I played this for four hours straight, maybe more, and I didn't see all the levels. Jesus Christ. I also never came close to getting a game over, so you might wanna bump up the difficulty - a lot.
4 hours? I think I should be feeling really pleased about now, but I'm mainly surprised, haha. (but still pleased!)
About the difficulty, well, one of my testers would even say the game was hard. I don't think I really adjusted the game, though, because I feel that it's about right. I'm aiming for casual gameplay.
Is there some kind of combo system there? I noticed that sometimes I get no points for hitting a brick at all, but they rack up when I destroy a bunch in a row. You should visualise that - let the player know the scoring system.
If you hit a tall block, it'll fall a bit, but you don't get points. Once it's destroyed, you get good points (more points than you would for a small block)
I guess I should have made it you get points for every hit.
I agree that it needs some novel mechanics. I thought it was at its best when there were 100 balls on screen and they were all on fire. Make that happen more often or something.
Haha, yeah. I remember reading about when 3d first came in, and the old '2d scrollers' were getting left behind. To keep up with them, they just spammed bullets, thus the 'bullet hell' genre was created.
I kiinda had that idea here. Ball hell! You keep playing, maybe you get a 4 ball power up, and you try to keep them in play, until you get another muliplyer...
Maybe I executed it a bit wrong. :p It's hard to get a good balance.
@Frostblade: I did take a shot at a cell-shaded look, but I'm no graphic artist, and it just looked horrible.
It was kind of jarring to see it as a windowed program, but without the windowframe.
Yeah, I should have spent a bit more time on this, maybe. Fullscreen is definitely encouraged.
But first, a specific bug - on "The Old Mine" level, which was the second one I played, on the bottom row, on the rightmost side, those two blocks were invulnerable. I spent a bit of time focusing a variety of differently powered balls on them, before I gave up on them - but I didn't need to get rid of those bricks to finish the level.
Hmm. They are, indestructible, and you don't need to destroy them to pass the level. (although, they will actually be destroyed if you hit them enough times!) These, and the spikes, and the 'ball' factories, are all not necessary to be destroyed. They don't spark, or anything, if you hit them, but the player still isn't to know they can't/don't need to be destroyed. [most of breakout games have indestructible blocks, of some sorts]
The music was neat at first, but quickly became repetitive and grating. It's not bad, you just have way more content than tunes!
I think it currently varies (while trying not to loop) between 3-5 songs (exact number escapes me). Perhaps I should expand on that.
Some text feedback on picking up a powerup would be a nice addition. I figured out most of them, I think, but I'm still not sure on a few.
On the menu it has a 'help', which explains them, although who reads the help?!? :p
I personally, enjoy figuring out&guessing powerups. Shoot. I forgot to add a 'bad' powerup, which kills you. Those are always fun. >=D
The controls were a bit odd. I liked the mouse control of the paddle, but that tended to swing my mouse around the screen some so that when I got rockets, I'd click and then suddenly the window would lose focus, pausing the game. It's a simple game and it seems odd to recommend mouse/keyboard hybrid control, but being able to paddle-direct with the mouse and use the keyboard to trigger the actions would be ideal. Maybe just enabling both types of input would work? Been a while and a few versions since I last toyed with GM...
Again, fullscreen is recommended. :p
Shoot, it would have been dead easy to have space do what left click does, as well. (since space does it all, anyway, when you pick keyboard controls)
That's a good idea, maybe if I update it, I'll change that.
It was kind of weird that the thick support for the paddle doesn't have a hitbox for the balls or powerups. The lighting was a neat effect, but it was also kind of out-of-place except for the fireball powerup - there didn't seem a reason for the lighting to change as I swung the paddle around.
Yeah, maybe the paddle should be just a paddle.
About the lighting, I think it's nice to have the explosions light up, and that, and I think the lighting does wonders for the blocks. (their graphics aren't exactly, spectacular! Lighting seems to help cover up)
I also agree with gunmaggot, it's not difficult enough. I found myself desperately wanting the speed or multiball powerups just to speed the levels up a bit. The speed powerup in particular seemed to put the ball at a more "normal" difficulty - the only other way I'd lose a ball was by forgetting about while firing off a barrage of missiles.
Not the first person to report losing because he was too busy shooting rockets, haha! (I've done it myself, too often!)
As mentioned, I was really trying to casual gameplay, meaning I almost don't
want the player to lose.. perhaps I went to far that way.
But hey, thanks for the feedback guys! Absolutely fantastic stuff! I know the graphics are could be improved, but that's just what I have to work with, haha. I'll improve!
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