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[Brian Amadori]

Just scored 504. This game is pretty addictive, you got something here!. I think it needs a bit more content to be in steam though, e.g. unlockable stages, ships, etc.

[and]

This looks great!

I'm on my phone so can't play it but I want to post here to follow the thread and I'll try it out when I'm home.

[crowbarska]

In that case, you should have some sort of meter or feedback to let you know when you're going to lose your powerups.  Also, I lost mine a couple of seconds before I could get another powerup.  I'm not sure if I ran out because I missed one, or because the powerup spawn time was longer than 15 seconds, but it would be nice to have a little leeway, like if at least two powerups could spawn in the time it takes for the powerups to run out, that way you can miss one and still keep up your powerup level.  Alternatively, you could make it more explicit and have it be letting a powerup get past you which resets your powerup level.  Since there's no way to speed up or get the powerup more quickly, it would be pretty frustrating to see a powerup on screen, but not be able to get it in time to save your powerup level.  

I agree. I did actually have 'visual feedback for powerup loss' on my roadmap, but I removed it when I started experimenting with having powerup loss more forgiving. Think it needs to go back on that roadmap!

The way it currently works is that your powerups last 15 seconds, but the next one drops in after 10 seconds. So you'll always have time to get the next one, but you have to make sure you don't miss it.

I like your idea of having powerups drop back down if you miss them; it would definitely help to make it more clear why you are suddenly less powerful.

I think though, to be honest, this is something I will revisit when I've got all the 'Wave Stuff (TM)' implemented and tuned properly, as I think that is going to have a large impact on the difficulty. I don't want to spend too long tuning powerup difficulty only to have it made redundant by other changes. The visual feedback side of things, though, I will look at.

Thanks for the awesome feedback!

Just scored 504. This game is pretty addictive, you got something here!. I think it needs a bit more content to be in steam though, e.g. unlockable stages, ships, etc.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it! Yeah I do plan to add more tertiary features (ships, more enemies, maybe some different modes, more long-term progression/collection elements).

I'm curious what you think of the following idea, as I'm trying to work out the best way to charge for the game. I'm thinking of maaaaybe releasing a free version which contains about as much content as is in the current version, but polished and tightened up. Then releasing either a paid version or some DLC (only for about £1 - £2) which would include all the extra stuff I mentioned above.

I'm looking at the typical mobile model of having a free 'lite' version and a premium version with all the bells and whistles. I really like it as it lets people get a pretty good taste of the game and play it without being limited (unlike a demo), but gives the people who really love it a little extra.

It's something I've yet to decide on. Curious to hear your thoughts.

This looks great!

I'm on my phone so can't play it but I want to post here to follow the thread and I'll try it out when I'm home.

Thanks, let me know what you think when you get round to it!

I've got an Android build coming soon (hopefully within the next few hours).

EDIT: New Android build now available on itch.io!

[mtarini]

Right, this is addictive... and yes, you definitely have something here.

Your latest update (Ver 0.9.0) is really improved with respect to 0.7.0.
For some reason, it is a lot more controllable, and there's considerably fewer WTF deaths.
Whatever you did, you did it right

(In particular: before, when you got stuck in a high-paced left-and-right cycle, you had 50% chance of getting out in the wrong direction and almost unavoidably die. It felt a little random and unfair. Now, you can master this and get out safe consistently if you focus. Also, before it was impossible to count switches and plan: you could think "ok, now I'll press it three times so that I'll stay here a little and than move back" click-click-click, but nope, that would mysteriously fail. Now, it works! Good!)

Here's some random additional thoughts and minor issues. Naturally, ignore them at will!

* the randomized start and (even more so) death msgs are a great touch: the effect is fresh and humorously tragic. But maybe it would be even more so if you removed the death messages which, inconsistently with the others, indicate that nobody died and it's not for real, like "try again, XXX", and a few others. They kinda break it, at least for me (BTW, easy additions include: "RIP: XXX", "Rest in Peace, XXX", "MIA: XXX", "KIA: XXX").

