Playtest My Space Shooter Applet Game

Playtest My Space Shooter Applet Game

Available online at:

http://vredungmand.dk/games/timbuktu/index.html

It is a conventional space shooter with multiple weapons and plenty of
aliens to take care of.

I would like some feedback on my game design.

If you play the game a couple of times - then please tell:

- How far into the game did you get the first time you played it?
- Did you get improved weaponry or shield?
- How quickly (if you did) did you loose interest in the game? Did you
get stuck?

(These questions help me to get an idea of whether the game has good
balance and progression.)

Any ideas for improving the game?

PS: Some of you may have seen this game before but I have thrown in a
lot of updates. So give it a try (again).

PPS: I posted this message in comp.games.development.design a while
ago but did not get any responses. I hope I am a little more lucky
here.

On 14 Feb 2004 02:45:16 -0800, chvid@acm.org (Christian Hvid) wrote:

>Playtest My Space Shooter Applet Game
>
>Available online at:
>
>http://vredungmand.dk/games/timbuktu/index.html
>
>It is a conventional space shooter with multiple weapons and plenty of
>aliens to take care of.
>
>I would like some feedback on my game design.

I think the playability is good. The gameplay/feel reminds me of
xenon2 or silpheed which is good. But i'm missing the top/down
movement option. Other than that you might want to use one or more
layers of background scrolling to make it more visually interesting.
If you combine this with some kind of global objective (find the 10
gems which are needed to defeat the boss enemy or something like that)
you usually lock the attention of a player for a longer period of
time.

Hope this helps and good luck with the development.

-rd-

Yeah - Xenon 2 is an old favorite of mine. By far the best shooter I have
ever played.

I am having the game playtested at javagaming.org too:

http://www.JavaGaming.org/cgi-bin/J...;num=1076760554

They asked for up/down movement as well.

This is something I am considering but I would like it to work properly with
player's sprite animation and the starfield animation.

"Rick D." <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
 news:ekas20li36tg5qnvhiv10rj9m5u8hb3j92@
4ax.com...
> On 14 Feb 2004 02:45:16 -0800, chvid@acm.org (Christian Hvid) wrote:
> 
>
> I think the playability is good. The gameplay/feel reminds me of
> xenon2 or silpheed which is good. But i'm missing the top/down
> movement option. Other than that you might want to use one or more
> layers of background scrolling to make it more visually interesting.
> If you combine this with some kind of global objective (find the 10
> gems which are needed to defeat the boss enemy or something like that)
> you usually lock the attention of a player for a longer period of
> time.
>
> Hope this helps and good luck with the development.
>
> -rd-
>
>

Christian Hvid wrote:
> Playtest My Space Shooter Applet Game
>
> Available online at:
>
> http://vredungmand.dk/games/timbuktu/index.html
>
> It is a conventional space shooter with multiple weapons and plenty of
> aliens to take care of.
>
> I would like some feedback on my game design.
>
> If you play the game a couple of times - then please tell:
>
> - How far into the game did you get the first time you played it?
> - Did you get improved weaponry or shield?
> - How quickly (if you did) did you loose interest in the game? Did you
> get stuck?
>
> (These questions help me to get an idea of whether the game has good
> balance and progression.)
>
> Any ideas for improving the game?
>
> PS: Some of you may have seen this game before but I have thrown in a
> lot of updates. So give it a try (again).
>
> PPS: I posted this message in comp.games.development.design a while
> ago but did not get any responses. I hope I am a little more lucky
> here.

I got to I think the 3rd level, where the bad guys start aiming with
the green shots (as opposed to the red shots that just go straight
ahead). I didn't see any improved weapon or shields or anything like
that, and I got bored of the game after my first death.

I died because it was not clear to me that there was a limit to how far
I could move to the left, that is, I hit an invisible barrier, couldn't
move, and got hit by a bullet, which I found moderately frustrating.

You should probably give the player weapon powerups very early in the
game, just to let them know it's a feature that's actually implemented
in your game. Or perhaps just show an intro help screen, which shows all
the enemies and powerups that appear in the game, as well as their effects.

- Nebu