UNLIMITED BULLET - New Bullet Hell shmup

[gngfan]

Hi all,

maybe you can take a look at "Unlimited Bullet", our new bullet hell boss figthing shmup.

The game offers:

- 7 different bosses
- 3 difficulty levels
- 2 game modes
- unique bullet patterns
- hopefully a challenge to you guys

Here are some pics of the game:



I have released a web version (flash) this week. Its only playable here at the moment:
http://www.navygames.org/unlimitedbullet.php

Maybe you can take a look at the game and give me some feedback.

Iam also planning to release a free Android version sometimes later this year.

cheers
J

[Elixir]

- game plays like touhou in 10 fps
- bullet pattens are far too slow, dull, boring
- patterns are mostly stolen from other games
- ship's shot type is slow and uninviting
- the entire thing feels like a chore to play
- enemies are basically moving jpegs with no animation whatsoever
- music is utterly unremarkable, it isn't even made for the game
- mouse control is terrible and doesn't exist in this genre for good reason
- all bullets have a single layer to them and no depth at all
- spelling errors

I could go on, but this game practically has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, it's embarrassing.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's a decent timekiller for a few minutes, but it suffers from two major flash shmup failings - it's in a tiny window by default and it's not capable of fullscreen (running the SWF directly causes the graphics to freak out). It's also a bit choppy (but flash generally isn't great for shmups).

The hardest part of the game is the mouse control. I kept losing my mouse outside the edges. Boss difficulty is all out of whack too, I played through on Hard. Pearlando's last phase is kinda tough, whereas Spacabal & Ticabal have two laughably easy phases and two pure bullshit phases (the ones where they fly in from offscreen constantly). All of Coraline's attacks are super easy (hide in the corner for the second one, the end).

Then you run into Ariel, who has a stupidly easy first phase, then homing laser bullets that spray bullets everywhere, and a third phase that is less annoying on Normal, but outrageously bullshit on Hard. This is followed by a fuck you your danmaku is made of awfulness phase where gigantic lines spray bullets at you and basically spawn fast moving bullets beside you while you're trapped. Ariel's last phase wouldn't be so hard if she didn't act like a bullet sponge.

Unlimited mode is just all the bosses in a row with a whole bunch of lives. Since most of those lives won't be used until the few actually hard patterns it's actually easier than Hard is.

The pitifully lame looking bullets your ship fires with no spread are kinda disheartening.

- game plays like touhou in 10 fps
- enemies are basically moving jpegs with no animation whatsoever

To be fair, Touhou bosses didn't have much animation either.

- mouse control is terrible and doesn't exist in this genre for good reason

Mouse control is terrible. It makes movement too floaty, too difficult to tap dodge, or too outrageously easy for patterns where lightspeed wide movement makes the pattern trivial.

Scoring system has no depth; it's only based on killing bosses quickly, which is what you'd be doing anyways.

[Dave_K.]

Welcome gngfan. I agree with most of the comments given above. You'll find most people here play arcade style shmups, while I'd call this kind of a casual dodge-em-up that gets pretty boring quickly. I'd wager if you spent more time working on this to add more player interactions and risk/reward type scoring system, you'd get a better reception.

I am curious how you plan to "port" flash to android.

[gngfan]

Hi all,

thank you for your feedback.

I will go into some of your points:

- Screensize: The screensize is due to that it has to be portable to a mobile device. Its scaleable but it will just fit your standartd mobile screen sizes.

- Mouse Control: Bascially because its quite easy to port to mobile.


To Elixier:

- Moving .jpg and Music is a money issue. You will have to pay for animations and music (if you cannot do it yourselfe), why would someone do this for a free shmup as this is a small budget production?

- FPS: If you think its easy to get a high performance like on a standard pc out of a flash game feel free to demonstrate it to me

- Well there are some new and unique patterns too

- You are certainly right on most of your other points.



To BareKnuckleRoo:

Thank you for your feedback.

You are right in all your points, i will consider them for a possible 2nd part.
The scoring system definitely need some work.
You are also right that the phases need more balance and need another structure (esay to hard).


