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[ophelius]

Galaxicus is an Arcade-style shooter in the style of classics like Galaga, Astrosmash and Space Invaders. This project is an ongoing attempt at recreating an exciting arcade game experience. I tried to create the same experience you would get by playing an arcade game from the 80's with low-bit sound effects/graphics, a simple title screen layout, demo screen in idle mode, etc. I will eventually build a dedicated arcade cabinet for this game as soon as I can afford it. Please have a go at it and let me know of any ideas/suggestions/bugs etc.

It might be a little difficult at first to get to level 2 or 3, but try a few times(or many). If you can reach level 8 you're an expert. My personal high-score is: 57040

Here are some screenshots:

[Sometimes the pictures don't show up. Don't know why. If they don't appear, there's some screenshots at the website.]












http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/arcade/galaxicus/2196/

Enjoy!

[☠️]

Great game!

I scored 11,000 after just a few tries (and realizing what 'x' did!)

suggestions:
- 2 player mode (alternate)

- bosses (if there aren't any)

- lessen the time the mines take to explode a bit (unless there is another way to disarm them)

[ophelius]

Thanks for playing and for the suggestions. To disarm the mines you have to either wait for them to self-destruct or if you have a shield, you can go strait through them and blow them up. Funny thing is that I did reduce the time significantly. They lasted close to 30 seconds before. I might consider reducing the time a little bit more. Thanks

[KM]

A few suggestions.

I don't know if it's just me or is this game rather difficult even for an arcade game? It's pretty hard to just get to a 2000 marker to get a power up. It also seems that the difficulty doesn't escalate it just throws random amounts or random type of enemies at you.

Another two things, to make it seem more retro, would be even lower-fi music. The other thing is I don't think I ever saw an old arcade game with as smooth of frame rate/graphics as this game. I guess you can only really get a feeling for it maybe playing/watching some old arcade games like defender.

Button explanations on the start screen wouldn't hurt either.


Besides these it's actually a really fun game to play and actually did quite a few tries at it.

[ophelius]

A few suggestions.

I don't know if it's just me or is this game rather difficult even for an arcade game? It's pretty hard to just get to a 2000 marker to get a power up. It also seems that the difficulty doesn't escalate it just throws random amounts or random type of enemies at you.

Another two things, to make it seem more retro, would be even lower-fi music. The other thing is I don't think I ever saw an old arcade game with as smooth of frame rate/graphics as this game. I guess you can only really get a feeling for it maybe playing/watching some old arcade games like defender.

Button explanations on the start screen wouldn't hurt either.


Besides these it's actually a really fun game to play and actually did quite a few tries at it.

I spent a lot of time fine tuning the difficulty level and was satisfied with what I have now. A lot of old classics were really difficult at first and needed a bit of practice to get to higher levels.

About the randomness of the items spawning, the higher level you're on, the less time there will be between item spawn. Once you get to level 8, it get's really fast. I can get to level 8 about 1/5 plays.

The music is not exactly retro, you're right. But it sounds 8-bit enough.

The controls are displayed on the website and in the read-me if you download it.

Lot's of older games did have smooth frame rates.

Anyways, even though I tried to get a retro look, I'm not that much of a purist

Thanks for the feedback.

[KM]

Aww, I was shut down.

Actually I meant random enemy spawns not random items...

Isn't that a little backwards to have the items spawn more the farther you get in the game? Wouldn't that make things much easier the further you got instead of harder? o_O;

Also fine tuning gameplay as the creator can be a little counter-productive as you know all the ins and outs of the game from the creators perspective and the amount of play testing done pretty much sets you up to be an expert at the game, so it may seem normal for you, but others may find it extremly hard.

I guess it's kind of like an expert eye fog, where you know, you get so good that when you look at the little things that gave you trouble and you just can't believe THAT actually gave you trouble back then. I get this all the time with my guitar playing, like I remember used to have problems playing a C chord, but now I can literally play it blind folder, behind my head while dancing. (Don't ask me why I would do this...) I guess a variety of play testers would give a good gauge of the difficulty.

That or I just suck at old arcade games!! 

Also, why would I want to go to a website or open up a read me to find out the controls for a game that I am currently playing in fullscreen? I'm a pretty firm believer that the basic controls should be able to be looked up in game for any game. It's just a user friendliness thing that allows the player to enjoy the game more without having to track down things they need to know outside of the game. I'm not trying to be a hard-ass about it, it's just a good idea.

Things were a little different with arcades though, you only had so many buttons to push... keyboards are too complimicated. 

[ophelius]

I wasn't trying to shut you down  

Sorry, when I said items, I meant ennemies. Bonus items fall every 2000 points. Ennemies fall more frequent the higher level you are.

I understand what you're saying about the developer having gotten to be an expert by the time he's fine tuning the difficulty levels, and I considered that while fine tuning. When I fine tune my game, I put myself in the seat of a beginner and try to force my mind to forget the game. It helps me see how hard that game really is for a newb.

The controls are clearly listed on the site before you download/Quick-Play the game. Since this game is going to be installed into a real arcade machine, and the game is available for other people's arcades(lots of people build their own), the controls on-screen would be pointless(they will be listed on the control panel or somewhere close). This is because the screen can't say that Shoot is Z when you're playing it on the arcade because the shoot button will really be a plain colored button. The game comes with a config tool that can map the actions to whatever keys your arcade controls points too. And since there's only 2 buttons you need to remember(apart from C and Enter to get it started), I figured people would have no difficulty with that.

I know that most people who will play this game won't play it on an arcade cabinet, but it's still designed to be installed into one.
But thanks anyways for the advice. I appreciate it

[KM]

What you could do is list the buttons on the screeen for the PC port and the arcade port, just switching the graphics in between. One thing that really annoys me with pro games is usually games for windows will give you the button config/on screen buttons... as if you're playing the game with an Xbox controller. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if wired 360 weren't so damn rare and almost everyone had one.

Anyways, now I'm just nit-picking. It is your game to do what you like with it. It is a really good game on it's own. And it's always something you could impliment or what not later if there is a demand for it.

Also...



Not a bad score, eh?

[ophelius]

very nice!
Uh oh, looks like something is interfering with the palette. The side color is supposed to be grey, and the mountains a dark grey. I was experiencing that too, but I thought it was a rare thing. It was some application running in the background screwing with the palette. Is it always those colors for you? Look at my screenshots to compare what it's supposed to be. Hopefully this isn't a common thing. Do you have Winamp running in the background? That one is known to mess up palettes in fullscreen mode. Or maybe a desktop background switcher? I'll be fixing this bug shortly.

[KM]

I actually thought it was a random colour whenever you started. 

They were different colours last time I started the game, it was mostly black I think.

I actually do have winamp running in the background... and a desktop background switcher.

Actually, it'd be kind of cool having a randomly generated/randomly selected pallettes. I thought it was cool when I thought it was a feature... 

I tried it with winamp, same colours now as last time, but different then the first time.

There I go, bug testing by accident again. :/