* with the current ruleset, the best strategy for the player is to purposely miss the power-up when the laser is on, and keeping bouncing back and forth between the three most powerful shots. I don't think you want this to be so. Basically, you have a cool feature, "stage-end", which risks never be seen with optimal strategy; plus the initial, most challenging shot type risks only be experienced at the start of the game.

* I can see why you added the score multiplier mechanism (it's to "penalize the player for letting aliens survive"). It is nice enough. OTOH, there has been a price for that. The 1-score-per-kill elegant simplicity is compromised; also the minimalist HUD interface is made a bit heavier and less elegant by that colored "x5". Nothing unbearable, but...
having played the old version more than I care to admit, I know that the penalty for letting a ship survive was already harsh as it was: doing so limited the space of maneuverability of your ship for a very short yet dangerous time (especially with centered enemies). I wonder, maybe this effect can be even enhanced by making surviving ships fire backward (upward) at you if the make it safely through. As an extra benefit, this would also make these red ships look more like active enemies, firing back at you as they can, and less passive victims which happen to accidentally bump into you (as, say, asteroids).
 
* random observation: typical shmups have some bomb mechanisms, of a kind or another (the "devastating one-shot weapon", or actually "few-shots", rechargeable by the other kind of power-ups). Aaaaaaaand, you still have one "key gesture" unused, i.e. the "keep key pressed". Just saying.
(additional though: your ship would stand still while the key is pressed to trigger the bomb, making it useful also for defense).

* If you are interested in adding different powerups with different effects, maybe consider this one: a powerup which creates a one-time side shield, which makes you bounce back once (and for a full second after first contact, while it dissolves). The shield could be featured on the ship, but probably it is nicer if it appears as a force field on the sides of the screen, at bottom.

[crowbarska]

Hi folks! I was too busy to post here sooner, but there's a new update available on itch.io (version 0.9.0).

I'm pretty damn happy with this update, so much so that I wrote a blog post about it.

As always, if you like the game please give it a nudge on Steam Greenlight.

What's new in 0.9.0:

• Bug fix: fixed mega slowdown on Android (was caused by preloading all the assets).
• Bug fix: the High Score table will now wait until all your bullets have done their thing, in case you get any extra kills after you die. (This adds a short delay to the restart option, which is less than ideal, but the pause is filled by the randomised text so it's not dead time.)
• Bug fix: no longer possible to fire a shot but keep your ship stationary by pressing and holding at the start.
• You can now use any key to play.
• After maxing out your powerup, all enemies are killed and you zoom off to the next wave. Background changes colour to reflect this.
• Your shot power decreases when you miss a powerup, not when it times out.
• Your shot power reduces by 2 tiers, not all the way back to the basic bullet.
• High Scores multiplied by 10 to reflect new multiplier scoring system.
• Powerups spawn more frequently.
• Tuned enemy spawn rates and increase rates.
• Changed the powerup sprite to be more readable.

Bonus gif! The new 'hyperdrive' effect when you max out your powerups and progress to the next wave.

Right, this is addictive... and yes, you definitely have something here.

Your latest update (Ver 0.9.0) is really improved with respect to 0.7.0.
For some reason, it is a lot more controllable, and there's considerably fewer WTF deaths.
Whatever you did, you did it right

(In particular: before, when you got stuck in a high-paced left-and-right cycle, you had 50% chance of getting out in the wrong direction and almost unavoidably die. It felt a little random and unfair. Now, you can master this and get out safe consistently if you focus. Also, before it was impossible to count switches and plan: you could think "ok, now I'll press it three times so that I'll stay here a little and than move back" click-click-click, but nope, that would mysteriously fail. Now, it works! Good!)

Here's some random additional thoughts and minor issues. Naturally, ignore them at will!

