Complete Spawn: The Crusade Across Time 1.2

[David1334]

Hey everyone, I finally finished the mod that I've been putting together these past few months and I have to say it came out very well. Thank you to everyone who helped with it on here by answering my questions when I was new to creating the game at first. It would mean a lot if you downloaded it, tried it out, and played with some friends. Its regular beat em up length and its pretty fast paced, it's got 6 beefy levels and an easy to follow story line. If you enjoy it, let me know and share it with anyone that you think might like it also. Below you'll find the link, some screenshots, and the text from the readme file. Credits can be found in game (at the end), and the download comes in a zip with the standalone exe file. The folder it comes with has some extra useful tools, links, and concept art. Once again thanks to everyone here for the help, I've always wanted to make my own Spawn Beat em up and I'd like to think this ones a banger for it being my first. (I'll probably upload some footage to YouTube eventually, but for now I just want to get the game itself out there)

Author: David Nippert

Email Address: david.nippert03@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/crimsontomb

Game Title: Spawn - The Crusade Across Time

Game Category: Beat Em' Up (OpenBOR)

Game Size: 250MB

PC Requirements: Windows/NT/XP or Above

BEST TO PLAY THIS GAME: With a controller and connected to a TV through HDMI

Game Description
1) 5 UNIQUE CHARACTERS TO CHOOSE FROM
2) 6 LONG STAGES WITH 24 SCENES TO PLAY THROUGH
3) FAST PACED GAMEPLAY WITH AGGRESSIVE ENEMIES
4) ANIMATED TEXT CUTSCENES AND MULTIPLAYER SUPPORT

ITS BEST TO UNZIP THE GAME FOLDER TO YOUR SAVED GAMES FOLDER

Hope You Enjoy My First Game, It's Better than most OpenBor Mod's you'll find out there nowadays...

The link for the standalone PAK is here incase you want to add the game to your own PAK collection or if you want to put it onto a console such
as the WII, PSP, Dreamcast, Playstation, etc. But it might need to be edited since console play has not been entirely worked out yet.

Thanks for downloading the game it's very much appreciated!

Subscribe to My YouTube to stay notified on future game/music projects

-David Nippert

 

[DCurrent]

Congratulations on the release David1334!

DC

 

[David1334]

Congratulations on the release David1334!

DC

Thanks! Very much appreciated

 

[Miru]

In the future, I suggest Morrigan and/or Hsien-Ko get added to the game’s roster, for the sake of making it less of a sausage fest. Change up the game’s HUD, as well, as it right now looks too vanilla, and maybe make the game widescreen? The enemies in the first stage have a bit too much HP for the amount of options characters currently have.

 

[David1334]

In the future, I suggest Morrigan and/or Hsien-Ko get added to the game’s roster, for the sake of making it less of a sausage fest. Change up the game’s HUD, as well, as it right now looks too vanilla, and maybe make the game widescreen? The enemies in the first stage have a bit too much HP for the amount of options characters currently have.

Thanks for the input, I’ll work on implementing some of those suggestions in the future

 

[kimono]

Hi David1334:

Hope You Enjoy My First Game, It's Better than most OpenBor Mod's you'll find out there nowadays...

It's maybye not the better way to introduce your game...considering Openbor makers aren't professionnal developpers and try to make their best.
That's said, the Openbor games begin to be better and better since the makers gain more knowledge about this engine and have some help with the community .

I have the same opinion than Miru , you should choose a wide screen (480X272) video screen resolution for modern 16/9 screens.
I'm agree with nsw25 too, there is always swarm of enemies and the player is rapidly surrounded. You can make them spawn differently (through doors and windows, make themrun or jump on screen) and have a different behavior like notargetidle, avoid or chase. Take a look at TMNT arcade stage 1:

The characters and stages choice are good and I like your drawing concept, are they for a game cover?

 

[David1334]

Hi David1334:

Hope You Enjoy My First Game, It's Better than most OpenBor Mod's you'll find out there nowadays...

It's maybye not the better way to introduce your game...considering Openbor makers aren't professionnal developpers and try to make their best.
That's said, the Openbor games begin to be better and better since the makers gain more knowledge about this engine and have some help with the community .

