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[Netsu]

I Am The Bomb is game where you have to shoot as many spiky balls as possible before your timer runs out and you explode (and take some more enemies with you).
Pick up blue thingies to increase your timer.

The sounds are all placeholders and I might completely change the visual direction, depending on a few things. But the basic gameplay is there. Over time I would add more weapons, more enemies, more levels and various power-ups.

   

I'm looking for feedback regarding:
- physics, how good is the platforming?
- difficulty, please tell me you highscores
- what do you think of the core mechanic?
- level layout, not sure if I did it right

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Windows
Linux 32bit
Linux 64bit
Mac OSX

You can also find the devlog for this game here: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=33240.0

[Udderdude]

I really like your walljump implementation, very simple, flexible and easy to use, even with a keyboard.

Other than that, would really like if you added the multiple lives thing we talked about in the DevLog.  One life just isn't enough!

[Netsu]

Thanks for the feedback

Other than that, would really like if you added the multiple lives thing we talked about in the DevLog.  One life just isn't enough!

Hm, how exactly would you see that working? You respawn after you explode/die and your score adds up from multiple lives?
Also, what was you highscore?

[Udderdude]

Hm, how exactly would you see that working? You respawn after you explode/die and your score adds up from multiple lives?

Yeah, give the player 3 lives and a score goal they have to meet to get to the next level. 

Also, what was you highscore?

The most I ever got was 5 .. I also think the timer before you go boom should be increased to 15 seconds.  I hardly have time to get up to the top of the screen where the enemies are before I explode.

[Netsu]

Thing is I don't plan to have a linear stream of levels to beat. My main inspiration is actually Super Crate Box, so the whole game is just this score/time attack mode.
MAYBE levels would work a little like in Super Hexagon - each level is just tougher and less forgiving than the previous one and you have to reach a certain score on a given level to unlock access to the next one. But even then each level will be a separate challenge.
I feel like adding multiple lives to this formula would just be confusing without adding anything special.

I think in the next test release I'll either add more levels, or at least a difficulty setting for the current one, because it is getting way too easy for me and yet is still too difficult for beginners
Could you tell me how are you dying most of the time? From the timer running out or from touching an enemy?

[Udderdude]

The timer runs out before I can even kill anything most of the time.  I never even saw a blue thingie .. well, maybe I saw one after I blew up.

I think you should focus on what makes this game unique, which is the exploding thing .. not try to make it a Super Crate Box clone.

[Netsu]

Huh, there should always be exactly one blue thingie present, right from the start. Are you sure it isn't there?
I'll definitely increase the starting timer and the amount of time added by pick-ups in the next release.

Anyway, the way I wanted to make this game, it's not the explosion itself that is the main theme, but the countdown to the explosion that you have to manage. I wanted the player to constantly alternate their focus between shooting enemies and going for the next time pick-up.

But now that I think about it, I'll try an alternative idea - remove the gun altogether so the goal changes. You still have to aim for the pick-ups to prolong your life, but only so that more enemies can spawn. It will become increasingly more difficult to navigate the level as more enemies appear, and you have to wait as long as you can to take out as many as possible with the explosion. Failure by touching an enemy means you don't blow up and end up with a score of 0.

[Netsu]

I uploaded a new playable build, links are in the first post.
There are now two levels and three enemy types. I also reworked physics and AI.

Oh, and I made the game into an OSX app too.

[FamousAspect]

Tried to play the osx app. Unrared the file, double clicked the app, nothing happens. What am I missing?

[Netsu]

Hm, no idea. I don't have an OSX to test it, I just exported the app from Unity. Did you try running it through a console or something?

[shs]

I played for a bit on medium. My best score was 10. The biggest thing killing me was that I just didn't have time to kill anything, especially when the enemies came at me from a diagonal. If you add more weapons, I'd definitely like a some sort of 180/360 degree, short range explosion thing. Maybe give it a cooldown timer or limited uses.

Not many problems with the physics, but I don't really like how you can't do a non-wall jump when standing next to a wall since your jump height gets reduced.

