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[Tommunism]

You should continue to work on it, it's like an old 8bit Privateer almost.

[Fifth]

Mm, I'll definitely need to do so.  There's still so much I want to add.

[shrimp]

Yeah, this is fun stuff. I'd agree about the core of the planet, or some similar things to provide some direction for the player. Have you got any tips for getting hold of new weapons? Is it worth giving up on a given planet after a while?

Weapon synthesis and that sort of Space Diablo business sounds very similar to my post compo plans! :D

[Sar]

Potential bug, and/or possibly unexplained-feature; it seems that if I select a weapon, then select 'attach a wing mount', then instead of choosing which wing to mount it on hit 'back' (say, to find out which wing I mounted the last one on 'cause I forgot to check) then the wing mount appears to be lost. The weapon goes back to only having the options to mount it as the left or right cannon, and the wing mount has disappeared from the list. :/

[Fifth]

Potential bug, and/or possibly unexplained-feature; it seems that if I select a weapon, then select 'attach a wing mount', then instead of choosing which wing to mount it on hit 'back' (say, to find out which wing I mounted the last one on 'cause I forgot to check) then the wing mount appears to be lost. The weapon goes back to only having the options to mount it as the left or right cannon, and the wing mount has disappeared from the list. :/

How very strange... that certainly shouldn't happen, and I can't manage to re-create the bug.  Once you attach a mount, that weapon should be permanently marked with that mount until you remove it.  Are you sure you didn't accidentally attach it to another weapon?  Or discard it?  If it is a bug, it must be under some fairly particular circumstances...

Yeah, this is fun stuff. I'd agree about the core of the planet, or some similar things to provide some direction for the player. Have you got any tips for getting hold of new weapons? Is it worth giving up on a given planet after a while?

Weapon synthesis and that sort of Space Diablo business sounds very similar to my post compo plans! :D

Heh, thanks!  For new weapons, your best bet is looking deep in the planets.  Naturally, you'll find better weapons in the more difficult planets, and more weapons in the larger ones (the smallest, easiest planets get about 5 weapons, while the largest get about 15).
It's easiest to find 'em if you know how the weapons are placed, but then you end up losing a bit of the mystery.  But if you don't mind, highlight ahead:
The game finds all of the planet's dead-ends, ranks them according to how many screens you have to travel from the outside to get to them, discards every other one, then adds the loot.  So the deepest ones will always get the weapons, then the next-deepest get mounts, and then just regular treasure.
Although I've been meaning to change this process a bit so that it's not so absolute.

[Yuka]

I don't know if you set specific attributes to some planet names, because when I entered "tiny" as a name the planet was small, and when I tried "hell" as a name the planets enemies were crazy

Also, the wing-mount bug happened to me too. I don't remember exactly how, only that the wing-mount completely disappeared from the list. I assume it happened the same was as it did for Sar.

As a final note, I don't know if I missed anything or if this is just something you plan to add later, but there's absolutely nothing you can do with the money, so there's really no point in collecting loot, besides buying more energy when you get home. But it was a cool game, I like the idea of space exploration so if you add some more features to it I'll definatly play it again

[Sar]

How very strange... that certainly shouldn't happen, and I can't manage to re-create the bug.  Once you attach a mount, that weapon should be permanently marked with that mount until you remove it.  Are you sure you didn't accidentally attach it to another weapon?  Or discard it?  If it is a bug, it must be under some fairly particular circumstances...

I'm pretty sure - I was being extra-careful 'cause I'd had to delve deep into the heart of a 'Formiddable' planet to get it, and the last one was so useful.

If it makes any difference, it was a "Wide Wing Mount", IIRC.



[EDIT: At least once while travelling to planet 'Bilko' I spawned inside the planet itself, one the far left. Obviously at this point I had to quit out of the game entirely, which would have been rather frustrating had I not only just started.]

[moi]

Very nice little prototype.
The pixel art is great.
I like the procedural aspect of ennemies.
This game would be very good if more develloped, it would benefit from more variety in planet aspects, weapons, and from metagoals.
I thought there would be something to destroy in the planet (maybe at the center?).
good work

[___]

Ahh this turned out really nice.  Keep going!

