Very clear marathon influence, the texture work is fantastic but the weapons are a little too low-res by comparison. I think some black or gray distance fog would also help build some more atmosphere.
You’ve got a door on the second level that doesn’t look like an interactable type, yet it is.
Then on the fourth(? I lost count) level there’s this door leading to a black wall.
I ended up just stopping at some point. The game is a solid foundation but the slow pace, limited roster of very easy enemies, and repetitive environments make it feel like a chore.
Surprised you managed to squeeze such a small game package out of Unreal, and the Linux version even works properly, kudos!
There was some weird bugs with animations. Like reloading the pistol would hide it until you fire, but it seemed to queue up the firing animation? Like I would shoot, the enemy would die, and then the shooting animation would play.
The rifle had some odd things going on with the ammunition counts. When I picked up the clips in the second level, the second count went up by 1 but I could reload a full magazine, so it went from like 5/3 to 30/2. But based on the initial pickup, I thought the second number was the number of remaining bullets.
At this point I would like to see more varied content.
Yeah - the number to the right of the slash is the number of magazines available - so any ammo not used in your current mag is wasted. Which I acknowledge is weird since the shotgun counts it by individual shells but changing it to be otherwise isn't simple and could potentially lead to more confusion.
Enemies didn’t pose much of a threat (on Normal+). The pistol is definitely OP. It’s fun to use but I’d see it as a max upgraded weapon, not a starter pistol.
Gotta be honest, didn’t read much past the first few screens. Still not sure what’s with the green aliens and if I’m supposed to keep them alive.
Was about to praise how accurate the shield enemies hitboxes are but turns out they’re just higher HP and shooting around the shield doesn’t matter. Would be pretty cool if it was as I thought.
The rifle being worse than the pistol and no ADS (or at least I couldn’t figure it out) is kinda funny.
Wish the wide dark gray doors showed if they’re openable or not. And the green/broken screen ones could be a bit more visible.
There’s a bug where you can’t switch weapons without firing once first. Also some weirdness with being able to shoot before the animations finish sometimes/anim desync?. Pistol disappears while reloading. Guardrail texture has a pixel-width edge line. Saw some long corridors which were dead ends, bit frustrating.
Made it halfway through “Apply directly to the forehead” without taking any damage (the whole run), restarting to check max difficulty. Not sure but now the enemies seem to react from further, maybe the homing projectile tracks more tightly? Seems like it’d be about as easy.
Lone gunner CQB-ing his way through a feverdream mazelike humongous hijacked ship has potential for world class ludo, just gotta do it justice. I personally envision something like System Shock remake but a bit more casualised/linear/combat oriented.
Thanks for playing! Funnily enough with the shield thing - there IS in fact a mechanic where the Sal Skirmishers (the shield enemies) DO in fact take more damage from the sides and rear (and less from the front) it's just that because of financial constraints the sprites that show this have yet to be made/finished so it doesn't really show very well. But yes - it is (sort of) present.
Your comments on the pistol have given me the idea of the pistol being a weapon that gets gradually upgraded over the course of the game. Could be an interesting mechanic.
I don't know if I'd say the rifle is *worse*. The idea is that the pistol is supposed to be powerful, but unreliable if you end up missing or there are more enemies. The rifle and shotgun would thus be more consistent overall.
The big doors DO sort of have a tell for if there's something behind them - whether or not they have any text. But yeah I get that's way too subtle. Will probably end up adding bits to them soon.
The switching weapons thing is actually intentional. There's a small delay before you're allowed to switch weapons to keep players from juggling guns - and thus make the choice more of a commitment.
The pistol disappearing during reload is a known thing, yeah - the animations aren't done yet unfortunately.
The guardrail pixel infuriates me as well but unfortunately I'm not sure how to get rid of it since I don't know what's actually causing it.
I assume you're talking about the pistol. Basically - I got complaints from the first demo that the pistol felt far too convenient relative to the other weapons. As a result people didn't feel a need to use anything else since the pistol has unlimited ammo AND is reasonably powerful.
The idea behind the change is that the pistol can be powerful and have (functionally) unlimited ammo (since it's an energy weapon anyway) - but it has to have some kind of drawback that makes it untenable to use all the time. I figure its current configuration makes it just inconsistent enough that the other weapons will become safer bets - and thus used more.
