next »

[blekdar]

Hey everyone!

You can play it here:
http://boncho-games.itch.io/blitz-breaker-alpha

And here:
http://gamejolt.com/games/platformer/blitz-breaker-alpha/48677/

This is a little playtest of the PC build for a game I'm making. You can check out the Dev log here:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=43577.msg1066109#msg1066109

So this is the first World of the alpha demo. You can play with keyboard controls or mouse input. The mouse input replicates touch, which would be a bit more akin to how it's going to play when it launches on mobile later this year.

I may do an actual mobile Alpha test (iOS, android, windows phone) in the near future. If you guys are interested just let me know!

Let me know what you think! Thanks everyone!

[blekdar]

Apparently there is an issue with the slash screen hanging. Refreshing the page seems to fix that.

I'll switch it for an actual downloadable version later today to get around this. If you feel like playing it before then, you may have to refresh the page.

[blekdar]

Hey again everyone! The downloadable version has been added.

Also, I'm looking for a few people to test the iOS version. If you are interested please message me or send an email to [email protected]

Only iPhone 5 and above for phones please. I am VERY interested in someone who has an iPod touch 5th generation, to see how well it performs.

Note that I'll need your devices UDID.

Thanks everyone!

[CrayderStudios]

Hey blekdar,

I played the alpha of Blitz Breaker on gamejolt, the central game mechanic is simple yet very addictive. It's perfect for the mobile platform.

I have a few suggestions. One has to do with the colors of the background and the game itself. I understand the game is channeling the retro gameboy color style, which is cool,but I felt it difficult to read the text of the level selector.

Secondly, I think the score in order to get a 'star' might be a bit too hard/unforgiving. The mobile platform houses a lot of casuals who aren't great at twitch games, and I think in the first world of the game the stars should be easily attainable in order to hook players to proceeding further. As they progress through the worlds, having the stars being more difficult is okay, as they're more familiar with game mechanics.

Finally, I think adding some purchasable items with the stars they've attained would be good as well.

These are all just suggestions of course. Overall it's a really fun game and being a gamer of 20+ years really brought me back to old fun times. I hope your game does well!

[blekdar]

Hey blekdar,

I played the alpha of Blitz Breaker on gamejolt, the central game mechanic is simple yet very addictive. It's perfect for the mobile platform.

I have a few suggestions. One has to do with the colors of the background and the game itself. I understand the game is channeling the retro gameboy color style, which is cool,but I felt it difficult to read the text of the level selector.

Secondly, I think the score in order to get a 'star' might be a bit too hard/unforgiving. The mobile platform houses a lot of casuals who aren't great at twitch games, and I think in the first world of the game the stars should be easily attainable in order to hook players to proceeding further. As they progress through the worlds, having the stars being more difficult is okay, as they're more familiar with game mechanics.

Finally, I think adding some purchasable items with the stars they've attained would be good as well.

These are all just suggestions of course. Overall it's a really fun game and being a gamer of 20+ years really brought me back to old fun times. I hope your game does well!

*intensely writes things down*

Seriously though, thank you! This are some great pointers. The text one I've been back and forth with, but may need to find something a bit easier to read. It does appear on mobile devices rather well, but an adjustment wouldn't hurt.

Yeah, I should make the stars a bit easier in the first world. A lot of them are based on a more 'perfect' run, but I should allow a bit of forgiveness in the beginning, to encourage them to keep getting better.

I don't know about purchasing things, but I may include unlockables. I want to keep it simple, but a sense of progression may be good incentive.

Thanks a lot for the tips Crayder! I'll be sure to note a lot of this. I'm glad you had fun with it too!

[Zorg]

I liked the game, overall.

- It would be cool if the rainbow trail was not chopped in many parts while dashing.
- In level 1-2 6, second screen, the conveyor belt in the left bottom corner shows an animation which indicates, that the player will be transported to the right, but if you stand on it, you are pushed to the left, directly into the spikes.

[blekdar]

I liked the game, overall.

- It would be cool if the rainbow trail was not chopped in many parts while dashing.
- In level 1-2 6, second screen, the conveyor belt in the left bottom corner shows an animation which indicates, that the player will be transported to the right, but if you stand on it, you are pushed to the left, directly into the spikes.

- Yeah, the rainbow trail could use some improvement. It's currently a trail of 8x8 sprites the fade out behind him. I will look into improving this. If the engine can handle 8x2's spawning at a higher rate I will go for that.
- What!? I don't...remember...doing...dammit. Thanks man, I overlooked that.

Glad you liked it. Thanks again for the crits!

[blekdar]

New build on gamejolt:

http://gamejolt.com/games/platformer/blitz-breaker-alpha/48677/

Multiple bug fixes and optimizations:

- Fixed a bug that caused the player to hang in the void of nothingness if hitting the collapsing platforms at just the right moment
- Made the rainbow trail less...breaky? Smoother mainly, less likely to break apart.
- Removed a non needed special pixel from a level
- Penguins fed
- Deaths are now context sensitive, giving you a different message depending on your method of death
- Optimized the death system a bunch of times
- Other things that I can't remember
- Star goals in world 1-1 are more forgiving.

