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[EggRogue]

UPDATE - Version 0.97 Beta
====================

Loads of additions and changes!

http://www.crunchyfrog.com.au/spacechunks2



* New enemy ship: Stealth ship! With cloaking device!
* New enemy ship: Immobiliser! With tractor beam!
* New enemy ship: Defender! With reflective shield!
* New upgrade: Magneto field - draws bonuses and powerups towards you!
* New upgrade: Warp shield - provides temporary invulnerability!
* New upgrade: Temporal shockwave - release damaging + disabling blast wave!
* New upgrade: Anti-mine system - enemy mines neutralised or converted!
* New upgrade: Anti-missile system - enemy missiles neutralised or converted!
* New end of stage boss: TriBlaster!
* New end of stage boss: The Summoner!
* New end of stage boss: The Duplicator!
* New end of stage boss: BladeStar!
* Player name for high score now entered/submitted from within the game.
* Mouse control for aiming/steering!
* Able to set game defaults from menu options.

+ Experience gain/promotion made faster.
+ Overall reduction of enemy firepower
+ Static enemy defenses reduced significantly.
+ Enemy missile launcher rate of fire reduced.
+ Enemy mine layer rate of fire reduced.
+ EMP mine radius halved.
+ Carrier ship fighter respawn time reduced.
+ Enemy shield strength reduced significantly.
+ Gun platforms removed.
+ War-chunk hit points reduced.
+ Missiles targetting wingmates do not re-target onto player.
+ Small enemy fighter speed reduced.
+ Orange pickup now replenishes 4 missiles instead of 1.
+ Combat matrix upgrade now becomes Battle tactics - wingmates burst fire and launch barrages.
+ Improved the effect of heavy support upgrade.
+ UFOs generally stay closer to their target than previously.
+ Player respawns away from enemies.
+ Difficulty of the game now adjusts enemy speed and rate of fire, not toughness.
+ New enemy weapon - concussion mines - causes 1 damage plus knockback.
+ All experienced/Veteran/Elite troops have critical hit chance.
+ Enemy spawns during stages is more designed, less random.
+ Missiles are more clearly colour coded and distinctive.

Enjoy

[J.G. Martins]

Just wanted to say I've played a couple of times, and the game is really enjoyable

Any chance of getting a new ship? Bigger, more baddass? And then getting smaller ships escort you and that kind of stuff? I always want that in space shooters, but I think most people are mostly about the arcade part

[EggRogue]

Just wanted to say I've played a couple of times, and the game is really enjoyable

Any chance of getting a new ship? Bigger, more baddass? And then getting smaller ships escort you and that kind of stuff? I always want that in space shooters, but I think most people are mostly about the arcade part

Hi J.G.,

Absolutely! As the game stands now, each time you get a promotion you are assigned a wingmate, which is a fighter that escorts you and fights with you! The first promotion occurs at 5,000 points, which you can achieve very quickly indeed, quite possibly after stage 1, or early stage 2. If you complete the bonus objectives you'll score points faster and achieve promotions earlier. Once your wingmate is assigned, you have him forever. Furthermore, wingmates replenish automatically if they die, so don't worry about losing them  

The second promotion occurs at 15,000, the third at 30,000, the fourth at 50,000, and the fifth and final promotion at 75,000. Each promotion not only gives you an additional wingmate, it also increases the experience level of each:

Score   Promotions    Wingmates
 5,000   1             1 Regular wingmate
15,000   2             2 Experienced wingmates
30,000   3             3 Veteran wingmates
50,000   4             4 Elite wingmates
75,000   5             5 Ace wingmates!

The experience level of the wingmates affects their toughness and gives them a chance of critical hits (double damage). When your wingmates are Aces, they also have the ability to use Chunk-Time(tm) (same as your special ability) to go into a super-speed killing frenzy!

Furthermore, there are several upgrades available that will beef up your wingmates considerably! Heavy support swaps out the small fighers you get by default for gunships, which are larger and more heavily armed. Battle Tactics means your wingmates will attack much more aggressively, firing burst fire and launching missile barrages. Warp shield is an upgrade that makes your entire squad temporarily invulnerable!

With regards to your ship, while it doesn't get bigger, it most certainly gets majorly badass! There are loads of upgrades that increase your offensive and/or defensive ability. Things like Penetration, Disruption and Rapidfire totally make your blasters kick ass. Then there's upgrades like High Fragmentation, Devastation and Cluster Missiles which turn your missiles into destructive powerhouses. There's a bundle of upgrades to make you tougher, such as Deflection, Absorption and Defense Satellites. Then there's Anti-mine and Anti-missile systems, and even an Assimilator, which turns enemy ships into allies!

