Hi everyone, Leandro here! LAUNCH IS TOMORROW AAAAAAAAAA*inhales* *exhales* *inhales* *exhales*
So, let's talk about the power mechanic, an specific one that WILL help you in tough situations!
Tyrian had it's energy bar, to power weapons and shields. Without a good generator, you couldn't have good weapons. Maybe it's even the most iconic game mechanic from Tyrian.
So, let's use a little LORE to explain how things are done in Beyond the Storm... *clears throat*
The galarian professor Malktor Von Wann wanted to CHANGE the spaceships's power matrix, to redirect power to an specific system on the fly. Here's he yelling at his coworkers, explaining how it could be done, in 951.8 AGS. Such a genius, indeed.
So, the main idea behind the Power Matrix is that you can define how much Power Cells each system can have. More cells means:
Deadlier and faster shots
Faster shield recharges
Faster thrusters
But, warning: More cells being recharged cripples the generator!
The initial setup of a power matrix is as follows:
1st half for Front Weapon
2nd half for Rear Weapon
All cells for Shields
All cells for Movement (either horizontal or vertical).
Yes, a cell can power more than one system but... I don't recommend this.
This is a schematic of how the systems are processed, when a single Power Cell is connected to more than one system. MAYBE you'll have one or more crippled systems so, check this if you have problems like not firing, not recharging shields or jagged movement!
The armor itself isn't the main problem that you can face when you get hits. These cells are very sensitive, and every bump can make their acidic catalyzers go nuts, failing in sending power properly. Check their status and repair them when this happens!
Sometimes you'll face adversities that needs to reconfigure the power matrix and everything... others, you'll just need to figure the best moment to do some things. These are some that we've gathered with Dr. Malktor Von Wann. Maybe there's more, I don't know, he's mean and I'm too afraid to ask anything.
----- Phew, tomorrow's the big day! I can't express how much I thank everyone which has been recommendating Beyond the Storm everywhere!
I must say that it's not being easy these days: A LOT of things to do in the game, just to make it done in time. (this week I've been staying awake late, like 1 AM, 2 AM... Everything while dealing with my work, wife and children. Trust me: It's. Not. Easy!)
I must confess that I had to remove a lot of things to make sure that the game reaches fully playable tomorrow, but don't worry: In the next days, I'm scheduling A LOT of new features, for example:
More quests
More game modes
Special events
More levels
DLCs
Integration with Steam Workshop (Ship editor, level editor...)
So, stay tuned! Beyond the Storm launches tomorrow, with a HUGE launch discount! And, if you didn't wishlisted yet, REMEMBER TO WISHLIST IT! We've reached 600 wishlists, thank you all!! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1473760/Beyond_the_Storm/
From Tyrian to beyond - Part 3
Hi everyone, Leandro here! Beyond the Storm will launch in the next week so, it’s a good time to talk about one mechanic: the “open-galaxy”!
You know, Tyrian had a little map view before starting every level, showing the locations and even a track to the next level, when available.
As a love-letter, it was necessary to include this map in Beyond the Storm. But then, I asked: How could I make this map more challenging?
So, I wanted to make it like free roam, so we could focus on the planets and stations, and having a little "space section" between them. This is an early concept of how this could be achieved:
To make these interestellar travels possible, I made a little thing called the Warp Cells, in which they can be available in the levels like the Data Cubes.
Without them, you'll not have the needed fuel to continue, getting stranded in space so, make sure to get every Warp Cell that shows up! You'll need them to plan your next travel in the quadrant:
But, if you didn’t planned carefully your travels and still get stranded, don’t worry: the Galactic-Tow ULLC is ready to pick you up in any galaxy sector and tow you to the last station that were in your computer... For a little price, of course.
If you don’t have the credits to pay them, just give them some of your ship's equipment and everything will be fine... Probably!
Another thing that can aid – or mess it up – with your travels is the wormholes, which sends everyone one-way to another sector of the Tenn Quadrant. You can use them! Go ahead, see how much fun you’ll have travelling in them! Weeeeeeeeee!!
