Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story [Now with Steam demo!]

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comrad_gremlin
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Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story [Now with Steam demo!]

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Hey everyone!

My name is Vladimir, I'm a game developer from Latvia and I wanted to present the new game I've been working on. It's called Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story
It's going to be a shoot-em-up where you control up to 3 ships at the same time. You change formation and pick bonuses that could power them up. I'm going to be occasionally posting development updates here : )

Steam Page (with Demo): https://store.steampowered.com/app/5330 ... ebel_Story

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Here's the release trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsKiG0lt330

And a few screenshots:
Spoiler
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Lead the robot H-34-RT and his allies on impossible mission against O’Xelg fleet! Are you strong enough to lead the rebellion? Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story is a new game in Lazy Galaxy universe. It combines shoot-em-up and roguelite genres by having you take control of the fighter squad, each with its own abilities, and go through 8 different challenging missions.

Pick up weapons, choose bonuses, unlock new ships and allies! The controls are similar to the shoot-em-up genre, except you have a fleet of fighters: that means you can swap between two formations to better destroy or avoid enemies.

if you have any suggestions / feedback - do let me know what you think, I'll be happy to hear from you.
Thanks! :)
Vladimir
Last edited by comrad_gremlin on Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:08 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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M.Knight
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by M.Knight »

Hello Vladimir!

I have a few comments based on the screenshots and the video :

-The perspective of the player and enemy ships is top-down, which would be more fitting for a vertical game actually. If you check the most renowned horizontal shmups out, you'll notice they have a side-view for their enemies and player ships and that looks more natural. I realize producing new art assets can take a very long time so I wouldn't advocate for redoing everything so late in development, but keep that in mind as some other players may be unsettled by the perspective.

-It could be more punchy, by having faster player shots. Right now it seems you can race alongside some of your shots. Faster player shots means the game's enemies get hit by your shots faster and that gives you a more direct feedback loop when playing the game, instead of firing and then waiting ages before the shot has an impact on the game's obstacles.

-The dialogue boxes are displayed on screen even though there is some action going on and bullets to dodge. Because the text box hides everything underneath it, you'll lose lives in unfair ways when a character is speaking. You should put those story elements in moments where you don't risk getting hit, such as right before a boss after all enemies on screen have been removed for example. Also, if the dialogues are a bit on the long side (more than three or five seconds), consider adding an option not to display them. On repeated playthroughs, you often just want to play the game and not read the story text you already know.

-Is movement analog or digital? I also sense some slight acceleration effect. If there is one, remove it as this decreases the level of accuracy and tightness in the controls. If you really want to have multiple speeds, a focus button that slows you down can be an option to consider.

-The idea of having other ships as allies behaving like options with their own specific attacks seems pretty interesting, but that depends on how unique and different the other weapon and ship types are. In the video, most of the ships seem to have only slight variations of a narrow forward shot. Only the hori range or the speed seemed to differentiate the weapons. Why not have ships with more varied weapons? Like a spread shot that is weaker but covers more space? Or a homing attack? Or bombs that explode when touching an enemy and create a destructive circular radius? If all the weapons are similar, the roguelite aspect becomes less fun, so I recommend creating ships with shot types that are memorable while being useful in their own ways.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
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comrad_gremlin
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Hey M.Knight!

Thanks for your reply and for the thought-out feedback! :)

