Announcement of a new shmup

[rls-it]

Announcement of a new shmup (Project name: Die to survive - First contact)

First I would like to introduce myself.
My real name is Thorsten and I have been working in the It area for over 20 years now.
I grew up with Pong and everything that came after that, so it was already many years ago.

I've been working on a shmup for some time, and slowly it's time to go public.

A first impression of the game you can get here:
https://youtu.be/xQM-kYHUn7o

I thought here would be an ideal place to ask if people would like to test the game soon from time to time and with feedback to help make it better.
The game is currently almost out of prototype status, but it will still take a while to complete. But the framework is meanwhile up for now.

I would be happy about any comments and suggestions.
If you are interested you are welcome to leave a comment and I will probably have a playable level to download for the next weekend.



Regards Thorsten


Edit 13.04.2019

I just upload a playable (still WIP Prototype) version of an level.
It is not final but i hope you can get an see where this lead to.
It will end at time 330s so dont wonder if no more enemys spawning.

Download link: http://www.dietosurvive.com/1/prototype.html

It is packed with 7Zip a link for this packer will be also on the site if you can´t unpack the game.

I hope you like it and have fun testing.

[rls-it]

Almost forgotten: The standart controls are the same as an FPS Game is usually used.

Keyboard: A=Left, D=right, W=Up, S=Down, Left Mouse Primary Fire, Right Mouse Secondary Fire (to start/stop movement of sattelites atm), P/ESC Menu.
You can set up controls in the menu as you want them.

Only for testing active for now and cant be changed in settings (Only 2 Weapons each available atm):
1=Show/hide used Weapon, 2=change primary weapon, 3=change charge shoot.

Gamepad: Left Thumbstick to control, A Button=Primary, B Button=Secondary, Special=Menu.
Left upper shoulder change primary, right upper shoulder change charge shoot.
Gamepadsettings still WIP and cant be changed atm.

Have fun.

[M.Knight]

Just a few thoughts/pointers based on the gameplay video :

-It's good that controls are planned to be rebindable and that you can also play with a gamepad, though keep in mind that the main menu doesn't look like it's designed for anything else than a mouse. Most players here are used to play with either an arcade stick, a controller, or keyboard only, but almost never with a mouse because the games themselves usually aren't designed around one and don't need one. If you make a twin-stick style game or one with an on-screen aiming reticle à la Sin & Punishment, mouse control makes sense, but here four directions keys, two keys for the weapons, and pause/confirm/cancel are more than enough. The direction keys should be used to navigate the menus, so the menus should be built around that.

-Your enemies do not fire any bullets at all, so the player is never really harmed by anything other than easily avoidable enemy collisions. Not even the boss fires anything so there's very little apparent challenge. Other videos on your channel showcase a boss with actual bullet patterns so maybe it's just not implemented in that level yet?

-With just one enemy in the entire stage, enemy variety can't get lower than here, so the stage is likely to feel very repetitive very quickly. You'll definitely need to add more enemy types with different behavior and sizes if you want the stage to feel a bit more dynamic than the current one that simply spawns the same kind of wave over and over. The weapon you have can fire angled shots so it can be interesting for example to have a combination of a bigger and more resilient enemy in the middle, with some of the popcorn enemies on the top and bottom of the screen. If all of the enemies have actual bullet patterns, that could force your player to either use the spread formation to try to kill the smaller enemies quickly while doing less damage on the bigger enemy, or on the opposite, concentrate its fire on that bigger enemy to take it out faster. So depending on the player choices, the bullet patterns he faces are not exactly the same.

-The building being set on fire is fun but it shouldn't hinder the visibility of your ship or the enemies like it currently does because that event occurs in the middle of a fight, and dying because you couldn't see anything is unfair.
Another suggestion is to make the boss actually set the building on fire as part of its introduction. It would look even cooler, give the boss some more presence, and since it would happen in a part where you are not supposed to fight enemies, the reduced visibility can be kept.

[rls-it]

Thank you to point out this for me.

- Controls:
I allready tested how the bindings will work with keybord and gamepad only. It looks not to hard, just didn´t spend much time on this for now.
I will keep this in mind the time i polish the menu.

- Good point with the 2 keys/buttons only, i hade the same idea thats why i dont use auto shoot.
This way i can put shoot and also the charge shoot at one key/button.

- Video:
The video was only meant to show something for an first impression. What i uploadet is playable with a few more enemys and they also shoot (but still WIP).
Below you can see a small selection of enemys i allready have.

- Yes the moment you cant see anything is not good at all, this is more a placeholder. Cause i used the first level for this, this is more the start of the game.
So you kill the boss and after this will something happen to cause this and the level will continue.

-I love the idea to let the boss burn and destroy things (really need to test this), i allready hade plans to let him destroy the lamps by walking over for example (thats why one gets broken alone).

I really appreciate your suggestions. This really helps. Thanks again.