Diagonal shooting is a problem that I'm not even sure how to solve. The issue I have with it is that I choose shooting direction based on the last direction you moved, and on M+KB you won't have diagonal be your last direction ever since you can't let go of the keys at the exact same time.
Reverse shooting is supposed to be helpful for enemies that chase you like the skulls and the ghosts, but it probably would be best to scrap it completely since it just confuses people.
Surprised I didn't even think about the exit button since I'm so used to just killing the window. Oops.
Updated to final version for demo day, I think. Changed the firing to the mythical manual mode--in a 3 round burst. I think it's an improvement, but it's kind of hack job just to change it ASAP since seems most people aren't into the automatic firing.
First of all, I really like the music, it fits the overall aesthetic and compliments the cute art. The art style is nice but could use a bit of polish - especially with regards to the environment, it wasn't always clear what parts of the level were solid and which parts you could move through. A bit more feedback would go a long way with regards to hitting enemies and destructible walls - aka - you could make things flash white, or maybe add some shake or minor scaling to enemies/trees when your attack hits.
The audio feedback is pretty good overall.
I noticed that sometimes my projectiles shoot in my direction of movement and sometimes they shoot directly behind my direction of movement. I was a bit confused about how the shooting direction worked.
Good job with building so many unique levels, enemies and bosses by the way - adding a lot of variety takes a lot of effort but really helps you stand out.
I think the game is too hard, and I think the reasons are the following:
The game just starts abruptly (resulting in a fast death in the more challenging levels)
There is a lot of visual clutter in some levels, might be a good idea to add outlines or some distinguishing graphics to help isolate different game entities
The shooting is weird - might be nice to try different shooting styles such as (WASD = move, ARROW Keys = shoot), or maybe mouse cursor is your shooting direction?
Thanks for playing, and I appreciate the feedback! I'm really happy you liked the music, since that's the part I'm most satisfied with overall.
"A bit more feedback would go a long way with regards to hitting enemies and destructible walls - aka - you could make things flash white, or maybe add some shake or minor scaling to enemies/trees when your attack hits."
This is a great suggestion--so much so that I'm embarrassed I didn't even think of it! Having BESPOKE animations for every enemy getting hurt would be ideal, but even the lazy solution of having some kind of particle effect for the bullet hitting would go a long way.
And yeah, difficulty is the main thing I've learned from this jam. I may have gone WAY too far in way too many places. The game is supposed to be balanced for having 3 lives and that's it, but I underestimated the difficulty severely, since I've played far more than anybody else.
"I was a bit confused about how the shooting direction worked." Yeah clearly that isn't working well enough. Seems like it's confusing to everybody. You can swap the direction with spacebar, but there needs to be a visual indication of which way you are firing at minimum.
Updated to 1.1--just unlocked level select by default and gave the option to have 100 bonus lives in the tutorial, and mentioned the controls for pausing (p) and returning to main menu (esc).
The biggest problem with this game are the bouncing projectiles. They add lots of noise to the game. If it's bouncing past me I have to takes me a bit longer to confirm that I'm shooting in the correct direction because I can't differentiate bounced from directly shot projectiles. The other problem is that none of what I'm doing is intentional. My projectiles bounce, it accidentally kill an enemy and the level suddenly ends. It's jarring each time it happens. Having a shoot button might be a good idea to consider to make each action more intentional and picking what you actually want to destroy.
The levels stretching full screen might be no good. You should add walls to the edges, which give the play area some margin, adds a nice framing and prevents UI from covering other important things.
Having secret exits from levels is cool, although mostly because it reduces the pain of having to replay the levels.
White jungle was really confusing. I had no idea that I could destroy trees and it just opened the door for some reason.
I gave up at the leaper, I didn't want to replay all those levels again after game over.
Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback! Good point about the bouncing projectiles, I'm not particularly happy with them. The idea was just to make the game easier since you are already dodging everything and maybe don't have time to focus and aim each shot. I frequently forget which way I'm facing, which is probably a bad sign since it's my own game...
For future people, I should add that you can skip to the next level by pressing 6. I personally feel that going back to the last checkpoint after running out of lives is the right design for a game like this, but the player absolutely has to WANT to replay the levels for that to work.
Comments
I feel like I just woke from a fever dream. The graphics are definitely unique to say the least.
I can see why you hand out 200 lives as a lot of parts are bullshit like the leaper.
It's never clear what's destructible and what isn't.
