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[Windybeard]

Hi everyone.

I thought i would drop a quick rough demo here and see if you guys like it. Please be nice!

Also there are lots of powerups still missing and the levels are only demo levels and will not be in the final game, Plus loads of world map UI and stuff missing. it will just give an idea of what play is like. Save and load does work.

Im doing this for a few reasons.
1 - To see if people like it and see if its worth continuing with
2 - im so demotivated right now, if its liked then it will give me a massive push,
3 - if its not liked then i wont waste any more time on it.

Thanks and excited to see what you guys think of it (good or bad.)

http://www.mediafire.com/?kh0d4cw25dypp3u

[Udderdude]

I thought i would drop a quick rough demo here and see if you guys like it.

Oh boy, can't wait to download this and rip it a new ..

Please be nice!

Aw, fuck.  There goes that idea.

So let's try this out.

I think it's fun but needs some work.

Bullets should be faster.  You just run past the enemies as they fire and spray at them while they all die, and their bullets have no chance of actually reaching you in time due to their slow speed, even if you're right in front of them.

There needs to be more enemy variety and types of enemy attacks.  Right now it's kind of same-y, they all fire directly at you.  As long as you keep moving, enemies will never hit you as you can just keep moving slightly and all their shots will miss.  I think I spotted one enemy firing differently, but it was firing directly into a rock.

The shotgun weapon should be a spread gun.  The randomness of the pellets is kind of a pain.  At one point I shot it directly at an enemy, and every single pellet went around the enemy.  Oops.

The rocket launcher weapon is way too dangerous to actually use most of the time.  It's safer and just as effective to use the shotgun/chaingun.  Also, auto-switching to the rocket launcher when I pick it up and having it blow up in my face is not cool D:

The HUD needs to show your current weapon/ammo, minimap should show the terrain as well as objects .. I think you know this though.

You can't actually die in this beta test.  You never lose your last bit of life.  Not sure if this was intentional or not, but there you go.

You should check out this similar game I'm working on.  It's got more enemy variety and maybe you can get some ideas from it.

http://rydia.net/udder/prog/twin/index.html

[Windybeard]

Thanks for the great feedback.

The enemies in the demo are only a small amount of what i have designed. I am at about 14 now i think, Some fire in set directions, some dont shoot but chase you down, others do other crazy things so im hoping that this wont be too much of an issue with there being "samey" enemies.
As for the bullet speed, i actually slowed it down recently due to testers saying the opposite. perhaps there is a happy medium.

Shotgun - i see what your saying and i did initially have it as a spray gun but it was too good, plus i feel that a little innacuracy would add to the mayhem, i will def tone it down a bit though.

rocket launcher - ha ha, ill have to work on this one, im not happy myself with it just yet.

Hud - the weapon and stuff will all be added, just not finished yet, plus i have loads of little tweaks and stuff to add.
As for the mini map, i know it needs to have the terrain on it but sadly due to my level editor and the way i programmed it all in this is not going to happen. Ive thought about removing it completely but i think it still shows where enemies, chests and other stuff is so its better than nothing.

Death - death is currently being added in properly, im still working on this.

Checked out your game, its very good, much more tactical than what i am aiming for but very nice and fun to play.

Did you actually enjoy the game? did the graphics look ok?

Thanks loads!

[Udderdude]

The graphics were ok.  I did somewhat enjoy mindlessly mowing everything down, but that gets old quickly.  I doubt it would have kept my interest for much longer.

It's good that you have a wide variety of enemies planned.

[Windybeard]

thanks for the honesty. Im still a little concerened myself as to whether mindless action based mayhem is enough to hold peoples attention. I do intend to add some more stuff to this game but the mechanics are there and the main aim is to finish the level with the highest score possible.

I would be interested to see what other people think about the game and if its too shallow or not.

[Tynan]

Mindless action mayhem is not enough to hold attention.

Make it mindful.

Design so there are interesting tactics to use, non-obvious strategies to discover, and a variety of skills to master, from the small (shooting) to the large (strategic decision-making).

This game is quite shallow, but it doesn't have to be. With some new carefully-designed enemies that require interesting tactics to beat, it could be deeper. Combine them together in interesting ways and it could be downright profound.

[Windybeard]

Thanks Tynan

Thanks for giving me the great feedback, im now thinking about how i can add some more to this game. any ideas i will gladly listen! 

[Tynan]

Cool.

Some random thoughts:

-Enemies you must shoot from a specific angle.
-Enemies who become much more dangerous at low health.
-Enemies with low frequency, high-damage attacks.
-Enemies who can't be killed (basically environmental hazards.
-Enemies who spawn other enemies over time, or when killed.
-Bullets that track you.

You could play The Binding of Isaac for a nice survey of simple shmup enemy behaviors and types.

You could also go play a few Japanese style shmups and pay attention to the bullet patterns they put out. Interesting bullet patterns make for interesting dodging.

I'm making a game related to this genre right now, so my head is full of this stuff...

[Windybeard]

Thanks for the awesome ideas.

I have some enemies arnt in the demo, some that shoot in set directions creating mesh like effects when many around at once. Also i have some that have armour that needs to be destroyed before they can be killed. Also i have a large rock dude who doesnt shoot however every time you hit him he runs at you fast and faster with every bullet you hit him with.

I am def going to add enviromental dangers, i have already added mines that explode and set of chain reactions with other mines. I think ill add some other stuff like this to mix it up a bit.

I actually bought binding of isaac yesturday and it is really good. The only issue i have with emulating some of the stuff from that game is i really need to be able to keep a control on scoring as this is the point in the game so very little can be random. Some great ideas for enemies in that game though.

Im a massive fan of bullet hells, im currently playing death smiles and dondonpachi on xbox and they are awesome games. I have tried to sort of blend that sort of game with something a little more open. I think its working but i need to lock it down more or it might be a bore.

Thanks again guys, great feedback all helping to make this game better.

[Udderdude]

One more thing I forgot to mention.  The enemy that had those red orbs circling it, when it dies, the orbs remained on the screen.  When that enemy dies, all it's orbs should die also.

[Windybeard]

ahh yeah, thats now on my list of things to do. Thanks!

[Tynan]

One last thing I forgot to mention.

I found the "coin grab" sound effect physically painful. It must be 100x louder than anything else in the game. It was so bad I avoided grabbing coins.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to the next version!

[Windybeard]

ha ha ha yeah i know about this one, its just a place holder, sorry it hurt so bad. Thanks