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glider521al

1 Game Reviews w/ Response

All 15 Reviews

Retro game + amazing modern day polish

GRAPHICS AND INTERFACE.
You've taken the concept for a retro game, and made full use of modern hardware capabilities to add in amazing sounds, graphics and particle effects.
Everything from the menus, to the design of the ships and dreaded magnetic mines fit in well with the space theme.

As mentioned by other reviewers the explosions and missles are just spectacular, Please tell me where you learnt to do that...
:)

GLITCHES (only found one):

-You programmed this incredibly well, but I did find one glitch:
If the player can't submit the score (e.g. due to a temporary internet connection), the server just gives up and refuses to allow them to try again.
I.e. (The yes button doesn't work) even after the connection is restored later.

[GAMEPLAY]:

The gameplay was generally well balanced, with upgrades being gradually introduced to reward the progressing player, and a cool variety of enemy
A.I. to match.
It was quite challenging to maintain a balance between spending power on shields and missiles, all whilst fending off waves of alien attacks:
Making for an awesome frag fest where split second reflexes determined whether you lived or died.

Having said all that, it would be nice if some of your energy regenerated after they died. Thus rewarding, rather than punishing players who take risks such as firing the super missle, rather than leaving them vulnerable to attack.

One thing that really Annoyed me (like salt rubbed into a plasma wound):
was that the extra lives exploded if you shoot them.
I would often lose two lives (particularly on the later grids), because I was trying to shoot a chirper, or blast my way through a swarm of enemies, when a life appears out of nowhere, in the same lane I happen to be in.

[SUGGESTIONS FOR NEW FEATURES]:
I know that after 2 years, you'll have probably moved onto bigger projects/busy with other work, but please consider the following list, if you ever make a sequel/expansion to your game.

1. No exploding extra lives (see [Gameplay])
2. A fraction of your power regenerates once the player respawns to reimburse players who take risks, such as utilizing super missles.
3. Fix score board glitch (see above).
4. Practice Mode for each grid, that the player has completed, so players can experiment with different tactics, without having to play through from the start

[SUMMING UP]
Depite the incredibly high level of challenge on the later grids I just kept coming back for more.
I reached Grid 20, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the game
(Though I ended up banging my head against the monitor when I failed to defeat the final of 5 guardians in that level, dieing just before a chirper appeared onscreen).

Visual effects, particles, polished pixel art: 10/10
Storyline: 6/10
Appropriate sound and music: 9/10
Gameplay, level design and replay value: 27/30
Overall score: 52/60

RATED: 5/5
Voting Power:5.13
[Favourited]

From a member of the:

[Review Request Club]

Zir0 responds:

Hey.

Wow, didn't expect to get any more reviews on this game, let alone especially nice detailed ones. Thanks! (:

Regarding the particles and explosions: They're powered by a particle system I wrote myself, and made the sprites used for the particles as well (using Paint.NET). I got the inspiration from a company called wondertouch (http://www.wondertouch.com/), who has some AMAZING particle effects. Man, I saw some of their stuff, and I was all, "DAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNG". O_O

If you'd would like to see a demo of some more particles I made, please let me know. (:

Regarding thanks glitch: Thanks for the report. Obviously didn't catch them all. Thanks for noticing that.

Regarding the gameplay:
- The exploding of extra lives was a design from the original Beamrider game, and I wanted to preserve that. You can look on YouTube of people recording their sessions of playing the original BR games, and you'll see them shooting their lives, and some comments telling them not to shoot those. :)

- Actually, some of your power already regenerates when your next ship spawns after dying.

- Practice mode sounds interesting, perhaps somehow integrating that into the tutorial.

Yeah, I've moved on to freelancing, and haven't had much time to add to this. I'd like to get back to it one day, though.

Glad to hear you made it to the end of the game. I have a question for you (please PM when you get a chance if you read this). You're a member of the Review Request Club, which is awesome. How did you find this game? I'm just curious.

Thanks again for the elaborate game review, soldier.

* salutes *

_______________________
- Ziro out,

-My interests lie in programming, graphics design, web development, artificial intellegence and of course gaming. -My favourite games include Mario platformers, portal, halo and half life 2. -I'm currently working on an isometric shooter:droid grids

Age 35, Male

Student

University of Melbourne

Australia

Joined on 8/18/10

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