Icarus-X - iPhone/iPod/iPad Shmup - Now on Android too !

[TheQuadsphere]

Hey guys,

Icarus-X, my iOS shmup is now 1.5



If you had the pleasure to try it, please leave some feeback, I'd love to know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_O4UBcnA2Y

http://www.icarus-x.com/

[subcons]

Man, this looks like a really nice shooter. Reviews are promising.

I'll definitely check it out tonight and post impressions.

[sunburstbasser]

Your graphical work is top-notch.

I'll be checking this one out.

[spadgy]

I've really enjoyed this, but I'm awful at it!

[sunburstbasser]

I'm glad you offer Relative Touch as a control mechanism. The default Direct Touch was NOT working for me.

Very well done. Are you a Treasure fan, by chance?

[spadgy]

I'm glad you offer Relative Touch as a control mechanism.

Maybe I should try this. I was finding it inexplicably testing.

The chaining in this game is nice. Simple and balanced, so you always feel like it might drop at any moment.

[Danza]

I've really enjoyed this, but I'm awful at it!

Hehe, exactly the same here.

[TheQuadsphere]

Are you a Treasure fan, by chance?

Definitely.

About the difficulty, I've had a hard time finding the right pace for each mode...
You might want to try the Redux campaign on Easy, which is much more forgiving.

[subcons]

Been crazy busy this week with work and other things, but I've been playing this in small spurts whenever the chance comes up and it's really great! Controls are superb... very well refined. I definitely prefer relative. The scoring / chaining is simple, yet fun to try and keep going.

About the difficulty, I've had a hard time finding the right pace for each mode...
You might want to try the Redux campaign on Easy, which is much more forgiving.

This is my only real criticism of the game. I did just what you've suggested here and found myself wanting a bit of a middle ground between Easy and Normal on Redux. I just need to keep practicing on Normal I think.

Have you considered putting a Lite version out there? May boost interest so people can try it out first.

Great job at any rate! This will definitely be staying on my iPod along with Espgaluda II and InfinityGene.

[spadgy]

TheQuadsphere - I really do like your game but I slip up so often when I'm backed into the bottom edge of the screen and my finger passes off the touch screen while my ship is still in the playing field. Perhaps a little black bar in the bottom of the touch screen area (see Pinball Dreams) would help? I guess you have to balnce that with the reduction in size of playing field. Just an idea. I'm no expert though, and your game is great.

[seiatsu]

Any chance of an Android port? Android needs some STG love.

[TheQuadsphere]

Hey, just released the free demo version: http://itunes.apple.com/app/icarus-x-fr ... 30153?mt=8 .

Definitely looking at Android, but I don't have a device to test with yet.

[TheQuadsphere]

Now available on Android phones



https://market.android.com/details?id=c ... re.icarusx

[postmanmanman]

This is definitely iOS's best original shmup.

Well, come to think of it, that, in itself, isn't saying much since most of the original iOS shmups are complete rubbish. I guess it'd be better to say that this is just a really, surprisingly great shmup. I'm not terribly fond of chaining systems, but I found it rather enjoyable in this game, for some reason. It also looks quite nice, and little touches like the fading hitbox just shows a lot of work went into polishing the game.

[TheQuadsphere]

Thank you postmanmanman.

Regarding the Android version:
I just fixed a hanging problem that occured on devices running Gingerbread (2.3 or above).
If you tried the game early and it didn't work, you might want to try again.

[Aconcit]

This looks good, I'll buy it next time I can buy apps. And I agree, you did a very nice job with visuals.

[Nick420]

I havnt installed the update yet. But i found the controls felt off. and the hitbox feels too big. Its too difficult because of these problems for me. So not a good difficult. Sorry just my opinion. Heres hoping you have addressed these issues with the update. Goes to install...

[xavierjesus]

"This item is not compatible with your device"

HTC Hero. Android 2.1 - Update 1

So, am I fucked?!

I mean, this looks ace, & I'm actually trying to give you $$$ (Goddammit, the first decent looking 'droid shooter too, fuck!)

Thanks.

[Moniker]

Just bought this for my MotoDroid 1. Quite excellent.

Could use a few tweaks: the performance is a little below par, possibly owing to my hardware - minor all around slowdown compared to the youtube video, and moderate to heavy slowdown when the bullets start coming in heavy. Still exceedingly playable, but some optimization options would be handy (eg. turning off backgrounds, etc.). Also, I find that the touch sensitivity is a bit too loose - I frequently have to lift my finger to avoid running off the edge of the phone. Adjustable sensitivity would be super.

Otherwise, this is easily the best shmup on the droid. Good work.

[TheQuadsphere]

I havnt installed the update yet. But i found the controls felt off. and the hitbox feels too big. Its too difficult because of these problems for me. So not a good difficult. Sorry just my opinion. Heres hoping you have addressed these issues with the update. Goes to install...

No need to be sorry.
Did you switch to Relative mode in the settings? Some players find it a much easier/smoother control mode.
About the hitbox, it's already really small I think. This won't change I'm afraid.

"This item is not compatible with your device"

HTC Hero. Android 2.1 - Update 1

So, am I fucked?!