The level select thing is a good point though, actually.
Comments
Very clear marathon influence, the texture work is fantastic but the weapons are a little too low-res by comparison. I think some black or gray distance fog would also help build some more atmosphere.
You’ve got a door on the second level that doesn’t look like an interactable type, yet it is.
Then on the fourth(? I lost count) level there’s this door leading to a black wall.
I ended up just stopping at some point. The game is a solid foundation but the slow pace, limited roster of very easy enemies, and repetitive environments make it feel like a chore.
Surprised you managed to squeeze such a small game package out of Unreal, and the Linux version even works properly, kudos!
Pretty nostalgic shooter.
Thanks for playing!
Yeah - the number to the right of the slash is the number of magazines available - so any ammo not used in your current mag is wasted. Which I acknowledge is weird since the shotgun counts it by individual shells but changing it to be otherwise isn't simple and could potentially lead to more confusion.
Enemies didn’t pose much of a threat (on Normal+). The pistol is definitely OP. It’s fun to use but I’d see it as a max upgraded weapon, not a starter pistol.
Gotta be honest, didn’t read much past the first few screens. Still not sure what’s with the green aliens and if I’m supposed to keep them alive.
Was about to praise how accurate the shield enemies hitboxes are but turns out they’re just higher HP and shooting around the shield doesn’t matter. Would be pretty cool if it was as I thought.
The rifle being worse than the pistol and no ADS (or at least I couldn’t figure it out) is kinda funny.
Wish the wide dark gray doors showed if they’re openable or not. And the green/broken screen ones could be a bit more visible.
There’s a bug where you can’t switch weapons without firing once first. Also some weirdness with being able to shoot before the animations finish sometimes/anim desync?. Pistol disappears while reloading. Guardrail texture has a pixel-width edge line. Saw some long corridors which were dead ends, bit frustrating.
Made it halfway through “Apply directly to the forehead” without taking any damage (the whole run), restarting to check max difficulty. Not sure but now the enemies seem to react from further, maybe the homing projectile tracks more tightly? Seems like it’d be about as easy.
Lone gunner CQB-ing his way through a feverdream mazelike humongous hijacked ship has potential for world class ludo, just gotta do it justice. I personally envision something like System Shock remake but a bit more casualised/linear/combat oriented.
Thanks for playing! Funnily enough with the shield thing - there IS in fact a mechanic where the Sal Skirmishers (the shield enemies) DO in fact take more damage from the sides and rear (and less from the front) it's just that because of financial constraints the sprites that show this have yet to be made/finished so it doesn't really show very well. But yes - it is (sort of) present.
Your comments on the pistol have given me the idea of the pistol being a weapon that gets gradually upgraded over the course of the game. Could be an interesting mechanic.
I don't know if I'd say the rifle is *worse*. The idea is that the pistol is supposed to be powerful, but unreliable if you end up missing or there are more enemies. The rifle and shotgun would thus be more consistent overall.
The big doors DO sort of have a tell for if there's something behind them - whether or not they have any text. But yeah I get that's way too subtle. Will probably end up adding bits to them soon.
The switching weapons thing is actually intentional. There's a small delay before you're allowed to switch weapons to keep players from juggling guns - and thus make the choice more of a commitment.
The pistol disappearing during reload is a known thing, yeah - the animations aren't done yet unfortunately.
The guardrail pixel infuriates me as well but unfortunately I'm not sure how to get rid of it since I don't know what's actually causing it.
shouldn't the reload speed be proportional to how many bullets you are missing?
also, this reaaaally needs a sprint button.
as you expand the game more and more, consider a level select screen, so that playtesters can jump straight into the new content
I assume you're talking about the pistol. Basically - I got complaints from the first demo that the pistol felt far too convenient relative to the other weapons. As a result people didn't feel a need to use anything else since the pistol has unlimited ammo AND is reasonably powerful.
The idea behind the change is that the pistol can be powerful and have (functionally) unlimited ammo (since it's an energy weapon anyway) - but it has to have some kind of drawback that makes it untenable to use all the time. I figure its current configuration makes it just inconsistent enough that the other weapons will become safer bets - and thus used more.
The level select thing is a good point though, actually.