Epic
GREAT GAME! Just getting that out of the way. Very satisfying and awesome. Here are a few suggestions. Again, awesome game, don't take this the wrong way, I just want even better than awesome from you guys. Oh, and I'm not a game designer, and I fail at flash, but I do love a good flash game, and you want me to play, so I figure I'd express my likes and dislikes. Yeah.
1. The money drops (the orb/circle things) kinda looked odd. They just seemed out of place in the game, which is good in that they are easy to spot, but sort of takes away some atmosphere or something. The stars fit in a little better, but both could be a bit better in terms of like.. style, I guess.
2. One- and two-way platforms were often hard to keep track of. I ended up wasting a lot of shots on platforms, especially when the enemies can shoot through anything. Could be more distinct, or could be all one- or two-way platforms, etc.
3. OCD: Sometimes, when Gunbot has just turned or is turning or something, you shoot, the bullet will briefly appear flying in the opposite direction from the direction it should (again, just OCD, not a big deal at all).
4. Textures/Ground: The foreground was often a bit plain, just repeated tiles of a generic, nondescript nature. The occasional vine, ivy, scratch, cliff, ditch, whatever, could spice it up. (I realize this IS flash, which has some stricter limits on content than other avenues, but iunno.) I'd have liked some more variation and detail though.
5. OCD again, some spelling or grammar mistakes were in the text (during a cutscene I believe). It's not a real problem, but it seems a shame to put so much work into a game and than draw attention to minor incorrect details such as "you" instead of "your." Like I said, not a big problem, but eh.
6. The menu text or style or something was off somehow (the white text with glowing outline). I can't tell you how to fix it, but it didn't quite match the rest of the game, sort of like the money and stars. I realize you guys are a studio, not a one-man-team, and it wouldn't be surprising if the game art and in-game text were split up between the team, so it would be hard to coordinate. Regardless, it looked a little out of place somehow.
7. Customizable control mapping. I don't know if this is like, too processor intensive or too tedious or what, but games these days seem to be removing this feature. It didn't give me any problems, but I'm sure people with different keyboard styles (dvorak, odd key placement, etc.) would like alternatives. Always a nice feature to include in any game, IMHO.
8. The weapon/shield art. The variation present was nice, but a lot of items were pretty similar looking, and the shields lacked unique names. Could have been a little more creative (shotguns could be distinct, as well as full auto, explosive, tri-shot, you get the point.)
9. I'm sort of a freeloader and what-not, but a good way to encourage people to spend money and put effort into promoting and spreading your game is to give the game some more replayability or length or depth or what not. Again, flash is limiting in that respect, but yeah. :/
I liked a TON about this game, namely the movement (double jumping was especially essential, the ledge jump thing wasn't a bad thing, but it wasn't too necessary. Granted, it happened to save my life a few times from lava, etc.), the shotguns (OH-SO satisfying at close range), the semi-auto guns (somehow really satisfying as well), the monsters and general character art (not like super crazy awesome good, but definitely crazy awesome good. The bosses could have been a little more detailed, makes them more memorable to me.) The lasers were good too. I liked the level progression and difficulty for the most part (I almost HAD to use the laser to beat the final level, everything else just wouldn't do for me.) Sometimes grinding for more money was an annoyance, but I imagine it's really hard to find a balance there.
ANYWAYS. Like I've been saying throughout, GREAT GAME, I just wanted to help in return for the hours of fun I just had, :D. Thank
