quick point form impressions

[mooncows]

I shall lay out my first 2 hours of impressions in point form.

1. Movement feels tight. I like it. Please KEEP stopping fast. This is crucial to being able to dodge a lot of the complex patterns. The initial build up of movement feels a teeny bit too slow.

2. I dont like the feel of after burner. The only situations i find myself touching it is to clear large gaps fast and in those situations it takes a touch too long to build up the speed. Maybe have it speedup faster?

3. Shooting feels good. However, on the gamepad with my right analog stick, it seems i can only shoot in 8 directions where as with my mouse its anywhere i point. This needs more work on the gamepad.

4. No specifics on enemies yet other than some enemies bullets "vanish" too soon to be a threat. Cant remember the specific enemies but one shot grey knife looking things that dissapeared way too fast. I could stay very close to it and never get hit.

5. The rooms feel too small (not individual rooms, these feel just right, i mean the entire floors). Perhaps something like 2-3 additional rooms would feel right.

6. I read on the forums that bosses have been made easier, however i think they are too easy. I have yet to loose to one on normal difficulty. Dont think I've even been hit yet. More tweaking required i think.

7. Never noticed much about invincibility after an enemy hits me. Good so far i suppose.

8. My ship is too big. Just a teeny bit. Perhaps decrease its size by like 10%. Its just the tiniest bit too big

9. Finally the doors need a bit of clarity but this comes later with art etc. Or perhaps a tutorial.

Closing thoughts:

Ok let me first say, I see what your doing here, and its fun. Thats first and foremost, I'm having fun. I enjoy it, and so far my deaths dont feel cheap. I feel like when i die or take a hit, its my own fault. In other games like this there are cheap hits and cheap deaths, keep this up.

Ill edit this post with a part 2 once I'm a bit further in.

[Misery]

I shall lay out my first 2 hours of impressions in point form.

1. Movement feels tight. I like it. Please KEEP stopping fast. This is crucial to being able to dodge a lot of the complex patterns. The initial build up of movement feels a teeny bit too slow.

Hah, I knew I wasnt going to be the only one that'd think this way.

That being said, the "altered" version of the movement shouldnt change the balance at all.... I cant imagine it'd be so extreme as to do that, that wouldnt be fun for anyone.... but this just reiterates what I keep saying about making it an option.


For the bosses:  Yeah, I only just made that change, they sure aint perfect yet, and one in particular is a bit broken.  Their original difficulty was just much too high for most people.  That being said, I havent exactly removed those harder versions; they're still intact, I just need to re-integrate them, which I intend on doing today.  Should be nice and easy to do.  I hope.  Once those are in, some feedback on them would much be appreciated.   Just be aware that the game isnt meant to be like, stupidly difficult to begin with.  There's some definite shmup inspiration, but we're not looking at quite that level of difficulty here.   ....for now, anyway.  The highest difficulty setting, "misery", just might end up that way.  Or at least, it probably will if I'm allowed to do that with it!  But for the other difficulty levels in the game, they're not meant to be THAT hard.   But yeah, whenever you get a chance to fight the tougher versions of the bosses, which should appear on "hard" difficulty or higher, let me know.

Ship size, that's not set in stone yet, including it's hitbox.  It's looking like it might be due for a reduction.

Enemy bullets vanishing, in many cases, that's entirely intentional.  I'll have a look at the ones that fling the knives around though.

Glad you're enjoying it as a whole though!   And thanks for the feedback.

[Cinth]

Enemy bullets vanishing, in many cases, that's entirely intentional.  I'll have a look at the ones that fling the knives around though.

There aren't many that are like that, and they aren't bad.  It's just when they are seeded in a large open room vs some of those tighter spaces, that they become pointless.  Then again, every game needs its goomba.

[Pepisolo]

Hah, I knew I wasnt going to be the only one that'd think this way.

After playing a bit more I think that the original movement is actually pretty good. It's more that there's no illusion of thrust. It moves well, but there's no feeling of you being in a spaceship. Little changes might make this better like maybe a slight stationary hover. In Gigawing they've got a rotating propeller and banking to help sell their plane. If it was just a flat piece of art with no animations it'd feel weird. Although I think that there should maybe be some actual physics involved while afterburning so that things become trickier to control as well giving a real sense of momentum and speed.

Edit: a bit over-edited this, but I'm not saying add propellers or anything, but I think that more needs to be done graphically to sell the illusion of space flight.

[Misery]

Well the re-integration of "hard mode" bosses aint happened yet.... ran into some screwy problems with that.

To compensate, I'm adding a couple of new murder machines to the mix.

Hah, I knew I wasnt going to be the only one that'd think this way.

After playing a bit more I think that the original movement is actually pretty good. It's more that there's no illusion of thrust. It moves well, but there's no feeling of you being in a spaceship. Little changes might make this better like maybe a slight stationary hover. In Gigawing they've got a rotating propeller and banking to help sell their plane. If it was just a flat piece of art with no animations it'd feel weird. Although I think that there should maybe be some actual physics involved while afterburning so that things become trickier to control as well giving a real sense of momentum and speed.

Edit: a bit over-edited this, but I'm not saying add propellers or anything, but I think that more needs to be done graphically to sell the illusion of space flight.

Stick that into Mantis if you would.  I think this is an important and good point.

[Pepisolo]

Stick that into Mantis if you would.  I think this is an important and good point.

Done! Just a copy and paste because I don't have much time to rewrite it at the moment. It's good enough, I think, though.