Display the button prompts for confirm and back on the main menu. I had to hit every key on my keyboard before I realised Z was the confirm button. Then I could go to the How To Play section to see the rest of the controls.
Fantastic stuff. Seriously - it's a lot of fun. Very tight, very punishing, very rewarding - just like a shmup should be. Screen Clear charge is fairly generous, but not to the point where I could spam it. Getting a couple of hits before you die is a blessing, makes it so much easier.
Patterns are good, and enemies are masterfully balanced - those with "harder" patterns die faster (like bats), while those with easier are a bit tankier (like skulls) First boss is easy, especially he does a screen clear every time you kill a phase. Second one is a bit tougher, but I didn't find him unbeatable.
Took me a couple of tries, but I beat the final boss with just one death.
Big props for fantastic sound design - audio cues for "bomb ready" and "you got hit" are such a blessing and a necessity.
This is pretty good. I really like how there are no collectibles, gaudy gfx/sfx bloating up the screen, or convoluted tangential systems. Everything is fairly readable, but with plenty of flavor still.
At the start I was lasering whenever possible because the spread shot felt a bit unreliable, the enemy distribution seemed to always favor taking out major threats and switch delay appeared to be non-existent. But then I got the impression the laser DPS is barely any higher, if at all, so it sort of evened out.
The patterns on the final boss are nice but it switches them out too quickly. You barely have to deal with them.
The congratulations score screen showed a different number than the score UI. I think that might be due to it showing up too soon and then not refreshing?
I think I died to a bike spawning in from below me and one of those exploding spikes? It would be nice to have clearer visual feedback when you get hit. Both felt like particularly aggravating deaths, too, but it's likely I am just a salty scrub.
Being able to resize the window would be nice.
Sound options reset themselves when you return to the main menu.
I like shmups but i'm not very good at them. I enjoyed this game, at some points it felt unfair, but overall, it's already decent. More sfx would be nice, and the second boss needs to be easier to telegraph. The biggest problem I had was that enemies are difficult to see, they don't have enough color contrast with the background, so sometimes bullets felt like they were coming from nowhere.
I really liked this game. I wonder how much more content are you going to add later on. It also seems that you have gotten a lot of good feedback in the comments, so I don't really know what else to add. Keep at it.
I only tested with my xbox one controller so there was bound to be some issues. I plugged in my DS4 and there was also some sticking issue that I think I may have fixed, but the button mapping is off from the way xbox binds and only the stick works, not the d-pad, so it's a little funky to play with a DS4 right now.
I don't know if you mean a literal playstation 2 keyboard or if that's some terminology I'm unfamiliar with but I'm not sure what the problem could be other than the controller stuck forcing a direction.
Not sure if the sticking issue I was encountering is the same as the problems you were having but I uploaded a new version if you feel like giving it a shot. If not no worries. Sorry for the hassle either way!
Thank you for updating that! I was able to play it with no problems.
Overall I think it's a solid little CAVE style STG. You have all of your fundamentals down super well, which is a great thing to have in a world where CYGNI and Raiden NOVA exist. One thing though, does the game have proximity damage(You do more damage if you're right below an enemy, like DDP)? I don't know if it's particularly necessary but that's one of my favorite mechanics in the entire genre, it's just so fun to do. Anyways, I think overall the bullet patterns are solid, even if stuff like the spike balls or that last boss are a little bit hard to read. I'd suggest placing the spikes in a way that sorta telegraphs where they're going to shoot and not have the final boss teleport instantly. I think the "bomb" mechanic is kinda interesting, reminds me of Milestone shooters like Radirgy and Karous. The graphics and sound need some more work but given this is such an early demo I really can't fault you for that. Good job anon!
There is technically a shot limit, but the numbers need some tweaking, so point blanking is not so noticeable right now. I also probably need to tweak the time before enemies can shoot. As of right now it's pretty much impossible to kill most things before they get a shot off, but ideally I'd like you to be able to if you route well and play aggressively. And yes the spike balls are totally bullshit haha, I definitely want to make a lot of attacks more readable.
There's a lot more I want to do with the hyper meter and timer but I didn't have time to implement them. Hopefully for the next demo day it will feel more complete.
