Play better Twilight
Project V1 - Space Vampire Thriller's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #3 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Audio | #14 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
| Visuals | #22 | 4.167 | 4.167 |
| Creativity | #28 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
| Overall | #31 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Approachability | #49 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Theme | #162 | 2.583 | 2.583 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Hi. A nice attempt. However, the game must always leave an area to escape from the incoming projectiles. However, most of the time you have no other option than being shot. Thus, providing the player with an almost infinite number of lives is not enough and can't compensate unbalanced difficulty. It'd be much better if the game would give more space to the player to dodge from bullets instead of so many lives.
Thanks for the review!
From my own tests, most of the patterns are 100% possible to beat no-hit, with a few that I've been unable to beat consistently but which are possible with some luck or higher skill. The entirety of stage 1-2 is possible to beat no-hit and I had successful attempts doing so, in stage 3 I've had trouble with the first ghost boss re-fight, and in stage 4 I've only been unable to beat the second and last attack patterns of the final boss, all of which I would like to tweak to be consistently beatable. I don't want to go beyond that and make the patterns easier than they need to be - you don't need to do perfect no-hit due to having HP instead of lives, but you should be able to do it if you want to.
Still, I understand that the bigger than average hitbox is unnatural and very uncomfortable for some and would like to tweak and make it smaller in the future to make the ship easier to pilot. Hopefully this solution would give you more room for dodging while also keeping the challenge!
I really love how fun and engaging the game is! What I just don't understand is why is there a vampire in a coffin floating through outer space? That part didn't make sense to me. But you took some UHEM *artistic liberties* so to speak. I love the explosion effects as well as the many bosses and the way the light on the coffin changes as you move, and it tilts in certain directions gives it a wholesome feel. One thing to say is the player has the same bullet color as the enemies. :( I said this in a few other reviews, I really feel that the color contrast between player, enemy, environment should be very different in a bullet hell because otherwise without that color signal It's hard to tell who's bullets are who's. Also, the art style is really inconsistent Other than that, this game is smashing and I hope you guys keep making games ! Also, I'd love if you rated mine!
Thank you!
Good point on the bullet color - currently the enemy bullets are always on top of everything else so I assume most people are fine with how it is (haven't received feedback on player bullet color in particular before), but it could definitely be changed in color and made more faint, which I may do in the future.
As for why is there a vampire, why is he confined in a silver coffin and why is he floating through space? Well, this question won't be answered fully for now but I'll say that he definitely chose to be this way :) Why bother conquering humanity when you can just chill in your advanced Magical x Technological marvel?
I would like to make more improvements to the game in the future, as the game engine gets updated to allow for more features I want. Thank you for checking it out!
(Also, just to make sure, please check again whether you've rated the game or not - on my end it seems that the amount of people who rated this game is same as yesterday, though I may be mistaken)
oh shoot I completely forgot to rate!
Haha no problem, thank you for checking back!
I've checked your game but didn't have a chance to play it yet, I'll try to do that by the end of the weekend
Some people may have trouble figuring out the controls so I'll copy-paste them from the game page for your convenience (really wish you could pin comments here):
Controls (keyboard/gamepad):
Main menu and start screen - Z to start, X to cancel.
Movement - arrow keys/d-pad/joystick (WASD if you're a weirdo)
Shoot Bullets - Hold Z/(A)
VAMPIRE LASER MODE - Press C/(X). Keep holding Z. Only usable with full energy bar, shown on the top left corner of the screen below HP.
I'm unfortunately on a mac, so I can't play the game right now. However, I really just wanted to say the production quality of this game looks incredible, especially for a jam game! Watching the trailer, the art, the music, the fluidity of the gameplay all seems fantastic (even the twilight humor resonates with me lol)! You guys did an awesome job with this, and I really would love to see this game expanded on in the future! Amazing job! :)
Haha, thank you so much!
I'd have loved to add Mac and Linux versions but unfortunately Shmup Creator doesn't have this functionality, and I'm not sure if it will have it in the nearest future... Still, even if you can't play it, thank you for checking our game out and the kind words :)
The game production was top notch, the music, the art, the bullet patterns and visual language were all on point! Is true the controls were a bit confusing at the beginning but im a gamer I figured it out fast hahha! I would have liked to see more enemy variety in the way they look, since the game implies a very colorful world full of characters. Loved the coffin idea hahha was amazing! Great job everyone!
Thank you so much! You've definitely made my day and I'll make sure to share your feedback with the team :D
I wanted to add a controls list somewhere in the game or onto the side art of the first level but didn't have enough time, definitely going to do that in the future to help less experienced people figure them out faster! As for how full the game world is... Well, you'll have to wait and see what's gonna come next ;)
i'm having a lot of fun with this one! it seems incredibly polished, and there's a *lot* of content. (my game also has 4 stages - hi five!)
only thing that's missing is holding Shift for focused movement.
