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Slugger v1.4.7 - BULLET-HELL! - Looking for constructive criticism!

A topic by ProxyFirewall created Apr 15, 2024 Views: 925 Replies: 30
Viewing posts 1 to 22
(2 edits)

This is an action-packed bullet-hell game that I am desperate for feedback on! I'd really appreciate any feedback. Thanks!
Slugger v1.4.7: https://proxyfirewall.itch.io/slugger

Please give feedback I really need it :(

(+1)

Okay I have some feedback.

Here's what I like:

- it's all very "juicy" and alive: lots of particles, screen shake, everything is animated (tweened).

- in principle, there's a clear tutorial that takes you through everything.

- the game play is fast.

Here's what I don't like:

- The downside of all that juice is that it's visually very "noisy": it's hard to understand what's going on.

- There's no time to learn what everything is or does: if you take it slow and look at the pickups or enemy behaviors, you're dead. The first wave is immediately all out. That's good for experienced players (with full skill trees), but probably there should be a slow training mode where enemies and abilities are introduced one by one. Possibly without gaining XP.

- For such a fast and short game, replaying is frustratingly slow: it's possible that you die after 2 seconds, but then you need to wait more than 5 seconds for the UI animation, to go back to the menu, and to restart (at least that's what it feels like - I didn't time it). There needs to be an immediate restart button - I don't care about my newly gained XP, unless I got very far.

- Some of the tutorial text is absolutely tiny! (When viewed on an average laptop screen.) The smallest fonts need to be at least twice as big, if not more.

The game is crazy but crazy from the same mold, I like that!

  • I like the soundtrack! The sounds fit well.
  • The graphics are interesting, for me, there are a few too many lighting effects, especially the light around the character.
  • Maybe I’m too old, but I need automatic fire; otherwise my tendons can’t take it!
  • The game is quite fast-paced, which I’m sure is a challenge for many!

When steady fire comes, I’ll gladly watch it again ;-) Best regards and good luck. Alex

(+1)

I thought so too about automatic fire. Fortunately, it's one of the first upgrades that's available in the skill trees. Buy it! :-)

The intro as pure text made me impatient - as specially as it doesn't give any story, just praises the game that the player is waiting to see. I started the tutorial and think it is done nicely. Unfortunately I stopped playing then, because I found out it was a shooter. I don't play shooters on principle.

There is a skip button for the intro XD you didn't have to watch it lol

(+1)

I played your game, and I have some feedback for you :)

I recorded the session, and you can watch it here

All in all, its a cute little "ACTION PACKED" game.. there is not a moment of silence, and it seems like to carry through the game as a whole, which is nice. 

What I liked about the game

  • The action packed feeling, something is going on, and there is some tricks to be found on how to play the game. 
  • The pickups were super nice, and that there were so many that dissapeared was an interesting take
  • The "unknown" upgrade really made me curious, there is something interesting that can be used her, I am not sure what. 
  • The enemies where clear in what they did, and it did not take me many seconds to understand the different enemies. 

What I think could be improved

  • The whole experience was a bit messy, there seems to be going too much on in the beginning, and I would work on decreasing difficulty
  • The UI of the upgrade was confusing and I really missed that I could see the cost and what I could upgrade. I would look at other games and how they do this, and start there. The idea we the star with the upgrades coming out from the middle is good, and you could work on making what is what more clear. 
  • The controls were to "wonky" - I did not feel that I controled the situation, rather the situation controlled me. This is something I would work on if I was you. 
  • You spend a lot of time on the intro tutorial, but did not mention all of the important things that the player should know. "How do I complete a round" and what is a "wave" I felt really confused at times when playing. 
  • There is no counter or anything that tells me my progress, adding something like this, might solve the "What is a wave" problem. 

If you have any time, tell me what you think helped you in the video, and where it could be improved. 

Also, I have a game that I am developing. If oyu have time to test it, I would really appresiate it
https://itch.io/t/3658231/strategy-game-about-bunnies-building-a-rocket-gameplay...

