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[TheRick]

Overview:
- Action RPG supporting up to 4 players Online/LAN
- Highly randomized weapons
- Support for players using their own custom graphics/sounds.

The basis of the game is to defeat enemies/bosses and get interesting loot. Several stats on items drastically change how they fundamentally work, such as size, speed, and multiple special abilities per weapon.  Players can also customize their graphics and sound all from inside the game.  Game difficulty is also changeable at any time offering better loot for harder modes.  

There is also a combo system reliant on keeping a steady beat, allowing players to jam to their own favorite music to power up their character's weapons while playing.   Currently the game is in alpha with three levels, but I have tons of features/content still planned.

Pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/HVTDD.png
http://i.imgur.com/V2q8F.png
http://i.imgur.com/C8aqI.png

Video:



The music in the video is not part of the game.  I'm just playing it in the background to help keep a steady beat in game to power up my weapons.

Preferred feedback:
- Are the controls difficult?  What do you not like about it or what frustrates you?  Are you able to keep a rhthym in combat?  I don't expect players to master it immediately, so let me know how much time you spent on it.
- Is the tutorial easy enough to understand?  Were you able to complete it?  Was it too easy or too difficult?
- Any feedback on multiplayer is greatly appreciated, be it bugs or concerns such as difficulty.

- Overall negative feedback is preferred, tell me what you didn't like about the game.
- Bugs you find, or anything that you may think is a bug.
- General feedback is appreciated too.

DOWNLOAD:
~1mb zipped, ~14mb unzipped
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2707983/Spectrum.zip
Run the .exe to run the game.  If it has problems check the ReadMe.  You'll need the latest DirectX 9 runtime to run it (almost everyone already has this).

[zwets]

Hi,

I gave your game a quick try. I didn't have much time to spend on it, so I may not have gotten the complete picture; sorry about that.

Anyway, the concept seems really interesting. I like how customisable the weapons appear to be. I think it could make for a varied and tactical combat system.

However, I did have trouble understanding and playing the game:

• I didn't find the 'instruction booklet' until after a while, when it should've been the first thing to look at. Maybe you could put a permanent tooltip on it, urging players to check it out? And maybe you could also supply this text in a separate file with the game?
• I tried the combat out, but I'm not sure how it works. Especially the rhythm/tempo thing you describe in your post. I tried to fight the first few enemies but quickly died a few times in a row.
• The game features a lot of interconnected concepts. I'm afraid I was a bit overwhelmed at first. I have to admit that I'm not good at figuring out more complex systems quickly, so maybe it's me. For people like me, it would be nicer to introduce the various game systems step by step, adding complexity gradually.
• It might also be good to avoid using non-standard terms for familiar RPG concepts. It's nice that you've themed the game around computers, but having to build a mental dictionary of the terms you use in the game and the RPG concept it maps onto is taking up my already limited mental capacity (as I said, partly my problem, but I thought you might want to know).
• A big help I think would be to add explanatory tooltips to the various GUI screens that appear when you hover over different elements. That way, users can gradually discover what's what.

Sorry I didn't really get very far into it. As I said, it's a really interesting concept, I just have trouble figuring out how the various mechanics work and fit together, and how I should approach the first dungeon. If you could lead the player in a bit more gently, I think this could be an addictive game.
Good luck!

Jan.

[TheRick]

zwets:  Feedback greatly appreciated.

First, most players won't sit and read a manual for a game before they play it, so that was intentional.  In it's current state, I meant for it to be a quick reference, not something to use before playing the game for the first time.  The reason for its creation is that I plan for it to dynamically update a library of enemies/weapons etc.  Also the entire thing is located in the folder "Manual", intentionally separated from the rest of the content for this reason.  I'll rename that to be more obvious.

The main complaint appeared to be lack of direction when starting out, and I would agree with this.  I've been meaning to get around to a proper solution to this, and I think I have one now.

I'll change the names of stats.

By default all GUIs have information displayed in the chat box upon being accessed (except the inventory, which has the info key containing all information a mouseover tooltip would).  I'd like to see more feedback on whether my current system is viable or not after I finish what I desire for the tutorial changes.

Also I suspect the game is too difficult when starting out, which is why I'm asking for feedback on it.  I definitely intend for this game to be difficult, but it shouldn't be overwhelmingly hard at the start.

EDIT:  I hate to do this since normally this is a terrible idea, but I've uploaded a new build (0.1.1).  I can't say I tested it absolutely extensively, but I've implemented a more streamlined process for the tutorial and it should be somewhat easier to complete.  I figured solidifying the initial play of the game is too important not to release asap.

[TheRick]

Bump.  With the holidays and side projects over (maybe) I should be able to get back to this at a good pace.

Tons of changes made, the largest being that I added a new level.

[TheRick]

Another bump and another update.  The largest changes were that I added a new difficulty mode for all current levels and added a character creation/selection allowing players to have and change between several characters at once with ease.  That, plus a ton of bug fixes and minor changes.

[TheRick]

Another update:
Added sounds.  Sort of.  It's fully functional, but currently I'm completely unsatisfied with any sounds I've been creating.  Full functionality for the user to customize sounds and when they are played, as well as attaching sounds to a given weapon is there though.

Added a skill system.  Various bonuses can be applied to your character depending on level or "class".  This creates a much needed diversity between classes in the game.  It's far from complete though, especially because I still have the level cap quite low and I have tons of plans for skills in the future.

And of course I fixed various bugs.  Only my version control knows how many.

[Gregg Williams]

Hack and Slash, but where is Megabyte?