]

@CellineLayonaire Thanks! =)

Perhaps we show off too much crazy parts in higher difficulty levels. We'll have to balance the next video better to show off things more clearly.

The bullets never penetrate the enemies. I am curious what part made you think it does? Perhaps the large boss where the wing's turrets are damaged, and then the bullets can pass through -- if this is an issue, we'll fix it.

There is no HP bar. That's in the "Score Rush" mode. It's an intensity bar! =)

[CellineLayonaire]

@JDoucette Ah, I mean the 'Intensity' bar around 1:03 of this video =)

And I hope you're having happy time in this year's Christmas season! Can't wait to see what the final product will look/feel like.

[EricBarbman]

@JDoucette

"we show off too much crazy parts in higher difficulty levels"

This is an issue, I fear. I've finished Score Rush a few times (and really enjoyed it), but this trailer had me thinking DualityZF 2011 was far too tough for me.

I know that everything is more clear for the person holding the joypad in this kind of games, but if the game isn't that intensive, I think you should have a trailer making it more accessible.

Anyway, congratulations for the brillant games.

[JDoucette]

@EricBarbman Thank you for your feedback. We'll have this in thought for next time. You're welcome, I am happy that you're enjoying our games. :)

[T4P4ever]

really nice

[DEADDUCKGAMES]

Addicting!

[sfbsfb]

Looking forward to this very much. Are you still expecting to release in 2011? FYI, I enjoy Score Rush immensely, and have played it tons of times -- but I've never been able to get to the end of the regular difficulty! I typically get as far as a 3rd-to-last or 4th-to-last boss. I suspect the key might be to take better advantage of the "screen shakes" that give moments of invulnerability, plus the "red rings" that cancel out some of the enemy bullets (getting a power-up when maxed out)

[matthewdoucette]

@sfbsfb Definitely not dying and saving your bombs to prevent you from dying, so that the cancel-bullet rings keep coming from being fully powered up help... in Score Rush. Post a video if you wish and let me look at it! The release of Duality ZF will likely not be 2011 due to delays in funding. :(

[pad4316]

Looks awesome!

[CanadaNewEra]

thanks for all the seizures.

[yomilo]

No matter how long it takes for this to be published, I will wait.

sometimes I wish I was a filthy millionaire to help you publish... (and get the first copy)

[kirgeez]

I still think i'd lose all over the place...lol Still looks fun though...:)

[matthewdoucette]

@kirgeez No way, you'd do great! Don't pre-judge the difficulty. Young children can still play and enjoy this game! We've tested it!

[kirgeez]

Wow did I see hunter and Wave in there...:)

[matthewdoucette]

@kirgeez Haha sharp and trained shmup-eye you have there.

[matthewdoucette]

4,000+ views! :)

[pwn610]

What song?

[matthewdoucette]

@pwn610 This is a mix of two songs in the game, but the beginning of the first song, the slow part, is actually Moonlight Sonata, which pays homage to the intro of Thexder (PC) by Game Arts. That song plays in the intro of Duality ZF. And the quote is Shakespeare, again paying homage to a Game Arts shoot 'em up, Silpheed (PC). The rest of the intro you don't see in this trailer, which kicks in like Thunder Force 4 by Technosoft. We love all of these games and have beat them all (even Thexder)!

[feoray]

But I already played Touhou. For free.

[matthewdoucette]

@feoray I would have guessed someone who knows of Touhou is a true shmup fan and would understand what a bullet hell is, what is actually is, and realize Duality ZF isn't one. It's more of a manic shmup, and beside that word there's no true word to describe it. But it's obviously to a shmup fan. Duality ZF has a bullet hell mode, for what it's worth, and we don't even consider that mode to be "true" bullet hell! Continue to play Touhou for free by all means!

[ZacharyB]

As much as this game has been delayed by... er.. bureaucratic forces... I think that it looks really great and that it's only becoming more and more refined. Practically feels like a disc release now. Enough time has passed that even Dragon Music got a chance to make a soundtrack. Excellent. Day-1 purchase for me.

[matthewdoucette]

@ZacharyB Thanks so much Zachary. I think we are the first to make a game with dual soundtracks, each soundtrack kick ass in my opinion. I wouldn't have chosen Imphenzia or Dragon Music if not!! And they've both made music for past games of ours (Decimation X series and Score Rush). Anyway, thanks for the support! We hope to contribute to the amazing shmup genre with it.

[matthewdoucette]

Almost 4k views now! Thank you Rock Paper Shotgun! :)

[matthewdoucette]

Please, if you like this game or want it on certain platforms, share it and let them know.

[matthewdoucette]

2,000+ views!!

[TheVoiceWithinYou]

I am pretty sure your game will be awesome, but i am sick of waiting for it to be released, whats taking you so long? And by the way, i recommend you dont mention your philosophy any more, its not like anyone would judge you on your philosophy, but rather on the games you produce.

