Thank you so much for playing! And reminding of that death screen restart -button I need to add! Definitely a must!
But good to hear you noticed the signs! I also went and added this mapview to the next version anyway, and it's pretty fun. Full explanation of upcoming changes in the future (so far) and screenshot of the mapview are on the post below yours if you're interested, but update will include faster and snappier movement and so on. :) Gamefeel will be hugely improved, I promise. :)
pecatus
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Thank you so much for trying this out! Yea, most of your concerns have been addressed already in the next version of the game, but it's coming out only after the jam ends. :)
But the next version so far includes snappier movement (increased player characters' acceleration significantly), faster movement (a little faster, now faster than the slower drones - you can run from end to end of the station in some 30 seconds or so), and finally so that the rest of the player squad moves out of commanding character's way. No more traffic jams!! All of these changes together made a HUGE improvement to the gamefeel. Wish I had all this super valuable feedback before the jam. ;D
Final addition is a toggleable map view! Now it's easier to see where the next objective markers are on the map in this ortographic map view. You can also play in the map view as it only moves the camera. Downside of mapview is that aiming and such is a lot harder, but atm player is so overpowered that it hardly matters yet. ;) Fixes coming tho, in time.
Attached is a screenshot sneakpeek from the mapview. :)
For a little while I had actually implemented that you could switch between teammates with the idea that you could leave them behind or order them to a certain spot on the map. They'll automatically attack anything nearby, so they'd be sentries guarding a corridor or something. With different unit specialties you could even have one "hacker guy" hack the consoles while the machine gun rambo defends in some safeish spot. This needs some work and thought, tho, but would be super to have in the game later on. :)
Thank you so much for a thorough playthrough and complete analysis! Hugely appreciated! I'll address some of these to garner some interest in the upcoming patches if that's ok. ;)
HP:
You're right about HP bars / damage indicators. Will be implemented, as well as a blink or something along those lines to tell you that you have been hit. In the end it's just basic game feel thing. Very important. :)
Map:
I figured out yesterday how I might be able to keep the exploration for the ones liking that part, AND have a map to ease the mindless wandering around the station while looking for the next phase console: I'll bring in a toggleable map mode. Idea is that the map mode is something akin to the BF2 commander view: real time map that you can actually play in as well. When toggling the map mode the camera would move further up and in the middle of the map, and change to orthopedic view. This way you would be able to see the pulsing green spotlights with one glance quickly - or even play in the map mode. The downside of playing in the map mode would be that it's just harder to aim and hit anything.
Don't know how it will go, but we'll see next week or so. :)
Movement:
This is something that needs a proper overhaul anyway. These current mixamo animations don't really work well on this fellow, so I'll need to work on the movement in general while I'm at it. Got to make the teammates to give room as well. That blocking is annoying as hell. ;P
Ammo:
Ammo, grenades, turrets and such are on the planning board. Maybe different weapons and so on, but this will take a bit longer to implement. I kinda really like the rambo group, but if I want to make this a longer, real game, I need to figure these things out. I have an vague idea that the group escapes and gets stranded on a planet below, and it's in the middle of AI uprising or something along those lines. Chaos anyway.
At the moment the shooting with a full team IS satisfying, but only for the first playthrough. Gets old pretty fast as it takes away the challenge.
Glad you liked the ending! It's a bit chaotic and pretty much the only part in the game I personally can lose anymore after playtesting the whole weekend. But it's the part I like most.
"Trigger devastating chain reactions" :
This is actually invisible in the web-build at the moment. :( But it's there, "trust me". ;) Something happened with the indicators and explosions during the build and that took a lot out of the game I played myself. Didn't have time to fix it, so here we are. ;) Anyway, when the drones explode, they damage all nearby drones as well. They don't explode right away from the first nearby explosions (unless already damaged by the player), but from the second one. For me this was apparent especially in the testing grounds with masses of drones. Killing just a few would trigger a cascade of explosions from drone to drone, that spread like a wild fire. Sadly, I apparently failed to bring it in properly to the final jam-build experience. Needs more drones, a horde of them, to really notice the chain reaction.
Audio:
Very good point. Will bring ambient noises a bit up, and add more of them, as well as more ambient sound triggers and such. Music - not sure of yet. In some form in far future for sure, but how and when is a question mark. :)
Thank you so much trying this out! Phase 1 is indeed meant as a tutorial phase without enemies, just to let you get used to the station and the controls. Calm before the storm, as you said. But I need to add some roamers in the other phases. Otherwise the storm really never comes until the last phase. ;P
Exellent! Just what I asked for. :) In one thing you are wrong tho! "well and obviously u cant move the character and shoot at the same time and thats awful" - You CAN! :) Just click somewhere and they start walking OR backing down and you can shoot and walk backwards.
