Lag is a fairly well known issue, given that this IS Game Maker, and thus doesn't run nearly as fast as you'd expect a sprite-based game to do. I don't think v0.6 has the in-game optimizations i've done, however, so you can expect a much better frame rate from v0.9, along with the previously mentioned dynamic speed adjustment, which should help further mitigate lag issues (if you enable it, that is). But, REVIEW! I AM THANKFUL, ALLOW ME TO ADDRESS IN DETAIL:
Gameplay
Pretty good. Shooting large amounts of spaceships is always fun. All the upgrades are cool. The only real problem is the lag.
Glad you like the simple premise! c:
Art & Sound
The background and special effects are great, and the sprites are good, but it seems like it could use a bit more animation. The music is excellent, and the sound effects are fine.
Believe it or not, the background is a placeholder, i think. It's the same one throughout the entire game, and i'm probably going to add a few more things to it. The music you hear is also temporary, since we've gotten hold of a dedicated musician to make a unique soundtrack for the entire game!
Regarding animations though, i can see what you mean, but i'm not wholly sure how to animate solid objects like space ships beyond their thrusters (which, for every enemy besides the third boss, are part of their sprites, which further complicates animation). If you're primarily referring to the player and the first boss, then i agree, they do need some more animation, especially the players "move sideways" animation could do with a couple more frames. :I
Replay Value
While it's a pretty satisfying game, it doesn't really have that much of a reason to replay it. It can be fun playing on more and more difficult settings, though. The upside
What upside? :U
It's true, there's not much replay value at the moment. We (or at least I) have kind of run out of space and ideas for more upgrades though, and as it stands, you NEED as many upgrades as you can get in the late game, because stage 18-19 are MERCILESS, and the final boss (which won't be in this version) will flat out murder you if you don't keep your wits and reflexes about.
What i'm thinking we could do, however, is to later on add a New Game+ mode, where you replay the game with all your upgrades... But all enemies get upgraded to a higher tier, including the bosses. Also, another possibility is the addition of an endless mode, although that would require us to add in a fairly large selection of enemy formations to choose between, or at least some cool way to procedurally generate new levels.
Suggestions & Nitpicks
The fact that the window title is the score and not the name of the game really bugs me for some reason. Personally, I think it'd be better if it said Angry Laser Space, since the score is right there, but it doesn't matter a whole lot. If I remember correctly, GameMaker does the score thing, so if you're using that, that would be why.
Oh yes, gotta do something about that, it annoys me as well. Fortunately, it is possible to change it, so that's what i'm going to do. :U
More upgrades would increase replay value significantly; currently, you can get all the upgrades in a single game. It might be neat if you could choose between more powerful shots and faster shots, or if there were just a lot more choices available. Also, the skill menu might be more interesting as a full skill tree, though that might be difficult and would require more skills.
The biggest hurdle with this is to think of new upgrades. One could have things like drones and periodic homing missiles... But i don't feel like they'd fit in very well, since i don't want the base game to be reliant on things that you don't control. All these upgrades we have at the moment improve YOUR capabilities, and don't take away any of your action apart from making enemies die faster and making you harder to kill.
Part of me also wouldn't let something like drones get away with being unhittable, so you'd be annoyed having to buy them all over again. Unless, of course, they were added as late-game things for when you've already purchased all upgrades...
The ability to customize your spaceship would be neat. Maybe you could unlock options by collecting medals and winning on higher difficulties?
We've thought about that, but the amount of work required to make things fit together outweighs the benefits. The biggest problem is that the player ship has a turning animation; if we were to, say, add more wings, then each set of wings would require a set of frames for turning, meaning 3-5 additional sprites per part. What we could and probably might end up doing, however, is to at least have a selection of ship appearances to choose between.
Also, winning? Well, the game does have an end, but it's not so much a win as it's running out of levels. The true win condition won't be in before 1.0. :U
N/A
It's a WIP, and it's being developed for fun,
and I'm not a game reviewer, so I'm not scoring it.
Hahah, fair enough yo, i'm just glad you took the time to give it a little review at all! I appreciate all feedback, because i intend to have us make this game as fun and bug-free as we can, and sometimes i forget things because they've been there for a LONG time.
edit: also boolet
i probably shouldn't spoil every single apeshit enemy but this is too much fun
Author
Topic: Angry Laser Space - v1.1 is a go! (a game by Shook and Chartle) (Read 57155 times)