Jamestown: bullet-hell shooter taking place on western-themed colonial mars

busfahrer

JAMESTOWN fuck yeah

So, I wanted to make a thread about this game seeing how fun it is. However, I suck at OPs, so bear with me.

I guess this is their logo:



And here's a random screenshot:

What is this shit, busfahrer?

Glad you asked! It's not shit, you see. It's quite the opposite! It's un-shit, if you will.
This game is a scrolling shoot-em-up, like Raptor, back in the day.
It takes place in a western-themed colonial setting, that happens to be on Mars, with spaceships and stuff.

It's also one of the most polished games I've played, with a focus on level design.

Check out this article on Ars Technica on their development process:
How the indie Jamestown, a 2D shooter and instant classic, was born

Oh, and this is the Steam store page for Jamestown:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/94200/

Additional note:
My laptop only has Intel integrated graphics (GMA965/X3100), and the game runs great on that. (So the Steam system requirements might be a tad off)

durandal4532

This game is pretty friggin sweet.

It's just the right side of bullet-hell for me on the lower difficulty levels, and it has a pretty nice mechanic in the score power-up thing. I love the local multiplayer too. I might get a 360 adapter basically just for this.

busfahrer

durandal4532 wrote: »

This game is pretty friggin sweet.

It's just the right side of bullet-hell for me on the lower difficulty levels, and it has a pretty nice mechanic in the score power-up thing. I love the local multiplayer too. I might get a 360 adapter basically just for this.

Exactly, the diffifculty seems finely tweaked so most people will find a sweet spot. Oh, and it does indeed play great on a 360 controller

Drovek

I love this game. It gives me that feeling of flying close to the razor's edge and still feel in control. Damn awesome soundtrack (they will release it on OST form!) and awesome level design (where music, enemy pacing and art all come together in a great way.)

I'm still working my way through the challenges (kinda stuck in the one with like 40 rings) and haven't tried multiplayer (severe lack of input devices.)

Zxerol

Multiplayer is easier or harder depending on the players' skills. (Well, no shit Sherlock! Ya don't say!) What I mean is that there's a revive system in place in lieu of lives -- surviving players can pickup revive tokens which will instantly respawn a dead player, or players can wait 10 seconds to come back. So you can effectively die an indefinite amount of times so long as at least one player remains alive. (Hardcore mode turns this system off.)

On the other hand, you will eat all your credits if your partners aren't weaving like bosses through bullet hell. I think it's a pretty nice balance and maintains the challenge instead of just giving all players two lives.

Still working on beating the last level on Judgement to unlock the last skill difficulty, and then it's off the gauntlet mode, i.e. the real shmup experience.

And the music is, as stated, totally awesome. Surprisingly so.

busfahrer

Regarding the music; take a look at this quote from the Ars Technica article:

"When your goal is to provide your players with the most powerful and immersive experience possible, music must be a major focus," Tim explained. "This is especially true in a shooter, where you have very little time to synchronize the player's emotional state with the intensity of the game."

Drovek

busfahrer wrote: »

Regarding the music; take a look at this quote from the Ars Technica article:

"When your goal is to provide your players with the most powerful and immersive experience possible, music must be a major focus," Tim explained. "This is especially true in a shooter, where you have very little time to synchronize the player's emotional state with the intensity of the game."

And they managed to nail it.

My favorite moment of it all coming together is in the second level, when you find the city of Roanoke: Music slows down, no enemies, time to breathe. Suddenly the colony appears in ruins, the music quickly rises in intensity to match, and then enemies slowly appear from the ruins.

And this is in a top-down shooter...

Cantido

I need this.

busfahrer

Cantido wrote: »

I need this.

Yes. Yes, you do.