In addition, if you go after and bust up the large chunks (asteroids) as indicated by a grey triangle pointers on the edge of your screen, you'll see they drop powerup triangles. Collect 6 of a single colour and one of your ship stats will be permanently increased! This applies to:

Powerup colour     Ship Stat Upgraded
Blue               Shield Strength
Red                Hull Strength
Orange             Missile capacity
Gold               Number of blasters
White              Special capacity

Hope this helps! Thanks for your feedback and glad you are enjoying the game

[EggRogue]

I have released a game trailer for Space Chunks II:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPMKClRHQMk

Let me know what you think!

[VomitOnLino]

I have released a game trailer for Space Chunks II:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPMKClRHQMk

Let me know what you think!

First of all - your game looks and plays fantastic. You also chose good elements to show for your trailer.

Okay now for some tough (designer) love, sorry:

-The typography, as a typography nerd I cannot get over your typography, sorry.  The Diablo font? In Space? Really? It's especially weird that I can see from your HUD that you have a nice space-y font for the game itself. So just use that or something similar?
-Also the text animations get in the way when I want to see stuff explode in the trailer, which it does - gloriously. Maybe put the longer introductory text on a semi-black or static background - intermission style.
-Also maybe cut the trailer to be less linear and shorten the cuts towards the end - working for a climax, when you will reveal the games name. The fades to white actually lengthen the cut, as do all transitions. For action, cut action to action.
-Last but not least maybe record the game footage without the HUD on? Make an extra trailer build or so? (I haven't done this myself but I damn well should have!)
-The still at the end is good. Maybe consider fading in the URL? Also maybe extend last 10s where the name is displayed so the user can take all the information in without pausing or re-watching. Especially visually hard-to-parse stuff like URLs.

Once again no harsh feelings, just thought that honest thoughts help you out better here. 

[EggRogue]

Hi VomitOnLino,

Firstly thank you for your in depth feedback. Much appreciated! It was my first ever trailer and I was bound to make mistakes.

-The typography, as a typography nerd I cannot get over your typography, sorry.  The Diablo font? In Space? Really? It's especially weird that I can see from your HUD that you have a nice space-y font for the game itself. So just use that or something similar?

Ah yes, the diablo font Strange as it may sound, I feel that the gothic style of the font actually suits the trailer, especially with the Carmina Burana opening music. Plus it's been a good decade since the last Diable game came out. However your point is valid and I accept that it obviously can be jarring to some.

-Also the text animations get in the way when I want to see stuff explode in the trailer, which it does - gloriously. Maybe put the longer introductory text on a semi-black or static background - intermission style.

Ok.

-Also maybe cut the trailer to be less linear and shorten the cuts towards the end - working for a climax, when you will reveal the games name. The fades to white actually lengthen the cut, as do all transitions. For action, cut action to action.

Not sure what you mean by "less linear" ?

-Last but not least maybe record the game footage without the HUD on? Make an extra trailer build or so? (I haven't done this myself but I damn well should have!)

Good point. I could have done that.

-The still at the end is good. Maybe consider fading in the URL? Also maybe extend last 10s where the name is displayed so the user can take all the information in without pausing or re-watching. Especially visually hard-to-parse stuff like URLs.

I didn't want to linger excessively, but some extra time there wouldn't hurt.

Once again no harsh feelings, just thought that honest thoughts help you out better here. 

No harsh feelings whatsoever, your comments were extremely constructive. Thanks again

[Frank Griffin]

The game crahses after I over flow the screen with shield power icons.  Right when I pick up another triangle it finally crashes.  I got to 500,000 points.  I was trying to beat the 1 million mark since its seems pretty easy after completing level ten for the first time on brutal.

I have a suggestion.  For the upgrade icons that you always see, I think you should have them solid when you upgrade but then always have just an outline of the power level or very shaded in the middle.  Items that dont really change much like the missiles or blasters should always be hollow since they can obscure the small grey pointers to the floating bonuses.

I am writing an asteroids game too BTW and both seem to have spent years on them hehe.  I really liked your game.

Frank Griffin

[EggRogue]

Rofl! You've broken the game

Seriously getting half a million on brutal is....astonishing! I doubt I could do that.

You'll be pleased to know that in the new version (yet to be released) I've put an upper limit on the number of shield and hull points so it won't crash.

Your notion of making the HUD icons transparent is interesting, I'll look into that.

You'll also be pleased to know that I've made another 4 end of stage bosses (stages 5-8) and I'm working on the final two bosses (9-10). Plus there is a special bonus stage 11 for those who finish. You'll find it's no longer quite so easy to clock the game...

I've also expanded the number of upgrades, including a new tier.

Also the game difficulty no longer scales the enemy hit points, instead they actually become faster and deadlier.