I think it'd also be nice if you added a timer showing how long you survived, in addition to kills.

[Netsu]

I played for a bit on medium. My best score was 10. The biggest thing killing me was that I just didn't have time to kill anything, especially when the enemies came at me from a diagonal. If you add more weapons, I'd definitely like a some sort of 180/360 degree, short range explosion thing. Maybe give it a cooldown timer or limited uses.

More weapons is what I am working on right now, but I am not yet sure how will they work. I thought about having enemies randomly drop weapons with a single clip that you can pick up and shoot with until the ammo is out, after which you are back to your basic pistol.

Try playing on easy, it gives you more time to kill stuff but otherwise shouldn't really be that easy

Not many problems with the physics, but I don't really like how you can't do a non-wall jump when standing next to a wall since your jump height gets reduced.

I think it'd also be nice if you added a timer showing how long you survived, in addition to kills.

Yeah, the jump shouldn't work like that, I'll fix it. A timer might also be a nice addition.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Paul Jeffries]

Since I always find it useful to look over the shoulders of people when they first try my own games, I've decided to start doing Let's Plays of TIGSource games when I give them a go in order to record my first impressions.  You're the lucky first benificiary:





Let me know if you think this is useful feedback, I might make this a regular thing.

Some additional comments:
- There didn't seem to be any sound for me, while I'm guessing from your comments above that there should have been?
- It could do with a bit more variety and something to do other than just a high-score challenge.  Perhaps have many more levels, and after you kill enough enemies have a portal to the next one open?

[Netsu]

Hey, thanks a lot for that!
The feedback was good, and it's always useful to watch others play your game, but the audio in the video was really low and you also spoke very quietly.
I think I have to make a distinction between grabbing a wall and being ready to wall-jump, so that you can wall-jump even when you are not that close to it.

Some additional comments:
- There didn't seem to be any sound for me, while I'm guessing from your comments above that there should have been?
- It could do with a bit more variety and something to do other than just a high-score challenge.  Perhaps have many more levels, and after you kill enough enemies have a portal to the next one open?

Ah shit, I forgot to turn the audio on before exporting the game I'll definitely fix this next time, hearing the last 5 seconds of the bomb timer helps a lot.
When I add more levels some of them will be unlockable, maybe some of the weapons will be too. I don't know about some kind of a campaign structure, but I might do that at some point.
Variety is what I am working on now

[Paul Jeffries]

Yeah, I needed to turn my mic up a bit.  Ho hum - the problem with doing a 'first impressions' video is that when you fuck it up you can't start over!

One other thing that occurred to me - although I like the abstract style of everything I think part of the reason that the controls sometimes felt a bit hit-and-miss to me is that there wasn't the same level of visual feedback that you get from having a fully-animated humanoid character running about - for example sometimes I was failing to jump I think because I was hitting the button before I was properly in contact with the surface I wanted to jump from because there wasn't the usual switch between falling/running animations to clue me in to the right timings.  I'm not saying you need to totally redesign the player character but you should maybe add in a few more obvious hints as to your current falling/running/sliding/etc state.

[Netsu]

Hopefully the graphical style is just temporary and a proper artist will be joining me soon

[Whiteclaws]

You should find a way to make it easier to get started and harder to play more ...

Like , you could spawn the time adders near when early and you can spawn them with more distance the more you play ?

[Netsu]

I already though about making the spawn points less random, so they would always spawn more or less the same distance from you. This might be even better, thanks!

[karlozalb]

Hi!

I killed 6 green things in my best match (easy mode). I'm bad , but I think is too hard, maybe a "super-easy" or "retarded mode"...xD

Nothing more, the game works perfectly on my Ubuntu 12.04 and I like the game mechanics/physics

[laffertyr]

I played on medium and got a high score of 10. I seem to die more from the green spikes and less from running out of time. I like the idea of power-ups/weapons. The controls were very solid and the wall jump/slide worked well. I felt like I died too quickly, most matches lasting only 10-30 seconds. Is there anyway you can expand on the idea of your character being a bomb? Right now the only gameplay element that tells me he is a bomb is the explosion at the end.