Gaslight

I have never played a "bullet hell" game before in my life, indeed never played a top-down shooter more intense than 1942 or Tyrian, and I still love Jamestown. Everything about it is just right: the story, the pixelated graphics, the fantastic music (I would make the flourish that plays when you finish a level my cell phone ringtone if I could), the challenging-but-just-bearable difficulty. To be honest I probably wouldn't have bought it myself because in spite of being thoroughly charmed by what I had seen I thought that I wouldn't enjoy a bullet hell game, but I am so glad Emruggs gifted it to me during the summer sale.

busfahrer

Gaslight wrote: »

(I would make the flourish that plays when you finish a level my cell phone ringtone if I could)

If someone happened to post something like that here, I would certainly consider downloading it!

Gaslight

busfahrer wrote: »

Gaslight wrote: »

(I would make the flourish that plays when you finish a level my cell phone ringtone if I could)

If someone happened to post something like that here, I would certainly consider downloading it!

I checked the game files and the soundtrack isn't readily accessible. I think I would throw another couple of bucks at Final Form if they made it available.

durandal4532

I just realized what this game is like: it is like Rock Band, but as a shmup.

The mechanics for playing with friends and scoring high are very Rock Band.

Lepwave

Level 5 is beating the piss out of me, I should try to beat it again.

Peewi

Lepwave wrote: »

Level 5 is beating the piss out of me, I should try to beat it again.

Level 5 is stupid. I managed to do the previous four on legendary to unlock 5 without having to retry any of them. On level 5 I die constantly and while I've reached the final boss, it was without any lives or continues left. Checkpoints would be nice. At least right before bosses.

Cantido

busfahrer wrote: »

Cantido wrote: »

I need this.

Yes. Yes, you do.

Sexually.

I shred at these kinds of games. My steamtag is Cantido if you want to compare scores.

Rubycat

Anyone got any tidbits for the gunner ship?, like can you aim the secondary without having to move the ship as well?. it is a pretty awkward ship to try and pilot.

Dac Vin

Jamestown is the bullet hell shooter with the most magnificent beards of them all.

god damn

Rubycat wrote: »

Anyone got any tidbits for the gunner ship?, like can you aim the secondary without having to move the ship as well?. it is a pretty awkward ship to try and pilot.

As far as I'm aware there's no way to aim it without moving, but just dong small, simple movements in the direction you want it to go is enough for it to align itself correctly. A complete bitch to get it to go in a direction other than the cardinal ones with a keyboard, but so far even with that it quickly became my go to ship - being able to shoot in every directions is just that good of an advantage.

Veitsev

The key to beating level 5 is to know when to use your vaunts. Remember that vaunts put a large bubble around you that stops any incoming attacks for a brief period. Use these to get past large blobs of bullets rather than risk losing a life. Also remember that you can vaunt again during a vaunt period for another (much smaller) shield, although this will fully deplete the bar it is better than losing a life. If you are playing well you should be using a lot of vaunts. Also its easier to take the left side at the beginning of the level.

Oh and don't feel bad if it takes you awhile to finally beat it. According to steam less than 20% of players have actually beaten the final boss.

Lepwave

These bonus levels are pretty fun.

busfahrer

durandal4532 wrote: »

I just realized what this game is like: it is like Rock Band, but as a shmup.

The mechanics for playing with friends and scoring high are very Rock Band.

Yeah, the developers say so in the Ars Technica article I linked in the OP:

"The games they looked at for inspiration were far-flung, and included Left 4 Dead and Rock Band. Both gamers were far from the shooter genre, but they both had interesting ideas about how to bring your friends back from the dead."

Rubycat wrote: »

Anyone got any tidbits for the gunner ship?, like can you aim the secondary without having to move the ship as well?. it is a pretty awkward ship to try and pilot.

I have to admit that I'm way too daft to use anything but the beam ship

Sterica

I love the charge ship. Pop vaunt with a full charge, and you just rip through enemies.

Bullio

The Ars Technica piece sold me on the game when I read it awhile ago, but I didn't actually pick it up until I won it during the Steam summer sale. I'm just going to repost my Steam recommendation for it.

