Project Osiris - Alien Breed 3D for GZDoom (1.0.3)

[ArcturusDeluxe]

UPDATE

1.0 next Friday! Features a new soundtrack, intro/ending improvements and custom menus, new in-game graphics and sound effects, and some more gameplay adjustments. Note that the 1.0 doesn't mean I'm done completely, I'm still open to feedback and updating the game when necessary, and I haven't forgotten about the demo maps either!

Thing is though, I think I messed up on the CD32 music thing? Since 0.10 I've found out that Bjorn Lynne is selling the full AB3D soundtrack on digital storefronts, which has now made me a bit anxious about including the CD32 tracks without permission. I contacted Bjorn Lynne and I hope he responds at some point, because I want them to be included, but without feeling weird about it. Support for the music will still be in there, there's a menu option to switch between soundtracks, but you'll have to provide the music files in a pk3. Instructions will be included if needed.

Hope you all understand! In the mean time, I hope you all give my new soundtrack a fair shake. I'm far from a professional musician, I made the tracks mainly for fun and practice, but I think they're pretty atmospheric and there are some fun musical callbacks to other Alien Breed games in there. I know I've shared some opinions on the original CD32 music before, it didn't quite gel with the game for me, but I'm not trying to replace or invalidate Lynne's work on the CD32 stuff, I want both soundtracks to be an option.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Yes!

[Pa9an]

Great news...can't wait !!

[ArcturusDeluxe]

Wow, it's been about 2 years since I embarked on this mad undertaking, and here we are, project 'officially' completed! Say hello to v1.0! Big changes in this version:

• New soundtrack by me! The previous music I made is included, such as the boss music, but now there is quite a lot of new music for exploring the levels. It ranges from dark ambient to pumping electro. I'm not a professional musician or anything, but hopefully the tracks do a decent job of setting the mood! Look out for some Alien Breed references in the music too. I also added some triggers to the levels so there is a bit of dynamic music stuff in there. Some levels will start quiet until the music kicks in!
• Official CD32 soundtrack support. It's a bit fiddly I'm afraid until I can get Bjorn Lynne's permission to include the tracks. You will have to bring your own music and insert them into a pk3. See the readme for details!
• A general presentation overhaul. There are now proper ACS-driven scrolly text intro and ending scenes. The menus are now custom made to be a bit easier to understand for newcomers, and the regular GZDoom menu is quickly accessible under 'Advanced'. Fullscreen mode HUD has been tied together a bit. Automap now shows coloured key doors and secrets.
• Various new graphics and visual effects in-game. The slug enemies and the final boss now have diagonal view angles (which took an UNGODLY amount of time to draw). Teleporters and grenade/rocket projectiles have new particle effects. Barrels and lamps now shatter with debris when destroyed. Ammo drops now have more distinct colours. New item sprites now have brightmaps.
• New sound effects. Quite a few pickup sounds taken from other Alien Breed games, just to give a bit of variety to picking stuff up. Eyeballs, worms and tentacles now have distinct idle, pain and death sounds.
• Various gameplay tweaks. Armour is now much more effective (you get 10 per armour shard too!) but some enemies have been made a little nastier. Especially boss fights, the robot now has more damaging attacks, and the final boss has less health but an itchier trigger finger.
• Good news, huge pixel fans! Chunky mode, courtesy of DrPyspy's chocolate mode shader, allows you to play the game with that distinctive 68020 crustiness. Lower the screen size by pressing the minus key for maximum effect!
• Secret Mr Bubz mode. We don't talk about Mr Bubz mode. Mr Icarus made me do it. Don't go looking for it.

As ever, if you have any issues with the difficulty balance of the game, or just issues in general, please let me know and I'll look into it as soon as I can.

Thanks for all of your support so far! You guys and gals have been awesome. I will be starting to focus on other projects now, but do expect more updates to this in future.

Download Project Osiris v1.0.3
Download via Itch.io

PS. I'm not sure if I really have to point this out, but I'm anticipating this might come up. The first map starts off silent, with no music, because of the dynamic music triggers. This is by design! Please don't immediately think it's broken - just go through the door.

PPS. If anyone, particularly on non-Windows platforms, has any errors come up regarding DEFCVARS.txt, try going into osiris.ipk3 and delete that file. It's just there to auto set up default configuration options. The main important thing is that dynamic lights with shadowmaps are turned on, and sector lights should be set to 'Doom'.

