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XOP is now freeware
Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

I wrote a 2D overhead shooter called XOP, and released it around 2002. It took me close to 1 1/2 years to make. It uses Allegro.

I attempted to sell it as shareware, from www.toastsoft.com; however, this failed. Mostly due to the game's difficulty, low-res graphics, the fact that shareware shooters don't usually sell well (kiddie puzzle games sell much better), and my complete lack of any real marketing skills.

I am now releasing it as freeware. I feel this is better than letting it collect dust behind a $20 shareware fee. Download it and give it a try.

http://rydia.net/udder/prog/xop/

This download will stay up as long as I feel like it. I may remove it at some point in the future. Consider it a $20 discount on an old shareware shooter. :P

Edit: I've made a few changes. The default skill is now Normal, and the Dal coins are less bright so they aren't as noticeable as the enemy shots. Re-download it if you want. I'm still not sure what causes the crashes some people have been experiencing. Perhaps I'll never be able to fix that.

Audric
Member #907
January 2001

Oh gosh, I'm really sorry to hear you couldn't make a living out of it;
I played some of the few early demos back then, it indeed has the highest enemy-bullets-per-screen-surface ratio I've ever seen in a game - and it's THE best tribute to arcade shooters.

Not sure if you're taking the best course of action.. Sales could still happen, at anytime ?

Dennis
Member #1,090
July 2003
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(Pre-Post-Note: I knew "Cho Ren Sha 68k" before XOP, so this might also be a reason for my opinion about XOP. In fact i heard of XOP for the first time today by this thread.)

It is not that difficult(i made it to level 6 on the first and only try) but you have a point with the low-res graphics.

But then "Cho Ren Sha 68k" also has low-res graphics yet is totally addictive(and has always been freeware).

I can not say what is so wrong about your game that it is not succesfull as shareware (maybe Shareware is just dead in general) but i can point out things that are better(imo) in "Cho Ren Sha 68k" than in XOP:
Graphics, Music, Weapons(and its upgrade system of strategically selecting the right upgrades) and also the enemies are more interesting/challenging in "Cho Ren Sha 68k", because they actually pose a threat to the player. XOPs enemies are mainly dumb cannon fodder. Especially the bosses are way too easy in XOP.

Please don't take this too hard. It is still visible that a lot of work went into XOP, it just isn't addictive. I'll probably not play it again and if i had paid twenty dollars for it, i would feel bad now.:-/

Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

You made it to level 6 on the first try on skill Easiest. Now go into the options and put it on Very Hard.

I think the part I like the most about this comment is when I released the game originally, it was so hard it made many people here cry for mercy. Now I get a post claiming it's too easy, cause he was too damn lazy to look in the options screen. All I can say is .. I can't win. :-/

Hell, even looking at the screenshots on the Toastsoft website would have showed you the game has alot more bullets than that usually. I don't think I would want you paying $20 for my game .. the stupid might rub off on me when you hand over the cash.

Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
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If you feel like releasing the source, I could have a go at a Mac build. Otherwise, I have no opinion due to a temporary lack of Windows access.

Simon Parzer
Member #3,330
March 2003
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Quote:

If you feel like releasing the source, I could have a go at a Mac build. Otherwise, I have no opinion due to a temporary lack of Windows access.

Same here with Linux. No, just kidding, hehe! I'm just saying that, well, a Linux build would also be great. :D

Sporus
Member #3,815
August 2003
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I remember trying the demo a long time ago and being very sorry for it being shareware. So let me just say thank you for releasing XOP as freeware. :-*

The gameplay's slick and responsive, and there's nothing wrong with the graphics or sound either. The different themes of the levels are also a nice touch. I'm an avid fan of Chourensha, too, but find XOP to be of a slightly different genre. The "chaos" on the screen is a nice change from the tightly streamlined, dare I say artistic Chou68k. Liking a certain game shouldn't mean all the others should play the same. XOP is simply a lot of fun. I expect to be playing this game a lot.

But I also see your lack of publicity skills. Or maybe you're rude just because you no longer need to even pretend you'd get any money anyway... Releasing the source would be very kind as well. Most people won't even look at it, if that's what you're thinking, as long as it compiles.

Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

Thanks for the kind words. I think XOP is much more comparable to a shooter like Dodonpachi, which was one of my biggest inspirations.

