This is a pretty interesting game- and definitely a great one, as your first project!
First of all, I would like to say that shooting enemies in this game is really fun- even though it's sometimes hard to directly hit enemies with the spread of the shots, the sound effects and the splatter all contribute to a nice experience. I also liked the size of the bullets as well- since most people try to use tiny bullets in their first game (for realistic-ness and accuracy) and fail.
In addition to that, the maps are usually fun, unless there's blue goop cornering you, and then you're usually done for.
There was one big problem that annoyed me a lot, though, and it is enemies spawning on top of me. I was standing near the edge of the map, and died 3 times in a row without any solid reason.
Maybe spawning the enemies at a certain random distance from the player, or having a hole or a gate that indicate that enemies would spawn out of them can solve that- and there's probably a ton of other ways to fix that, so I don't think that should be much of a problem to fix.
The first time I faced the one-eyed blue goo monster, I was killed shortly after- it takes several deaths to get adjusted to the blue monster, and the ability to run away from it depends on the amount of red monsters on the map and their spread.
There was some time when I was cornered by a mob of red monsters on one side, and a blue monster on the other- it was a pretty hopeless situation, that I guess could've been prevented by me avoiding the blue monster or running away from it without shooting it- but not always it's possible to run away from the blue monster while avoiding the red ones and still feel skilled, or not die.
However- I though that the green monsters + red monsters combination was really clever- the green monsters were stuck every now and then, but in the end, they were a pretty fun challenge. In addition to that, I liked how the eyes of the red monsters become a bit bigger when they notice you, and the fact that blue monster blood makes red monsters slower. The synergy between the monsters is definitely a strong part of this game, and it would be interesting to see similar stuff in other games- since this is more than enemies complimenting each other, but rather enemies affecting each other in interesting ways.
Technically, a similar thing would be an enemy cleric healing his fellow enemies, or an enemy mage buffing other enemies, but besides that I can't think of many examples of enemies affecting other enemies, in ways different than adding more firepower to their side or acting as meat shields. It would definitely be interesting to see something similar in a rogue-like (or rogue-lite, however you may call them), I think.
Also, the flashlight level is really interesting. I'd love to see a blue monster in a dark environment with a few red enemies, I think that would make for something interesting- but that's just an untested hypothesis, hehe
The red/green monster combination comes from Tom Francis (I made this game following his tutorial), same for the eyes getting bigger. I came up with the blue monster and the different gamemodes for the game. To see the difference between the two games you can take a look at the tutorial version: https://pentadact.itch.io/noxp, or a video of it:
I agree with you about the enemies spawning over your head, that's definitely a problem.
Did you think the blue enemy had too much health? The blue enemy makes the game fun by forcing you to avoid other enemies, but I wasn't sure how much health to give him. The line between fun vs frustrating can be thin. (also they have a small field of view so hiding behind a wall can help, but I could make the field of view smaller)
Did you have the time to test Survive The Red Army? in this one the enemies are already spawned, there are only the orange ones and there's 3 types of them; some faster some slower.
For the flashlight mode: thanks! I was thinking about adding 2 other versions: One where you don't have any weapon, where have to avoid the orange ones and reach the exit. The second one would be similar but you keep the blue gun, and you have to eliminate all the orange ones by feeding them to the green one, but in the dark.
There's a lot of things that are better n your version than his, though- like the screenshake not having a weird angle change and the ability to actually see your enemies, even when there's a lot of blood on the floor.
Maybe less speed, less health, or a smaller field of view would be better for the blue enemies- but they definitely deserve some "nerf".
I did, and don't remember it particularly? I think it was the one where I was at first overwhelemed, but gained control after a bit.
Oh, that would be interesting. Maybe there could be some stealth levels or something.
I'm not sure about the second one you mentioned, but I think you should definitely try it, polish it and evaluate it once it's done.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
This is a pretty interesting game- and definitely a great one, as your first project!