Sometimes levels would just inexplicably end. Did I kill all the enemies without noticing? Did I trigger something? dunno
Diagonal shooting doesn't seem useful and it's annoying to even do.
I don't see the point in reversing shooting direction and never used it.
Robot's cute and I like the variety though.
I could only close the game by killing it. Add an exit button.
Thanks for playing! Appreciate the feedback.
Diagonal shooting is a problem that I'm not even sure how to solve. The issue I have with it is that I choose shooting direction based on the last direction you moved, and on M+KB you won't have diagonal be your last direction ever since you can't let go of the keys at the exact same time.
Reverse shooting is supposed to be helpful for enemies that chase you like the skulls and the ghosts, but it probably would be best to scrap it completely since it just confuses people.
Surprised I didn't even think about the exit button since I'm so used to just killing the window. Oops.
Updated to final version for demo day, I think. Changed the firing to the mythical manual mode--in a 3 round burst. I think it's an improvement, but it's kind of hack job just to change it ASAP since seems most people aren't into the automatic firing.
First of all, I really like the music, it fits the overall aesthetic and compliments the cute art. The art style is nice but could use a bit of polish - especially with regards to the environment, it wasn't always clear what parts of the level were solid and which parts you could move through. A bit more feedback would go a long way with regards to hitting enemies and destructible walls - aka - you could make things flash white, or maybe add some shake or minor scaling to enemies/trees when your attack hits.
The audio feedback is pretty good overall.
I noticed that sometimes my projectiles shoot in my direction of movement and sometimes they shoot directly behind my direction of movement. I was a bit confused about how the shooting direction worked.
Good job with building so many unique levels, enemies and bosses by the way - adding a lot of variety takes a lot of effort but really helps you stand out.
I think the game is too hard, and I think the reasons are the following:
The game just starts abruptly (resulting in a fast death in the more challenging levels)Either way, its coming along nicely. Goodwork!
Thanks for playing, and I appreciate the feedback! I'm really happy you liked the music, since that's the part I'm most satisfied with overall.
"A bit more feedback would go a long way with regards to hitting enemies and destructible walls - aka - you could make things flash white, or maybe add some shake or minor scaling to enemies/trees when your attack hits."
This is a great suggestion--so much so that I'm embarrassed I didn't even think of it! Having BESPOKE animations for every enemy getting hurt would be ideal, but even the lazy solution of having some kind of particle effect for the bullet hitting would go a long way.
And yeah, difficulty is the main thing I've learned from this jam. I may have gone WAY too far in way too many places. The game is supposed to be balanced for having 3 lives and that's it, but I underestimated the difficulty severely, since I've played far more than anybody else.
"I was a bit confused about how the shooting direction worked." Yeah clearly that isn't working well enough. Seems like it's confusing to everybody. You can swap the direction with spacebar, but there needs to be a visual indication of which way you are firing at minimum.
Updated to 1.1--just unlocked level select by default and gave the option to have 100 bonus lives in the tutorial, and mentioned the controls for pausing (p) and returning to main menu (esc).
The biggest problem with this game are the bouncing projectiles. They add lots of noise to the game. If it's bouncing past me I have to takes me a bit longer to confirm that I'm shooting in the correct direction because I can't differentiate bounced from directly shot projectiles. The other problem is that none of what I'm doing is intentional. My projectiles bounce, it accidentally kill an enemy and the level suddenly ends. It's jarring each time it happens. Having a shoot button might be a good idea to consider to make each action more intentional and picking what you actually want to destroy.
The levels stretching full screen might be no good. You should add walls to the edges, which give the play area some margin, adds a nice framing and prevents UI from covering other important things.
Having secret exits from levels is cool, although mostly because it reduces the pain of having to replay the levels.
White jungle was really confusing. I had no idea that I could destroy trees and it just opened the door for some reason.
I gave up at the leaper, I didn't want to replay all those levels again after game over.
Thanks for playing, and thanks for the feedback! Good point about the bouncing projectiles, I'm not particularly happy with them. The idea was just to make the game easier since you are already dodging everything and maybe don't have time to focus and aim each shot. I frequently forget which way I'm facing, which is probably a bad sign since it's my own game...
For future people, I should add that you can skip to the next level by pressing 6. I personally feel that going back to the last checkpoint after running out of lives is the right design for a game like this, but the player absolutely has to WANT to replay the levels for that to work.