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Garden of Coloured Lights
Version 1.01
by Linley Henzell

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This is my entry for the www.shmup-dev.com 2007 Options competition!

It's written in C using gcc/MingW (compiler), Allegro (libraries) and Code::Blocks (IDE). The graphics were done with the GIMP or generated procedurally. The sound and music were done using Psycle, Audacity, and a number of free VSTs (especially Blitz and GameFX by Jan-Marco Edelmann (voskomo), CyanPhase VibraSynth by Edward L. Blake, and Wollo Beat by Erik Wollo). All the code, graphics and sound are mine, although I'd like to acknowledge Kenta Cho's rRootage and Parsec47 for inspiring elements of the graphics, Radiant Silvergun for inspiring some of the gameplay, and Rez for other inspiration.

Thanks also to the judges, the other entrants, the people who gave advice on the forum (without which the game would be a lot more irritating to play), the competition sponsors, and Mel for bringing me pide and chocolate.

Source code is available. Redistribution in unmodified form, or in slightly modified form (e.g. a port) is fine. Please email me if you can't find the source or if you'd like to change anything significantly (it's probably fine as well). I don't have a makefile as I use Code::Blocks, but to build the binaries you just need to compile everything and link it all together along with Allegro. It should work on any system which Allegro supports (DOS, Mac, Linux etc).

My email address is l_henzell@yahoo.com.au. I'm without a net connection at the moment so it can take me a while to reply, but I always like getting feedback so please let me know what you think of this game!


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INSTRUCTIONS etc

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Engage a variety of strange melodic enemies across four stages as they shoot at you in time and in turn with (or counterpoint to) the music. To fight these creatures you can select three weapons at the start and level them up through use. 

When you get enough points in a level the colours change and the score multiplier increases by five per cent. Every 2000 points is another life, so don't let too many things get away! The score multiplier stays with you between stages, but it doesn't affect the levelling of your weapons (and also doesn't affect how many points you need to get another 5%).

Now, the weapon system is a bit complicated. If the following explanations don't make sense, play the game for a while and try reading them again.


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Weapons - Quick Explanation

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I suggest using one of the default configurations, because most of them have:
- A fast but weak weapon for shooting down small enemies;
- A slow but powerful weapon for large enemies;
- And a special weapon for shooting things behind or around you.

Fire your fast weapon in bursts to let your slow weapon recharge. Make sure you use them all or they'll stay at power level one and be not very useful.


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Weapons - Comprehensive Explanation for completists

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When you destroy an enemy, power (proportional to the enemy's un-multiplied points value) is distributed among your weapons according to how much damage they did. Damage done to enemies who escape is wasted. Destroying a boss gives you plenty of points, but it doesn't level up your weapons or count for the multiplier (and destroying any escorts a boss may have just gets you a clear shot). When you've done enough damage with a weapon it levels up and becomes nastier.

The weapons have different uses and you'll need a balanced selection to be able to defeat all of your enemies. The fast weapons are good against small targets but not so good against anything big. The slow weapons are the opposite. 

You can see whether your weapons are charging or ready by the bars up in the top left hand corner of the screen and the little circles under each option. You only have a fixed amount of recharging energy, so using more than one weapon at once doesn't get you any additional firepower. Slow weapons share recharging energy among themselves and stop charging when you're using a fast weapon; fast weapons lose power when you're using more than one of them at once (for example, if you're using Sunshower while swinging the Tooth around, Sunshower will fire half as often and the Tooth will do half damage).

There are special weapons as well, which you'll need if you want to hit things behind or beside you.

The fast weapons are:
Sunshower - great for clearing out small enemies.
Solar Bite - does a bit less damage (per unit time) than Sunshower, but is easier to aim.
Enduring Filament - does less damage again but can strike multiple things. 

The slow weapons are:
Vapour Orb - hits a single target for a lot of damage.
Eye of Rectification - explodes for a bit less damage than the Orb.
Sudden Filament - pierces multiple targets for a little bit less damage again. 

The special weapons are:
Worms of Torment (slow) - rear-firing seeker weapon. Best used not as a replacement for the fast weapons but as a defensive weapon when you're forced to the side or top of the screen, or when small enemies surround you. Because it's a slow weapon, you can combine it with a fast weapon without reducing the fast weapon's power (although you'll have to stop firing to allow it to recharge). Worms are much more useful than they might look at first.
Eight Mouths of Hell (fast) - can fire in all eight directions. Press fire while moving to shoot in the direction opposite to your movement. It's a bit weaker than Solar Bite but the circles are large and easy to hit things with.
Tooth of Xom (fast) - very powerful against anything, but tricky to use. It does extra damage if it strikes its target at a high relative velocity (e.g. if an enemy is passing in front of you from left to right, slashing with the Tooth from right to left while moving left will do the most damage) and is the only weapon which does extra damage to large enemies (because it stays in contact with them for longer).


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More Instructions etc

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The only vulnerable part of your vehicle is the white part at the centre. The only dangerous parts of enemy bullets are the central dim parts - the bright outside is harmless (this includes things like the strings behind bullets and enemy beams while they charge up). 

Default controls (but they're redefinable):
Move around with the arrow keys;
Z fires the first weapon;
X fires the second weapon;
C fires the third weapon;
Left shift slows you down (for more precise dodging)

There is also joystick/gamepad support, although only in the game (not in the menu). The calibrate joystick option is there because Allegro offers it, but I don't know what it really does because it doesn't seem to work on my system.

You can change settings like windowed vs fullscreen, joystick configuration and whether vsync is used by editing init.txt in any text editor. Instructions are in the file. Personally I recommend playing in fullscreen with vsync off, which is the default. Vsync clears up some shearing problems in the graphics but can slow things down a lot, especially in windowed mode.

If you like Garden of Coloured Lights, you might want to look at some of my other games (easily found on the web):
Excellent Bifurcation (came second in the shmup-dev 2007 Autofire competition)
Overgod
Lacewing
Captain Pork's World of Violence (not so good)
Captain Pork's Revenge (not great either)
Crawl 


Any comments/queries/complaints to l_henzell@yahoo.com.au.


Bye!
Linley

