I think the Sim City suggestion about the music put me on the right track, thanks.
In regards to the exploration problem, it's just that I want the game to have a few surprises up its sleve so the player would seriously start to wonder about the possibilities/scope of the game. Trading isn't really something that gets most people excited, and there's the fact that there practically exists an infinite amount of planets due to the psuedorandom generation the game uses, everything just starts to feel samey, regardless of how far you travel.
I was planning to recycle the engine and to use it with a theming that allows me to add unique content that fits the game more easily, and encourages exporation in a way that makes sense in context of the game world.
Anything that keeps the flow of the game up would be cool, like risky melee attacks, or maybe a parry system that absorbs mana when you're able to time it properly on a powerful spell (like a fast fireball). I'm sure you will be able to think of something nice that fits your game.
I certainly agree. Graphics are a rush job, and most of it is still just stock images. I was barely able to make to UI look somewhat like I intend it to be when I'm completely done with it. It still had stock windows buttons and a cropped Minecraft inventory a day before the deadline, I did my best wih my limited time and understanding of graphic design.
I will certainly create a patch where the UI is cleaned up, and a few convenience features will be added, though I probably won't go through the trouble of creating new assets, unless the game gets a sudden surge in popularity. Mostly because I weren't able to solve my biggest problem with the game, which is that I haven't managed to create enough incentive to make the player really feel an urge to explore.
Music isn't a bad idea, I just didn't bother with it since I couldn't find any public domain music I was happy with. That said I'm open to suggestion, what kind of music could you imagine the game having? I'm looking for a general style so it's okay if you post something that isn't public domain.
I didn't mean that the bosses themselves had uninspired designs, they actually reminded me of Gunstar Heroes bosses, and that game had rather unique bosses. I meant it more as in that the game might have a bit of a hard time standing out at the moment due to similar very high quality alternatives existing, though Pedrovin's art might help make up for that so I don't really know.
It's possible you might even be able to ride on the coat-tail of a certain other recently released and very popular boss rush game. It's certainly different enough so that people will most likely see it as its own thing.
It's a good framework, I might consider keeping an eye on this project, to see which way this project ends up going.
There's not much at all going on at this moment, the gameplay is very basic.
Have you considered any alternatives to just waiting for your mana to regenerate, opening your inventory to use potions all the time might get annoying in the long run when you even have them, and waiting around and watching a counter go up isn't much fun.
It's well made but I don't feel that there's much going on, is this intentional or are you planning to take the project into a different direction with the finished game?
It's rather fun for what it is, though feels very basic. I didn't see any point in using one weapon over the others, though I might not gotten far enough into the game that it mattered.
It's a nice concept and I could see it being a great game with enough polish, though at its current state I don't feel like the gameplay requires much thought at all, there are tons of ways to make it more involved, as I felt that the biggest problem the game has is that you can pretty much play on autopilot, never giving much thought to anything that is going around you.
But as I said it's a great base for a game that has a lot of potential.
It's a great concept, but it didn't feel super intuitive, though I have a tendency to skip text instructions, and come back to read it first when I get stuck.
The loading minigame seemed hard to understand at first, but after reading the instructions it felt nearly pointless.
The gameplay was slow and not that interesting, though since it's a shooter it should be pretty straightforward to make it more fun to play, shmup is a very mature genre, and there are countless great games to take inspiration from.
Felt a bit disoriented about what I was supposed to be doing at times, but I eventually figured stuff out, there's some nice ideas, but I'm not really 100% sure what I should think about the experience.
It looked and felt quite good as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned, but it wasn't particularly fun to play, the screen is way too zoomed in to make a judgements about what I should be doing, enemies just kind of popped up in front of you most of the time, or that's what it felt like.
I feel like the graphical presentation is just a few steps from being something amazing, as it's now it looks like a well made flash game, not that it's a bad thing, I'm just pointing it out because I feel you're on to something really cool with the style.
I didn't find the gameplay to be that fun, but I'm quite sure it could be a great game with some tweaking, though I'm not even sure if it would be better with a slower more methodical style, or as a fast twitch based shooter. As the game is now I felt that taking damage was often unavoidable.
I found the game rather boring but it had a nice presentation, it still left me kind of wondering about what the final game will be like, and the abrupt ending was a little jarring.
I'm getting strong Noitu Love 2 vibes from this game, and I think it's a well above average boss rush game, though not the most original game, but it's still very enjoyable. Though having said that there are some things I'd like to comment on.
*I didn't find much use for the other weapons than the basic shooter, as it did roughly the same amount of damage as your other weapons yet it was the safest one to use.
*The levels felt like more like formalities than actual good content, and I would thought that it would have been awesome if they served as primers for the boss, with enemies having similar attack patterns as the boss so the level would serve as a teaching tool for the player.
*The way the last boss was setup felt a bit odd, it's cool that he had several forms, but the fact that it had checkpoints made the battle feel a bit cheap, like I was supposed to die a certain amounts of times before beating it. Is there some kind of reward for doing a no death run or was this a random design choice?
It's decent fun, and I can see that there's potential for clever level design. But I'm not quite feeling the spirit of the theme for the jam.
*I have just the teeniest nitpick to add. I think it would be better if the skulls looked less like collectables, as I can see it as something that you want to pick up in a game with a viking theme.
Ah makes sense, I should have made it clear that you can actually turn back if you get cold feet during the spaceship sections, I have actually taken care that so it's actually quite hard to set yourself into an unwinnable state, the game even has a feature that will give you "pity money" if you save while having less than a certain amount of cash and an empty inventory.
Though having a short "Galaxy Guide" to get players started might not be a bad idea, it also gives me a good opportunity to dump some lore on the players.
If a item is for sale, it means it's at least below it's base price (I think dark matter is the sole exception to this due to it having such a slim potential profit margin), so if you take note of the price and only sell for profit you should be making money rather easily.
I agree, I should look into balancing the monster amount, my intention has been to try to strike a balance on the amount, so players need to consider the added risk of traveling short roads to save time.
I considered adding fuel, but decided against it as it could be a great source of frustration if you're not familiar with the game mechanics beforehand.
I'd love to have some input on what areas you think needs polish the most, I know I obviously need to work on the graphics as barely any time was spent on them.
This is my first shot at creating an inventory management UI/system, the code is a mess as I worked out things as I went along, and then tried to patch up messy code after the fact. There's still a lot of bugs so I'll probably just recode the store part and submit a patch after the rating period is over, now that I know how I want it to function.
The game will recognize if you have a save where you have one million $ or more, there really isn't that much more to it, other than the hidden factors that decide how populated by monsters the roads are (and of course the prices and inventory of the shops). The random tips you get on bootup pretty much convey everything you need to know to have a fair shake at accumulating wealth in the game.
I somehow managed to miss a counter smack middle of the trading screen, not gonna fix it tho. I find it kind of funny that of all the things that could go wrong there's just this stray counter on the screen. I need to develop better Debugging habits. :D