Thank you!!
I definitely want to experiment with the focus movement when the engine gets updated to allow that, and also tweak the player speed and hitbox some more
This is actually quite a pleasant experience and the simple but effective narrative and set pieces you've put here actually gave me goosebumps when I reach level 3.
The good:
Gameplay just feels good. There is an interesting mix of classic SHUMP and classic touhou bullet-hell gameplay in this mix. Shooting feels great and mowing down enemies is always fun.
The theme doesn't really fit well but everything else is quite the treat.
To improve:
I am very, very interested in the way you do health system in the game and would love to see you try to innovate on it a bit more. Unlike SHUMPs and Bullet hells, getting hit is not fatal or disastrous and the player can actually tank a lot of hits.
I see you also adapt the bullet patterns to be extremely fast and aggressive to reflect this health system which I L.O.V.E.
I would love to see you expand on this kind of bullet pattern and health system more. Maybe reduce the efficacy of the vampire mode (dont make it heal to full because its too easy at the moment), and make much more rapid-fire, lightning fast bullets that is not always neccesarily dodgeable.
Very interesting honestly! A great take on the typical SHUMP/bullet hell genre! I honestly enjoyed it a lot.
Thank you so, so much! (edit: errr I didn't mean this to be such a wall of text whoops)
The theme isn't incorporated into gameplay too much, though I did try to add patterns which would give you very little breathing room, however I'd argue I did incorporate it into the story at least to an acceptable degree. When I pitched the idea to the composer and the character artist I described it as "Introvert Vampire Sleeps in his Arcane Reinforced Coffin Until Space Age - Doesn't Wanna Leave When a Giant Space Fleet Attacks", the original idea was that the main character confined himself into the coffin of his own accord, quite simply because he really doesn't wanna deal with people :)
The health system I think was subconsciously inspired by a really crazy shmup called Akashicverse. In this game you have a shield that can be toggled at will which has % energy, recovering over time. If you get hit without a shield you lose on the spot and there are no lives, though when it's off the energy also gradually recharges, so one way to play is to turn it off for slower attacks that can be easily avoided, and keep it on for wide or otherwise dangerous attacks and try and evade them with lesser risk of instant death. Coupled with its unique system of special moves which requires fighting-game style inputs for powerful offensive/defensive attacks, it gives you some leeway and doesn't demand perfect dodging for the amount of fast bullet hell you have to deal with, so long as you adapt and try to understand what you're doing. Actually, considering the points you loved about our game, I think Akashicverse might be a very interesting game for you to take a look at so let me link its steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1225610/kashicverse_Malicious_Wake/
I'm happy you enjoyed the pacing of the attack patterns! While designing them I aimed at making them challenging to make the best use of the hp system, but also dodgeable, and from my tests about 90% of the patterns can be dodged without getting hit (while the other 10% I think are possible, but extremely hard so I couldn't do it myself). I wasn't sure if the difficulty level was appropriate or not and while testing it felt too easy with the HP system at times, while testers had varying opinions on it, but most people seem to have enjoyed it so I'm glad!
The engine we used, Shmup Creator, currently doesn't have as many features as I'd like for customization, for example it's not possible to change the cancelling duration of the vampire mode and the way healing works uses a workaround that isn't easy to control, but the developer is open to suggestions and was very helpful during development, so I'm sure it will be possible to tweak more stuff in the future, I definitely want to experiment with the concept more.
Thank you for your detailed comment and kind words! It honestly made my day :)
I just had a quick look at the suggestion and it looks pretty cool! I may just give it a try for research purposes. Hehe.
*Prepares for a 24-hour session*
Haha, definitely let me know how you like it, it's one my favorite games out there, not just shmups but in general :)
As a touhou fan, I really love this. My only complain is that the player hitbox is way too big. Besides that, I really enjoyed this game.
Thank you! The hitbox is a bit bigger than your usual touhou game so as to keep to the "confined" theme a little better, so you get hitpoints instead of lives to compensate. I would like to experiment with the ship and hitbox size in the future though to make it more comfortable to pilot
i love shmups, i finished your game, i liked it a lot, congratulations
Thank you so much!
Very solid traditional shmup, with great presentation and entertaining patterns throughout.
I would say however that the ship is a bit on the slow side versus how fast most of the patterns are, and would also be nice if your laser could keep cancelling bullets the whole time it’s running (and maybe shortening its duration to compensate).
Additionally, I believe that submitting the combined total scores from game overs up until clearing the game to the scoreboard is a pretty strange choice, seemingly making 1CC’s not worth going for since they don’t actually reset your score by the end of the game.
[edit: score before game over was about 950k, then pushed to a little over 1.0m after continuing since I died literally on the final boss’ last pattern]
Though to end on a more positive note, stage 3 was a lot of fun, maybe minus the rehashed stage 1 boss near the beginning.
Thank you for a detailed review and suggestions!
