Very nice strategy game, my friend. Congrats!
Author Comments
The spiritual successor to "The next jump", NEXT JUMP: Shmup Tactics,
just got released on STEAM and Itch.io:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/624690
https://postmortempixels.itch.io/nextjump
Check it out! :D
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Third place on stencyl jam 2015! :D
Thank you!
the NEXT jump is a turn based shmup with roguelike ingredients.
You are a pilot in pursuit of a Pirate Mothership that keeps its distance from you. To catch the mothership, you use "Jumps" to cross long distances... and inside those jumps hordes of pirates (each one with their movement pattern) try to kill you.
Its a game about learning patterns, the enemies and yours!
Controls are Mouse:
To move your Ship, click on the tile next to you.
To shoot click on the shoot button... and the same to punch.
Every move (click on the tile you wish to move) costs energy, every punch costs energy... every shot... Once you make your move, the pirates around you make theirs and so on.
But you can pickup energy and Scrap (money) from fallen Pirates.
When the jump is complete, a JumpGate appears and you can buy upgrades on the shop and then jump again...
I made everything on Stencyl 3.3, GIMP and Blender. Sounds are public domain and BFXR (site).
Thanks for playing! :]
.dilly
filsdd responds:
Thank you! :D
I wouldn't neccesarily call this a roguelike but its more a strategy game. Either way its excellent!
filsdd responds:
Thank you! :D
I see it more as a strategy / puzzle myself.
I really love this game.
I report one bug :
I was probably on my last jump before the mothership, but I wanted one more to maximise my health (23 turns left, and probably, the last jump would have been a 23 turns one). So I waited a little to let the mothership take distance from me. To be sure, I waited until it remains 27 turns (the music ended). Then, the bug appears when I begin the jump : this one was in 0 turn ... the portal appeared directly on the first turn. I was below rank 20, and I try to have more than 20 and the bug desappear.
I have a tip : when I are shot, your rank decrease to 3 points. So you can try killing lots of ennemies and stay below 20 on rank, but make sure you have enough health.
One more thing : the mothership is really hard to beat. Even with my tip, I have something like 96 energies, 16 health, the powerfull shot, the powerfull punch and 3 range to move ... and I cannot beat him. So let us choose the difficulty ... this one should be the hard one. For the easy one, make the boss with less ennemies ? or less bullet ? or something less overwhelming.
anyway, I can't wait for the final version of this game. Good job.
filsdd responds:
Thank you for the nice review! :D
I have read your mind! On the update I'm working on, I already decreased the difficulty of the mothership a bit! :D
This and other things... ;]
As for the BUG, I will look into it! THis is not the intended result! (edit: its fixed now!)
Your Rank is based on your Reputation... and the Reputarion already decreases when you are hit... ;]
The concept on this is ingenius! I found the learning to be intuitive, especially considering that it drops you right into the action. I get a vibe of FTL in here, with the sense of encroaching danger and the need to manage resources.
Perhaps having the upgrades explain that they are options rather than tiers of upgrades. It just reflects that we need weapon variety to play this sort of thing effectively. I appreciate all the bug fixes you've done thus far. Its definitely worth improving!
filsdd responds:
Thank you!
I really like your opinion on "having the upgrades explain that they are options rather than tiers of upgrades", thats really what they are: options (more than upgrades). But you also have upgrades on the list (Engines, Energy capacity, Hull...). Anyway for the final game (that I'm planning on releasing to PC and Tablets) I will better categorize it! :]
Using the shot in the lower left corner will clip you through the map.
You shouldn't have two conflciting upgrades It's counter-intuitive when you can still buy the other one. It would be a different case if you were able to switch between the two, but even then, you don't know the optimal choice of weapon.
Two things I would always do were to maximise scrap and energy before moving through the portal, although I was sometimes interupted because the portal spawned on top of me. It's clearly not intended, but it would allow me to maximise upgrades and give me better chances with more energy.
The hull upgrade should increase the health, not just increase the total capacity of hit points. It's the same case for energy, but that was less of a problem.
And now the main problem with the game is the combination of randomness and being overwhelmed way too easily. The only way I can think of solving the problem is to provide some kind of future sight to show where enemies will appear next turn. You could also add similar information for how different ships move and shoot. This could be another ability, but is more suitable for an easy mode should you add difficulty settings. This would probably make the game far too easy though.
I know it's intended to be a rougelike, but saving the game would be a great help on the first time through, especially because of how unbalanced it is. Again, it's something more applicable to different difficulty settings.
filsdd responds:
Thanks for the bug report and comment!
Many things you commented are design choices. But some of then I HAD to do this way because I had no time to do something better (its a game jam...). :]
About the game feeling too random and with a step difficult: I'm aways thinking how I can improve that aspect of the game, without compromising anything I like about it.
For the final game I want to make MANY types of different upgrades and weapons, that way the player will aways be able to choose what he want to make a bit easier and interesting.
Thanks for playing the game! :D
