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A jam submission

Glowstar EmpireView game page

Top Down Space Shooter Metroidvania
Submitted by jlothamer, SavestateCorrupted (@savestate_crptd), ilikethepixies — 21 hours, 37 minutes before the deadline
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Glowstar Empire's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Enjoyment#23.9003.900
Metroidvania#54.0504.050
Overall#53.8253.825
Design#93.6503.650
Presentation#123.7003.700

Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Godot Engine 3.4

Team/Developer
Pet Names

External assets
Yes. Please see Credits scene in game for complete list.

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Comments

Submitted

Lovely and very polished game! I played with the Gamepad and would have loved to not only shoot in the direction I was facing but that is absolutely a Game Design choice, going with the twin stick controls. I agree with the most common problems like the dizzying camera and trying to shoot the half-broken walls with the missiles. I sadly had to quit the game after getting like 5 upgrades because I just felt too dizzy but the amazing sound design, the polished art and the overall control of the ship felt really really good ^^

Submitted(+2)

I love this game, game is too fun and difficult system is balance.  In my first death (First upgrade) I dead at 2 closing wall, I think "damn, I should move from start point to here again" but your auto save system help me to spawn in this area, I love this. Your art is cool too. But sometimes camera is make me confuse when I turn around (maybe you should have a delay-time for this, must change camera after player 1-2s not turn), and your wall hitbox make me confuse too @@ First time I think I can't touch the wall because I can take damage :(. Finally, I love this game, GG!!!

Submitted
Deleted post
Submitted

Good:

  • Fantastic sound design! The explosions and weapon sounds are all very satisfying.
  • Some really interesting puzzles with the asteroids and lasers.
  • It was really interesting to play a metroidvania that wasn't a platformer. I think that works really well.
  • Not only did you implement a save system, but you gave me 4 save slots to use. Very generous.

Bad:

  • I assume the missiles are supposed to destroy the cracked rock walls, but for some reason it didn't work for me. I got stuck at that point.
  • After dying and respawning, I lost the upgrades I'd found since me last save. That's reasonable, but maybe it should save when you get a new upgrade? It's a little demoralising to find you forgot to visit a save point and lost a bunch of progress.
  • As others have mentioned, it's a little hard to aim. Either bigger enemies, aim assist, or an aiming mode where you turn slower and don't move would be good.

Overall, I really liked this game! The combat was satisfying, and there was lots to find. Other people seem to have completed it, so I guess my getting stuck is either a rare bug or me being stupid.

Developer

Thanks so much for the feedback! You’ve reported a few new issues! Which is great! We’ll try to correct them in our post jam release.

There is an upgrade for a special type of shield for the ship that allows you to bust through walls. But it does make intuitive sense that the missile - which seems so destructive - should do this too. We’ll have to think about this one. Maybe the missile is OP.

You make a good point about auto-saving after an upgrade. Come to think about it, I think that’s how it’d down in games such as Hollow Knight. It’s easy enough to do to. So, thanks for pointing this out!

While there are an auto-aim upgrade planned for a later stage of the game we didn’t get to, I like the idea of enlarging the hit boxes on enemies - or perhaps the player’s projectiles - or both. This would make it a little easier but allow us to introduce an awesome upgrade later.

So, thanks for all the great feedback!! You’ve helped us improve our game in at least 3 new ways!

Submitted(+1)

I liked it. I had a few issues that most people already mentionned (like the camera being a bit violent when you change direction). Other than that, I couldn't help but think the game would feel so much nicer if you could aim directly at the enemies with the mouse (but also much easier I imagine) but I that's a completely different direction in terms of design I guess.

On the positive side, I liked the atmosphere, bosses, music etc. The game felt quite polished. Also, for some reason, it's the only game with a top-down view in this jam (that I've seen so far anyway) so that's refreshing !

Good job :)

Developer

Thanks for the feedback!