About the source code, I'm not really ready to release that. Sorry. Also, there was a Linux release, but it's horribly out of date by now, and I have no clue if it even works with (insert Linux flavor of the month) anymore.

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Or maybe you're rude just because you no longer need to even pretend you'd get any money anyway

Bingo.

Dennis
Member #1,090
July 2003
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You made it to level 6 on the first try on skill Easiest. Now go into the options and put it on Very Hard.

Well I might...

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I don't think I would want you paying $20 for my game .. the stupid might rub off on me when you hand over the cash.

...or better not. DELETED!

Hint: There was absolutely no reason to get insulting. It must be frustrating to have worked hard on a game for a very long time and find it not being as succesfull as you would have hoped. However that is no excuse to insult anyone who gives you his honest opinion about it.

There is an old saying: "Those without a friendly 'face' should not open a shop."
Which isn't to be taken literally, because in this case it is your verbal skills that are lacking. You might consider learning to control your emotions better and think twice before you go and insult possible future customers.

Note to myself: Don't ever buy any games by ToastSoft.

Todd Cope
Member #998
November 2000
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The game is great! I'm still glad I bought it back when it first came out. Still haven't beat it on the hardest setting... maybe some day. Nice work. Now that it's free more people will be able to enjoy it 8-)

Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

Quote:

Note to myself: Don't ever buy any games by ToastSoft.

hahaha. You might want to play a game for more than two seconds before applying unbeliveably stupid statements like 'It only has one difficulty mode, and it's boring!'

Marcello
Member #1,860
January 2002
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The game is mostly well done, and has a certain amount of polish, but it is lacking in a few things, and has a few design flaws that I think gives it a weak score (if one were to score it).

It suffers a lot from too much information, it's unclear what's going on at times, and half the weapons/powerups/coins look the same and it's not even clear what hurts you and what can't.

The movement engine is a bit unclean, with snappy unaccelerated movement (even just a tiny bit of acceleration from zero to moving makes a world of difference), and similarly in things like when you beat a level, the ship just kind of jumps into moving (would probably look better if it sped up and out of the view).

I would say the 256 colors hurts the game, though the graphics for the most part are ok. The disconnection between land surfaces and sprites on the land (sometimes they shift by a pixel or so) is really disconcerning and detracts from the image of the game.

But for the most part, the game is pretty boring. I think rather than giving a multitude of difficulty modes, you are better off fine tuning 1 or 2 modes that have a good balance of easy get-you-going points and challenging keep-you-coming-back points. I think making it clearer what your own weapons are vs enemies, what are powerups, and what aren't would add significantly to the game. If you look at most arcade shooters, they make it painfully obvious. And for a reason.

So yea, it's impressive in the sense of an amateur completing a game like that, but unfortunately, you have to go a lot further to make it successful as a game. (Which, I should mention, is completely unrelated to having the game sell well. Crap can sell well if you have the proper marketing. As a game designer though, I feel a certain obligation to make a good and fun game.)

Marcello

Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

Quote:

It suffers a lot from too much information, it's unclear what's going on at times, and half the weapons/powerups/coins look the same and it's not even clear what hurts you and what can't.

There's only one powerup (extra r.shields), and no weapons to pick up. There's the two DAL coins, which drops off enemies and are obviously bonuses. The rest are enemy shots. Are you just assuming there's powerups like every other shooter? Reading the xop.txt file might help.

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The movement engine is a bit unclean, with snappy unaccelerated movement (even just a tiny bit of acceleration from zero to moving makes a world of difference)

Thanks for letting me know you have no idea how real shooters work. Hint: Shooters with shields and accelerating player movement are for babies. Precision is needed to maneuver the bullet sprays in this game, and ship acceleration would totally ruin that.

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and similarly in things like when you beat a level, the ship just kind of jumps into moving (would probably look better if it sped up and out of the view).

This is such a tiny detail I can't believe you even mentioned it.

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The disconnection between land surfaces and sprites on the land (sometimes they shift by a pixel or so) is really disconcerning and detracts from the image of the game.

You're the guy that reads those seizure warnings in the instruction manuals, aren't you? This is the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about this, and it's so minor I've forgotten what you said about it allready. Pixel slip what?

