X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

A forum for discussion of Crash's retro-style arcade game based on Star Fleet
Shane
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Shane »

Good luck with those exams, Crash!
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Crash
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Crash »

Oh absolutely, I'm grateful to you. It's going to be dreadful.
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Shane
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Shane »

You will prevail! It's the Star Fleet way!
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Vanessa
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Vanessa »

Yes, I second that!I hope you do well, Good luck
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Crash
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Crash »

Well, I'm now back and feeling a bit better. I'm really grateful for peoples' best wishes.I think I may well have overextended myself this year.With two legal battles to fight as a party litigant and one of them being in Scotland; land of the crooked as well as trying to get as much of the game finished as possible this year ...I don't think I was the only person hit pretty hard by having two weeks after the end of the course to revise the whole year's material for 7 3-hour examinations back-to-back over 2 more weeks.I meant to get started with X-Bomber properly on Sunday but because the parents were too busy having picnics and lunches out to get my preventers while I was back-to-back with work, I had a really acute migraine on Sunday and I wasn't better until about 12ish anyway. I would have got them myself but the clinic managed to 'lose' them.So, I started with X-Bomber in earnest today instead.That game, I haven't played much in about 2 months nearly and it looks amazing.One thing I noticed is that I've gone a bit stale and so I realised how tricky certain parts are, so I'll be looking back to fix that.I exported the level engine from Mission 14 (I'm using that as the master level because there's so much in Mission 14 to test the changes on). Unfortunately, during my time away from working on the program, I forgot that a lot of bespoke upgrades were sitting in the other levels and those got overwritten by my export. I think I've fixed all of that today though.I played through levels 1, 2 and 3 and it just looks amazing.Unfortunately, there's a lot to do with tidying up menus and ancillary things like music and that's gonna take a couple of weeks at least, which is a shame because the game itself is in great, beautiful, perfectly-playable shape. And it's optimised to the hilt as well and I kicked out the last of the little niggles that'd been winding me up a bit before I left off.So, I think I'll compile a V0.80-PROTO / BETA version as a rough-and-ready forerunner to the full v0.8 once I've finished a few bits-and-pieces, which will probably be a few weeks away.I think I may have bitten off more than I could chew in giving v0.8 so many improvements over v0.79 and so ... it's taking forever to get all those upgrades perfectly sorted.Anyway - the show's back on and I have a great illustration that I drew the other day too to photograph and upload.
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Shane
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Shane »

Good to have you back sir!7 3-hour examinations in two weeks sounds like hell on earth! Glad you got through it all and hope you've done well. I'm sure you have.
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Crash
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Crash »

Thank you so much, Shane. I've missed coming on here but I just had to focus all my guns on one thing for a while.Yeah, four questions for each module. I'm sure I didn't do well in the first one, which was property law and it wasn't for lack of preparation either - I just totally froze up but I know a lot of people did the same. I didn't get any sleep the night before and I was really ill during it. Not sure many folks woulda done so great considering the circumstances.This is certainly the only course I've ever come across where you can actually sit papers not twice but three times.I think the rest went OK though.I was wondering if you could give me some ideas as to what to put in X-Bomber's soundtrack, Shane.I don't want to rip off the Star Fleet OST because I can tell they A) Worked really hard on it, B) Wouldn't want me to and C) I'd like to have a unique sound because I suppose a game should have a different music style to a TV show.One thing I've been playing recently is Crysis2. This monster lappy eats it for breakfast as well. It has the greatest music and I might steal one or two of the highlights from there.At the moment, I have lots of fan remixes of some great old games in MP3 format but I'm wondering whether the game needs some grander, more operatic stuff to balance it out. Perhaps one or two bits and pieces from Gundam might work well.I always thought some of the Gundam 00 music was quite compatible in this old clip: http://www.xbomber.co.uk/?page=videos&video=3I updated the X-Bomber Gallery software as well. Same old rubbish in there but is nice to have a software upgrade.I have to photograph my latest drawing as I don't have an A3 scanner - there may be one at my current Uni in Newcastle but I haven't an idea where it might be and my EVF has to go Manchester because it leaked fluid from the stabilser motor into the lens elements. They'll probably charge me a fortune and not fix it properly. I shoulda just bought a new Panny FZ38.
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Shane
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Shane »