I'll keep in mind your laser suggestion, although I'm not sure if it's currently possible due to engine limitations. The duration of the cancelling effect in particular is currently not possible to change sadly, it can only be toggled on or off. I haven't gotten feedback on ship speed in particular so I think most people are fine with how it is right now, but I'll keep your feedback in mind. The engine will soon get updated to allow focusing like in touhou for slower movement and I'd like to experiment with it so speed change may be necessary.
The scoring behavior you described is not intended, the score is supposed to be reset on death and not add up each individual credit score. I believe it's an engine bug which escaped my notice. I'll troubleshoot it with the engine developer after the jam ends.
Glad you enjoyed Stage 3! It was my favorite stage to design and a lot of it was experimental stuff which I hoped people would find interesting. Stage 1 boss in particular was the very first boss designed when I didn't know how exactly the game will play out, and some other testers have also expressed that they have had issues with him. I will look into ways to rework him later on, as well as his ghost ship version's patterns which might be a bit too tight right now (but hey, some extra more points for keeping to the "confined" theme!)
Forgot to mention earlier, it’d be nice to know how much health bosses have left (either with health bars or visual cues) to aid in timing a laser kill for the multiplier, especially with how tanky they are.
It's the first thing I'd like to do when the engine adds boss HP bar customizations :)
Sounds great and the bullet patterns have a lot of variety, the art style its pretty inconsistent and the hitboxes are just waaay to big for these patters, some of them are almost imposible to dodge. Its still impressive for a game jam game and its still pretty fun even with those (personal) flaws
Thanks!
I tried to make sure that at least 90% of the patterns are dodgeable, even if it's really hard at times, with the remaining 10% being too hard for me (but I think it's still possible to no-hit 100%). Still, the HP system gives you some leeway and the Laser lets you make a comeback if you make too many mistakes. I would like to improve the art style, hitboxes and make the player more comfortable to control in the future
Dude, this was so much fun! You have some super creative bullet patterns. We could definitely collaborate on a project one day! I only died 10 times lol. The story was super cool too! Glad we got to represent such a new engine! Cheers homie!
Thank you so much haha! Sorry about that 10 deaths thing oops, even though I've had a good number of testers it was still hard for me to gauge the difficulty so I may have overdid it at some parts :p
Shmup Creator is insane and it can be really hard to believe how much you can do with the engine in just 10 days. What us two did is definitely not the limit, and with how much work Suny puts into it - I'm really excited to see how it will evolve!
I'm honestly beyond stoked man. I think we can pump out some bangers once we get in a rhythm with it. I definitely want to release Crimson Hell, but I want to know it's fun to play and feels like it's own thing. I think a little hard work and I'll be there. I think you will too. You have the creative eye bro.
Hitbox is too big for my tastes. Visually it's not very consistent, but I really liked the coffin sprite. Some solid patterns and others I disliked. Overall it's a pretty decent shmup.
Thank you!
The biggest challenge of the "confined" theme for me was definitely the hitbox size - I prefer smaller hitboxes myself but to keep in line with the theme it felt wrong to make it as small as in your average Touhou or Cave bullet hells (what's the point of you controlling a giant coffin then?), so I opted for a bigger one + health points instead of lives. Still, from my tests, about 90% of the patterns can be beaten without taking any hits or using Laser, with the remaining 10% possible but extremely hard
Ah I see where you're coming from
this was fantastic, definedly has a touhou vibe to it. it became a lot easier to survive once i figured out how to use the beam. i feel like the patterns vary a lot between easy and "how do i not get hit here", but im impressed how much variation, differend patterns and enemies there was.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the attack patterns as I put a lot of thought and testing into them. In the future I'd like to make improvements to the player ship to make it more comfortable to control while making sure that every pattern is beatable no-hit (while still challenging)
It's like a touhou game, it's fun, has good graphics, lots of bullets and cool patterns.
I was able to play this game because I have a controller but how am I supposed to press Start with a keyboard?
Also the game just closes when you complete the first level so that's weird. (At least in Linux with wine)
Thank you for playing and for your kind words!
On keyboard you can just press the shoot button, Z, to start the game.
Unfortunately I can't help you much with Linux-related issues because the game hasn't been tested on linux, and the Shmup Creator engine only supports Windows currently. I'll ask the engine dev about it though
You were right, it was the Z key. I tried the Enter key and the Spacebar because that's usually the Start equivalent. It does work with the keyboard.
If the game crashes after level 1 again, can you send me the Ogre.log file from the game directory so I can troubleshoot the issue? You can send it to my email: alroy1219(at)gmail.com
It crashed again. This is the last line of the Ogre.log file (the other lines are unrelated and from minutes earlier):
It's apparently a problem with Direct3D, so it's just a Linux / Wine problem and not a problem with your game.
I'll investigate the issue later. I added the game to a private collection because now I'm curious about the lore and all that cool stuff.