I just want to know what you all think about my first commercial game that I developed. In addition I would also like to know to how to develop an awareness of the games that I release here at itch.io atleast if possible. You need to pay for the game so its up to you whether you would like to provide feedback or not.
EDIT: For a limited time, the game is free.
The concept seems really interesting, indeed! Sadly, I don't really have any money to spare for games right now, but it seems cool! Maybe to get more traffic for your game you can have a launch sale that makes the game free temporarily? Your game will certainly get more exposure that way! :) You can also try to get more popularity in the itch.io community so that more people will be interested in buying your game!
I have made the game free now as you have suggested.
https://wrongrookie.itch.io/astro-guard
Are there ways to get more attention than just this?
You can try advertising your game (in the right places, of course) in forums such as these. Perhaps you can also try to interact with other people, rate & comment on their games, and maybe they might return the favor. Maybe collaborating with someone on a game could work, too. Entering game jams would also bring some exposure to your games.
I can see your game in games on sale when I click on the "new & popular" and "most recent" filters, though, so definitely someone will see it. :)
I claimed and downloaded the game, so now for the feedback part: The concept and gameplay are great and it has a lot of potential! :D Especially since you can turn the ring and shoot missiles and black holes so this makes the game interesting! The art is also nice, too. Although sometimes asteroids strike the planets on the four corners of the ring, and since we can only shoot in four directions, it is a little hard to aim it correctly. Turning the ring might help, though. Also, I think it might be useful to have a cursor when you are not playing. Aside from that, it is a great game! :D
You can actually rotate the ring. You need to press Q and E to rotate the ring. You cannot rotate too much though otherwise it will get overheated and you can't rotate for a few moments after that. When you rotate the ring, you can get the specific angle that you need to shoot the objects.
May I ask why would you like a cursor? This is for my future reference as a lot of games make the cursor hidden.
Thank you for your feedback!
Yeah, I saw that in the instructions, haha. I tested it out and the concept seemed cool. I did try to do it and it helped me with shooting the objects. Though I still missed a few of them.
For clicking the buttons in the UI, I had a little trouble figuring out where the cursor might be to click on them, especially on the game over screen, lol. I guess it is still okay to have no cursor, but perhaps you can enhance it by making a cursor trail instead? :)
You're welcome!
Okay, then, that is fine! :) As for game jams, I have seen an awful lot of them where you have to start from scratch and follow a specific theme, but not enough jams where you can submit older games. I think that is okay, but sometimes people only want to focus on working on one game like me (which is why I am hosting a game jam, lol, to give more people options in terms of jams). So if you want to submit Astro Guard to a game jam perhaps jams with no theme are the most likely to accept your game. Unranked jams are also more likely, too.
Once you submit a game and the voting period starts then you should try rating and commenting on games for the jam. They will most likely return the favor! :)
Hey, just played your game and really liked the smart concept! Turning the ring adds an extra challenge and if you are good enough, it creates a cool gameplay loop. It is a little bit rough though to get the right angle as there is no indicator in which direction the bullet is going to fly or when the player avatar changes its direction. That way the game is over for me as soon as asteroids come in at a faster frequency and I am too slow to precisely get the right angle.
But when the controls work, its fun!
