Star Hunter DX from 1CC Games on Steam, Switch, PS4 and Xbox

[Blinge]

Well here's a Luna Normal 1cc with much better quality, and captions on Youtube

https://youtu.be/FBR1uTDPwnc

[dan76]

Because of a ratings mix up Star Hunter has been taken down from the Switch EU shop.

Is it back up again ?

Yes - it's back up on the Switch EU shop!

[dan76]

Star Hunter DX has been updated to v2.00, with these changes:

- Error with end of stage bonus for astronauts fixed.
- All platform optimisation.
- A few graphics glitches ironed out.
- Optimisations from console builds applied to Steam version.
- Steam screenshots now save correctly.
- And most importantly... a new jellyfish sprite in Stage 3!

[Jasonbartfast]

Has anyone tested the input lag on Switch? I enjoyed the demo on steam but I know I would play it more on Switch.

[ATTRACTS]

Has anyone tested the input lag on Switch? I enjoyed the demo on steam but I know I would play it more on Switch.

I don't have any hard numbers but I own the PS4 version and the Switch version and they both feel pretty much identical (they run great). You are safe to proceed.

[guigui]

Just bought the Space Moth + Star Hunter pack on the Switch. Nice value for a nice bundle, thanks for the effort guys.

[Jasonbartfast]

Has anyone tested the input lag on Switch? I enjoyed the demo on steam but I know I would play it more on Switch.

I don't have any hard numbers but I own the PS4 version and the Switch version and they both feel pretty much identical (they run great). You are safe to proceed.

Thanks, I downloaded it last night and it feels pretty smooth

[guigui]

Star Hunter DX, I love it ! Very fun and risk&reward scoring system, real sense of progression.

Some things I hopefully guessed right that were not in the "how to play" section (btw, I love getting an achievment for reading ), all tried with Edgar on Space Cadet, not sure if it is character/difficulty dependant

* Shot increases multiplier way faster than laser
* A big part of the score comes from end of stage bonus
* End of stage bonus is actually multiplied by your average multiplier, so multiplier is more than essential part of scoring. Keep it high.
* If you can destroy all the armor parts of a boss while in Bullet Time, you'll trigger its escape pod pattern when the boss dies. Escape pod is basically a hidden pattern very good for scoring : lots of bullet and you automatically enter it with full Bullet Time because of killing regular boss before. Also escape pod design is nice and easter eggs to our beloved shmups.
* Bombing is essential to scoring too. A bomb can either cancel bullets to give gold in Bullet Time, or cancel bullets to give you blue items to enter Bullet Time faster, or make you survive a tight spot.
* Chasing and grazing slow bullets along the screen can fill the extra-bomb bar very fast. I dont think the extra-bomb bar refill rate is tied to how many bullets you graze, or how close you are.
* Stage 4 environmental hazards are actually your friends : shot them to increase multiplier, you can destroy many enemies through them, they stop enemies fire, your hitbox can get through certain gaps while enemies fire cannot.


Maybe if developpers read QoL improvments suggestion :
* give me an option to disable the continue screen ? Or at least a button to make timer go down faster by repeatdly pressing it. I'm sorry but when I just lost my credit I dont feel like pressing "right" to select no at the continue screen, instead I just want to mash something in anger and hope that it makes the next run start faster.
* maybe give me more visual clues when I am in Bullet Time ? Bullets/ship more flashy, or with a different aura/color ? Music/FX change ? Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm in Bullet Time or not, and end up manually exiting it by mistake.

And gameplay suggestion, but maybe I need it because I'm just not good enough at the game : give me some i-frames or some kind of cancel when I enter/exit
Bullet Time ?

[Leander]

Star Hunter DX, I love it ! Very fun and risk&reward scoring system, real sense of progression.

Some things I hopefully guessed right that were not in the "how to play" section (btw, I love getting an achievment for reading ), all tried with Edgar on Space Cadet, not sure if it is character/difficulty dependant

Some great tips here, just adding my two cents...

* Shot increases multiplier way faster than laser

This is true for the two more difficult characters, but it's the opposite for CAT-99.

* maybe give me more visual clues when I am in Bullet Time ? Bullets/ship more flashy, or with a different aura/color ? Music/FX change ? Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm in Bullet Time or not, and end up manually exiting it by mistake.

There's a grid-pattern which appears in the background while in bullet-time. At least that's how I knew whether it was active or not.

Agreed awesome game.

[guigui]

Right about multiplier rate increase being tied to character.

Also worth noting that getting a powerup/max_powerup/1up increases the bullet time bar, by more than an astronaut.

[dan76]

Star Hunter DX, I love it ! Very fun and risk&reward scoring system, real sense of progression.