1) I agree to your point. We've experimented a bit with different graphics / layouts and this one was the most optimal thing we came up with in terms of game design / graphics. I realize the risks though.
2) Good point: right now the plan is to adjust the hits and make shooting enemies a bit more pleasant. I've tried reducing this gun's attack by half and increasing the firing speed, but then it just did not feel impactful. I think increasing the bullet speed might be a great solution, will try it later on. Thanks!
3) Good point: right now the game slows down significantly during dialogues and we're working to actually show them during the "cooldown" period where you've either defeated a large wave of enemies and need a short rest. You are totally correct on this one though: we would not want it to overshadow the action. Good suggestion on the dialogues, will do. Thanks!
4) Right now the movement is digital, with analog support planned. There is a slight acceleration effect for the first 0.15 - 0.2 seconds, but after that the plane goes with full speed. The plane stops instantly though, so there's no delay in stopping feedback. Do you think this should be adjusted? Probably will add a setting to disable it.
5) Right now the allies have their "normal" attack, but then their gauge fills and they unleash their special ability. In the trailer, there are two ships: the blue ship heals 0.5 health (out of 6-8 max) after every 15 shots he lands and the red ship supercharges a powerful shot after every 25 hits. The game will have multiple allies, each with their own type of attacks (as you mention, homing attacks / weaker spreadshots).

The trickiest part of allies / formation was keeping the traditional bullet-hell challenge: that's why there is a formation change button (from triangle to straight line and back) that is encouraged to use for dodging some projectiles. Hopefully this will unlock some new bullet-dodging experiences for the game.

Again, thanks for such a detailed feedback, I appreciate it! That's why I shared it here, did not want to release it completely "in the dark," but rather take community feedback into account :)
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M.Knight
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by M.Knight »

comrad_gremlin wrote: 4) Right now the movement is digital, with analog support planned. There is a slight acceleration effect for the first 0.15 - 0.2 seconds, but after that the plane goes with full speed. The plane stops instantly though, so there's no delay in stopping feedback. Do you think this should be adjusted? Probably will add a setting to disable it.
Oh, so that's what it was! I would suggest removing this initial acceleration entirely. Even if you can at least stop instantly, this acceleration can be a problem when trying to dodge patterns that make you do repeated small movements. When there is a long series of aimed bullets for example, players usually do some bullet herding by repeatedly tapping a direction slightly to stream the bullets and avoid cluttering the screen too much. However, with the acceleration when starting movement, this standard tactic becomes a pain to use.
comrad_gremlin wrote: The trickiest part of allies / formation was keeping the traditional bullet-hell challenge: that's why there is a formation change button (from triangle to straight line and back) that is encouraged to use for dodging some projectiles. Hopefully this will unlock some new bullet-dodging experiences for the game.
Why not have a button to regroup the ally ships under yours, to protect them but at the expense of them not firing when they are in that status? You have Tumiki Fighters that does something kinda similar, as in you can stick downed enemy fighters to your ship and they fire for you, but they are vulnerable. You can regroup them all inside your ship but when you do that, you can't enjoy their firepower and the protection they could offer. Actually, I would really recommend you to play Tumiki Fighters as it can give you a lot of inspiration for your ally ship concept. :wink:
comrad_gremlin wrote: Again, thanks for such a detailed feedback, I appreciate it! That's why I shared it here, did not want to release it completely "in the dark," but rather take community feedback into account :)
You are welcome!
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
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comrad_gremlin
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Hey!

As you suggested, increased the speed of player's bullets and re-adjusted controls (still work in progress though) :) Going to work on more transparent dialogue boxes / significant time freeze (or possibility to completely disable them) when those show up.

https://imgur.com/VfdmLM2
comrad_gremlin
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Hey! :) Another week, another update: I've improved the polish and added more enemies / charges, preparing to run a closed beta some time next week.

Here's how the gameplay looked a few days ago:
https://i.imgur.com/wjuXBYx.mp4
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M.Knight
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by M.Knight »

It does look a bit better than the previous videos/images!
I still feel that your player shots are too slow, on top of not moving in a straight line. The red shot's speed is rather fine, but the other two are not fast enough to feel reliable. If you want to convey the idea that some of them are slower because they are much powerful, why not, but the sprite should reflect that.

Speaking of power, the player shots don't feel powerful enough. The enemies shown here are rather small and shouldn't take tons of hits to kill, yet they do. Take something like Gradius for example, where you have some very similar enemy formations that go down much faster than the ones in your game. At a glance, I would say the popcorn enemies should have half their current health, and the star-shaped one a tenth of it.