First of all, I would like to say that shooting enemies in this game is really fun- even though it's sometimes hard to directly hit enemies with the spread of the shots, the sound effects and the splatter all contribute to a nice experience. I also liked the size of the bullets as well- since most people try to use tiny bullets in their first game (for realistic-ness and accuracy) and fail.
In addition to that, the maps are usually fun, unless there's blue goop cornering you, and then you're usually done for.
There was one big problem that annoyed me a lot, though, and it is enemies spawning on top of me. I was standing near the edge of the map, and died 3 times in a row without any solid reason.
Maybe spawning the enemies at a certain random distance from the player, or having a hole or a gate that indicate that enemies would spawn out of them can solve that- and there's probably a ton of other ways to fix that, so I don't think that should be much of a problem to fix.
The first time I faced the one-eyed blue goo monster, I was killed shortly after- it takes several deaths to get adjusted to the blue monster, and the ability to run away from it depends on the amount of red monsters on the map and their spread.
There was some time when I was cornered by a mob of red monsters on one side, and a blue monster on the other- it was a pretty hopeless situation, that I guess could've been prevented by me avoiding the blue monster or running away from it without shooting it- but not always it's possible to run away from the blue monster while avoiding the red ones and still feel skilled, or not die.
However- I though that the green monsters + red monsters combination was really clever- the green monsters were stuck every now and then, but in the end, they were a pretty fun challenge. In addition to that, I liked how the eyes of the red monsters become a bit bigger when they notice you, and the fact that blue monster blood makes red monsters slower. The synergy between the monsters is definitely a strong part of this game, and it would be interesting to see similar stuff in other games- since this is more than enemies complimenting each other, but rather enemies affecting each other in interesting ways.
Technically, a similar thing would be an enemy cleric healing his fellow enemies, or an enemy mage buffing other enemies, but besides that I can't think of many examples of enemies affecting other enemies, in ways different than adding more firepower to their side or acting as meat shields. It would definitely be interesting to see something similar in a rogue-like (or rogue-lite, however you may call them), I think.
Also, the flashlight level is really interesting. I'd love to see a blue monster in a dark environment with a few red enemies, I think that would make for something interesting- but that's just an untested hypothesis, hehe
Hey thank you for trying it out!
The red/green monster combination comes from Tom Francis (I made this game following his tutorial), same for the eyes getting bigger. I came up with the blue monster and the different gamemodes for the game. To see the difference between the two games you can take a look at the tutorial version: https://pentadact.itch.io/noxp, or a video of it:
I agree with you about the enemies spawning over your head, that's definitely a problem.
Did you think the blue enemy had too much health? The blue enemy makes the game fun by forcing you to avoid other enemies, but I wasn't sure how much health to give him. The line between fun vs frustrating can be thin. (also they have a small field of view so hiding behind a wall can help, but I could make the field of view smaller)
Did you have the time to test Survive The Red Army? in this one the enemies are already spawned, there are only the orange ones and there's 3 types of them; some faster some slower.
For the flashlight mode: thanks! I was thinking about adding 2 other versions: One where you don't have any weapon, where have to avoid the orange ones and reach the exit.
The second one would be similar but you keep the blue gun, and you have to eliminate all the orange ones by feeding them to the green one, but in the dark.
Thank you for trying the game!
You're welcome, I'm glad I could help!
There's a lot of things that are better n your version than his, though- like the screenshake not having a weird angle change and the ability to actually see your enemies, even when there's a lot of blood on the floor.
Maybe less speed, less health, or a smaller field of view would be better for the blue enemies- but they definitely deserve some "nerf".
I did, and don't remember it particularly? I think it was the one where I was at first overwhelemed, but gained control after a bit.
Oh, that would be interesting. Maybe there could be some stealth levels or something.
I'm not sure about the second one you mentioned, but I think you should definitely try it, polish it and evaluate it once it's done.