But thank you for your pointers! I will consider this hard and well when I continue with the game. :)
No worries! :) This is not my game btw, just noticed your comment and replied. :)
But if you want to check out a game made for this 72h solo dev jam, BUT which uses almost only Synty's assets, check out mine. :) It's got some good feedback on the jam pages and I kinda like it too. Top-down shooter inspired by Cannon Fodder on Amiga: https://pecatus.itch.io/spacecannonfodder
Uhuh! I would love to like this, but right now it's just confusing to me. :( I guess I'm lacking a proper focus to really check how the relationships go. But I think that something like this might be going on behind Crusader Kings and other paradox games. They're a mess for me as well. ;)
Edit: I'm going to give this another chance tomorrow when I'm not drunk. ;P
Wtf.. ROM for GameBoy as well? In three days? Dude. :D I smell a winner here. This is some insanely well done game and the puzzles are really interesting! I don't really have anything to add. Theme interpretation is great, gameplay kicks ass, art is unique and let's be honest, it's not easy to do art for GameBoy.. And you even had a character customization.. Like .. I'm speechless about now. :D Here, take my upvotes! You deserve them.
Thank you for valuable feedback. WASD isn't impossible to add on top of this. Could actually be a huge intuitive improvement for tight spots when you need to back away from the fight but shoot at the same time. You can do it now too, of course (they can walk backwards and shoot at the same time), but it definitely would be a plus as an option. :)
Thank you! Appreciated!
Thank you so much for trying it out and for your feedback. :) Hehe, you're absolutely right about the movement, btw. ;) The mixamo animations I picked didn't really suit this guy. ;) Looks funny, especially when running to the right. Also the slight sliding doesn't feel too good, but didn't have time to focus on it any more than I did. :) Such is life.
Those floor markings are actually a really good idea either way!
Lol. Yea, I get that a lot xD Coming in the future.
Edited my game page a bit. Could as well put the edit in here too:
EDIT/NOTE:
Overwhelmingly people seem to get lost in the station and not find the right place for the next phase. Minimap/radar coming in later patches after the jam, but for now here's couple of hints for the testers. :)
Look at the signs and icons on top of the doorways as you explore in the first phase and later on.
The important signs are always lighted with a white spotlight and they're facing up for the player to notice easier. Each screenshot on the right has an example of an icon sign. Look for those. -> (screenshots are on the right in the game page ;P)
The right console for any phase is also always marked with pulsing green spotlight, and escape locations are marked similiarly. There are no other green spotlights in the game except the one you should see at the time. You see one, it's important.
For example: the embedded screenshot above shows the green spotlight for extraction spot in the hangar. (Embedded BG image on the game page ;P)
SIGNS TO LOOK FOR:
Ship icon -sign: Insertion ship
Satellite dish icon -sign: Communications
Shield icon -sign: Security
Electricity/Lightning icon -sign: Powerstation / Reactor
"Bridge" -sign: Bridge
"Hangar" -sign: Hangar
"Escape pods" -sign: Escape pods
5/5. This might be most polished game I've seen here yet. At first it was waaay too hard, yet still intriguing. Then I noticed a comment about not moving but just hitting a space. Works. Even tho I lost in the end as the bounce rotation slightly shifted over time and I didn't. So it's not an automatic win, but being steady makes the game whole lot easier. :) But damn, I love the feel in this game.
Now this is the blast! It was tight at some point, but managed to max out everything and it got a bit easier. Quit after I cleaning all the poop and banking some 10k monies. Felt like I had won, when each round was 350-400 combopoints. But I really struggled in the middle. Poop% at 97 and money for one vacuum...
Dayumn. Loving this <3
Thank you so much for trying the game out!
For the navigation I'm thinking of a aliens-like scanner on the lower right corner that would show enemies and the next destination as a vague "this way" way.
Enemies, yeh. Got to work on them a bit more. They do blow up, but not from the first nearby drone that explodes, but from the second explosion, I think. The desktop version had a big cartoonish text appearing over each chain reacted explosion, but that got lost in the web build. :( Idea was that you would have to weaken them a bit and then blow something up, and then it would create a nice huge cascade of explosions. Didn't work as intended - especially on this web build.
The surroundings are modeled by a team I think. These are Synty Studios' assets that I have bought. Have wanted to create something out of them for a while now.
But yea! That shooting wall is extremely satisfying. :D






