Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

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Joel
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Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by Joel »

Hey everyone! I'm brand new to these forums and am excited to be here.

My name is Joel and I'm making a shmup about Karens that have been transformed into evil cyborgs by an otherworldly pathogen and are now taking over your city. The game focuses on boss fights and has voice acting to go along with the four Karen bosses. You pilot the Manager X-15, a high tech vessel of the KDF (Karen Defense Force), and your mission takes you from the KDF base in the outskirts of the city (mountains) through farms, small town main streets, urban downtowns, beach mansions, and finally culminating in an encounter at the cliffside spa retreat (where the evil all began!).

I'm hard at work trying to put together a public demo for my steam page, and I wanted to get some feedback here on these forums to see if I'm headed in a good direction. Above all, I want the game to be a fun, solid shmup. Being a solo dev, I can't expect the world but I can give it my best shot.

Screenshots:

Image
Image
Image

It strays from a classic shmup formula. I know this might irk some people, but I didn't want to make just another shmup, I want to try something new. Rather than just telling me something needs to be ditched, if you would please provide some explanation as to why it would be very beneficial, and also explain why a feature listed below might work well.

Current state of the game:

This is planned to be a rogue-style shmup, so death is an expected and frequent part of the game.

Features:
  • You play a total of four stages each with an end "Karen" boss that has several phases to the fight.
  • Levels/boss combos are randomized.
  • The levels are based on an RNG system that randomizes spawn events for enemies, with a weighted curve so easier encounters spawn first, then harder encounters spawn later in the level.
  • Bullet patterns are a mix of aimed and patterned, with some laser attacks.
  • There are about 8 enemy designs in the demo stage. I plan to re-use some of those enemy designs (about 4) across the whole game, with the other 4 being unique to the level.
  • There will be miniboss fights in the middle of each stage.
  • There are planned environmental challenges. For example, in the demo stage, you break open the windshield of a large enemy ship (see screenshot) and then fly through it to a tighter area to reach the control room and destroy the ship. Environmental challenges reward the player via the player destroying destructible objects in the environment, etc.
  • You have a health bar. About 4 hits and you're dead.
  • Dead enemies drop energy which refill your health bar.
Other Mechanics:
  • Energy collected in excess of a full health bar adds to a bank.
  • Big enemies and bosses have a chance to drop new weapons or utilities.
  • Between deaths you can buy upgrades to your ship (+ bullet damage, + ship speed, + armor, etc.)
  • When you die you lose all of your enemy-dropped equipment above and start back at level 1.
  • There are five guns total. You can change guns between deaths and hold 1 gun at a time.
  • There are four utilities, you can hold 1 at a time.
I guess I'm putting this out there now because I'm at a stage where I need to decide if the current path is best for the game. I really enjoy roguelike shmups such as Steredenn and Black Paradox, so I know I want to do something like that.

Thanks so much for taking the time to check out my game in development and provide feedback.
Last edited by Joel on Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon." - Groucho Marx
http://www.studioprimitive.net
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566 ... he_Karens/
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heli
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by heli »

How can i see the images then ?
Ark
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by Ark »

I like the art style you have a lot going on in the background, which is nice. Question when you die, do you start at the beginning of the stage or at the spot you died.
Will you have continues in this game? You mention you have four bosses but have 8 levels planned. Does that mean we will see those 4 bosses multiple times or are you planning on adding additional bosses?
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Sumez
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by Sumez »

Not sure how to see the screenshots either, but the whole "Karen" idea sounds like something you'd regret if you stick with it IMO.
Sounds to me like a joke that's already really outdated, and won't fare any better in the future.
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Joel
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by Joel »

heli wrote:How can i see the images then ?
Previous image links were broken, sorry.. updated with new screenshots.
"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon." - Groucho Marx
http://www.studioprimitive.net
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566 ... he_Karens/
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Joel
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by Joel »

Ark wrote:I like the art style you have a lot going on in the background, which is nice. Question when you die, do you start at the beginning of the stage or at the spot you died.
Will you have continues in this game? You mention you have four bosses but have 8 levels planned. Does that mean we will see those 4 bosses multiple times or are you planning on adding additional bosses?
Since it's a roguelike game, when you die you'll start a completely new run through the whole game.

I need to go back and update the features listed. I've had to cut the scope down, so you'll face four bosses in random order over four randomized levels out of a pool of six total levels, with a fifth final encounter boss that never changes.
"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon." - Groucho Marx
http://www.studioprimitive.net
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566 ... he_Karens/
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Joel
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by Joel »

Sumez wrote:Not sure how to see the screenshots either, but the whole "Karen" idea sounds like something you'd regret if you stick with it IMO.
Sounds to me like a joke that's already really outdated, and won't fare any better in the future.
Yup, I thought of this. The meme has had a rise since COVID but I don't think it'll last too much longer. The game might feel dated in not too long. Since it's my first go at making a game I'm not too concerned though.
"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon." - Groucho Marx
http://www.studioprimitive.net
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566 ... he_Karens/
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Verticen
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by Verticen »

Srry to bump, but you might want to consider embedding the screenshots directly here in the forms, like so:
ImageImage
I think that this would help gain a bit more attention, as the art is a lot better than I expected when I first read the pitch in OP. This can be done in BBCode like this:

Code: Select all

[img]img_url_here[/img]
Honestly I agree that the Karen meme is a bit dated, and I originally wasn't too interested in the game. However, after seeing screenshots, I actually kind of still like the concept of this. A representation of karen memes but giant Daifukatsu cyborgs in a game that doesn't take itself too seriously works pretty well here. It's an absurd premise that's grounded in tropes of sci-fi / shooting games. Conceptually, that works here.

Your artstyle with the concept works good, but you should think about adding a little edge; some sort of difficulty or scoring appeal for the core shooting game audience to view this as more than a novelty game-jam quality meme-game. From the videos on steam, this looks like a great begginer's shmup, but the default mode will probably be far too easy for even medium skill players to enjoy for multiple playsessions. For a quick fix; I'd recomend adding a multiplier variable to the speed of your bullets; e.g.

Code: Select all

//just psuedocode
float bullet_speed = 2
float difficulty_multiplier = 1 (Normal), 2 (Hard), 3 + increasing (Insane)

final_bullet_speed = bullet_speed * difficulty_multiplier
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SolDirix
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Re: Attack of the Karens - Feedback on Early Screenshots

Post by SolDirix »

Innacurate.

Karens aren't hot, what have you done xD.
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