[matthewdoucette]

@TheVoiceWithinYou Our problems are long, let's just say it's not easy getting XBLA if you are an indie studio without a megahit yet (despite our top games in Japan). We didn't mention our philosophy in this trailer, did you mean the Shakespeare quote at the beginning? That's a part of the game, not our company.

[matthewdoucette]

@TheVoiceWithinYou We've also created four other games (xona . com / games) and have done lots of contract work on the side to keep afloat... the best thing that can happen to us is to get full funding to do this game properly with 100% focus... it's a myth, an all-too-often believed myth, that development time of a game should raise it's expectations. think of duke nukem for 12 years. there was not 12 years development into it, just like there hasn't been 2.5 years into duality zf.

[TheVoiceWithinYou]

@matthewdoucette but as you mention in the other video, you are an award winning game studio and stuff, so i thought a company would be happy to support such highly skilled guys. Furthermore i know your webiste, and i also no, that there is no downloadable content for pc :(

[matthewdoucette]

@TheVoiceWithinYou What do you mean by "a company would be happy to support such highly skilled guys"? For hire? For funding? Our efforts to get our games onto Steam was thwarted by our incredibly bad XBLIG sales. We are hoping to "prove them wrong" and get onto Steam. In hindsight, we should have shot for Steam first, and only released on XBLIG afterwards just to make our Xbox 360 fans happy but not looking to profit off them.

[type2red]

(Gasps and thinks wow!)

[matthewdoucette]

@type2red Thank you!

[zalu]

Looks good, very good.

The soundtrack in some places is surprisingly fantastic too. Listen at: 2:03.

[matthewdoucette]

@zalu Thank you. Dragon Music Productions is amazing with soundtracks. He also did our music in Score Rush (Xbox LIVE Indie Games)...

[SoftAsABaboonAss]

This trailer gives me some kind of rush... a certain "score" rush........ "runs away to XBLIG library" ;-)

[JDoucette]

@SoftAsABaboonAss Heh. :)

[matthewdoucette]

@SoftAsABaboonAss Haha nice!!

[ZeetherKID77]

It's coming to Steam? If so, I will be all over it on its release.

[matthewdoucette]

@ZeetherKID77 If all things go well, it will be on Steam. How are shmups on Steam today? Curious on your perspective.

[ZeetherKID77]

@matthewdoucette Jamestown apparently has grown pretty popular. Other than it there's nothing really much on Steam shmupwise aside from the Geometry Wars type games and Zeit2. It would be cool to see another shmup on Steam.

[matthewdoucette]

@ZeetherKID77 I agree. And I think Duality ZF is different enough to break grounds on Steam and XBLA

[otakudante]

It looks Awesome! I love the trailer & the epic intro ;)

[matthewdoucette]

@otakudante Sweet! Thank you!

[otakudante]

@matthewdoucette You're quite welcome ;) It truly does look Awesome dude. All of those game modes look very Cool ;)

[matthewdoucette]

@otakudante We want it to be a shmup player's dream game!

[otakudante]

@matthewdoucette It definitely looks like you accomplished that goal ;)

[TrueSoreThumb]

GHOST CONTINUES.....

Does that mean the boss would follow the same pattern every time, your ghosts will help up to the time of death, or your ghosts will help until the boss's new bullet trajectory hits them?

I hope the middle or former. D: Really cool idea!

[JDoucette]

@TrueSoreThumb We're still tweaking this idea. The enemies and bosses will follow the same patterns, and the ghosts mimic your recorded past. The ghosts are invulnerable, so you needn't worry about their being hit. The enemies are unaware of the ghosts, so they fire at you, making you just as vulnerable to attack as you were before (perhaps this could change, since as-is, it leaves the game difficult even with ghost continue help). Which game mechanics do you like / hope for?

[TrueSoreThumb]

@JDoucette I think the mechanics you've described are exactly as I would hope for. I just feared that the ghosts were vulnerable, or only survived because they avoided a pre-set bullet schedule.

A positive note of enemies aiming at the player is that it's something you've always planned.. Ergo a situation won't happen where a player can't escape bullets that were generated for a ghost.

[JDoucette]

@TrueSoreThumb Well because the enemies continue to aim at you, and not the ghosts, it makes the game as difficult to survive the bullets as before, without the ghosts, except the ghosts help kill things faster. So, I am toying with the idea of letting the enemies aim for the ghosts as well. This lightens the load on you, and potentially creates a situation where you cannot survive an attack (but this isn't common in Duality ZF), and if so, then that's something you need to deal with.

[JDoucette]

@TrueSoreThumb For example, you can start to rely on the ghosts to kill things, but since you are not moving over to do the deed yourself, the bullet patterns are aiming at you in a more motionless state, and this changes the game, since motion can be to your advantage. Strategies will emerge from this, and I wish to choose the right ones, and right balance. The game needs to be easier when you have ghost help -- after all, its purpose is to help you in your time of need.