Now I really wish we would have put in the lock-on ability. That’s the closest to manually aiming with the mouse. I, as the designer, just felt it was OP for what we had and wanted to introduce it later . . . in levels we didn’t have time for. sigh Such is the life of game jammer.

Thanks for the positive feedback too! I’ll be sure to share it with the team!

Submitted(+1)

this was a really fun game, I had fun especially with the boss fights that were in my opinion a bit short. I really liked the art and the sound track, they complimented each other really well.

I do think that the camera control was a bit dizzying, maybe make the camera move slower when rotating, and I didn't really liked that you had to wait until you're fully charged to dash again. 

but other than that, this was a very enjoyable experience, good job and good luck.

Submitted(+1)

OH WOW.....just wow

i really like how finished the game it ♥ and it is designed well..i may not know too much about metroidvanias but this one for sure had the whole "want to explore" vibe to it.

the sounds are just so perfect...superb job there!!!! i just loved killing those small ball-like creatures all the time because of how they exploded.

if i were to point out something it would be only the camera movement. its too snappy and caused me some dizziness too at the start.

everything else is finesse otherwise. 👏👏

Developer

Thanks! My team will love hearing all of this! I’m glad you liked the sound too! And yes, we very much wanted players to explore. Had we had time we would have put in secrets and more hard to get to places to enjoy.

Sorry the camera made you a bit dizzy! As you know, we can’t upload a fix for that now. So, thanks for bearing with us on that!

Submitted

Pretty cool game! Some of my considerations:

- Boss design is on point. I like that they use the abilities they're about to give you. The second boss crawling on the walls was so satisfying. Certainly one of the greatest aspects of the game.

- The way the ship turns makes it a bit difficult to aim on enemies.

- I agree with the afterburner thing (a faster recharge would be so nice)

It was very fun to play and I had a great experience overall, lots of puzzles here and there.

Oh, and about saving, maybe an idea would be to have a specific place where you dock your ship to save, because you'd have to get out of your way to go there, which is an indicator that you really want to save. That way no buttons would be needed, I think.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad people are liking the boss!

Thanks for letting us know about the aiming and afterburner issues. You may have noticed that we are now planning fixes for them later in the previous comments. And of course the “save station” issue. We had originally planned some sort of animation sequence where the ship is auto-docked to something and some sort of scanning waves are animated as game data is collected and saved to file. This got left out due to time constraints and wanting to get other things done. I like the idea of simply getting close to what I call the “save station” and that just being the trigger to save. We’ll try it and see if we can make that work. So, thanks!

Submitted(+2)

      Very fun and challenging, The music and soundtrack are good. for  Metroidvania level designs are good.


+ I can skip some upgrades like a missile and finish the game, which is very good. 

+ cool enemy/boss mechanic and design

+ nice little puzzle with rock and auto door

-  Blue lasers trap is a bit too hard

-  Camera is turning a bit too fast when the ship turning direction,  maybe needs more smooth/damping


 ?  Save point should maybe an autosave/checkpoint instead of pressing E to save.

Developer(+1)

Oops! Spoke too soon in a comment I just made about it appearing my fears of things being too difficult were unfounded. Thanks so much for letting us know! We’ll need to look at the “laser canyon” area (as I call it) and see if we can make it less difficult - or even move it till later or remove it all together. We’ll see.

I respectfully disagree with auto saving at the save stations. While metriodvanias do have some auto-saving (as ours does in one place), as a rule you must initiate the auto-save. One thing is for sure, that you have to actually initiate the save is not clear at all in the game! That too is my fault. We’ll be correcting that also in the post fix - probably with the addition of an input prompt with the “save” label and maybe adding mini rooms off the main paths to boot.

My team will be pleased to know about all the things you did like! We thought long and hard about all aspects of the game, and though we (mostly I) got things wrong, we’re proud of what we accomplished! Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

Very much in the spirit of Super Metroid! Immediately, the high level of polish and smooth controls stuck out to me. The ship movement is tricky to master, but in a good way — it adds to the challenge. 

