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[jkd]

You control a maintenance droid on board the Star Dungeon, a giant floating prison in space, which is headed towards Earth to enslave the human race. By listening to 80's FM radio signals from Earth, you have grown to like the humans and must stop the ship by destroying the Master Control Processor.

It's not complete yet, but there are 4 floors currently. I'd really like to get some feedback on the game: fun factor, difficulty, controls, graphics, bugs, etc..

Default controls are WSAD for movement, and arrow keys fire. Controllers are supported as well.
Diamonds award an extra life for every 25 you collect.

Windows build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjswry9s9aq4x2v/StarDungeon.zip

[Udderdude]

I tried it out, it's pretty fun.  Unfortunately for some reason I didn't get any audio ..

[jkd]

I tried it out, it's pretty fun.  Unfortunately for some reason I didn't get any audio ..

Thanks for trying it out. Music isn't in this build, but there should be sound effects (firing, explosions, etc.) So you got no sound at all?

[Udderdude]

Guess I was wrong, I tested it again with the volume cranked to max and I could hear it, barely.  But you should still fix this because it's really, really silent.  And yeah the volume in-game was set to 100%

[jkd]

Guess I was wrong, I tested it again with the volume cranked to max and I could hear it, barely.  But you should still fix this because it's really, really silent.  And yeah the volume in-game was set to 100%

Ok, thanks. I will definitely boost the volume on the sound effects.

[Fervir]

Geometry Wars + Smash TV??
Yes YEs YES.

It looked like it was fun, but it didn't seem so much so when it looked like all the enemies had too much health.

Also, you should put some kind of indication on the bosses that shows you that you're damaging them.

Lots of cool looking enemies.
Game looks very well done.

Some weapon powerups would be nice to see.

I'll have to check out the demo soon.

[Fervir]

I checked out the demo.
I love this game.
It definitely reminded me of Smash TV.
I made it to the 4th floor and lost all my lives on the second room I think.
Got a score of 1.2mil or something.

I take back my comment on enemies having too much health.
It seems about just right.


I thought it was a neat touch to have the room names for everything.
It was also really neat seeing how you showed the bosses' health.
I like the great variety of enemies and the gradual increase in difficulty and the way that you introduced enemies one by one.

I thought the twin snakes boss was the easiest, followed by the first boss, then the third boss.
The twin snakes boss was the coolest though.
I was exactly expecting the bosses to break down like that after defeat, made my day.
You should maybe make the second snake tougher to defeat after taking care of the first.

I think it would be a good thing to make enemies flash when you hit them cause it would help you tell the difference between destructible and indestructible enemies.
You could also draw up all the indestructible enemies with a similar theme, maybe thicker lines, or filled shapes?

I think the powerups are pretty broken because they last too long.
But then again you could design the game around permanent powerups.
Losing the tri-shot and having to start from the single shot makes the game more intense when you die because of the increased difficulty.

I would like to see different powerups though.

Was there supposed to be music?
I didn't get any to play during the game even though I checked out the options.

Also, do you plan on making it so that you're not limited to shooting and moving in 8 directions?

Either way, the game's definitely fun.
Good game!
I'm excited for the finished product

[nnn]

I found the controls kinda quite awkward. Have you thought about adding a dual-stick control scheme?

[jkd]

I checked out the demo.
I love this game.
It definitely reminded me of Smash TV.
I made it to the 4th floor and lost all my lives on the second room I think.
Got a score of 1.2mil or something.

Nice work! No one else I've had try the game has made it past the 2nd floor.

You should maybe make the second snake tougher to defeat after taking care of the first.

That's a great idea. Maybe I could make him turn red, move faster, and have him fire spread shots.

I think it would be a good thing to make enemies flash when you hit them cause it would help you tell the difference between destructible and indestructible enemies.

The destructible enemies that require multiple hits should flash red and white when hit (tank, jellyfish, spiked bomb, etc..). They flash very quickly though. Would you mind double-checking to see if they flash on your machine? Maybe I need to make it less subtle.

I think the powerups are pretty broken because they last too long.
But then again you could design the game around permanent powerups.
Losing the tri-shot and having to start from the single shot makes the game more intense when you die because of the increased difficulty.

I would like to see different powerups though.

Yeah, I'm still working on adding more weapons. I might end up making them last 20 seconds or so, and then revert back to normal gun. As it is now, there's a bit of Gradius syndrome going on, where losing spread shot is devastating.

Was there supposed to be music?
I didn't get any to play during the game even though I checked out the options.

No music in this build. I do plan on adding some though.

Also, do you plan on making it so that you're not limited to shooting and moving in 8 directions?

I think I'm going to stick with 8-way. Analog shooting makes things extremely difficult in some of the rooms, which require you to shoot through single block gaps. I also like how 8-way forces you to move around more, instead of just standing still and spraying in a circle. If I was making a game for consoles where all players are guaranteed to have analog sticks, I'd probably redesign the game around analog, since it feels smoother. But on PC, I want it to be playable on the keyboard without disadvantage.

On the other hand, people who like this style of game probably have gamepads with twin sticks.

What do you think? Should I support analog controls when playing with a gamepad?

Either way, the game's definitely fun.
Good game!
I'm excited for the finished product

Thanks again for testing it out. 

[jkd]

I found the controls kinda quite awkward. Have you thought about adding a dual-stick control scheme?

You're supposed to be able to map the analog sticks to move and shoot, but it seems to be broken in the Windows build. I'll have to fix it. You could map movement to the dpad, and shooting to the four face buttons (if you have a Playstation or Xbox controller), like how Smash TV controlled on the SNES. Might be less awkward than keyboard for you.

I think I will also implement analog movement and shooting as an option.

[nnn]

That's what I tried in the end. It worked OK... but don't give up on true thumbstick support!

If you don't mind me asking, how are you doing the "glowing lines" effect?