Space Moth DX Thread (Now on Steam!)

[Cagar]

New bullet grazing bonus to raise score and skill ceiling.

Skipping this. Doesn't sound like very well thought game >__>

The bullet grazing bonus was only added after a lot of deliberation, and I think it complements the existing scoring system nicely:

Using rapid shot on enemies will make them turn neon and use a stronger attack (shot density doubles), or "soul drain" them, after which you can get bonus points for finishing them off with laser. Before grazing was added, the optimum way of playing for score was to soul drain enemies then kill them with laser as fast as possible, so they didn't get much chance to do their strong attack. Now it's more beneficial to soul drain them quickly, then wait as long as possible before finishing them off, because their strong attack offers tons of bonus points from grazing.

In short, the bullet grazing bonus means that anyone playing for score will get to see a greater variety of enemy attacks than they would before this feature was added, and get a greater reward for surviving them as well. But if you're still not sure, why not give the free demo a try and see what you think?

This is just my opinion, but I think that grazing takes a lot of fun away from the gameplay. Bullet hells and shmups in general are about DODGING bullets, and score bonuses for going close to them has always seemed really cheap to me. Especially if it's just quickly slapped on the game without further design, like here. You could have made just a visible score value above each enemy in that stronger "dark mode", that increases while they are in it. It would essentially be the same thing (you have to keep strong enemies longer on the screen) without being confusing or taking freedom out of dodging.
Having to keep enemies on screen and forcing the player to NOT shoot is another story of "what design decisions I don't like" though. Don't mind me.

EDIT: Also I didn't notice a difference between the patterns of dark mode & normal mode enemies, do they even change?

Sorry for being harsh!

[Blinge]

1cc get



I'm first other than JDE/Dan? right? right?

[JDE]

Congratulations Blinge! You are indeed the first person to 1CC the game other than dan76 and myself!
The super special secret should now be unlocked...

[CStarFlare]

blinge do me a favor and ruin this secret :3

[Blinge]

Omg this secret is so gud GURL

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Aww damnit Blinge you beat me to it! Gonna try again tonight.

Good work though mate.

[Blinge]

Sorry friend.

Could this be the end of Nice Try Fighter?

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

>Dat photoshoop

[CStarFlare]

Using rapid shot on enemies will make them turn neon and use a stronger attack (shot density doubles), or "soul drain" them, after which you can get bonus points for finishing them off with laser. Before grazing was added, the optimum way of playing for score was to soul drain enemies then kill them with laser as fast as possible, so they didn't get much chance to do their strong attack. Now it's more beneficial to soul drain them quickly, then wait as long as possible before finishing them off, because their strong attack offers tons of bonus points from grazing.

Does grazing offer a flat point/frame increase, or do you get more points if you graze more than one at a time? Space Moth's grazing seems more Raiden Fighters than Touhou, so it's almost better to keep attacks light so yo can follow one bullet as long as possible instead of trying to graze more of them individually... if that makes sense? I suppose there's still that gap between when the bullet leaves the screen and you find another one where more bullets would help out.

Fun stuff so far, soul draining is a lot more interesting after stage 1. Those mushrooms in stage 2 require a bit of planning if you want to soul drain them all. One thing - my highest score is in the 80k range, but my high score list shows a top score of 13k? (it almost feels like they're my demo scores - lots of scores that are very close to/exactly match one another)

edit: it's because I would end my credits with ESC on the game over screen. You have to let the timer run down to post a score.

[Squire Grooktook]

This is just my opinion, but I think that grazing takes a lot of fun away from the gameplay. Bullet hells and shmups in general are about DODGING bullets, and score bonuses for going close to them has always seemed really cheap to me.

I can partly sympathize with this, though grazing is a bit more of a mixed bag for me.

On one hand, grazing has a bit of an "arbitrary" feel to it to me, and like you said it a bit too counter intuitive to discourage macro. I also feel it doesn't mesh well with rng patterns (my favorite thing) as it could potentially create score variance based on luck in that situation.

On the other hand, I like that grazing can force you to move unfocused more, speeding around to get as many grazes as possible. It's a system that definitely has a lot of potential to make players move in unique and interesting ways.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Try as I might, I just can't get past that last pattern.

So flippin' close!

[JDE]

Does grazing offer a flat point/frame increase, or do you get more points if you graze more than one at a time?

It's 1 point per frame, regardless of how many bullets are being grazed, and any bullet can be grazed multiple times.

Try as I might, I just can't get past that last pattern.

If you've got all the way to the final pattern, you can definitely do it - good luck!

[Cata]

This game looks awesome!

Gonna download and play for my lunch break

[JDE]

A special version of Space Moth is now in London's best arcade, The Heart of Gaming!
https://www.facebook.com/TheHeartOfGaming

[cave hermit]

A special version of Space Moth is now in London's best arcade, The Heart of Gaming!
https://www.facebook.com/TheHeartOfGaming

There's something about seeing the game in a candy cab that suddenly makes me want to buy this game...
By the way, if I buy through the humble widget on your site, can I link the purchase to my humble bundle account?

[JDE]

If I buy through the humble widget on your site, can I link the purchase to my humble bundle account?

Yes, you'll be able to link it to your Humble Bundle account.

