Children of Apollo. First level ready for testing.

Finally got it ready to go! This game takes place on a retro sci-fi Mars after the Apollo missions ended. The link to test is in my twitter post. Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to try it out

Let me know what you think:

https://twitter.com/CargoCultGaming/status/855782406669778945

played, good job so far.

the good:

-cool art

-good enemies

-interesting mechanic (find people I assume?)

the bad:

-repetitive shooting sound, after a while it's just too much, I'd force the player to stop shooting, like an eventual overheat or something

-too hard, never found the people I was supposed to rescue, played for a bit, never found anyone, for level 1, add some success early.

-no minimap, easy to get lost. either that or make each "section" unique looking with a different background

-the old retro tv look is ehhh.. it's just gimicky and doesn't really serve the game too much, it's pretty dramatic - I could take it or leave it.. if it wasn't as intrusive I would keep it.. I don't know, I'm just not sold on it. Maybe make it an option to turn off?

-I assume you will give the player a walk animation? if not.. I definitely would do that.

keep up the good work...

played, good job so far.

the good:

-cool art

-good enemies

-interesting mechanic (find people I assume?)

the bad:

-repetitive shooting sound, after a while it's just too much, I'd force the player to stop shooting, like an eventual overheat or something

-too hard, never found the people I was supposed to rescue, played for a bit, never found anyone, for level 1, add some success early.

-no minimap, easy to get lost. either that or make each "section" unique looking with a different background

-the old retro tv look is ehhh.. it's just gimicky and doesn't really serve the game too much, it's pretty dramatic - I could take it or leave it.. if it wasn't as intrusive I would keep it.. I don't know, I'm just not sold on it. Maybe make it an option to turn off?

-I assume you will give the player a walk animation? if not.. I definitely would do that.

keep up the good work...

Thanks for taking the time to look at it and type up some feedback.

The repetitive sounds are a tough problem. I might make the gun a bit quieter. When you stop shooting your shield will recharge, was hoping this would be enough to break it up a bit. Also, the sound of the gun changes as you upgrade it so that should help as well. I'll keep an eye on future feedback and see if I get more complaints about it.

Weird that you didn't find any humans at all. There are 2 pretty close to the start area and you'll hear a pinging sound as you get close to them. Listen for a kind of sonar ping. I'll take a closer look at the difficulty.

As far as a mini-map I wanted to try and completely avoid this feature, instead going with in-world indicators such as the worn paths and the audio ping the prisoner cages give off. Also there are unique landmarks on the map to aid in navigation. If it continues to be a problem I may have to think of another clue to put into the world to help the player along. I really want to avoid all the hand holding like you see in AAA games though.

How long did it take before you died/gave up? The level should take ~15-20 minutes.

I'll see about adding an option to toggle the screen effect. But how am I supposed to hide my amateur art behind a silly gimmick if people turn it off? lol

Thanks again!

for the gun sound just add variations..take the original sound bring it into Audacity and do one of these to each version:

-change the tempo

-change the pitch slightly (very slightly)

-give a small doppler effect (pitch slide)

-add a little shimmer, echo or something to it (make this one twice as long)

you can trigger sounds randomly: Play sound "gun" & choose("1","2","3")

or do something more elaborate..every 6th one play a different sound

Play sound "short_laser" & (counter < 6 ? "1" : "2")

set counter to counter % 6 + 1

I played for about 10 or 15 mins before I gave up..

everything looked the same color, I couldn't tell where I was and if I was going anywhere different really... although when there were more enemies I realized I was in a new area.. Oh and the outer light purple color which is the bounds of the game? I thought I could walk on it.. so I was surprised when I couldn't go through it..and died pinned up against it a few times.. maybe this needs more contrast (darker) as its the edge of the screen? or maybe it was weird how the character starts to overlap it but then you can't quite go through it? not sure.. something just wasn't right so when I was running from those bat things I wasn't sure where the bounds were exactly... also the bats go through this so I thought I could... if it's supposed to be higher or lower elevation, maybe you could add something to the tiles give it height or depth?

The player needs some work.. without any walking animation the player really feels like it's like a HUD element. doesn't feel as part of the world. Also think about doing a Scroll to lerp instead of ScrollTo behavior to make it in the world more maybe?. And the player needs a drop shadow like those bats.. and needs to turn left/right.

I played a second time and eventually I found 1 human.. but not another one.. and I looked hard!

I didn't find anyone at all.

Nothing really happened..?

And as stated above, it is impossible to know where you are and where to go. Jast "walk" randomly. And Ialso think (like jobel) changing the light purple bound into something else. maybe a rocky-tile or something.

Otherwise cool! This might be a cool retro little game

I didn't find anyone at all.

Nothing really happened..?

And as stated above, it is impossible to know where you are and where to go. Jast "walk" randomly. And Ialso think (like jobel) changing the light purple bound into something else. maybe a rocky-tile or something.

Otherwise cool! This might be a cool retro little game

Making the boundary tile look like rocks is a good idea. Thanks!

it is impossible to know where you are and where to go. Jast "walk" randomly.

Did you see the path? Maybe the version didn't update and it's showing you and old version without the path.

I played for about 10 or 15 mins before I gave up..

everything looked the same color, I couldn't tell where I was and if I was going anywhere different really... although when there were more enemies I realized I was in a new area.. Oh and the outer light purple color which is the bounds of the game? I thought I could walk on it.. so I was surprised when I couldn't go through it..and died pinned up against it a few times.. maybe this needs more contrast (darker) as its the edge of the screen? or maybe it was weird how the character starts to overlap it but then you can't quite go through it? not sure.. something just wasn't right so when I was running from those bat things I wasn't sure where the bounds were exactly... also the bats go through this so I thought I could... if it's supposed to be higher or lower elevation, maybe you could add something to the tiles give it height or depth?

The player needs some work.. without any walking animation the player really feels like it's like a HUD element. doesn't feel as part of the world. Also think about doing a Scroll to lerp instead of ScrollTo behavior to make it in the world more maybe?. And the player needs a drop shadow like those bats.. and needs to turn left/right.

I played a second time and eventually I found 1 human.. but not another one.. and I looked hard!

Thanks again for the feedback and encouragement. The next update is going to have improved boundary tiles. Also footpaths lead to the prisoners and there is a sonar ping when you start to get close. I just tested having the shooting enemies only shoot when they're on screen and the game plays a lot better but I'll need to take some time to tweak their placements now.

changing the light purple bound into something else. maybe a rocky-tile or something.

also you could make it into a chasm tile....that way the bats could still fly over it... and the player could still overlap it a bit and it would still make sense.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73 ... 8f1a4d.jpg

or

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 416c96.jpg