* the randomized start and (even more so) death msgs are a great touch: the effect is fresh and humorously tragic. But maybe it would be even more so if you removed the death messages which, inconsistently with the others, indicate that nobody died and it's not for real, like "try again, XXX", and a few others. They kinda break it, at least for me (BTW, easy additions include: "RIP: XXX", "Rest in Peace, XXX", "MIA: XXX", "KIA: XXX").

* with the current ruleset, the best strategy for the player is to purposely miss the power-up when the laser is on, and keeping bouncing back and forth between the three most powerful shots. I don't think you want this to be so. Basically, you have a cool feature, "stage-end", which risks never be seen with optimal strategy; plus the initial, most challenging shot type risks only be experienced at the start of the game.

* I can see why you added the score multiplier mechanism (it's to "penalize the player for letting aliens survive"). It is nice enough. OTOH, there has been a price for that. The 1-score-per-kill elegant simplicity is compromised; also the minimalist HUD interface is made a bit heavier and less elegant by that colored "x5". Nothing unbearable, but...
having played the old version more than I care to admit, I know that the penalty for letting a ship survive was already harsh as it was: doing so limited the space of maneuverability of your ship for a very short yet dangerous time (especially with centered enemies). I wonder, maybe this effect can be even enhanced by making surviving ships fire backward (upward) at you if the make it safely through. As an extra benefit, this would also make these red ships look more like active enemies, firing back at you as they can, and less passive victims which happen to accidentally bump into you (as, say, asteroids).
 
* random observation: typical shmups have some bomb mechanisms, of a kind or another (the "devastating one-shot weapon", or actually "few-shots", rechargeable by the other kind of power-ups). Aaaaaaaand, you still have one "key gesture" unused, i.e. the "keep key pressed". Just saying.
(additional though: your ship would stand still while the key is pressed to trigger the bomb, making it useful also for defense).

* If you are interested in adding different powerups with different effects, maybe consider this one: a powerup which creates a one-time side shield, which makes you bounce back once (and for a full second after first contact, while it dissolves). The shield could be featured on the ship, but probably it is nicer if it appears as a force field on the sides of the screen, at bottom.

Firstly, thank you. This excellent feedback and very well thought out! I really appreciate you taking the time to try different versions and let me know your thoughts.

I think the extra ease in the repeated switching may come from the trail particle effects on your ship...?

I'm glad you like the text messages! The tragic element kind of came through as I was writing them so I'd be happy to refine some of the others to keep it more in line with that. I agree that it doesn't make sense to have both "no one died" and "someone died" messages, so I will trim some out and stick with the latter messaging.

I agree that the multiplier does lose some of the elegance. I'm actually currently experimenting with removing the screen edges and having your ship wrap-around to the other side if you go off the edge. This means that manoeuvrability is a lot more useful, and therefore having enemies who obscure it are more dangerous. My initial plan was to have the explosion that happens when enemies hit the bottom be lethal to you, but I decided against it when I brought in the multiplier.

I'm now thinking of going back to that system, plus wrap-around, and making enemies a little faster to compensate. Then I could do away with the multiplier. It all needs work, but I'm going to experiment some more and maybe post a demo build with that change to see what you think.

The 'ideal laser strategy' is something I thought might happen. What I coooould do is have an 'overall multiplier' which increases with each wave. That could keep the information off-screen until you die, but also give you this incentive to progress to the next wave and not hang around abusing the powerup cycle.

I'm still on the fence about press-and-hold controls, mainly because you need to know whether you held the button before you can process a key press, which means regular quick presses have a bit of delay introduced. Although it might work quite well now with the wrap-around as you can potentially glide for a bit longer and stay safe. And I could still have it fire off the shot when you first press it. Need to try it out really, when I find time!

Thanks again for the feedback! Super helpful!

[mtarini]

Small PS: my bad  , it turns out that my previously reported impression that 0.9.0 was much easier to play and to master than 0.7.0 was an illusion. After seeing your message, I tried playing the old version and it actually feels just as easy to me now. I guess it was just me who got better at it!