Also worth noting for people who'd like to buy the game, but are waiting for a Steam release: anyone who buys Space Moth from the 1CC Games website will be able to get a code for the Steam version at no extra cost (assuming the game is Greenlit of course).

[DoomsDave]

JDE do you have to go through a different process or something to get on the humble store? I thought that once you get that humble widget, the game would show up on their store as well.

[JDE]

JDE do you have to go through a different process or something to get on the humble store?

It's up to the Humble Bundle staff which games get on the Humble Store, and unfortunately they told us that:
"We've done an evaluation and determined that The Humble Store would not be a good fit at this time."

[DoomsDave]

Damn, that's lame. Once it gets greenlit I bet they'll change their tune.

[Bananamatic]

Now it's more beneficial to soul drain them quickly, then wait as long as possible before finishing them off, because their strong attack offers tons of bonus points from grazing.

It's 1 point per frame, regardless of how many bullets are being grazed, and any bullet can be grazed multiple times.

this seems kinda contradictive to me

[Cagar]

Now it's more beneficial to soul drain them quickly, then wait as long as possible before finishing them off, because their strong attack offers tons of bonus points from grazing.

It's 1 point per frame, regardless of how many bullets are being grazed, and any bullet can be grazed multiple times.

this seems kinda contradictive to me

Oh yeah I didn't even notice
You are right, 1 bullet on screen is enough to get maximum score from grazing

[CStarFlare]

It seemed that way at first, but eventually things are hectic enough that following one bullet around while avoiding others and effectively killing enemies isn't practicable. You can however have some success soul draining then dodging bullets with fewer gaps in your incidental grazing which works fairly well.

[dan76]

I've just started a thread over in the development section for those interested in the making of the game.
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=51838
Thanks again to the Casino Crew for all the playtesting.

[JBC]

Really enjoyed the demo of this. Needs horizontal scanlines & stretch to fit, but otherwise a wonderful little game. I'd love an iPad version.

Also numerals in the initials screen!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yeah, that'd be something if a dedicated Space Moth Jamma PCB were to be produced as a one-off. Any plans to do so? I'm sure it'd look awesome running on a low-res 15kHz candy cab as well (via Ultracade uVC setup).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BPzeBanshee]

Yeah, that'd be something if a dedicated Space Moth Jamma PCB were to be produced as a one-off. Any plans to do so? I'm sure it'd look awesome running on a low-res 15kHz candy cab as well (via Ultracade uVC setup).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Being a PC Game Maker Studio game I can't see this happening. Closest you'd get would be running on a hacked Taito Type X machine.

[JDE]

I'd love an iPad version.

That'd be something if a dedicated Space Moth Jamma PCB were to be produced.

We'll consider ports to other platforms once the game has sold enough to cover the extra development costs needed, but for now the focus is on getting through Greenlight and onto the Steam Store. So far, the most progress we've had is being featured on RPS, which gave a massive boost to Greenlight votes and demo downloads:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11 ... pace-moth/

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's up to the Humble Bundle staff which games get on the Humble Store, and unfortunately they told us that:
"We've done an evaluation and determined that The Humble Store would not be a good fit at this time."

They're a bunch of stupid douchecanoes who can go fuck themselves. edit: on second thought, the game has massive, unnecessary slowdown issues starting late stage 3/st3 boss, even on my gaming rig, something not visible in the demo, hmmm...

I played the demo and it's really fun. You can tell it was well made by all the thought put into the menu, how smooth it controls, by the nice art style.

My only complaint was the scoring system didn't quite wow me as much as I'd hoped (but the the original Mushihimesama didn't exactly have the best scoring either), but it was a lot better than other indie shmups I've seen and played. It's interesting, but it's tough for me to get used to damaging an enemy enough with the rapid to change them to neon without killing them to maximize score. The grazing mechanic also doesn't feel quite as thought out as it does in Touhou games. Still way better than any scoring system in any Psikyo game...

The scoring I'm sure can be tweaked and improved much like how Cave does with updates later anyways (Mushi 1.5 and Futari 1.5 both had infinitely better scoring than their 1.0 counterparts, Black Label versions apply too) whereas you've got the most important stuff - the groundwork laid out for your game.

It could also do with main menu music. Something to get you hyped before the game itself, since it lacks something like a character select screen or whatnot.

Considering it's your first game, I'd say it's pretty darn awesome. No hesitation in buying it when I played the demo, I hope it sells well and you release more stuff.

Is there a reason the system requirements are so high, though? Is it because the game engine isn't really optimized? I have an older machine (shit onboard gfx card) that I sometimes play doujins on, and Space Moth makes it chug on the slow side, particularly at the stage 3 boss where things slow way down.

[CStarFlare]

My only real complaint about scoring is that boss timer bonuses are generally too low for how dangerous they are to try earn - and in total, they're worth something like 11,000? It might be better if the graze bonus was doubled to encourage a bit of milking.

The soul drain thing works well enough and I was pleased to find it never seemed impossible or unreasonable to try to soul drain everything - you have to play smart and take extra risks, certainly, but it's all clearly all doable. Buy why can't we soul drain those bats?

[JBC]

I just started memorizing the seconds it takes using regular fire on the boss before you can hit it with laser & off it with 2 secs to go. I absolutely love that mechanic & feel it makes the game, not just another pretty face.