this is a fun game, with perfectly checkpoint placement! i did end up using a game genie code to give myself unlimited lives — but that’s probably going against the creative vision a bit!
one thing i really grew to appreciate is that it’s very rare that you’ll want to push yourself in a direction you’re already going. there’s probably a metaphor for life in there somewhere.
the sound and visual aesthetic are perfect for this game, spot on!
I appreciate the kind words! I'm not much of an artist and was worried my basic art here wouldn't land, but I think it might succeed in giving a vector arcade feel, which is very appropriate for the style of game.
You're not the first person to want unlimited lives, and I strongly considered this for an easy mode. I was concerned it would hurt the feeling of progression and achievement as the player masters the game, and worsen the difficulty curve by allowing players to get to the much harder sections when they haven't had sufficient practice yet on the earlier ones. Difficulty was always on my mind in part because my biggest inspiration for this game, Gravitar, failed in the arcades because of the insane difficulty curve new players face. I got a lot of feedback that normal mode feels pretty good after maybe a brief rough start and that it's fine as-is, and I figured people who really wanted unlimited lives would probably be happy enough with saved states. I definitely didn't expect someone to make a Game Genie code for it; that's really cool!
I didn’t have too much trouble until the parts with little round asteroids scattered all over the place. But then I was like, alright, let’s just work on this section without having to play through the whole game again!
I feel like the code is better than savestates because it still enforces your checkpoint placement design, rather than letting players plop one down anywhere :3 Certainly feels more satisfying than coming to a stop and making a savestate after every turn!
I was using PZAOGO for infinite lives, but it breaks the game if you die on the title screen or before the first checkpoint lol.
