Galactic Boarder

skyball 2019-04-30 14:03

It's pretty hard to control the character, but other than that a great game!

jordantanner 2019-05-10 04:17

I actually really like the visual style of this with the strong outlines and the posterized kind of look. Was it a custom shader or something that was used to achieve this? For a physics-based game like this, I think the physics could have used much more tuning, but I think the concept was kinda cool. Didn't see much use of the theme. Cool idea!

pl4typus 2019-05-14 18:10

Seems like a super concept but it is too hard to stay on the map and keep collecting the coins. The physics are a bit unmannageable

neontropics 2019-05-15 21:03

@jordantanner Yep, custom shaders! Been looking into dev logs and twitter posts of games like Sable, Obra Dinn and Manifold Garden for tips on outline shaders lately, but then this tutorial is a really good starting point as well: https://halisavakis.com/my-take-on-shaders-edge-detection-image-effect/

After the outline effect it's just normal bloom, fixing to 480p resolution and then changing the color depth to I think 16 or 24 bit to achieve the posterization look.

dovakla 2019-05-19 16:02

I like the graphics a lot but it's really hard to play. I keep falling off the map or into the gaps in it.

vjmunhoz 2019-05-19 18:07

i keep falling off as well, but I found it interesting. Remembered me of old snowboard games from PS1

pkenney 2019-05-19 20:00

I loved the idea of this, and also the unusual look of the graphics, which were pretty cool. The gentle sliding sound effect was also a nice touch.

But I had a hard time engaging with the gameplay.

I wanted so hard to love this that I'm gonna go nuts here and offer a variety of pointers. I don't do this to suggest the game is bad -- I only put in the effort on specific pointers when I feel like there's awesome potential, so I hope this is helpful and not hurtful OK?

Here goes:

If I could change one thing about this game, I would change the boundary so that it was like a bowl the turns you back into the main play area, instead of an instant you-lose out of nowhere. Flying out of the map is super frustrating and extremely common. I don't think I ran out the timer even once, actually.

The camera also needs some love. Right now it just points forward, but a lot of times I need to be looking down at the terrain. Here is an example of a moment where I feel the camera logic has failed me: https://imgur.com/FkK44Xv

I also struggled a bit to understand the controls, as sometimes I would get stuck out of speed at the bottom of an area. Was that the effect of water? Then other times I would make a sharp turn and go flying off the map. Does holding W speed me up, and what is the point of jumping? Because the terrain is influencing my movement (which I love about the game concept!) it means that it's harder for me to grasp the impact my inputs are having on the game. When I tried to experiment it was hard because of the risk of flying off the map. There was no safe or clear way to learn this game.

The R button, oh boy. Please make it instant restart. The way it spends five seconds to taunt me every single time is a huge downer.

Lastly, the coins seem to have a really small collision trigger, and I think I managed to pick up a total of two or three, and only by boarding by them like 5 times.

So in summary, cool unique look, great idea for what could be a super-fun trick-jamming flow-physics game that I would love, but too many splinters for me to really get into any flow state.

With the right tune-up this could be a killer entry, interested to see what you come up with next time.

madbarron 2019-05-19 20:41

Not sure if it was totally working for me. I kept flying off the map. It's hard to see where you are going and aim, so it wasn't very satisfying to play. But it is a cool idea, and the sounds work.

coder-channel 2019-05-21 10:37

The graphics are very good, but the game is very difficult to navigate!