I beat all 4 levels and this game is freaking sweet. I liked how the action was instant and intuitive, the environments and enemies were great to destroy. Sounds and effects were on point as well. All the different guns were great to test and try out. Nothing bad to say! Make more levels and possibly sprinkle a little story somewhere in there. Also I liked that the mech could swim.
The visuals are very nice, but the gameplay feels quite dull for now.
None of the environment feels relevant, and there’s not really any mechanics to counterplay elaborate enemies or anything like that, I can mostly just sit in place and shoot, and sitting in place elsewhere in a level doesn’t make a difference.
I’m looking forward to the game being updated, though.
The levels all just feel like an open field; the lack of a physical objective and terrain that is nondestructible makes any semblance of layout currently irrelevant; destructible buildings seem to only give you an advantage and enemies a disadvantage, and so it doesn’t feel like there’s any design to them. The… third? desert with water. level felt a bit more interesting with the water slowing you down and there being hovercrafts.
What I think you should do is add in non-destructible terrain and physical objectives in the mission that you have to attack/defend/escort? or simply progress through the level to a goal, so that there is a reason to care about the terrain & certain spots can be better/worse to play around in. Destructible terrain would then act as a way to modify the battlefield as you play, but you would still be constrained to a degree on how you play in the level.
This is all very fair and useful feedback, thank you.
I originally did intend to have set objects/installations that you'd have to destroy for the fourth mission, but I simply ran out of time for this DD. I'm going to be redoing a bunch of levels and the mission's structure since all of them are honestly placeholders right now. There's going to be different missions other than search and destroy/shooting of course - defending and escorting missions will be included as well.
I'm not too keen on adding indestructible terrain since I feel it takes a lot of the oomph out of the gunplay and weapons if they hit objects and don't react, but I understand that this can make the levels feel maybe too open. I'll see if I can include enemies that also demolish terrain when the player is close and don't hold back firing even if they're behind cover. I realize now the player maybe has too much advantage by being the only one doing that.
I played this and honestly i have nothing negative to say besides some small nitpicks.
The railgun ammo is a bit too scarce. I suggest to add a secondary weapon slot, and leave the rockets to be a tertiary option with a different keybind (maybe R? makes sense...)
The menu music is a banger, and the sound design is really good... except for the rotary cannon spin up sound, i didn't really enjoy the high pitch of it.
The visuals are amazing. I like the pixel(? (voxel(?)) style environment destruction a lot. Might be my unconfirmed autism ringing, but I equally enjoy the warm and comfortable color pallette, especially the amber-light grey UI of the menu. I really like the mech design as well.
I think this is pretty cool, and i'm not even really into these type of games. Good work.
The railgun ammo is a bit too scarce. I suggest to add a secondary weapon slot, and leave the rockets to be a tertiary option with a different keybind (maybe R? makes sense...)
I could start the player with more ammo loaded into the weapon. I ended up cutting the amount of ammo provided by crates so they give 1/8th to 1/12th the max ammo amount, but maybe it's too little now. I've been quite torn on whether or not the player should have two weapons - the missions are very short and the game's playstyle tends to change dramatically with certain weapons, so having more than one might be too much firepower. That said, I can see how being able to switch on the fly to a second weapon would still be nice.
The menu music is a banger, and the sound design is really good... except for the rotary cannon spin up sound, i didn't really enjoy the high pitch of it.
Interesting. I'll try lowering the pitch of it - maybe it is too high. It's actually the classic sound of the Splinter Cell night vision goggles going off combined with a sped up minigun spinning without ammo.
The visuals are amazing. I like the pixel(? (voxel(?)) style environment destruction a lot. Might be my unconfirmed autism ringing, but I equally enjoy the warm and comfortable color pallette, especially the amber-light grey UI of the menu. I really like the mech design as well.
Glad to hear you liked the visuals. Technically the models are both! I make everything in voxels and then convert them to pixel art sprite sheets which are then stacked up in "slices". Sprite-stacking is the term for it - it's kind of uncommon since it tends to be hard to optimize, but I've developed some methods to keep things going smooth.
I think this is pretty cool, and i'm not even really into these type of games. Good work.
Thanks again for playing and the feedback, it's very appreciated!
>the missions are very short and the game's playstyle tends to change dramatically with certain weapons, so having more than one might be too much firepower.
Maybe have some sort of a loadout points to limit too OP builds? Or maybe even giving the player some disadvantages like slower movement speeds...
