lakshyaisagod 2021-04-26 04:53
TODO: review game
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Shoot 'em Down
By pennycook
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1315 | 3.28 | 25 | |
| Fun | 1481 | 2.93 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 1802 | 2.37 | 25 | |
| Theme | 1375 | 3.26 | 25 | |
| Humor | 300 | 3.56 | 25 | |
| Mood | 1595 | 2.84 | 25 |
TODO: review game
Pretty sure this is the first time I've seen a "shoot 'em down" - clever. Also, loved the dialogue, which was actually pretty funny.
Satisfying audio design and I loved the opening dialogue. It made me laugh out loud twice!
@andrew-hoyer, @swoof: Thank you! I'm glad to hear the jokes landed -- gotta get those humor points somehow...
I long for Tohou sized hitboxes, I swear I'm normally good at these.
as per the other comments the dialogue was very funny although i rhink it could have gone a bit "Deeper (sorry couldnt resist) the game was great, got hard at parts but was still very fun
I knew I couldn't be the only one making a SHMUP... well a SHMD. The opening dialog was great and so was the gameplay. Although I gotta admit it's too hard for me. Which was mostly due to the size of the ship's hitbox. Usually in SHMUP's the player hitbox is a lot smaller than the ship. Also big props for the audio and UI design.
Also felt it was too hard. The enemies seemed to shoot streams of bullets so dense you literally couldn't pass through them, so you have to defeat every one? I might just be bad at dodging though :p
@smelly-games, @themightytrout, @escortti, @wheybags: Thanks for the feedback! I haven't played a lot of games in this genre, and so it's very useful to know that the player would expect a more forgiving hitbox. Some of the enemies shoot dense streams of bullets by design -- so there are some enemies you _must_ kill in each wave. Maybe I made a puzzle game after all...?
I liked the opening dialogue, as it was very clever. I had a really hard time getting past the first few enemies. I think it was much too difficult at the beginning. And the hitboxes on the enemies and bullets seemed large, so it was hard to dodge past. I think it could be great with a couple fixes.
Overall not bad. I like the idea behind it, and the humor at the beginning was great. Some suggestions, you should have more dialogue happening during the game, that could lighten it up a bit. Allow your ship to be hit a few times before dying, and be a tiny bit more forgiving with the colliders. (It's "usually" a good idea to make colliders slightly smaller than the object imho) Another thing I would suggest would be to make some of the enemy ships to need to be destroyed. If that makes sense. For example I felt like I had to kill everything, I couldn't just doge pass any of their shots because they basically created walls. It adds an additional way to play, where you can either kill them all or quickly rush through a gap of their bullets, on that thought adding a small dash would be nice as well.
Good job!
Fun shoot 'em up game! And the intro dialogue was pretty funny.
I had to try a bunch of times to get past the first few enemies. It was basically a death sentence if you didn't kill all of the enemies.
Good job!
I love a shump and this was pretty cool. Good dialogue. ;) I had a couple of notes - firstly, it seems that the ship moves slower when going diagonally than left and right. I've had that problem with movement myself in the past... It does add another element to gameplay in that it makes sense to move horizontally and work out the best order in which to destroy ships - but I'd rather be able to dance about all over the place! Second, I think the collision boxes are a bit on the big side! Third, the bullets are so close together that it doesn't seem possible to dodge them. This may be by design, but I think it reduces your options.
Still, lots of fun and very difficult.
@tanner-shelton, @link270, @andrewkennedy, @garys: Thanks, folks! I've shrunk the hitboxes and adjusted the firing rate of the horizontal enemies such that it's possible to slip between the bullets. It's still hard, but no longer impossible. :smiling_imp:
I'm not sure what to do with the diagonal movement... I put that in on purpose, based on something I've done for top-down RPGs in the past. It might be that limiting diagonal movement for walking makes sense (you can't walk faster by changing direction, after all), but that a ship wouldn't have the same restrictions. I'll play with it and see what feels most natural.
Thanks again to everybody for the great feedback!
Loved the dialogue and art! Great game overall.
I really enjoyed this!! I adore shmups, bullet hells, etc., and this was a unique take going down! Makes me wanna make a shmdown lmao
A nice shooter! But why so difficult? You have to be spot-on to kill the enemies before the bullets overwhelm you. Collision seems very unforgiving, I keep getting killed by enemy explosions and then I got killed by running into the sides!
@loveapplegames: My hope was that if it was hard, people might keep trying until they succeeded -- inspired by games like Dark Souls. I think I went *too* far, though, and coming back to it myself even I can't get past the first few waves of the jam version. :sweat_smile:
The post-jam version is much more forgiving, and I think a lot more fun... I'll post an update here when I've figured out a good way to host both versions on itch.io.
@smelly-games, @escortti, @wheybags, @tanner-shelton, @link270, @andrewkennedy, @garys, @loveapplegames: The post-jam version is now available, and I've tried to make things more forgiving. I completely understand if you don't want to play the same game twice, but if you're at all interested in giving things another go I'd appreciate your thoughts on whether I've improved things or not!
Hey man. Game was hard. Maybe destroying the hitbox once enemies were shot down. Power-ups would definitely be a plus. Shields too. Anything that could make me feel like a bad ass.
The walls were now a lot clearer. It's no longer a guessing game where the wall hitbox is. Still found the game brutal. I would still recommend smaller hitbox, maybe the size of the cockpit window. Or maybe reduce the number of bullets so there is more room to maneuver between bullets. Other possibility would be to just have less enemies on screen at the same time or lower the health on the enemies so it's faster to deal with them so they don't start to pile up. The beginning was manageable but once there were 6 enemies (with 4 spinning ones!) on screen at the same time it was extremely hard to get kills or get past the bullet onslaught. I also would recommend removing enemy hitbox and stopping enemy shooting immediately once they start to explode. Still might just be the case that I'm just not good enough. :shrug_tone1: I still think it's a great game despite my criticism. Hope you find my feedback useful!
@prof-suarez, @escortti: Thanks for the feedback! I'll keep experimenting with the size of the hit boxes and general game balancing. Removing the hit boxes from the dead enemies is a great idea (and something I should probably already be doing) so I'll prioritize that in the next round of fixes.
As for the difficulty of later sections... I haven't tested them much myself (because it's so hard to reach them :laughing:) and eventually the waves start appearing in a random order. It's entirely possible that some of the later waves are impossible.
Enjoyed the art and controls. Super rough only being able to take one hit. Definitely gave it a couple tries though. Great work!
Really like the sprites. Also the effect when you hit an enemy is nice. Good idea to have the shots angle down so to make it more interesting trying to fly through. Very nice level of quality for a jam.