To Dave_K.:

Thank you for the info.
I like your point with the risk/reward scoring system.

To be hornest i do not have the budget or time to make or pay for a "real" Arcade game as you guys would understand it.

Its made using Haxe. I can target .swf, android and other platform with that.


Thanks again for your feedback and your proposals.

cheers
J

[Squire Grooktook]

Scoring system has no depth; it's only based on killing bosses quickly, which is what you'd be doing anyways.

I just want to point out that this kind of scoring system can be really fun (whether its speedkilling bosses or triggering extra waves in stages by speedkilling normal enemies) if the speedkills revolve around risk/reward tricks and are fun to pull off.

[Cagar]

- Moving .jpg and Music is a money issue. You will have to pay for animations and music (if you cannot do it yourselfe), why would someone do this for a free shmup as this is a small budget production?

False.
Get friends or learn to do it yourself.
I started practicing music a year ago for this very reason; I still suck but I'm learning all the time.

[gngfan]

Scoring system has no depth; it's only based on killing bosses quickly, which is what you'd be doing anyways.

I just want to point out that this kind of scoring system can be really fun (whether its speedkilling bosses or triggering extra waves in stages by speedkilling normal enemies) if the speedkills revolve around risk/reward tricks and are fun to pull off.

Hi,

great that you like it.

cheers
J

[gngfan]

- Moving .jpg and Music is a money issue. You will have to pay for animations and music (if you cannot do it yourselfe), why would someone do this for a free shmup as this is a small budget production?

False.
Get friends or learn to do it yourself.
I started practicing music a year ago for this very reason; I still suck but I'm learning all the time.

Hi,

there is alot of music and sounds out there you can use if you give credits or a backlink so there is no need to invest years to learn it yourselfe.

If someone offers free animations or agrees to work on a project fine, but i wouldnt wanna become "friends" with somebody just so he does some unpaid work.

cheers
J

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Don't get too discouraged by the responses. It's not bad for a flash shmup (most are pretty abysmal) and some of the patterns are interesting, it's just that it's a bit bland. Changing the backgrounds a bit every boss, having some extra frames of animation or having a shot type that does more interesting things (a few selectable shot types for interesting) and such would go a long way towards making it fun. It's just that we're spoiled by really decent flash shmups. Even those still have stuttering and framerate issues (a limitation of Flash being shit).

[Squire Grooktook]

Scoring system has no depth; it's only based on killing bosses quickly, which is what you'd be doing anyways.

I just want to point out that this kind of scoring system can be really fun (whether its speedkilling bosses or triggering extra waves in stages by speedkilling normal enemies) if the speedkills revolve around risk/reward tricks and are fun to pull off.

Hi,

great that you like it.

cheers
J

Err, sorry if you misunderstood. I haven't played the game, I was commenting in general.

Eschatos, eXceed 2nd Vampire Rex, Dangun Feveron, all have fun systems based on speedkilling things. Just wanted to point out to BareKnuckleRoo that killing things quickly is not what you'd normally be doing if it requires a heavier risk.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Speedkill systems are more interesting in stage based shmups where you have lots of varied enemy waves to deal with, not so much for purely boss oriented shmups.

Eschatos I felt was less about speed and more about not letting your multiplier drop at all by letting an enemy escape. i can't remember a speed aspect to Dangun Feveron tied to score, I thought it was more about not dropping disco borgs? But then I do rather suck at the game.

[Squire Grooktook]

Eschatos I felt was less about speed and more about not letting your multiplier drop at all by letting an enemy escape. i can't remember a speed aspect to Dangun Feveron tied to score, I thought it was more about not dropping disco borgs? But then I do rather suck at the game.

Eschatos you have to be super agressive to not let enemies slip by, which results in the game being shorter when you play for score because everything dies faster.

Dangun Feveron gives you a lot of bonus enemy waves for killing normal enemies off very quick.

eXceed 2nd has amazing boss speed kill scoring strats.