Shoot Into The Void

First of, I really liked the game. It’s core idea and its execution. Although this is one of the games that could use some extra tweaks to make it more enjoyable by an average player.

I recorded my gameplay experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrDbzXJvKHQ

The things I like:

• The turn based nature of the game is neat. I like that you’re actually fighting the spaceships in space. If you don’t eliminate them, you’ll be attacked by every surviving vessel.

• I was surprised to see more than a couple of different bonuses. They seem to be useful too. Some of them more useful than other, but that’s to be expected.

• The game menu looks great. I like the style.

• The highscores is a nice touch too.

• This game has a high replayability. Different runs feel different. This can probably get even better with updated, post-jam release. I’m looking forward to it.

The major thing that made me uncomfortable is: the asteroids. They are many, they’re fast, they’re hard to memorize (because you’re already trying to memorize several objects on the screen). I think that something needs to be done about it. There are many ways to approach that (on of them is to say that it’s an intended difficulty level, etc.)

Perhaps there are 2 main ways to handle that:

1. Give the player some more tools to avoid or handle them.

2. Make them less dangerous.

I’ll take the idea that the games should maximize the player positive experience even at the cost of giving a little bit more forgiving than they could be. The challenge could be a positive experience, but only if you feel like you’re overcoming using your skills. Right now it’s really hard to play around the asteroids. At least in my opinion.

Here is a mixed bag of my thoughts in that regard:

• Make the orbits differently colored, so player knows which orbit is dangerous.

• Make it impossible to shot right into the asteroid; sometimes it’s easy to mess with timings. I think 0.3 secs of invulnerability wouldn’t hurt much.

• Keep the asteroids visible during the shot; you’ll still need to fly around them; or, as a compromize, detect the asteroid outline at some relatively small radius around the projectile

• Make them decrease the lifespan (~hp) of the bullet instead of instantly destroying it

• Spawn less asteroids per level (I think I saw levels with 5-6 asteroids, that’s a lot)

• Decrease their speed; or maybe make all of them fly with constant speed; in other words: make them more predictable (so it’s easier to memorize the pattern for the level)

• Destroy the asteroid when it collides with a bullet; this way, the first wave of the enemy shots will decrease the number of asteroids, making the 2-3 turns easier for the player (although you’ll not get any extra cover too after that)

There could be more ideas. Maybe some of them could be combined. It may be also possible to implement some of them as a part of the difficulty level.

Good luck with this game! I think it has the potential.