Gundown - "An explodin' good time!"

Three weeks ago or so I purchased BlitzMax, intruiged by it's C++-like quirks and its promised speedy development speed. Well, it looks like it kept its word judging by the 2.5 weeks (less, since many days I didn't work on it :P) it took me to write up Gundown.

Gundown is a kill-everything-that-moves sort of game, complete with numerous levels, sound effects and uber graphics. A nice shooter ideally is a good thing knowing most gamers these days. ;) You control a movable turret at the bottom of the screen which can charge up artillery fire to gun down troops, ships, motorcycles, and other foes which are just begging to be vanquished!

Comments, questions, or any flavour of feedback is graciously welcomed!

Download Gundown

http://www.cyclologic.com/ftp/hopedagger/Gundown.zip

It was fun and needs some skill. I presume it's intentional that the green aiming line goes away after a few rounds. I got to the snow level then died.

The shadow on the shell is a good idea but I don't like the way it is sideways as at first I found it offputting, but I guess I got used to it in the end. Have you tried putting it under the bullet? The tank craft things have a shadow but the men, bikes and ambulances don't. The turrent graphic could be made more mettalic (use more greys) and the blue rail looks like a graphical error. Also it would be nice to have a decent font for the score and game over and shop etc. Also on game over space didn't do anything (i.e. go back ot the main menu) I had to press escape to quit. But you probably know a lot of this already, you just wanted to release something with all the excitement no doubt.

Anyway don't take that negatively because it was fun and is a complete project, and your first one which is more than lots of people do so well done. Just need a decent manic mod to play in the background now.

http://www.blitzbasic.com/faq/faq_entry.php?id=2

Good laugh, for a bit - the difficulty needs some work: I got all the way past the first 20 levels with some judicious button-mashing. Hit level 21 and got creamed! :P

I found it pretty easy to upgrade weapons (got to max) and blast radius. Never needed to buy health.

One level didn't seem to finish - it turned out there was a stationary soldier hidden behind the health bar. I could just see a pixel flickering on and off. :P

As for the shell shadows: you could try reversing it so the shadows go straight and the shells arc. Or, maybe get rid of the shadows and have the shells go straight, but scale up then down as they 'arc'?

Good effort - especially for the time-frame. ;)

Thanks for the feedback -- both positive and constructive. I'll take a go at fixing those up. :)