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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingStarBreak - Co-op Action Platformer MMO
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Crunchy
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« on: August 25, 2015, 02:22:28 PM »

Hi all,

We've been working on this game for a while now and wanted to see what you guys thought.  My last game got started here on the TIGForums so I'm looking forward to your feedback.

StarBreak is an co-op action platformer Rogue-like web MMO.  The idea really came from my desire to play multiplayer Castlevania.

Play:

http://starbreak.com

Screenshots:











Features:

  • Dozens of players can fight together
  • Procedural map generation
  • Skill-based gameplay
  • 4 character classes with unique play styles
  • 200+ items most with a large numbers of variants
  • 7 zones with challenging boss battles
  • Native gamepad support
  • Open beta with weekly updates

Feedback desired:

  • Was anything confusing about getting started?
  • Did you have fun?  Why/why not?
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Linkshot
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« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2015, 05:55:10 PM »

What a fateful time to refresh

glad to see this finally hit one of the big stages!
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CarbonHack
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« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2015, 08:13:08 AM »

Hey,

The game looks refined and polished already. Level of details is amazing, same as number of guns and upgrades. I dig the style - colorful and varied design of world and creatures is great. I also liked the casuality of multiplayer aspect - it's totally up to me if I want to team up with someone or not. There's no pressure on teamwork, it's just an option to make things more fun (at least on first levels). That's cool.

One thing that strikes me is that I can't move and shoot at the same time. Normally I would think it's a bug, as it freezes the dynamics of gameplay very much - but the game seems polished enough to make me think it's intentional.
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Linkshot
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« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2015, 11:34:50 AM »

One thing that strikes me is that I can't move and shoot at the same time. Normally I would think it's a bug, as it freezes the dynamics of gameplay very much - but the game seems polished enough to make me think it's intentional.

Yeah, intentional. Shooting bolts you to the ground (unless you jump, which you can do while shooting) so that you can focus fire on something without sliding all over the place.
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Crunchy
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« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2015, 02:48:57 PM »

Hey CarbonHack,

Thanks for the generous comments and feedback!

Yea, the move/shoot thing is intentional.  The idea is to make you have to choose between attacking and dodging.  If you can move freely while attacking, there is no reason to ever stop attacking (especially with a weapon such as the Repeater with a high fire rate and thus not much chance of missing an attack opportunity).  As Linkshot says, jump attacks do allow some ability to dodge while attacking but obviously there are other risks with that.  A middle ground we've considered is to allow you to walk but more slowly while attacking.  This might be a way to keep the gameplay feeling dynamic and still not incentivize auto-fire.

We do have another character, the Fabricator, that is able to move and attack.  In that case, because his attacks are so infrequent, auto-fire is not an issue.  It does require beating a somewhat difficult boss to unlock though Smiley
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codejoy
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« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2015, 07:37:54 PM »

This is amazing.  What is it coded in?  It loaded fast and played well in my browser.  How big is the team?  I am going to definitely return to this one.  Plays well feels good, though I get my butt kicked in the fire forest.  Only things (From observations of quickly jumping into the game)

It was unclear with that first shell how many grenades I had?  In town I could spam them, in the Forrest they seemed to run out and I couldn't tell where the meter or ammo count was.

It wasn't apparent to me and made the gameplay slightly more difficult.

Other than this, this is pretty awesome.

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Crunchy
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« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2015, 09:22:28 AM »

Thanks for the kind words, codejoy!

The client is actually written in C++ using Emscripten to compile it into JavaScript.  We use webGL on most modern browsers which allows to do lots of draws and still be fast.  The team is three artists, two designers and me doing the engineering.

There is an ammo indicator in the upper left which for the Wildfire is how many grenades he has (for other classes it refers to whatever their secondary attack is, that's why we use the generic term "ammo").  Ammo is automatically refilled in the lobby so you never run out there but on missions they are limited.  Sounds like we should try to explain this better in the tutorial.

Thanks again for the feedback!
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Highsight
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« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2015, 09:53:39 AM »

OK, wow, this is going to be a long one.  I went ahead and had a bit of a playthrough of your game, it really sucked me in.  Here's everything that I wrote down as I played, I hope it helps!

==== Main Menu ====
Fullscreen option would be nice.
No Widescreen?
Like that I don't need to register.

