TIGSource Forums

(http://gamedev.dmlive.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/gamejolt_cover.png)

Description:
Your base was destroyed now you race across the country trying to evade your enemy.
Collect scrap metal while on the run to upgrade your vehicle and increase your chances, just don’t run out of fuel.

Key features:
Upgrade your vehicle
Shoot enemies
4 enemy types
Lots of bullets
Audio control
Full screen
1280×720 resolution

(http://gamedev.dmlive.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/download2.png)
http://loading_glitch.itch.io/evasion
http://gamejolt.com/games/shooter/evasion/28661/
 
Developer Bio:
My name is Ian Halliwell, I’m studying at Media Design School in New Zealand.
This is one of my first games and is an experiment made with GameMaker: Studio.

Contact info:
[email protected]

First thought: I like the music.

Second thought: I love the font on the Controls screen. Very nice. Why is that great font from the Controls screen not used on the title screen?

Third thought: "AARADALSKDFHASLKDJSA!! MY MOUSE KEEPS LEAVING THE WINDOW!!!"

Playing in fullscreen mode (Thank you for including that), I still had a very hard time getting anywhere. The enemies that start out behind me just destroy me because my bullets are too slow to hit them and if I move then they move out of the way of the shots I fired. They also shoot faster and do more damage than I do.

There's a smallish issue with the level select. If I click too far to the right on the #2 "card" it selects #3 instead. It seems like it's not checking for "card" depth when determining which has been clicked.

I do mostly like the menu layout. The Options menu is a bit crowded, vertically, but I like that I generally have the option to go back to the previous screen rather than always getting sent back to the main menu (although I do get sent back after leaving the Controls screen?). Why does only the initial menu have mouse-over underlines?

Very nice job on the sound settings. They all seem to work perfectly.

If the game had faster bullets, I think might enjoy it. As it is now, I can't even survive more than ten seconds without getting killed by enemies I can't hope to destroy. Maybe I'm missing something that should be obvious.

Any idea why the game is so huge? Are you using big WAV files for the audio? If you switch over to Game Maker Studio: Standard (which is free now) you can use smaller OGG files and the game shouldn't require too many changes in order to work. I'm not saying it needs to be smaller. I just thought I'd mention this.

First off, thank you for all the feedback.

Regarding the font:
I liked that font so I started using it. Near the deadline I realized it wasn't listed as ”100% free use” so I swapped it out with Arial just in case. I might look into a new font later.

I didn't think of restricting the cursor to the window but I’m not sure it’s necessary.

I changed some of the level select code around so that should be all fixed now.

Adding the credits and controls to the options menu was a bit last minute.
The credits and controls were in their own separate rooms. I have now integrated them the same way as the rest of the menu system (including returning to the options menu).

This again was due to time, I might update the other menus with hover and selected states in the future.
I also want to improve the menu button design.

Regarding the size I didn't really worry about it but I was using large .wav files.
The project folder for audio is 189MB
I have changed the music files to “compressed (streamed from disk)” (bringing the size down to 19.2MB).
The game is made with GameMaker: Studio

I also made a few other tweaks.
That’s it for now. I will take a look at difficulty and balancing issues over the next week or so.

Ah, yeah, it sucks when you find out a great font can't be used for a project. There's probably something similar out there for free but I guess there may not be much point in spending time searching for it.

The level select still has the same issue I mentioned earlier. I click on 2 and 3 slides to the front instead.

I managed to survive level 1 in this version, but I still think the bullets and damage amounts need tweaking. As I get upgrades, the game gets more enjoyable but if I wasn't testing the game for someone I never would've stuck with it past my initial playthrough so the upgrades wouldn't make a difference. Also, having to grind level 1 in order to make level 2 possible gets boring really quickly (to me, anyway).

I encountered a bug where I was suddenly unable to move right, so I just got slaughtered. This happened twice, and I know I still had fuel the second time.

Also, if I'm at the far left of the screen my bullets get destroyed before they even enter the play area.

It's a bit irritating that the enemies can move off-screen where I can't see or shoot them. They do that far too often.

Why is there a delay on the score/scrap screen after levels? I don't see any reason to slow down a player who just wants to get to move on.

The upgrades are nice and noticeable. I felt like there weren't enough levels of upgrade, though. By level 3, I was almost fully upgraded.

I like the different enemy types. That big tough thing in level 3 looked kinda cool.

I think the only major issue right now is the pacing/balance. I was fully upgraded by level 4 and the rapid-fire with high damage made short work of anything. It might also be a good idea to make later levels cost more, because I had so much scrap by level 7 that I just skipped to the last level and getting any more scrap was pointless. In the last level, the main challenge was grabbing fuel with all those enemies in the way. I did like how the speed of the car/level affected my firing range.

This version is a lot better than the last. I may have rushed through the levels, but the fact that I actually wanted to see more is pretty good.