Making Our Own Video Game: Cosmotrons Demo Available Friday, Check it out...

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Making Our Own Video Game: Cosmotrons Demo Available Friday, Check it out...



Hi Everyone,

It is interesting where life leads one. Teaching design/STEM classes, teaching a game design class, learning 3D modeling, learning more about programming, so many other things, and very importantly, being part of the classic arcade hobby has lead me and a very good friend of mine down the path of creating our own video game. I had the problem of wanting a very specific type of game but could not find something to purchase that met my needs. So... we are making it ourselves! The original intention was to make a multiplayer retro-arcade style game that I would then design a custom arcade cabinet for and then just play in my house, take to the Midwest Gaming Classic, and that would be about it. After so many great tests of having others try the game we are now pursuing to make our game, Cosmotrons, available to the public, hopefully will get it on Steam, and hopefully other consoles as well. We still have much development to do but things are moving smoothly.

The game is a one to four player space shooter battle game that relies heavily on gravity and risk vs reward elements. It is intended to look and feel like a retro arcade game but with some added features. Designing for fun was the priority. I think many in the community here would feel right at home playing this game.

We are planning to have a downloadable PC demo available early this year. I am hoping many of you will be interested in trying it. We would be very happy to receive any constructive feedback and also very happy for you to play the game with friends and enjoy it. I will be posting regular updates on our Facebook site if you care to follow that: https://www.facebook.com/CosmotronsGame/ and will post some updates here too if there is interest in the game. Once the demo is available, I will post that too of course.

For now, here are a few video clips:

-New ship type, the "Trainer" added and Dave and I try it out for the first time: https://youtu.be/JYQTSLqCpRQ
-2 player battle on "Volcano" map: https://youtu.be/4XjB0_av0yk
-2 player battle on the "Mole Tunnels" map: https://youtu.be/9i7LPZSe4Yc
-Single player mode with commentary on "8Track" map: https://youtu.be/D3wEzWYnYNY
-Four player battle on "Tower" map: https://youtu.be/HSyCedOh4X8
-Reverse gravity four player battle: https://youtu.be/ckMCj9gQo_o
-Bonus rounds added. Four player on Cave Race: https://youtu.be/StfZl3h5V2c

Dave and I are looking forward to hopefully providing this great arcade community, and other gamers, a very fun and entertaining game.

Regards,
Shane










 
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Here is a written description of the game, some of its features, and goals:

"In this multiplayer and single player retro arcade style space shooter, one to four players yell and celebrate as they skillfully pilot a fragile spaceship in battle against gravity and each other throughout dangerous terrains. In multiplayer mode space pilots participate in intense aerial dogfighting with the goal of having the last surviving spaceship. In single player mode space pilots can explore territories, practice flight and shooting skills, and participate in timed speed runs.

There are 20+ dangerous territories for you to explore and battle in including lunar surfaces, underground alien structures, active volcanic hot spots, caverns with falling stalactites, black holes, and more. Gravity is just as dangerous as your enemies as it always tries to pull you towards impending doom, on some terrains not always in the same direction. Skillful piloting is necessary to survive.

Piloting of your spaceship requires fuel. Either defeat all your enemies in a territory before your fuel depletes or choose to find and collect fuel resources throughout the territories during battle. But be careful, collecting fuel resources is dangerous and often leaves you vulnerable!

In Cosmotrons, the piloting of your spaceship itself is fun and very rewarding. Control is tight, allowing for trick aerial maneuvers and pixel perfect ship placement in dangerous areas. Planning ahead of where you want your spaceship to go is necessary as you account for gravity and inertia. Up to four players can battle on screen at the same time. Precise aiming of the cosmotron blasters is needed as shots are low in quantity. One hit from a spaceship's blaster will destroy the ship into tiny fragments and feels oh so satisfying.

Cosmotrons is currently in development. A demo for PC is expected to be released in early 2017. We have the goal of getting the game released on Steam later in 2017 and will consider other options after."
 
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It is intended to look and feel like a retro arcade game but with some added features

Well, it's multiplayer Gravitar.

Don't get me wrong...it looks fun. But it pretty well goes beyond looking and feeling like a retro game, it IS a retro game.
 
Thanks for checking it out! Yes, four player for sure is tons of fun. We considered having up to five or six players but thought that might be a little too chaotic and it would make difficulties with setting spawning points too.

