Use the arrow keys for your movement.
Press the X key to fire phasers.
Press Z to fire quantum torpedoes full spread. You start with a single spread of torpedoes, as you gain more Dilithium Crystals 
, your quantum torpedo attack increases in power!
Sometimes the Borg will also drop shield recharge cells 
!
It has been six years since the Battle of Wolf 359 where the Borg destroyed 39 Federation starships at the cost of 11,000 lives.
The Borg have returned and they are determined to assimilate the Federation at all costs. They're currently en route directly to Sector 001. Earth!
You can take command of the USS Enterprise 1701-E as Captain Jean Luc Picard or the USS Defiant NX-74205 as Lt. Commander Worf!
The Enterprise has more powerful weapons but it is bigger/slower than the Defiant. If you think playing as the Defiant is too easy, try playing as the Enterprise!
You will use your lone ship to defend the Federation against this latest threat! If you fail, the entire Alpha Quadrant might end up assimilated as Borg drones!
Imagine it is 1996 and Paramount wants to make a movie tie in game for "Star Trek First Contact." Imagine that Paramount wanted to have this tie in game come out super fast... on the NES! (Or Pico 8 in this Case!)
This Shmup was created as part of the Basic Shmup Showcase. In June I started the Lazy Devs' Basic Shmup tutorial as a way to battle my mental health issues and to have something to do while I was on leave from my job. Finding this tutorial has totally transformed my life for the better.
Between the mental health challenges and the fact this is the first time I'm "really" programming in my life. (HTML in the 90s doesn't really count, does it?!) It has been an absolute struggle to work on it as much as I've wanted but I am happy that it came out as good as it has. It is somewhat disappointing that so many parts of Collective Mischief are very similar to the base tutorial.
Towards the end of making this game I ran out of tokens and spent most of my time trying to fix things while sitting at ~8100 tokens. Since I am such a beginner at Pico 8 and game dev in general I didn't know the best tricks to further reduce the amount of tokens being used so I just went with it. This game is not perfect but I think it demonstrates how much of my own flavor I put into it. (Hopefully.)
It bears noting that this is not a licensed Star Trek project and is considered a fan project only. No profits will be taken for the production of this game and will be completed for educational/portfolio purposes only.
Most of the programming and all of the art assets were created by me (Chaz).
If it wasn't for Krystian I would not have began my Pico 8 and game dev journey at all. Thank you to him most of all! This three month long adventure has been absolutely wild and I've learned so much. Consider me absolutely JAZZED for phase 2. I'm secretly hoping it is in Love2D!
Playtesting by Cat, orionwl, Aktane and Otto from the Lazy Devs Discord, and dw817 from the Lexaloffle BBS.
TNG Music/Starfield by FelixDR from Lazy Devs Discord.
Various music and SFX by Gruber.
Boss music by Sebastian Habler.
@thechaz. I am seeing your shooter. The graphics are great but it runs a lot like the others.
Have you seen the B&W Gameboy version for Star Trek ? It's pretty neat with the Enterprise and Klingons sideview shooter. Here is how that appears:
Very interesting looking GB game! It looks simple but fun.
As far as the Shmup I posted -- can you think of any ways to make it more interesting so it doesn't play like "the others"? :)
Well plenty, @thechaz.
- Work in a beautiful and complex story plot.
- Add Klingon and Romulan enemy vessels.
- Have messages come in from Starfleet where Kirk answers, build up a good story. Also have enemies contact Kirk to "fence off."
This messaging technique was done in Warpspeed for the Super Nintendo.
https://youtu.be/HwlbE_jV_hY?t=203
https://youtu.be/HwlbE_jV_hY?t=351
https://youtu.be/HwlbE_jV_hY?t=415
- Add the Doomsday Machine as a possible boss. (TOS Doomsday Machine) In the series it required a whole separate Enterprise starship set on self-destruct through its galactic maw to defeat it.
- Add Khan as a possible boss. (Star Trek II) His ultimate weapon is the Genesis device. No shield can withstand. Must be at least a light-year away to avoid its blast or GAME OVER.
