Before the Gate (Free shmup with a single boss) [windows]

[Noba]

You take control of a soul that was denied access to the afterlife. Not accepting this as your fate, to be endlessly stuck in the void of darkness, you decide to try and gain access anyway. A being blocks your path, one that calls itself "The Gatekeeper". Will you fight it for the chance of an afterlife or will you succumb to its power?









Before the Gate is a short bullet hell with a single boss in a minimalistic pixel art setting, with the only goal being to defeat it to gain access to the afterlife. This is my first proper finished game project, so if people could give me some advice and reviews that would be great!

https://jole-challinor.itch.io/before-the-gate

Apologies for the very short description, I wasn't sure what to put here that would be different from the itch.io page! ^^

[M.Knight]

Gave it a quick run, here's whatI have to say :

-Nice choice of music. It works rather well with the atmosphere you were going for
-Was the game made for mobile? The mouse control and the shot's auto-aim seem like they are made for a mobile phone. The auto-aim makes it possible to move behind the boss at times to dodge while still hitting it, but otherwise, I am not too sure you wave anything to lose by going with a classic Direction keys + Shot setup if it's not a mobile game.
-The dialogue can be a pace killer given how it appears here and there in the middle of the fight. Why not have an option to toggle it?
-The game has a regenerating health system that is super lenient and also has weird decimal values. However, the last phase is a big difficulty spike and I died in like 2 seconds even though I had 5.0 HP which IIRC is more than the starting health level. Having to play the entire boss fight just to get insta-killed at the end is quite the frustration because the rest of the fight is only moderatly challenging thanks to the regenerating health.

Anyway, for a first game project, it's definitely not bad at all. It does feature some deviations from the regular arcade shmup norms with the healthbar and the mouse control, and I am not really sure it uses those differences in a truly meaningful way that would fully justify their implementation.

[Noba]

Gave it a quick run, here's whatI have to say :

-Nice choice of music. It works rather well with the atmosphere you were going for
-Was the game made for mobile? The mouse control and the shot's auto-aim seem like they are made for a mobile phone. The auto-aim makes it possible to move behind the boss at times to dodge while still hitting it, but otherwise, I am not too sure you wave anything to lose by going with a classic Direction keys + Shot setup if it's not a mobile game.
-The dialogue can be a pace killer given how it appears here and there in the middle of the fight. Why not have an option to toggle it?
-The game has a regenerating health system that is super lenient and also has weird decimal values. However, the last phase is a big difficulty spike and I died in like 2 seconds even though I had 5.0 HP which IIRC is more than the starting health level. Having to play the entire boss fight just to get insta-killed at the end is quite the frustration because the rest of the fight is only moderatly challenging thanks to the regenerating health.

Anyway, for a first game project, it's definitely not bad at all. It does feature some deviations from the regular arcade shmup norms with the healthbar and the mouse control, and I am not really sure it uses those differences in a truly meaningful way that would fully justify their implementation.

Thank you very much for your reply! That makes me happy that you enjoyed it!

The game isn't designed for mobile, no. I just thought it would be easier to control so you could focus entirely on dodging bullets. In hindsight, the autoaim does make it a bit too easy.

As for the health going over 5, that's most definitely a bug that I haven't noticed before. I'll try to fix it at some point.

As for the difficulty spike at the end... Yeah, that was probably a bad idea. The more you go through it though the easier it does tend to be to understand, but if I ever get around to it I'll see if I can rework it a bit.

Again, thank you for your review! This is actually the first I've gotten, and it's definitely helped. Like I said, I'll try to fix the issues you brought up (Aside from the mouse controls, as I tried to build the game around that style of movement), but right now I'm currently working on a new project which is a more conventional style of shmup aside from being a twin stick shooter.

[M.Knight]

I don't think the health went over 5, but if you can check whether it does, why not. My comment was more along the lines that IIRC, the starting health is 3 but the health regen can increase it above that value, which may not be a problem. Shmups with 3-lives caps are not the norm actually, though some do implement it in a way that affects the gameplay and scoring system. (Shikigami no Shiro 3 for example, but I think some Raizing games have life caps too)

In any case, I would suggest having a lives system like in classic shmups with 3 starting lives, one life removed when the player hits a bullet, and instead of having the health regen, maybe you can grant an additionnal life halfway through the fight, or at every third of the boss lifebar?

The difficulty spike at the end is not necessarily a bad thing, and ending the boss on an "ultimate attack" is actually a good idea, but the difference between that attack and the rest shouldn't be too high. Here, it's mostly the penalty that was too high, as it killed me almost instantly. With a life system, every bullet is just as dangerous as the others so it removes this insta-kill approach but also forces you to play better during the entire rest of the fight, as to stock up on enough resources to clear this last phase.

[Noba]

I don't think the health went over 5, but if you can check whether it does, why not. My comment was more along the lines that IIRC, the starting health is 3 but the health regen can increase it above that value, which may not be a problem. Shmups with 3-lives caps are not the norm actually, though some do implement it in a way that affects the gameplay and scoring system. (Shikigami no Shiro 3 for example, but I think some Raizing games have life caps too)

In any case, I would suggest having a lives system like in classic shmups with 3 starting lives, one life removed when the player hits a bullet, and instead of having the health regen, maybe you can grant an additionnal life halfway through the fight, or at every third of the boss lifebar?

The difficulty spike at the end is not necessarily a bad thing, and ending the boss on an "ultimate attack" is actually a good idea, but the difference between that attack and the rest shouldn't be too high. Here, it's mostly the penalty that was too high, as it killed me almost instantly. With a life system, every bullet is just as dangerous as the others so it removes this insta-kill approach but also forces you to play better during the entire rest of the fight, as to stock up on enough resources to clear this last phase.

Hang on, I think we're thinking of different attacks... If you're thinking of the FINAL FINAL one, where the boss shoots bullets that have a gap that's too small to dodge, it's intentional. Dying on that attack should unlock an alternate mode.

[M.Knight]

I don't think there were undodgeable walls in the attack that killed me, though having such an attack definitely seems like a bad design choice.
From what I remember, it's the attack that occurs when there is only one (or maybe two?) life blocks left on the boss lifebar.

[Noba]

I don't think there were undodgeable walls in the attack that killed me, though having such an attack definitely seems like a bad design choice.
From what I remember, it's the attack that occurs when there is only one (or maybe two?) life blocks left on the boss lifebar.

Ah alright, I think I know what you mean.

And of course it's a bad idea if the attack was supposed to be dodgeable! But it's intentional. The "easy mode" in the game gives you a bad ending, which then unlocks the alternate mode. The point of playing that one is to get the proper ending.

Either way, I'll try to sort out those issues you brought up when I get around to it. Thanks again!