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The good thing is the game play is simple, although I would like to see mouse controls (however, as my mouse is stupid right now, it's a benefit to not have them).
The lags you mentioned don't show up on my system, but I've got a kick-ass system, so maybe that's why.
The downside is that I find the game too simple, and I get bored of it easliy (but I have ADD, so maybe that's just that). Also, with all the enemy fire, it's virtually impossible to get anywhere, as you can't go anywhere without being hit.
All in all, I gave it 4/5.
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On a side note, you may want to look up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touhou_Project if you want references on bullet hell games. I just find it interesting that you incoporated one of it's unique features (that the actual hit box is much smaller than displayred shooter)
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Which is why I provided alternatives, though truthfully I don't know much my alternatives would help. But bitmap rendering is somewhat more complex than just relying on the innate flash renderer; Think of it as future improvements, than something for the contest. Good luck anyway.
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Fun game. I just beat normal mode having not used the reverse polarity once (only took 3 hits, all during the third boss). Add that as an award, maybe?
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b) Your projectiles sometimes doesn't properly move out of screen. Solution: have projectiles which fade off, like your powerups. Alternatively, have them fade off only after being reflected, which may be more logical game-wise.
Frankly, if you have the time, I would suggest looking upon bitmap drawing and buffering. There's almost no way of making bullet hell games fast while relying on the automated drawing logic used by Flash, simply because you'll have far too any projectiles onscreen at one time.
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Ok, I'm going to make some guesses here on why your game suffers slowdown.
a) Your bullets are using individual classes. I know the shootorials used that, but when making a bullet hell game, this is a bad idea, since each class takes up non-negligible resources. Advice: have a class hold all projectiles, and test/render them from there. Though this may require some significant rewrite of code. Alternative: do NOT destroy/remake projectiles. instead, hide and reuse them. Eliminating the constant creation and destruction of projectiles may help to relieve the processor, but it isn't nearly as effective as the first solution.
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Holy crap this is the most creative shoot game ever! I love how this takes place in an original setting and the awards and everything! this is amazing! 5/5! hope you win!
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It was ok because it is exactly like shoot.. also i think the shooting is very awkward .. And the enemys are kinda blah..
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this is pretty easy.. when it says decay you just have to saty alive for that long.. that means dodging and replusing the photons. i can do it fater drinking and it is really easy sober.. never give up and never surrender people!!!
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mmh.. just a question: why does the second boss disappear after decaying? 2 attackable minibosses would have been more in the concept^^
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They're exactly the same....infinity just lets you keep going after the third boss (and further bosses are a random pick between the three).
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Oh, I tried the "infinity" version instead of the "mission" version and I was able to make it to the second boss. But the "mission" version...seriously, the entire screen is filled with photons after just a few seconds.
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Ummmmmmmmmm.... Level one and within 10 seconds the entire screen is filled with enemy photons? Is that a bug or do you mean for it to be impossible?
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Having studied quarks (and leptons), I found this game very original, and pretty fun. Concept is good, but the lag got pretty bad even with the low quality (like 4 frames a second at lowest). Got past the first two bosses. The black hole one is weird. 4/5!
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mh, three more things:
a) if you die and start a new game, you hear the music twice - which is kinda annoying
b) I just discovered the "make my hitboxes smaller" option.. it really makes the game more playable. Why isn't it standard?
c) my pc started to cry at the second boss, due to the mass bullets - and no, I don't believe that it's unimprovable. Maybe it's a matter of the qualitysetting (make it automatic?) or you gotta rethink the bulletspam and if there is a less resourcewasting way to calculate all the colldetections.
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mmh, the atomic concept/idea is nice, so +1. But well, as a shooter it's not really entertaining. It feels kinda hard to stay alive and never got past the second boss. So I think health is quite a problem. Also the screen somehow is always spammed full with photons, that's kinda annoying. And somehow it's a bit monotonous as well. I don't get the quarks system either, somehow the bars are often filled but nothing happens.
So 2/5 + 1 for concept
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fun and hard its fun though and in its own way original too, personally i liked it and i think its a 3/5 or 3,5/5
i found a bug though , each time you loose and you restart the game the old music keeps playing in the game but there is a new one too , so you loose three times you are lisening to the same song three times at the same time
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I've been watching the comments all afternoon, lol.
Anyway, the shield isn't as last resort as you think. Maybe I'm just used to playing my own game.
You also don't need EVERY quark, but yes, picking up as many as you can certainly helps (I think people are treating them as less important than "oh, quark! Let me grab that!" and only grabbing about half of them). If I made them add any more health than they do, those people who are good at this type of game would be at 150% health constantly.
As for the hitbox...it's already about as small as I'm willing to make it, the instructions screen shows it larger than it really is (I tried to make it more correct--at the size shown the area of hit detection was about 50% farther out from the central neutron due to the way the hitTest function works).
Either way it is small enough to be playable. I keep going on about having terrible reflexes and I've (mostly) beaten my own game.
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And I agree with the other comments... getting to full energy is really hard, and I haven't really figured out how to control it since you're pretty much forced to pick up all energy that goes by.
Plus, just my opinion...for a bullet hell type shmup your hitbox in this game is pretty huge. The shield helps with that, but it's just a last resort. It'd be cool if the reflected bullets actually did some damage to the enemies...otherwise if you're in a situation where you have to use the shield you've probably already lost.
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The upgrade system is done by collecting colored quarks. Just pick them up. As you collect them your energy/health rises and the ratios of red:green:blue change according to what you picked up. When you reach max energy (150% starting) you get a superweapon based on which color was the most collected.
Thus, if you'd collected 50 red, 75 green, and 20 blue you'd get Neutrino Stream.
All superweapons drain energy at a rapid rate, so even with a continuous stream of new quarks you will eventually downgrade back to normal (100% health).
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Enjoyable, but quite a few glitches, control will sometimes fizz out, i like how the electrons are NOT part of you, directly, so you can sneak through clustors of enemy fire.
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Caos35: I just tried it and things worked as they should. I've never heard anyone else report that bug either, so I have no idea what's going on. I think it's just you.
Tasselfoot: I just did the 3rd boss, the spaces between shots are wide enough to not get hit. I only took 2 hits and the first was because I hit the top of the screen, the second was just after (Kong isn't listing the fact that I did it, but it may be lag).
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Interesting, the electrons not moving only seems to happen on the first play-through after selecting the option, but they orbit just fine after that round.
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Great game, and I'm proud to have been a beta tester for it. Still having the issue with the "I am the hitbox" mode electrons not circling, and might I add that this is a LOT more difficult than the stretched version I was playing before it hit Kong. Very nice game.