==== Tutorial ====
Oh! A treasure chest.  Always nice.
Awww yeah, gun loot.
Character animations are pretty sick.
Love the exploding background for the intro.
Music fits nicely.
First enemy doesn't move, good for target practice while starting out.
GRENADES!
Awesome Grenade testing area.
-  Wasn't sure what the yellow barrior was all about at first.
Diagonal shooting works great
Tutorial Boss was pretty easy, but not overly so.
-  Good first engagement with a real enemy.
I like that weapons equipment is shown side by side with what's dropped.
-  Would be nice if it shows Stat ups and Downs
Inventory's a bit messy
-  Would be great if you could use your mouse.
I switched my weapon, but the tutorial won't let me through?
-  Can't move to the right...
-  Can't move to the left...
-  Refreshing the game...
-    There should be a browser warning if you try to refresh the game.
-   Could prevent accidental data loss.

==== Spawn Room? ====
Refresh started me somewhere else.
-  Looks like I missed a good chunk of the tutorial?
-  Took the only class that was available to me.
I like his shift move, but I think the arrow you use is backwards.
-  You should be using the arrow as a direction, meaning if you press back, you should expect to move back, not forward.
-  Consistancy here is important so controls don't get mixed up.
Like the grenade kick animation on this guy, looks sweet.
Music is really chill.

===== Into the Fire Forest! =====
Killed an enemy, got a Max HP up?  Intresting...
I keep pressing the wrong button for my gun, end up using my grenade instead.
-  Feels reversed, I'd rather have S be my main and D be my grenade.
-  Rebindable keys someday?
This music is REALLY epic.
Someone ran ahead of me, now I don't see enemies anymore.
-  Did they kill them all?
-  How long does it take for respawns?
Really like this floating rocks section
-  Looks cool and is a neat platforming idea!
-  Camera up-scrolling could be a bit smoother.
Still no enemies...
-  Respawning REALLY needs to be more frequent.
Finally found one!
-  Movement speed and jump height increased?  Awesome!
Found a chest full of new loot for my class.
-  Love the difference in guns, have a splitting shot now!
Finding some really in-depth stat incrases through drops.
-  Just found crit base-damage.  It's a neat idea, way cooler than levelups!
Inventory full already?
-  That was really quick, is 8 slots enough?
-  Granted I'm a loot-whore, but still...
Lost connection to server! NOO!
Account is currently in use... wait a minute or two...

===== Two Minutes Later ====
Back in, but I'm in the Lobby Area it seems...
All stats remain, but I didn't get to pick up those goodies. Sad
EC is money?  Huh, very little of it dropped.
-  Shouldn't all enemies I kill be worth at least one EC?
-  If Currency is RNG based, it could lead to a bad time for some people.
Is there anywhere I can sell my loot?
-  Guess I'll store some of it...
-  Dropped the rest.

==== Fire Forest Again ====
Oh, just saw the tip that says double tapping uses my special in that direction.
-  Still feels reversed, but good to know.
I see now, these areas are all randomized.  Neat!
Would be nice if by holding down for a while the camera panned down.
-  Would save me from taking unknown falls.
Level design is pretty awesome!  Hard to believe it's randomized!
First boss was "easy", but engaging, so it's a happy medium for a first boss.
-  Dropped some sweet loot too.
-  Loot stacked on top of each other, hard to tell what's what.
Just pressed Esc for the first time and discovered the Graphics menu.
-  Put that in the main menu at the start, alot of people will be intersted in going Widescreen immediatly.
-  Widescreen should be the default anyway Wink
SO much better in 1920x1080, why isn't this default!?
Also discovered the controls.
-  I COULD HAVE BEEN USING MY CONTROLLER THIS WHOLE TIME!?
-  (Doh)
Controller mode works great, this should be FRONT AND CENTER functionality.
-  "Controller is Recommended" on the title screen would be most welcome.
Wait, that last guy wasn't a boss?  (The Fireball Spitter Dude)
-  More level, huh, neat.
I love this tree guy that's spawning the dinosaurs.  Great enemy design.
I'm realizing now that I have a penetrating weapon and a multi shot weapon how much I'd love to easily be able to switch between the two.
-  A weapon swap system for 2 specific weapons would be pretty sweet for situational stuff.
-  One weapon that's better at single target, one that's better at multi target.
Got to the first boss FOR REAL
-  He's really tough.
-  Pretty sure if I die I lose everything.
Teleported home with 6 HP.
-  Looked like a good fight, but didn't want to lose it all.
Went through again, this time with two other people
-  Demolished the boss.
-  He stood still alot, despite being pounded on.
-  Perhaps he should move more if he's getting hit alot in one position?
-  More mobility = more life for him.
-  Dropped a new gun, WAY different from the last, I like it!
« Last Edit: August 29, 2015, 09:59:52 AM by Highsight » Logged

Crunchy
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« Reply #8 on: August 29, 2015, 04:09:51 PM »

Hey Highsight!