The first thing I thought when I started the game was the filter and brightness make the screen too hard to see, but it turns out the contrast between the bullets and the background is on point, so it's no real issue. However, the enemies could stand out a bit more. In terms of gameplay, it's a good CAVE-like shmup and I had fun with it. Finally, this is a matter of taste, but I'd rather have the bomb make you invincible for a couple of seconds and be shorter than up your firepower.
Some bugs: the game returns an error on start-up since the asset directory and the .exe file have different filenames. Changing them manually fixes this. In the settings, the "windowed" option seems to do the opposite of what it says. It also freezes my game, but that just might be a Wine issue (I played this on Linux).
Wow you actually beat it! I wasn't sure about the difficulty. So hard to tell when I already know every section. The bombs that the mid-boss throw out ended up being bullshit as I expected lol. I actually just darkened all the backgrounds because I didn't have time to make anything proper, so hopefully with proper backgrounds the enemies will stand out a little more. And yeah some of the post processing is affecting things it shouldn't so some menu stuff definitely looks weird.
The hyper should definitely have some invincibility on activation, I just forgot to add it! I'll be messing around a lot with the mechanics, I just wanted to get something functional up and running.
Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback! The video is also immensely helpful.
I definitely don’t play a lot of shmups but I can confidently say my failure to last longer than a minute is purely a skill issue.
The incoming bullets are all nice and distinct, the art style looks neat and the game runs fine over wine.
I’m a little iffy on the glow used to show selection in the menus, it stands out a lot as non-pixelated compared to the rest of the game. It also took me a sec to realize I had to use ZXC controls, but that’s probably normal in this genre.
A solid and pretty game for only a couple weeks’ work, good job.
Yeah finding the sweet spot for both shmup and non-shmup players is probably the most difficult thing. When I'm testing it's really hard to tell whether a section is fair or total bullshit. I always play with a controller so I actually have no idea what standard keyboard controls are for shmups, ZXC is probably terrible haha. And yeah I agree on the menus, threw them together last minute and the post processing is affecting them I think.
Comments
great stuff.
needs some obvious stuff like a clear life counter, how many times you can get hit before you die etc
Deserves a title. Seriously.
Fantastic stuff. Seriously - it's a lot of fun. Very tight, very punishing, very rewarding - just like a shmup should be. Screen Clear charge is fairly generous, but not to the point where I could spam it. Getting a couple of hits before you die is a blessing, makes it so much easier.
Patterns are good, and enemies are masterfully balanced - those with "harder" patterns die faster (like bats), while those with easier are a bit tankier (like skulls)
First boss is easy, especially he does a screen clear every time you kill a phase. Second one is a bit tougher, but I didn't find him unbeatable.
Took me a couple of tries, but I beat the final boss with just one death.
Big props for fantastic sound design - audio cues for "bomb ready" and "you got hit" are such a blessing and a necessity.
Controller is botched. Keyboard is fine.
Good stuff. Great, even. Had a blast.
This is pretty good. I really like how there are no collectibles, gaudy gfx/sfx bloating up the screen, or convoluted tangential systems. Everything is fairly readable, but with plenty of flavor still.
At the start I was lasering whenever possible because the spread shot felt a bit unreliable, the enemy distribution seemed to always favor taking out major threats and switch delay appeared to be non-existent. But then I got the impression the laser DPS is barely any higher, if at all, so it sort of evened out.
The patterns on the final boss are nice but it switches them out too quickly. You barely have to deal with them.
The congratulations score screen showed a different number than the score UI. I think that might be due to it showing up too soon and then not refreshing?
I think I died to a bike spawning in from below me and one of those exploding spikes? It would be nice to have clearer visual feedback when you get hit. Both felt like particularly aggravating deaths, too, but it's likely I am just a salty scrub.
Being able to resize the window would be nice.
Sound options reset themselves when you return to the main menu.
I like shmups but i'm not very good at them. I enjoyed this game, at some points it felt unfair, but overall, it's already decent. More sfx would be nice, and the second boss needs to be easier to telegraph. The biggest problem I had was that enemies are difficult to see, they don't have enough color contrast with the background, so sometimes bullets felt like they were coming from nowhere.
Great feedback and I agree on all accounts. Thank you for playing!
I really liked this game. I wonder how much more content are you going to add later on.
It also seems that you have gotten a lot of good feedback in the comments, so I don't really know what else to add. Keep at it.
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it!
Thanks for playing and thank you for all the feedback!