I have the same opinion than Miru , you should choose a wide screen (480X272) video screen resolution for modern 16/9 screens.
I'm agree with nsw25 too, there is always swarm of enemies and the player is rapidly surrounded. You can make them spawn differently (through doors and windows, make themrun or jump on screen) and have a different behavior like notargetidle, avoid or chase. Take a look at TMNT arcade stage 1:

The characters and stages choice are good and I like your drawing concept, are they for a game cover?

Personally speaking, I added many swarms of enemies since most of the time when I played older openbor mods I was often bored since the grouping seemed very slow but I will agree with you that placement should be adjusted. I've played the game over a few times with some friends and I never really encountered any difficulty with the aspect ratio or any problems fighting off the enemies in the introduction because I feel as though the playable characters are strong and fast enough to get through the game. If enemies were toned down I don't think there would be much of a challenge or incentive to keep trying. But that's just my opinion because I'm into playing beat em ups with an aggressive difficulty. Sometime in the future I will change the HUD to make it more unique and looking back now it was a little arrogant to call it one of the better mods out there lol. I also liked your reference to tmnt and that gives me some more ideas on the way some enemies can be introduced in the stage.

 

[David1334]

Also thank you to all of your guys' input whether it be positive or negative it helps as I can work to constantly improve the project because it's pretty much still a baby. And yes the portrait drawings were an idea for a potential cover for a physical dreamcast version I'd give to some of my friends.

 

[kimono]

I don't have any problem to the crowd of enemies either but it could be nice to offer different situation to the player, like trap, holes, some relief... or enemies with a different routine like attacking and fleeing, throwing projectiles, trapping the player, etc...
I'm glad that you still want to improve it and this is a nice start, I like its "atmosfear" .

 

[O Ilusionista]

Hey David, let me give you my two cents about a thing:

It's maybye not the better way to introduce your game...considering Openbor makers aren't professionnal developpers and try to make their best.

I have to agree with Kimono here. I understand that you are excited about your first game, but avoid to present your work like "It's Better than most OpenBor Mod's you'll find out there nowadays" because "better" can be subjective and personal... and can make you sound a bit arrogant.

Me, as a creator, always though that I should not call my work better then others but let people decide if the game is better or not

very first stage at the very start you are swarmed by 10 or more enemies..... this is your introduction level, for people to learn what the game is about etc and this is how you greet players ?

This is an example why you should present your game like that, because that is exactly a common mistake on OpenBOR games: early stages with big groups of enemies and/or "walk, fight a big number of enemies, walk, fight a big number of enemies, repeat, repeat..".

In other words, you are making the same mistake of other creators while saying your game is better than most OpenBOR games
Don't get me wrong, but this sounds funny

Feedback:
- Start with small groups, and make it bigger as you proceed.
- Try to use different enemies per group, like SOR, FF does.
- Try using a different HUD, to make it look less generic

Good luck with your work.

 

[Miru]

I do like how Akuma's flare-up animation is now an attack. Do you plan to use Attack2, Attack3, and Attack4? Perhaps for additional moves? Once Morrigan and Hsien-Ko have been added, Bloodrayne, Devilman, and Shadow the Hedgehog might be cool too.

 

[pepodmc]

hello.

I think that the easiest way to get right the ammount of enemies waves in the stages is to get as reference the flow in which the waves of enemies appear in the best classics beat em ups (captain commando, the punisher, streets of rage, cadillacs and dinosaurs, etc)

And then add your own take in latter stages where the players are used to the playable characters and mechanics of the game

 

[David1334]

Hey David, let me give you my two cents about a thing:

It's maybye not the better way to introduce your game...considering Openbor makers aren't professionnal developpers and try to make their best.

I have to agree with Kimono here. I understand that you are excited about your first game, but avoid to present your work like "It's Better than most OpenBor Mod's you'll find out there nowadays" because "better" can be subjective and personal... and can make you sound a bit arrogant.

Me, as a creator, always though that I should not call my work better then others but let people decide if the game is better or not

very first stage at the very start you are swarmed by 10 or more enemies..... this is your introduction level, for people to learn what the game is about etc and this is how you greet players ?