Thanks for the super detailed feedback!  That's very helpful.

Responses below:
  • Stuck in tutorial bug: Fixed now.  Thanks!  You didn't miss too much, just a bit of plot mostly.
  • Mouse on the inventory is a good idea.  We wanted to make sure the game could be driven entirely by keyboard/gamepad but no reason not to allow mouse movement as well.
  • Sorry about the disconnect.  Not sure why that happened.
  • I agree the camera definitely can be improved.  We're working on it.
  • As you figured out, we follow more a instanced rather than respawn philosophy.  It works better with our procedural generation.  That said, we do need to find a way of addressing when a high level player runs ahead and kills things before a low level player gets there.
  • Yea, we've got a bit of tradeoff between overwhelming the players too early and wanting them to know about things like controller, graphics options, etc. 
  • We use a small window by default because we want people to test the options and make sure it runs well on their computer before setting them too high.  That said, we might be being too conservative with 1024x768.
  • The forest boss is definitely our easiest/most stationary boss by far.  Try the Fungus Cave or Vanquished next, I promise you won't be disappointed.
  • "Blast" (Wildfire special move) direction: The idea is that is the direction he throws the explosion that propels him in the other direction but I understand the confusion.  The next character (Duskwing) has a special move that works in the way you expect.
  • Don't allow vendoring loot.  It quickly becomes a chore and leads to lots of inventory juggling.  We want gameplay to be fast with as little bookkeeping as possible.  If you don't want to use a piece of equipment (now or later), you can just leave it on the ground, it is has no value.

Thanks again for the feedback!
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Gryphon
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« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2015, 09:02:44 PM »

A middle ground we've considered is to allow you to walk but more slowly while attacking.  This might be a way to keep the gameplay feeling dynamic and still not incentivize auto-fire.

I like that idea. As it is now, the game encourages me to spam jump while shooting so I can still have mobility. I don't like having to stand still to shoot.

Great art and music. Definitely needs the option to rebind keys, though.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2015, 09:11:36 PM by Gryphon » Logged

Highsight
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« Reply #10 on: August 29, 2015, 09:09:06 PM »

Stuck in tutorial bug: Fixed now.  Thanks!  You didn't miss too much, just a bit of plot mostly.
Nice!  You work fast!

Quote
Mouse on the inventory is a good idea.  We wanted to make sure the game could be driven entirely by keyboard/gamepad but no reason not to allow mouse movement as well.
Good to hear. Smiley

Quote
Sorry about the disconnect.  Not sure why that happened.
No worries, beta is beta!

Quote
I agree the camera definitely can be improved.  We're working on it.
It mostly works quite well, so you've got a great start.

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As you figured out, we follow more a instanced rather than respawn philosophy.  It works better with our procedural generation.  That said, we do need to find a way of addressing when a high level player runs ahead and kills things before a low level player gets there.
Yeah, that's a tricky problem.  I'd like to think that respawning wouldn't cause a huge issue, so long as it's not a super quick respawn.  Perhaps set it up so the respawn timer decreases (to a minimum) depending on how many people are in the instance?  More people = quicker respawns? You could also set it up so the respawn timer only starts if no players are looking at where the enemies died.  These are all just random thoughts, feel free to use them or not.

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Yea, we've got a bit of tradeoff between overwhelming the players too early and wanting them to know about things like controller, graphics options, etc.
I think if you put a gear icon in the top right corner or something that brought up all the option buttons in a popup would be very welcome. Smiley

Quote
We use a small window by default because we want people to test the options and make sure it runs well on their computer before setting them too high.  That said, we might be being too conservative with 1024x768.
Totally a fair point!  Only thing I would suggest is that you at least make it widescreen.  I'd like to think most people could run 1280x720 in this day and age. Smiley  Really the best thing would be if there were some form of full-screen mode at the push of a button, much like how YouTube does fullscreen mode.