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I think making it clearer what your own weapons are vs enemies, what are powerups, and what aren't would add significantly to the game.

The only thing I could do to help this is add more to the tutorial, which everyone skips anyway. Admit it, you skipped it too.

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But for the most part, the game is pretty boring.

Ok, yeah. I'll be sure to go tell all the fans of manic shmups about how boring all their games are. What shooters do you consider exciting then? Xevious?

Marcello
Member #1,860
January 2002
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There's only one powerup (extra r.shields), and no weapons to pick up. There's the two DAL coins, which drops off enemies and are obviously bonuses. The rest are enemy shots.

That's fine then. Though I would say half of the enemy shots looks more like powerups and less like shots. They're better in the later levels.

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Are you just assuming there's powerups like every other shooter? Reading the xop.txt file might help.

No one reads the text files. You should have realized that by now.

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Thanks for letting me know you have no idea how real shooters work. Hint: Shooters with shields and accelerating player movement are for babies. Precision is needed to maneuver the bullet sprays in this game, and ship acceleration would totally ruin that.

I disagree. You can have fine precision while having a tad of acceleration. It is so subtled you wouldn't even realize it existed unless it was removed. Sure, maybe games like gradius didn't have acceleration, but they were running on limited resources. Take a modern shooter like Ikaruga.

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You're the guy that reads those seizure warnings in the instruction manuals, aren't you? This is the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about this, and it's so minor I've forgotten what you said about it allready. Pixel slip what?

I should have rephrased. They constantly slipped by a pixel, moving at a different rate than the ground (they'd move to catch up, but not without shifts), there was always a disconnect between the land and the things on the land. It's just a quality issue. You shouldn't need to have that kind of problem.

I realize you spent a lot of time on this game and you are going to defend it as such, but my advice is only intending to help improve, or see how one could improve the game. If you just want to disregard everything I say, that's fine. No skin off my teeth.

Marcello

Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

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Though I would say half of the enemy shots looks more like powerups and less like shots.

Which ones? In what levels? All the enemy shots have big white glowing circles around them as well. Another tell tale sign.

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No one reads the text files. You should have realized that by now.

I added a in-game tutorial as well, which nobody seems to watch. There's nothing I can do to stop players from not learning how a game works before jumping in! Even one as simple as XOP, or any other shooter.

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I disagree. You can have fine precision while having a tad of acceleration. It is so subtled you wouldn't even realize it existed unless it was removed.

I'd very much realize it existed after I slid an extra pixel or two too far into a tight pattern of enemy bullets. Also, me and my twin have both played Ikaruga. There is no movement acceleration. Of all companies, Treasure would be the last one to add something like that.

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I realize you spent a lot of time on this game and you are going to defend it as such, but my advice is only intending to help improve, or see how one could improve the game.

Ok, so tell me why you think it's boring. Lack of gameplay elements like Ikaruga has? Lack of powerups? What? I'm not going to pretend XOP is the greatest shooter ever or anything .. hell, I think there's problems with it too (none of them are included in what you listed).

I think one of the problems is .. people keep trying to compare XOP to shooters made by pro teams of Japanese artists and devs, instead of other shareware games. It's so much like the classics that people look at it and expect it to BE the classics. But it's not. :-X

Another problem is the overuse of random numbers. This adds a little too much luck to what should be soley a skill-based game. In other shooters, there's no randomness whatsoever. Enemies appear and fire in the same way every time. Although I suppose if you like random, chaotic battles, and perfect-memorizing shooter levels bores you to tears, this works in your favor.

Sirocco
Member #88
April 2000
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I played one of the older builds, back before it was officially released (if memory serves). I see it has improved substantially since then. There's a healthy dose of style and substance, and I can see where your design emphasizes shot navigation. It's also nice that the shots travel relatively slow, and the hit zone for your craft is astonishingly small. And yes, I read the TXT and watched the tutorial -- I almost always do.

Music is quite nice, and fits the mood well. Sound effects are a little rough around the edges, but for the most part are appropriate for the game. The low(er) res graphics don't bother me at all, but some of the backgrounds and their accompanying animation look very rough. Explosions look great, and the shield effect is gratifying, but for the most part anything in the background involving transparency (like the fog in level 2, or the whole background of the grey world) just looks bad because the color shift is too severe.

