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[comrad_gremlin]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share my current project, small shoot-em-up Frequent Flyer, and occasionally post updates here. The aim of the game is simple: fly your plane around, eliminate enemies.

Even though I've soft-launched the game on android market, it's still work in progress and I'm constantly trying to update it. I plan to release it to desktop machines, as well as android / iOS. It took me 45 days to make, I'm using Libgdx as a java framework. Right now there's 7 enemies and 10 different unlockable planes. The progression is also there: as player gets more score, new unlocks become available.

Right now I'm planning to improve bullet animations, maybe add better feedback on bonus collection.

Gameplay:


Android (most optimized platform at the moment): Play Store Link

Web: http://coldwild.com/flyer

Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744697163

Any feedback is appreciated. I'll be trying to post updates here every other day
Cheers!
Vladimir

[comrad_gremlin]

Updated the game effects today: the bullets are bigger (and prettier), zeppelins have movement animation to them (the air around them is moving). here are some screenshots:

[Sankar]

I'm enjoying what I see so far! My only suggestion would be a name change, Frequent Flyer sounds like someone giving out Flyers (printed advertisements) Frequently...
I got the impression that you wanted the name to sound like "Continuous Flying" or something in that sense. like "Keep Flying!"

As a small question, how many parallax layers can you work with, on your engine?

[readyplaygames]

I really like the explosion effect. Like, a lot.

[quantumpotato]

I really like the explosion effect. Like, a lot.

Yeah those explosions are great.

I like the ironic name of "Frequent Flier" but it does sound like an airport simulator.

[maruki]

Sankar's got a point regarding the name.
I really like the new bullets, they are more visible now. Also, I like how fast the game feels.

[comrad_gremlin]

Heya!

Thanks for all the replies. In order of appearance:
"As a small question, how many parallax layers can you work with, on your engine?" - there's only one background image at the moment. I agree that parallax would look better, I actually have it on my to-do list

As of explosion effect - really proud of it, but it turned out much simpler than I've thought: multiple sprite animations drawn in time progression, not too far from each other. Spent maybe two full days adjusting / drawing it the way I imagined it to be.

I agree on the bullet change: it's surprising how such a small change (code-wise) could actually change the game so much. I'm going to keep experimenting, but I'm also planning to change smg bullets to make them bigger and see if they feel better.

"Frequent Flyer" is actually intended as a wordplay on Frequent Flyer programs, offered by the airlines: get points, unlock bonuses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequent-flyer_program I don't intend changing the name, but perhaps I need to give better explanation of it somewhere.

Stay tuned for more updates! Working on time attack and endless map modes at the moment.

[quantumpotato]

That's what I thought you meant regarding the name. I think it's funny.
Maybe wordplay would be helpful in explaining it's an action game?
2 days of iteration on the explosions, nice. That's the way to go! Keep it up

[comrad_gremlin]

Thanks for your support so far!
Made another game update: improved SMG weapon visuals and added a new game mode!

The aim of 'Time Attack' mode is to gather time bonuses and kill enemies while the countdown timer is ticking. If timer reaches zero - the game is over. In this mode, the player has no lives (cannot be destroyed). Instead, the time is decreased on every collision with bullet or enemy. The only way to die is to reach '00:00' on countdown timer or fly outside of field bounds.

[comrad_gremlin]

Hey again.

Today was quite a productive day. I've changed my 'Chaotic' mode into 'Infinite' mode: battlefield now has no borders, making the game pretty much an open world game! Fly around as much as you wish, but the enemies are still going to appear not far from you. Did not expect that it would change the gameplay so much: I'm seriously considering removing bordered modes all together. The game just feels much better and action-packed that way, the life time of a player also increased and there are no more frustrating experiences when one moves away from the screen.



Happy hunting!

[comrad_gremlin]

Some more updates: started adding better animations, most bonuses will have something to show when player picks them. I've also added animations to b25 and scouts, adds some movement feeling to screenshots.

Animations on b25:


Animations on weapon pickup (changes color dynamically):

[comrad_gremlin]

Heya! Made a quite a big update today gameplay-wise and wanted to share what I have:
- Implemented the Dive function (in browser: can press shift);
- Camera now goes towards the flight direction, can see more in front of you
- Improved background (player and enemies can be seen much easier)
- Added cool effects to star pickups

Here are some screens:
Cooler star pickups!