> It's actually the classic sound of the Splinter Cell night vision goggles going off combined with a sped up minigun spinning without ammo.
Haha, nice.
>Technically the models are both! I make everything in voxels and then convert them to pixel art sprite sheets which are then stacked up in "slices". Sprite-stacking is the term for it - it's kind of uncommon since it tends to be hard to optimize, but I've developed some methods to keep things going smooth.
Interesting, i like hearing about the technical side of people's projects. Your stuff kind of reminded me of the 2nd generation Command and Conquer games where they used a hybrid system of sprites and voxel models, so i figured you had something similar.
This is easily a banger. I wanna emphasize how good the menu looks and sounds, like seriously. Everything just works visually and audibly. Sorry for the excessive rambling, but for some reason, it reminds me of a strange combat flight simulator game i played on the PS1(???) a decade and a maybe half ago. I barely remember anything about it except that it had some striking 3D flat-shaded visuals and similar music. Anyway, Good job.
Maybe have some sort of a loadout points to limit too OP builds? Or maybe even giving the player some disadvantages like slower movement speeds...
Not a bad idea, will definitely try this once I have a proper hangar/loadout screen implemented. Some different engine types might help balance very heavy loadouts too. Current mission menu is just a placeholder for now.
Interesting, i like hearing about the technical side of people's projects. Your stuff kind of reminded me of the 2nd generation Command and Conquer games where they used a hybrid system of sprites and voxel models, so i figured you had something similar.
Totally, I think they used a similar method of converting voxels too!
This is easily a banger. I wanna emphasize how good the menu looks and sounds, like seriously. Everything just works visually and audibly. Sorry for the excessive rambling, but for some reason, it reminds me of a strange combat flight simulator game i played on the PS1(???) a decade and a maybe half ago. I barely remember anything about it except that it had some striking 3D flat-shaded visuals and similar music. Anyway, Good job.
Interesting. Would love to know what game it was if you ever find or remember it, it might just be up my alley, haha. Thank you again!
> Some different engine types might help balance very heavy loadouts too.
You should definetly explore into the customization territory. People love tinkering with loadouts and seeing what works and what doesn't, and your game will likely accept that sort of gameplay nuance very well.
This game is like heaven for those who like big explosions and environmental destruction. Nice job on all the flashy effects! My only complaint would be, as another person said, the mechs tend to blend into the background so it's hard to see them especially when there's a lot of action going on.
Hey, thanks for playing and recording a video, I appreciate it a lot!
Really impressed to see you blaze through the whole demo in one sitting, some people had a lot of trouble previously finishing the second and third mission. Your feedback on the settings, UI, text, and controls is all valid and I'll be updating them soon. The mission and main menu screen is eventually going to be redone from scratch; right now I'm just focusing on getting gameplay done which I think is the most important part.
Thank goodness you didn't go for an S score by the way; you were right to not trust the end screen since the A+ score is always shown. I haven't decided yet what a good score should represent, but I suppose it really should just be a mix of good time + least amount of hits taken.
Really impressed to see you blaze through the whole demo in one sitting, some people had a lot of trouble previously finishing the second and third mission.
Oh that makes me feel good! Usually DD games make me feel like a scrub but I guess I can still keep up when it comes to mech/vehicle games. 2nd and 3rd missions were hard but I appreciated the challenge.
Can't believe someone unearthed this obscure 1990s mecha sleeper hit and remastered it for PC!! Used to love talking about this game on da interwebz in 2002 between Nirvana and Eminem jam sessions (or however people talked in the early 2000s).
first of all, your game is absolutely amazing. it's a joy to play through it every time
no bugs to mention, so i guess i'll focus on the balance of the weapons
railgun ammo is very scarce, and considering that it takes a while to charge it to pierce through buildings decently, it honestly does not feel reliable enough for a primary weapon during a mission long term. it's so powerful that it almost feels like a secondary weapon to deal with powerful enemies, not something you would use against tons of minions and weaker enemies.
it also happens VERY often that i mistakenly press LMB not long enough, and waste a cartridge with nothing to show for it.
the grenade is kind of situational. i can see it being useful in some circumstances, but most of the time i would rather just destroy the obstacle between me and the target with whatever machine gun i currently have equipped rather than having to press x, press it again and then wait for the grenade to finish its arc and reach the target
the scatter gun felt pretty wimpy. the scatter itself is pretty small, and by having to wait between each shot it feels like another inferior alternative to the machine guns, and the increased damage does not make up for it.
