Act of Fury is on the App Store

[DarkWave_Games]

Hi guys,

we're Darkwave Games, an indie italian team based in Milan and we wanted to write a post to let you know that Act of Fury, our latest shump, is available on the App Store.

We know that Act of Fury in not the typical bullet hell that you'll surely like but it has a different kind of gameplay and we're sure that someone among you will enjoy it.

In Act of Fury the main character, called Kraine Severe, can transform in a hurricane so he don't have to shoot because he can simply rush towards the enemies to destroy them.
There's a rating system that rewards the player with stars that can be spent to unlock various kind of powers, to cover the hurricane with flames or to better exploit the fury mechanic.

Here's the site with the trailer and some screenshots below.

Thanks, we hope you guys enjoy the game.

[Udderdude]

Judging from the trailer, it looks like you're invincible most of the time.

Yeah.

>_>

[Bananamatic]

So european it hurts

[Estebang]

Can we make obnoxious self-advertising outside of the Development forum a bannable offense? Not that these people are ever going to post again or read these responses.

[Avatar Ignis]

Health bar and debris shield?

No lite/free demo=no try

[Enemy]

Why oh why oh why do health bars exist in shmups. If you are writing a shmup in this day and age you must be a fan of the genre so why the hell would you use a health bar

[DarkWave_Games]

Can we make obnoxious self-advertising outside of the Development forum a bannable offense? Not that these people are ever going to post again or read these responses.

Of course we're going to read the responses.
We're thinking about a special game mode for the classic shooter fans so we're starting to gather thoughts among experts.

Health bar and debris shield?

No lite/free demo=no try

The lite will be published soon, don't worry.

We game have a health bar because the gameplay style is different from the classic shooter mechanics.
In Act of Fury you don't have to shoot so you have to take risks, even being hit on purpose to raise your fury, in order to beat the harder levels on Hell mode.

[Raytrace]

I've yet to really enjoy playing a shmup on my iPad, but I do like the look and colours of this - particularly the F-22s - Psyvariar skimming thing sounds fun too - is there an iPad specific version?

[DarkWave_Games]

is there an iPad specific version?

I'm sorry but right now the game is only for iPhone and iPod Touch.
The game is playable on the iPad with 2x zoom but is not a native app.

We'll think about a specific version in the future, though.

[Raytrace]

is there an iPad specific version?

I'm sorry but right now the game is only for iPhone and iPod Touch.
The game is playable on the iPad with 2x zoom but is not a native app.

We'll think about a specific version in the future, though.

oh I c no worries - 2xzoom isnt as offensive on iPad as it used to be anyway cos theyve turned off the horrid filter/blur now (since iOS 5)

[Udderdude]

If you want some serious suggestions for a "Mode people around here might actually play" thing ..

Get rid of the health bar.

Make the enemies fire more and faster shots.

Make sure the game can be cleared without dying.

Remove the "Damage everything and become invincible for some inordinate amount of time" mechanic.

Add a scoring system that's interesting but simple.

Make sure there's no dead time where the player has nothing to do.

These are just some basics you can get started with.

Also, you may want to read this : http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=36231

[DJ Incompetent]

Can we make obnoxious self-advertising outside of the Development forum a bannable offense? Not that these people are ever going to post again or read these responses.

Completed games are ok. Completed games should always be ok.

[DarkWave_Games]

Hello guys sorry for the delay and thanks for the feedback.
Thanks to the Apple store we can update the game periodically, so gathering as much feedback as possible is very important to make us able to improve the game and make it an enjoyable experience.

Get rid of the health bar.

This is the point that concern me most, but it might be 'cause I'm not a shump's super-expert. I usually play Cave games, and the ones I played uses a shield system that can be easily compared to and health system. Why having an health bar is so bad, but having a shield bar can be good ?

Make the enemies fire more and faster shots.

This is probably related to the fact that we have a collision area for the player which is too big compared to the usual distance between the bullets. I think we should increase the number of bullets but at the same time lower the radius of the collision area down to 3 pixels or less.

Make sure the game can be cleared without dying.

It can, but is probably extremely hard (especially in hell mode).

Remove the "Damage everything and become invincible for some inordinate amount of time" mechanic.

