Aim

The terms ‘avoid’ and ‘collect’ immediately reminded me of all the shmup (Shoot Em’ Up) games I played in the past. My first thoughts were:

• To make something that is nostalgic visually and mechanically to early Star Soldiers games.
• To add enough of a twist to make the combat approach distinct from that of a usual shmup.

Feedback

After a few days of development and having a few class-mates play the game, the general feedback was as follows:

• Enemies tend to take up a lot of screen-space making it hard to dodge them
• Some visual indication was required to indicate the usage of fuel/energy
• A One Hit Kill is a little too unforgiving for the player if they make contact with the enemy
• Some variety in enemies would help change up the pace of the game

Outcomes

It was fun to see my classmates trying to stay alive for as long as possible. Though they did most of it while the game was rather poorly balanced, it was nice to see that my initial attempts to bring out the feelings of slight frustration were somewhat coming through. Even though the game was very hard, the competitive spirit of the play-testers made watching them play an enjoyable experience.

Special Mentions

Ansimuz – https://ansimuz.itch.io/spaceship-shooter-environment