Very cool game! At first I thought it was infinite until I hit the boss (who died very quickly lol)
My one bit of feedback is that it would be nice if the "weapon" upgrade made the shot visually look stronger instead of just upping the damage. You could do this either by having chunkier/wider bullet sprites, or simply by upping the fire rate instead of damage. Consider increasing bullet speed a bit as you upgrade too -- it's not really much of an advantage but it will look/feel stronger to the player.
Hey! Thanks for playing and providing your feedback. I agree the sprite should change when powering up. This has been fixed in the latest update so you should now see a visual change on each power increase.
Regarding shot speed, this is actually technically already in the game -- the closer you are to the top of the screen, the faster you shoot, so as to reward riskier playing. The effect may be a bit too subtle though.
I'll definitely consider this for future versions!
I did notice that yeah! I wasn't sure if it was a shot limit or something else, the fact it's based on height on the screen explains it, as it didn't seem like I was shooting faster just from getting close to enemies.
I played through with the new changes -- the new bullet sprites feel really nice, good work! Definitely feels like more of a power upgrade even though it's just an aesthetic change, very satisfying.
I also like the new coin design, they're a lot easier to distinguish from the enemy bullets.
One thing I noticed is I don't seem to be able to collect the powerups as they're leaving the screen -- sometimes I miss the one I want in the rotation so I wait for it to come around again, but the powerup is too low to collect even though it's still visible.
Interesting. I'll do some testing on my end to see if I can reproduce.
I'd like to gather some more data on this -- Does the issue occur when the powerup sprite is still fully visible? Or is it partially out of view when you're unable to collect it?
Gotcha. Yeah I'll check it out and see if I can make some adjustments.
Quick side note -- You do amazing work btw. Absolutely incredible shmup you made with Praxis Fighter -- You're one of the folks who inspired me to feel comfortable about making a single level shmup experience.
I would love to finish a roguelike that even comes close to the elegance of Into Ruins as well!
Fun game! I like the art, nice colors! The upgrades are fun with how they tie into each other, and the explosions are satisfying. However, i do have a couple gripes. First of all, the names for the upgrades are strange, like "tractor beam" doesn't really make sense as it increases pickup radius? Would just call it pickup. Same with weapon, if you called it power and made the shots thicker if you get it it would make more sense. Plus shields should just be called options so that it makes more sense. It's not like they shield you from bullets, right? Then there's the scoring with the chaining, which is fine! But one thing that confuses me is the fact that the score just seems to always go up? Like if i stop shooting and not grab any medals it still just goes up? Kinda strange and not really satisfying. Other than that, fun game!
Hey! Thanks for trying it out and providing your feedback.
I struggled with what to call some of the powerups (originally the pickup was called Magnet, but I changed it to Tractor Beam so it would stay thematic. To your point, though, it may just be more confusing. Would Magnet make more sense? Or Pickup instead?
I plan to go back and adjust the Weapon / Power so that it does change sprites, I just am not great at sprite work so I couldn't find a sprite I was satisfied with at the time.
I agree Shields could be called options, though they do also damage enemies on collision. I only recently learned of the term Options for those and thought it might be confusing to newcomers, but perhaps it's more confusing not calling them Options. I'll give this some thought.
I don't recall the scoring working the way you're describing, but will do some experimenting and follow up on this.
Thanks again for the insight and for playing the game!
Hey thanks! I think that options are indeed a bit weird, maybe you could do something like buddies or helpers? I noticed they do collision damage too, awesome! Power and magnet are fine yeah, but if you want it to be more thematic, maybe you could do something like cannon and lookout? idk. If the score works differently, then how does it work?
I realized shortly after I posted what you were talking about with the constantly increasing score -- this was originally intended to be a "survival" score of sorts, so you would be rewarded for staying alive longer. If it diminishes the satisfaction of the game however it's something I'll need to go back and revisit.
I discovered a couple of bugs that need sorting out anyway so I may end up revamping how scoring works a bit.
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Very cool game! At first I thought it was infinite until I hit the boss (who died very quickly lol)
My one bit of feedback is that it would be nice if the "weapon" upgrade made the shot visually look stronger instead of just upping the damage. You could do this either by having chunkier/wider bullet sprites, or simply by upping the fire rate instead of damage. Consider increasing bullet speed a bit as you upgrade too -- it's not really much of an advantage but it will look/feel stronger to the player.
