Independent shmup developer hello thread - Star Gods Demo

[JOP]

Hey all! My name is Eric and I am the owner of JOP Studios. I currently am working on a shmup title for the PC which has a hopeful release date for early 2019. I wanted to share an early playable demo with you all here. Is this the place to do it? I figured sharing a shmup title with shmup fans was the most obvious way to get some exposure and feedback. =)

Star Gods is built around a graze mechanic which is your primary way of powering up. Each time you fill your Kinetic Energy meter, your weapons become stronger and you get super attacks. Right now I have power ups that come out of certain mini-bosses because a lot of casual fans were having trouble, but I will probably make that optional (difficulty level) or something if the game goes into full production.

Right now the game has 2 playable ships with the second ship being unlockable through money spent ship selection screen. There is a third ship, but he isn't completed yet. There are 3 completed levels in the demo each with a boss at the end.

So i look forward to the feedback. I wanna make sure the game is on track if it goes into full production. Sorry for the main menu bugs, those are being ironed out right now.

Game currently works with either a keyboard or any controller that uses XInput. Most PC gamepads should work along with Xbox controllers.

Get the demo here: https://jopstudios.com

Here are some screenshots and video footage.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/SpCn5cNwFrg
Level 1 playthrough: https://youtu.be/Eg6UYQWuD84
Level 2 playthrough: https://youtu.be/0e_FVcDLir8
Level 3 playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozlMUTvWVWE&t=4s

[Shepardus]

I wanted to share an early playable demo with you all here. Is this the place to do it?

Yes. Welcome!

[JOP]

You can get the demo here: https://jopstudios.com. I am interested in hearing some feedback from the general public because as of today I have only heard feedback from some close friends. Enjoy (hopefully)

[Sai'ke]

Really dig the music in the trailer man!

It's really got that PUSH ON FORWARD feel

I will see if I have some time this weekend to give it a spin

[M.Knight]

Hello and welcome!
You may remember me from the reddit thread.

I suggest putting a small description alongside with a few screenshots in your first post so that we can immediatly see what the game looks like and what mechanics it features.

[JOP]

Hello and welcome!
You may remember me from the reddit thread.

I suggest putting a small description alongside with a few screenshots in your first post so that we can immediatly see what the game looks like and what mechanics it features.

Done and done. Also thanks for the feedback on the reddit thread. =)

[JOP]

Really dig the music in the trailer man!

It's really got that PUSH ON FORWARD feel

I will see if I have some time this weekend to give it a spin

Thank you that would be much appreciated!

[CaptainKraken]

Ahoy there!

The game looks great! I watched the trailer and the stage 1 gameplay video, and I am very impressed with it! I especially like the mechanical design; those ships look awesome.

There is one issue I saw that might cause problems... and that’s the enemy bullet visuals. They’re all made of bright light. They’ll blend in with anything else that’s bright on the screen, including each other. (They blend in with some fire graphics in the trailer)

A presumably simple solution to this would be to add a colored border around each bullet.
You just want to make sure each bullet is visible in every situation, because players do t like getting killed by something they didn’t see coming.

Examples of games with excellent bullet visibility (in case my explanation isn’t clear enough): Touhou, pretty much anything by CAVE, the danmaku unlimited series.

Good luck with the development!

[JOP]

Ahoy there!

The game looks great! I watched the trailer and the stage 1 gameplay video, and I am very impressed with it! I especially like the mechanical design; those ships look awesome.

There is one issue I saw that might cause problems... and that’s the enemy bullet visuals. They’re all made of bright light. They’ll blend in with anything else that’s bright on the screen, including each other. (They blend in with some fire graphics in the trailer)

A presumably simple solution to this would be to add a colored border around each bullet.
You just want to make sure each bullet is visible in every situation, because players do t like getting killed by something they didn’t see coming.

Examples of games with excellent bullet visibility (in case my explanation isn’t clear enough): Touhou, pretty much anything by CAVE, the danmaku unlimited series.

Good luck with the development!

For sure, there are some tweaks that need to be made with the visuals. I am currently running a kickstarter campaign for the game so I can get the funds to finish and polish it, so many of the kinks will be worked out if that happens.

[Sai'ke]

I have had some time to play it for a bit. I only got to the second stage so far.

I have to agree with M.Knight about there being some issues with it being unclear what is foreground and what is background until you actually die from something in certain places (in stage two particularly). Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the bit with the four panels shooting at you from all sides, but this may just be something that doesn't really work for me particularly. I think I've once seen this in another game too, but forgot which one

It would be nice if there was some subtle animation in the screens with the story. Even just shifting the image slightly like they do in for instance GTA loading screens, would make it look a lot less static I think.

There were also jets that moved very suddenly at 90 degree angles which looked a little jarring visually. Other than that it's pretty cool though and I'm meaning to pick it up to play again when I find some more time.

Also, my controller, which has issues with certain games, worked right off the bat, which is a good sign. I did fumble a little with the default setup though, and would have liked to be able to rebind some things.

The music was great!

Keep it up!

[JOP]

The flames under the rotating pillars probably just need to go in level 2. I guess I was so used to it that I never considered the visual challenge to people who have never played it. So I will definitely look into that.

In any case, there is still a bit of polish that needs to go into the game and I really want to finish it, hence my crowd funding campaign. Speaking of, its sitting at around 60% of its goal with 2 weeks left. If anybody in here would be down to throw a couple bucks at it, it would be greatly appreciated. If not, some shares and word of mouth would be great too.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/17 ... /star-gods