Some things I hopefully guessed right that were not in the "how to play" section (btw, I love getting an achievment for reading ), all tried with Edgar on Space Cadet, not sure if it is character/difficulty dependant

* Shot increases multiplier way faster than laser
* A big part of the score comes from end of stage bonus
* End of stage bonus is actually multiplied by your average multiplier, so multiplier is more than essential part of scoring. Keep it high.
* If you can destroy all the armor parts of a boss while in Bullet Time, you'll trigger its escape pod pattern when the boss dies. Escape pod is basically a hidden pattern very good for scoring : lots of bullet and you automatically enter it with full Bullet Time because of killing regular boss before. Also escape pod design is nice and easter eggs to our beloved shmups.
* Bombing is essential to scoring too. A bomb can either cancel bullets to give gold in Bullet Time, or cancel bullets to give you blue items to enter Bullet Time faster, or make you survive a tight spot.
* Chasing and grazing slow bullets along the screen can fill the extra-bomb bar very fast. I dont think the extra-bomb bar refill rate is tied to how many bullets you graze, or how close you are.
* Stage 4 environmental hazards are actually your friends : shot them to increase multiplier, you can destroy many enemies through them, they stop enemies fire, your hitbox can get through certain gaps while enemies fire cannot.


Maybe if developpers read QoL improvments suggestion :
* give me an option to disable the continue screen ? Or at least a button to make timer go down faster by repeatdly pressing it. I'm sorry but when I just lost my credit I dont feel like pressing "right" to select no at the continue screen, instead I just want to mash something in anger and hope that it makes the next run start faster.
* maybe give me more visual clues when I am in Bullet Time ? Bullets/ship more flashy, or with a different aura/color ? Music/FX change ? Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm in Bullet Time or not, and end up manually exiting it by mistake.

And gameplay suggestion, but maybe I need it because I'm just not good enough at the game : give me some i-frames or some kind of cancel when I enter/exit
Bullet Time ?

Good stuff. I think we made the How to Play pretty extensive, but we didn't want to fully explain all the tricks to high scores etc. You're right about the multiplier being key to the bonus. Only go in at max and cancel out early if you think it's going to drop.

With the bombs, if you're at max multiplier and in Bullet Time bomb away! Tapping rapid and bombing a large enemy's bullets without damaging the enemy can grab you a lot of points. The large "spinning top" enemies in stage 2 are good for this.

[guigui]

Good stuff. I think we made the How to Play pretty extensive, but we didn't want to fully explain all the tricks to high scores etc. You're right about the multiplier being key to the bonus. Only go in at max and cancel out early if you think it's going to drop.

Hum, do you mean that multiplier does not reset to 1 if we exit it manually ?

EDIT : ofc I could try this by myself : multiplier resets to 1 no matter how you exit Bullet Time. I guess that what you meant is that if you see there are not enough enemies on screen to maintain high multiplier, then it is better to exit Bullet Time manually.

[dan76]

Good stuff. I think we made the How to Play pretty extensive, but we didn't want to fully explain all the tricks to high scores etc. You're right about the multiplier being key to the bonus. Only go in at max and cancel out early if you think it's going to drop.

Hum, do you mean that multiplier does not reset to 1 if we exit it manually ?

EDIT : ofc I could try this by myself : multiplier resets to 1 no matter how you exit Bullet Time. I guess that what you meant is that if you see there are not enough enemies on screen to maintain high multiplier, then it is better to exit Bullet Time manually.

The end of stage bonus is based on the multiplier whilst in Bullet Time, so yes, exit if you can't keep it at max.

[guigui]

The end of stage bonus is based on the multiplier whilst in Bullet Time, so yes, exit if you can't keep it at max.

Great info ... or not ?
Should we understand that the "AVG Multiplier" shown at end of stage only counts your multiplier while in Bullet Time ? If yes, dont you fear on can abuse it by doing a single easy Bullet Time during the whole stage and have it maxed at x8 for big bonus ?

[dan76]

The end of stage bonus is based on the multiplier whilst in Bullet Time, so yes, exit if you can't keep it at max.

Great info ... or not ?
Should we understand that the "AVG Multiplier" shown at end of stage only counts your multiplier while in Bullet Time ? If yes, dont you fear on can abuse it by doing a single easy Bullet Time during the whole stage and have it maxed at x8 for big bonus ?

The bonus will be tiny compared to going into Bullet Time as often as possible at max multiplier for the whole stage.
...however, going in just once at max is an easy way to get one of the achievements!

[Jasonbartfast]

A quick update on the Switch port: sometimes it runs extremely slowly from the start of stage 1, I have not been able to figure out why. The fix is to close the game and restart it.

[guigui]

The bonus will be tiny compared to going into Bullet Time as often as possible at max multiplier for the whole stage.
...however, going in just once at max is an easy way to get one of the achievements!

Sure you're right. Plus, never going into Bullet Time is actually hard, even on stage 1, lots of things to dodge.

I also encounter the slowdown issue on the NSW : fps drop very badly, especially when using shot. Most of the time it indeed happens when the game has been running for a long time, exited to main Switch but not closed. Just close and restart and everything is fine.
This slowdown issue I encountered on other games too (like Atom RPG, Iconoclast) so I guess this is not really something game developers can handle easily.