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[Fermenter]

I guess so, a bit like an obstacle course? I think the game should focus a lot on player movement though, either being hunted by enemies and hiding behind planets, or collecting stuff spread out. Maybe there is a "tower" that you need to destroy to warp to the next level, you can chose to attack it directly or weaken it by disabling other minor towers spread out in the level. Could result in some interesting speedrunning. Just some random ideas

Yes yes yes! I think it'll definitely be a rushed experience where the faster you are at "clearing" a galaxy, the bigger your reward/score. And that'll take some swift and fun player movement. Thanks for the input, dude!

This looks very nice!

Thank you very much. 

It seems you are not fond of the quality of the gifs (at least you were complaining about that stars are not visible on the gif). Have a look at http://www.gfycat.com/
Nice concept, btw.

Yep, it's just that the resolution of the gifs I was making didn't show the finer details (the stars). I could make them bigger, but I wanted to keep the file sizes all under 3mb for twitter purposes. Gfycat seems really cool, and I'll probably be trying it out on the next batch of gifs. It'll take a bit more time because of having to upload the source video somewhere first, but maybe it'll be worth it. Thanks for the info!

EDIT: oh, actually there's direct video uploads on Gyfcat. Neat!

[Fermenter]

9/5/2014

Shotgun, stars, and shiny stuff.



I guess it's a bit hard to see the stars in this gif...

Also, I've got it looking rad on multiple screensizes. Check it out on the iPad below. My current process is to develop for the smallest screensize first (iPhone 5 in my case, 1136px x 640px) and once I've got it looking good small I then work on responsiveness and scaling things up.



Also, I've got some sweet ambient beats in the mix. It's tough to find the right musical sound for this game, but this'll do for now.

https://soundcloud.com/andrew-armstrong-27/baseless-ambient-bg-track-wip

And most importantly, I think I've got a direction to go for the actual objective of the game, and I'll be posting about that shortly.

[ephoete]

Glad you like it! I'm not sure what you mean exactly by "commercialize". Could you explain?

I mean to market it.

[Fermenter]

Glad you like it! I'm not sure what you mean exactly by "commercialize". Could you explain?

I mean to market it.

Of course I'll do my best to market it, but I don't have a ton of experience. I've only done this once before. I did quite a bit of research before releasing my previous game, David, but I'm fairly certain I got really lucky with the amount of success I found. (Mostly just a ton of emails sent to video game sites/press.)

I'm definitely open to any marketing advice/help I can get! I'd really appreciate anyone who wants to help.

[Fermenter]

I've got a question! What do you think about this for the gameplay objective/rules?


1. arrive in first galaxy. filled with enemies to kill that give you points upon doing so.
2. you have 120 seconds until warp/end of round.
3. you need to rack up at least 10 pts in this time.
4. if an enemy hurts you, you lose your hp. if you run out of hp and get hurt, you lose points instead. (or maybe vice-versa?)
5. 120 seconds passes: if you have at least 10 points, you keep going. if you didn't collect enough, game over.
6. any points over 10 at the end of 120 seconds can be spent on upgrades(weapons/hp/speed/fire-rate/ammo/etc) inbetween galaxies/rounds.
7. repeat! warp to next galaxy. same thing as last time, but you need to get more points and/or the enemies are tougher.

Let me know if that makes sense, and if it does, would you like it? I'd love any feedback/questions/suggestions. Thanks!

[Christian]

That sound kind of busy. So you'd have three things to keep track of at the same time: health, points, and time? Or maybe it's just me who feels that way

[Fermenter]

That sound kind of busy. So you'd have three things to keep track of at the same time: health, points, and time? Or maybe it's just me who feels that way

I think you might be right. That many things is fine I think but they probably shouldn't be intertwined as much as I described.

While I figure this out, here's a gif I made after giving the little guy an eyeball. Does this enhance the experience at all? Cute? No?

[dgggt]

While I figure this out, here's a gif I made after giving the little guy an eyeball. Does this enhance the experience at all? Cute? No?

Maybe make the eye look where you are pointing? I don't know, I think it looks good nonetheless though.

[Fermenter]

While I figure this out, here's a gif I made after giving the little guy an eyeball. Does this enhance the experience at all? Cute? No?

Maybe make the eye look where you are pointing? I don't know, I think it looks good nonetheless though.

That's what someone over on the Touch Arcade forums told me. And I think you're both right. Right now, it definitely looks like he's afraid and just running away rather than blasting offensively. Thanks for the input!

[Fermenter]

9/9/2014

Still pondering the gameplay, so I might as well make things look good while I'm pondering.

These little guys are are just being too cute. (And sometimes they even hop from planet to planet. <3)



Also changed some things up with the larger enemy turrets. pointy! Here's a close up in which you can see the tip get brighter when it's charged, and the particles and recoil when it shoots. Inspired by the big enemy tank things from Halo.



Here's another gif showing some action-movie quality moves as I jump and slide across the barrel of the big turret. Also you can see here, that I've made the enemy flying jet things a little more lively by making the wings come in if they're going fast.