The particle effects are nice! Their colorful look fits the game pretty well I think.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
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comrad_gremlin
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Hey!

Just wanted to say that I appreciate your suggestions :) I've increased the bullet speed but I might go a bit further with it. I've also reduced the enemy health: the game is feeling more dynamic now. Your suggestions were spot-on and I appreciate it.

Image

I'll check out your game, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to give any sort of relevant feedback since it's obvious that you know much more than I do when it comes to shmup design :)
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M.Knight
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by M.Knight »

Dynamism is one of the best things about this genre, so it's definitely a good thing to have it in your game! :)
Some of the enemies may still have too much health IMO : the turret in the bottom left was taking hits for more than 3 seconds without dying despite being rather small.
"Popcorn" enemies in shmups generally have only a few HPs so that you don't necessarily have to focus your attention on them to kill them. They are often killed in one or two hits. Medium enemies are a different story but they shouldn't take too long to kill either.

On the other hand, the big walls should probably have more health than a regular enemy, but you have to take the duration of their presence on screen into account. It doesn't seem like the walls stay on screen long enough for you to properly kill them.

Once again, some of the enemy formations really remind me of Gradius so I suppose it was an inspiration, or at least a game that you liked playing. Maybe you should play Gradius games even more but with an analytical mindset this time. See how many hits it takes to kill the various types of enemies, how long each enemy type stays on screen before leaving, how the enemy waves are built and how the various types of hazards (be it walls or groups of enemy formations) put you in varied and challenging situations. I think that should help you understand how those games managed to be dynamic and translate some of those design guidelines to Lazy Galaxy.

As for trying my game, it's your call! :wink:
Feedback on the visuals, the presentation, or even general comments can still be useful to me so do as you wish. Besides, even without being super knowledgable in shmup design, you can still sense the dynamism, the pacing and the general feeling a game gives you.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
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comrad_gremlin
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Thanks! I've made the game a bit more dynamic, thanks to your advice : )

Image

I've checked your game out, a few things that I've noticed:
I think the shot dynamic is pretty much spot-on. The flow is also there. After suffering so much with my own flow, I can appreciate these things.

Some Things that I've missed:
- gamepad controls
- muzzle flashes (would be nice if guns show something during the shot, otherwise it feels like bullets appear out of nowhere: you can simply show a flash sprite where bullet spawns for 2-3 frames)
- music: any kind of tune would be better than silence (or for some reason it was not working on my machine). The sound choice is good though: not annoying / pleasant enough :)

Best wishes.
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M.Knight
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by M.Knight »

It looks better indeed! I like how effective that little burst spread shot looks. The main shot is good too power-wise, though the firing rate seems pretty low. Could be worth decreasing its power a little bit but boosting the fire rate to have a more steady stream of shots that overall deal the same amount of damage to enemies.

I noticed some screen shaking, will there be an option to disable it? Most of the time, you get screen shaking for boss (or sometimes mid-boss) death explosions, but not while playing the rest of the game as it is disrupting and can make you lose focus, but for some reason every indie game features it.

The coins you grab at the end should be bigger and a bit flashier, as to make it immediatly clear that you have to collect them. Why not also make them move leftwards to instill some sense of urgency to their collection?

And thanks a lot for trying my game! Your comments are appreciated.
-Gamepad control issue : I use a keyboard and sometimes a controller to test the game but it is not an X-Input controller, so maybe the issue is there. In any case, I take note of this.
-Muzzle flash : There actually is a small shot effect around the gun but if you didn't notice it, then it's too subduded. I could add some sort of flash sprite indeed, that's a good idea.
-Music : Yeah, that's one of the next things I should add in the next demos. So far I've focused on the level design, mechanics and SFX, but not on the music even though it is absolutely important. And I am glad to know the SFX are pleasant to hear!

As for improving your stages' flow and design in general, I can link you to the following thread :
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=58682

It features a variety of comments and analyses from players about the topic of stage design and its flow so it could be an interesting read. I know I used it as a resource to help me design my own levels.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
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comrad_gremlin
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Yeah, the screenshake is toggle'able. I definitely agree to your point about it being able to spoil the fun: i.e. I had to disable screenshake in broforce because it was too much.

