Shock Lobster GB

Shock Lobster
Shock Lobster
General
Author	Dave VanEe
Type	Action
Version	3
License	zlib
System	DMG
Last Updated	2022/03/25
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

Shock Lobster is an action-packed video game that combines tightly timed obstacle avoidance and a complex skill system, which must be woven together to maximize damage output before the oncoming threats becomes too much to handle. This one-of-a-kind gaming experience is unlike anything you've seen before.

This game was entered into the Game Boy Competition 2021 (Game, 3rd place).

Features

Unique gameplay with 8 active skills.
Freeform skill/upgrade unlock system.
Mix skills/upgrades to try for highscores with specific combinations.
3 speed levels.
A super cute lobster.
32KB ROM which can take advantage of SRAM (but is designed to work without it).

Installation

The Game Boy ROM is designed to run on the original Game Boy handheld video game system using a flash cartridge. It should also play well on most emulators.

User guide

Venture forth on your quest as a lowly lobster imbued with magical powers, determined to inflict lethal damage to whatever stands in your way!

You start out with a handful of skills allowing you to avoid oncoming obstacles and deal damage, but will use the pearls you collect on your way to unlock more skills, upgrades, and items to push your high score higher and higher.

Items are either usable at the beginning of battle or when defeat is near. The prompt will only be visible for 2 seconds, and can be hidden early by pressing START.

Gameplay

Press Select on the status screen to show detailed information about each skill, helping you decide how and when to best use the tools at your disposal for maximum output.

The A and B buttons are used to activate skills in combat, with the D-Pad used to select which pair of buttons is active. By default the selected pair will stick to the top pair when the D-Pad is released, but this can be disabled on the status screen. Skills may consume your energy, which is constantly refilling, or generate charges, which are consumed by finishers which scale with the number of charges used.

Several of the skills apply damage-over-time effects to the enemy, time-limited buffs to yourself, or have cooldowns before they can be used again, which are represented by bars on the bottom-left of the game screen.

The game speed and loadout/items used will be summarized on the game over panel, allowing you to compete with your friends to get the highest score using a specific combination of skills and upgrades!

Note: If the game is running from a flash cart without SRAM, skills/upgrades/scores will not be saved between sessions. To help with this, you can hold SELECT as you start up the game to unlock all skills/upgrades.

Skills

Jet:

Release a jet of water, propelling yourself upwards and dealing 3 points of damage. The damage effect can only occur once every second.

Zap [40 energy]:

Zap the enemy, dealing 40 damage. Generates 1 charge.

Shock [35 energy]:

Shock the enemy for 5 damage and an additional 24 damage every 3 seconds over 9 seconds. Generates 1 charge.

Discharge [35+30 energy]:

Finisher which deals damage per charge, plus 0.5 additional damage per extra point of energy (up to 30 energy).

1 charge: 17 damage
2 charges: 31 damage
3 charges: 45 damage
4 charges: 60 damage
5 charges: 74 damage

Electrify [30 energy]:

Finisher which deals damage over time. Damage is increased per charge:

1 charge: 51 damage over 16 seconds
2 charges: 94 damage over 16 seconds
3 charges: 138 damage over 16 seconds
4 charges: 181 damage over 16 seconds
5 charges: 225 damage over 16 seconds

Empower [25 energy]:

Finisher which increases damage done by 30%. Lasts longer per charge:

1 charge: 14 seconds
2 charges: 19 seconds
3 charges: 24 seconds
4 charges: 29 seconds
5 charges: 34 seconds

Invigorate:

Instantly regain 60 energy. 30 second cooldown.

Focus:

Reduce the energy cost of all skills by 50% for 4 seconds. Invigorate cannot be used while Focus is active. 80 second cooldown.

Upgrades

Amplify:

Increase the damage of Zap by 20% when Shock or Electrify are active.

Detonate:

Increase the critical strike chance of Disharge by 30% when Shock or Electrify are active.

High Pressure:

Jet now launches you further into the air and deals double damage.