I see you have lots of ideas: good! Looking forward to see how it turns out. Good luck with it; I can imagine a psychological problem when you explore the possibilities, that is: when you have something simple and elegant which, yet, just beautifully works as is, it's natural to be reluctant to change or add any element at all. That affects me as well (see my "complains" for the multiplier). But, while KISS is fine, it's also a bit of a loss of potential. So I think your plan to branch it is really good.


BTW, here's yet another small idea (once again, ignore at will). I noticed that enemy ships spawning in the middle of the screen tend to be a bit more problematic for the player (this is easily explained: shooting them means to switch direction closer to the deadly border, plus they represent a more dangerous obstacle when they survive).
This led me to consider that maybe it would be fitting if powerups were dropped by some special enemy ships (different graphics) which would have no special thing except that it always spans somewhere close to the center.  Incidentally, this would also be faithful to the genre, where traditionally powerups are dropped by special enemies.

(this would mean that powerups always start in the center, reducing variation... but there's no rule that a powerup must fall vertically straight; they might go diagonally and meet the player line at a randomized X position -- this might also be interesting to play out).


As for delay for the hold-key-down: you are right, even a short lag would be bad, but i can see at least two easy solutions (plus yours).

Solution 1: just make the ship switch-and-shot when the key is released. This is usually just as good, control wise (some would say, even better), and bypasses the problem.

Solution 2: make the ships immediately switch-and-shoot when the key is pressed, as now, but then, if the key it is kept down, make it stops and, e.g., do the bomb thing or whatever. This means that the ships will go a very short way before doing the thing, but that's probably acceptable and hardily noticeable, whereas the normal gameplay would be left unaffected.

[crowbarska]

Hey pals! Just uploaded a new build (version 0.10.0).

As always, grab it free on itch.io.

What's new in 0.10.0:

• Hitting the screen edges no longer kills you. Instead, you wrap around to the other side of the screen. There are a few reasons for this but the main one is that you tend to spend most of your time just not dying, which leaves less room for actually making interesting choices about the shooting. It's also really hard to tell where the sides are on mobile devices. This is a massive change and I'm still unsure about it, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt and would love to see what you all think.
• Acquiring the laser now adds temporary walls, contrary to the above change. The wrap-around made it too easy when you have the laser (you could literally just do nothing and kill everything). I will definitely do some work to communicate these walls better because right now they just appear out of nowhere and can cause you to die instantly.
• Enemies now create hazardous explosions if they reach the bottom of the screen. This is something I'd been planning but then removed, but now I have the wrap-around I wanted to try it out again. I think the timing and visualisation need tuning but overall I think this feature will prooobably stay.
• You now get awarded a multiplier at the end of a game based on which 'sector' you reached (a sector is like a wave. You reach the next one by maxing out your powerups and going into hyperdrive). This gives you an incentive to advance and not hang around getting easy kills.
• Powered-up shots have been reduced in power a little (there's less spread on the triple shots, mainly).
• Changed all the text messages that suggest nobody died (e.g. "Try again"). As 'mtarini' pointed out, they don't make much sense and the dark humour is something I'd like to play up.
• Mega screen-shake when you use the laser and hyperdrive (also added a sound effect for the laser, although it's just a placeholder for now.
• You now get dialogue when you reach the next sector. I'll be adding more variants across the board.

And today's bonus gif: https://twitter.com/crowbarska/status/645727543463682049
(Sorry it's not embedded this time, I don't have the source image available right now.)

Please let me know what you think of the new changes! They're fairly major ones so I'm expecting to ruffle some feathers.

[mtarini]

I love every single change, well done!!! It keeps getting better.

