Read Paul's post in the other thread, felt bad. I haven't given feedback on something in
a while. Decided to play game! I am also not very good at it.
It's pretty fun! Shmupping is always nice. The fact that you can loop through the screen whilst everything else is vert scrolling is disorientating. But that's a good thing - allows one to dodge and slink around the edges.
However, if you're looking for Feedback, it needs a little more of that nebulous
Oomph. Pack more of a punch, ya know? It has some, but not a lot. Firstly, the music's nice, but considering how the game plays it could be a little more intense. A remix of some sorts? The sounds themselves get in the way of the music - the hissing is a good choice, though, considering how much one is shooting. It's not the most satisfying sound, but it certainly doesn't get on the nerves.
I think it'd behoove the bigger enemies to indicate they're getting hurt - you know, flash a little, or start to give off flames, something like that. Scores popping up above a destroyed enemy would be cool, as would a running kill tally. My reasoning for that is at the moment, all the enemies are all of a similar size, orange-yellow colour and death explosion. Whilst I know Some are more dangerous than others, and Some take much, much more punishment I don't feel it's worth my while to kill the tough guys. Instinctually speaking.
A combo system would be kind of nice too - though, with the speed the game runs at it could come off as superficial. It's not like there's much delay between explosions
. Speaking of explosions, the death of your ship seems kind of... insignificant? I'm against a big delay in between death and rebirth, but a bigger flashier explosion and louder sound would hammer the fact home. The responsible enemy/bullet should also disappear. It'd be "damn, I'm dead" as opposed to the current "oh, I died?"
It's difficult, but that's good. Don't want it to just give me points for being there. The tutorial isn't the most helpful when regarding Powerups - it took me a few playthroughs to figure out that I had to shoot the powerup to collect it.
The ships crashing into each other and tilting the screen was pretty cool - caught me off guard. Come to think of it, if you made the tilt accumulate as opposed to what it does now, it could make for an interesting (and bewildering) mode.
So, uh, overall, pretty entertaining game. It ran smoothly on my Vista, too, if that was a concern. Do you intend to work on it further, or is it pretty much done?
OH SHI-: Just noticed this was an Announcement, not a Feedback Thread. I'm keeping my feedback, regardless. What is this place's policy on feedback in announcement threads, anyways? Is it fine, or outta line?
ACTUALLY: The more I play this game, the more I feel it has The Nicotine. It grows on you. I kind of like the serene presentation/chaotic gameplay mix now. Kind of reminds me of Henzell's stuff. Also, the Music? It was my speakers. On my headphones, the music's pretty great.
Another thing I like is that despite the fact the game's entirely linear in its patterns, your ship's movement is enough to make it feel more than "there will be 3 guys here, then a big guy from here, then four more guys etc." I actually thought it was procedural for a little while.
This game's greatest strength, I THINK, lies in the fact the enemies act like Vert Shmup enemies, but your ship is an Arena Shooter. There's enough going on to get the player greedy - you've got a whole bunch of things flying at you, and the capability to kill 'em all. This can make you lose focus, and either miss a whole bunch of easy points or die due to ignoring an obvious threat. Good stuff. This post is getting monstrous.
Community