Still a little clunky as of now, but hey, it's on it's way! Would it help to know what's going on if I added a subtle mouse cursor or something in these gifs?

Last thing, and it's pretty important I think. The demo I have up (http://fermenter.itch.io/baseless) has been downloaded over 200 times, and that's sweet, but I've made so much progress since then, and it's a ton better because of that. I'm not sure what I should do about the current demo. I don't want people to play it and think that the final version will be much like it. I feel like it's probably doing more harm than good at this point. At the time I needed the feedback, and I'm super glad I put it up, but I'm thinking I should probably take it down now. What do you guys and gals think?

Thanks for all the encouragement during this development. It's really been awesome so far. Also, I'm always open to suggestions so keep em coming!

[JobLeonard]

Eh... replace it with a new demo?

Also, this looks awesome. All of it.

[Fermenter]

Eh... replace it with a new demo?

Also, this looks awesome. All of it.

I'm leaning towards not replacing the demo because of all the evidence that suggests that having a demo will hurt game sales. With most games, people can get their fix on the demo and have no need to purchase the game itself (though I'll be pricing it super-cheap). Though I'm not it this for the dollars, I can't justify not making any profits on my work. Also, getting a demo to a nice playable and non-buggy state takes quite a bit time.

I think what I'll probably end up doing is once I have the game at a good spot, I'll be selecting a smallish group of people to playtest for me and get their feedback.

Thanks for your input!

[Fermenter]

9/16/2014

Hi again! Carter Dotson of TouchArcade kindly wrote an article for Baseless today! (http://toucharcade.com/2014/09/15/baseless-announced/) Thanks to Carter for helping a little dev spread the word.

Time to show off this new enemy concept:



The view is a bit zoomed out, but I think you can get the gist. A big ol' slow-flying electricity shooting baddie! I'm not sure how I feel about the actual enemy ship sprite. The electricity aesthetic was an accident I stumbled into, but I really like it. It's that low-poly geometry that's totally in style right now.

Anyways, that's all for now. I'm off to get back at dev'ing. Wish me luck!

[Christian]

I like the ship design. It's simple and not really recognizable as a ship, giving it more of a weird alien vibe

Also I was wondering. When I first saw the game, I thought it was going to be mainly focused on boss fights and organic enemies Iike the snakes. But the recent GIFs have had more robotic enemies and hazards. Was that always the plan or did the focus shift during dev?

[nox]

I feel like it's probably doing more harm than good at this point. At the time I needed the feedback, and I'm super glad I put it up, but I'm thinking I should probably take it down now. What do you guys and gals think?

I'm here because I played the demo before reading your post. That demo is awesome, I wouldn't take it down. It's more than good enough to be of some use to you.

[Zanenga]

Man, this game reminds me of the game I'm making right now!
Yours seems more focused on singleplayer, though, while mine is mainly co-op.

I love the art style and feel of the game, it has some serious personality.
Keep up the good work!

[Fermenter]

I like the ship design. It's simple and not really recognizable as a ship, giving it more of a weird alien vibe

Also I was wondering. When I first saw the game, I thought it was going to be mainly focused on boss fights and organic enemies Iike the snakes. But the recent GIFs have had more robotic enemies and hazards. Was that always the plan or did the focus shift during dev?

So it just happens to be that I've been working on more robotic enemies lately, but the organic snakey dudes won't be forgotten, and there will be some other more organic lifeforms developed soon.

I'm here because I played the demo before reading your post. That demo is awesome, I wouldn't take it down. It's more than good enough to be of some use to you.

I've gotten a little bit of both answers, but I'm still leaning towards taking it down shortly. Though the demo IS neat, its purpose was mostly to learn if people liked the planet-jumping mechanic, and I've learned. Glad you liked it though!

Man, this game reminds me of the game I'm making right now!
Yours seems more focused on singleplayer, though, while mine is mainly co-op.

I love the art style and feel of the game, it has some serious personality.
Keep up the good work!

I'm going to have to check your game out. I'm always looking to bounce ideas off of other devs. Thanks for checking this out. Personality is definitely something I'm working on, and I'm glad it's coming across!

[Fermenter]

Looking for a little feedback:

So I want to use the scarf itself as the hp gauge, but I'm not quite sure which way to do it. Opinions?



Or possibly a combination of the two, in which the non-filled portion of the scarf flashes when the character gets hit/hurt and then fades to nothing?

I think having a visual scale of where the "max" health is is good and probably nessesary, but I think the two-tone scarf may be too eye-catching and isn't as elegant/simple looking as I'd like.

[noethis]

Not sure you could convey this in the minimal art style, but it'd be cool if you could represent the health as the scarf becoming unraveled. It'd be sorta like your option 2 there, but instead of switching to a white-ish scarf, it's just a few red strings to represent the full length.

Again, probably won't work w/ the art style, but wanted to throw the idea out there. Loving the look of the game!

[jamesprimate]

WHOA that maximum scarf on the first page is awe-inspiring. i must have that scarf.


oh, for some actual useful feedback, definitely option #1 for the health scarf meter