- Add the Entity as a possible boss. (Star Trek IV). Its specialty is when its close to a ship or planet, knocks out all of their electronics. Its other weapons and shielding are unknown.
- V'Ger. An 'entity' with a mass measuring in millions of miles. Its goal is to "catalog" the Enterprise for its data - essentially ending the game. Was seen in Star Trek The Motion Picture (1st movie).
- Work on creating the sound effects to match those of Star Trek. Just fiddle with it. If you need help, I can help here as I've already made some Star Trek sounds for a project I benched as I work on my current one.
-
Planet beam-downs, make sub-shooter, vertical is fine, where Kirk w hand phasor is shooting down other enemies, Klingons, Mugatos, Gorns, Borg, Ferengi, etc.
-
Match in all cases whether it's the Enterprise shooting or Kirk with his hand phasor, match the strengths and weaknesses of enemies.
- Klingon ships can disappear from sight for a short time.
- The Romulans have a devastating weapon but it's beam is slow and can be outrun if the Enterprise is placed into overdrive.
On the planet.
- The Gorn is a lizard-like monster with rock-like skin. they hate humans without question.
- The Mugato can poison Kirk, dead, if he doesn't get antidote. This creature is more an animal than human, territorial, and cannot be reasoned with.
- Borg "adapt" after being hit a few times. Kirk must adjust his Phasor to a new frequency to hit them again. The Borg want to capture Kirk and make him the new Locutus - ending the game.
- Ferengi love money. Kirk could throw Latinum at them to distract them yet he needs this money earned from destruction of enemies to both repair and upgrade his ship in the game. The Ferengi are also weak-minded and can be easily tricked with their religion of greed.
- Klingons are a savage war-like race and love to fight rarely taking prisoners. They hate humans with a passion.
- Romulans are also savage but logic is at the heart of their core. they can be reasoned with, logically.
- The Federation is a very strong force you work for. You must follow the orders of the Federation or, if not, make sure they don't find out what it is you DID do. If you get caught you could get court-martialed.
You have a crew to assist you.
- Spock, logical, believes in preserving all life. 1st Officer, the smartest member of the crew outside Kirk.
- Dr. McCoy. Country doctor. Has sound advice. Ship's medical doctor. Takes care of wounded. Kirk sometimes calls him, "Bones."
- Lieutenant Uhura, communications officer. She talks to Starfleet and opens the channels to communicating with other friendly and enemy vessels.
- Checkov, navigations officer. His expertise is to steer the enterprise clear of dangers such as Pulasars, Quasars, stars, enemy starcraft, their weapons, and their salvo.
- Sulu, weapons officer. His expertise is ensuring there are plenty of Photon Torpedoes and maximum ability to phasors for battle.
- Scotty, engineer. Keeps the ship together. The Enterprise will receive damage with depleted shields. It is his job to make repairs in the engine and other vital areas of the ship. He uses Dilithium crystals to fuel the Enterprise - which can burn out when shields of the Enterprise are depleted.
- Christine Chapel, hottie. In love with Spock. Medical nurse, assistant to Dr. McCoy.
Weapons on the Enterprise are:
-
Phasors. Not a laser but a phasor, it is like a laser but is "punched" multiple times in succession to do more damage.
- Photon Torpedoes. The deadliest weapon the Federation has and employs. Basically a simple torpedo casing shell enveloped by pure photons. Can take out a single Klingon ship with one hit.
Kirk on the planetary surface has with his hand phasor:
- Shoot to kill. This will usually kill any ordinary man but not anything stronger.
- Disintegrate. Annihilates just about everything at a high cost to the phasor's power.
- Stun. The lowest non-lethal setting. Generally stuns a man so he can't move but can talk, if a little fuzzy.
- Heat. The lowest setting on the phasor. Useful for heating rocks on frozen planets.
-
Self-Destruct. You are given a short 3-second fuse window to toss, much like a hand-grenade. Does massive cellular damage to all in its explosive focus. This can be done but leaves Kirk defenseless.
- Other devices Kirk has on the planet are his Communicator. Can contact the ship for status and beam-up.
- Tricorder. A specialized device used in locating minerals and other people and enemies.