This is an example why you should present your game like that, because that is exactly a common mistake on OpenBOR games: early stages with big groups of enemies and/or "walk, fight a big number of enemies, walk, fight a big number of enemies, repeat, repeat..".

In other words, you are making the same mistake of other creators while saying your game is better than most OpenBOR games
Don't get me wrong, but this sounds funny

Feedback:
- Start with small groups, and make it bigger as you proceed.
- Try to use different enemies per group, like SOR, FF does.
- Try using a different HUD, to make it look less generic

Good luck with your work.

Will do lol, i'll start working on those small additions little by little and I think the game will be more presentable over time

 

[ABK]

no screenshot, no play.cmon.Show some stuff.

 

[msmalik681]

Wow a full game congratulations i will give it a try.

 

[danno]

no screenshot, no play.cmon.Show some stuff.

I played it for you bWWd

 

[DCurrent]

Added to resources and associated discussion thread with download page. Made @BlazingFlash resource owner. Tagged Spawn.

DC

 

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

Alright man, you had me at Spawn, and you even beat me to this because I started a Spawn project years ago, though with a totally different cast and 16-bit sprites. I'm also on the download page now and you Kratos like I did, lol, but even better, you added Venom, so I'm playing this real soon.

Personally speaking, I added many swarms of enemies since most of the time when I played older openbor mods I was often bored since the grouping seemed very slow but I will agree with you that placement should be adjusted.

I made this mistake during my early days of modding and for the same exact reason. If nothing else, if you're going to fill the screen with enemies, lower their health, so players can get through them faster, all the best games that swarm you with enemies do this, Adventures of Batman and Robin(Genesis), Gunstar Heroes, Contra, Metal Slug, and yes, these are all shooters but the fact remains.

It can be equally as boring as fighting 1 or 2 enemies at once at the starting point when they last a while.

EDIT: Just watched a bit of @danno 's video, yeah, the mooks have no business attacking that fast and repeatedly, lol. Either the delay should be higher or add extra frames after the attack with a higher delay.

x)

 

[Hanzo]

Yeah the OG openbor mods starting out with mobs of enemies during the first two stages and that can get very tedious and boring for the player. Not to mention overwhelm them if the player has sit through bash wave upon wave of enemies throughout the play through.

 

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

So I played 2 stages and a half last night and really on the select screen right now. For one thing, yeah, I don't mind too many enemies myself, but they attack too fast, the Bag men or whatever that guy with the chainsaws was called barely even flinches and can hit you mid combo, they do too much damage and you gave everyone the bare minimum life. Lotta cons here, BUT, I like how fast everyone on the roster is when it comes to combos, putting you on par with the enemies, and them having longer ranged punches helps make up for the enemies. The game also doesn't take too long to adjust to since you'll just be mashing the attack button the whole time, and the D,D,A attack, but many of those have the average speed even if ranged, and of course, running.

The main fixes this mod needs is the playable roster having more life, slow the enemies down a bit, maybe even lower the amount of enemies, at least in the first stage.

Overall, I'm ok with this so far, definitely something I can put on my phone as a good time waster, and it's got Spawn and Venom, but the inclusion of Hellboy is cool to. Also, this mod needs widescreen, I think someone brought it up before, but it's needed.

EDIT: Ok, so I had already played 4 stages, but I finished the game now and my opinions are the same. If there's any reason for this game to be in widescreen, it's because of the final boss. All things considered, I did get a kick out of this game tho, the speed of your attacks played a part in that, but this can be a lot better due to it's potential.

Regarding one comment from Miru:

In the future, I suggest Morrigan and/or Hsien-Ko get added to the game’s roster, for the sake of making it less of a sausage fest.

I'll have to disagree here, not so much the sausage fest even though I usually favor the male characters so a full male roster never bothers me, but anyone but Morrigan, it gets a little old seeing her show up in every crossover because the rest of the Darkstalkers are underutilized, the one time being Dimitri starring in SNK vs Capcom Chaos. Hsien-Ko would be better but she doesn't fit the theme of the game too well. If a women has to be added, the best I can think of his the the main character from Bloodrayne. I know she's got MvC style sprites and was even used in a mod. Maybe Mixmasters IIRC.

x)