Jetboard Joust - 'Defender' Inspired Retro SHMUP

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Hello All,

Thought I’d do a post to introduce the game I’ve been working on for the past year - Jetboard Joust is a very retro SHMUP heavily influenced by ‘Defender’ but with a bit more of an RPG-lite feel to the proceedings with upgradeable weapons etc. Some of you may have seen it featured on a couple of the MonoGame live webcasts.

I’m hoping to launch on Steam first with a move to other platforms later. Currently trying to get to a ‘playable alpha’ stage which I should do early in the new year.

I’ve been keeping a regular DevLog which you can see here and post regular updates (lots of GIFs!) to Twitter here

Let me know what you think!

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I like the artstyle

Is it monochrome and then a filter applied on top?

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Thanks!

No - it’s all drawn in those colours. Nine colour palette.

I’m thinking of possibly writing a shader to allow me to apply other palettes on the fly but I also like the simplicity of keeping it to this gameboy-ish palette so may well just leave it as it is.

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The game looks great! I’ve been following development on Twitter :slight_smile:

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Updated the DevLog here with stuff about camera movement and logo design.

Also wrote a short tutorial (with an example class) on Lerp smoothing for camera and sprite motion here.

cheers

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More DevLog updates here with a bunch of stuff about adding the ‘bubblewrap effect’ to games and my attempts at creating a stylised smoke effect using custom shaders!

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are you using the particle system from the xna gpu particle sample?

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No I’m using my own particle system but I should probably check that out as no doubt I will learn something! It’s the first time I’ve written one.

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It was eye-opening for me, it’s different in some key aspects what I would have build before, especially since everything is done on GPU

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Thanks - I will check it out…

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Woohoo - major milestone alert!! I finally have a playable alpha version that I consider acceptable for public consumption! You can download it for MacOS and Windows here.

Still some bugs and game design issues to resolve but… it’s start! Things have slowed down somewhat as I have had to take on some contract work to top up the coffers and that’s occupying a lot of my time. Really good to get this out there though.

Any feedback is, of course, much appreciated. There’s a limit to how much one can improve things without it!

Also, latest devlog here.

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Congratulations BitBull! :slight_smile:

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Here’s a promo vid I’ve just done for the alpha…

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I haven’t had a chance to check your dev blog, so i’m wondering if you have a web or mobile version available nonetheless, it looks like a very entertaining game.

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Just a quick note to say that after some significant downtime due to contract work (gotta try and fill those coffers) development on Jetboard Joust is up and running again…

DevLog #62: Pulling The Pin

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I love the colors theme inspired from the very first gameboy ! Reminds me moments from my childhood.

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Thanks - yeah, I was going for somewhere between gameboy and zx spectrum!

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Just a little update - been working on weapons the past couple of months and have now completed sixteen, from the conventional to the ridiculous! Read about 'em on the blog!

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OK, so it’s been a while. Sorry I’m so slack about posting here - much more regular updates on twitter or my devlog

Pleased to say that Jetboard Joust is now available to wishlist on Steam here

Also there’s a massively updated gameplay trailer here.

Aiming for a full release in Spring 2020. Watch this space and thanks for any support!

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That cover art is looking sexy, stands out from the crap on Steam, good luck!

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