Yeah, it's difficult to judge what is the best route to take in regards to the style of music for your game.The soundtrack to the show is purely electronic; very retro synth-pop/electro funk and certainly of its time (1982). It's quite funny though because that style of music has come back in recent years and has become contemporary again.I kind of agree with you though, maybe using the remastered soundtrack is a little problematic, although it would add an extra level of authenticity to the game. I guess what with your hassles with Go Nagai, you don't want any further problems from any disgruntled parties.I think the music I've heard in the game so far is largely from classic shmups and therefore not a million miles away from Star Fleet's music anyway. I think Vince DiCola's Transformer score would fit very well too if you wanted to keep the electronic theme running through your game, although obviously people are going to think Transformers as soon as they hear it and there's the whole rights issues thing too.I think your game is quite epic in scale and certainly there are many more bells and whistles than your average shmup.Electronic tunes go hand in hand with 8bit shmups, but your game is pretty advanced, especially when it comes to visuals, so you could even look into going in a more orchestral route, think Christopher Franke's work on Babylon 5.Sourcing the tunes is the problem, although there are a ton of unsigned artists in all musical genres who would be more than happy to have their music appear on a video game.For what it's worth I'm thinking of doing an updated trailer for TROM, using the drawings I've been compiling and maybe a few relevant shots from the show. I'm going to try and mimic the sound of the original Star Fleet soundtrack and compose a new theme tune, a kind of series 2 opening (Or series 3, if you think of Genesis as series 2). I guess if Star Fleet was made today it would have an orchestral soundtrack, but I'm personally a bit of a sucker for the electro funk!
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Crash
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Crash »

Well, I think, looking at the soundtrack for Star Fleet, it has that triumphant element to it. It's not what people might call 'just' electronica. I'm thinking in particular of X-Bomber's little motif and the Dai-X Junction theme.It also has quite a lot of military bits as well when I think of the X-Bomber in its hangar and the alien cruiser.The music to Terrahawks is just the same. If you watch the first episode, it really showcases that. One thing that always impressed me about Gundam, ever since I started with Gundam SEED Destiny, was the way that they would combine classical, rock, pop and synth together in the same track and at the same time, or it would shift between them so effectively because the calibre of the whole lot was excellent.If you haven't seen the Gundam Unicorn OVAs, they are amazing; especially in 1080p, although I don't particularly care for the suit designs. The musical score blows you away though, especially in the second one. It's absolutely euphoric.Some of Christopher Franke's stuff is a bit sparse for my taste although there are some great bits of music in Babylon5. I have a lot of them. The soundtrack he wrote for the game that never came out is spectacular. It might be worth raiding that as well. Thanks for reminding me.So I expect a mixture of game and soundtrack music would work great as long as they were chosen well individually and matched up with the idea of the game and with eachother.The reason I'm not too fond of using the Star Fleet soundtrack isn't the worry about getting into trouble. I thought we really lucked-out getting that disc and it was clear that they'd worked hard on it (even if my favourite track from the show was unceremoniously cut off). So, for some reason, I just view it as something that I'm not going to borrow.There's nothing in that game that is infringing in any way really because it recreates everything it needs.That's not to say that I wouldn't approve of other folks using its contents in their stuff. That disc was a total gift to the community and it would stupid for it not to be used.I've also come across too many musicians in my time to really want to mess on dealing with them. There's so much soundtrack out there that people would never know where it came from until they went into the music folder and had a browse through the filenames.All the Star Trek fan films do exactly the same anyway.
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Shane
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X-Bomber v068 Onwards Devlog - Please comment!!

Post by Shane »


(Crash Override @ Jun. 08 2011,00:31)QUOTEWell, I think, looking at the soundtrack for Star Fleet, it has that triumphant element to it. It's not what people might call 'just' electronica. I'm thinking in particular of X-Bomber's little motif and the Dai-X Junction theme.It also has quite a lot of military bits as well when I think of the X-Bomber in its hangar and the alien cruiser.The music to Terrahawks is just the same. If you watch the first episode, it really showcases that.I think that is a very good point, Crash. The Star Fleet soundtrack is very military sounding for the most part albeit derived from an electronic kit. It's actually pretty sweet to hear Paul Bliss funk out though when the guys are battling it out.The theme tune to Terrahawks is definitely in the same triumphant vein. The full orchestral version on youtube is mind-blowing!   Babylon 5's music was very well done I thought. The season 3 theme was awesome as is that season.The new Battlestar Galactica actually went in a completely different direction with its music and went the tribal/ethnic route. I think the music to that show is astounding and it adds a whole new dimension to the space battles it often accompanies. Great series too although incredibly depressing.Farscape gets the award for most alien sounding theme tune though.I think you're going about it the right way. A mixture of game and soundtrack music would work well and if you can grab some forgotten gems from Christopher Franke, you're laughing.I've tried to watch the original Gundam series on Youtube, but they seem to have a modernised western dub that is quite off-putting. I'd rather watch the original, warts and all!



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