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[Wyeth]

Hello TigForums,

over the last few months we have been developing "OP90" a fun little game about shooting robots with energy weaponry. It is mainly inspired by oldschool SHMUPs like Galaga.

What started out as a semi-educational game quickly became a pretty straight-forward arcade shooter. We couldn't work out how to merge the educational qualities with the arcade-style gameplay, so we decided to take it out.

We are developing using Unity as a 2-man-team with a freelancer for sounds.


We have been working hard to prepare a presentable demo and we finally feel that it's a at a good place to start getting some more public feedback from other devs (aside from the showings at events and the like).

I am mainly interested in any feedback. Loved it? Hated it? I wanna know and if you can be bothered I would love to know why. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Check it out over at Newgrounds: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/659936



Check it out over at Kongregate: http://www.kongregate.com/games/FrozenPotion/op90

It is only available in the unity web-client version. Sadly some technical problems made an HTML5 build impossible at the time. Quite the bother with all the browsers cancelling support for it... :/

Soon we will also make the .APK version available if anyone want to get the authentic experience on their own cellphone.

If you want to know more about this we also maintain a DevLog (with weekly updates) right HERE on the TigForums

Thanks to anyone playing or giving feedback!
- Wyeth

==========================================================================================
Update 1:
- We fixed a ton of bugs (mainly technical under the hood stuff having to do with the web player - null reference exceptions etc.).
- We added a possibility to kill red ant in 1st level

Update 2
Added some polish for robot day on Newgrounds (but of course I updated the Kongregate version just the same).
- New intro sequence (now with a player shadow)
- New drone gfx (making it clearer that they are on your side - I hope)
- Some usability/interface tweaks that should help clarity a bit
- Changed difficulty of wave 0-4

[Spectragate]

First of all, I feel your pain about the unity player. The WebGL support is so bad I had to ditch Unity and start using another engine. It's very frustrating.

As for your game, great style, great music, I didn't come across any crashes/bugs. The intro was really well done too - it sets the tone of the game, but was short enough that it never got in the way. I also think the way you displayed the health bars in the context of the game (the big backpacks on the creatures) was really cool.

I was a bit confused at first between the difference of the brown and blue enemies. I think because the button is pink but the enemies are dark brown is why I didn't connect that the bullet type has to match the enemy. Also, how do you kill the red enemy in the first level? Or is that there to show that you can't kill all types with just one weapon?

Cool game!

[Quicksand-S]

I agree with boolean0101 about the colors. It's just weird that the enemies' colors don't match the buttons at all. At the very least, I'd expect their health meters to match.

I felt like the initial logo and cutscenes took too long. I just wanted to get to the gameplay.

The weapons feel really weak to me. The beam in particular is so thin and faded that it just doesn't come across as being powerful.

The game itself seems pretty decent, though. It's probably not something I'd play long, but it seemed pretty good. I liked that the enemies actually moved around and that the weapons felt different from one another.

I did plan on playing a little longer, but I got to the drone section and it seemed to get stuck in a loop. Maybe I was just missing something. I destroyed the drone by pressing both keys at once, and then another one came out and I destroyed that, and another, and another. I couldn't use either weapon on its own (in order to destroy the enemy), so I wasn't sure what to do there.

[Wyeth]

@ boolean0101
Yeah it's that awkward period of time where the browsers are dropping support but Unity hasn't quite caught up. I would consider switching engines but its a bit too late for that now...

About the game: Thanks for the nice words! I am glad it didn't crash/was buggy. About the healthbars: I wanted to do something different than a classic healthbar... something more haptic you could say.

The difference between the enemies or the buttons in relation to the enemies is a shame. I guess I figured that the button color is still close enough to the enemy's color sheme to be recognizable. I should fix it and either make the "charges" on the enemies pink or the button more red.

Yes the red ant in the first level is indeed there to make the player aware of the fact that hitting enemies with the wrong weapon will have undesirable results (them going berserk).

Thank you for the in-depth feedback! I will definitely see what I can do about the point you raised.


