Trapped in Time Demo (Looking for feedback)

(Note (08/30/2010): I've updated this thread with new content and download links

<img src="http://www.accidentalrebel.com/demos/tit1.png"> <img src="http://www.accidentalrebel.com/demos/tit2.png">

Short Description

Trapped in Time is a top-view manic shooter where you are trapped inside a giant clock level and you need to survive swarms of enemies all while dodging the fast rotating clock hands with timed jumps.

Game Features

Here are some things that you could expect from the game:

• Jumping! - What sets it apart from other manic shooters is that you need to jump to avoid enemies and obstacles, which is unheard of in this genre
• Weapons - There are a variety of guns at your disposal. Each has it's own pros and cons. The Gatling Gun, Shotgun, Laser Beam, Rocket Launcher, and Mortar Launcher
• Enemies - Enemy variety is aplenty and are guaranteed to keep you on your toes to keep you challenged all the time!
• Power-ups - The level is constantly littered with items that can give you special abilities, and even affect your surroundings.
• Challenging gameplay - The longer you play, the harder the levels get. This makes the game more challenging and satisfying when you get a high score.

Latest update:

• Freeze Ray ? Freezes enemies. Once frozen you can smash them to kill them instantly.
• Splitting Bullets
• Arc Lightning Gun ? Lightning jumps randomly from enemy to enemy damaging them
• Familiars ? Kinda like mini helpers that shoot enemies that are near
• Mortar Launcher
• Rocket Launcher
• A power-up that could slow or reverse the movement of the clock
• Force Field
• New sprites
• New effects
• Better controls
• Scoring System
• HUD is now on the screen displaying number of bullets as well as health
• Improved and cleaner graphics

Coming Soon

• More enemies for variety
• Bug fixing
• Release!

Demo Download

Here's a download of a demo of the game. In this current version, most of the basic stuff are implemented, like weapons, basic enemies, etc.

Latest Release (08/30/2010)

Download link to Zip file

Download link to Rar file

Videos

Currently working on a new video featuring the latest build of the game.

Credits

The game has no music or sounds yet but Tyler Schmahl, aka Havoc, has expressed interest in providing some tracks for the game. Thanks, Tyler!

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Trapped in Time is the current game project of Accidental Rebel made using the Construct game engine.

I'm not the best for giving advice on the difficulty of these games as 9 times out of 10 I'm shockingly crap at them, and I'm shockingly crap at this too.

So without the difficulty feedback.

Game moves very smoothly. Easy to tell when I'm jumping. I like the weapons - The only time I felt I was doing well was when I had the Lazer Gun thingy. Hard to tell at the moment if I'd been hit - Maybe a small visual effect, sound effect when they are added - Flash red perhaps. I know theres a health bar but with jumping(badly), dodging (badly) and shooting (badly) I couldn't really tell when I was hit. Which then again was probably most of the time.

Like I said probably not much help but I'm really bad at these types of games.

Keep it up man. Hope you get some feedback from someone good at these type of shooters.

Minor, thank you very much for sharing your comments.

[quote:b7xfs4v4]Game moves very smoothly.

To tell you the truth, this is just the default settings using the 8-direction movement behavior. It was fine the way it is that I didn't felt the need to change it. Whoever programmed that knew smooth movement.

[quote:b7xfs4v4]Easy to tell when I'm jumping.

Yeah, playtesters of previous builds pointed this one out. It's a good thing I managed to work it out.

[quote:b7xfs4v4]Hard to tell at the moment if I'd been hit

Now that you mentioned it, you're right. Aside from a sound effect, maybe I could implement something like the damage indicator on Modern Warfare. The one where the screen turns to red and slowly fades away.

Again, thank you for your valuable feedback!

Quick update on the game: Added a difficulty selection.

hehe fun.

Perhaps you could play around with time delta, so when the game starts everything is slow and then it speeds up and up and up...since you have the whole clock thing in there.

Also how the hell am I ment to outrun the clocks hand and shoot ghosts

I guess I just suck at gaming

And yeah, having a red flash would be an awesome way of showing damage.

Hi guys, first of all, thank you for all your comments and suggestions.

I've uploaded a new version of the demo. Just check the updated first post of this thread for the download link.

