Okay, so I figured you might want some feedback on this game—I gave it a playthrough, and I think there are a few areas for improvement.
- Pause Button: There’s no pause button—adding one would be helpful.
- Movement Speed: The zombies move too fast, or the player moves too slow—it feels sluggish. Maybe adjust the balance.
- Interactivity: The map needs more interactivity. Right now, all you do is move around and occasionally change channels. Maybe breakable crates could spawn? Or exploding barrels via power up?
- Dash Mechanic: Adding a dash button would make movement more dynamic. It could help with grabbing power-ups, which are currently hard to collect. This would do a LOT to help with the gameplay flow.
- Bullet Visibility: The bullets blend into the dirt-textured background. Making them bright red with a glow would improve contrast. Adding an arm to the player character that follows the mouse would also help keep the player oriented.
- Environment Design: The repeating texture feels bland. A locked room or basement setting with a "videodrome" aesthetic might work better. Perhaps it's a red room, and as your health falls, the game tint gets more and more dark red? Maybe adding blood splatters or corpses from the zombies could be good.
- Nemesis Appearance: Add tension when the nemesis appears—darken the screen, add fog sprites, or change the soundtrack. Give us more lore, more understanding as to why this enemy is so powerful.
- Upgrade Costs: The first few upgrades should be cheaper. Earning coins is tough without a dash mechanic. It's a struggle to get to the coins without taking a hit before they disappear.
- Fire Rate: The default fire rate feels too slow—the first upgrade’s fire rate should be the baseline.
- Restart Option: There’s no way to restart the game without refreshing the page—this needs to be fixed.
- Juice Bar (Channel Change Meter): It takes too long to fill. Most players won’t experience channel switching, which defeats the purpose. I played this for a solid hour and never once changed channels.
- Suggestion: Make channel change meter fill up much faster, acting like a bomb in a shmup, with a static pulse effect that:
- Warps the player’s location ala teleport in Asteroids.
- Changes the background.
- Clears some enemies.
- Channel Variety: Each channel could have unique music or aesthetics to enhance immersion. Even just having the floor texture change could do a lot to keep the player immersed.
- Intro Sequence: Even a short VHS-style clip would help set the tone—like we’re watching found footage.
Right now, gameplay feels repetitive—just circling, shooting zombies, and grabbing health. But there’s a solid foundation here! With some tweaks, this could be really cool. I hope development continues—I gave it a fair shot and enjoyed aspects of it.
Thanks for sharing the game!