[Gainsworthy]

Finally got around to giving this a proper play. Tres Awesome. The planets seem genuinely different from each other- I love finding a real bastard of a planet, and then trying to get as much loot as possible. Planet AaronDon, for example. Scary.

And, Fifth, if we may say, you should really keep working on this one. Having an interesting core- a boss, or a lil' puzzle- with some kind of larger reward would be Ultra. As would a better main menu- maybe include a planet log (with a section to take notes! And a "bestiary" would be cool, too), a shop, perhaps. More upgrades in general.

Well done, as so far, by the way. The current build is already fun, but with a few additions it could really be something!

Oh, and in planet Unisextantis I spawn inside the planet. Bug, we presume?

ALSO: Anyone find any awesome planets? On my end, Rhysinor has some genuinley good enemies, AaronDon is a hell-planet, and X is a treasure trove with brain-dead foes.

[Fifth]

Kweh, thanks!
Don't worry; I'm working on improving the game, so hopefully I'll end up with something a bit more complete-feeling (with a proper shop, an ultimate goal, and better goals per planet, among other things).

I'm sorry about the "spawning inside the planet" bug.  It's something I've known about but haven't been able to fix yet.  The point-of-entry is random each time, so you just have to restart (F2) and enter the planet again for now.

I don't know if you set specific attributes to some planet names, because when I entered "tiny" as a name the planet was small, and when I tried "hell" as a name the planets enemies were crazy

Heh, I actually considered doing that, but at the moment it's all just coincidence (I was a little disappointed that "Mars" turned out blue, and that "Jupiter" ended up really small).

[Aik]

Excellent game - please expand

Death is, well, very much as the name would imply. There are these insane enemies that flash red and drop explosives that I *think* might home in on you. There are also plenty more that just drop explosives around the place. The flashing red things zoom around very fast, there are lots of them, and their rate of fire is quite high

[jbrodack2008]

I love the idea of this game.  Exploring infinite planets is always a cool idea.  Its the only element of noctis yet there are still people who love that game.  Your game is a lot easier to use and more exciting since you get to shoot stuff and get new weapons and treasure and such.   looking forward to further development of this.  I'd like to see friendly and neutral creatures inhabit the planets and maybe even interact with each other.

[Synnah]

I really enjoyed this! The procedurally generated enemies are way cool, I like the idea of exploring planet interiors, and the ship upgrades are a nice addition also. In terms of style and feel, it reminds me a lot of PixelShips, which is a good thing.

My suggestions for expansion are pretty much the same as have been aired already; a proper shop, boss battles in the centre of each planet, and sound (Perhaps procedurally generated music that becomes more intense as you fly further into the planet?). I would also suggest keeping the wing mounts separate from the weapons. I used the first wing mount I found with a low-power weapon, and it would have been nice to be able to replace the weapon without losing the wing, as I found a lot more guns than I found wing mounts. Ideally, there would be two pages of the inventory; one for guns and one for wing mounts, and both could be changed independantly.

Thanks for creating this, anyway! It gets my vote.

[zradick]

I had trouble with the floaty feel of the ship, but I liked the sprites and the idea.  Some sound would have helped too, but that can always be added later!
Cheers!
--Zack

[cgaex]

hey fifth my name is aaron. i sent an email to you about a week ago, but i don't know if you got it. if you did i don't let me bother you. i just want to make sure you got it.