As far as feedback goes, a few things stuck out:

  • The tiny ball things were damage sponges early on. Granted, the point is the unlock more power-ups to move on, but they did initially slow down the pace for me.
  • When using a pad, I wasn't able to tab between menu panels. I had to switch to a mouse to click the control panel.
  • The puzzle before the damage boost power-up with the red laser and the sandworm thing was cool, but after passing it, I was blocked by a wall that I seemingly could damage but not destroy. I assume I needed the missile power-up still, but it did feel anticlimactic to get through the puzzle, get a new power-up and then... just backtrack — through the blue laser which was one of the more difficult areas no less.

What was especially cool was how the game was both clear in what to do while providing freedom of exploration. Areas progressively got harder, but there was always something new to unlock too.

Developer

Thanks so much for the feedback!

Yes, on the settings menu I didn’t have time to make it game pad compatible. Sorry about that! Yet another thing that will be fix post jam.

In our vision of the full game we wanted to give teasers and reasons for players to traverse back through the level. You could actually do this once you defeat the boss at the end of the level and used the “kinetic shield” upgrade to break through walls, however there is little reason to do so as we didn’t add the content in the jam. That area with the pink laser was one of those areas. With more time to flesh out the level we - hopefully - would add some real reason you might want to go back to that area.

We’re glad you liked the progression! I was afraid it was too hard in some areas.

Submitted(+1)

+1 on speeding up the afterburner recharge. I also had a weird experience with the circling blue lasers. In the room with two of them and the boxes, my first attempt I was able to brute force getting past despite taking damage a few times. But after dying in another room and returning to the checkpoint, every time I hit a laser it would send me back. It was a little Sisyphean tbh, took me like 20 tries to get by.

Overall though cool take on the genre. I especially liked the enemies and bosses, very cool ideas in their design and behavior. The art's also got a nice unified style, vaguely reminds me of mid-90s windows games

Developer

Yep! Afterburner recharge changes are on the list. Wish we could do an update for that, but of course that wouldn’t be fair.

Looks like we have a bug around hit detection and the lasers or something. Thanks for letting us know! We’ll get that fixed post jam as well.

Thanks so much for the feedback! We really appreciate it!

Submitted(+1)

played it, loved it, but not yet finished it.... really nice different take but definitely still a metroidvania..

I agree with one of the frustrations lower about the afterburner recharge especially after trying to dodge a laser.... I would suggest when you die and the ship gets reset maybe reset the afterburner charge.

The save is not obvious you have to press E to save, it looked like the save was automatic.... but these are nitpicks and the game was very fun! What especially impressed me was the boss which I died to first attempt... but the attack patterns were fun and choreographed  well.... so 2nd attempt I went hitless :)

Great entry!

Submitted

Nice, unique take on metroidvania. Good atmosphere and a fun central mechanic. 

Like others, I struggled with the camera and the controls. I wonder if using a button for forward thrust and arrows to direct it might be more intuitive? I also had an issue with saving (I think). I thought I saved my game but after dying I was forced to restart a level. This was kind of demoralizing as it took me several tries to get to that point. 

All in all, this is a really nice submission. Thanks for sharing your work. I look forward to seeing a future build that irons out some of the rough spots. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, we had issues with saving and reloading during development but thought they were worked out. We’ll do more testing in that area for sure. Sorry it set you back so much!

I think using forward for thrust and left/right (or a/d) to turn would be frustrating. What happens when the ship is pointed down on the screen? It can be learned and there are games that do this, but I’ve never enjoyed that control scheme. Plus we have a power up planned for auto-targeting where this would not work - at least not as prototyped. But thanks for the idea! It may turn out to be useful despite my misgivings! And it is appreciated.

Submitted(+1)

Great game. The music and soundtrack work wonderfully to develop a spacey mood like Metroid. The controls were a bit difficult for me on the keyboard. Maybe it would make sense to use the mouse for control? :) The lasers are pretty heavy for me unfortunately.