Thank you for playing it again and your kind words!
railgun ammo is very scarce, and considering that it takes a while to charge it to pierce through buildings decently, it honestly does not feel reliable enough for a primary weapon during a mission long term. it's so powerful that it almost feels like a secondary weapon to deal with powerful enemies, not something you would use against tons of minions and weaker enemies.
That's completely fair, I felt by limiting the ammo it would be a way to balance it since it's basically a 1-hit kill weapon, but without a secondary primary weapon it's probably not going to work.
it also happens VERY often that i mistakenly press LMB not long enough, and waste a cartridge with nothing to show for it.
You only need to hold it for about a third of a second to not waste a cartridge, the timer for it is actually just about ~10 frames in game. The cartridge dumping is kind of just to prevent players from mashing LMB and encourage them to wait and line up their shots more, but I realize an indicator for when its ready aside from the maximum would be nice. Sorry about that.
the grenade is kind of situational. i can see it being useful in some circumstances, but most of the time i would rather just destroy the obstacle between me and the target with whatever machine gun i currently have equipped rather than having to press x, press it again and then wait for the grenade to finish its arc and reach the target
I realize I kind of need a tutorial and maybe a non-lethal grenade for this, but you can use it to bait enemies with explosions and also hit them when it's at a really convenient time. As you said, it's situational and I think it's best used when enemies are near explosive containers or way behind dozens of buildings since it can hit them from anywhere. Eventually I'll have different types like EMPs and smoke grenades so hopefully it'll be more useful then.
the scatter gun felt pretty wimpy. the scatter itself is pretty small, and by having to wait between each shot it feels like another inferior alternative to the machine guns, and the increased damage does not make up for it.
Gotcha. It's best for wiping out groups/formations of enemies like in the fourth and second level, but I can see why it's not as useful as the MGs. I'll see if I can improve it.
Glad I stumbled upon this jam. This game is absolutely fantastic, absolutely going to keep an eye out for more updates on this one in the future. I have no knowledge of any prior versions but my issues are extremely minor. With this kind of game, the absolute most important thing is that the game feels satisfying and this game absolutely nails it-- The movement, the shooting, the explosions. All wonderful. Really fun variety with the weapons and scoring system too.
My only issues are aesthetic (and one mechanical)-- I found myself often losing track of my player character because the main mech has very drab colors that blend in with the environment-- Particularly in the first map (it's not as big of an issue with the enemies because they get outlined in red). In mecha anime the main robot usually has very flashy colors, like the Gundam's white and blue, and the tone in this game doesn't seem to be super gritty, so I don't see why the main robot can't have colors that make it stand out more.
On that note, I'm not sure if the lack of music during stages is meant to be just a demo thing or an intentional choice. If it's an intentional choice I respect it, but I do think some beats would elevate the experience. My final nitpick is that, unless I missed something, I didn't really notice any kind of progress indicator for how close you are to completing a mission.
I understand something like an enemy count might feel tacky and "too videogamey", but I think it would make things more exciting if you actually felt how close you were to the end at any given time-- Could be something as simple as one of those Pilot cut-ins making a comment like "Just a bit more!" or something once you're near the end.
Like I said at the beginning, this game is one I'm going to keep an eye out and root for going forward. Especially the fact that it's in Game Maker-- Studio 1, too?? Astonishing. Keep up the good work!
Oh! I'm a fucking idiot-- I forgot I also had a suggestion. I don't think this is something the game NEEDS but I think it would be badass if you could hold right click and do the multitarget thing but keep it held over a single enemy to unleash a barrage of missiles onto that single enemy. Might have some OP risk but it'd be a huge resource hog and I can imagine it being fairly difficult to do (if the enemy keeps moving and you're also dodging at the same time) so I think it could work. Frankly though I just think it'd look awesome.
With this kind of game, the absolute most important thing is that the game feels satisfying and this game absolutely nails it-- The movement, the shooting, the explosions. All wonderful. Really fun variety with the weapons and scoring system too.
Glad to hear that, I'm glad it checks out since that's been my focus all along!
My only issues are aesthetic (and one mechanical)-- I found myself often losing track of my player character because the main mech has very drab colors that blend in with the environment-- Particularly in the first map (it's not as big of an issue with the enemies because they get outlined in red).
