Our new XBLIG shmup, PESTER!

[DirtyOstrich]

Hi,

Just to let you guys know that I just released a SHUMP onto XBOX indie market place.
It's called pester and its an attempt to combine old school shooters with the more modern day bullet hell shooters.
If you get a chance give it a go and let me know what you think. It's only 80MSP.

Here is the market place link:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Produ ... 0258550c96

Thanks,

Paul

[moh]

does this belong in trading station?

[RealPlumpBox]

does this belong in trading station?

LOL, I was wondering the same thing.

[Ghegs]

Yeah, I think this would be better in Shmups Chat.

[malchitos]

I didn't care for your first effort...but this one is lots of fun....So I snagged it. I just wish it had leaderboards...that way I could really tell how bad I am at it.

You must be like me wanting Duality ZF to come out....so you threw that duel mode in...oh that thing is wicked fun...but impossible for this skill-less fool. I'd like to see a video of someone pulling it off.

This game was worth the 80pts.

[casualcoder]

Just saw a video of the demo posted on YouTube. Looks not bad. As long as there are a lot of bullets and a challenge the old school graphics don't bother me. Respect goes out to indie devs who put out good work. I must say though, what is with the uninspiring names of indie games in general. Aban Hawkins and the One Thousand Spikes. Now that's a great indie game name.

[malchitos]

Aban Hawkins and the One Thousand Spikes. Now that's a great indie game name.

and a hard game...but a good one.

[casualcoder]

Malchitos: indeed. It's the kind of game where it drives you nuts and you swear you're on your last attempt and then you find yourself still going at it an hour later, cursing all the way through.

I played Pester a bit last night and here are my unsolicited thoughts.

+ Music: really good soundtrack. The default music was stuck in my head even when I was not playing
+ Emulated scanline & monitor
+ Good bullet distribution and patterns. Fun to dodge.
+ Scoring: system is really simple. Collect coins for points and building hyper meter to pump score.
+ Only $1

- Hitbox: it's about as big as your entire ship. Not enough room to maneuver without serious power ups and luck at times
- No bomb reset: no extra bombs when you die. I got to the 3rd (final?) boss with no lives lost. Went through my last bomb. Died. Respawned. Immediately died. Respawned. Immediately died, and died and died again. Game over.
- Powerups lost on death. On the 3rd boss you are screwed if you die and lose your powerups. This would be fine if I felt like it was a long hard-fought journey. But it only took about 8 minutes to get there.
- Ship speed: after you get 2 ship speed boost powerups you get the feeling like this is how fast the ship should be to begin with. It feels very sluggish without the powerups resulting in one of those moments where you identify a spot you need to get to in a swarm of bullets but find yourself yanking on the stick to get there, only to foresee your death about to happen in slow motion.

Overall, the game is surprising. It has that undefinable property that makes you want to come back and play it. Haven't tried the double ship style yet but it seems to be a fun addition to the game. Simple oldschool fun, good for warming up before playing through a grueling multistage shmup.

[malchitos]

+ Music: really good soundtrack. The default music was stuck in my head even when I was not playing
+ Emulated scanline & monitor
+ Good bullet distribution and patterns. Fun to dodge.
+ Scoring: system is really simple. Collect coins for points and building hyper meter to pump score.
+ Only $1

- Hitbox: it's about as big as your entire ship. Not enough room to maneuver without serious power ups and luck at times
- No bomb reset: no extra bombs when you die. I got to the 3rd (final?) boss with no lives lost. Went through my last bomb. Died. Respawned. Immediately died. Respawned. Immediately died, and died and died again. Game over.
- Powerups lost on death. On the 3rd boss you are screwed if you die and lose your powerups. This would be fine if I felt like it was a long hard-fought journey. But it only took about 8 minutes to get there.
- Ship speed: after you get 2 ship speed boost powerups you get the feeling like this is how fast the ship should be to begin with. It feels very sluggish without the powerups resulting in one of those moments where you identify a spot you need to get to in a swarm of bullets but find yourself yanking on the stick to get there, only to foresee your death about to happen in slow motion.

All valid points on this one. I think the hitbox is kinda like a compromise between the old school days and the new school. Also I quite agree it suffers from the "Gradius Syndrome" but I've always kinda liked that. It kinda kicks you on your back side when you think you are getting too high and mighty. The only thing I majorly agree with...the speed should be selectable....would give ya some room to crawl back once you have lost everything.

[MommysBestGames]

Agreed, the slow player ship speed is rough. I guess really, it's relative. All the sprites are giant. Your ship is giant. But everything else moves very fast, and you don't. I'd either speed up the player, or slow down everything else. And on top of that, player-choice on the speed of things would be even better!

[DirtyOstrich]

Hi,
Thanks so much guys for all your feedback.
Means a lot.
Just to let you know I'll be submitting an update on Monday to rectify some of the issues mentioned.
I've taken the single bullet out so you never go below duel as people seem to hate that.
I've also raised the speed of the ship by one powerup.
Changed level up to wave up.
Fixed some bugs.
Let me know if there's anything else you think I should add.

Massive thanks to everyone who's bought pester, your support is much appriciated.

Paul

[casualcoder]

Good to hear there will be an update issued.

Since we are on the topic, I would say these are worth considering.

