Duality ZF - 2009-NOV Gameplay - Boss Rush (Xbox 360/PC; Shoot'Em Up; Shmup; 2D Shooter; STG)

[ChiefTac]

I can't wait for the actual PC version!

[JDoucette]

@ChiefTac We are working on the possibilities of PC release first. The wheels are turning! The game will have a lot of content and lots to be unlocked. It's tricky balancing it all!

[wertio7]

lol green never gets hit :)

[JDoucette]

@wertio7 Lol. Just so you know, the other two people are the game's developers (me being one of them), and the green guy has helped us beta test it but has extremely little experience with the game... maybe a couple of games here and there every few months, so don't be too hard on him! ;)

[PG4m3s]

Hey pepole download freee the GeoSpaceWars at this link: pgames.web44.net

[kristofergvenetadze]

dis is hard-core

[matthewdoucette]

@kristofergvenetadze check out our latest duality zf 2011 trailer for more!

[cebollo3]

Awesome! Insane gameplay, and possibly a little epileptic too :)



[matphp1]

UR SO GOOD',,,, But get a life ! xD

[matthewdoucette]

@matphp1 Get a life?! We made this game! :)

[floriasn]

somehow o dont like Danmaku shooter...

theyre gettin worser and worser, nothing for me :D

[matthewdoucette]

@floriasn you think this is danmaku (bullet hell)? more appropriately called a "manic" shmup (not sure the japanese equivalent to that! so you don't like bullet hell or anything with too many bullets?

[JDoucette]

@floriasn Duality ZF is our own vision of what a manic and bullet hell shoot em up should be, so you should check it out. It's less about memorizing patterns and more about skill in evasion and effectively organizing your attack on the enemies.

[richardhutnik]

Errr.... guys... Where the heck is it? I had Microsoft points for MONTHS set aside for it, and it didn't show up yet.

[matthewdoucette]

@richardhutnik It's in the hands of numerous XBLA publishers and we are awaiting a response on whether it can get onto XBLA or not. If so, the game will be brought to another level, in terms of quality, polish, and also achievements and real leaderboards. It's a waiting gaming for us now. We appreciate the support!!!

[realmiker]

green is a noob

[matthewdoucette]

@realmiker we were all a bit noobish in this one! lol i've found gameplay were you don't dominate (where you die) shows off the game better so i chose this clip.

[realmiker]

@matthewdoucette

i didn't know you got emorage

sorry

(L) you

[matthewdoucette]

@realmiker lol what's emorage?

[kokocipher]

I like how the ships actually fall down after being "disabled" instead of just disappear. is the background in 3D or CG rendered?

[matthewdoucette]

@kokocipher Thanks, we love that effect, too. It only doesn't happen on the space and sky stages, where there is no ground. The background is 2D and not CG rendered, with the same artstyle as the enemies and player ship.

[kokocipher]

I'm making a top down shooter game as well, but without the insane bullet hell madness :)

[WizzyWhipitWonderful]

Damn....

That's beautiful!

[MattTheSpratt]

After watching a few videos of this game, it looks more manic shmup than bullet hell.

[matthewdoucette]

@MattTheSpratt We've never claimed DZF was a bullet hell, other than our "bullet hell" game mode. "Bullet Hell" has been ascribed to Duality ZF by gamers and press not in the know of what a true bullet hell is.

[MattTheSpratt]

@matthewdoucette No need to get defensive, I wasn't being accusive or anything. D:

[matthewdoucette]

@MattTheSpratt lol no worries! Didn't mean my reply to come off so serious, it wasn't!!

[mrblackout2000]

would...lol

[mrblackout2000]

if this was on xbox live . it word be big.

[matthewdoucette]

@mrblackout2000 it soon may be (on xbox live)! just curious how you stumbled upon our video? seems quite a few have today.

[mrblackout2000]

@matthewdoucette i just typed in youtube search : 2010 xbox 360 arcade games

and i found a video called : Decimation X - 2010-JAN Teaser (Xbox 360/PC; Shmup; Shoot'Em Up; 2D Shooter) then on the right screen i found your cool games.

[matthewdoucette]

@mrblackout2000 Decimation X is our game, too, and it's released!

