itch.io

It was working OK on my Mac using the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome and Safari but I checked the code and discovered a slight error in one of the shaders. I have just uploaded a new version so that may fix the issue.

I prefer to just do HTML5 builds as I think most people don't want to download games, due to the general inconvenience and fear of malware, and being Mac based I can't test PC builds myself.

https://steampunkdemon.itch.io/chopper

Thanks! I used Godot 3.5.3.

Rescue civilians while avoiding or taking out enemy soldiers, tanks, and emplacements in my new 2D top-down Choplifter style game.

There are 8 levels to play with a variety of seasons, lighting conditions, and weather.

Free to play in browser with keyboard controls and Xbox controller support (should probably work with other controllers too).

https://steampunkdemon.itch.io/chopper

This is a really great game but it could use a save/resume feature. I got frustrated retrying the section with the appearing and disappearing platforms and ended up turning on invincibility (I didn't want to try again properly later and have to redo all the stuff leading up to that section again). I forgot to turn invincibility off afterwards and accidentally discovered the Easter egg!

This is a fun game with really nice presentation. I like the addition of the whistle blowing, the shark's portrait reacting to losing lives and the fish continuing to beach themselves after you have failed leading to total carnage!
I noticed that when trying again the difficulty level doesn't seem to reset. Not sure if that is intentional or not.

Very nice game with great presentation.

I feel like it would be easier to keep track of where the current block is in relation to the ones already in place if there was a shadow though.

Very nice! I like the graphical style, character handling and overall feel of the game. A few suggestions:
I'm playing on a Mac laptop so using the up arrow key to jump feels a bit awkward. How about having Spacebar as an additional jump key?
The exit is a bit hard to make out graphically. Perhaps make the exit door brighter or have a shaft of light coming out of it when it has been opened.
When I fell from a high platform onto spikes I lost a life and then respawned where I had last been placed by the knockback. I then fell into the spikes again and died. Perhaps keep the last safe spot (last location the player was standing on a platform) cached and then place the player there after they have lost a life.

I like it! I'm getting a glitch though where the next planet to be dropped is appearing where the mouse pointer is for 1 frame before correctly appearing at the top of the screen.

I have just released an Aliens style motion tracker asset for use with Godot 4.x. It is ideal for topdown/overhead 2D games but could easily be adapted for a 3D game. The motion tracker asset is a shader and script that can be applied to either a ColorRect or TextureRect and will blend with their contents. The look of the tracker is customisable through the shader's parameters and with alternative code that is explained in comments within the shader and script.

It is distributed under the MIT Licence so can be freely used in your games as long as credit is given.

Click the link to try a simple test scene in browser and then download the project file.

https://steampunkdemon.itch.io/motion-tracker

Help BomBoy get through 20 levels by collecting all the keys and then getting him to the exit before he explodes!

Free to play in browser here: https://steampunkdemon.itch.io/bomboy

BomBoy

I think you are missing the point. It doesn't matter how many keystrokes the interface can send if the keyboard itself can only detect 2 keys being pressed at a time. The thread explains that many keyboards at that time could only detect 2 simultaneous key presses not counting modifiers. At the bottom it covers the technicalities of why that was, i.e. keyboard manufacturers going from having each key individually wired to using a grid system to cut costs and having to impliment anti-ghosting due to the grid system's limitations.

It runs fine in the latest version of Firefox on my M1 Pro based MacBook Pro.

This thread from back in 2010 covers the reasons why many keyboards of the time only effectively allowed 2 key rollover:

https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/6669/how-do-i-remove-the-limit-on-pc-...

If the Wikipedia page Arrow keys is to be believed then WASD was widely adopted after first person shooter players gravitated towards using it for movement along with mouse look. It left the spacebar accessable with their thumb and the shift and control keys within reach of their pinky. Apparently older computers had limitations on the number of alphanumeric keys that could be recognised as being pressed at the same time, so that is why modifier keys were used for some controls.

