Planerunner Demo

Hey gang!

I've been keeping my mecha shmup, Planerunner, under the radar until I could get something playable. Well, now it is playable!

<img src="http://www.planerunner.com/bot_screenshot.png">

Planerunner is my first run at a Construct-based shmup. Instructions are included with the single level demo (E for guns, W for homing missiles, left and right arrow keys to move). It is supposed to have approximately 5 minutes of game play. The full game will have 3 levels, or about 15 minutes of game play.

Any feedback is helpful! The demo is beta - please post feedback and criticism here. Also, the website is still under construction.

Nice game! Very smooth graphics, explosions, and sound effects.

Some suggestions for improvements (but I suck at games sometimes so take it for what it is worth):

1. I found it too hard. On average, I'm only able to last 1-2 min.

2. It was too monotonous even though it was very short play. I just hold down the W & E keys and swing back and forth trying to shoot down green ships. There is little chance for strategy and all the explosions are mind numbing (can't see where enemies are) after awhile.

3. A game without strategy isn't bad, it is just that I think some variety is needed and a chance to use more skill in shooting. As of right now, it is pretty much try to get in front of the green ships without getting hit by bullets from the larger ships.

4. I wish I could move forward and backwards, because the enemy will always kill you once it reaches the end of the screen. Or instead give a temporary bomb/force-field capability.

5. Needs additional types of enemies.

6. Add some powerups to give player more capability.

Still really nice work for a beta.

Now that I've gotten some feedback, I can go about making actual waves of enemies, so we can have some actual strategy! Thanks, very helpful! Also, I finally made something that has too many explosions? Awesome. Again, this was very useful.

Here's a couple of questions:

-Would moving up and down be okay, or did you need keyboard rotate/mouse rotate as well?

-If you could have any power-up you wanted, what would it do?

Very nice indeed.Keep it up.

Would moving up and down be okay

Yes, just up and down. Nothing else needed.

If you could have any power-up you wanted, what would it do?

First would be temporary shields. Second place would be a either a triple shot, or a large radius explosion bomb.

it feels solid, and looks nice

a few suggestions though

I could be wrong, but i think it's impossible (literally) to dodge the homing missiles, because once they get horizontal to you, there's no escape.

if the background were a slightly different tint, it's make the player ship and the enemy missiles stand out more which would be not only good for gameplay, but look good too.

also, on the subject of visuals, drop shadows for everything to show how high or not high up we are from the ground are always cool.

as far as powerups, I don't think it should be the first powerup or anything, but back in the amiga days, I always loved games where you'd eventually get some drone that followed or circled your ship, and shot nearby ships on it's own, or just shot some special shot straight forward whenever you fired your regular shots

[quote:3v3af83a]Yes, just up and down. Nothing else needed.

Poifect.

[quote:3v3af83a]if the background were a slightly different tint, it's make the player ship and the enemy missiles stand out more which would be not only good for gameplay, but look good too.

Could you explain a bit more? Do you mean a different color (more brown, etc), or maybe lighter or darker?

[quote:3v3af83a]also, on the subject of visuals, drop shadows for everything to show how high or not high up we are from the ground are always cool.

That wouldn't be hard to add. One way would be to have a black silhouette sprite per enemy, cut the opacity, then make it offset from the enemy sprite for distance. I have to wonder if there is a better way tho. Like a shadow/light source? Will have to test to see how it impacts performance tho. I almost wish Construct's Drop Shadow effect had some settings. It's nice (I used it on the main menu, in fact), but limited right now. Anyone got any better ideas instead of adding an offset black sprite?