Great experience. Very 'oldschool hori' where memorization and execution came with dedicated practice. Laser was my favorite weapon and I liked that bursting the powerup matched yours. Would have liked if bursting swapped a powerup to another type if it already matches your current loadout. There were times when I was getting only normal shot and wanted laser. If there will be more weapons you could make a bursted powerup bounce to mid screen before coming back left. This would give more opportunity to grab it but also to cycle through types until getting the one you want. Make the ship sprite the hitbox for powerups and keep the cockpit for collisions. Would alleviate the issue of overshooting an upgrade in the heat of battle. For what it is going for you delivered on the difficulty. Maybe add an easier option but don't shy away from going harder as well. This is the kind of game that gets a dedicated fanbase competing for leaderboard and easier settings can be for everyone else. Keep it up!
The gameplay is solid and the art is gorgeous, but you probably already knew that. One thing that frustrated me was the limited amount of continues, maybe consider having it so you have to restart from the last boss. I know I suck at shmups but I was about to put down the game in frustration when dying near the end and having to redo all the easier parts again.
I'm not really crazy about shmups, especially the unessicary difficulty of 90s ones. But i get thats exactly what you're going for soo...
It annoys me that I have to toggle my move speed, I'm used to a "focus" button. Maybe that could be an option
I dislike how continuing doesnt give you a max powerup, or you limit continues like you are actually trying to rob me of quarters. Its fine having a steep difficulty curve but you don't have to stomp on the dicks of those trying to gain a mastery of the system.
I hate how you can die on terrain and it moves in certain sections
Some of the patterns seem impossible to dodge and require a burst to get by. Especially ones with tracking shots if you don't know they're coming. Seems like bad design to me.
The art, sound and general style is all on point though, keep it up and clean up your timelines.
@NathanDearth The points you raised and the article you linked are very helpfull! I'll look in to staggering new elements more and some sort of interactive tutorial like the Battle Network games.
@Ogier - The formula and effect for the flashing is still being messed with, the frequency or brightness will probably get toned down for the bigger enemies. The laser guys are also getting a nerf/retooling, they seem to be the main difficulty out liar
@Rokas - A lot of those are just conventions of the genre, the continues specifically is so that players can't just credit feed to the end, since that cheapens the game as a whole. Options in game and other stuff like control rebinding is planned for later.
@NathanDearth - Glad you had a great time! Watching your video and other people's, one of the main problem seems to be players are not utilizing all the tools at there disposal. Not sure how to fix this short of a big dumb prompt in the middle of the game.
It's solid. I never liked this type of games but this was alright:
-I don't see a reason not to continuously shoot - make the button stop shooting, if that's ever relevant, instead -The dim background option seemed cool, but options are not available in game -Would be nice to see the health of the boss -The limited continue system doesn't make sense when you aren't paying for retries -Would prefer to not die when touching things that aren't obviously dangerous, such as side walls and ships -Reached the second boss only
Very good. My only suggestions would be to slightly tone down the brightness on the flashes from big enemies when they get hit (starts to hurt my eyes after a bit) and maybe make the first enemies that shoot lasers have a bit of a brighter tell. I am bad at this genre so I didn't get very far.
Comments
Great experience. Very 'oldschool hori' where memorization and execution came with dedicated practice. Laser was my favorite weapon and I liked that bursting the powerup matched yours. Would have liked if bursting swapped a powerup to another type if it already matches your current loadout. There were times when I was getting only normal shot and wanted laser. If there will be more weapons you could make a bursted powerup bounce to mid screen before coming back left. This would give more opportunity to grab it but also to cycle through types until getting the one you want. Make the ship sprite the hitbox for powerups and keep the cockpit for collisions. Would alleviate the issue of overshooting an upgrade in the heat of battle.
For what it is going for you delivered on the difficulty. Maybe add an easier option but don't shy away from going harder as well. This is the kind of game that gets a dedicated fanbase competing for leaderboard and easier settings can be for everyone else. Keep it up!
The gameplay is solid and the art is gorgeous, but you probably already knew that. One thing that frustrated me was the limited amount of continues, maybe consider having it so you have to restart from the last boss. I know I suck at shmups but I was about to put down the game in frustration when dying near the end and having to redo all the easier parts again.
Other than that, I had lots of fun. Keep it up!
not really a shump player but i found this enjoyable, didnt like the laser beam weapon. the default weapon felt a little juicier.
I'm not really crazy about shmups, especially the unessicary difficulty of 90s ones. But i get thats exactly what you're going for soo...
It annoys me that I have to toggle my move speed, I'm used to a "focus" button. Maybe that could be an option
I dislike how continuing doesnt give you a max powerup, or you limit continues like you are actually trying to rob me of quarters. Its fine having a steep difficulty curve but you don't have to stomp on the dicks of those trying to gain a mastery of the system.
I hate how you can die on terrain and it moves in certain sections
Some of the patterns seem impossible to dodge and require a burst to get by. Especially ones with tracking shots if you don't know they're coming. Seems like bad design to me.
The art, sound and general style is all on point though, keep it up and clean up your timelines.
I'm not really a fan of this genre so I'm not the right person to give feedback. good job tho!
@NathanDearth
The points you raised and the article you linked are very helpfull! I'll look in to staggering new elements more and some sort of interactive tutorial like the Battle Network games.
@Ogier -
The formula and effect for the flashing is still being messed with, the frequency or brightness will probably get toned down for the bigger enemies. The laser guys are also getting a nerf/retooling, they seem to be the main difficulty out liar
@Rokas -
A lot of those are just conventions of the genre, the continues specifically is so that players can't just credit feed to the end, since that cheapens the game as a whole. Options in game and other stuff like control rebinding is planned for later.
@NathanDearth -
Glad you had a great time! Watching your video and other people's, one of the main problem seems to be players are not utilizing all the tools at there disposal. Not sure how to fix this short of a big dumb prompt in the middle of the game.
It's solid. I never liked this type of games but this was alright:
-I don't see a reason not to continuously shoot - make the button stop shooting, if that's ever relevant, instead
-The dim background option seemed cool, but options are not available in game
-Would be nice to see the health of the boss
-The limited continue system doesn't make sense when you aren't paying for retries
-Would prefer to not die when touching things that aren't obviously dangerous, such as side walls and ships
-Reached the second boss only
Very good. My only suggestions would be to slightly tone down the brightness on the flashes from big enemies when they get hit (starts to hurt my eyes after a bit) and maybe make the first enemies that shoot lasers have a bit of a brighter tell. I am bad at this genre so I didn't get very far.