Admittedly, in the previous build the orange filter for that level was turned off, but this DD I turned it back on. It makes the tones warmer and more appealing in my opinion, but it does affect the contrast of things and make it less readable. I might have to add a setting where you can just turn it off for levels if it's too distracting.
In mecha anime the main robot usually has very flashy colors, like the Gundam's white and blue, and the tone in this game doesn't seem to be super gritty, so I don't see why the main robot can't have colors that make it stand out more.
This is true, and a few people before have asked to be able to color the player's mechs. To be honest, I'm just not a fan of flashy hero paint jobs, prefer more subdued "grunt" liveries with just decals. That said, I have a few ideas to improve the player's readability like making the outline glow perhaps when there's a lot of smoke or the aiming reticule is far away.
On that note, I'm not sure if the lack of music during stages is meant to be just a demo thing or an intentional choice. If it's an intentional choice I respect it, but I do think some beats would elevate the experience.
Music is planned but I have yet to fully decide on what the game's soundtrack will sound like. I composed the main menu theme and the end mission jingle, but full on level music I just haven't been able to nail. I'll probably need to find a composer.
My final nitpick is that, unless I missed something, I didn't really notice any kind of progress indicator for how close you are to completing a mission. I understand something like an enemy count might feel tacky and "too videogamey", but I think it would make things more exciting if you actually felt how close you were to the end at any given time-- Could be something as simple as one of those Pilot cut-ins making a comment like "Just a bit more!" or something once you're near the end.
That's a cool idea and I think it's a smart use of the pilot windows/quips seeing as she already informs the player when ammo is out and health is low. Your radar does display an enemy count under "TGT:" by the way.
Like I said at the beginning, this game is one I'm going to keep an eye out and root for going forward. Especially the fact that it's in Game Maker-- Studio 1, too?? Astonishing. Keep up the good work!
Thank you! It's indeed Game Maker: Studio 1.4. Honestly still a pretty powerful piece of software in the right hands, it's not that outdated from GMS2. I'm only using it since I just can't stand the UI of GMS2, lol.
Oh! I'm a fucking idiot-- I forgot I also had a suggestion. I don't think this is something the game NEEDS but I think it would be badass if you could hold right click and do the multitarget thing but keep it held over a single enemy to unleash a barrage of missiles onto that single enemy. Might have some OP risk but it'd be a huge resource hog and I can imagine it being fairly difficult to do (if the enemy keeps moving and you're also dodging at the same time) so I think it could work. Frankly though I just think it'd look awesome.
That's a mechanic straight out of Warhawk on the PS3, haha. I'd love to have that added, I'll probably have a weaker "swarm" missiles that does less damage than the current ones but can be stacked as you said.
Great as always, I'll list my thoughts on the new content:
The scattergun is okay, but I think it should be able to one-shot the smaller mechs up close. The railgun is amazing. It's a bit overpowered because enemies can't really do anything when you one-shot them from behind cover, but damn is it satisfying. Grenades are also fun and satisfying to land, their damage is appropriate and I really like the aiming visuals. The new level looks great and I like that the new enemies have a mobility edge on the player, but with all the weapons and ammo you have no lone enemy is ever going to feel threatening. I'd consider pulling a uno-reverse on the player and adding an indirect enemy that fires at you from behind cover.
The hovercraft is so much louder than anything else.
The scattergun is okay, but I think it should be able to one-shot the smaller mechs up close.
Agreed. I'll see if I can have the bullets double their damage for maybe half a second after they're fired.
The railgun is amazing. It's a bit overpowered because enemies can't really do anything when you one-shot them from behind cover, but damn is it satisfying.
It's definitely a weapon that will probably come late game since it's so OP, but it's also so much fun I might have to put it earlier.
The new level looks great and I like that the new enemies have a mobility edge on the player, but with all the weapons and ammo you have no lone enemy is ever going to feel threatening.
This is true, I'll probably have to come up with some heavier enemies now to counteract that. Maybe I should have more buildings as well since in an open space it's way easier to dodge the enemy's shots.
I'd consider pulling a uno-reverse on the player and adding an indirect enemy that fires at you from behind cover.
Good idea. It's going to be tricky to code, but I would like to see that too.
The hovercraft is so much louder than anything else.
I think I forgot to lower their maximum audio gain, oops. Thanks for pointing that out!
You now have grenades that arc over objects to strike targets from afar, just press X.
Buff to minigun weapon, now dual fire and much more fun
Dynamic shellcasings and other updated particle effects
Second mission enemies are now easier to spot and also optimized
Enemies now have directional armor - sneaking up and shooting them from behind does double damage
UI now fades itself upon mouseover as it can obscure enemies around the edges. Additionally, you can lock the camera in place now by pressing the Tab key.
Aim reticule is now dynamic and easier to keep track of.
Miscellaneous:
Weapons have better accuracy relative to the cursor
Player mech and enemies now skew in relation to screen position, making things slightly more 3D
Bullet code has been rewritten entirely for both optimization and slight differences in weapons
Master volume slider in settings (entire menu will hopefully be redone in the next build with full settings for everything)
Mech enemies are smarter now and become alerted to explosions as well as stop before driving into fire. They also subtly show brake lights when they're slowing down
Bullets from enemies move slower now so it's more fair to dodge
Lock-on indicator for missiles has been revised to be more visible
Player mech now has subtle firing animation and weapon kickback
Game should now launch in fullscreen or at least automatically double in size if you have a 1920 or larger display
Bug fixes:
Particles no longer linger in levels motionlessly upon redeployment
Enemy mechs no longer get stuck inside buildings upon being out of view. Additionally fixed an issue where upon getting hit outside of the camera they would remain motionless, leading to enemies not entering the level. Their pathfinding could still use some work though...
On rare occasions the player could get fixed to buildings at weird angles, but this should be sorted now.
Ambient audio no longer stops if too many noises go off at the same time, now has a proper controller
Fixed enemy knockback with weapons and explosions, previously would not always trigger.
Other:
Major optimization to the game's code and systems.
I was surprised looking at the previous two DDs that only one or two people mentioned poor FPS. The first two public builds of the game — to put it as harshly as possible — were badly programmed. Not that the code didn't work or was broken, but it was far from what should be an optimally programmed game. The cause of this was mostly the fact that this project began as a quick and dirty proof of concept, and I had little care for optimizing things as much as they should've been and went with a "We'll fix it in post!" attitude. For this new build I've spent a lot of time getting things to run smoother. Core systems like collisions, the player's radar, object to object position checking, texture page flushing, particles, and so on have been rewritten to perform much faster, and the game should in general play smoother than before.
*Crash upon starting a mission / Note for Linux users:
Previously, a few Linux users had this issue - upon starting a mission, they get an error saying the D3D outline shader failed to compile. If this error occurs, please use Winetricks to install DirectX and then try again. This should fix any shader compile errors if you are having them.
If you are having the same issue on a Windows PC, please see if your DirectX driver is up to date or installed, this will also fix the issue.
A dedicated Linux build will also come eventually, but currently I do not have the ability to compile one.
Comments
I beat all 4 levels and this game is freaking sweet. I liked how the action was instant and intuitive, the environments and enemies were great to destroy. Sounds and effects were on point as well. All the different guns were great to test and try out. Nothing bad to say! Make more levels and possibly sprinkle a little story somewhere in there. Also I liked that the mech could swim.
Hey, thanks for playing and finishing it! Definitely plan on having more levels and adding a little story, much more to come.
The visuals are very nice, but the gameplay feels quite dull for now. None of the environment feels relevant, and there’s not really any mechanics to counterplay elaborate enemies or anything like that, I can mostly just sit in place and shoot, and sitting in place elsewhere in a level doesn’t make a difference. I’m looking forward to the game being updated, though.
Thank you for the feedback. Could you please elaborate on what you mean by the environments not feeling relevant?
That's fair. Maybe I have made the enemies too easy. May I ask if you tried any of the different weapons out, or was it all the same regardless?
The levels all just feel like an open field; the lack of a physical objective and terrain that is nondestructible makes any semblance of layout currently irrelevant; destructible buildings seem to only give you an advantage and enemies a disadvantage, and so it doesn’t feel like there’s any design to them. The… third? desert with water. level felt a bit more interesting with the water slowing you down and there being hovercrafts. What I think you should do is add in non-destructible terrain and physical objectives in the mission that you have to attack/defend/escort? or simply progress through the level to a goal, so that there is a reason to care about the terrain & certain spots can be better/worse to play around in. Destructible terrain would then act as a way to modify the battlefield as you play, but you would still be constrained to a degree on how you play in the level.
This is all very fair and useful feedback, thank you.
I originally did intend to have set objects/installations that you'd have to destroy for the fourth mission, but I simply ran out of time for this DD. I'm going to be redoing a bunch of levels and the mission's structure since all of them are honestly placeholders right now. There's going to be different missions other than search and destroy/shooting of course - defending and escorting missions will be included as well.
I'm not too keen on adding indestructible terrain since I feel it takes a lot of the oomph out of the gunplay and weapons if they hit objects and don't react, but I understand that this can make the levels feel maybe too open. I'll see if I can include enemies that also demolish terrain when the player is close and don't hold back firing even if they're behind cover. I realize now the player maybe has too much advantage by being the only one doing that.
I played this and honestly i have nothing negative to say besides some small nitpicks.
The railgun ammo is a bit too scarce. I suggest to add a secondary weapon slot, and leave the rockets to be a tertiary option with a different keybind (maybe R? makes sense...)
The menu music is a banger, and the sound design is really good... except for the rotary cannon spin up sound, i didn't really enjoy the high pitch of it.
The visuals are amazing. I like the pixel(? (voxel(?)) style environment destruction a lot. Might be my unconfirmed autism ringing, but I equally enjoy the warm and comfortable color pallette, especially the amber-light grey UI of the menu. I really like the mech design as well.
I think this is pretty cool, and i'm not even really into these type of games. Good work.
Thank you for playing!
I could start the player with more ammo loaded into the weapon. I ended up cutting the amount of ammo provided by crates so they give 1/8th to 1/12th the max ammo amount, but maybe it's too little now. I've been quite torn on whether or not the player should have two weapons - the missions are very short and the game's playstyle tends to change dramatically with certain weapons, so having more than one might be too much firepower. That said, I can see how being able to switch on the fly to a second weapon would still be nice.
Interesting. I'll try lowering the pitch of it - maybe it is too high. It's actually the classic sound of the Splinter Cell night vision goggles going off combined with a sped up minigun spinning without ammo.
Glad to hear you liked the visuals. Technically the models are both! I make everything in voxels and then convert them to pixel art sprite sheets which are then stacked up in "slices". Sprite-stacking is the term for it - it's kind of uncommon since it tends to be hard to optimize, but I've developed some methods to keep things going smooth.
Thanks again for playing and the feedback, it's very appreciated!
>the missions are very short and the game's playstyle tends to change dramatically with certain weapons, so having more than one might be too much firepower.
Maybe have some sort of a loadout points to limit too OP builds? Or maybe even giving the player some disadvantages like slower movement speeds...
> It's actually the classic sound of the Splinter Cell night vision goggles going off combined with a sped up minigun spinning without ammo.
Haha, nice.
>Technically the models are both! I make everything in voxels and then convert them to pixel art sprite sheets which are then stacked up in "slices". Sprite-stacking is the term for it - it's kind of uncommon since it tends to be hard to optimize, but I've developed some methods to keep things going smooth.
Interesting, i like hearing about the technical side of people's projects. Your stuff kind of reminded me of the 2nd generation Command and Conquer games where they used a hybrid system of sprites and voxel models, so i figured you had something similar.
This is easily a banger. I wanna emphasize how good the menu looks and sounds, like seriously. Everything just works visually and audibly. Sorry for the excessive rambling, but for some reason, it reminds me of a strange combat flight simulator game i played on the PS1(???) a decade and a maybe half ago. I barely remember anything about it except that it had some striking 3D flat-shaded visuals and similar music. Anyway, Good job.
Not a bad idea, will definitely try this once I have a proper hangar/loadout screen implemented. Some different engine types might help balance very heavy loadouts too. Current mission menu is just a placeholder for now.
Totally, I think they used a similar method of converting voxels too!
Interesting. Would love to know what game it was if you ever find or remember it, it might just be up my alley, haha. Thank you again!
> Some different engine types might help balance very heavy loadouts too.
You should definetly explore into the customization territory. People love tinkering with loadouts and seeing what works and what doesn't, and your game will likely accept that sort of gameplay nuance very well.
Anyway, best of luck. You're doing well.
This game is like heaven for those who like big explosions and environmental destruction. Nice job on all the flashy effects! My only complaint would be, as another person said, the mechs tend to blend into the background so it's hard to see them especially when there's a lot of action going on.
Thanks for playing! I'll see if I can improve readability with the debris.
Good shit dude, recorded my playthrough (I'm still figuring out my new dd feedback video workflow, so my voice audio is too quiet for a lot of it):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JVJJ7JLNMXrjewiJzNn3J_MFRoNZVfSv/view?usp=shari...
Hey, thanks for playing and recording a video, I appreciate it a lot!
Really impressed to see you blaze through the whole demo in one sitting, some people had a lot of trouble previously finishing the second and third mission. Your feedback on the settings, UI, text, and controls is all valid and I'll be updating them soon. The mission and main menu screen is eventually going to be redone from scratch; right now I'm just focusing on getting gameplay done which I think is the most important part.
Thank goodness you didn't go for an S score by the way; you were right to not trust the end screen since the A+ score is always shown. I haven't decided yet what a good score should represent, but I suppose it really should just be a mix of good time + least amount of hits taken.
Cool glad the feedback was useful.
Oh that makes me feel good! Usually DD games make me feel like a scrub but I guess I can still keep up when it comes to mech/vehicle games. 2nd and 3rd missions were hard but I appreciated the challenge.
Can't believe someone unearthed this obscure 1990s mecha sleeper hit and remastered it for PC!! Used to love talking about this game on da interwebz in 2002 between Nirvana and Eminem jam sessions (or however people talked in the early 2000s).
first of all, your game is absolutely amazing. it's a joy to play through it every time
no bugs to mention, so i guess i'll focus on the balance of the weapons
railgun ammo is very scarce, and considering that it takes a while to charge it to pierce through buildings decently, it honestly does not feel reliable enough for a primary weapon during a mission long term. it's so powerful that it almost feels like a secondary weapon to deal with powerful enemies, not something you would use against tons of minions and weaker enemies.
it also happens VERY often that i mistakenly press LMB not long enough, and waste a cartridge with nothing to show for it.
the grenade is kind of situational. i can see it being useful in some circumstances, but most of the time i would rather just destroy the obstacle between me and the target with whatever machine gun i currently have equipped rather than having to press x, press it again and then wait for the grenade to finish its arc and reach the target
the scatter gun felt pretty wimpy. the scatter itself is pretty small, and by having to wait between each shot it feels like another inferior alternative to the machine guns, and the increased damage does not make up for it.
Thank you for playing it again and your kind words!
That's completely fair, I felt by limiting the ammo it would be a way to balance it since it's basically a 1-hit kill weapon, but without a secondary primary weapon it's probably not going to work.
You only need to hold it for about a third of a second to not waste a cartridge, the timer for it is actually just about ~10 frames in game. The cartridge dumping is kind of just to prevent players from mashing LMB and encourage them to wait and line up their shots more, but I realize an indicator for when its ready aside from the maximum would be nice. Sorry about that.
I realize I kind of need a tutorial and maybe a non-lethal grenade for this, but you can use it to bait enemies with explosions and also hit them when it's at a really convenient time. As you said, it's situational and I think it's best used when enemies are near explosive containers or way behind dozens of buildings since it can hit them from anywhere. Eventually I'll have different types like EMPs and smoke grenades so hopefully it'll be more useful then.
Gotcha. It's best for wiping out groups/formations of enemies like in the fourth and second level, but I can see why it's not as useful as the MGs. I'll see if I can improve it.
Thanks again!
Glad I stumbled upon this jam. This game is absolutely fantastic, absolutely going to keep an eye out for more updates on this one in the future. I have no knowledge of any prior versions but my issues are extremely minor. With this kind of game, the absolute most important thing is that the game feels satisfying and this game absolutely nails it-- The movement, the shooting, the explosions. All wonderful. Really fun variety with the weapons and scoring system too.
My only issues are aesthetic (and one mechanical)-- I found myself often losing track of my player character because the main mech has very drab colors that blend in with the environment-- Particularly in the first map (it's not as big of an issue with the enemies because they get outlined in red). In mecha anime the main robot usually has very flashy colors, like the Gundam's white and blue, and the tone in this game doesn't seem to be super gritty, so I don't see why the main robot can't have colors that make it stand out more.
On that note, I'm not sure if the lack of music during stages is meant to be just a demo thing or an intentional choice. If it's an intentional choice I respect it, but I do think some beats would elevate the experience. My final nitpick is that, unless I missed something, I didn't really notice any kind of progress indicator for how close you are to completing a mission.
I understand something like an enemy count might feel tacky and "too videogamey", but I think it would make things more exciting if you actually felt how close you were to the end at any given time-- Could be something as simple as one of those Pilot cut-ins making a comment like "Just a bit more!" or something once you're near the end.
Like I said at the beginning, this game is one I'm going to keep an eye out and root for going forward. Especially the fact that it's in Game Maker-- Studio 1, too?? Astonishing. Keep up the good work!
Oh! I'm a fucking idiot-- I forgot I also had a suggestion. I don't think this is something the game NEEDS but I think it would be badass if you could hold right click and do the multitarget thing but keep it held over a single enemy to unleash a barrage of missiles onto that single enemy. Might have some OP risk but it'd be a huge resource hog and I can imagine it being fairly difficult to do (if the enemy keeps moving and you're also dodging at the same time) so I think it could work. Frankly though I just think it'd look awesome.
Thanks for playing and the feedback!
Glad to hear that, I'm glad it checks out since that's been my focus all along!
Admittedly, in the previous build the orange filter for that level was turned off, but this DD I turned it back on. It makes the tones warmer and more appealing in my opinion, but it does affect the contrast of things and make it less readable. I might have to add a setting where you can just turn it off for levels if it's too distracting.
This is true, and a few people before have asked to be able to color the player's mechs. To be honest, I'm just not a fan of flashy hero paint jobs, prefer more subdued "grunt" liveries with just decals. That said, I have a few ideas to improve the player's readability like making the outline glow perhaps when there's a lot of smoke or the aiming reticule is far away.
Music is planned but I have yet to fully decide on what the game's soundtrack will sound like. I composed the main menu theme and the end mission jingle, but full on level music I just haven't been able to nail. I'll probably need to find a composer.
That's a cool idea and I think it's a smart use of the pilot windows/quips seeing as she already informs the player when ammo is out and health is low. Your radar does display an enemy count under "TGT:" by the way.
Thank you! It's indeed Game Maker: Studio 1.4. Honestly still a pretty powerful piece of software in the right hands, it's not that outdated from GMS2. I'm only using it since I just can't stand the UI of GMS2, lol.
That's a mechanic straight out of Warhawk on the PS3, haha. I'd love to have that added, I'll probably have a weaker "swarm" missiles that does less damage than the current ones but can be stacked as you said.
Great as always, I'll list my thoughts on the new content:
The scattergun is okay, but I think it should be able to one-shot the smaller mechs up close.
The railgun is amazing. It's a bit overpowered because enemies can't really do anything when you one-shot them from behind cover, but damn is it satisfying.
Grenades are also fun and satisfying to land, their damage is appropriate and I really like the aiming visuals.
The new level looks great and I like that the new enemies have a mobility edge on the player, but with all the weapons and ammo you have no lone enemy is ever going to feel threatening.
I'd consider pulling a uno-reverse on the player and adding an indirect enemy that fires at you from behind cover.
The hovercraft is so much louder than anything else.
Thanks for playing!
Agreed. I'll see if I can have the bullets double their damage for maybe half a second after they're fired.
It's definitely a weapon that will probably come late game since it's so OP, but it's also so much fun I might have to put it earlier.
This is true, I'll probably have to come up with some heavier enemies now to counteract that. Maybe I should have more buildings as well since in an open space it's way easier to dodge the enemy's shots.
Good idea. It's going to be tricky to code, but I would like to see that too.
I think I forgot to lower their maximum audio gain, oops. Thanks for pointing that out!
For those who played last time:
Miscellaneous:
Bug fixes:
Other:
Major optimization to the game's code and systems.
I was surprised looking at the previous two DDs that only one or two people mentioned poor FPS. The first two public builds of the game — to put it as harshly as possible — were badly programmed. Not that the code didn't work or was broken, but it was far from what should be an optimally programmed game. The cause of this was mostly the fact that this project began as a quick and dirty proof of concept, and I had little care for optimizing things as much as they should've been and went with a "We'll fix it in post!" attitude. For this new build I've spent a lot of time getting things to run smoother. Core systems like collisions, the player's radar, object to object position checking, texture page flushing, particles, and so on have been rewritten to perform much faster, and the game should in general play smoother than before.
*Crash upon starting a mission / Note for Linux users:
Previously, a few Linux users had this issue - upon starting a mission, they get an error saying the D3D outline shader failed to compile. If this error occurs, please use Winetricks to install DirectX and then try again. This should fix any shader compile errors if you are having them.
---------------