Shattered Union- fast-paced retro-style shmup

[CaptainKraken]

Ok! I am currently making a new shmup called "Shattered Union."

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/138979459/

Yipee! There's a game now!
Stage 1 is finished (for now at least).
Composer Dylan McDonald was kind enough to write some music for this game.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCcbmW ... wTYViKj_uQ <<Here's his youtube, go check him out; he's pretty cool.

One of the things I'd like your thoughts on is the graphics.
I tried to make this game look better than the hastily-thrown-together Lightstorm Fighter.
Did I succeed?

Do you like stage 1?
Also, does the game feel good? If not, what needs to change?

So, if you have time, give it a play.
Feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!
-Kraken

[Xyga]

Yo! Played like 3~4 minutes.

To begin, starting the stage with yellow enemy sprites and yellow bullets, over a yellow background ... that's a terrible idea, you need to sort the colors so we can actually see something. Bullets must be absolutely visible everywhere at all times, the background shouldn't get in the way with overlappng colors.
Discreet background and flashy bullets: that's the safe way to do it.

Also if you want the gameplay to be focused on dodging you'll need to add way more bullets, and faster as well, because there's practically nothing to dodge here, way too easy.

Then the 'hyper', I don't know what you have planned for it but since I haven't crossed any enemies that couldn't be destroyed by the normal shot, well, I've found no use for it. What's the mechanism/incentive to use it besides stronger fire power ?

[CaptainKraken]

Yo! Played like 3~4 minutes.

To begin, starting the stage with yellow enemy sprites and yellow bullets, over a yellow background ... that's a terrible idea, you need to sort the colors so we can actually see something. Bullets must be absolutely visible everywhere at all times, the background shouldn't get in the way with overlappng colors.
Discreet background and flashy bullets: that's the safe way to do it.

Also if you want the gameplay to be focused on dodging you'll need to add way more bullets, and faster as well, because there's practically nothing to dodge here, way too easy.

Then the 'hyper', I don't know what you have planned for it but since I haven't crossed any enemies that couldn't be destroyed by the normal shot, well, I've found no use for it. What's the mechanism/incentive to use it besides stronger fire power ?

Ok, not sure what you mean by 'yellow enemy sprites and yellow bullets, over a yellow background' ... only the background is yellow. the enemies are green and the present bullets are grey.
There isn't anything to dodge because I haven't added anything yet. Just messing around with stuff at the moment.
More things to do will certainly be added :D

The hyper is going to be for scoring and survival purposes. Killing stuff with it gives you more score per kill and you will be able to move faster to dodge things in wide sweeps.

"3~4 minutes" Well, surprised you did it for that long, there's nothing but testing stuff atm. :P
Thank you for the feedback.

[Xyga]

Ok, not sure what you mean by 'yellow enemy sprites and yellow bullets, over a yellow background' ... only the background is yellow. the enemies are green and the present bullets are grey.

There's plenty of lime~yellow (if you prefer) enemies to shoot, the ship's main shot is kind of orange if you want, all that over that yellow background = all way too close colors that hardly differentiate, to me it looked like a big yellow hard to read mess.
Absolutely wrong choice of colors for a shmup, take it or not, your call.

[CaptainKraken]

Ok, not sure what you mean by 'yellow enemy sprites and yellow bullets, over a yellow background' ... only the background is yellow. the enemies are green and the present bullets are grey.

There's plenty of lime~yellow (if you prefer) enemies to shoot, the ship's main shot is kind of orange if you want, all that over that yellow background = all way too close colors that hardly differentiate, to me it looked like a big yellow hard to read mess.
Absolutely wrong choice of colors for a shmup, take it or not, your call.

Huh. To me everything stands out. What colors would you prefer?

[Xyga]

Dunno it's for you to figure, just make is so that first segment of the game doesn't look like cutting through a giant omelette anymore and you'll be good.

[CaptainKraken]

In-progress / To-do list

-More enemy types, such as:
*asteroids that split, for the space section
*maybe an enemy that increases in point value the longer you leave it alive?
-better sound effects

Stuff done:
-Desert tank boss
-music

[Someguy009]

I see you used the scratch engine. Check for my games for some ideas and tips. I made a lot of shumps on that page. I'm here to here to help!
Click this link below:
https://scratch.mit.edu/users/falme34/

[CaptainKraken]

I see you used the scratch engine.

Yeah, I'm using that until I overcome laziness and learn to use Unity :P

[CaptainKraken]

Stage one is here and filled with enemies for you to blast!

Changes/additions:
-There is actually a game to play now.
-Added desert tank enemies
-Added a tank boss
-Score bonuses for 100% destroy and nomiss stage
-added original music by Dylan McDonald.

Have fun playing the new version!
Tell me what you think.

Thanks!
-Kraken

[CaptainKraken]

I have updated the game!
It was feeling kinda slow, so I sped a lot of the stuff up, including the player ship, shot speed, enemies and their bullets, etc.
To compensate for that increased difficulty, the hitbox has been reduced and life stock increased to four.
I also edited one of the enemy designs as well; it looks much cooler now.

Enjoy!