Very fun! Really balanced too. The scoring system is both neat and clean, and motivating. The surviving alien ships pose a nice challenge. The "skip the bonus while on laser" strategy might be still an viable strategy, once or twice, that's a good thing now actually, as it adds to the variety, not subtract fro it.  Well done, again!

I love the details too... the camera effect with the laser feels also very nice.
(BTW, would it be possible, or desirable, on platforms that make this a possibility, to make the device vibrate?)
The particle effect of the self destroying aliens is really neat.

AS for the the no-longer-deadly borders... I dunno. For me, my brain is permanently stuck with the "avoid border" instinct, by now, so I just never touch the border in my plays. No idea how it would feel to new players. I can only testify that to play this game with no border crossing ever is both spot-on difficulty-wise and, regardless, really fun. As you mention, I suspect that the rule change with the laser might be distracting to new players, but you need a different playtester to be sure. My personal impression is that you can make the border always deadly again.

In summary: WOW. And, thank you. It's really addictive.

(ok, here's the part where I keep throwing unsolicited suggestions to a game which is not mine, so feel free to ignore me: a possible intermediate solution, would be if your ship, on crossing the border, made a quick maneuver: first rotated 90 degrees left or right, to face the border, then passed across it, then regained its default vertical posture once on the other side. While it does so, i.e. maybe for some 0.5 seconds, you cannot fire or control the ship in any way, so you momentarily are a sitting duck. Maybe the risk would be enough deterrent to excessive border crossing, especially at later stages, but crossing would not resulting in automatic immediate death, especially at the beginning. Naturally the maneuver duration would need be tuned until it is just right. I know that it is never nice to take control out of the player, but... for suck a short time, it might be ok. I think you would also need a pixel-art rotation animation, say 4 frames, but that might be fun to do).

[crowbarska]

Thank you, I'm glad you like the changes!

Yeah I think it might still be a viable strategy perhaps in the earlier sectors, but later on you are really encouraged to push forwards (your multiplier is going to be worth way more by then as well).

I'll have a look into vibration. Never tried it before so not sure if it will play nice with uScript (visual scripting Unity plugin I'm using on the code side of things).

I know what you mean about the borders. I still stick within the confines of the screen myself, but I have played this game a lot so it's kind of ingrained behaviour now. I'm thinking for beginners though it will soften the learning curve a little. I can always add a 'hard ship' that reintroduces them, it's not a difficult thing to bring back.

To be honest, I'm not sold removing control at the borders. I think in a game that's this fast-paced and twitch-focused it will be quite jarring to lose control, even for a brief moment. One thing I could see working is having a kind of suction effect...? So when you start to touch the edge you get sucked in like a kind of wormhole/plughole effect and you pop out the other side... It might help to clarify what's happening and where your limits are. I do kind of feel like you can be skirting around mostly off-screen for some time and it feels really weird and nasty. This might help that problem and just kind of 'correct' your motion. I'll try it out I think.

In other news, I've been working on a sprite to accompany the text messages.



Meet the Admiral. Get used to his eccentricities.

Later today or tomorrow I should have a new build with some visual improvements. One of these is the hyperdrive effect, and the other is the animated face. I'm going to try to make a new batch of gifs and a new video too, as everything looks much better than it did when I first posted all my media.

[crowbarska]

Another update to the build (version 0.10.1)! No major gameplay changes but some nice aesthetic stuff.

As always, grab it free on itch.io.

What's new in 0.10.1:

• Implemented the Admiral's face, which now accompanies text messages.
• Added a lot of new text message variants into the randomised pool.
• Improved the visual effect for the hyperdrive (more streaky for those speedy sensations).
• Rejiggered the layout of the HUD on game over.

NOW, GIFS.




I've also got a new video to share BUT when I checked it after the upload all the audio was out of sync. You can view the messed up version

but I will fix it later on when I'm at home.

[mtarini]

Great job!

-= Switch'n'Shoot =-
the game which made it look redundant
that Goldrake was controlled

with two entire levers.