[mrblackout2000]

@matthewdoucette i know..

hurry up and put them on xBLA their is lots and lot a people that will play it..

no lag wars please.

the only game on xbla right now that close to this game is heavy weapon.

4-player co-op no lag

[matthewdoucette]

@mrblackout2000 thank you for this comment. i own and have played 4 player heavy weapon (love it). we will do our best!

[kirgeez]

Wow I'd be losing all over the place.

[KaZuAltY]

Wow. No matter how many times I look up at another Duality ZF gameplay footage, I start drooling all over my keyboard.

Excellent work. Been looking forward to this for while now. =D

[matthewdoucette]

@KaZuAltY one of the best comments we've heard! wow!

[ManreBoo]

Yea yea :)

I am propably going to get it anyways since xbox 360 don't got anything to offer in area of shmups. I like to be a bit critic, but its only to get game done as good as possible. If I see thing that is a flaw in my opinion I am going to say it :)

Make it epic if possible! Damn, make it castle crashers but only shmup and old school! (I don't even myself know WTH that means, but it sounds like good game)

[JDoucette]

@ManreBoo Your feedback is appreciated, and continue to be a critic. We are harsh critics ourselves, and it does help to improve the game. Castle Crashers' old school style is exactly what we enjoy, so this being a cross between that style in shmup format is fairly accurate to what we want. :)

[matthewdoucette]

@ManreBoo spot on advice! thank you!!

[Drilian]

This looks absolutely fantastic (and quite difficult)!

I like the way the big dude crash-lands in the background :)

Looking forward to this one!

[ManreBoo]

Looks nice and has huge potential.

But big ship explosions look like shit.

Lets hope they don't screw up this game.

[JDoucette]

@ManreBoo The explosions are old school on purpose. Their individual look isn't going to change, but the overall intensity is going to be improved, and made longer lasting to improve feel of satisfaction for their destruction. This is already a known issue for improvement.

[ManreBoo]

@JDoucette Nothing wrong with old school games and graphics. Im talking about STYLE. explosions have no style in this game, only circles and sickles, same color same size no matter what enemy you destroy. I got hundreds of old shmups on emulators and on PC.

But so far only fresh thing this game is offering is three player game (four?)

At least they should add special things like: Players combine their ships so other player control turret and other ship movement (more power/speed).

[JDoucette]

@ManreBoo Ok. I only meant to have C-shapes and no other to mimic the old-school style. They are, in fact, drawn at many varying sizes (and rotations) within a single explosion. Yes, they are all the same color (additional colors flattened out the effect for some reason). And larger enemies do, in fact, generate larger sizes of C-shapes. It may be difficult to tell in this video since most the enemies are very large and are of similar size.

[JDoucette]

@ManreBoo There are lots of old school shmups but don't you get what Duality ZF has: 4-players, Dual Play (2 ships at once, natively), 8-fighter action (4 players x Dual Play), insane firepower (2,000 player bullets at once), 60 fps always, with Friends Scoreboards...

Duality ZF is old-school on purpose. There are few options on the Xbox 360 for shmups, and we're bringing this to fill that gap. And we've concentrated heavily on gameplay. It's a fun game, first and foremost.

[ChiefTac]

Green is really bad player :P

[mousse21]

Cant wait for this and FEZ to hit XNA!

[matthewdoucette]

@mousse21 FEZ is just amazing... that's true indie style! thx for the support!

[JDoucette]

@mousse21 Were we mentioned in the same sentence as FEZ? Wow. Well FEZ is complete as of this month or last. Duality ZF is still being worked on in between other projects and ports!

[russo256]

I noticed this reading the comments section of Ign. Pretty tight looking game. I am also the DS breaker so feel free to love me!

[matthewdoucette]

@russo256 Thanks for the support DS breaker! I watched the video!

[Karnndmin]

Looks better then ever !

Definitely something i look forward to playing !

[John845]

I've long sold my 360 and I am delighted to hear this is coming to Steam. I've been interested in this game since seeing the first alpha video over a year ago (you can see my comment on that video). Looking forward to the game fellas.

[matthewdoucette]

@John845 We appreciate all the support!  It will be very interesting and exciting for us to work on a Steam release, too!