I've been playing the crap out of this whenever I get the chance. I kind of like bullet hell shooters, but am not a huge fan. Jamestown is doing a lot to change that. Everything about this game is flawless and incredibly polished. I'm not sure if this is Final Form's debut game, but if it is it's a hell of a way to introduce yourself to the market. There's an incredible amount of content and replay value in this little package. The lack of online multiplayer isn't even an issue because there is more than enough here to keep you busy for months (plus there's 4 player local co-op). If my testimonial isn't enough, search out Ars Techinica's interview with FF on the development of the game and just TRY to resist buying this after reading it.

I'm definitely a gunner guy so far, but I've been trying to put in time with the others. I still haven't finished the final level. I managed to get past the "final" boss on my last life only to die on the final boss in about 2 seconds.

Cantido

Is anyone else having trouble with their steam cart? First it declined me, but it won't take another credit card either. Please enlighten me, I've only had a gaming PC for a week so far.

Sterica

If you make too many rapid purchases, Steam will lock you out for a duration.

Cantido

Rorus Raz wrote: »

If you make too many rapid purchases, Steam will lock you out for a duration.

My first gaming PC in ten years. Yeah. This is the most likely situation.

Adda

I love Jamestown but am pretty terrible at it and can only play for a while before I feel like I am going blind.

It also seems that when doing well I go into some kind of bullet hell meditation and crazy zen shit happens resulting in me staying alive.

In other news I have no one on my friends list who owns this so friend me fellow Jamestowners so that I might look at your scores (I think you can look at friend's scores.)

Joe Camacho MKII

Oh man, this game. This was the only game I was expecting on sale during the summer sale.

And how I'm glad I got it. I'm not that much of a shooter fan, I mean, I have only played a handful of them, but I really loved Ikaruga, and this game has a lot of charm, so why not?

I'm currently working on finishing the stages on divine, and some of the challenges at first are like "WHAT? THEY WANT ME TO DO WHAT?" and a couple of tries later "Wow, I'm really good in this." only to get beated by the next challenge. Like, on the challenged "The luge", when I managed to reach the end I faced two bosses from level 3.. I was like "AW HELL NAW".

... But I will try it again eventually. I highly recommend this game.

Crapfestival

Love this game so much. My buddy and I still can't beat level 5, either, however. We're going to give it another shot tonight, preferably with fewer drinks in us.

Lepwave

Joe Camacho MKII wrote: »

Oh man, this game. This was the only game I was expecting on sale during the summer sale.

And how I'm glad I got it. I'm not that much of a shooter fan, I mean, I have only played a handful of them, but I really loved Ikaruga, and this game has a lot of charm, so why not?

I'm currently working on finishing the stages on divine, and some of the challenges at first are like "WHAT? THEY WANT ME TO DO WHAT?" and a couple of tries later "Wow, I'm really good in this." only to get beated by the next challenge. Like, on the challenged "The luge", when I managed to reach the end I faced two bosses from level 3.. I was like "AW HELL NAW".

... But I will try it again eventually. I highly recommend this game.

The Luge is a bitch, I got to the bosses twice, I only manage to get one of the bosses halfway down. Stage is incredibly hard with one life.

Cantido

Adda wrote: »

I love Jamestown but am pretty terrible at it and can only play for a while before I feel like I am going blind.

It also seems that when doing well I go into some kind of bullet hell meditation and crazy zen shit happens resulting in me staying alive.

In other news I have no one on my friends list who owns this so friend me fellow Jamestowners so that I might look at your scores (I think you can look at friend's scores.)

Practice with the free Touhou demos. I've always loved shumps, but Touhou made me good at them.

They taught me the basic way to master any shump.

1. When in doubt, whip it out (bombs, you pervert!) In a game, if you have one life and three bombs, you have three lives. Keep a finger/thumb on the bomb button. If you have a gamepad, map the bomb button to a shoulder so you always have it ready to go.

