I toyed around with it a bit. So far, it seems promising, but the game definitely has a few issues. It reminds me a lot of very early Amiga shmups (
Plutos from Tynesoft in particular, due to the overall pacing, enemy formations, design, etc.). While this certainly gives me some fuzzy warm feeling of nostalgia, fans of the genre might expect something more from a shmup these days. It all depends on who your target audience is, of course. Let me list a few things I'd consider working on:
- The pace of the game is really slow. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there are gaps in the action, and too long stretches where absolutely nothing happens. You may want to eliminate these.
- The ship has inertia. Get rid of it. It is universally regarded as a bad thing. Make the controls as precise as possible.
- Due to the slow ship speed, it's physically impossible to evade certain enemies.
- The enemy formations don't really seem very agressive. Most of them just swirl around aimlessly a bit, then kamikaze into the player ship. It would be nice if they acted less mindlessly. This enemy behaviour makes the game feel like some sort of shooting gallery.
- Have you considered aimed shots from the enemies? It would make the game more interesting.
- The hitbox is too big. I swear I have been hit by bullets which didn't even touch my ship.
- The walls in certain parts of the levels don't stick out enough. They sort of blend into the beckground.
