Overall good! No big issues, so I wrote some stuff on a notepad while playing:
"Targets look too much like pick-ups, there's no feedback when you're on 1 health or about to run out of fuel or about how strong your weapon is" "It's hard to tell what you got hit by, having a different SFX if you got hit by a bullet versus if you hit terrain would be good, if not an effect on what part of the ship got hit"
Weirdly, I usually get D~B ranks on the first clear of every mission, but the one time I missed a secret medal and went back to get it, even though I took very little damage and went reasonably quickly while still doing about as much as the first clear, I got an F rank. I assume ranks don't matter much but it could say "Next time, shoot less bullets" or "Use less fuel" if getting a high rank is ever important.
I think you are the first person to point out the visual similarity between the targets and the powerups. I will see if I can do something about that for the next build.
The ranks are functionally random and have little-to-no correlation with how good or bad you actually did. There are lore reasons for this- the game's (very WIP) story is a commentary on the double standards and sociopathic facets of a corporate environment.
Glad to hear there weren't any other glaring issues or crashes.
Fantastic sprites, audio, and overall presentation.
There were a couple of enemies hidden behind the yellow crystal thingies. I'm not sure if that's intentional, but it made them hard to see. It might be a good idea to render the enemies on top instead.
Gun Buddy was able to find secrets for me, which felt like it kinda defeated the whole purpose. Maybe make it only shoot the walls if you shoot them first.
Hi - we're happy to hear you liked the demo so far!
Some of the decorative pieces are foreground and others are background - we're still fine-tuning which enemies should be allowed to hide in the clutter and which ones should not.
We've had mixed responses on the gun buddies being wall-sniffing dogs, but a lot of players who have trouble seeing the differences between normal walls and shootable walls have found them useful for the task. We'll probably put wall detection behind an upgrade in the future.
ABJ69 is actually very nice looking. As you get into the game, I'm surprised at how intense it gets despite how slow the gameplay actually is. I don't know if it would be a game for me, but it is cool to see.
This demo completely overhauls the majority of chapter 1 for what we hope is an authentic look into the level of quality we're shooting for with the game's levels.
Many performance tweaks have been made for a smoother experience - we're still finalizing optimizations for our level loader, so some missions might have a slight delay to enter.
Comments
Overall good! No big issues, so I wrote some stuff on a notepad while playing:
"Targets look too much like pick-ups, there's no feedback when you're on 1 health or about to run out of fuel or about how strong your weapon is"
"It's hard to tell what you got hit by, having a different SFX if you got hit by a bullet versus if you hit terrain would be good, if not an effect on what part of the ship got hit"
Weirdly, I usually get D~B ranks on the first clear of every mission, but the one time I missed a secret medal and went back to get it, even though I took very little damage and went reasonably quickly while still doing about as much as the first clear, I got an F rank. I assume ranks don't matter much but it could say "Next time, shoot less bullets" or "Use less fuel" if getting a high rank is ever important.
Hi! Thanks for trying out the demo.
I think you are the first person to point out the visual similarity between the targets and the powerups.
I will see if I can do something about that for the next build.
The ranks are functionally random and have little-to-no correlation with how good or bad you actually did.
There are lore reasons for this- the game's (very WIP) story is a commentary on the double standards and sociopathic facets of a corporate environment.
Glad to hear there weren't any other glaring issues or crashes.
Thanks again!
Fantastic sprites, audio, and overall presentation.
There were a couple of enemies hidden behind the yellow crystal thingies. I'm not sure if that's intentional, but it made them hard to see. It might be a good idea to render the enemies on top instead.
Gun Buddy was able to find secrets for me, which felt like it kinda defeated the whole purpose. Maybe make it only shoot the walls if you shoot them first.
Excited to see this one on Steam.
Hi - we're happy to hear you liked the demo so far!
Some of the decorative pieces are foreground and others are background - we're still fine-tuning which enemies should be allowed to hide in the clutter and which ones should not.
We've had mixed responses on the gun buddies being wall-sniffing dogs, but a lot of players who have trouble seeing the differences between normal walls and shootable walls have found them useful for the task. We'll probably put wall detection behind an upgrade in the future.
Thanks for giving the demo a try!
ABJ69 is actually very nice looking. As you get into the game, I'm surprised at how intense it gets despite how slow the gameplay actually is. I don't know if it would be a game for me, but it is cool to see.
5 JULY 2024 PATCH NOTES: https://pastebin.com/wKp1fNJF
This demo completely overhauls the majority of chapter 1 for what we hope is an authentic look into the level of quality we're shooting for with the game's levels.
Many performance tweaks have been made for a smoother experience - we're still finalizing optimizations for our level loader, so some missions might have a slight delay to enter.
Telegram if you want to come hang out: https://t.me/lofty_abj69
JUST LIKE MAKE GAME