2. Keep your eyes on your plane/character. If you have a hitbox, that's even better. In advanced play, you will be squinting at your character and there is nothing you can do about it. Save admiration of the chaos for replays.

3. Be "jittery" with your movement. Lets say a boss is blasting a garden hose stream of bullets and is always aiming at you. If you move left or right as fast as possible, you're just going to trap yourself in the corner. If they really are aiming straight at you fast and hard, tap left or right rapidly. Watch them miss endlessly. Keep your fingers/thumb floating over your arrows/gamepad. You will be surprised how little movement you need for some crazy things.

Dracil shredding up some Touhou

Go to 1:00. There are two different types of bullets coming at him. The small white/blue rice shaped bullets, and the big red ovals. The big red ones are huge and fast, but Dracil doesn't give a shit: they're aiming straight at him. He taps right rhythmically and focuses his eyes on the blue shots, as well as his character, because he knows the reds will never touch him.

Joe Camacho MKII

Cantido wrote: »

Adda wrote: »

I love Jamestown but am pretty terrible at it and can only play for a while before I feel like I am going blind.

It also seems that when doing well I go into some kind of bullet hell meditation and crazy zen shit happens resulting in me staying alive.

In other news I have no one on my friends list who owns this so friend me fellow Jamestowners so that I might look at your scores (I think you can look at friend's scores.)

Practice with the free Touhou demos. I've always loved shumps, but Touhou made me good at them.

They taught me the basic way to master any shump.

1. When in doubt, whip it out (bombs, you pervert!) In a game, if you have one life and three bombs, you have three lives. Keep a finger/thumb on the bomb button. If you have a gamepad, map the bomb button to a shoulder so you always have it ready to go.

2. Keep your eyes on your plane/character. If you have a hitbox, that's even better. In advanced play, you will be squinting at your character and there is nothing you can do about it. Save admiration of the chaos for replays.

3. Be "jittery" with your movement. Lets say a boss is blasting a garden hose stream of bullets and is always aiming at you. If you move left or right as fast as possible, you're just going to trap yourself in the corner. If they really are aiming straight at you fast and hard, tap left or right rapidly. Watch them miss endlessly. Keep your fingers/thumb floating over your arrows/gamepad. You will be surprised how little movement you need for some crazy things.

I would like to add, that sometimes it's ok not to hit the boss, I mean, it's ok to concentrate on dodging and not hitting the boss or enemies if that keeps you alive.

Most of the time I die because I'm concentrating on killing rather than surviving.

Cantido

Okay, Steam seems to have taken off the hold so I can continue buying digital crack.

This game is of mindblowing quality, and deserves to be immortalized alongside Cave and Treasure's titles. The developer knew what they were doing when they made this.

Joe Camacho MKII

Also, to those talking about the OST, I'm currently at FinalForm's website, and they have some of their music online for you to hear without worrying about dodging bullet hell.

Edit.- Only the first two levels, still, good stuff.

Vicktor

There's alot to like in this game. Despite alot of complaints on the steam forums, I think the single player is tuned pretty well. All but the last level, that one is mean with the confined spaces. But in general, the unlockable ships make it fairly easy to get through, as some ships are very powerful against certain bosses and in certain levels.

The highest difficulty levels, the challenges, and the arcade-mode single playthrough mode all leave something there for those looking for a bigger challenge.

Incredibly well polished game though. Nice crazy story fro a shmup (I'd love to see an RPG set in this world), great music, great gameplay with bonus challenges and 4 distinct ships and multiplayer. Like I said, alot to like.

Dracil

Cantido wrote: »

Adda wrote: »

I love Jamestown but am pretty terrible at it and can only play for a while before I feel like I am going blind.

It also seems that when doing well I go into some kind of bullet hell meditation and crazy zen shit happens resulting in me staying alive.

In other news I have no one on my friends list who owns this so friend me fellow Jamestowners so that I might look at your scores (I think you can look at friend's scores.)

Practice with the free Touhou demos. I've always loved shumps, but Touhou made me good at them.