I've published the demo on the Steam page (https://store.steampowered.com/app/5330 ... ebel_Story) - will see how people give feedback to it.

I've been working on a new boss recently:
Image

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out! Good luck with your game too!
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M.Knight
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story [Now with Steam demo!]

Post by M.Knight »

I played the demo and cleared its two stages. Here are my comments :

-There are "initial movement delay" options in the settings menu, which I immediatly disabled as they are switched on by default. Is that inertia? If yes, then it is good that we can play without it but there is no point in keeping that inertia at all in the game, so you might as well ditch it completely.
If it is for analog movement, then maybe the naming should reflect that more accurately?

-Is there any input rebinding? WASD controls for player 2 don't play nicely with AZERTY keyboard for example, and if you play in Co-op mode, it seems a plyer has to use the arrow buttons and the numpad keys at the same time, which is very unusual and not convenient.

-The diagonals in your game are not normalized. If you move your ship in a diagonal direction, it is a lot faster which feels a bit odd.

-The dialogue boxes in the tutorial hide the text prompts that tell you what keys to use to perform the currently discussed action. While the dialogue box disappears after a while, it looks unpolished, so you should move the text elsewhere.

-Is the lower left bar what determines when you can use your special ability? I thought at first it was the top left one, but that was a multiplier bar. In any case, you should have some visual indication on the ship itself to tell you whenever you can use the ability again, with a sound effect if possible.

-Having to press a dedicated button to pick up items and allies can feel weird, but at the same time I can't deny that it can prevent picking something you don't want, so I am mixed. Still, if there is no reason not to rescue an ally, there shouldn't be a reason you have to press a button to do it, unlike the end-of-stage weapon bonuses where you want to choose wisely and not get something on accident.

-Is there any pause button?

-The dialogue boxes should not appear while playing. They hide way too much stuff. The warning is obviously okay.

-Your fire should not be sent in a slightly random direction, that makes it feel unreliable. Maybe it works in those Vlambeer games with random shit but in a good shmup, you always want your main weapons to behave in predictable and reliable ways. There's nothing wrong with a straight shot that fires a stream of bullets in a single direction. It guarantees that you will hit an enemy if you are aligned with it, which is important in such a demanding genre.

-I think the small enemies should actually have 1HP. They stagger and are pushed back when hit once and don't die depsite how small they are, which feels very weird.

-The first boss's first phase should be vulnerable on its entire body and not just the two super tiny turrets on it. Your shot is already rather small to begin with, so hitting such a supposedly big enemy shouldn't be such an issue.

-The guard shîps in the boss's second phase take way too many hits to kill. They are very small yet take more than a minute to defeat and are not super easy to hit either. Having the boss be invincible during that portion also feels wrong. Not only it will absorb shots that should have hit the guards, thus prolonging th fight even firther, but that sort of boss invincibility doesn't work too well for a simple stage 1 boss. If you take games such as Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun or Touhou PCB, there is a phase where the final boss is invincible and you have to survive attacks for a set amount of time before it explodes. It works beautifully well because it is extremely climatic and serves as the very final battle in the game. A final test of the player's patience and endurance, with grandiose, ominous or intense music playing in the background and demanding patterns to dodge. Here it is just a simple stage 1 boss with very basic attacks. Why not have him temporarily leave the battle and let the guardsmen attack you, and then have him come back right after the guards are killed?

-Speaking of the bosses, they are both wayyyy too long. They last like, 5 minutes? With patterns that start repeating themselves after 20 seconds or so. Even the music has to stop and loop given how long the bosses are. It's absolutely fine to have short bosses, especially at the beginning of the game. A long boss at the beginning means you'll have to fight them every single time and the mere idea of playing the game and having to face them quickly becomes a turn-off for the entire game. If you look at some good fast-paced arcade shmups, you'll see that the first bosses don't last very long. DoDonPachi's first boss can be killed in 30 seconds for example.

