Simple concept, great execution
Simple enough idea: Just make a shooter that's a bullet hell like the hundreds of other Japanese shooters we've seen before. The difference? It's actually forgiving and fun to play (on easy anyway :P) and the presentation is excellent, with nice music, crisp graphics with some amazing particle effects and fun but addictive gameplay. Some more unique features would have been nice, but other than that an easy 8 out of 10. =]
Bullet hell for sure!
Lots of bullets. I like the upgrade system but I think I would have enjoyed the game more if it had slowly ramped up to a screen full of bullets instead of dropping me straight in. Also, I prefer more of a pattern to oncoming bullets. That allows you to focus more on what you're shooting whereas here I spent a lot of time just dodging the random noise of bullets.
good concept - nice to see a good old bullet hell
good game, good graphics, nice and shooty
here's some good ideas for future version:
1) allow graphics level to be adjusted. it gets quite graphic intensive with all those bullets going around
2) consider the option to play more/different music. it gets monotonous fast
3) different weapons/shooting modes.
4) boss fight is SLOW. it takes far too long to kill the boss
5) consider repricing the upgrades. in the first level, before the boss comes, i can score about 50.000 points. you need 200.000 for even just basic upgrades. that does not make sense. lower prices or increase score
6) consider how long a player has to play to max out all weapon stats... few people are willing to play games like this for more than half an hour, so adjust game length/reward ratio?
just suggestions
Thanks for the suggestions, I will try to answer them as best as I can.
1) I assure you that performance was my main worry when I made the game, but changing the graphics quality would not improve the performance of the game, only the rendering of the fonts. You can try pressing enter to disable the background, or change the setting in the options menu.
2) I like the music sorry :( at least it changes loops sometimes
3) I think the amount of different weapons in the game is enough. But will keep that in mind for the future.
4) It's perfectly possible to kill all the bosses in less than 2 seconds, but several people have complained about that, it's not an easy compromise.
5) Yes, that can be a problem in your first playthrough, but unlocking achievements adds money to the starting budget, also later ships have some upgrades unlocked. Again a balance act.
6) Same answer as 5, but really, its not that bad, you can max out easily in the second playthrough, or the third one max. Basically, you want a game for10 minutes, and I made the game thinking of a player that plays it for 10 minutes a day during a week.
But thanks for your suggestions. Fair critique is the only way to get better.