When beaming down to a surface, any member wearing a red shirt is always expendable and usually is.
Do a little research into Star Trek lore, I think you'll like it !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series
The music you have done for your shooter thus far is quite good ! Also your sprites. Gold star work there.
Your imagination is your only limit. Good luck !
The time period in the game is during Star Trek First Contact. So mostly focused on the Borg, Picard, and Worf. I thought about adding some more cinematic scenes but...
I'm not able to add more content because I'm already sitting at the token limit. There's some low hanging fruit I can go for to make some more room but I'm very unskilled at writing optimal code.
SFX might be a place where things can be improved but I'm not sure how to make an actual phaser/pulse phaser sound effect. Torpedoes sound pretty close IMO. I'll accept any help you'd be able to offer. ✌️
Here are 3 phasor sounds I made:
The deep thrum of the Transporter engine as heard in the pilot of Star Trek, "The Cage."
The sound of the engines of the Enterprise while traveling warp.
Some "incidental" music I put together. I totally suck at writing Pico-8 music. :)
Please let me know if any or none of these play, @thechaz.
As you are focusing on, "First Contact" here is the soundtrack to that.
Sound effects specific to "Star Trek The Next Generation." teleporter.
(Unfortunately this is just not possible in Pico-8) :(
However, here is also some lore to read-up and study regarding, "First Contact:"
Thanks @dw817 for taking the time to deliver all this extra help! Most of the sound effects have a very distinct TOS feel though so I'm not sure it is a good fit for this particular game.
It wouldn't be that difficult to have a TOS version of the game though. I'm just not sure I'm the person to do that, I never connected (as much as TNG/DS9/VOY) with TOS even though it has some of the best episodes of Star Trek.
My biggest desire after some reflection is to find ~1000 tokens somehow and add some new features that it set it apart from other shmups in the Lazy Devs tutorial cohort.
Heh, I haven't even watched a single episode of Voyager yet, @thechaz. I'm still going through my DS9 series. :)
And yes I think the biggest enemies in STTNG were the Borg, so leave out the other enemies if you're going for token size.
Here are some images of Borg-craft.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/c9/99/a8c999720250e205ec93478abc80b6f5.png
@dw817 Thanks once again! I was definitely pulling from the Star Trek Armada games which this graphic seems to pull from as well.
Update to v0.7.11:
- Added subtle music to the start of the game.
- TNG music plays if you pick the Enterprise, DS9 music plays if you pick the Defiant.
- Added Ship Registry Numbers to Ship Selection Screen.
- Added Graphical Title.
Glad to help, @thechaz. If I might add. Enemy shots look like the enemies in the heat of battle as they share the same exact colors.
Suggest the shots use a unique color like red, orange, and yellow. Let me see your sprites. Okay, classic starburst.
How about this ?
|
[16x8] |
What you do is flip back and forth between them every frame so the player can definitely see it is something shiny and avoid it.
@dw817 It's probably good advice overall but my only problem is... Borg shoot green torpedoes! Thoughts on Star Trek canon vs choices that enhance gameplay?
Update to v0.7.12:
- Hitbox for Enterprise has been shrank to compensate for its overall slow speed.
- Speed of Enterprise increased slightly for similar reasons.
- Enemy torpedoes are now culled right underneath the UI instead of the bottom of the screen.
- Added a "second" hitbox for pickups to compensate for the smaller hitbox of Enterprise.
- Added level music that needs to be tightened up in reference to its placement. Stopping and starting after each wave doesn't feel right.
I'm on the most recent version of Pico 8 and for some reason I cannot load this cart you posted. @dw817
That being said, I did update OP to include my version of your suggestion. (If I rework things myself, I tend to remember the principals behind what I'm doing easier.)
I'm checking out your newest release, @thechaz.
Yep ! I think that "flashing" green shots looks excellent and the player can definitely determine the enemy from their shots now.
Good challenging game.
Update to v0.8.1:
- Fixed an issue with the win screen showing a hiscore that was lower than the actual score obtained during run.
- Added a very funny joke.
- Beefed up the first boss level to be less of a push over.
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