They taught me the basic way to master any shump.

1. When in doubt, whip it out (bombs, you pervert!) In a game, if you have one life and three bombs, you have three lives. Keep a finger/thumb on the bomb button. If you have a gamepad, map the bomb button to a shoulder so you always have it ready to go.

2. Keep your eyes on your plane/character. If you have a hitbox, that's even better. In advanced play, you will be squinting at your character and there is nothing you can do about it. Save admiration of the chaos for replays.

3. Be "jittery" with your movement. Lets say a boss is blasting a garden hose stream of bullets and is always aiming at you. If you move left or right as fast as possible, you're just going to trap yourself in the corner. If they really are aiming straight at you fast and hard, tap left or right rapidly. Watch them miss endlessly. Keep your fingers/thumb floating over your arrows/gamepad. You will be surprised how little movement you need for some crazy things.

Dracil shredding up some Touhou

Go to 1:00. There are two different types of bullets coming at him. The small white/blue rice shaped bullets, and the big red ovals. The big red ones are huge and fast, but Dracil doesn't give a shit: they're aiming straight at him. He taps right rhythmically and focuses his eyes on the blue shots, as well as his character, because he knows the reds will never touch him.

As the person whose video you linked, I should probably get this game.

Cantido

In the first Bonus Mission, there are zillions of tiny mooks that shoot directly at you for one minute, and you're supposed to survive. It's the perfect way to practice jittery movements to prevent trapping yourself in the corner.

When you feel you're trapping yourself, that's the moment where you move full speed into the corner, then speed back towards the center. You will have created a gap in the "stream" of bullets aimed at you. Then you'll have a ton of space in the opposite direction.

I wish I had a capture card to explain it better. That one normal shot Suwako has in Mountain of Faith taught me about focusing on negative space....

TNTrooper

Cantido wrote: »

In the first Bonus Mission, there are zillions of tiny mooks that shoot directly at you for one minute, and you're supposed to survive. It's the perfect way to practice jittery movements to prevent trapping yourself in the corner.

When you feel you're trapping yourself, that's the moment where you move full speed into the corner, then speed back towards the center. You will have created a gap in the "stream" of bullets aimed at you. Then you'll have a ton of space in the opposite direction.

I wish I had a capture card to explain it better. That one normal shot Suwako has in Mountain of Faith taught me about focusing on negative space....

It's pretty short video but I think Reimu had one spell that follows the same principals you are talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-k3gacAfe0

The U shaped pattern keeps the red/purple aimed away from the player so all he had to do was move around the balls while keeping the movement pattern.

Alfred J. Kwak

this thread popped up way too late

gonna have to wait for the next Steam sale

busfahrer

Cantido wrote: »

1. When in doubt, whip it out (bombs, you pervert!) In a game, if you have one life and three bombs, you have three lives. Keep a finger/thumb on the bomb button. If you have a gamepad, map the bomb button to a shoulder so you always have it ready to go.

2. Keep your eyes on your plane/character. If you have a hitbox, that's even better. In advanced play, you will be squinting at your character and there is nothing you can do about it. Save admiration of the chaos for replays.

3. Be "jittery" with your movement. Lets say a boss is blasting a garden hose stream of bullets and is always aiming at you. If you move left or right as fast as possible, you're just going to trap yourself in the corner. If they really are aiming straight at you fast and hard, tap left or right rapidly. Watch them miss endlessly. Keep your fingers/thumb floating over your arrows/gamepad. You will be surprised how little movement you need for some crazy things.

Thanks for those hints, I'll be sure to try them out soon

Sterica

Goddamnit. I died on the last boss to some really stupid mistakes on my part. He's incredibly easy on Legendary, I just decided not to use Vaunt. And of course the last segment of his health does NOT drop any gears at all. 97%, gah.

EDIT: Beat! That final stage had some incredible music. I was really surprised at how easy the final boss is, but it's really the stage that puts you through the grinder there.