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Tiny Shooter 1.0 Update, Feedback Please!

A topic by DeCoppelElias created 10 days ago Views: 81 Replies: 7
Viewing posts 1 to 3

Hey everyone!! I just released Update 1.0 for Tiny Shooters, my top-down arena shooter where you survive waves of enemies and battle bosses. 

https://decoppelelias.itch.io/tiny-shooters

I think this update is a big step forward for the game, and I’d love to hear what you think! Any feedback, suggestions, or thoughts are super appreciated.

Some interesting questions could be: What did you like / hate the most? What did you find exciting? Was there something unique? What is your favorite player build? Anyway, have fun!

Here is a picture before and after the update:

Tiny Shooters Before Update
Tiny Shooters After Update
(+1)

I played your game a bit. Few notes:

  • It seems that game does not capture keyboard and mouse input (tested in Firefox / Windows). Therefore, pressing Left Shift to dash triggers Window’s “Sticky Keys” warning, and right-clicking does not work, so I am unable to finish tutorial
  • It seems that sometimes character gets stuck moving in some direction even after I release all the keys
  • Tutorial tells about dash and shield cooldown indicators, but the icons on the bottom do not change.
  • I think it would be better to pause game to give player time to read tutorial text

I am open to testing more if you fix the problem with controls.

Hey AlSoKnown, 

First of all, thanks a lot for playing and giving some feedback!

Thanks for pointing out the issues with the tutorial! It was indeed a mistake on my part. I have uploaded a new version that should hopefully fix the issues.

About the movement problems, I cannot really reproduce your issues. I have tried running the game on Firefox but the movement worked fine for me there. Could you maybe see if it's still an issue after the newest update? Would love to help resolve this problem!

Anyway thanks for playing, I would greatly appreciate it if you could give it another chance now that I have updated.

Also, what did you think about the art style, do you like it? : )

All the best!

(2 edits) (+1)

new version that should hopefully fix the issues.

Yes, I was able to finish tutorial.

movement problems, I cannot really reproduce

Simplest way for me is to click “Shift” 5 times while having Sticky Keys on. Maybe consider using WebGLInput.captureAllKeyboardInput ?

Some more notes:

  • Art style is ok, mix of cozy and “burning hell”. I wonder if adding lots of dynamic lighting would be an interesting direction to evolve
  • Some terrain elements are a bit too low contrast, I got hit multiple times by stumbling on pillars I did not see at first.
  • “Burning barrels” give me a strong expectation of either “explode on hit” or “hurt player on touch”. Maybe change graphics and / or add some of those interactions.
  • The “character upgrade” progress is far too slow IMHO, I suggest adding a reward after every wave (of course, rewards should be made weaker for balance – maybe give common rewards after each wave and rare rewards after each 3 or something like that).
  • Implement “character stats” window and add numbers to rewards. This is what bullet hell players crave :)
  • Maybe reduce starting “weak” enemy HP to make initial “boring” wave finish faster. (I think a cheap way to do it is by adding several versions of each enemy differing only by size and HP).

Damn thanks, this is some really good feedback!

While I will probably not be able to apply all these changes soon, I will take this feedback with me when I'm working on the next update!!

I especially like your ideas of adding smaller rewards after each wave, adding a player stats window, and also the idea of increasing enemy variation by playing with size and enemy health.

Also thanks for the suggestions on the art style. The art is definitely the hardest part of making a video game for me, as I don't have much experience in that area.

Cheers!

(+1)

Hi! I'm the guy from the Let's Trade Feedback thread, here to uphold my end of the bargain.

So, off the bat, I think you knocked it out of the park with aesthetics; the pixel art is simple but effective and the music and SFX suits it perfectly.

The core gameplay was fun; I did two runs and enjoyed how different they felt even with some overlapping abilities, and it was far from a chore to load up a new attempt after my initial loss. That said, I do have a couple points of criticism:

  • The small, plain font was jarring compared to how well the rest of the games look came together.
  • I think you could reward bonus points for finishing a stage quickly in order to encourage more proactivity. With enemies that weren't apt to chase me down, I found it too easy to become slow and tentative in my approach (waiting for cooldowns to recharge and such), which runs contrary to your high-action sales pitch. 
  • Like the other commenter, there were instances where I got stuck on a piece of terrain I couldn't see, so the lighting/contrast could use some tweaks.
  • There seems to be a bug where the game rewarded bonus points for a perfect wave even though I took damage? I think it has to do with Spare Parts healing me above where I started the wave.
  • Dashing felt finicky at times; sometimes I'd seem to zip right through (or right past) enemies, other times I'd ram them and shove them in front of me. Felt difficult to plan my maneuvers without knowing which would happen.

But, honestly, if you just adjusted the non-pixel font and expanded the contents, I think you could ship this game as-is and it'd be perfectly fine. Good work!

Here's what I grabbed during my runs in case it's relevant to you:

  • First run:  "Tanky" (can't remember the name; slow + defensive) --> Sniper --> Spare Parts --> Collateral Sniper --> Faster Reload --> Spare Parts ---> Exploding Bullets)
  • Second run: Improved Dashing --> Gunner --> Spare Parts --> Improved Dashing --> Fast Wheels --> More Split Shots

Hey, thanks a lot for your awesome feedback!

I'm really happy to hear you like the aesthetics as it was very difficult for me to find nice-looking visual theme. 

Aha, you are right that there could indeed be a bug regarding perfect waves, as I currently only check if the player health is below the health at the start of the wave! Good catch!

It's indeed true that dashing is somewhat unpredictable, I could indeed look into ways to making it more controlled.

I really like the idea of giving points based on the speed of clearing a wave, I might add that very soon!

Again, thanks a lot for the in depth feedback!! :))

Also, don't forget to upload your high score, who knows you might be at the top :D