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Greatness ! Balanced between action and chaos :) Reminds me of Dodonpachi.
However, there is just a little trouble : Why are the upgrades and levels reseted when you finish the game ? The main menu gives a reset option, so I assumed it to be player initiated.
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I felt like the upgrades were not balanced. I could full upgrade a gun within 2 play throughs of the first lvl, others took more play throughs just to get 1, but overall they were all incredibly easy to get. I felt there should have been more levels to each upgrade or more upgrades overall.
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just a suggestion for next time.Please bring back end of level/game bonuses.You really have made life hard for yourself if and when you make another.How do you improve on a game that is for me my number 1 on Kongregate.
ok, I'll bear that in mind: I'll definitely do another one at some point cuz I really like these kinda games and I love the name "Starmageddon", so I'd like to keep going and see how far I can take it...but probably not for a little while 'cuz I need to work on some other stuff first before I can approach the next version with the necessary enthusiasm.
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When I play this game I find Im not even trying cecause I only use one hand.Even though being amongst so much laser fried star fodder I often think of otherd playing and think to myself for those about to shmup I salute you.Most days I just cant stop til I killed em all including ET and his friggin diamonds.Even through the mists of pixel fog war I can see the bugs crying but dont get upset cos the only good alien is a dead one and even though here at the edge of time amongst the carnage of war my dreams are of extreme alien photon terrors on the starfields of nephilim .Do these monsters sleep and do they dream of green sheep.
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This game needs a FULL SCREEN MODE, cuz when i try to dodge shots, i move out to the miniscreen of the game and my ships gone to the deep.
yeah someone else mentioned that idea - I didn't do full-screen 'cuz I thought it might lag too much, but thinking about it now I suppose it wouldn't have hurt to support it....previously kongregate didn't support fullscreen games (I mean it wouldn't have worked even if I added the code to do it) but I think they may have changed that now.
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My god the last few levels were a shieldfest. I'd ram everything and pray for another shield. :P And why does it wipe my game after I've completed it?!?!
um yeah - the game-wiping after completion is stupid - I only did it that way cuz due to some silly decisions I made early on in the code it would have been harder not to do it and I was feeling lazy...I've learnt my lesson and won''t be doing it like that again!
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Totally agree with the problems in seeing bullets. Some graphics options would be nice.....there are far too many extra, explosions that take way too long to clear off the screen, 1000 pieces of money flying at you, there's just so much crap in the way that totally hides bullets....half the time im just staring at my lifebar instead of the screen, and moving when I see my hp start to go down, because I can't even begin to see the bullets.
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Really liked this game but i'd like to see 2 things: Magnet upgrade/tweak - On later levels a lot of enemies come from behind and unless you're at the bottom of the screen, you can't collect their bounty. So a range improvement would be nice (maybe add a couple upgrades?). 2nd thing: Dual bullet firing in the front - This would be nice because on later levels, even if you have everything upgrade, it takes a while to kill the bosses. Maybe you could have a second special on the C key that would double the number of bullets you fire on every direction?
stronger magnets is a really common request, so I'll have to look into that for the next version - it's easily done (I tested it for a long time sith super-strong magnets that sucked everything in really fast) - my only worry is to avoid making it look like the treasure is 'attacking' you when it's coming at you so fast.
I really like the idea of dual bullets - definitely from the front and maybe from all directions.
I also would like to add more specials, but I was thinking of temporary bonus weapons like a super powerful beam weapon which you only get for a short period of time.
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Very good game until the midpoint. Then it becomes a game of luck because it is impossible to see the enemy bullets. You can literally lose a life before you realize that you are getting hit.
hmm...I see your point. I would have liked to make it a more 'skilful' game (rather than being so heavily influenced by 'luck'), I probably need to get some beta testers to help me with that next time 'cuz it becomes very hard to judge these things when you've been play-testing the same game every day for months on end!
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Was fun for a small amount of time and I love upgrades but I just couldn't get into it because there was such a lack of variety in upgrades. 1 bullet -> big bullet -> bigger bullet, for all 8 guns. I'd prefer a choice for things like homing, double bullets, rapid bullets. These are not unique enhancements, but i think they are the start of what this game could've been.
yeah it could really do with some more upgrade and weapon variety. I was bogged down with getting basic stuff to work on this one, so I released it as it was before my enthusiasm wore off entirely! Next time I should be able to focus a bit more on those little extras.
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Lv 4: For THose About To Shmup...We salute you.
I was listening to Acdc while playing this game:D I FREAKING LOVE YOU.
oh yes - you got the reference: it's a fantastic track (the first AC/DC tune I ever heard), so I'm glad someone noticed where I was coming from with that one.
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Really great game, Only improvement would be the aforementioned visibility issues. Bullets are too hard to distinguish from money, and I find myself losing lives to easily dodgable bullets. 5/5 if you fix this issue.