[crowbarska]

-= Switch'n'Shoot =-
the game which made it look redundant
that Goldrake was controlled

with two entire levers.

omg haha amazing

Thanks pal

[mtarini]

Oops, I see now that the joke wrongly assumes that the Japanese giant robot of the 70s "Grendizer" (known as "Goldrake" in some places, wikipedia ) is popular everywhere. It is where I come from, and it's kinda humorously notorious how its pilot was shown to be apparently controlling everything, say robot body posture or hand movements, by handling a pair of levers.

[Eendhoorn]

It's pretty fun, the concept is really good. I have 2 points of feedback;
- I'm constantly looking at the top of the screen where the enemies spawn, and sometimes I lose track where the ship is horizontally. Some kind of subtle visual at the top of middle of the screen to aid where the ship is might be nice.
- I'm missing visual feedback that my ship has changed direction. Perhaps you could make something like a side thruster spark on the side of the ship whenever you shoot?

[crowbarska]

It's pretty fun, the concept is really good. I have 2 points of feedback;
- I'm constantly looking at the top of the screen where the enemies spawn, and sometimes I lose track where the ship is horizontally. Some kind of subtle visual at the top of middle of the screen to aid where the ship is might be nice.
- I'm missing visual feedback that my ship has changed direction. Perhaps you could make something like a side thruster spark on the side of the ship whenever you shoot?

Thanks!

1. That's not a bad idea. The tricky part would be getting it to fit the current aesthetic without cluttering things too much. I might experiment with some 'helper' graphics and include this in that. I was thinking some additional helpers might be really useful on Android/touch because it can be difficult to know precisely when your touch/un-touch is being registered.

2. Could probably roll that into the above, perhaps show a little arrow on the screen edges or something? I'll have a play around and see how it looks.

Thanks for the feedback!

[mtarini]

I wonder how it would feel like, if both key-presses and key-releases triggered the switchin'n'shootin
(i.e. keep pressed = more right, else = move left).

[lobstersteve]

like everyone else said: very addicting indeed, very nice concept 

[crowbarska]

I made a little change to the alien behaviour last night. Instead of waiting until they get off-screen to explode, they now sit in your path for a second and then self-detonate.

I wrote a blog post about this, which I'm copypasting here:

In the previous version they continued off the bottom edge of the screen, then exploded and sent a burst of deadly red goop upwards. This would destroy your ship if you touched it.

The problem with this was that there was a delay after aliens passed you before they actually became dangerous again, and this was very difficult to keep track of. It was also a new type of hazard to learn, and while it’s not a complicated thing, it’s always good to simplify what new players have to learn wherever possible.

The new method has aliens sitting in your path for about a second before self-detonating. The hazard is much clearer (especially as you already know you shouldn’t touch the aliens), and it prevents a lot of nasty situations where you felt like you were being caught out or tricked by the game. Failing this way feels like your fault now, not the game’s.

I think it works pretty well so I'll probably roll this out into the next build (hopefully tonight or tomorrow).

Obligatory gifs:

I wonder how it would feel like, if both key-presses and key-releases triggered the switchin'n'shootin
(i.e. keep pressed = more right, else = move left).

Oddly enough I did have this on my roadmap! It was an idea I thought might be a good option for players to have, but I decided it was better to focus on a single control scheme and make it work really well. Maybe I will revisit it for version 1.0?

What do others think?

like everyone else said: very addicting indeed, very nice concept 

Thank you!

[Zorg]

You could simply make two enemies out of these behaviours:
1) Flying by and off screen without any explosion.
2) Sit on the player's path and explode.

I love the game idea. It's ingenious.

[lobstersteve]

Oddly enough I did have this on my roadmap! It was an idea I thought might be a good option for players to have, but I decided it was better to focus on a single control scheme and make it work really well. Maybe I will revisit it for version 1.0?

What do others think?

I don't think this needs an alternative control scheme, because this is kinda an important point of the game ..