   first let me congratulate you for making what i think is already an amazing game. i know it's a work in progress, but even in it's current state, playing it is a compelling experience. i love the mechanic of typing in the name of the planet you wish to visit, and you've done a very good job of making the local flora extremely varied especially in behaviour. i also actually really like that you recycle the sprites with new colors. it adds to the retro feel of the game.
   for me, this game is in a very special category of games, that is, games that give what i would call an alien feeling. the pc, genesis, and snes title "out of this world" or "another world", metroid 1 and super metroid, ecco the dolphin, and noctis all have a similar feeling at their core. all of these games in part achieve their special atmosphere through a skilled use of ambiguity. in "another world" there is almost no exposition, and no explanation of the planet you visit, only an unfolding story, and metroid has a basic story about space pirates, but many things in the games are unexplained. later, in the metroid prime series they, i think, made a big mistake by trying to explain all the mysterious stuff from the previous games. for me it ruined the feel of the previous games.
   i bring all this up, because i feel this game as it's in development already posesses this wonderfull sense of ambiguity, and could benefit greatly from maintaining it. metroid and super metroid are still considered some of the greatest games ever made, but there are actually very few games that have been able to stylistically step into it's shoes. i think your game is one of those rare games.
maybe your wondering what i'm talking about exactly?
   which brings me to my suggestions.
   i think your game is awesome, and i think it has the potential to be a very big underground hit. bigger than darth lupi's games. with enough development i think it could be big like dwarf fortress, but don't get me wrong, i don't assume you want to work on this game as a full time job like toady does, but even with a little development in the right direction i think this game has huge potential. these are just my suggestions, and more than anything i want to convey to you that i really love your game. you've allready made something awesome, and i'm sure i will love, and play, whatever you decide to develop the game into. these suggestions just reflect my dream of what the game could develop into.

suggestion 1. don't write a story, and if you do, make it very sparse and open to interperetation.
                 2. don't make an ultimate goal to the game. as gamers we've had goals spoon fed to us for 25 years. procedural generation    of content opens the doors to the possibility of gamers making their own goals and experiences. i think the goals of your game should be collecting gear for your spaceship, and exploration.

as for more concrete stuff -

the controll system feels a bit weird. it seems like you have two independant axis of velocity. my dream would be a newtonian system of acceleration with a maximum speed, but i know the game has to be very responsive because the enemies can be quite difficult, so i'm not sure if it would work.
i would like to see more variation in general. more base sprites for enemies, and maybe if possible a special class of guns with completely randomized (within reason) properties and even maybe a procedurally generated projectile sprite. also more tiles for the planets.
it would be great if the game had more features in keeping with it's membership in the shooter genre. engines to upgrade max speed and acceleration. little items that rotate around the ship. super guns. shield items with different properties(the ion gun that repels bombs is a great touch).
it would be totally awesome if you could find alternate hulls rarely in the bellies of the largest planets.
it would be great if there were a greater range of sizes to the planets. i'm talking tiny asteroid 10x10 squares all the way up to massive planets you could really get lost in. the map could also use some work. on the large planets it takes up too much of the screen. ideally the player could set the zoom, and also resize the map window.
lots of people have mentioned big enemies in the center of planets. i think this is a great idea. i also think that planets that you explore completelly should be listed with their names as conquered,
i also think it would be awesome if they could be wiped clean of enemies somehow. this could create amazing experiences of flying around in a planet that at one point was teeming with life, and now is completelly abandoned. maybe this could be triggered by killing the boss, or maybe by destroying some sort of core in the planet. maybe the boss guards it. i think this touch would really get the players emotions involved in the gameplay. players who didn't destroy the planets would probably feel proud of their choice, and players who did would feel a sense of conquering completely and also maybe a tinge of guilt.
lastly i would like to suggest that you create a class of items that would be artitfacts scattered randomly and rarely in planets. the wierder the better. ruins, flesh blobs, plants, sleeping space whales, discovering any of these things in a random corridoor of a planet would be an intense and memorable gaming experience. the same system of coloring the base sprites, and maybe randomly resizing them could be utilized. another good thing about this, is players could find an amazing thing, and then direct their friends to the planet to see that wonderfull thing.

well, that's about everything! i know it's a long email. thanks for your time in reading it, and good luck with your game. i hope you're still working on it. again - it's awesome.

also, not to butt in, but if you ever want suggestions, or a fresh perspective, weird ideas, or even some help with the writing (i write a lot), i am very enthusiastic about your game, and would love to help out in any way i can.

have you played noctis by the way? i'll keep my description brief in case you have. it's a goalless space exploration game that features procedural generation of an entire galaxy, including the surfaces of solid planets, which you can visit and walk around on. it's really one of the most increadible games i've ever played i think.

WAKA WAKA!