Actually you don't become invincible: increasing the fury gives you a bigger hit radius which in practice makes you able to do more damage to more enemies. But you are not invincible at all.
Can your observation be related to the fact that a lot of times, if you are very big, you lose the sense of "warning" that usually comes for this kind of games ?

Add a scoring system that's interesting but simple.

I've a few ideas, se below.

Make sure there's no dead time where the player has nothing to do.

You are absolutely right. Probably we should have created a separate mode for "casual" players more similar to this one (an action-like approach), and another one for experts

Also, you may want to read this : http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=36231

Yup thanks!


Talking about the first update what I was thinking about was to add a separate mode as long as I don't want to fake the actual leaderboards (even if they come for a not-so-perfect game so far).

The idea was to focus more on risk/reward mechanics, making the player able to hit better scores the better his ability will be. Here are a few ideas I had, let me know if you think they are garbage:

Reduce the collision area for the player and improve the number of bullets around;
If the player passes very near to a bullet, his fury increases a bit allowing him to do more damage;
Each time a bullet is destroied (by any mean, like hitting a debris that floats around the player, by an explosion, by a bomb, etc ) the score multiplier increases;
Each time an enemy enters into play, the players starts to drain energy from it (like a stream of orange particles - which doesn't reduce the enemy health btw). The more the energy drained, the slower the multiplier and fury will decrease.

I think that this way a good player will be more focused on keeping enemies alive as much as possible, and will be rewarded by taking risky moves and by using a bit of strategy while playing.

Does this make sense ?

Thanks a lot,
Gabriele

[Udderdude]

The idea was to focus more on risk/reward mechanics, making the player able to hit better scores the better his ability will be. Here are a few ideas I had, let me know if you think they are garbage:

Reduce the collision area for the player and improve the number of bullets around;
If the player passes very near to a bullet, his fury increases a bit allowing him to do more damage;
Each time a bullet is destroyed (by any mean, like hitting a debris that floats around the player, by an explosion, by a bomb, etc ) the score multiplier increases;
Each time an enemy enters into play, the players starts to drain energy from it (like a stream of orange particles - which doesn't reduce the enemy health btw). The more the energy drained, the slower the multiplier and fury will decrease.

I like this as it encourages you to get closer to bullets, also I would add something maybe like a button that lets you shoot out an arc of lightning from your character to zap the closest enemy for more points. Maybe have this tie into the rage meter. Also having some items/medals drop from destroyed enemies could encourage to player to collect them after the enemy is defeated.

[DarkWave_Games]

I like this as it encourages you to get closer to bullets, also I would add something maybe like a button that lets you shoot out an arc of lightning from your character to zap the closest enemy for more points. Maybe have this tie into the rage meter. Also having some items/medals drop from destroyed enemies could encourage to player to collect them after the enemy is defeated.

Good suggestions

Going back to the life bar, I read a few discussions on the forum about it and as I understood them, there are some players which hate it and others that doesn't dislike the idea if the life meter is well integrated into the game. Which is your opinion about it ?

[Drachenherz]

About the lifebar:

A lifebar shouldn't be a freepass for cheap situations in the game, i.e. you shouldn't cover up bad gamedesign by using a lifebar. In other words: Every situation should be manageable with skill and not like "okay, it's quite a tough situation there, we designed it like shit, but it doesn't matter, the player has enough life left to pass through there."

Personally, I prefer the "1 hit, you're dead" style, but with instant respawning. I don't like checkpoints. This makes for a much greater challenge and it feels just more rewarding when you make it through tight spots. But as mentioned, this means that the level-design has to be top notch - not too easy, not too difficult (i.e. only manageable with luck or not at all). This gives a very, very satisfying feeling of achievement if you up your own skills and progress in the game.

tl;dr:

A lifebar is more often than not implemented as a cheap way to get through badly designed parts of the game. In this function, it sucks. Using it instead of lifes (like Deathsmiles, Espgaluda I and II in a way...), it's okay.

[DarkWave_Games]

Hello guys,

we are working on an update for Act of Fury that should improve the game on a lot of different aspects (at least we hope so!).
I was wondering if anyone of you has an iPhone/iPod Touch and is interested on giving us an hand in testing the new update.
Testing will start after the middle of January, so no rush!

In case someone of you was interested, please PM me!

Thanks