Silent Star: A thread for early testing and feedback on all aspects of my OUYA game

[Grimbarian]

*UPDATED*

Here is the link for the most recent test version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hqqjbt19nj...bug_signed.apk

Please leave as much feedback as possible. Details of what gameplay is in this version can be found here:

http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?...l=1#post130288



OK - I've made a bit of a decision to create this thread very early on in the development of my OUYA/PC game: "Silent Star"

The reason being that, while I have a lot of the gameplay elements and storyline nailed down, I'd like to involve the community here on how the game should 'feel'. Lots of little things like the actual amount of uprgrades you spaceship should be able to get to - the max speed of it flying around the environment, and how the character should feel when it jumps in the platform levels. A bit about the game:

Silent Star features a split of old school shoot 'em up action, Platform shooter sections, and good old storytelling - delivered by comic strip cut scenes.

All screenshots and demo's at this stage are featuring placeholder graphics and sounds - and will be upgraded/optimised during development.

All gameplay will be tweaked by the feedback we get from the community here. We have our own feelings on it, but we want as much critical input as possible to ensure the game plays the way it should, and delivers on the expectations of everyone who fancies playing it.

So, a quick screenshot (not that it means much, as it's all placeholder) - and then details of the feedback we'd like on this first pre, pre alpha level test.

Silent Star Pre Alpha Introduction.jpg

The ship in this sample level can be controlled by either the left stick, or the d-pad. Firing is taken care of by HOLDING DOWN the Right Front Trigger button, or the O button.
There are a few dev boxes around (small box sprites acting as triggers/limiters)
EVERY ship drops a power up for testing purposes - Orange ones power up your weapon, green ones power up your movement.
This sample level has some dev information in the top left corner - what we'd like to know is the following:

1) Do you want fire rate controlled automatically by holding the button down, or manually by mashing the buttons?
2) Is the weapon upgrades powerful enough or need more levels?
3) Does the speed go fast enough, or would it be better to get even quicker at max level?
4) What fps are you getting?
5) Do you prefer left stick controls, d-pad, or the ability to use either?

Exit the test by double clicking the OUYA button - no menu's, pause or proper things like that yet I'm afraid.

Look forward to hearing the feedback.

[Killswitch]

Ah ha. Couldn't put the Twitter name and forum account together.
If that pic is online and not from your computer then you can edit your post and uncheck the checkbox for the image, to get a full size image.

[Grimbarian]

Ah ha. Couldn't put the Twitter name and forum account together.
If that pic is online and not from your computer then you can edit your post and uncheck the checkbox for the image, to get a full size image.

:-) Yeah - FilmingGrim on Twitter.

The pic is an attachment - you can click it (on PC at least) to see a larger version.

[Grimbarian]

Sorry everyone - was brought to my attention that I'd unwittingly deleted the link from my dropbox.

Opening post has now been updated with a link that works.

Look forward to the feedback - sorry about that.

[smd_3d]

tested it out finally.

feedback:
-little bit of graphic glitch when your character gets into the edges of the screen.
-id speed up all the ships including the player movement
-the players ship would be nice if he scrolled with the screen.... by default he moves backwards if no directions are pressed.

thats about it but looks good soo far
happy coding!

[Grimbarian]

Thanks for the feedback smd_3d.

The graphics glitch will be addressed - thanks.
The power up doesn't increase all the ship speeds - just the player. Not sure what you've picked up on there.
Yeah - by default the player lags backwards with the screen movement. I can try it out with it updating with the screen scrolling and see how it plays - thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to test and reply - much appreciated.

[Grimbarian]

Ok, made a small update to this with some new bits and bobs and a start on some level design. I'll update the opening thread with a new .apk to sideload and would love some feedback on how it feels and things you'd like to see implemented.

Controls are:

Left Stick to fly, HOLD R1 OR O to fire, press A to do a crude reset if you die.

Some pickups can be collected, they will increase fire rate and ship speed.

Thanks in advance to those that test.

[Grimbarian]

And here's an updated screenshot for those that want to see how the graphics are progressing.

Most of what you see here (yes I know the ships are the 'wrong' angle at the minute) is artwork from Kenny at www.kenny.nl

Attachment 1548

[timmytot666]

The firing is really finnicy about what it will accept. A button and R1 both. Like they are on an invisible timer when you spam the button. While holding it gives a solid rhythm of shooting. Spamming the A button made it crash but I was doing it on purpose xD

[Grimbarian]

The firing is really finnicy about what it will accept. A button and R1 both. Like they are on an invisible timer when you spam the button. While holding it gives a solid rhythm of shooting. Spamming the A button made it crash but I was doing it on purpose xD

Thanks for taking the time to try it out timmytot666.

At the minute, firing is only done by holding down either O or R1, they are on a timer and the pickups decrease the fire rate timer to a set level. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get it to fire on button presses soon.

The A button was very crude reset popped in for this early testing, I'm not surprised it broke - Lol.