-Post-boss upgrades should display the text all the time instead of only when the player gets near them.

-I noticed that the ally system was not used at all in the entire first stage : you save a guy and he says he'll be there later. Why is that? This ally system with lots of potentially different shot types is one of the major selling points of your game and you shouldn't hinder that mechanic in your level-design. Have the rescued guy be available earlier in the level and have him directly join you when you resuce him.

-The guitar-based music is rather good. Reminds me a bit of Aka to Blue. That said, I feel it does not really match the relatively low intensity of the stage and is a bit at odds with the space background.

-When (inadventently) playing co-op mode, I had a glitch : if a player dies but the other one still clears the stage, it can pick up an upgrade but the game does not proceed to the next stage and none of the other upgrades can be picked up. My theory is that each player is supposed to pick one upgrade but the game does not check whether both are alive or not so it still expects the other player to show up and get an item.

-I once had the same upgrade apepar twice in the set of 6, but that was in co-op, so I guess it's intentionnal. In any case, there shouldn't be any repeats in solo play.

-The purple hexagon things look like collectibles rather than enemies. Theu shinyness does not help.

-The 2nd ship's firing speed is wayyyy too low. It doesn't matter how powerful it is if it fires a shot every two seconds. The triple shot also has a noticeable delay after firing three salvos, which feels a bit unsettling.

-The turret enemy with spikes around it still looks active and alive during its dying animation. You can make it darker or something like that.

-I had a bug where upon restarting a run after a game over, I had the main menu's music playing in the background.

-You should replace the player HP by actual lives. Instead of having %, you can have a set amount of lives and each time you get hit by a bullet you lose one of them. The allies can still keep the HP IMO, since they are not the main player ship, but you can also give them lives as well. G-Darius has allies that can take a lot more hits than the player and it works well.

-The stage 2 missile-firing enemies are a bit puzzling : they are very tiny but can send lots of missiles and are very resilient for their size.

-The boss 2 attack where it spins around the screen is rather original and interesting in theory, but you can still stay on the left side and fire at the boss instead of staying in the middle as the pattern seems to have been programmed for.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
Remote Weapon GunFencer - My shmup project
comrad_gremlin
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story [Now with Steam demo!]

Post by comrad_gremlin »

Hey! Thanks for the extensive feedback, made me rethink some things, so I've adjusted and fixed some of the things and re-uploaded the demo : )
M.Knight wrote:I played the demo and cleared its two stages. Here are my comments :

