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

[Grimbarian]

Lol, guess we'll just have to wait and see eh Rosse119?

Bugger for me that my missus has decided to work from home tonight - so she's got the PC. No test version tonight I'm afraid.
Hopefully at the weekend.

[Grimbarian]

Ok forum/testers - now's the time I really want to hear from you.

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

This link is to an early version of Silent Star Blast which you can sideload onto your OUYA. I really want to know what everyone thinks of it so far - and also suggestions on extra things for the final version.

What's in the .apk I hear you cry? Right then...

Two selectable ships for a 95% complete Single Player high score game. Quite simply - this is shoot as many asteroids as you can.
95% of up to 4 player co-operative high score game, with difficulty that adapts depending on the number of players (even during gameplay) - each player can choose between two ships, and there is the option of friendly fire on or off, just in case you want to treat it as a deathmatch instead! The high score for the multiplayer mode is seperate to the single player game.

There's a lack of instructions/credits, some menu sounds, and the full deathmatch mode. Playing is done with the left analogue stick. Firing is automatic, blue power ups increase your ships fire rate.

Hope to hear lots of feedback from this, it's actually the furthest I've ever got with a game and will be the first game I fully complete!

[Rhellik]

Ok, I dont know your exact plans or what other people have given on feedback yet, so I wil just give you my full comments:

I played single player only since right now I only have one controller, so can't say anything about MP.

It's a fun little concept and don't even mind the current graphics and sounds but those will apparently still change.
Now, please don't take this too harsh, these are my thoughts on the current gameplay:
- The countdown in the beginning is too long. I would make the ship move right after the 1 disappears. Takes too long after "blast em" to start moving.
- It's kinda mean that the rocks can fly through the walls but you can't, but well thats just part of the gamefield I guess.
- I can see this is an easy control scheme, but it's frustrating I can't either control my speed or when I shoot. This and the fact that there's no sensitivity to the rotation (on/off rotation) makes it very hard to actually aim at something.
- The second ship might start out harder because it only has one shot but it gets easier after some fire rate upgrades. After 5 or 6 I was pretty mich a gatling gun in space, killing everything, nicve feeling though.
- Still there should be a few more upgrades somehow. Spreadshot? damage? Ship speed? Rotation speed?
- There seems to be a bug when I select single player in the menu and can select the ship and press down, I move to the invisible "multiplayer" menu button. When I enter MP alone, I cant back out with the A button and have to reset the game.

More to come maybe.
Keep up the good work, will be anxious to see how it develops.

[Grimbarian]

Thanks for the detailed feedback Rhellik - very helpful.

The graphics will be staying as they are for this game - it was for the previously detailed game they were going to change - but I'm very happy with them for the game I'm doing now. there are to be more sounds and additional eye candy though.
The countdown is the same for both multiplayer and single player - It helps everyone get ready for multiplayer, so will consider reducing it for single player mode. Thanks.
Interesting about not being able to back out of the MP menu - I thought I'd put that in. I'll take a look at it - so thanks.
Upgrades are a consideration - I'm keeping this a small and simple game, so don't want to go too mental with it. Thanks.

[Grimbarian]

So, here's some gameplay video - very kindly provided by sahoskins12 and Tiny Pixells. Much appreciated to you both.

[Killswitch]

Fancy ass Rotarygaming intro
Looking good so far

[Grimbarian]

Fancy ass Rotarygaming intro
Looking good so far

Lol - done in the game engine, still going to tighten that up for the more polished version... needs to 'decelerate' to the stop point. Need to animate the selection buttons in and out too.

[Grimbarian]

Been quite busy with updating the mobile version of this game - and in some feedback given for the mobile version (in which each ship has different speed/handling & fire rate) it became apparent that a much larger range of ships was needed to bring some tactical elements to the OUYA deathmatch mode, and allow different play styles for single player/co-operative modes.

So, quick pic of the full ship lineup in Player 1 colours.

Full Lineup.jpg

[rosse119]

These are really cool looking ships, I've always found them hard to draw.

[Grimbarian]

These are really cool looking ships, I've always found them hard to draw.

All art in my game is by http://kenney.nl/ - it's not done by me.

I donated (when it cost - it's 'free' now, well needs a donation but can be any amount) a while back and really enjoy using his assets. They're great quality.

The ships above I slightly modified into the player colours.