[matthewdoucette]

1,000 views! lol

[qaanalyst]

Please release this soon. I need to play it. ;)

[matthewdoucette]

@qaanalyst Thanks!! We are working on this!!

[matthewdoucette]

If anyone has any sites I should share this trailer with please contact me... contact page on xona . com. would love to give it out where it belongs...

[hitmanjaret]

Nice trailer, I see an intensity bar in one part of the video. What does this do? Have you ever played the flash game "Frantic" they use a intensity type thing as well. In that game if you dodge bullets very closely to them the bar raises and gives you bonuses if you fill it up.

[matthewdoucette]

@hitmanjaret That's the "Score Rush" mode, where the name of our Score Rush game came from actually, the prequel to Duality ZF. Unlike the game Score Rush, the "Score Rush" mode in Duality ZF is a 3 minute infinite life mode, so no ghost continues, where the intensity goes up for every enemy you kill, and resets lower when you die. It's really the most insane mode in the game, as it pushes to your limits over and over again quickly.

[shaurz]

Very Raiden style logo :-)

[matthewdoucette]

@shaurz Yes you noticed that?! Also The Revenge of Shinobi inspired too!

[SoftAsABaboonAss]

Awesome! can't wait for this to come out :) I like how insane it looks!

[matthewdoucette]

@SoftAsABaboonAss We hope to impress with the final product!

[machinimarespawn]

Looks pretty awesome. Looking forward to it.

[matthewdoucette]

@machinimarespawn Thank you!

[drvaginashark]

Do ALL of the bullets have to strobe and glow like that, I literally feel sick after watching a minute of this

[matthewdoucette]

@drvaginashark They don't have too... the bullets will have to be redesigned, perhaps, once we bring in new artwork. We could go the route of having just plain yellow bullets for everything, or the rainbow variety you see here, with or without flickering. There's pros and cons to all of it. When the screen is filled, as in most of this footage, the benefits of rainbow flickering bullets is lost.

[TrevHead10]

@matthewdoucette IIRC my biggest gripe with the doujin Zillion Beatz was the strobe effect on the bullets which strained my eyes after playing for awhile. If you do have it in the final version an obtion to turn off the effect would be greatly appreciated

[matthewdoucette]

@TrevHead10 know where i can find Zillion Beatz now? have you tried Score Rush?

[TrevHead10]

@matthewdoucette PM, as for playing SR no I havnt, I was planning on waiting for the steam version so I could play it co-op without having to pay MS for Live. (not that I could if I wanted to atm as I need a new XBOX after my old 360 died)

[matthewdoucette]

@TrevHead10 You don't need to pay Microsoft for Xbox LIVE, only for Gold, but without Gold (Silver I guess) you can download and play Xbox LIVE games, just you cannot play them with online multiplayer!

[TrevHead10]

@matthewdoucette Yeah thats the point, its not free and with been a poor gamer who also games on the PC I have to count those pennies as online co-op is something I rarly do. However a multiplayer shmup is highly appealling to me so I might get Gold Live in the future (a one month pass isnt that much), but ild still rather wait to play it on steam since you have plans of bringing your games to PC, especially as SSFIV is coming to PC aswell. I hope you have better luck with valve next time :)

[matthewdoucette]

@TrevHead10 I'm not sure if you undestood, but Xbox LIVE Silver is free... and Gold just gets you online multiplayer, but our shmups so far are only local anyway, so there's nothing you gain from Gold with our games (so far).

[TrevHead10]

@matthewdoucette Ahh! i feel like a dork. (while I know about gold / silver Live) I had thought SR had online co-op that was why I planned waiting until the the steam version hit so that finding ppl to play co-op with would be easier. Ill make sure to grab the 360 version when I get a new 360 next week

Although it might be a bit longer given how much money Im spending on the steam sales, 75%+ off games is something i cant pass over given UK steam prices can be 50-100% higher than the US

[matthewdoucette]

@TrevHead10 Oh, sorry about that! Let me know how you like it! It's only $1 on XBLIG.

[TrevHead10]

@matthewdoucette BTW did you get time to play Zillion Beatz? what did you think of it? (especially the bullets compared to Duality) FYI there is a hori by the same devs which is just like ZB (i cant remeber the name atm, iirc its Plasma-y-ada or some word very similar)

[matthewdoucette]

@TrevHead10 I didn't play it, but watched almost a whole play through of it. It looks good, but I thought it was freeware at first. I think we can 1up that game. It feels oldschool though which I like. And I grabbed one idea from it that I noticed was also in Thunder Force 2.

[Despatche]

"SOUNTRACKS"

[matthewdoucette]

@Despatche damn, i misspelled it. 20 people i showed it too missed that.

[matthewdoucette]

@Despatche I guess it adds character...

[DarkFlowStudios]

Pure insanity! And looking pretty damn good too!

[matthewdoucette]

@DarkFlowStudios Thank you!