Nice Work. These are all of my thoughts for playing the game on March 13th, 2022. Some stuff you'll probably already know and have on your mind, others maybe not. This is also not meant to be condescending, i like giving critical & complete reviews. I try to just explain what's in my head. So Take everything i say with a grain of salt, in the end it's your game and your vision.
Menu/Start Screen/Library
- Start Screen music is short. Could be a bit longer.
- I like library and "menu" screens. They add to the depth and polish of the game.
- Should the "menu" screen maybe be called "options? As the player, i would think the menu was the screen that had "start game, menu, and library".
- Just a user experience thing: I would allow the user to go back with B on the "menu" . You should consistently accept A and/or Start for selecting or going forward. I default want to press the A button to go forward for things, and B to go back.
- I would add a little "beep" when changing menu items. Making the menu cursor bob left and right would be a nice subtle touch too.
- It took me a second after playing to understand the "enemy armor damage" table(?). This is after playing even. The damage column isn't apparent unless they have played and understand to "protect the fleet". There's limited space, so you might have to do pages? Also, if I'm correct in assuming it's a table, maybe you should have some bars "|" between enemy, armor, and damage.
Gameplay
- Often, i get a white space background for gameplay. Sometimes it's black. I'm not sure the scenario to reproduce.
- Gameplay Starts relatively difficult. I would give the player some breathing room earlier on. Maybe enemies shooting less frequently and flying slower.
- There should be some feedback that enemies have been damaged. usually this is a flash. Maybe you can simulate that by setting the color palette to all white for a second. The damage sound is good, but visual confirmation helps with the feedback loop for players.
- I would definitely give the player more "lives" it sucks to go back to the menu and have to go through that process. Maybe the player could slide up from the bottom when losing a life and the game continues (would want to wait until enemies have all cleared or problems will occur).
- Explosion Effects would be nice. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, it helps the player feedback loop.
- A nice touch would be a little inertia. Making the player not come to a complete stop when you're not holding a direction. It doesn't have to keep going on, it can be a fast stop, but stopping instantly feels odd.
- Background variability would be nice. Large stars, planets, moons, asteroid fields.
Gameplay - Side Interface
- The side interface wasn't initially intuitive. There's not enough time early on in the game to become familiar with it before enemies start coming down.
- Distance should be inverted, rising instead of falling.
- Maybe you should experiment with a top/bottom oriented game hud. The player's eyes will always be on the top or bottom of the screen, looking at the enemies or player ship respectively. To get an idea of things, i have to switch my attention more to the side. Which can be distracting.
- You have limited space in the current interface. However, a counter would be nice for # of enemies killed (or score, as i'll mention a couple of times in this review)
- The "B" being for that other weapon was not intuitive. I didn't understand what the "B" meant at first.
Mission Complete
- It took me a couple of playthroughs to complete a mission
- I like the fleet flying out animation.
- You should implement score, and increase based on how much health the fleet has left.
Game Over
- The Game Over screen say's press start, but i have to press B.
- Using high-score values might better help the player feel better about themselves. instead of 12 kills, 120 points feels a lot more gratifying.
- I was getting about 10 kills for a while before dying. Again, i would turn down the difficulty earlier on.