[FireballFlame]

It's interesting to watch different players playing, for example how Blue prefers to stay at the edge spreading his fire, while Red is usually "sweeping" in the middle :)

Hope we'll get it on PC too!

[matthewdoucette]

@FireballFlame It will come to PC via Steam! :) Interesting to watch the styles of play. I plan to hold a YouTube contest to promote players posting their strategies online.

[Mk2ification]

This looks pretty cool. My only suggestion, if it's not already like this, would be to allow your co-op partners to palm off some of their powerups to the person who dies. I noticed the green ship returned to a pretty heavy stream of bullets quite quickly anyway, but I think it would add another layer of teamwork to the game if P1 were to downgrade from a fifth level powerup to a third in order to bring his teammate up to a second, etc.

If XBLIG were available in Australia I would buy this. :(

[Mk2ification]

Oh, how do the bullet patterns work? Are they scripted or do the different coloured ships attract corresponding bullets? That'd be a neat mechanic as well, I think. Again, to encourage more teamwork so that you have one guy as decoy for heavy streams of enemy bullets. Perhaps within those streams would be projectiles destroyable only by the other players so they need to cover him. This decoy mechanic could cycle with each boss so that everyone is put in the dangerous position of bullet sponge.

[matthewdoucette]

@Mk2ification Using one guy as a decoy to lure bullets is completely a strategy that works on shots that are not very wide-spread. With dual play or multiplayer a lot of the shots had to be wide to make sure everyone is attacked, so this strategy cannot be used all the time.

[matthewdoucette]

@Mk2ification I like some of your ideas on "you have to do this while I have to do that", but ultimately we want the game to be wide-open for anyone to do anything, no restrictions. That's why our ships don't collide as in Ikaruga. You could have all 8 fighters in the same spot, if the players are great enough to no be confused.

[matthewdoucette]

@Mk2ification Great suggestion, but players in need of powerups quickly get them back in every case except when the game is about to end from everyone dying, which is acceptable. Whenever you are fully powered up (not seen here) you still maintain a count of additional powerups which do spit out automatically to players in need when they die. It's a cool concept and a cool effect to see when it happens. Interesting that you are somewhat on the same wavelength as us!

[matthewdoucette]

@Mk2ification The bullet patterns where "coded" by myself using Jason's bullet language. It's far more powerful than what I see here, and I want to revisit the patterns and improve them. No matter what it shoots, it seems to be fun, and doable. Every death in here, notice, could have been avoided rather easily.

[matthewdoucette]

@matthewdoucette Typo: *It's far more powerful than what YOU see here.

[Th3dz]

I love it how the hud shakes when the boss dies.. it's those little things that makes the big picture look good!

[ImphenziaMusic]

Nice video :)

[matthewdoucette]

@ImphenziaMusic Thanks!

[matthewdoucette]

@ImphenziaMusic Oh yeah, your explosions sound effect sound pretty cool in action, don't they? I might try to use better shot sounds, what do you think? (Happy holidays!)

[X0ut]

Looks pretty sweet :)

[matthewdoucette]

@X0ut Thanks! Have you been working on any of your own shmups, lately?

[X0ut]

As a matter of fact yes, I have been working on a shmup. Once I have something worth showing you'll be sure to know :)

Anyway, congrats on Duality, it is looking very slick!

[matthewdoucette]

@X0ut Thank you! You should get into XNA and join us in the overtake of Indie Games by shmups! lol

[Joroshira]

Cool.

[seanobi777]

Wow... if I have the money, Im definately buying this when it comes out!

[matthewdoucette]

@seanobi777 If it hits XBLIG it will only be $1..$5 USD!

[Bovineprogrammer]

Woo! New gameplay video!

At first I saw the masses of enemy bullets, and I thought, "Isn't that against your shmup ethos?" But looking closer, I see that because all the bullets are fired from the same source, they're easily controllable, and can therefore always give the player room to avoid them. That's clever.

I like the way you've designed the art so it still looks nice, but everything stands out. That's clever too.

So, are you guys the new Oliver twins?

[cronus98]

hey guys, looking really good! the bosses look fun.

question though, it lookks like something's up with collision - do bullets not "die" upon collision? or maybe it was disabled?

anyway, i know we all can't wait for release!

