next »

[andy wolff]

I've made a shmup with graphics made completely out of squares.

pop (dead)

lazer (hold shift)

burst (hold control)

you can play it here

Arrow keys to move
Hold shift or Z to shoot the laser toward the blue square
Hold control or X to charge shots to the blue square, release it to release the shots
Press R or F2 to restart
Press F or F4 to toggle fullscreen mode

Survive as long as you can.

Feedback (or music!) is much appreciated

[Havok]

I gave it a try and here's my feedback:

I was really confused by the controls and subsequently died about ten times in a minute. It seems you are firing constantly but the laser is more powerful? The real confusion was how to aim. It seems that when you fire the laser wherever the blue ship is is the direction it shoots in but I felt like I was randomly choosing directions to fire. Because of these things the game seemed a lot harder than it should be.

Another thing was that when I died I was given a screen with a lot of blocks on it (?) and no way to retry so I had to close the program and start it again. I was also confused as to the point of the game. What am I trying to accomplish? Points? The end of the level? Are there levels?

I love the idea! And if you want some music for your game check the link in my signature and email me if you want.

[andy wolff]

I was really confused by the controls and subsequently died about ten times in a minute. It seems you are firing constantly but the laser is more powerful? The real confusion was how to aim. It seems that when you fire the laser wherever the blue ship is is the direction it shoots in but I felt like I was randomly choosing directions to fire. Because of these things the game seemed a lot harder than it should be.

Yeah. I'm sorry if my explanations were inadequate, I was sort of choosing to let the players figure it out for themselves.
 You are always firing, yes, however the laser is not more powerful than the normal shot. You always fire the same number of bullets per second, and they always do the same amount of damage to the enemy squares. The laser and charge shots are simply alterations of the shots' movements, not their effectiveness.

Furthermore, you cannot aim your normal shot. It is always aimed in the direction the background is moving. This is why you have the laser; for aiming precision. The charge shot has even less precision than the normal shot, but more control.

Another thing was that when I died I was given a screen with a lot of blocks on it (?) and no way to retry so I had to close the program and start it again. I was also confused as to the point of the game. What am I trying to accomplish? Points? The end of the level? Are there levels?

When you die, you see the high scores. Instead of doing text or numbers, I chose to represent the scores with squares, like everything else in the game. As you play you will see some squares at the top of the screen, in the same sort of pattern that you saw on the high scores screen. If you are familiar with base x number systems, like binary or base 10, you will know what I'm talking about when I say that the squares represent numbers through a base 25 system. The first line of squares will fill up to 25, then carry to the next line, and so forth. If you want a more solid quantity, just open up the scores.txt file in the game's directory.
There are no levels, it is simply a test of survival in an area ridden by enemies (their patterns are chosen randomly from currently 5 different options). Your goal is to accrue as many points as possible before dying.


Thank you for your feedback, I hope this elaboration clears things up a bit.

Also, thank you for the music offer. It is much appreciated, but I feel that your style of music is, while very good, rather different from the style of the game.

[Melly]

The idea is certainly interesting, and the controls unique. It was hard to handle, but I can see someone managing to control their ship with enough precision to rack up plenty of points.

It's an interesting graphical experiment, and it does look good.

[Loren Schmidt]

This is pretty good. It's very self consistent and polished graphically- what a great example of picking a simple style and really being faithful to it!

I like what you're doing with the spawning patterns as well. I think you've got a solid foundation here, but I feel this could use a tiny bit of polish. Two of the attack patterns in particular feel like they could use some tuning.

The dense fields of pink squares that circle, then dive at our square are really fun, and nice esthetically. Due to their erratic movements and the huge groups of squares that tend to suddenly blindside us from offscreen, getting through them sometimes feels more like a matter of luck than skill.

One other thing that I think could use a bit of improvement is that some of the transitions between different types of movement are a bit stiff. It seems like the squares have a really nice nonlinear way of moving most of the time, but when they transition between movement styles it's instantaneous. Applying some kind of ease-in when beginning a new movement could really make the game feel smoother. This type of lurching transition is particularly visible in the pattern above.


The other pattern that seems like it could use a little love is the sparse waves of very fast pink squares. Sometimes we're doing fine, not doing anything risky at all, and one comes out of the side of the screen at a million miles an hour and kills us. It's not so bad once we've already survived the beginning of a wave- the first few squares seem to pose the greatest risk. I wonder if having the first few squares in these waves be slower (as an advance warning) might be a good idea- either that or adding some kind of warning sound or effect that precedes these waves.

