I wasn't going to make anymore bosses, but since I have 8 levels, I need to have 8 bosses unless I want to have a repeated boss. I decided to make it ones of those shmup bosses where you have to destroy their shield (which has orbiting generators) in order to damage it.

No gameplay screenshots because I only got the class definitions started.

Something I just noticed. I have alien hut tiles which I place to make small alien villages (only a few tiles big), yet on the same level, I have a huge alien base that is hundreds of tiles long. So, this alien base is probably the size of a fucking region.

Whatever.

Finally got the 8th boss to work. I just need to create a texture for the shield, but I got the orbiting shield generators.

Got a basic texture for the force field. Still not complete, obviously.

The shield generators now explode when they're destroyed and flash red when hit.

Improved the texture for the boss's force field.

Boss 8 now attacks. (It only shoots directly at the player)

Adjusted the bullet speed a little bit.

Finally swapping the placeholder music with free to use music. (Which I can't show because I can't get OBS to record audio)

A lot of the music I find doesn't fully fit with the level but I'm trying my best to find music that fits as closely as possible.

Also, reminder that if you are a music composer and have scores laying around, consider uploading them to sites like OpenGameArt so other people can use them.

I finally got OBS to record audio. Now, you can hear the BGM that I used for level 1 and the boss battle.

gamedev

Added edge tiles for the metal platforms.

The game now has a custom icon instead of the default MonoGame icon. I haven't gotten around to that until now.

I've added a how to play screen on the main menu. I also finished Level 7 (the second to last level). I just need to do the finishing touches on level 8, and assuming there aren't any problems with the other levels, then I'm done with levels.

And yeah. That game logo is just a placeholder. I made it, but I don't know if a proper logo would look good with the skills and tools I have. (I use Pinta which is basically an open source clone of Paint.NET) I would commission a logo, but I only have ~$40 worth of crypto last time I checked.

Finally got a proper logo for the title screen. Shout out to @Mr_NutterButter for creating it.

I just need to polish some levels, refactor some code, remove any remaining copyright infringing assets (they're still there but unused), and then I'm done.

BTW, the game isn't anything to write home about, but it's a game, and probably the most polished game I made. The game was mainly me practicing enemy patterns.

It would probably be much better if I actually had experience with shmups and if college, a part-time job, and training for a full-time job didn't take so much time to the point I forget where I left off.

My next game programming project will probably either be a platformer or a top-down action game.

My lack of experience with shmups stems from the fact that growing up, they were always in the arcade so I didn't play enough of them for me to fully analyze them.

You probably notice that the game is largely Xevious inspired, that's because it's the only shmup I had significant experience with because I had one of those Jack's Pacific Plug-N-Play consoles with a bunch of Namco titles.

But I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to get into gamedev (either as a hobby or a career) you really need to experience some of the older games because obviously your first few projects are going to be small (unless you're stupid), so you might as well have some experience in playing older (as in pre-NES) games.

The audio somehow didn't work in this boss video but at least the level 1 video has audio.

@xianc78 Suggestion if possible:
Have you considered a white flash once the boss is destroyed? Makes explosions look bigger imo, kinda like this but not as long
m.youtube.com/watch?v=DqzmVvga_so

@ItsSkyDragonz There is a white explosion at the end but I cut off the recording before it happens.

It's kind of ironic that you showed Kirby as an example because I got the whole hit stop effect idea from Masahiro Sakurai's new gamedev channel.

https://invidious.poast.org/watch?v=OdVkEOzdCPw

@xianc78 looks amazing!

@xianc78 there are size and proportion issues with a lot of games, especially old school ones. as long as it looks good and gets the message across, i don't think it's that big of a deal.

@xianc78 I still haven't gotten around to that with my game lol

@beardalaxy I just used the player ship sprite. I don't know what size your character sprites are but if the height and width are the same, then you could just use your main character's sprite. You could also just use a sprite for a key item in the game.

@xianc78 yeah I'll probably go with the key item

@xianc78 The logo looks pretty cool, I like the font

@Alex It's a custom font I got from the Internet. I forgot what it was. And it maybe a problem because I don't remember what license the font has.

I plan on calling my game Zerox (named after the Xerox computer but spelled phonetically). I don't know how the logo would look with just one word though. Too lazy to do it right now.