Its a great game
It has great graphics nice effects, yet it gets rather boring fast. Maybe if it had some powerups, and the monsters were faster to kill and they moved faster so the game would be faster. It will increase the fun. It was fun tho, but feeling you have to wait to kill all monsters and still have the time to kill all monsters, seems to be the only problem.
Yeah... I was short on sleep and running out of time to meet the halloween deadline. I didn't get as far with the gameplay as I should have. At the moment, the only challenge is to try and hit EVERY enemy and dodge EVERY shot. Just getting through is a cakewalk.
I'm thinking maybe if I can just add collectable powerups, and then increase the number of enemies as the stage progresses, then the ammount of dammage you can do will become dependant on taking enemies down efficiently and collecting everything... basically it gives you 2 immediate gameplay goals instead of one (shoot AND collect) while at the same time becoming more discriminating about which types of play styles will result in a 100% cleared level.
This is why I like detailed negative feedback, responding to it helps me clear my head. :) I'll have to be careful, though. If I overdo it, there'll be TOO MUCH stuff going on by the end of a level, and the players willend up dying if they DON'T collect the optimal assortment of powerups.
I don't want to leave the poor players behind, is the thing. Maybe difficulty levels would be handy...
Nice game...
... cuz i like the look, n graphics, but it was boring, and just holding z and dodge some stuff is boring...
Working on it...
Hmmm
The game was interesting, I only got hit a couple times because it was worth the sacrafice to kill enemies. I thought there may of been a high score... when i saw there wasnt i got mad. well not really mad but that means i wasted my time.
Great Graphics and sound, i really liked your smoke effect. But put in a high score system, make it harder, and make upgradeable weapons! =)
I'm not sure why I thought this might squeek by with a higher score. I guess I was like "All the other games suck, but mine at least looks good while sucking..."
This is what happens when only your best friends beta test it. :P I guess I've learned my lesson. DeviantArt never, NG Alphas forever!
I don't think I have time to figure out how to do a highscore system in time for the contest deadline. How about a personal best score list, client-side?
Really cool
I like the turn away from the norm, instead of the ship its a witch and the music is pretty relaxing rather than just head splitting, the FX's both sound and visual are pretty neat as well. It's "different" and to me thats what makes it more interesting, the only down side to this is that it's not really that hard, as the levels go on it still continues with the same basic skill grade not that I like an uber challenge but sometimes never loosing a life with that music and the "dream" sorta world you got can make a person almost fall asleep!
All and all it's a good game, always room to improve but I did enjoy it ^_^
LOL
At your response to sk8ting's comment. Are you sure talking shouldn't mean things AND stuff?
Anyway, you're overly humble about this game. It's quite good. A lot of shooters that get published feel as though the designer never actually played them. In this one, there are little touches that make it clear that you tested and edited, tested and edited. For example, the rash of new enemies at the beginning of each level is very nice to help you get accustomed to what you're going to be seeing. The keyboard response is nicely adjusted, neither too fast nor too slow, and meshes well with the speed of the enemies well - i.e. you can't match the up and down speed of the bouncing skulls, making it not too easy to kill them, but you can move faster than anything on screen, making it possible to outrun them.
I sort of agree with the last reviewer that a more dramatic destruction animation/sound combination is always satisfying, although I thought his suggestions were silly and would really harm the game experience. The puff of smoke is nice, but maybe a larger explosion, and a variety of enemy death sounds depending on the enemy. I think I noticed you did do that for the bosses.
Definitely the big thing missing here is powerups. Obstacles are also a nice addition to shooters, creating variety both by forcing the player to do two things at once and by providing an opportunity to unleash massive destruction on a line of enemies coming through a bottleneck.
Loved the hawt witch.
That's probably the most flattering thing anyone will say about this game. XD Thanks.
The problem is, I have this bad habit of over-engineering the engine and then getting burned out before I have any time to develop and test the gameplay. Recently, I've started thinking critically about my whole development process.
Since gameplay is more important than graphics, I really should be developing the gameplay first, with shitty vector art if need be, and only polishing the game later, after it's fun.
This doesn't apply to things like movement and collision, of course, because if you skimp on those, the player has poor control, and without good control the player has no agency. But in this game and a couple of my other ones, I should have polished the gameplay first, and cobbled together the graphics at the last minute instead of the other way around.
I am gradually getting better at this. Hopefully my next game will be decent.