There’s a full galaxy out there for you to explore/aid/destroy (or be destroyed!)! You’ll only have to figure out where are some specific locations, since your mapping software wasn’t updated and the company ceased operations... And while some locations is having just a few troubles with their galactic locator, others just... let’s just say that they don’t want to be seen...
I’m really happy on how these things are going, and I’m thankful to God for everything that happened until today!
I can’t let pass that this game being noticed like this makes me more nervous about making it live up the expectations of you all, and I promise that I’ll make my best!
Hi everyone, Leandro here! This week, let's go a little deeper on the soundtrack of Beyond the Storm.
As a game like Tyrian, with a soundtrack so magnificent, made by Alexander Brandon - which is one of the most incredible videogame composers -, I knew that it would be almost impossible for me to reach that level so, I dig it up the soundtrack of Tyrian and start analyzing it.
Fortunately, for me, all the time spent in my childhood just listening to the soundtrack of Tyrian was well spent! But I had a different way to listen it: In my childhood, I couldn't figure out how to setup the sound settings of the DOS games. I just remember my dad telling me that it was "Adress 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1". I put those numbers, sound came, and it was magical.
But, for Tyrian, maybe because of some foreign planets misaligned with something else, I didn't hear any sound effect of Tyrian - just the music.
And, oh boy, what a music! Jason Emery knew what he had in hands that even put a Jukebox in the setup of Tyrian. Even in setup, that game amazed it's players: The jukebox allowed everyone to hear the soundtrack while look at some fascinating starfields.
Those starfields were so fascinating that, in a remake, it is like an heresy to NOT put the Jukebox on it. So, Beyond the Storm has a Jukebox too:
The first music made for Beyond the Storm is the Title Music, made in October 3rd, 2020. Curiously, it's the same date of launch of Beyond the Storm, 2 years later! :)
In this track, you can notice some cool things. For example, the Tyrian title notes on the beginning, as a nod to it's roots! Also, the whole structure of the Tyrian Title is also used on the Beyond the Storm Title:
A lot of other tracks repeats the structure of it's counterpart, some of them even with the same notes. And the similarities doesn't end here: All tracks names are also based on Tyrian's tracks names:
Some of these names has even a few references to some other materials... Movies, TV Shows, Games... Everything that gave a little glimpse on how things could be done in Beyond the Storm! References, references everywhere!
Speaking of references, all the tracks still must have a connection to the whole game itself so, in almost every track, the "Beyond the Storm's leitmotif" is present. Sometimes only on the chords, sometimes in the notes on a particular instrument, but it is there!
The whole soundtrack is available on YouTube. Can you spot all the references and leitmotifs? If you do, let me know:
Tyrian music had a huge impact in my life. I've already said that the game itself taught me to love games and, part of my love for music I can credit it to Alexander Brandon's Tyrian Soundtrack. I'm glad I reached what we call a "full circle loop" nowadays:
Seeing my daughter have fun with the Jukebox that I made based on a Jukebox I've seen when I was a child is like I'm peeking into the past, with the power to change the future. A better future, of course! I hope that her generation has a nice time with Beyond the Storm like ours had with Tyrian. Love you, Ana! <3
----
In two weeks Beyond the Storm will be launched, I'm doing my best to make everything done when the time comes! I have a lot of plans with Beyond the Storm in the future, which I'll be talking about once the game reaches gold status!
Be sure to wishlist Beyond the Storm! We've hit 500 wishlists (and growing!)! Thank you all!
From Tyrian to beyond - Part 1
Hi, everyone! Leandro here, working in A LOT of things to get Beyond the Storm ready in the next month! In this 4-part series I'm gonna show some aspects from the very first beginning of the development of Beyond the Storm!
The levels in Beyond the Storm are being made in Tiled Map Editor. But, when we started, Tiled didn't had a tool to export the maps to Game Maker Studio 2. So, for this, I've made my own "Tiled Map Editor export tool to GMS2", which is available today in this link:
With this tool, I could do the maps in Tiled Map Editor and export them to Game Maker Studio 2 easily. With this, I've made a few tests, and even recreated the first level of Tyrian on it, screenshooting the whole level and remaking it tile by tile.