-There are "initial movement delay" options in the settings menu, which I immediatly disabled as they are switched on by default. Is that inertia? If yes, then it is good that we can play without it but there is no point in keeping that inertia at all in the game, so you might as well ditch it completely.
If it is for analog movement, then maybe the naming should reflect that more accurately?
I think it's good to leave some choice, I normally play with starting inertia (initial movement is slower, then it speeds up, but it always stops right away so there's no left-over inertia).
M.Knight wrote: -Is there any input rebinding? WASD controls for player 2 don't play nicely with AZERTY keyboard for example, and if you play in Co-op mode, it seems a plyer has to use the arrow buttons and the numpad keys at the same time, which is very unusual and not convenient.
I think that's a fair comment and I've added it to my to-do list: not sure if I'll be able to make it in time for the release, but I want to support accessibility
M.Knight wrote: -The diagonals in your game are not normalized. If you move your ship in a diagonal direction, it is a lot faster which feels a bit odd.
Good catch, thanks for letting me know! Fixed it, now they are normalized.
M.Knight wrote: -The dialogue boxes in the tutorial hide the text prompts that tell you what keys to use to perform the currently discussed action. While the dialogue box disappears after a while, it looks unpolished, so you should move the text elsewhere.
Good point, remade it : )
M.Knight wrote: -Is the lower left bar what determines when you can use your special ability? I thought at first it was the top left one, but that was a multiplier bar. In any case, you should have some visual indication on the ship itself to tell you whenever you can use the ability again, with a sound effect if possible.
Great suggestion, implemented it. There's a sound / UI animation / ship animation that indicates that now.
M.Knight wrote: -Having to press a dedicated button to pick up items and allies can feel weird, but at the same time I can't deny that it can prevent picking something you don't want, so I am mixed. Still, if there is no reason not to rescue an ally, there shouldn't be a reason you have to press a button to do it, unlike the end-of-stage weapon bonuses where you want to choose wisely and not get something on accident.
My idea behind it is that it should be a conscious decision so that player understands what he did
M.Knight wrote: -Is there any pause button?
Right now the only way to pause the game is by pressing Escape key: It shows the pause menu
M.Knight wrote: -The dialogue boxes should not appear while playing. They hide way too much stuff. The warning is obviously okay.
Made it toggle-able + now they will mostly appear when there are no enemies on the screen (unless it's a ally death dialog)
M.Knight wrote: -Your fire should not be sent in a slightly random direction, that makes it feel unreliable. Maybe it works in those Vlambeer games with random shit but in a good shmup, you always want your main weapons to behave in predictable and reliable ways. There's nothing wrong with a straight shot that fires a stream of bullets in a single direction. It guarantees that you will hit an enemy if you are aligned with it, which is important in such a demanding genre.
I don't think that the current angle matters that much, but I like the game feel with _seemingly_ randomized bullets much more.
M.Knight wrote: -I think the small enemies should actually have 1HP. They stagger and are pushed back when hit once and don't die depsite how small they are, which feels very weird.
Good suggestion, reduced the overall enemy hp, thank you!
M.Knight wrote: -The first boss's first phase should be vulnerable on its entire body and not just the two super tiny turrets on it. Your shot is already rather small to begin with, so hitting such a supposedly big enemy shouldn't be such an issue.

-The guard shîps in the boss's second phase take way too many hits to kill. They are very small yet take more than a minute to defeat and are not super easy to hit either. Having the boss be invincible during that portion also feels wrong. Not only it will absorb shots that should have hit the guards, thus prolonging th fight even firther, but that sort of boss invincibility doesn't work too well for a simple stage 1 boss. If you take games such as Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun or Touhou PCB, there is a phase where the final boss is invincible and you have to survive attacks for a set amount of time before it explodes. It works beautifully well because it is extremely climatic and serves as the very final battle in the game. A final test of the player's patience and endurance, with grandiose, ominous or intense music playing in the background and demanding patterns to dodge. Here it is just a simple stage 1 boss with very basic attacks. Why not have him temporarily leave the battle and let the guardsmen attack you, and then have him come back right after the guards are killed?
I don't want it to be overly-basic, it's easy to beat, but I still want him to be _somewhat_ unique
M.Knight wrote: -Speaking of the bosses, they are both wayyyy too long. They last like, 5 minutes? With patterns that start repeating themselves after 20 seconds or so. Even the music has to stop and loop given how long the bosses are. It's absolutely fine to have short bosses, especially at the beginning of the game. A long boss at the beginning means you'll have to fight them every single time and the mere idea of playing the game and having to face them quickly becomes a turn-off for the entire game. If you look at some good fast-paced arcade shmups, you'll see that the first bosses don't last very long. DoDonPachi's first boss can be killed in 30 seconds for example.
Good argument, reduced the boss health (+ I might make a few more alternatives for the first bosses for them not to be boring).
M.Knight wrote: -Post-boss upgrades should display the text all the time instead of only when the player gets near them.
Good suggestion, implemented it.

-I noticed that the ally system was not used at all in the entire first stage : you save a guy and he says he'll be there later. Why is that? This ally system with lots of potentially different shot types is one of the major selling points of your game and you shouldn't hinder that mechanic in your level-design. Have the rescued guy be available earlier in the level and have him directly join you when you resuce him.