Hope this was helpful to you :)

(+1)

Dude thanks so much, I really appreciate your effort to give me the best feedback you can! I'm doing a massive update on it and will take everything you've said about my game in the comment, and in the video, into account! Thanks so much!

Absolutely my pleasure :)
Sorry for the late reply, I have been out traveling, and came home late last nigh :)

I am really glad that you liked it!

Hey everyone! Just a reminder - I need all the feedback I can get to help me keep improving the game, so ALL feedback would be greatly appreciated! ;)

Hey! I noticed I'm not getting as much feedback. Please give me feedback if possible - I'd really appreciate it :)

Hey, all feedback is appreciated,  I really need it for the new update!

I just played this, it is good to play but also difficult.
I would suggest some bullet direction/cursor perhaps to see where you will shoot in this situation.
Apart from that, congrats on making it to release.

Thanks for your input! The cursor is something I'm planning on adding. Any other nitpicks or things you think I could add?

Good points:

  • There's a lot of content, especially with the upgrades
  • There are loads of animations/scene transitions/special effects, which make the game exciting to play

A few suggestions:

  • Audio felt very loud, had to turn down volume - add a settings menu so people can adjust volume to their liking
  • Change the intro to something story-based instead of just promo
  • Incongruent UI with some being smooth vector graphics and others pixellated. Nothing wrong with either, just choose one and don't mix the styles
  • Put the player's health bar/status effects at a fixed position on the screen, as it's hard to see them when moving around if they follow the player

In general there's just a load of different styles being used in the game, making it feel unpolished despite the animations and juice.

Thanks! All of these things will be added and worked on. Just one question - Do you have any suggestions for how to put the player's health in a fixed position? Because I'm not really sure how to do this, as anywhere I put it on the screen will cover the gameplay.

Probs have a fixed top UI bar and add checks to confine the player/enemies to the actual playfield. For a more complicated approach you could try have a dynamic camera centered on the player so the important stuff is never hidden behind a sidebar.

Okay thanks for the suggestion, that helps a ton!

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! If you are new to this post, then please consider giving some feedback on Slugger!

I've made a ton of progress on v1.5! It's edging ever closer to release.... If you want to suggest any changes, please do so as soon as possible so I can consider them for the new update!

Please make sure to give feedback!

Just wanted to ask if people think I should make the sprites smaller to make the map feel bigger?

Since I haven't gotten any replies, I'll repost if that's okay:

Just wanted to ask if people think I should make the sprites smaller to make the map feel bigger?

Just wanted to ask if people like the idea of having weapons in the game?

Hey! Just asking what people think of having a grid in the background, kind of like geometry wars?

What does everyone think of giving enemies the ability to collide, making them solid objects?

Hey! I was just wondering why I've had a sudden drop-off in feedback. I'd really appreciate any feedback!

This is really weird. I got like 50 views but no replies. How have so many people seen this but not replied? Ngl this is really intriguing.

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Hey I played this for a bit until I unlocked the ancient matter store. Fun game! It's fast and hectic in a great way, but mostly after you unlock auto-shoot.  It's easy enough to get, but makes a massive difference to how enjoyable the game is imo so I really think you should start off with auto-shoot.

Lots of nice feedback when shots collide and things die.

I also think changing some of the font and text size would also be a relatively easy upgrade to polish it up. The pixel fonts in game don't really suit the game graphics, and are very different from the shop and tutorial and menu fonts. Also some of sir sluggers tutorial texts are very small and hard to read. Personally I'd suggest a different thick cartoony font for the floating damage text but even just using the UI fonts during the waves might look nice. The more important thing would be clarity of reading the tutorial texts though.

Oh and I don't know what to call these but the like lines of shuriken things from wave 6+ disappearing monsters felt pretty brutal. I'd have liked some more windup or something to help me dodge out of the way.

Thanks so much! Pretty much all of the things you've said everyone else has already said, so I've already fixed it all up in the next big update, which could be out in 1-3 months.