1. A one or two bomb reset on death
2. Instead of losing all of your powerups on death, let us collect atleast a few back on respawn (I often quit outright on one death for this reason alone. Those speed powerups are almost necessary later on)
3. I tried the twin stick and it made no sense to have the face buttons for shoot and bomb

[DirtyOstrich]

Hey thanks for the feedback.
Have you tried the new update? It went up yesterday it should solve all of those issues.
1. you can regenerate your bombs by collecting the B powerup.
2. you don't loose all your powerups when you die,you power down by 1. So if you have 3X speed you will go down to 2X speed. This is the same for the shot.
3. In twin stick mode you can use R2 to fire R1 to bomb and L1 for hyper.

let me know if this is any better? I'm going to take away the single shot so dying isn't so harsh

Thanks again for you feedback man, really appreciate it

[casualcoder]

I was just playing it in the last hour and the update does make the game better balanced.

Relying on bomb powerups to drop is frustrating especially considering that the 3rd boss usually results in multiple lost lives for me and if I have no bombs stored I have little chance especially with the lack of invincibility on respawn.

A few other possible enhancements popped out at me while playing. I think it would be great to give a reward for destroying ememys close up. Why not reward with a gold coin which gives more hyper meter than the standard silver coin. That way, if you find yourself coming up on an area and not quite where you want to be with the hyper meter, you can engage in some risk/reward gameplay by point-blanking enemies. For example, I try to have hyper meter before I get to the big green tomato guys but if I don't think i will build enough meter by that point, I usually just end up dying a lot.

Or, maybe reward the player for not picking up the coins whenever he pleases, but rather by waiting and racking them up in a line and then collecting them in a chaining style with a multiplier for each coin chained (sorta like a combo) Again, building meter faster for score.

This is probably harder to fix but it did start bothering me today that I don't have access to the "bottom line" of the screen. When dodging all of those bullets, the more screen real estate you have the better.

Oh, and another idea... Sometimes I want a harder shot but get a speed powerup. Or vice versa. Why not let the player shoot the powerup and change the powerup type (shot select)?

[DirtyOstrich]

Was up all night coding an update.
I've put a small line box thing at the bottom of the screen so you know how far down you can go so you don't get confused and think you have more room than you do.

I really, really like the idea of the risk reward thing. Using the classic enemy distance multiplier.
I would add this to the game but I'm in the middle of making another shooter and thinking I might add that idea to that one.
If you don't mind? I don't want to mess with the game play too much as it's doing quite well.

I'm still indecisive about allowing the player to pick a powerup as I don't want them sticking to one powerup.
Still tempted to have it so that when you level up, all three poweups fall down the screen allowing you which one you want.
Can't decide if this is a good idea or not??? Help!

[DirtyOstrich]

Hi All,

Just to say another update is in peer review with the below changes.

1.Panel added at base of screen to stop invisible wall issue
2.Improved Box art
3.Level up replaced with wave up
4.Single shot removed, double shot as standard
5.Power up on death as well as wave up
6.Better bullet visibility
7.Beginner mode's gone, now normal is expert and beginner is normal
9.ship base speed increased
10.Minor bug fixes

I think this makes the game a lot more balanced and think thee Gradius syndrome is now at a minimum.
Half way through review, hope to have it released by the weekend.
Will post when it's complete.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and support.

[DirtyOstrich]

Hi again,

Just to let you know Pester V1.2 has just gone live with all the improvements listed in my previous post.

If you get a chance let me know what you think

Thanks,

Paul

[casualcoder]

The game is better now. Thanks for taking the time to code the updates. I still wish the bottom line was actually the bottom of the screen considering real estate is a bit cramped at times. I think the games is pretty much in its finished state right now. Maybe look towards a sequel with the enhancements we mentioned before.

[DirtyOstrich]

The game is better now. Thanks for taking the time to code the updates. I still wish the bottom line was actually the bottom of the screen considering real estate is a bit cramped at times. I think the games is pretty much in its finished state right now. Maybe look towards a sequel with the enhancements we mentioned before.

k m

Thanks so much for your feedback, with everyone's help here I think Pester has really become a much better game.

I did try and increase the size of the available screen but due to the Xblig tile safe area rule I couldn't move the lives and bomb sprites any lower, otherwise it would have failed peer review. I also tried moving them to the top of the screen but didn't quite look right.

Already started on a sequel which I hope will many of the enhancements that you mentioned.
I'm going to try and keep a developer diary on here to keep people posted. I'll start when the basic engine is ready.

Thanks again everyone for your feedback and positive comments, really cant thank you enough

Paul

[DirtyOstrich]

Hi,

Just to let you guys know Pester will be available on the PC later this month (June 2013)
Should be out on the 14th if all goes well.

Here's the new PC trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXjwecJvs7Y

[DirtyOstrich]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to pop in to say my old Xblig shooter, Pester, is now live on steam!
Somehow it got greenlit

Anyway it's had a bit of an overhaul both with gameplay and graphically but it's pretty much the same game...but better

It's normally priced at $1 but there's a 20% discount at the moment taking it to $0.74 (59p)

Here's the steam page if you want to take a look: http://store.steampowered.com/app/354920

Thanks everyone!

[CStarFlare]

I bought this - it's quite enjoyable. How many waves are in this thing?

[DirtyOstrich]

I bought this - it's quite enjoyable. How many waves are in this thing?

Thanks so much for trying out my little game It's starting to show it's age now!
There are 20 waves, once you beat the final boss it loops over.

[CStarFlare]

Does it loop forever?

[DirtyOstrich]

Does it loop forever?

And ever and ever and ever...