-The guitar-based music is rather good. Reminds me a bit of Aka to Blue. That said, I feel it does not really match the relatively low intensity of the stage and is a bit at odds with the space background.
M.Knight wrote: -When (inadventently) playing co-op mode, I had a glitch : if a player dies but the other one still clears the stage, it can pick up an upgrade but the game does not proceed to the next stage and none of the other upgrades can be picked up. My theory is that each player is supposed to pick one upgrade but the game does not check whether both are alive or not so it still expects the other player to show up and get an item.
Thanks, fixed it!
M.Knight wrote: -I once had the same upgrade apepar twice in the set of 6, but that was in co-op, so I guess it's intentionnal. In any case, there shouldn't be any repeats in solo play.

Yup, that's the co-op thing and there are definitely no repeat in solo play.
M.Knight wrote: -The purple hexagon things look like collectibles rather than enemies. Theu shinyness does not help.
Thanks for letting me know, I've removed the shine from the mines.
M.Knight wrote: -The 2nd ship's firing speed is wayyyy too low. It doesn't matter how powerful it is if it fires a shot every two seconds. The triple shot also has a noticeable delay after firing three salvos, which feels a bit unsettling.
Increased the ship firing speed, thank you!
M.Knight wrote: -The turret enemy with spikes around it still looks active and alive during its dying animation. You can make it darker or something like that.
It's not really dying when you destroy the cannon (he's still flying to block your bullets)
M.Knight wrote: -I had a bug where upon restarting a run after a game over, I had the main menu's music playing in the background.
I _think_ I've fixed it (hopefully)
M.Knight wrote: -You should replace the player HP by actual lives. Instead of having %, you can have a set amount of lives and each time you get hit by a bullet you lose one of them. The allies can still keep the HP IMO, since they are not the main player ship, but you can also give them lives as well. G-Darius has allies that can take a lot more hits than the player and it works well.
I think it's going to stay for now, but I'll be closely monitoring the feedback
M.Knight wrote: -The stage 2 missile-firing enemies are a bit puzzling : they are very tiny but can send lots of missiles and are very resilient for their size.
Reduced the health, thanks!
M.Knight wrote: -The boss 2 attack where it spins around the screen is rather original and interesting in theory, but you can still stay on the left side and fire at the boss instead of staying in the middle as the pattern seems to have been programmed for.
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I'm ok with that: those are somewhat random and you can't always hide on the left.

Thanks a lot for leaving so many details! I've also updated the release trailer today. Doing some last-moment adjustments / fixes right now before releasing it in two weeks.
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M.Knight
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Re: Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story [Now with Steam demo!]

Post by M.Knight »

I played the updated demo's first stage a bit and the pace and enemy destruction rhythm outside of boss sequences seems to have improved. And the ability to have allies at the beginning of the game is clearly welcome. :)

Though I think I would retool the sequences of enemy waves to have a less chaotic progression through the level. While the newly added dynamism is a step in the right direction, you get attacked right off the bat by small popcorn enemies and big "walls" that appear to be too fast to be killed before they leave, and then the level becomes a bit easier before becoming difficult once again. In terms of level progression, it would be more natural if you have a few of those Gradius-like popcorn enemies at first and then progressively introduce and mix in more enemy types and hazards in the short time before the boss fight. And if the walls can't be killed because they have too much HP to be defeated during the time they spawn, either nerf their HP or speed so they can be killed or make them invulnerable so they can act as physical obstacles instead of the confusing hybrid they currently are.

You should also prevent the smaller ennemies from firing bullets if they are very close to you or on the left side of the screen, to prevent being point-blanked by bullet you can't really react to before it's too late.

I think the shotgun has a weird quirk with the movement. Whenever you fire it, the ship speed zig-zags a lot, and it feels pretty unnatural. Why not let its speed stay the same when firing?

Another suggestion is to provide more feedback when damaged. Here you can see the ally ship or your ship's lifebar, but there is no sound effect at all so if you focus on the boss for example, you don't necessarily feel a bullet impact.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
Remote Weapon GunFencer - My shmup project
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