Give it a playthrough, lemme know what you think!

[blekdar]

Another update, now up to v0.0.1.4



- Save system should work properly this time. It seems I accidently loaded a build with the first couple levels unlocked, will fix this later.

- Rainbow trail shortened and heavily optimized, was causing some issues with performance and needed to be smoothed out.

- Context sensitive deaths. The player now gets a set of random messages upon dying, depending on the mode of death. Give them a shot!

- I probably did some other things too.


Let me know what you think, and have fun!

[blekdar]

There's a new build, new optimizations and the next area.

Go play it here and let me know how many things I broke: http://boncho-games.itch.io/blitz-breaker-alpha

The leaderboard button still doesn't work.

Lots of new things, for example:

- Some jank issues fixed
- Area 2-1 added
- Some areas changed
- Tweet button added
- Optimizations galor
- Various other fixes

[andrew.r.lukasik]

Charming, simple and addictive. I like it!

[blekdar]

@andrew.r.lukasik Thanks a lot! Glad you like it!

Another new build, more minor changes.

This addresses some menu issues, and has the correct control prompts for the PC version.
Also changed up world menu navigation, made it more simple and obvious.

Give it a play here: http://boncho-games.itch.io/blitz-breaker-alpha

Thanks everyone!

[CaLooch]

So I player through the first area.

I like the movement mechanic.  Its very clean and precise.  I can see the levels developing into something more difficult as you go along with the speed of things.  No criticism there.

The design once you're out of the game/explanation of how to progress in the game needs more work imo.  When I got through the first area, the game took me to the level select screen where it showed me Area 1-2 but I couldn't start it.  I scrolled down to see that there were items I guess that I didn't pick up in Area 1-1?  I'm not sure if it was explained in level 1-1 how to progress but I only remembered reading the text "Spikes are bad. M'Kay"   

I assume you need to go back to level 1-1 to collect the purple squares to progress but I didn't initially know that.  Might be worth to make that clearer if that's the objective to get further.

Hope that helps.

[blekdar]

Strange, the next area should be unlocked after finishing the previous area. I tried to make it somewhat obvious. You finish an area, the world select screen opens on the next area. It should show that the first level of area 2-1 is available after selecting it. Odd that you couldn't select it.

The purple pieces are more of a side quest., they unlock the warp zones, but aren't needed for progressing the game.

Odd you ran into that issue. Did you get the results screen after beating stage 1-9 (now with haste)? I have heard a couple issues with the buttons, but I can't seem to replicate it for the life of me.

Thanks for the crit though, I can look into making it more obvious.

[Chaotic Heart]

I enjoyed this. The retro graphics were charming (though some more clarity in the level select portions of the menu would be useful. Kind of difficult at first to tell what is going on when all it presents you with are some plain squares and numbers). The sounds were great and very fitting. Overall, the presentation was well done.

I particularly enjoyed the game mechanics, themselves. It was tremendous fun "dashing" multiple times in various directions dodging obstacles. It also felt very rewarding when you succeeded. Most of the puzzles were well-thought-out with solutions just the right level of difficulty (not really anything you had to sit there and think about, which is a GOOD thing in a game like this. You want the player to have to take a second to analyze, but then get the gist of it in that time. They may have to trial-and-error a bit, but they definitely shouldn't have to sit there idle while they work it out). This kept the fast pace of the game going consistently throughout.

The controls were responsive and very simple to get the hang of. I really only have a few gripes in this area. Firstly, I know this game is mainly meant to target the mobile market; as such I imagine my first issue would be solved on a touch screen interface. However, being as I played it in the web-browser, it is very annoying to have most of the game controlled via the keyboard... EXCEPT the menu. It is a small issue, but every time I had to suddenly stop using the keyboard just to click on a single menu selection with the mouse, it broke the emersion a bit. If you plan on primarily targeting touch-screens, then you can probably just ignore this complaint.

My second issue is with the way the player moves, itself. The dash is wonderful and responsive (though having to push up twice to dash up feels just this side of awkward). The problem I ran into countless times, however, was the bounce off of walls. When the player hits a wall he bounces off of it, which is fine, but his bounce carries him up just a bit. Enough, in fact, where if you were trying to bounce off a wall just below some spikes you could hit the wall where you wanted... and then bounce off of it and upwards just enough to hit the spikes anyway. This felt like a cheap death... I obviously hit the wall and NOT the spikes... yet I bounced up into them. Made me feel like the game was deceiving me; I hit a spot that should have been safe, but died anyway. Considering the amount of times the rooms require you to hit a wall below some spikes, I died to this issue a LOT.

I only ran into one real bug while playing. Not sure how I managed it, but while going through a screen transition on a stage I somehow managed to dash outside of the screen. The player vanished off the screen and I couldn't do anything except restart the stage. I could never repeat the bug, so not sure what exactly I did to get it to happen the first time.

Other than that, like I said, it was a fun and enjoyable game. Well done.

[FloatingCoder]

Played quite a bit of the game. Liked it, good job! The first level or two I thought this wasn't my type of game and I wouldn't play much, but I kept the tab open and just keep clicking back to play just one more level.... very surprisingly addictive, good job on that!