Quote
The forest boss is definitely our easiest/most stationary boss by far.  Try the Fungus Cave or Vanquished next, I promise you won't be disappointed.
Don't worry, I was never "disappointed".  If I was, I would have quit after the disconnect. Smiley

Quote
"Blast" (Wildfire special move) direction: The idea is that is the direction he throws the explosion that propels him in the other direction but I understand the confusion.  The next character (Duskwing) has a special move that works in the way you expect.
This in my oppinion is all the more reason why you should concider the direction button influencing not the direction of the attack, but the direction the character will end up moving.  It's super important movement always feel consistant.

Quote
Don't allow vendoring loot.  It quickly becomes a chore and leads to lots of inventory juggling.  We want gameplay to be fast with as little bookkeeping as possible.  If you don't want to use a piece of equipment (now or later), you can just leave it on the ground, it is has no value.
Fair enough, but as a counter point, what if you could sell the item on the spot?  Right now it feels super weird to me (as a loot whore) to just drop items on the ground and leave them.  What if I could convert any item my inventory to EC at any time, or maybe even an item on the ground, so I don't have to pick it up first (much like using Shift+A to equip from the ground).[/quote]

Quote
Thanks again for the feedback!
My pleasure as always!
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« Reply #11 on: August 30, 2015, 04:19:12 AM »

Definitely needs the option to rebind keys, though.

Has it! However, it doesn't obviously tell you what the button to do that is, oops.

(It's good ol' Esc)
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michaelplzno
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« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2015, 12:58:58 PM »

Looks very far along. Just a few nitpicky things:

-The random explosions in the tutorial are annoying and slightly confusing. At first I was thinking "did I do that?" then they just started getting a bit annoying. Its possible a different sfx would fix that or less screen shake.

- z probably isn't the best screen shot button. Lots of indie games use z as shoot and its pretty close to the shoot button so I wound up hitting it many times by mistake.

It seems quite polished and complete, nice job on that!
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kyusus
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« Reply #13 on: September 04, 2015, 02:43:39 AM »

I'd like to say something about this game, but i can't. Sad






Not sure if this is caused by my pc or your latest patch. Hope this will help you somehow.
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Crunchy
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« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2015, 09:22:05 AM »

Hey msilver,

We've been thinking about options to control screen shake.  It seems like one of those things where some people love it and others just find it annoying.  Maybe a slider so it can just be toned down to the desired level.

You can remap the screenshot button with [Esc].  I picked [z] because I wanted to quickly screenshot things (e.g. bugs) without moving my hands from the controls.

Thanks for the feedback!
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Crunchy
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« Reply #15 on: September 04, 2015, 09:30:22 AM »

Hey kyusus,

Sorry about the trouble!

What OS, browser and video card are you using?  Can you try another browser if you have another one installed?

We've had a couple other reports of this issue but unfortunately it is very rare and I haven't been able to get my hands on any computer that will reproduce it.  As a workaround, you can play the game in canvas mode instead of webgl thus:

http://www.starbreak.com/?r=canvas2d

This is a bit slower but has less chance of OS/browser/driver quirks.

Thanks for the feedback!
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Diaz
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« Reply #16 on: September 30, 2015, 03:26:32 PM »

What I like about this game is how the devs take input from the community on their forum (http://www.crunchy.com/?q=forums/starbreak). They seem to listen to a few of our wild requests. ;]

There's some healthy interactions between them and the community. We've got a few of the artists on the IRC (#starbreak on irc.sorcery.net) and they're regularly playing with us too.

This is important to me, it shows that they're not complete egoists and that they care about what you think too.

Other than that, the regular updates keep us, the player base, on our toes every week for that new and exciting content, balancing, and/or fixes.  

Hand Thumbs Up Left Hand Thumbs Up Right

One thing I would like to see is a bigger push to market this game. There's a dominant Japanese player base right now, but when they go to sleep it's a little more quiet and hard for new people to get much help, especially if you're in the American time zone.

The game is pretty hard, so it's easy to get frustrated when you keep dying all by yourself or with just a handful of players around.

« Last Edit: September 30, 2015, 03:35:00 PM by Diaz » Logged
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