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i like this game there should be more people who can create more great games like this. i just had one thought that in the future if you could make a full screen option so that i dont move the mouse off the tiny screen trying two get something or move over trying not to die other than that no problems i rate this game a 5/5 keep up the good work :)
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Really well done! Funny to play. But I'd love more upgrades: ata point, you win a pile of money and stars, but it's worthless...
small hitbox is a very common request so I'll definitely be doing that in future!....then I should be able to add more "bullet mayhem" without making it impossible.
I like to keep things a bit "tongue in cheek" with a retro shooter like this.....it helps to patch over the improbable premise of a lone spaceship taking on an entire alien armada!
yeah I'll definitely do that next time...I did think about it and the only reason I left it out was 'cuz I wanted the ship to look 'different' when it has more armor and I didn't have the time to design more sprites...seems like a silly reason in retrospect.
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Fantastic game. Only two criticisms I have are to give a slight increase in magnet radius (it's a bit small even when maxed) and to tighten up boss functions (ex. they're invincible on entrance and they have a faster fire rate). 5/5 so far. ;)
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Just a general bullet hell game comment. The bosses need to be invincible when entering the screen. I shouldn't be able to reduce half of the bosses life before it even sets up and begins the pattern.
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Great game, but all of the explosions and residual "smoke" effects make it near impossible to see what you're doing or if/where someone is shooting at you. The game has a good look to it, aside from the overdone effects my only problem was with how the bullets pulsated, for me it made it rather difficult to tell where the hitboxes were. Great game, keep it up. 4/5. PS: would like to see more upgrades :D
I know what you mean about the pulsating bullets so I'll definitely work on that...I'm not sure if I wanna drop it completely though 'cuz it does look kinda mesmerising when they fire a stream of bullets which seem to 'ripple' due to the phased pulse animation!
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I have a pretty high end computer, can play most games on the highest settings and never see a spot of lag. This? This lags me up. It would be nice if we could turn off the blurring effect or something to reduce lag.
yeah, lag was a real worry - I probably should have included some options to turn off gfx features - at the time I was thinking that the blur-fx where an 'essential' element to create the 'atmosphere' of the game, but in the end if it makes the game unplayable it would have been best to be able to just switch it off.
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4/5 for a great retro shooter, but an extra +1 to 5/5 for the retro level names. Damn, I remember all those songs and bands :D Very nicely done!
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I love how classic it feels. It is always good to play a great game like this were you can sit back and relax. I felt like a little kid in an arcade. *sighs* ahhh the good old days
you've got my number - I'm old school arcade as well: I can still remember the dude in the booth refusing to change up all my money into coins to spend on pac-man! He meant well....
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love the game, just a small complaint though, i had everything maxed out about 50% of the way through and i couldnt tell what was happening on the screen by then, maybee add an upgrade for damage for the lazers? and possible an option to make MY bullets invisible or at least clear
for sure I'm gonna have to implement some defensive upgrades next time around: I'll definitely do armor, possibly HP... I also really wanna add some sort of satellites spinning around your ship - possibly defensive, possibly offensive or maybe both....
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Nice start. It needs a few changes like a larger screen (or smaller ships) to make the game less clustered : you're stuck with all ships and just have to stay in the center, dodging a few shots.. With a larger area, you have more options to move, search for one enemy squad, drops, using movespeed efficiently ; would be the first step, the primary point to change as it'd allow to include more content to the game after that. Then adding some new weapons else than those basics, some you can't use together and have to switch or something. Some more achievments are always pleasant, espescially if they give some rewards. Now the hard part : you need that little idea that make the game different from all other shooters ! That thing in gameplay or weapons, sometimes really simple but never seen before.. Not a must, but it defines the greater games players will never forget and refer to when it gets popular :) Anyway I enjoyed playing this and hope you'll make another even better ;)
you make a lot of good points. I really would have liked to make the play area bigger - it's only as small as it is 'cuz I wanted to reduce the amount of lag - I might try other optimisations in future so I can retain the larger screen.. I'll also definitely make the ship smaller which should at least make the screen 'feel' bigger.
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5/5 - although, a single complaint: too much stuff is happening on-screen. Eye-candy, yes, but confusing. Maybe removing money as pickups (just award them directly) would solve this issue.
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theese games are supposed to be hard but i mean the unpatterned spam of bullets are massive and your ship isnt exactly small so it hits atleast 3-5 when it hits something and then short after eating tons again. Its almost impossible to get thru the maps as they go on.
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4/5 - good top shooter. Power ups are attainable a little too easily. Would also like to understand how multipliers are lost.
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Fun shooter. The pacing of the upgrades and completetion of the game is off.
Trying adding a couple of extra really expensive upgrades so we will have something to buy in the last couple of levels. Make them several and only have you upgraded everything else.