Another thing that I really like about this game is the way the scrolling direction switches. It doesn't feel arbitrary or awkward (as it easily could have) and it keeps us on our toes. I like the way sometimes it's hard to tell what the scrolling direction is while using the laser, and momentarily reverting to the forward firing primary attack can help sort out which direction is which.

These are all pretty minor esthetic notes and tuning suggestions- really this is quite a good game. It feels like you really thought it through from the ground up, instead of starting with a traditional game type and working laterally. I love seeing games in this spirit. Thanks for making this.

[andy wolff]

Hey Sparky, a great many thanks to you for the great feedback. This is the kind of stuff I love to hear

The dense fields of pink squares that circle, then dive at our square are really fun, and nice esthetically. Due to their erratic movements and the huge groups of squares that tend to suddenly blindside us from offscreen, getting through them sometimes feels more like a matter of luck than skill.
[...]

    Yes, I quite agree with you here. I try to avoid players getting the feeling that the game is one of luck more than skill. As you surely know, it's really kind of a balancing act when you're dealing with more complicated and difficult challenges, like the swirling enemies there. However, if you're skilled enough in both strategy and reflexes, you can consistently survive in any situation the game can throw at you. If I continue working on this, I'll certainly make sure to fiddle with this enemy pattern until I feel it's more balanced toward skill rather than luck.
    One example of said strategy is the effective use of the charge shot. You can charge it up, then use the laser while it's still charged up, get the blue square to stand still, then release the charge for a circular shockwave sort of thing. Or you can swing the charging shots around and use them as a melee weapon of sorts.

One other thing that I think could use a bit of improvement is that some of the transitions between different types of movement are a bit stiff.
[...]

I never thought to do that, great idea.

The other pattern that seems like it could use a little love is the sparse waves of very fast pink squares. [...] I wonder if having the first few squares in these waves be slower (as an advance warning) might be a good idea- either that or adding some kind of warning sound or effect that precedes these waves.
[...]

    Yeah, this was actually the second pattern I did, before I really had any plans for what I was going to do with the game. Perhaps it would be better with more, slower, and weaker enemy squares. Also a wave change warning is a good idea, though you can usually tell when each wave ends if you watch to see if the enemies have stopped spawning.

These are all pretty minor esthetic notes and tuning suggestions- really this is quite a good game. It feels like you really thought it through from the ground up, instead of starting with a traditional game type and working laterally. I love seeing games in this spirit. Thanks for making this.

    I definitely didn't believe that I was thinking it through very thoroughly while I made it, but I'm extremely flattered and glad that you liked it so. It makes a rookie's heart swell.

 


Also, indiegames'd
:O

[William Broom]

I thought this was excellent, really fantastic. I don't usually enjoy shmups but I played this one for ages. The only thing I would change is that it's kind of weird that your score goes up after you die, but then the extra score doesn't seem to be recorded on the high score table.

My high score is 1306...

EDIT: Yeah actually I think there is some kind of glitch with the high score table because
a) the high score at the top of the list is actually lower than the ones below it and b) Even if I score higher than all of them, the score doesn't get recorded.

If it's any help, my scores.txt file looks like this:

Code:

1306
1126
1120
1070
1063
911
866
850
833
699
698
682
557
537
491
461
456
432
405
366
361
357
354
350315
235
144975182442

Is there supposed to be such a massive number at the bottom?

[andy wolff]

I'm glad you liked it

As for those high score shenanigans...Wow that's very strange. I never encountered anything like that when I was testing it. I will see if I can identify and fix the problem as soon as I can. Thanks for notifying me

[BadgerManufactureInc]

The screenshots look great    As I'm also working on a shooter it has been interesting to see how your engine works especially regarding spawning, which I think you have achieved very well.

Good luck with sqr!!

[Dim_Yimma_H]

Anyone else that keep trying to "save as" that kind of relay links - I got sqr_3.htm

I got around that eventually though, and the game is pure eye candy-concentrate.

Though, the blue little droid that circulates the player object makes me feel dizzy (feels like I lose balance!)
Gotta love those "bump" sounds.

Code:

357
354
350315
235
144975182442

Is there supposed to be such a massive number at the bottom?

Could it be that the newline-break is missing before the last number? So it should rather be like this:

Code:

357
354
350315
235
144975
182442

? Just a thought.