Just added two video clips to the first post:
-Volcano
-Mole Tunnels
 
I am not quite ready to post images of the custom cabinet we are planning to go with but will post one we are not going to be using. Shown below is the "space ship" cabinet, which if it isn't obvious is supposed to match the proportions and look like the ship from the game. Imagine the dual flat box bottom section having purple plexiglas with LEDs making it look like the exhaust, the monitor set further back with tinted glass in front of it, etc. There were two big problems with this design:

#1: Looks ugly
#2: We are using a 40" LCD monitor which would not fit in the triangle section as its corners would be poking out.

We considered having the "space ship" cabinet on its side, or at an angle like it is coming out of the ground. This design just did not work well with the constraints of the monitor, having four people comfortable play on it standing up, it actually fitting through my front door and in my house, and other considerations. So... this idea was scrapped:

 
While I'm glad you scrapped the idea for that shaped cabinet, I'm glad you are thinking outside of the literal box for your game. Might as well go all out and make a cab as unique as the game! Looking forward to the progress!
 
Also, I always thought it would be cool to incorporate an infinity mirror surface area into a game somehow....like incorporated into the cabinet somewhere....like made with a cool logo or a symbol. That might be a cool effect to make this game cabinet even more unique and it would match the simplicity of the vector graphics as well.


That may be way beyond where your going though. Ha :)
 
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Also, I always thought it would be cool to incorporate an infinity mirror surface area into a game somehow....like incorporated into the cabinet somewhere....like made with a cool logo or a symbol. That might be a cool effect to make this game cabinet even more unique and it would match the simplicity of the vector graphics as well.


That may be way beyond where your going though. Ha :)

Thanks Wyo for the thoughts and feedback. I do like the idea of an infinity mirror and have earlier thought about how to implement that. I really like how the pin Blackhole looks. I guess I will have to think about this some more. My default plan was to do multiple layers of plexi, some parts etched, and lit by LEDs.


This would be great as an actual vector game that you could play in a Space Duel cabinet.

Thanks for the feedback/ideas andrewb. For the custom cab we originally thought about using a cab similar to Space Duel so I'm on the same page there with ya! I do like those cabs a lot. One issue is our monitor is 36" wide so would not fit and with four players the control panel would need to be about twice as wide. Also the monitor is 21" tall instead of like 13" on the original vector. I modeled up a wider version like a those cabs but it just looks weird.

A 2 vs. 2 option would be fun also.

Thanks GORK. I do like a team option. 3 v 1 type mode might be neat too. We have a few ideas related to this but nothing set in stone yet.
 


This is a screen shot of single player mode on the map "8Track". Check out the video linked below to see what we have for single player mode in action and with some commentary. Those that like to do speed runs will appreciate this mode. Feedback welcomed :)

https://youtu.be/D3wEzWYnYNY
 
That's so cool!!

If you did want to try a 6 player version and have it not be so chaotic, try limiting the distance the shots can travel.

Awesome game though! When do we all get to beta test??

-
 
Here is some more gameplay footage, this time with reverse gravity: https://youtu.be/ckMCj9gQo_o



That's so cool!!

If you did want to try a 6 player version and have it not be so chaotic, try limiting the distance the shots can travel.

Awesome game though! When do we all get to beta test??

-

Hi LasVegas, thanks for taking a look at Cosmotrons and I am glad you find it interesting. Your idea of limiting the bullet distance with 5+ players would be a good solution when 5+ ships are on the screen at a time. The question then would be, say you are playing 3v3, when players die and it gets down to 1v1, then the bullet distance would still be at the reduced distance? When it is a lower amount of players the bullet distance of all the way across the screen feels good in gameplay in my opinion and it would be nice to keep that. So how does this solution work for when it is 1v1? Sill reduced distance then? I am interested to hear what people's thoughts might be regarding this.

Oh, and in regards to beta testing, we expect to have a downloadable version for people to try available very soon! We look forward to people trying Cosmotrons out, enjoying it, and giving us feedback on how to make it even better.
 
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We have now added "bonus rounds" to the multiplayer progression. The purpose of these rounds is to offer a "break" from combat, while still being tons of fun and true to the game's mechanics.

Check out the "Cave Race" bonus round: https://youtu.be/StfZl3h5V2c

We are still on track for having a downloadable concept demo for you all to try VERY soon!
 
We have now added "bonus rounds" to the multiplayer progression. The purpose of these rounds is to offer a "break" from combat, while still being tons of fun and true to the game's mechanics.

Check out the "Cave Race" bonus round: https://youtu.be/StfZl3h5V2c

We are still on track for having a downloadable concept demo for you all to try VERY soon!
Dang, that looks hard, but fun. 😃 Looking forward to seeing the demo.

Scott C.
 
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