I like this a lot, but there are plenty of issues that could be touched up on:
Camera is very snappy, it's a bit disorienting. Aiming is also difficult because of limited motion, and some parts are not well optimized so I had to stop my play early.
Overall a solid project though! I liked the effects and the afterburner :D

Developer

Again, more great feedback! Man! This is awesome!

I was concerned about performance and we did do some things to help with that. But obviously not enough. Would you be willing to share your computer specs with us so we’ll know what level of machine to test on in the future?

And we’ve got the camera issue and aiming issue on our list too. We’ll be addressing those in a post-jam fix release.

Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

This was great. I have a few nitpicks that I will write down further down but overall this was a banger of a game. The whole aesthetic of it was amazing. The sound design solid and the progression path engaging. 

I liked the idea of teasing the boss throughout the whole level and when you finally fight it it was fantastic. The fight itself is well made. The boss has a good amount of unique attacks that are all easy to read. The feeling of dashing through rocks is great.

Now for the nitpicks. 

I got softlocked when I died to the first boss (yes I'm bad ) and had to restart because the boss was gone. Not a big deal but I wanted to mention it. 

The aiming is very difficult because you shoot in the direction you are going and there is a decent amount of delay when turning. I think having aiming independent from moving would have been the play there. 

And finally the afterburner meter recharges way to slow. I had to constantly wait around when dodging the rotating laser beams.

Really good game. Thanks for making it.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for so much feedback!! I’m sorry you had to restart the game because of the boss re-spawn bug! We’ll need to do better testings in the future. I’m not sure it counts as game breaking. Otherwise I’d get it fixed asap. Maybe I’ll ask the organizers or look for anything they’ve posted on what a “game breaking” bug is.

We thought about making a a power up for the afterburner recharge time but ended up not doing that. In the end it seems we should have lowered the default recharge time even more. (Can you believe it started out at 30 seconds? It’s now at 10 seconds.)

Being the designer of the game, I should have listened to my team more about the aiming. The game as envisioned had a auto-target power up, which was planned for a later level we didn’t get to. We even have it prototyped and it’s pretty cool! Perhaps we should have lead with the cool stuff, but my fear was that it makes things too easy. Maybe there’s something else that could be done. We’ll definitely think about it!

Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

You have make a very polish game. The level desin is simple but it’s work very good. Beautiful game. Good idea to make a futurist game, it change from the other game.

Developer

Thanks for the many kind words!

Submitted(+1)

Alright here is what my Thoughts on the game, 

I liked the world Design and progression of skill and abilities, I enjoyed the art, sound design and had fun with the core gameplay but i had issues the second i opened the game, it was clear that different screen sizes are not supported : 

Aiming was slightly difficult at first but it got a bit easier, Camera was also a bit disorienting but i got used to it later on and the controls were not clear until i looked at the control tab of the settings.

other wise i very much enjoyed the experience.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, we’ll add making the controls clearer to our list of post-jam fixes. What resolution do you use? 1440 or 4k? Or something else? I’d like to fix that too if possible. Thanks again!

Submitted

i use 4k

Submitted(+1)

What I liked

  • I loved the little camera follows the mouse effect in the main menu.
  • The parallax effect is very simple, but looks great. I've seen some entries that go overboard with parallax and I think it ends up hurting the game visually.
  • The music, sound, and art are very cohesive.
  • I loved how bosses felt like bosses and not uber versions of earlier enemies.
  • Powerup progression felt natural with how the levels were designed.

Suggestions/Feedback

  • The think my biggest criticism is the camera. It's perfect when heading in a single direction, but I feel like the camera jerks too hard when switching directions. With a top-down, space shooter view, I feel like you could smooth out the time it takes to adjust the camera when switching directions and it would be a definite improvement. 
Congratulations to everyone on the team! It's a great looking game and I had a lot of fun playing it.
Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for the feedback! I’d gotten so used to the camera I would have never thought about it! So, really, thanks! I’ll put that on a post-jam fix list for sure!

Submitted

No problem!