[Starflier]

Very nice. This is the sort of space shooter that just makes me all fuzzy inside ^^
I didn't go very far, because I need to sleep, but I could have played for another several hours anyway. I love the rock-throwing and cloning bosses!

[EggRogue]

Very nice. This is the sort of space shooter that just makes me all fuzzy inside ^^
I didn't go very far, because I need to sleep, but I could have played for another several hours anyway. I love the rock-throwing and cloning bosses!

Very happy to hear you are enjoying it! I look forward to seeing your high scores soon

[Taiko]

Wow!  Very professional game.  I can tell you took a lot of time to do polish.

My critiques:

• Loved the particle effects!  Particularly the player's death sequence.  Really cool.
• The music was fast paced and fit the game perfectly.
• I loved the boss fight.  It felt like I was playing a bullethell game.
• Having high scores is great, but it took me out of the game when it did the upload.  It would be nice to do the post completely from within the engine.
• Visually speaking, the player's ship takes up a very small portion of the screen.  This is helpful for large battles, but you might want to consider rescaling things a tad.

Overall great job, like I said this has a definite high-quality feel.

[Frank Griffin]

Finishing the first 10 levels was actually difficult but when you start all over again it got easier and easier since the shield and hull points kept going up. 

I like that getting hit by a missile was not a death sentence this time.

Sometimes I would lose track of where my ship actually was.  It would probably help if the main ship was different from the rest color wise.  I know you are always in the center of the screen but I am not always thinking about that fact hehe.

Are 29 upgrade points supposed to be the MAX?

If you don't mind me asking whats the logic you used for the enemy small ship AI that made them dodge the bullets and stuff?

Did you do the graphics yourself?




Frank

[Frank Griffin]

I knew I forgot something.

The in game build ups for shield and hull etc..
If you abort a game and you had 5 out of 6 for the shield upgrade when you quit, if you start a new game you will still have 5 out of 6 for shields when you start the new game.

Frank

[EggRogue]

Wow!  Very professional game.  I can tell you took a lot of time to do polish.

My critiques:

• Loved the particle effects!  Particularly the player's death sequence.  Really cool.
• The music was fast paced and fit the game perfectly.
• I loved the boss fight.  It felt like I was playing a bullethell game.
• Having high scores is great, but it took me out of the game when it did the upload.  It would be nice to do the post completely from within the engine.
• Visually speaking, the player's ship takes up a very small portion of the screen.  This is helpful for large battles, but you might want to consider rescaling things a tad.

Overall great job, like I said this has a definite high-quality feel.

Thank you very much! That is fantastic feedback to receive.

You'll be pleased to know that in the new version (under development) the high scores have been merged entirely into the game.

Also the player's ship graphic has been enhanced and enlarged.

I will certainly make a post to announce the release of the update.

[EggRogue]

Finishing the first 10 levels was actually difficult but when you start all over again it got easier and easier since the shield and hull points kept going up. 

I like that getting hit by a missile was not a death sentence this time.

Sometimes I would lose track of where my ship actually was.  It would probably help if the main ship was different from the rest color wise.  I know you are always in the center of the screen but I am not always thinking about that fact hehe.

Are 29 upgrade points supposed to be the MAX?

If you don't mind me asking whats the logic you used for the enemy small ship AI that made them dodge the bullets and stuff?

Did you do the graphics yourself?

Frank

Hey Frank,

The level wraparound was not the intention for the final version, it was simply more of a placeholder in lieu of not having anything else designed at that time. I may still keep the wraparound concept but if so I will definitely BEEF up the opposition for the second playthrough, especially since you have all the upgrades applied as well.

The player's ship has been enhanced and enlarged in the new version under development, hopefully this will make it stand out more.

29 upgrade points WAS the max...but no longer! Not only is there another promotion tier, you can now collect purple fragments which when combined form a new upgrade star! So in theory there is no limit!

The enemy logic for small ships was something I call "zigzag" whereby the ship engages in random turns to deviate from it's current desired course. If the player is chasing the UFO then the usual desired course would be to fly away from them, thus zigzagging at that point appears to be a wiggling around out of the line of fire. The frequency and magnitude of the zigzags are influenced by the ship's rank, i.e. number of chevrons, and now also by the game difficulty. A standard ship on easy difficulty makes small infrequent zigzags, not very hard to track. An elite ship on brutal difficulty twists and turns like a buzzing fly, making them considerably harder to hit! From memory that's the crux of the logic. It took me a while to playtest and tweak before I found a result I felt was pleasing.

I do the graphics myself...sortof. That means I usually scavenge for some kind of base graphic on the internet (free to use of course). Then I spend a while modifying and mutating it until it becomes something (I hope) different enough from the starting point that it could be considered original. I'm definitely not a full-blown graphic artist.