FireMadness game: top-down shooter, bullet hell.

[Imerion]

I'll see if I can get in some testing tomorrow, perhaps even some co-op play!

[Imerion]

Tried it!

First, I liked the story, it made me laugh.

I played on normal, which felt like a good challenge. Those slow/weapon-disabling shots were a bit hard to handle though. I didn't manage to destroy any disablers during my first round. Maybe the effect should last slighter less time.

Some cool effects and clean graphics. I liked the artwork. Oh, and nice music!

Also, some way to return to the main menu from a game would be useful.

Didn't have the opportunity for a coop match today. Maybe some other time - in that case I'll post my results. I guess difficulty should even out though, since two players will have a harder time to navigate around. (Unless they can pass through each other.)

[eugeneloza]

First, I liked the story, it made me laugh.

Thanks a lot! It's good that I could reproduce the humor (actually it's a compilation of a few Slavic jokes about programmers), not being native English I was very worried about that.

I played on normal, which felt like a good challenge.

That's good. Because hard is a good challenge to me, being already rather experienced in this game. But, maybe normal difficulty should be lowered a bit?

Those slow/weapon-disabling shots were a bit hard to handle though. I didn't manage to destroy any disablers during my first round. Maybe the effect should last slighter less time.

They require a little different strategical approach than other bots. You'll encounter heavy bots (dealing 30 damage in a shot) in the next rounds, those also fall into this category. If most fire is unavoidable, those disabler and heavy missiles should be avoided at any cost.

Also, some way to return to the main menu from a game would be useful.

Oh... my bad. I've forgotten to point that out at titlescreen
F10 returns to the main menu and PAUSE puts the game to pause. I'll point that out somewhere, thanks for reminding!

I guess difficulty should even out though, since two players will have a harder time to navigate around. (Unless they can pass through each other.)

The problem is that for co-op I set difficulty: +100% hp for enemy bots, and +50% fire rate to even two players out (and yes, they can't pass through each other, but can shoot through each other - missiles do not hit allies). But I'm afraid that these values are too high, and two players together are less effective to cover for +50% fire rate increase. This should be tweaked, but I have absolutely no experience in multiplayer (yeah! I've never ever played a single real multiplayer game in my life. Yes, I exist ).

[eugeneloza]

I've recorded a complete walkthrough on hard - video in the first post.

Still struggling with Android cross-compillation.

[Imerion]

That's good. Because hard is a good challenge to me, being already rather experienced in this game. But, maybe normal difficulty should be lowered a bit?

Nah, I don't think you need to lower it. I probably would have excelled with a few more tries once I learned to avoid those disablers.

They require a little different strategical approach than other bots. You'll encounter heavy bots (dealing 30 damage in a shot) in the next rounds, those also fall into this category. If most fire is unavoidable, those disabler and heavy missiles should be avoided at any cost.

Yeah, it makes for an interesting way to think. Not being able to avoid everything I have to adapt to instead taking the way that will hurt the least.

The problem is that for co-op I set difficulty: +100% hp for enemy bots, and +50% fire rate to even two players out (and yes, they can't pass through each other, but can shoot through each other - missiles do not hit allies). But I'm afraid that these values are too high, and two players together are less effective to cover for +50% fire rate increase. This should be tweaked, but I have absolutely no experience in multiplayer (yeah! I've never ever played a single real multiplayer game in my life. Yes, I exist ).

I'll see if I can get a co-op match played some day for you! Right now weather is so good here though it's hard to find someone else who wants to sit inside and play games.

[eugeneloza]

Yeah, it makes for an interesting way to think. Not being able to avoid everything I have to adapt to instead taking the way that will hurt the least.

I've been trying to model the situation and got that I can avoid only ~30% of fire by maneuvering during +50% difficulty. (e.g. I've just put 2 players and one was static and another was trying to avoid being hit at any cost). Of course, this value is lower for singleplayer, maybe being ~70% (except for the final battle, which is 1 minute of simply taking almost all damage and maneuvering does very little to help except for heavy/disabler/FIWI missles).

I'll see if I can get a co-op match played some day for you! Right now weather is so good here though it's hard to find someone else who wants to sit inside and play games.

Maybe I should include some kind of cheat-keys that can change multiplayer difficulty on the fly? That might help balancing.


Still struggling with Android cross-compillation. After 4-5 days of reading docs and trying and failing... no luck yet.

[eugeneloza]

Today Android - tomorrow the World!

Finally I've made an Android release. Still very buggy and huge in size (some problems with audiolibrary require uncompressed music storage... I hope it'll be fixed soon )

Android overhaul.
Joystick / gamepad support thanks to Tomasz Wojtyś
Interface improvements
Speed improvements
And more!