Nice
Reviews for "Pirate Star"
Really fun already in it's current state. The "Space Invaders with a progression system and a goal" idea is brilliant.
It could be even better with some random encounters that aren't just combat, more enemy variety, and maybe an upgrade system that offers more interesting choices.
The random encounter with the boss and his army of fighters requires some serious bullet hell dodging skills that I clearly don't possess, because he kicked my butt.
exaltedguy responds:
This design is potentially just a first step. If the game is as well received as we'd like, then we'll focus on making a more in depth sequel.
in overall it was pretty good but i got to the end in an unexpected way.
i was trying to upgrade my gun several times before fighting agains the pirate stars, when the leader appeared before me, this is something that happens from time to time, and he always escapes before dying, but this time i killed him and the game told me that i won, without fighting any pirate stars. i dont know if this was kind of a secret way of ending the game or something. but it felt incomplete, like if the main villain died in a totally unexpected and unrelated way to what you come to expect in the first chapter of a game, making the main story worthless.
appart from this happening i was satisfied with the game, a little too short and a little too simple for my taste, but good.
exaltedguy responds:
Thank you! That is a way that was built in to win. Very rarely do players pull it off. Besides I've only heard of one other pulling it off and they had to use a fixed bug. We will likely be rolling out a sequel since the response to this one has been so positive. Thank you for playing!
Pirate Star:
Unlike other similar games, I love the warp animation in this one.
It really gives the space traveling feel to the game!
Also the upgrade system for the ship and crew works well.
Spend a lot of time trying to upgrade my foes.
Fought the easy units and accumulated credits. Soon I found the pirate star
and noticed it was much harder. Here I decided to first upgrade to the max before going there again.
When players have expectations of a reward and you don't give it it is really frustrating
and stops them from playing.
The easy units gave little credits about 100 so I had to get more another way
because this would take ages. Once in a while I saw other units that kept beating me
and since they were stronger I expected if you killed them you would get a lot of credits (500 - 1000).
Which I could then use to upgrade to the max and go to a pirate star.
After losing about 5 times against this unit and having to start over all again.
I was like alright this is the last time I will do it again, because I don't like to keep dieing
and have to do everything all over again.
Then I upgrade to like 4 damage per ship (fighters too) and 8 health both (I believe)
And I fought the other units again, expecting way more credits.
After killing them I got none. That felt so frustrating I quit.
I suggest giving loads of credits when you defeat these units.
Another major frustration point for me:
I expected enemy placement to just be click some point in the area, but some areas were invalid
and it took me a long time before I understood why. It is so your fighters won't shoot eachother.
What you could do is add like a red area in a row once a fighter is placed, so it is clear no ships can be placed
there anymore. This way I would have understood way sooner.
A slight frustration point:
The warping is cool and all, but when I was traveling a lot trying to collect credits.
It is annoying to have to look at the warp all the time. Also when you overuse something cool
it loses it's awesomeness you know. Imagine someone you always expected to be just a regular guy
suddenly pops a backflip, you'll be like wow amazing dude! While if the same guy did it every class
you'd be like. Yeah alright showoff.
Perhaps only use the warp for special moments?
When you travel inbetween dots you are actually traveling a much farther distance then just 1 tile at a time.
Just like a warp travels a lot of distance. What if you only used the warp when traveling from dot to dot?
And used something like just a fire burst that lasts 0.5 second or so for the other travel?
All in all fun time waster. I believe your game has a lot more hidden potential to it
and by removing these frustration points and by removing these frustration points
you could get a step closer towards revealing this potential.
exaltedguy responds:
Thank you for the review! Those are excellent insights, several of which we hadn't really seen before. On the part about the powerful enemy that you randomly run into. That would be the end boss that appears randomly to taunt you. He should be in a red ship. You actually weren't defeating him. If you pay close attention to when you were "defeating " him you'll see that it's not an explosion but a warp rift that appears. Also, you'll notice that the fighters get left behind. In addition, if you find that you're losing a fight, there's nothing stopping you from warping away.
We're planning on making a sequel to pirate star and many of your suggestions will be implemented there. Thank you very much!
It seems like a weekend game, weak graphics, repetitive music and a small game area, but it can be improved. good luck.