Hey! Thanks for playing and providing your feedback. I agree the sprite should change when powering up. This has been fixed in the latest update so you should now see a visual change on each power increase.
Regarding shot speed, this is actually technically already in the game -- the closer you are to the top of the screen, the faster you shoot, so as to reward riskier playing. The effect may be a bit too subtle though.
I'll definitely consider this for future versions!
I did notice that yeah! I wasn't sure if it was a shot limit or something else, the fact it's based on height on the screen explains it, as it didn't seem like I was shooting faster just from getting close to enemies.
I played through with the new changes -- the new bullet sprites feel really nice, good work! Definitely feels like more of a power upgrade even though it's just an aesthetic change, very satisfying.
I also like the new coin design, they're a lot easier to distinguish from the enemy bullets.
One thing I noticed is I don't seem to be able to collect the powerups as they're leaving the screen -- sometimes I miss the one I want in the rotation so I wait for it to come around again, but the powerup is too low to collect even though it's still visible.
Interesting. I'll do some testing on my end to see if I can reproduce.
I'd like to gather some more data on this -- Does the issue occur when the powerup sprite is still fully visible? Or is it partially out of view when you're unable to collect it?
I'm not sure -- I think it was still mostly on screen but starting to leave. It might just be that the hit box is a bit smaller than I was expecting
Gotcha. Yeah I'll check it out and see if I can make some adjustments.
Quick side note -- You do amazing work btw. Absolutely incredible shmup you made with Praxis Fighter -- You're one of the folks who inspired me to feel comfortable about making a single level shmup experience.
I would love to finish a roguelike that even comes close to the elegance of Into Ruins as well!
Hey, just wanted to follow up and let you know I was able to reproduce the powerup issue you mentioned and it should now be fixed in the v1.2 update.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Fun game! I like the art, nice colors! The upgrades are fun with how they tie into each other, and the explosions are satisfying. However, i do have a couple gripes. First of all, the names for the upgrades are strange, like "tractor beam" doesn't really make sense as it increases pickup radius? Would just call it pickup. Same with weapon, if you called it power and made the shots thicker if you get it it would make more sense. Plus shields should just be called options so that it makes more sense. It's not like they shield you from bullets, right? Then there's the scoring with the chaining, which is fine! But one thing that confuses me is the fact that the score just seems to always go up? Like if i stop shooting and not grab any medals it still just goes up? Kinda strange and not really satisfying. Other than that, fun game!
Hey! Thanks for trying it out and providing your feedback.
I struggled with what to call some of the powerups (originally the pickup was called Magnet, but I changed it to Tractor Beam so it would stay thematic. To your point, though, it may just be more confusing. Would Magnet make more sense? Or Pickup instead?
I plan to go back and adjust the Weapon / Power so that it does change sprites, I just am not great at sprite work so I couldn't find a sprite I was satisfied with at the time.
I agree Shields could be called options, though they do also damage enemies on collision. I only recently learned of the term Options for those and thought it might be confusing to newcomers, but perhaps it's more confusing not calling them Options. I'll give this some thought.
I don't recall the scoring working the way you're describing, but will do some experimenting and follow up on this.
Thanks again for the insight and for playing the game!
Hey thanks! I think that options are indeed a bit weird, maybe you could do something like buddies or helpers? I noticed they do collision damage too, awesome! Power and magnet are fine yeah, but if you want it to be more thematic, maybe you could do something like cannon and lookout? idk. If the score works differently, then how does it work?
I realized shortly after I posted what you were talking about with the constantly increasing score -- this was originally intended to be a "survival" score of sorts, so you would be rewarded for staying alive longer. If it diminishes the satisfaction of the game however it's something I'll need to go back and revisit.
I discovered a couple of bugs that need sorting out anyway so I may end up revamping how scoring works a bit.
Aah i see, that is a cool idea, but i think you should have a normal score for enemy kills and medals on top of that
It's looks and feels great!
Thank you for playing! Glad you enjoyed it :)