New features:

• Freeze Ray ? Freezes enemies. Once frozen you can smash them to kill them instantly.
• Splitting Bullets
• Arc Lightning Gun ? Lightning jumps randomly from enemy to enemy damaging them
• Familiars ? Kinda like mini helpers that shoot enemies that are near
• Mortar Launcher
• Rocket Launcher
• A power-up that could slow or reverse the movement of the clock
• Force Field
• New sprites
• New effects
• Better controls
• Scoring System
• HUD is now on the screen displaying number of bullets as well as health
• Improved and cleaner graphics

Just tried it out. Very cool missiles , rockets, bullets. On the whole the firepower/powerups are awesome!!!! I actually wasn't the biggest fan of the movement. Yes, it was smooth but I felt it was harder to reverse direction than I would have liked.

I must suck at this game as well, because I can't figure out how to avoid the hands too. It just keeps circling and circling and kills me everytime! If it wasn't for dying all the time I would have really liked it. Any tips on avoiding death? It just gets to crazy between jumping to avoid the clock hands, trying to pick up powerups, and trying to shoot and avoid enemies. I can only do two at most.

Hi Scidave! Thank you very much for your feedback!

[quote:3t5w6r7q]Very cool missiles , rockets, bullets. On the whole the firepower/powerups are awesome!!!!

I know! I like it, too! I wanted it to be over the top and fun to use! Does it need more, though? What do you think?

[quote:3t5w6r7q]Yes, it was smooth but I felt it was harder to reverse direction than I would have liked.

Hmm... i'll go and see what I can do with reversing direction. Right now it does seem little hard, no?

[quote:3t5w6r7q]I must suck at this game as well, because I can't figure out how to avoid the hands too. It just keeps circling and circling and kills me everytime! If it wasn't for dying all the time I would have really liked it. Any tips on avoiding death? It just gets to crazy between jumping to avoid the clock hands, trying to pick up powerups, and trying to shoot and avoid enemies. I can only do two at most.

The only thing you can do to avoid the clock would be to jump. It is the timing and the hordes that makes it harder for people to focus. And this was my main goal from the very beginning.

You could however, make use of the blast power (right click) to clear out the hordes for a short time to give you some breathing space. The freeze ray also buys you some time. During these rare opportunities that you should look for a "slow down" powerup so that the clock would slow down thus giving you a breather.

Again, thank you for your feedback! Much appreciated!

Ha, fun game, but why does the second symbol in the bottom left have "Text" written by it?

Pseudo, thanks! Glad you found it fun. Will still be adding tons of new features to make the experience more fun and challenging so stay tuned.

Also, I've fixed the "text". It should show the number of power blasts you have.

thanks!

Does it need more, though? What do you think?

I don't think it needs more... but more would be cool! If there was some strategy behind using certain powerups against certain enemies then I could see a need for more. Still, I really love the powerups and it's a lot of fun.

One complaint is that if you get a powerup, but then immediately get another powerup you lose ever being able to use the first one. Not a big deal though.. just wondering if that was intended. Also, there does seem to be a bug with powerups. If you restart the game, at least with the "E" option, each time there are less and less powerups. So by the third restart the game is really hard because no more powerups exist!

Right now it does seem little hard, no?

I think you need to increase the deaccelerating so the guy stops a little faster when you let off a key.

And this was my main goal from the very beginning.

It definitely is tough! I forgot about right click... a little easier with that. I actually played for a little while longer on the last try.

Anyway, great game. Looking forward to the next version!

[quote:2v1bg8wt] If there was some strategy behind using certain powerups against certain enemies then I could see a need for more.

Oooo... Good idea. Might consider this with current and future weapon mechanics.

[quote:2v1bg8wt]One complaint is that if you get a powerup, but then immediately get another powerup you lose ever being able to use the first one.

Every new powerup that you pickup would always override the previous one. This happens because sometimes powerups overlap each other that you get two at once. I should fix this and make powerups to not spawn on top of one another.

Will need to think how to do it on construct. Hmmm...

[quote:2v1bg8wt] Also, there does seem to be a bug with powerups. If you restart the game, at least with the "E" option, each time there are less and less powerups. So by the third restart the game is really hard because no more powerups exist!

Aha! Thank you for pointing this out. This happened to me before but shrugged it off thinking that since it spawns randomly, I was just unlucky at that time. Will definitely fix this on the next version.

[quote:2v1bg8wt]I think you need to increase the deaccelerating so the guy stops a little faster when you let off a key.

Noted.

[quote:2v1bg8wt]It definitely is tough! I forgot about right click... a little easier with that. I actually played for a little while longer on the last try.

That's good to hear! Still need to tweak the difficulty a bit to make it more accessible.

That was the main purpose of the power blast (right click). In the next version, getting 5 power blasts will make your weapons even more powerful and awesome-r for a short period of time allowing you to go crazy gung-ho.

Thanks for your comments SciDave. Now I'm even more psyched with my game!

fun!

difficulty picks up swiftly though.