[JDoucette]

Enemy bullets and player bullets die on collision. If you're referring to the final player death, I know, it surprised me being the guy controlling the ship, I ran into a bullet I didn't see, but the replay clearly shows the bullet there, I hit it, and it disappears.

[gunswordfist]

HOLY SHIT!!!! This is the first time I actually watched a video for Duality and it looks incredible. 3 player co-op is pretty cool.

[matthewdoucette]

@gunswordfist Glad you like it! Just imagine 4 player co-op... or, for the truly insane, 4 player dual play co-op (8 fighters)... I have to work on getting footage of it for you all.

[gunswordfist]

@matthewdoucette Yeah, I really liked it. I'll be waiting for that 8 fighter co-op video...

[TrueSoreThumb]

Lol.. you can tell whos' been the one betatesting this game, and who hasn't, eh?

BTW, I'm colorblind, so greenred players always make me a bit hard to differentiate.

[JDoucette]

@TrueSoreThumb Ha ha, we all bit it pretty bad at the end there. You can choose your own colors before the gameplay begins. The different color fighters and bullet streams are to help differentiate who is who during all the crazy action, it's more for gameplay than artwork. It's important that they are distinct as it's so easy to get confused otherwise.

[NoogyToad]

XonaGames continues to impress. The wait isn't getting any easier guys :)

[matthewdoucette]

@NoogyToad Thanks Dean! I got your reply to my email (thanks!), and I'll shoot you a reply when I figure more out!

[A47A47]

All their fighter are belong to volleyball club.

[matthewdoucette]

@A47A47 Not sure what you mean? Is that good or bad?! lol

[A47A47]

Because the shots of those fighters are winding.

(The power shots of SAGAMI Yuusuke who is one of the main characters of CAVE's shoot'em-up game 'ESP Ra. De.' winds very much. He is a high school student and belongs to volleyball club. So, volleyball club means winding shots.)

The aspect ratio of Duality ZF is 16:9. It's wide.

So, I felt that winding shots are important.

[matthewdoucette]

@A47A47 Do you have a video of SAGAMI Yuusuke in "ESP Ra. De."? Just looked for one and couldn't find it. I'd like to see an example of what you mean. Thanks for mentioning it!

[Th3dz]

Insane, just insane! Looks soo damn good. I just don't have anything to say more than that.

[matthewdoucette]

@Th3dz Thanks, Rive is looking amazing, too! Shmup fans, be sure to check out Indie Games, we're going to have a lot for you!

[Th3dz]

HAha, yeah, but Rive isn't coming for a long while. It's put on hold for now. I just don't know enough about programming to do what I want, so I'm learning now before I'm going to finish it. But overall I think that there's a lot of good games coming to XBLIG!

[TledgEs]

Lookin awesome,

I like the bordered bullets and everything basically,

scores and stats at the end are cool and Im glad you arent using the default font xna uses, kootenay was it?

[matthewdoucette]

@TledgEs Thanks you! The bullet design took a long time to figure out, to make them visible to the hardcore Duality ZF player with all the crazy randomness that can be behind them! NOt sure what the font is offhand!

[JDoucette]

@TledgEs Thanks! Glad you liked the bordered bullets. We still have a few issues to resolve with them, especially in Bullet Hell mode where so many bullets cause the borders to combine and make them hard to see.

XNA has no default fonts. You can use any font you want. However, the free Microsoft Redistributable Font Pack has Kootenay, Lindsey, Miramote, Perticles, and Pescadero.

[TledgEs]

@JDoucette I was just reffering to when you create a new spritefont it defaults to the kootenay font and alot of indie games just continue using that isntead of changing the xml file to any other font. Just a small thing I appreciate is you guys not using that annoying font

[JDoucette]

Ah, you are quite correct, it does default to Kootenay. I wouldn't have guessed since that's not a font normally available unless you download the font pack (but perhaps it comes installed with the latest Game Studio? not sure). Thanks for noticing and appreciating this. We've gone through a lot of different font testing, and while the MS font pack has great fonts, they are just too commonplace as you said.

[TledgEs]

@JDoucette Theres lots of neat stuff I liked about this vid; like the shadows projected onto the background, the players depth always being above bullets, the bosses falling to the background and blending in, lots of great stuff here.