Microbes demo
Community Forums/Showcase/Microbes demo
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| I've put up a demo of my mostly-complete game project at http://www.simulacrum.net.nz It is a shoot'em up arcade game with elements from Robotron and others. (The gfx are somewhat better than those in my sig - I hope :/) Try it out and let me know any feedback, either posted here or to the address mentioned on the site. I would also be interested in knowing how it runs on different spec'ed machines. |
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| Looks very nice. Gets a bit tough sometimes, but fun none the less. Nice gfx too. |
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| Thanks! It gets really tough if you let it get away from you. The best strategy is to eliminate as many microbes as you can in the first seconds before they multiply. |
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| Pretty cool! An option to play with the mouse would be nice ... |
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| Hmmm, there's an idea. I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes. |
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| This is really good! The explosions (I think) slowed it down a little bit on my computer, but not so bad that it would be unplayable, only a little bit. (I have a P4, 1.7GHz, and a Radeon 7000 video card with 32Mb memory.) Edit: I sometimes got "memory access violation" errors when trying different resolution settings. It also appears to be the case that options aren't saved (or re-loaded?), or at least when I returned to the options screen it had reverted to a default setting. When leaving the game and going back it would load in the new settings. Maybe I am mixing things up now but you get the idea. :) Also, the "full screen" option would not remain "yes" but instead go back to "no". I completed the game with a score of 86010. The game is quite playable (with the different power ups and the walls that block your shots, etc.). I also like the design. Some ideas maybe: more different enemies, perhaps shields, a power up to let you fly around a bit, double guns (for instance, a "mirrored" gun on the other side of the circle, or just a second gun on the circle that moves just like the main gun, not mirrored), enemies like mechanic spiders that once they reach your shield, start walking towards you, blocking your way for as long as they exist (should not be too long), the ability to "jump" into the circle (some kind of outwards gravity would pull you back to the shield), this allows you to jump towards your target or to avoid enemies on or near the shield. |
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| It's really nicely polished and runs well. My only criticism is due to the way the game is designed, things tend to go "critical" really easily. That is, the game is way too easy, and then it suddenly goes critical and is impossibly hard. My thoughts on this is that it's generally preferable to have mechanisms in place that make things harder for a player doing well, and easier for one doing badly - rather than the other way around. Otherwise you get nasty positive feedback loops setting in. |
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| Thanks for your comments. If I can summon up enough enthusiasm I might try a few of the suggestions. I have lost interest in it a bit :( That is, the game is way too easy, and then it suddenly goes critical and is impossibly hard Yeah, you have to keep on top of things. I think this looks worse than it is because of the levels included in the demo. Internally, the levels have various variables that allow you to balance out the difficulty and control how fast it gets difficult. I have a level designer that allows you to alter these to get a nice balance, and in a finished game you would have a progression, with levels slowly getting more difficult. |
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