Pacing doesn't bother me either, nor do I have any qualms with the movement setup, but I have witnessed what Marcello was speaking of (the pixel shift)... ground objects don't sync with the foreground and thus jitter as the screen scrolls. It's very noticeable on my system.

Now for the reality check: as you mentioned, shooters just don't sell well. Hence, why I never bothered to sell mine (along with a zillion other reasons). While the overall quality places it in the "Impressive Indie" category, I feel that the only way to get a game like this to sell in any considerably quantity is to place it at an impulse shopping price point... such as $4.99. People balk at that figure, but if you have ten people buy a game at $14.99 and one hundred at $4.99... you see where I'm going with this.

Nice work, BTW, and thanks for making it free.

-->
Graphic file formats used to fascinate me, but now I find them rather satanic.

Audric
Member #907
January 2001

The only complaint I'd have about bullets, is that it's not easy at first to guess which debris are harmful. Experience fixes this anyway.
In case it's not clear, the ground objects that "lag" one pixel behind are the cannon turrets hidden behind steel doors (in crystal world IIRC), I saw the problem there only.
The initial difficulty setting after install is on "easiest", which is probably a mistake - let the player take a spanking on normal, then if he really can't adapt, he will lower the setting.
I hadn't seen the game since the betas, and it's very visible that a LOT of fine-tuning was done to refine the gameplay.

Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

Thanks for your kind words. I considered selling it for $5, but after reading some webpages on marketing, I realized this would be a mistake. It would only cause the few people willing to pay to end up paying less, and lower price = lower quality in most people's minds.

I uploaded a new version that defaults to Normal skill. The demo version is still Easiest by default. Not surprisingly, the file size is exactly the same. :P

Dennis
Member #1,090
July 2003
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You might want to play a game for more than two seconds before applying unbeliveably stupid statements like 'It only has one difficulty mode, and it's boring!'

Thanks for putting words in my mouth that i never said.8-)

Hard Rock
Member #1,547
September 2001
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I remember this game from a while back, it was pretty cool and looked nice. I cant play it now but I definetely will when I get the chance.

Cheers.

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Christopher Emirzian
Member #1,306
April 2001

Quote:

Thanks for putting words in my mouth that i never said.

Your entire first post said this.

"It is not that difficult(i made it to level 6 on the first and only try)"
"the enemies are more interesting/challenging in "Cho Ren Sha 68k", because they actually pose a threat to the player. XOPs enemies are mainly dumb cannon fodder. Especially the bosses are way too easy in XOP."

Nowhere between the process of playing 6 levels straight and hitting the post button did the thought come to your mind, "Hmm, maybe I should look for a difficuly setting." This is why you are dumb, and now apparently a pathalogical liar. Great job! Super! Five stars! ;D ;D ;D

Dennis
Member #1,090
July 2003
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::)

Richard Phipps
Member #1,632
November 2001
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This is why you are dumb, and now apparently a pathalogical liar. Great job! Super! Five stars! ;D ;D ;D

No need to be insulting. I've had my games criticised and it's not nice. But Dennis isn't trying to be nasty here.

kentl
Member #2,905
November 2002

Christopher Emirzian:
I can see that a lot of effort has been put into this game, it hasn't the right "feeling" for me though. It's hard to be constructive and say "this and that should be changed" as I can't put my finger on it. Others have given you some hints though.

If you read something you don't like you can try and just ignore it. When you show your work in public both positive and negative feedback will come your way. Calling people names and such just makes you look bad though, to be frank it's childish.

nonnus29
Member #2,606
August 2002
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I agree, it's pretty poor form to insult people who offer advise; especially Dennis Busch, he's one of the nicest people to frequent a.cc these days and he didn't deserve that.

Also, if you released the game back in 2002, you should know there is a entirely different group of people on a.cc now as compared to back then. So of course you will get a totally new perspective of the game, especially since being so old, it's very unknown.

It's an impressive game, it's too bad it didn't bring you shareware success. But like you said you're marketing skills may not have been up to it. My understanding has been that Mac users have always been the most supportive of shareware, so having a Mac build would've been a great help. But then again, allegro may not have had a current Mac port in 2002, did it?

Thanks for making it free!

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