I'm up to playing the level Mish Masher 9000, the only complaint I had before this point was a few of the levels seemed frustratingly long. I've got the first 3 screens down pat, but keep dieing on the forth. I'm bored with the first three now, but need to keep doing them to get back to the forth. Thats just a part of this type of game though, so it's not really a complaint, just an observation from me and my play style and likes.

On Mish Masher though, that got to be quite frustrating as it's quite long, and there's a few closely timed things I can only seem to hit once out of 4 tries or so, so I play the first the screens A LOT before I get through to the end. I did make it through though, but I ran out of time JUST before getting to the exit. WHAT! I thought, but I beat the saws coming down, that wasn't enough? I also had to beat the timer too?!? I felt a bit cheated. Why have both time based things to beat? Seems like if you ever got far enough behind to hit the saws, you'd never make the time anyway, but outrunning the saws really doesn't mean much if you still run out of time. You have to out run them by a LONG ways. Or so it seems to me.

Anyway, though's are just minor "My feelings while playing" types of feedback, in case you want to adjust the balance or something, but nothing critical. All in all I'll really liked it and will likely play more, at least until I beat this stupid #(*&$^ Mish Masher level... I guess the frustration's part of what keeps me playing too.

[FloatingCoder]

Ahh,, just realized what the coins are for, to give you more time. That makes a lot more sense, and perhaps I can beat the Mish Masher now! I couldn't figure out what they where for, and time hadn't been a major issue until this level.

[blekdar]

Aww you guys are awesome! This is some of the best feedback I've gotten, and gives me a lot to work with. I'll try to address and respond to some of the points here:

However, being as I played it in the web-browser, it is very annoying to have most of the game controlled via the keyboard... EXCEPT the menu.

You hit the nail on the head here. This is a side effect of primarily targeting mobile. That being said I do plan on a pc/steam release, so I will work on a keyboard friendly control scheme for the menu. I just...haven't gotten to it yet.

though having to push up twice to dash up feels just this side of awkward

Yeah, this one I keep going back and forth from. The reason being I wanted to make the little hop obvious, but it does seem a little awkward at times. The space bar still gives the same jump, so I could revert back to the arrow keys being an instant dash again. Just gotta make sure the player knows about the space bar jump too, as that becomes fairly important later on.

Enough, in fact, where if you were trying to bounce off a wall just below some spikes you could hit the wall where you wanted... and then bounce off of it and upwards just enough to hit the spikes anyway.

You know this never seemed like an issue until you mentioned it. Now that you have, it seems like a petty huge issue. The bouncing up was to give the player some time to react and gauge the next dash. What I could do is temporarily decrease the gravity to give the same amount of time to react, without moving up. Should keep it more fair.

Not sure how I managed it, but while going through a screen transition on a stage I somehow managed to dash outside of the screen. The player vanished off the screen and I couldn't do anything except restart the stage.

Unfortunately, this issue can happen when the frame rate dips to low. It causes the player to skip a frame when detecting collision, and just passes right through it. I got a fix in the works for it, so I'll work on pushing that one out in the near future.

Ahh,, just realized what the coins are for, to give you more time. That makes a lot more sense, and perhaps I can beat the Mish Masher now! I couldn't figure out what they where for, and time hadn't been a major issue until this level.

Yeah, I tried to make it obvious what the coins do (the timer flashes gold and bulges out a bit), but it's not 100% effective.

And you're right, I could make mish masher 9000 a little easier by throwing some coins along the way. It may be a little early to have a level where you have to seek out coins to finish the stage.

Liked it, good job! The first level or two I thought this wasn't my type of game and I wouldn't play much, but I kept the tab open and just keep clicking back to play just one more level.... very surprisingly addictive, good job on that!

Other than that, like I said, it was a fun and enjoyable game. Well done.

Oh you guys are awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed what you played! I will work on the issues and refine it even better.

[dphsw]

I played it on boncho games.  It was quite good, some things puzzled me at first but I picked them up as I went along, as you should be able to do from good level design.  The only problem I had was that the character disappeared once on an early level, 'cold feet' I think it was called.  At the start you went right, and I think I nervously hit right again while I was at the wall and went through the wall and disappeared, and there was no level-over message, the clock kept counting down but my character wasn't on the screen.  I'm guessing that was what happened, though I didn't manage to reproduce the error.

[blekdar]

Glad you liked it. A big part of my design is trying to have a lot of the elements self explanatory.

It terms of your issue, it's a 'kind-of' not really common glitch. Seems to happen to a good portion of people, but only once. It's caused by a frame rate dip, which causes a skip in the collision detection. If it happens at the absolute right moment it causes the character to pass through a thin wall, which can make the character jump out of the layout entirely. It is becomes easy to replicate if the game is running at a very low frame rate.

I got a couple ideas on how to fix it (one being just putting a giant wall on the outside of the layout, preventing the character from jumping outside) It doesn't however solve passing through thin platforms in the middle of the level, so I am looking at ways to fix that.

Thanks for the feedback!