And, here's a peek of the first level in Beyond the Storm, the Sector A of Tarwen Station. Fun fact: I've been using Game Maker since it's version 4.2, when it was just "Made by Mark Overmars". I was age 13 at that time, and didn't had any knowledge of the internet back then. I was able to have my MSN and my Orkut profile only two years later, and that's when I've started to help other Game Maker developers here on Brazil. A few years later, and somehow they've put me in charge of the official Game Maker community on Orkut.
Game Maker changed so much, if compared to the newest version. And I've seen every version , upgrading my licenses, and kept training and teaching on the engine. Now, with almost 20 years of experience on it, I'm ready to launch my first commercial game, with this project which is already reaching 1000 objects (and beyond!).
I've already said here but, Beyond the Storm isn't the first iteration of a "Tyrian remake", making "Supreme Tyrian" circa 2007 that - fortunately! - didn't saw the light of the day!
I've made a lot of other projects that remains sleeping in the depths of my files. Maybe someday I'll upload some of them (the playables, at least!)
Back to Beyond the Storm, the first game mechanic made was the most iconic detail of Tyrian: The energy system. So, I asked "can I have more than one bar?"... And then I've created the Power Cells system, that allows weapons to upgrade midflight:
You can notice that I've managed to maintain the HUD in the style of Tyrian. Since the beginning, we're already started prototyping the HUD, with only one thing scrapped from it (which was also the same thing scrapped from the Tyrian prototypes: The "cockpit")
The whole purpose of the Power Cells was functioning, but I needed to make possible to do changes in the "energy matrix" in-flight. So, I thought to do a "bullet-time" approach while making those changes. This is somehow related to how I imagine they do in Star Trek, when they're redirecting power to some system: ,
And, speaking of Star Trek... This week I was designing some ships that are based on the ships available for the player, and it got a "mirror dimension" kind of feeling...
I must confess that, in a universe so diverse like in Beyond The Storm, it would be and heresy to think that the player is the only one capable to buy these ships. There's shops everywhere and money everywhere! SHIPS FOR EVERYONE!
Some of these ships you can notice that has a more "polygonal" approach... That's not a choice of the art director (which is me!). It's the lack of skills in Blender, although I like the final result (after a few touches here and there):
Not every asset is made in Blender, only the ones that needs some rotation/animation, to make those animations a lot faster and nicer, withoutthe distortions that simple painting can do.
-----
It's been a wild week, doing a lot of things everyday, using every hour available to make progress. The to-do list only grows and grows, while I'm trying to test it and fix things.
I must admit that I never was a guy of "big numbers", but I'm impressed on how this project got attention in the last days, and I'm happy that I've managed to get here, with God's help! "Thus far the LORD has helped us."
And, don't forget to wishlist Beyond the Storm! We're already on 450 wishlists!
Official gameplay trailer!
TL;DR: Gameplay official trailer is here: ----- It was in JANUARY since I've created the project, got a few sfx here and there, made some animations, put some info together and said "Now I'll only record the gameplay and put everything here! Next week I'll have the perfect trailer!"
But then, I've noticed that I can't have a trailer showing only two levels. Even worse: I can't have a trailer showing only three space ships or only two bosses... I need CONTENT!
But, in order to have content, I needed GRAPHICS. So, I needed to draw them too.
During content insertion proccess, there were BUGS. And bugs on trailers aren't welcome (and we know this very well, isn't?)
Along with this content situation, I've got a few others on the real life: New responsabilities, my daughters were growing, I've started a graduation in computation, returned to work in-loco after the pandemic, personal events... Suddenly, my 24 hours days were needing 76,2 hours (exactly) so I could handle everything AND conclude the game trailer.
The result was simple: I didn't had a trailer.