Same effects on health

Dive function, plane is invulnerable

[Enrique Ponce]

Heya! Made a quite a big update today gameplay-wise

Is there a video with these new effects yet? This game looks so cool! The graphics remind me a bit of flight control for iOS. Except you can shoot things with your game which is always a good thing 

[comrad_gremlin]

Hey, no videos yet since I'm changing the game a lot now at the moment, but I'll try to get an updated video again soon. I've actually made some more changes today and am really excited to announce a new update: decided to change projectiles again, make them and explosions brighter. The second plane is now automatically unlocked too + some weapons have spread now, making their behavior a bit more unpredictable (but also making it easier to hit rockets).

Here are the screenshots:

[comrad_gremlin]

Some more graphical changes for today and first big news for me!

- explosions/effects are now drawn beneath the player and enemies, will improve gameplay experience
- awesome muzzle flash added!
- rockets have smoke tails now!
- small clouds effect fixed and returned
- text is much more readable on background

Pics:

Muzzle flash:


Clouds and rocket tails!




The game actually got featured on gamejolt, got me pretty happy about that

Also, here's a small video of new effects!

[comrad_gremlin]

Heya! Made a big update, added two new weapons:
- small lasers added (but I think the way I implemented them makes them look more like lightsabers)
- death ray follows enemy plane now: https://gfycat.com/AggravatingDelectableLadybug
- 3 second invulnerability after being hit
- small rockets have trails
- minelayer issue fixed: mines are spawned properly now
- creates give more ammo for 2+ cannon planes now
- organized mode: changed the 'approaching enemy indicator' color to cyan, will be harder to confuse with hearts now
- web version: resolution change!

Death Ray:


Invulnerability on hit:


Smaller lasers:

[comrad_gremlin]

Hey!

For the past two days I made plenty of changes:
- Gameplay: all plane lives increased by one
- Gameplay: slow rocket rework: start very slow, gain speed as time progresses
- Gameplay: death ray no longer slows your plane on use
- Gameplay: large gray zeppelin: scatters bullets on death now
- Gameplay: large gray zeppelin has 8 lives now
- Gameplay: weapon spread: your own bullets do not overlap
- Gameplay: secondary weapon, bomb remake: projectiles are more slow, fly much further, 4x times bigger
- Gameplay: enemy bomb explosion projectiles fly more slowly (and speed up as time passes by)
- Graphics: bubble around plane (after dive / hit): dimensions fixed
- Graphics: fixed large screen infinite mode texture problem: the backgrounds will appear in a timely manner now (no blue blank spaces)
- UI: background gets darker after pause button has been pressed (for consistency)
- UI: added clarification for plane price (stars)
- UI: main menu resulotion changed
- UI: main menu, credits button replaced to be a bit prettier
- UI: showing exp bar instead of "NEXT UNLOCK: SCORE" at the end of level
- sound: engine sound turns off after player dies
- android: will attempt to login to google play once per launch only. to retry, special connection button will appear in the settings screen
- android: no more toast messages when user cancels connection to google play

Zeppelin explosion intented to make you use dive more often. Here's the bullet scatter screens:



Cheers!

[Enrique Ponce]

Also, here's a small video of new effects!

The control and animation look so smooth! You're making progress like crazy! Are there weapon upgrades that float around? I can't tell... I'm also curious about increasing health as the difficulty increases

[comrad_gremlin]

Thanks Yeah, there are some weapon upgrades, floating like other bonuses (I should probably improve the floating thing).

I've made a mostly-UI update today:
- notifications when you have enough stars for new plane after the game ends
- settings screen rework: easier to press buttons
- time attack: time from bonuses changed to 3 seconds (up from 2)
- reverse gun: made it a bit more useful (4 bullets instead of 2, 90 degrees difference)
- "close" button added to all dialogs
- dialog that asks to vote for us on steam greenlight (only once and only if you've played for some time already)

[quantumpotato]

Looks smooth! Voted on Greenlight. I like how you matched the triple shot to the cannons on the ship.