[Dynamo]

Congratulations on this release! I did play the first version when it came out long ago but I'll have to replay it now that it's on v1.0. I hope to see other people attempt at making custom maps as well

[undeadmonk354]

Congrats on the 1.0 release! But I got one question to ask. How do I access the secret Mr Bubz mode?

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Magnificient! Best played with a flashlight mod and one that allows leaning as well. The music so far is good too.

Optionally, have you considered adding a single-barrel shotgun to the arsenal and then turn into the existing shotgun into a proper double-barreled supershotgun that uses two shells per shot? Since the game is rather generous in terms of shells and most combat takes place in close quarters, we could definitely use a boost in firepower.

[ArcturusDeluxe]

Optionally, have you considered adding a single-barrel shotgun to the arsenal and then turn into the existing shotgun into a proper double-barreled supershotgun that uses two shells per shot? Since the game is rather generous in terms of shells and most combat takes place in close quarters, we could definitely use a boost in firepower.

I have considered stuff like this, new weapons, aliens etc. It's a little out of scope for the main project though, I want to keep things in the spirit of the original game. Future expansion packs are possible, so I won't rule it out for those. There are even unused assets for a flame thrower and a machine gun in the original source code, so those are definite candidates too.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Fingers crossed then! You definitely seem to have the talent and the ability to make those expansions happen.

But is a machine gun not what your starting weapon is already? How does the one in the source code differ from it?

[Barry Burton]

Too cool! I started playing through last night and it's fantastic. Well done.

I was a little worried that feature creep might spoil the feel of the original game but you've done a great job.

Maybe you could release a resource pack and get a community map project on the go? I'd love to play some new maps in the style of AB3D. I can't tell you how many days I've lost due to playing AB3D on the Amiga with my 68040 accelerator and CD32 gamepad - happy, happy days!

[ArcturusDeluxe]

Fingers crossed then! You definitely seem to have the talent and the ability to make those expansions happen.

But is a machine gun not what your starting weapon is already? How does the one in the source code differ from it?

It's just weapon sprite graphics, no actual implementation. Maybe it became the Pulse Rifle during development? Can probably find ways to differenciate it though, like how some games and mods have a basic assault rifle but also a heavy machine gun or chaingun. Just ideas at this point though!

Maybe you could release a resource pack and get a community map project on the go? I'd love to play some new maps in the style of AB3D. I can't tell you how many days I've lost due to playing AB3D on the Amiga with my 68040 accelerator and CD32 gamepad - happy, happy days!

Yeah I want to do this at some point. I'm working on a mini-expansion with the maps from the AB3D demos, and they have their own textures (though kind of messy ones so I have to clean them up a bit) and distinct enemies so I wanna get that done first so people have more options available.

[Barry Burton]

Good stuff. I'll look forward to your mini-expansion.

[ArcturusDeluxe]

Download Project Osiris v1.0.1
Quick update to fix some embarrassing bugs I left in. Was doing some last minute tweaks and didn't clean up after myself. You might have noticed the elevators in MAP08 being broken. Also a 'fading' debug message I left in whenever music fades out. Oops!

Also fixed an issue on Linux versions of GZDoom not liking DEFCVARS.txt - it had some platform-specific CVARs in there that made the game error out. Thanks Pa9an for helping me fix this!

[aconike]

They can't write me PM !! Admin block my PM. damage. For

PLEASE unlock !!


I found 2 mistakes in the game

red pig is on the rock behind the wall

and

the green lizard is chopped in the wall

[ArcturusDeluxe]

I found 2 mistakes in the game

red pig is on the rock behind the wall

and

the green lizard is chopped in the wall

Which level are these on?
EDIT: Never mind, found some runaway aliens on maps 9 and 10! Fixed now. Was doing some last minute tweaking to all the maps before 1.0, and I might have accidentally shifted some enemies around. Sorry! Gonna put out another bugfix update soon. Thanks for letting me know!
ANOTHER EDIT: Put out another patch!

Download Project Osiris v1.0.2
Features the fix of the above as well as a couple of other bugfixes and tweaks.

WARNING: save games aren't compatible between versions, if you're mid-game you might want to soldier on with the version you have, or update and use the console to warp yourself back to the level you were at. Sorry!