Overcharge:

Critical hits from skills which generate charges generate an additional charge.

Residual Charge:

The periodic damage from your Electrify skill can now critically hit.

Expertise:

Double your base critical strike chance from 30% to 60%.

Clarity:

All direct damage has a chance to cause you to enter a state of clarity, which reduces the base energy cost of the next skill to zero.

Refresh:

Zap will now extend the duration of an active Electrify by 2 seconds (up to 6 seconds total).

Items:

Note: All items are consumable, only providing a single use for each purchase.

First Strike:

Let loose an initial strike of two 100 damage blasts. Each hit may be a critical hit. [Consumable]

Blitz:

Come out swinging with three 100 damage blasts. Each hit may be a critical hit. [Consumable]

Final Word:

Unleash an impassioned last-ditch retort, dealing three 100 damage blasts. Each hit may be a critical hit. [Consumable]

Second Wind:

Bounce back from defeat for a second chance. [Consumable]

Options

Game Speed:

Adjust the game speed. Hiscores are tracked per game speed.

Music:

Enable game music.

Sticky D-Pad:

Enable sticky button pair selection in-game, which will snap back to the top pair when the D-pad is released.

Reset Save:

Press A four times to reset the save data. Details panel must be visible to activate (Warning: No final confirmation).

Controls

Loadout:

D-Pad - Select item

A - Confirm, Unlock, Toggle

B - Back

Select - Show/hide details (these are very important, and also included below)

Start - Start game

Battle:

D-Pad - Select active button pair

A/B - Use the corresponding skill from the current button pair

Start - Pause/Unpause

Screenshots

Known issues

If emulating on a Nintendo DS using GameYob there will be a graphical glitch affecting the status and gameplay screens. For now you can use the custom build.

Lameboy does not have this glitch but does have 4 rows of flickering pixels below the gameplay HUD.

Changelog

Version 3 2022/03/25

Fixed horrible bug with electrify introduced along with tail call optimizations in ROM version 2.

Version 2 2022/03/01

Rework how the default player state is initialized to allow the game to run on flash carts without SRAM.
Add the option to hold SELECT when first initializing the player state to unlock all skills/upgrades, as a shortcut for players without SRAM.
Remove redundant bank switching writes which cause problem when run from a flash cart which mimics MBC5 (EMS or cheap repros).
Ensure OAM is fully initialized before enabling objects for the boot logo effect.

Version 1 2021/10/01

Save new highscore/pearls when game is over, instead of when returning to the status screen, as it feels natural to power off at game over and you'd lose your progress before.
Change corners of SELECT tiles from color 2 to color 1 (lighter) to match START tiles.
Add DAS (delayed auto shift) to left/right cursor movement on status screen.
Fix a single frame visual glitch at the end of the bootup logo effect.

Credits

Tools Used for Development:

RGBDS (https://rgbds.gbdev.io/)
Emulicious (https://emulicious.net/)
Aseprite (https://www.aseprite.org/)
hUGETracker (https://nickfa.ro/index.php/HUGETracker)
OpenMPT (https://openmpt.org/)
Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/)

Additional Code/Assets:

gb-starter-kit by ISSOtm.
gb-vwf by ISSOtm.
hUGEDriver by Superdisk.
Sound Effect Driver and BCD functions by PinoBatch.
HiScore Library by H. Mulder.
Lucky Bestiary by LuckyCassette.
MinimalPixel Font by Mounir Tohami.
Electrox Font by Dennis Ludlow.

Music From GB Studio Community Assets:

"Tape It Together" and "Serious Ping Pong Matches" (cropped) by DeerTears.
"FridgeMusic" by Tomas Danko CC BY 4.0 Patterns were reordered to improve overall effect on hardware in game context.
"Darkstone Remix" (cropped) by Tronimal.

External links

GitHub - https://github.com/tbsp/shock-lobster
itch.io - https://tbsp.itch.io/shock-lobster
Romhacking.net - https://www.romhacking.net/homebrew/160/