I can't see a way to remap the arrow keys within MacOS but I found an app called Karabiner Elements that can do it. Of course remapping the arrow keys to WASD means they no longer function as arrow keys and so can't be used to navigate menus. In Godot navigation between UI elements is set-up by default to use the arrow keys, so that normally works in all Godot games even if the dev didn't specifically intend it to. I'm not familiar with how Unity and other game engines handle keybinds but I guess they don't have similar defaults set.

Using ESDF would make more sence for touch typists but I think many computer users aren't trained to rest their fingers on the home keys. For whatever reason WASD became popular and now we're stuck with it!

Thanks for the tip. I'm Mac based but I will see if I can find a suitable alternative to AutoHotKey.

I'm not sure if this is the most suitable forum but I've posted here in the hopes that the most devs will see it.

I'm left handed and play (as well as develop) games on a laptop using a trackpad instead of a mouse. I try to play any interesting games I find on Itch but often come across issues with their input scheme. A lot of devs use the classic WASD for movement and mouse/trackpad to look around but don't provide alternative keys or the option to redefine them. Since I feel most comfortable using my dominant hand on the trackpad I end up with my hands crossed in an awkward, uncomfortable position and generally give up on the game. I'm sure there are other left handed laptop based players with the same issue, and also people who for whatever reasons don't want to or are unable to use WASD controls.

So after all that preamble (!) my basic plea is, please provide alternative 'left handed' controls when making your games. At least bind the arrow keys and perhaps IJKL to movement and provide 'left handed' alternatives to any other keyboard controls. For example if you have F as your action key for players using WASD perhaps also have H for people using IJKL and Shift for players using the arrow keys. Space is a good choice for a common action, like firing, as it can be easily reached with either hand. If your game needs both WASD and the IJKL/arrow keys for input then give the option to switch around what they control. For example I have a game where WASD controls movement and IJKL/arrow keys control the direction of fire but I give the player the option in the settings to switch them around.

If your aim is only to get noticed I would recommend making your games free and also having them playable in browser. There are so many games on Itch that many people just ignore ones that require payment to play. People also generally don't want to download games, due to the general hastle and possible security concerns. Having games playable in the browser will make sure they can be played on Win/Linux PC and Mac too. Also, if your games' formats support it, try to make them playable on mobile (touch controls and 'chunkier' graphics that can be easily understood on a small display) and laptops (don't require use of a numpad or complicated interaction with a pointing device that would be hard to do with a trackpad) as well. That will help make sure you have the widest possible potential audiance.

Really nice roguelike. I don't know if you are still actively updating this game but greyscale and amber screen colour filters would be nice additions to bolster the nostalgia!

Looks pretty good and I would like to play through what you have made so far but I can't get past the first skeleton due to input bugs. Basically the keyboard input only seems to work intermitantly. Sometimes it will register if I press a button several times, sometime things seem to be completely disabled. For example I can often not use R to toggle into attack mode even if I was able to do it earlier.

Also, I found lockpicks and several keys that seem suitable to open the locked chests but there is no prompt to try them when interacting. I can't see that I am holding them either, is there an inventory screen/window for that sort of equipment?

Lastly as suggestion. I am playing the browser version of your game on a Mac laptop using a trackpad. I'm left handed and so find WASD plus trackpad controls uncomfortable. I appreciate you including support for the arrow keys to move. How about making Shift + left and right arrow keys turn left and right?

I'm using a MacBook Pro 16". The screen resolution is 3456 × 2234 (254 ppi). I'm getting the same offset bug in the current versions of Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

Looks very good so far. I hope you continue developing this into a full game.

A few bugs I noticed in the web browser version (I'm using Firefox on a Mac. I haven't tried the downloadable version):

• In full screen the anvil, counter and cat are misaligned in the Workshop screen and the material titles and highlights and question mark button are misaligned in the Forge screen.
• Typo in one of the kid's requests, “Hello! I need a knew Scythe for my father”.

And a few suggestions:

• Include the day display and customers waiting number on the Forge and Backyard screens.

• Backyard access button on the Counter screen and visa versa.

• When discarding items in the Forge screen give an option to also open the book to select a new item.

• Buttons to return to the Counter from the Build new items book and Learn new skills scroll.

