Innerspace Invaders - Beta release, test it please?

[zeekaran]

Hello denizens of shmups.system11.org! I'm a student in game design and development and I'm graduating this semester. This is one of my final projects and I hope you guys enjoy it.

DOWNLOAD LINKS
Mediafire | Dropbox - Beta 0.91 - Updated 5-7-2013 2:58 PM

I'd love feedback on it, as I made it for you guys specifically. I hope to add more levels and another boss in the future, but besides that I'm mostly finished.

- Cloud ability!

[zeekaran]

Oops, huge bug just fixed.

[zeekaran]

Updated again, fixed the two mains things testers complained about. Made level 1 harder, improved boss battle, added popup text that tells you how many enemies until the next level, enemies blink red for one frame if hit, spawn times modified slightly.

I'm still hoping for any feedback from this site. I made the game with shmup fans in mind, not normal people/casuals.

[Cagar]

I'll try it... will edit feedback here later:
-Put somewhere (in help menu) a text or something which tells you that you CAN'T hit the red-balls << EDIT: wait what, you can hit them? What do they do?
-Make the player die completely when the gun gets destroyed; it's pointless to keep alive <<< EDIT: oh wait, the red things heal you.. then it's alright
-Add scoring, and possibly with some simple scoring mechanics for example: the closer you are the enemy when you destroy it, the more score you get
-And that you get score for collecting those red balls too, possibly with some kind of combo-collecting mechanic
-Insted of the current music, put something more atmospheric ambient soundtrack (something like this AND..
-Add more sound effects to your own shots and enemy "explosions". If possible, make them echo a lot to keep the atmosphere up
-Make level 1 easier

-Edit enemies so that they turn back after coming too close (i'd say about 50% of the screen)
-Level 2 enemies spawn too close sometimes...
-Level 2.. what the fuck, I just randomly die, enemies spawn ON me... I can't get past this level so..

...

[zeekaran]

For some reason the video in your link won't load for me. I even tried downloading it with a youtube downloader, but the video just isn't responding.

About audio: I'm currently using public domain or attribution 3.0 placeholder sound files. My sound designer has not yet made anything usable for this game. I would love something more ambient for music; I'm just having trouble getting someone I can use legally. Same applies to sound effects or I'd have a sound effect for everything.

I just updated the download link with two small changes. First, the player starts without the "upgrade arms" and collecting the red blood cells replenishes them. This should reduce confusion on the nature of the red blood cells for someone playing the game for the first time. The second change is that the enemies in level 2 now pop out of their hiding spots when they are within a certain radius of the player, instead of only coming out if shot or colliding with the player. I think this makes it easier in a slightly less Dark Souls "learn from dying" method.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

This is actually really cool. The whole red blood cells being used for recovering ship parts is a neat idea, as is being able to get damaged to the point where you're weakened and lose your shots. The movement is really, really unusual - I'm not used to inertia in a shmup, but here it feels very much like it's intentional as the cloud ability that recharges gives you temporary invulnerability as well as a massive movement speed boost for its duration so you can nab a bunch of red blood cells, offsetting your normal modes lackluster movement. The inertia makes a bit more sense here too as you're in blood plasma, which is viscous and presumably pumping... The recharge ability sort of reminds me of Giga Wing.

The white blood cells that attack you if you get close and ignore you in favour of attacking other enemies are a really nice touch. Though, counterintuitively, killing white blood cells (things that are normally 'good' in a bloodstream) rewards you with powerups, haha. An explanation on the powerup system (even if it's just "kill these, collect these") would be handy, perhaps on the help screen. Does the colour of the orb when you collect the powerup affect your shot type?

It's a really great start. There's a few polish issues I'd address here and there (an actual pause button or a 3,2,1 countdown like Espgaluda's PS2 port when you hit ESC then Continue so you get a few seconds to see where the bullets are before the game unpauses, controls would be nice to remap too) and I can't seem to find how to (if it's possible) make it fullscreen.

There's also some balance issues - level 2 seems to be really easy (got a three way spreadshot by getting a green powerup from a killed white blood cell) compared to level 1, whereas if your cannon accidentally gets broken in level 1, the giant green balls can spam the screen with shots easily killing red blood cells before you can reliably recharge your ship. Even levels 3 and 4 were easier due to there being far fewer enemy shots and the fact that I happened to get a decent weapon. Level 1 seems like it'd be more appropriate being a later level...

whoa and ebola just rammed into me and I instantly died, lol

No invulnerability period isn't so rough in levels with slow, or sparse bullets, especially when you can take a number of shots and survive, but when you have enemies that rely on ramming you, and can move on top of your ship hitbox erratically might be wise to have a small invulnerability period when you take damage. Even with the cloud ability, if it hasn't recharged in time, your movement speed is too slow and cumbersome to react if it gets close and decides to turn and beeline at you, and it only takes that happening once to get a gameover.

[zeekaran]

Thank you for the feedback! And I apologize that this post is so long.

The color of the powerup orb is random. There are three levels of upgrade not including the starting point, and upgrading is linear as well as requires that you have the "side arms" intact. I was thinking I should probably add a glowy effect so it's more obvious that it's beneficial, and the help screen suggestion is a good idea as well.

I'm glad you aren't too off-put by the inertia.

Pause button: Currently escape key does it, what is preferred?
Control remapping: Gladly! That may take me a bit because I don't know how to get it to save after you close the program. It shouldn't take too much time, it's just something I haven't done before. I'll have fullscreen as an option when I'm doing that part as well.

Balancing: I think I need to lower the spawning rates on level 1 again. I can't find a happy balance. It's either too easy or too hard, and it's somewhat luck based because all spawning is handled pseudo-randomly. Level 2: Once you know how the enemies work, it's very easy. Before that, you'll probably get one or two to pop on you and then you die. Another balance issue I'm not sure how to fix. 3: I was thinking of making them speed up slowly as time goes by. 4: I'm going to redo their behaviors because they are too easily avoided. 5 (boss): What if I made it so he wouldn't dive you if he was closer than X distance? That way if he dives, he'll be far enough that you have a chance to dodge it without the cloud active. There's still a chance he'll randomly pick a direction that you're in, but it won't be a target dive.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

upgrading is linear as well as requires that you have the "side arms" intact. I was thinking I should probably add a glowy effect so it's more obvious that it's beneficial, and the help screen suggestion is a good idea as well.

The glowy effect would certainly help. So, as far as the powerup goes, do you drop down to minimum power if you lose one of your arms? If you collect a powerup with one or both arms missing, do you get the powerup boost (just only when your arms are alive) or do you get no powerup at all if you get one while missing an arm?

I'm glad you aren't too off-put by the inertia.

Granted, I suspect it'd make level 1 a lot easier if it were toned-down or removed. I think the reason it's less jarring than it would normally be because you don't have many fast/aimed bullets, so the slow pacing makes the inertia seem more deliberate rather than a detriment.

Another thing that makes movement tricky is that it's hard to tell where you'll pop up when you use the cloud; the cloud seems to be centered on the ship's gun, whereas the 'body' section which is really the main part of the ship (since it's what's left if the gun is destroyed) shows up offset slightly left of the cloud's center as far as I can tell, which makes it tricky to accurately know where your ship pops in especially in a cloud of bullets.

That may take me a bit because I don't know how to get it to save after you close the program.

It's not really a huge issue to remap the keys when you open the program each time, you have to do that for some Flash games that don't save data.