But I've worked on. Adopted the philosofy that "any progress is still a progress" so, continued doing a thing here and there. And I've been doing. OH BOY, HOW I'VE BEEN DOING until there was vacation. Suddenly, there was plenty of time to developt it. In two weeks I've made the same progress that I had in 3 months, and the trailer was finally being saw.
With everything done, I've just needed two days to do the recordings, and another 3 hours to put everything together on KdenLive. The result was a simple yet beautiful timeline:
Anxiety came at lightspeed, of course. I needed to publish it but it has to be in the right time. And now, with a lot of proud in my heart, like a father sees his children going first day to school, Beyond the Storm now has a true gameplay trailer!
Send it to your friends! Send it to your parents (Maybe they've played Tyrian in the past, right...?)! Send it to your children! Send it to your cat! Send it to Jason Emery! Send it to Alex Brandon! Send it to Daniel Cook! HECK, SEND IT EVEN TO SCOTT HOST! Just send it: Tyrian is having a remake!
~Leandro Gabriel, lone developer of Beyond the Storm
Have you heard of Tyrian?
Hi. I am Leandro Gabriel, the developer of Beyond the Storm, and I'm here to tell you a little backstory of Beyond the Storm.
In the 90's, I was just a child with a computer and a lot of games to play. And then, one day, I saw my brother playing the coolest game I ever saw back then.
It was incredible. A nice looking brown ship, destroying everything ahead of it, while it filled the screen with colored bullets. At the right, there was an odd GUI that I didn't understand at first: A lot of vertical bars, some green text on small screens... But it was just after watching one level that I've already understood what was that thing, and clearly admitted: "This is RAD. I've never seen a game like this!"
That game was Tyrian, which was made by Jason Emery, Alexander Brandon and Daniel Cook (Eclipse Software), published by XSIV Games (Epic Megagames, on it's "sequel": Tyrian 2000).
I can't really say how much was the impact of that game worldwide. All that I can say is that, in pretty much every "best shmups of all time", there he is, even if it's A LOT different than the others on the same list. And that game surprised me too, which easily became my favorite game.
It was only the demo version, though. But I've tried to reach every single level, discover every little secret, buy every weapon available and even tried to make every "themed" ship that could be created, filling every save slot.
And I did all that while listening what would became, in the near future, one of my main references in electronic music. The soundtrack of that game was amazing, and I've learned to admire it just because the soundcard was a choppy one, which we didn't managed to setup the sound effects - only the music.
I even tried to assume that some music was synchronized with the levels, because everything was so incredible and well done... I think that my love for music came from that game, which even had a nice Jukebox on the setup menu.
That game taught me how to love games, and I loved so much that I've decided to be a game developer. That was hard, because I didn't knew anything of that "so much talked internet", I didn't knew where to start. And then, one day, I've saw a CD magazine where it was written on it's cover: "Make your own games with Game Maker". My parents bought it, I installed and start studying that program.
When I went to the internet, I've met some other developers of that same game engine, with problems that I knew how to solve, so I followed that path: Constantly teaching and learning how to make games with Game Maker. It is obvious that, in some time, I've tried to do a "remake" of Tyrian which... didn't go well. Many flaws, starting by the music, it was clear that I needed a lot more knowledge to do so. So I've continued to do other little projects, and time has passed by...
Now, after 18 years developing little projects, helping a developer here and there, I thought it was time to leave this hobby... And, right before I've decided that, it came Tyrian on my mind once again. Maybe I could do something related to Tyrian, to "make the world a better place" (haha)?
So, here comes "Beyond the Storm": A love-letter for Tyrian.
In this project I'm trying to replicate the same experience from the past, while adding more content, improving visuals and including more mechanics to it. I can't recall how much articles and videos about Tyrian I've seen on the past months, just to try to get everything right!
In a few days, some fans are already calling this an "un-official remake" or "spiritual sucessor" of Tyrian, although I prefer the term love-letter, because it is, in every aspect, a little demonstration of how much Tyrian shaped me in my childhood, and how much I want to thank the developers for the great times I had with Tyrian.
Hope you can enjoy this game too! Launch expected in April, 2022, on Steam!