@Quicksand-S
Yeah as I wrote above, I will definitely adjust the colors more since it seems to be an issue.
About the cutscene and logo taking too long - I will look into it and note it down and see if more people feel that way. I also do local playtests with random people at events. I will watch out for it.
I think maybe some additional effects on the beam could help making it feel more powerful (such as maybe lightning sizzeling along the beam?).

The difference of the weapon was a big part of the design phase. We tried to get them to be very complementary. The beam being more of a long ranged weapon that can pierce but has is slower in set-up. The cannon being more of a quick acting weapon that is strongest in close range. Happy that that came through.

I was actually a bit worried that the drone level might be throwing people off. The drones are a weapon. You have to use them to kill the sleeping ant that is present by detonating the drone close to it. I will definitely watch out if this happens to more people or is an isolated experience.
I am sure you would have gotten the solution eventually, but of course this is a moot point if it frustrates one too much to go on.

Thank you both for sharing and especially telling me where you stopped playing is really helpful!

I will try to adress the issues you guys raised after some more observation.

[Spectragate]

Yes the red ant in the first level is indeed there to make the player aware of the fact that hitting enemies with the wrong weapon will have undesirable results (them going berserk).

I think what confused me about it is that you feel like you failed the level - your on the first level and your trying to get a perfect score and then a red enemy shows up and you cant stop it. I thought I was doing something wrong. I'd suggest changing it so that the player learns their weapon is ineffective, but not in a way that it feels like they failed an objective. Perhaps unlock the pink weapon before the enemy turns up, then have it walk slowly across the room while the player experiments - even stopping halfway if it has too (the fact that they charge when hit by an incorrect weapon type can be figured out naturally during the next level). That way the player has time to figure out what the pink weapon does, and still feels like they did everything correctly when they destroy it and get a perfect rank.

[Quicksand-S]

The drones are a weapon.

Really? Yeah, I never would've guessed that (although, like you said, I would've stumbled upon it eventually).

I think there are two main reasons it seemed like an enemy. One is that it doesn't come from my end of the the playfield. The other is that I'm supposed to shoot at it. I'm guessing you wanted it to be skill-based, but I wonder if just pressing the two buttons to detonate it rather than shoot at it would work better. At least then there'd be no doubt that the player is in control of it.

[Wyeth]

@boolean0101
We heeded your advice and put in a way to kill the red ant at the last moment. Hopefully that makes transition for people a bit smoother. You made some valid points about the "perfect" thing and I saw this a lot of times.

@Quicksand-S
Actually they start in the middle but move towards your side before they are released (while still in the "grabber") so they do kinda start from your side... but I get your point. We actually had the implementation that you blow them up immiediately before this, so we really considered that possibility. The problem is that thats even less obvious. Like people have trouble connecting it to the feature. It is also true we wanted to make it more skill based (and possible to juggle several drones at once). The other thing is that we gonna use this "signal" mechanic further down the line for other features aswell, so a big point was also simply to get people to learn that mechanic so they can use it later without much explanation.
Sadly it didn't make it into this update but internally we are experimenting with a new solution. Increasing feedback for drone spawn and making it more clear that its something comming from you (maybe). I will probably upload that solution towards end of the week.

Both of you thank you so much for your feedback.

UPDATE 1:
- We fixed a ton of bugs (mainly technical under the hood stuff having to do with the web player - null reference exceptions etc.).
- We added a possibility to kill red ant in 1st level

NEW PORTAL

We are now on Kongregate. Check that out HERE




or check out the build on Newgrounds

[Wyeth]

Update 2

Added some polish for robot day on Newgrounds (but of course I updated the Kongregate version just the same).
- New intro sequence (now with a player shadow)
- New drone gfx (making it clearer that they are on your side - I hope)
- Some usability/interface tweaks that should help clarity a bit
- Changed difficulty of wave 0-4

Check it out on Kong or Newgrounds and let me know what you think (especially about levels 0-3 and 0-4)






Thank you!