I wanna play it but I can't move off of the exit option no matter what I try :(. I'm using a PS/2 keyboard and Dualshock 4, neither of them work
I only tested with my xbox one controller so there was bound to be some issues. I plugged in my DS4 and there was also some sticking issue that I think I may have fixed, but the button mapping is off from the way xbox binds and only the stick works, not the d-pad, so it's a little funky to play with a DS4 right now.
I don't know if you mean a literal playstation 2 keyboard or if that's some terminology I'm unfamiliar with but I'm not sure what the problem could be other than the controller stuck forcing a direction.
Not sure if the sticking issue I was encountering is the same as the problems you were having but I uploaded a new version if you feel like giving it a shot. If not no worries. Sorry for the hassle either way!
Thank you for updating that! I was able to play it with no problems.
Overall I think it's a solid little CAVE style STG. You have all of your fundamentals down super well, which is a great thing to have in a world where CYGNI and Raiden NOVA exist. One thing though, does the game have proximity damage(You do more damage if you're right below an enemy, like DDP)? I don't know if it's particularly necessary but that's one of my favorite mechanics in the entire genre, it's just so fun to do. Anyways, I think overall the bullet patterns are solid, even if stuff like the spike balls or that last boss are a little bit hard to read. I'd suggest placing the spikes in a way that sorta telegraphs where they're going to shoot and not have the final boss teleport instantly. I think the "bomb" mechanic is kinda interesting, reminds me of Milestone shooters like Radirgy and Karous. The graphics and sound need some more work but given this is such an early demo I really can't fault you for that. Good job anon!
There is technically a shot limit, but the numbers need some tweaking, so point blanking is not so noticeable right now. I also probably need to tweak the time before enemies can shoot. As of right now it's pretty much impossible to kill most things before they get a shot off, but ideally I'd like you to be able to if you route well and play aggressively. And yes the spike balls are totally bullshit haha, I definitely want to make a lot of attacks more readable.
There's a lot more I want to do with the hyper meter and timer but I didn't have time to implement them. Hopefully for the next demo day it will feel more complete.
Thanks for playing and for all the feedback!
What I noticed about the player character's sprite is how the cross thing works to represent the hitbox.
I love the visuals too.
Glad you liked the looks of things! Thanks for playing!
The first thing I thought when I started the game was the filter and brightness make the screen too hard to see, but it turns out the contrast between the bullets and the background is on point, so it's no real issue. However, the enemies could stand out a bit more. In terms of gameplay, it's a good CAVE-like shmup and I had fun with it. Finally, this is a matter of taste, but I'd rather have the bomb make you invincible for a couple of seconds and be shorter than up your firepower.
Some bugs: the game returns an error on start-up since the asset directory and the .exe file have different filenames. Changing them manually fixes this. In the settings, the "windowed" option seems to do the opposite of what it says. It also freezes my game, but that just might be a Wine issue (I played this on Linux).
Wow you actually beat it! I wasn't sure about the difficulty. So hard to tell when I already know every section. The bombs that the mid-boss throw out ended up being bullshit as I expected lol. I actually just darkened all the backgrounds because I didn't have time to make anything proper, so hopefully with proper backgrounds the enemies will stand out a little more. And yeah some of the post processing is affecting things it shouldn't so some menu stuff definitely looks weird.
The hyper should definitely have some invincibility on activation, I just forgot to add it! I'll be messing around a lot with the mechanics, I just wanted to get something functional up and running.
Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback! The video is also immensely helpful.
I definitely don’t play a lot of shmups but I can confidently say my failure to last longer than a minute is purely a skill issue. The incoming bullets are all nice and distinct, the art style looks neat and the game runs fine over wine. I’m a little iffy on the glow used to show selection in the menus, it stands out a lot as non-pixelated compared to the rest of the game. It also took me a sec to realize I had to use ZXC controls, but that’s probably normal in this genre.
A solid and pretty game for only a couple weeks’ work, good job.
Yeah finding the sweet spot for both shmup and non-shmup players is probably the most difficult thing. When I'm testing it's really hard to tell whether a section is fair or total bullshit. I always play with a controller so I actually have no idea what standard keyboard controls are for shmups, ZXC is probably terrible haha. And yeah I agree on the menus, threw them together last minute and the post processing is affecting them I think.
Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback!