Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

• UltraFighter RX5000 is, I would say, a pretty standard feeling & uncomplicated bullet hell game. It has a pleasing veneer of polish, but it feels a little lacking in a few important departments. While it feels more you're like riding along on the bus than experiencing a hectic thrill ride on a suped up motorcycle, it's a sterling effort in making a game that is actually playable and understandable, and still gets you to a destination - that deserves a lot of credit.
  

  Liked

  • Bullets very clearly visible & colour coded enemies helps decision making
  • Controls are good & gamepad support
  • Ingame polish with tutorial, particles and level transitions

  Needs Work
  

  • It's important to be able to see the enemies too!
  • Would benefit from being more fun and having more mechanics
  • The theme use is lacking

  So, preface: I'm not a bullet hell or shooter aficionado, I don't play these games a whole lot. The difficulty wasn't too bad for me to deal with, so, I think you dodged the 'made game far too hard' bullet, although I did use a controller. After playing it 2-3 times I was able to run through the whole thing without dying (my high score was $19780) but, if you do die, you do have to restart the level - for a jam game, maybe just resetting the score and coming back to life in situ would be better.

  I found the game pretty dry, honestly? I pretty much just kept shooting the puny gun until I won the levels. I'm not sure what direction would be the smart move to improve it, but, getting music is, I'm sure, high on your agenda. Despite the colour issues in the regular levels, the game does look pretty functional - I like the polygonal ships and buildings, and it's pretty clear what everything is particularly in the 'sequel' level. In the original levels, the Blue ships on the Blue sea, and the Black Ships on the Black void of space were not particularly great choices.

  According to the credits, this was a solo project. I think if you'd had maybe another week on this or some extra hands, and had really focused on juicing up the framework you have here, you'd have a really decent game - forgetting the theme ultimately, but, let's focus on the game here. You could maybe get some weapons and health restores in there, give some of the bosses some difficulty phases, maybe slap a corny ingame story in as well. Think of ways to make use of those 3D models too: maybe have some buildings topple over or have the ships you defeat flip and tumble out of the sky, have bullets bounce off of things etc - the engine should be able to help do those things for you.