This was pretty fun but I didn't get very far. I do have a few suggestions though
The strafing is pretty difficult since you need to walk towards where you want to shoot for a bit, start shooting and then start strafing. I wonder if there's a way to separate where you're shooting from where you're walking
Also the level restarts kind of quickly when you die and I always take damage immediately upon respawning. Would be nice if there was a second or two where we get to prepare
I'm still figuring out the best course of action for top-down shooters on the Game Boy 🤔. One idea I've had but not tested yet would be where one fire button enables strafing while shooting in the direction the character is facing (as it is here), while the other button strafes in the opposite direction, letting the player retreat while firing at the thing they're retreating from.
The two reasons that hasn't been implemented here are:
(Although in practice, I wonder if anybody still uses the primary fire after picking up any of the special weapons, because I know I certainly don't... 🤔😌)
I'm thinking if the enemies weren't quite as relentless as they turned out in this build, that would also mitigate some of the clunkiness to how the strafing handles, and would in turn help with what you're saying about respawning right in the thick of it.
Thanks for the feedback! 👍
There was this one gameboy game I played a long time ago so I don't remember the name. But I do remember it was a shooter and the way they made strafing work was if you only pressed the directions, you would turn like in this game. When you held down R, it would freeze the direction you're facing and you'd go into strafing mode essentially.
I don't know whether that's the best idea or if it would work for this game, but it's just an idea to think about right
A standalone strafe button. I've thought of that, too - the Game Boy port of Contra 3 has B to shoot and holding A to strafe on the top-down levels - but I haven't tested that yet either 🤔 Plus even in that setup, the player would still be required to face the direction they want to shoot before holding the fire button.
It's certainly a control setup I'll want to try to recreate at some point though; I've got plans for many demakes, and that control scheme is bound to be an ideal fit for something.