I mean, this looks ace, & I'm actually trying to give you $$$ (Goddammit, the first decent looking 'droid shooter too, fuck!)

Thanks.

Sorry, the game is in OpenGL ES 2.0 (shaders), so it's 2.2+ only.

Just bought this for my MotoDroid 1. Quite excellent.

Could use a few tweaks: the performance is a little below par, possibly owing to my hardware - minor all around slowdown compared to the youtube video, and moderate to heavy slowdown when the bullets start coming in heavy. Still exceedingly playable, but some optimization options would be handy (eg. turning off backgrounds, etc.). Also, I find that the touch sensitivity is a bit too loose - I frequently have to lift my finger to avoid running off the edge of the phone. Adjustable sensitivity would be super.

Otherwise, this is easily the best shmup on the droid. Good work.

Thank you!
Did you try Relative touch controls ?
I will try to improve performance on older devices in the next update.

[Moniker]

Thank you!
Did you try Relative touch controls ?
I will try to improve performance on older devices in the next update.

Yup, I've been using relative controls. I wonder if the low sensitivity on my system might be due to general lag. Getting further into higher difficulty stages, it does become more of a nuisance. But I'm out of my depth in these matters. Thanks for looking into it.

[BrightSuzaku]

I'm really bad at shmups in general, so I've been playing on Easy. Enemies move pretty darn fast for me, and it gets really difficult to keep chaining, especially by Stage 2. I've been noticing the size of the hit box more as I move into higher levels, thanks to "Continue". Heheh. (I know I shouldn't be doing that.)

Moving back to the beginning, Stage 1's boss takes a lot of time to beat. And it's with bosses where I'd really appreciate a life bar, even if it's just a shrinking red line at the top of the screen.

My biggest annoyances, and I play on Easy, have to do with speed, as some enemies move at a good speed, and others just move really fast. As in really nerve-wrackingly fast at times. Slower bullets as opposed to just less bullets in general could be helpful, but I haven't yet fully evaluated the differences quite yet (i.e., I don't know if these bullets ARE slower, or if the patterns are just simpler with the same speed). I die too much on Regular mode to know, and it may not be the bullets at all.

On Stage 2, I think overall scrolling feels a little fast with the gate things. I guess with more practice, I'd "get it", but I find myself reliably dying every time I get to those things. The ones closing up from behind nip my sorry ass every time, and the ones before the boss seem to be its way of making sure I've lost a life before I kill it with surprising ease.

I'm actually not sure where my speed issues are overall, whether it is enemy movement, bullets, or stage scrolling, but something is moving too fast for my noob-fingers to handle. And yet, I don't necessarily think it's the bullets. I can get through the bullets fine sometimes, but trying to navigate around them to snipe some ninja fast enemies before they poof off the screen on their own can just get frustrating, and then I run into easily dodge-able bullets.

Stage 4's smaller enemies (the little pink and black flying mosquito-like things) are incredibly difficult to see, and I have accidentally run into them before. The size of the hitbox is much more noticeable here, especially if you try moving around the laser enemies at the start of the level instead of haphazardly shooting at them. Those suicide bullets really don't help once they're gone, so it's either I want to avoid them, or shoot them and hope I don't get hit randomly.

And that's it in a nutshell. Overall, this is an awesome, awesome game, and I'm practicing like a nut to get better. I'm already at a point where practicing Stage 1 on 75% speed actually feels slow, and thanks to memorization, I'm feeling good about that.

It feels totally worth the money, and my gripes aside, it's a very fun game. I hope that with time, and maybe input and hints from better players, I can do better overall.

For what it's worth, I'm running this game on a Droid X, and I'm bad at shmups in general, so there ya go~

[xavierjesus]

Thanx for the reply hombre!

[BrightSuzaku]

Well, the update was a HUGE improvement to my problem areas! I'm a shmup buttmunch in general, so it feels a little weird to see the areas I'm having trouble with getting the tweaks. But, at the same time, I'm feeling more like the balance has shifted more towards the player's skill and memorization of a level, rather than, "Aww, too late, you weren't fast enough to dodge this gate! Here's a new life- Aww! You hit it again!"

Those gates in Chapter 2 are much less of a pain in the rear, which meant when I died, I actually got shot by the boss Good going, boss!

I'm also feeling like Chapter 4's laser thingies die a wee bit faster, which now allows me to have enough room to move on to the next guy without being eaten by the suicide bullets. That, or, there might not be any difference at all, but I'm not sure. I finally beat Chapter 4, and I like it a lot, though! My eyes have been opened, and now I see it as a never-ending chain-grinding festa! It is awesome, and I mean for "never-ending chain-grinding" to be a compliment. Also, the hard-to-see enemies aren't as big of a pain, now that I'm memorizing where they are.

Chapter 5 was very enjoyable, and now all that's left is dealing with the boss. He's a hard nut to crack, but I think all that is needed now is for me to practice more!. Nothing new needs to really be done to the game itself, in my opinion, though my desire for boss health bars still exists.

However, I also think a boss health bar might just slow everything down, too, so maybe that's why they don't exist.

I'm really thankful for the update, and despite the fact that it feels like everything is trying to kill me (that's the point!), at least I feel like I have a fighting chance now. :D