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[ArtInkStudios]

Hello and welcome, everyone. I am the owner of a small indie team called Art Ink Studios of the east coast of North Carolina. We just launched our first game demo called Star Blitz X for PC and mobile.

Star Blitz X is a 3d first person shooter that’s homage of the 1980's arcade shooter genre like Space Invaders, Defender and Duck Hunt. It uses the same game mechanic of applying a defense tactic to position, point and shoot from those past games.

System Requirement as suggested by Unity:

Windows 8 or later.
Graphics card with NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 or better graphics card.
CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz / AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor.

                                      

Download: https://www.indiedb.com/games/star-blitz-x1/downloads/star-blitz-x-demo-beta

                                      

Video:

    

            

Story

You control the space defense satellite called the Star Hammer. The objective is on a time limit of one minute to protect the earth from incoming asteroids and missiles where both are launched by the Gargon’s space invasion. As you advance a level the more the asteroids or missile’s speed and appearance on screen.  But watch out, because with ten hits from the asteroid or missile on the planet and its game over.
  

 
             

Game Play / Features

The Game is in the beta stage of the demo that comes with ten levels of high octane action that leads to the closer in the bonus round. The fifth to the ten levels increased the time limit to a minute and thirty seconds. When reaching the bonus round, it switches to a 2d fix shooter that is similar to the arcade game Galaga as you take in a parade of Gargon’s space ship. The demo features a radio station with three interchangeable tracks, a normal and hard mode in the option menu, and sound & music volume in the pause or option menu.

Once the full version of the game is released it will support 50 levels, 4 different asteroids, recorded high score, two bonus levels and two nonlinear endings.



            

            

Feedback / Suggestion

What we are looking for any improvement to enhance the gaming experience that is challenging, but engaging. It could be like adding more enemies, position of asteroids or etc. But do keep the suggestions simple because the game is more of an arcade genre. Until then we cannot wait for your response and thank you.

                                

Tip: The game can be played with any controller with a USB cord to connect with a PC to get a better control experience.

[jbarrios]

Hey ArtInkStudios,

I tried to play your game 2 times.  Both times the game froze on the loading screen.

[ArtInkStudios]

Thank you for replying to our feedback or suggestions. I am sorry that the game experiences an loading problem to which we had them also in the past. As far I know it would take 11 minutes before loading is complete on slower computers. The game can be playable once the loading screen is complete, but mostly on new pc or laptop for the require system that is discuss above the forum. Meanwhile, we are including a webGL real soon. W

  

Also before you press play on the configuration of the game to which make sure that the graphic quality is set to Fastest if your computer or laptop is slow.  

[ArtInkStudios]

Great News. We already updated the demo for Star Blitz X based
on the slow performance of PC and laptop. It can be found at https://www.indiedb.com/games/star-blitz-x1/downloads/star-blitz-x-demo-beta to download and play for feedback or suggestions.

[xenonii]

Hi,
Well done on releasing the demo. 

Here are some points which I've noticed by looking at the video. I will try find some time to actually play and get you more feedback.

- Have you tried adding some bump/normal mapping to the asteroids? They look too smooth.
- Besides the HUD you don't get a sense you're in a spaceship. Have you tried experimenting with some foreground that would give a visual clue that you're in a ship? Something on these lines . Also you might try adding some bending to the HUD graphics similar to this . Just do a google image search for spaceship HUD to get some inspiration.
- The HUD needs a bit of flashing up, perhaps some kind of radar showing a top-view of the earth being approached by the asteroids
- You need bigger feedback when an asteroid hits earth, e.g. some screen shake, a white flash, an appropriate explosion sound etc
- You don't get any satisfaction when destroying asteroids. If you add some sound of them being destroyed, perhaps some debris particle system, a little bit of screen shake together with a small flash can add to the satisfaction.
- The laser shooting sound is too overpowering. I think it needs to be somewhat lighter because after a while it gets annoying to the ear and you just mute it. The laser sound of star wars is easier on the ears. Here are several variations of star wars lasers to see (hear?) what I mean:


Apparently you can create the sound with a slinky  : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUGYKjG09g&feature=youtu.be&t=133
- It looks strange when level clear keeps the asteroids on screen floating. I think a level clear should be when all asteroids have been destroyed
- Also the level clear is not enticing to improve. You should show some stats, like shooting accuracy, how much you missed, etc

Hope this helps

[ArtInkStudios]

Dear Xenonii,

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I forgot to mention that the game's main prop is that you control the defense satellite than an actual spaceship, but we will fix any mistake to improve it. But outside of that we will look into any feedback and suggestion are made to help make our game to be great by next week or two, and thank you.

[ArtInkStudios]

After a couple of months of delays to which we finally have an update to Star Blitz X the demo game. We added a red flash of the earth and along with the screen shake when the impact from the asteroids or missiles. The next addition is the accuracy stats that appears right after the level is completely based on the player's successful hits. The last addition is the blending of the HUD of the satellite for realistic aesthetic. You can download the game from https://www.indiedb.com/games/star-blitz-x1/downloads/star-blitz-x-demo-beta to play for feedback or suggestions to help improve our game. But do keep them simple to a more arcade genre approach.

[ArtInkStudios]

Great News. We are back with updates on the demo of Star Blitz X. We included the camera rotation to view the front of the Earth and back to see the asteroid belt. You will witness the moving asteroids that appear from the asteroid belt that forward to screen and towards the earth. What we need is your feedback or suggestion if the camera rotation along with moving and shooting within the new area of the asteroid belt is a great experience. The game can be download at   https://www.indiedb.com/games/star-blitz-x1/downloads/star-blitz-x-demo-beta or the team webpage at  https://artinkstudios.wixsite.com/artgames/download. Until then, thank you and we cannot wait for your response.

[ArtInkStudios]

Hello everyone. In the past, we posted an update on the demo of Star Blitz X for the PC on this forum. For a quick reminder of the game it's a 3D first-person shooter that is a homage of the 1980s arcade were the premise is to protect the earth form asteroids and missiles for one minute.

The update that is included:

-The invisible deflector shield of the earth that appear when shooting an area.

-The blue plasma shield that surround the brown, grey and yellow asteroid. Its serve as indicate that are pulled from the asteroid belt and launched at the Earth by the Gargon invasion.

- Able to switch control from the mouse or keyboard, and change the quality of the game from very low to ultra based on the performance of the PC in the option menu.

-Radio Station HUD that appears temporarily mid below screen as you select a music track.

What we are looking for feedback like example is the setup of the asteroids are challenging, but engaging, is there any hidden bugs that we overlooked or more.

The link to download the game can be found at

https://gamejolt.com/games/starblitzx/473635 or https://www.indiedb.com/games/star-blitz-x1/downloads/star-blitz-x-demo-beta

Thank you for your support.