I've played game series (Mass Effect for example) where you could load a save from the previous game into the new one, so it knew exactly what choices you had made. Another approach I have seen is having an NPC at the start of the new game ask the player what happened to them before. The player then selects dialogue options to explain the route they took in the previous game.

03:31

Hop

I also noticed the game's acronym!

BTW, thanks for supporting the arrow keys for movement. A lot of developers only impliment WASD and I personally find using my right hand for movement more comfortable.

As for another way of displaying enemy health. I like the simplicity of the game graphics at the moment. Adding health bars to everything would clutter the view I think. A couple of options I can think of are:

Only show a healthbar for enemies that are injured.

Change the colour of the enemies to indicate how damaged they are.

Fade out the enemies as they get more injured. Perhaps keeping a solid outline with just their fill fading.

Very nice game! I like the subtle touch that the number of black pixels inside each enemy ship shows how many shots they take to destroy.

This is a fun and funny short puzzle adventure game that I really enjoyed. Help Terry the ghost setup a Halloween party in his crypt by finding hidden ghosts and solving seasonally appropriate characters' problems. The art, music and humour all manage to hit the mark. It's playable for free in browser.

https://arudasics.itch.io/spooky-season

Sub Hunter

I've been uploading content to itch since December 2022. I have 6 games all playable in browser and 2 Godot shader assets. All are free so no revenue.

Views: 1310

Downloads: 253

Browser plays: 132

Followers: 9

I think redonihunter has summed things up pretty well!

One thing I would add as a reason why indie horror games appear to be popular in general is a side effect of the way AAA horror games are released. Those developers seem to have decided people are only interested in playing horror games around Halloween/October/Spooky Season and so they all target that period. If you want to find new horror games the rest of the year you have no choice but to look at indie titles. I can't think of any other genre that has its release dates targeted in a similar way. The same thing also applies to movies.

I mostly agree with what has already been said. If you look at the Featured Games their cover images generally include their title and an illustration in a style that tries to evoke the feel of the game. However it is hard to know if that format of cover image has contributed to those games being succesful or if it is just something that people have copied after seeing other Featured Games use it. Like DarkBloodbane, if a cover image catches my eye I mouse over it and if there are no screenshots or gameplay video I move on. It surprises me the number of games that do not have any screenshots or video, even sometimes when they are expecting people to pay up front!

I would add that in general people are drawn to human faces and characters, so if you can work them into your cover image it is going to be more eye catching than one without.

Thanks for playing and leaving a comment (my first one on Itch!)

I think you are right. That would explain why so many of the Planet Defender clones are of the tower defence type rather than having the player directly control one spaceship. I have just found out there is a template for the player controlled ship version of this game available for Unity, which explains why there are several identical versions on Itch from different users.

I was asking because I have made my own version in Godot styled to look like it is an early 80's arcade game (filled polygons rather than vector graphics though) as that is where the game seemed to fit best. I wanted to credit the original in my game's page but I will probably have to forget that. Anyway thanks for your help!

I mean the first game to use the exact formula of the player controlling a ship that orbits around a planet and shoots outwards to destroy incoming asteroids and spaceships. Search for 'Planet Defender' on Itch and you will see many games using that specific format.

Thanks for the link but I had already looked at that. I thought it would have originally been an arcade game that came some time after Asteroids (1979) since it shares a lot of the same game elements but I could not find anything.

I just realised I said from the early 1970s in my original post but I meant late 1970s to early 1980s which may have thrown you off. I've now corrected it.

Hi,

As the title says, I am trying to find out what was the very first 'planet defender' type game. It is a well used formula on Itch, a planet in the center of the screen with an orbiting ship that shoots outwards to blast incomming asteroids and spaceships. It seems like it is a variation on the Asteroids arcade game from the late 1970s/early 1980s but I can't find any such arcade games from that era. The planet defender games that do come up from a Google search are all fairly recent.

NeonBlast!

Hi everyone,

Protect planet Neon from the relentless assault by asteroids, comets and UFOs in my new game NeonBlast! Try to survive as long as you can and amass a high score in this 'planet defence' type game with an early 80's arcade aesthetic.

https://steampunkdemon.itch.io/neonblast