Inviyya - OCS Shoot Em Up

[Tigerskunk]

I really think you guys underestimate the difficulty of the game. Bill was just playing it quite well, imho.
People at the Amiga34 had a lot more difficulties getting through it.

(and, like I said in the stream, the first two levels are supposed to be quite manageable)

[Predseda]

I do not think so, Steril. Expecially those boss fights look almost childish. Bill is quite a good SHMUP player, but he completed the game on 2nd or 3rd attempt. So I think it needs to be tweaked probably. But I will tell you after I played your demo on myself.

Anyway - good work and I am looking forward. I hope polyplay will create a nice package for it as I am willing to buy it boxed.

[Tigerskunk]

We'll see...

[roondar]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Thanks for the nice words, everybody..
you can watch a recording of the stream here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/545869220

Thanks for the link, was unable to attend yesterday but will definitely watch it today

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I do not think so, Steril. Expecially those boss fights look almost childish.

I think the boss fights on Lvl 3 and Lvl4 are too easy at the moment, but like I said, those are not finished yet.

Lvl1 is lvl1. It's supposed to be easy.
The boss fight on lvl2 with all those bullets doesn't seem easy to me. The level itself could use some more and different enemies at certain points.

Originally Posted by Predseda

Bill is quite a good SHMUP player, but he completed the game on 2nd or 3rd attempt.

He didn't "complete the game", he made it to the end of level 4. Which surprised me, I haven't seen someone else do that before.

Most people barely made it through level 4 (which was playable there) and after that level 3 (which came after level 4 on that demo), which was much too easy back then, at A34
Only one person on A34 managed to get through both levels on first attempt.

Which was interestingly enough Wepl, the guy who wrote WhdLoad.

Phx, the guy wrote Trap Runner wrote to me after the stream, that he really wonders how Bill can be so good at this game, since he (phx) played it at A34 and had huge problems reaching the second stage (again, talking about level 4 of the demo yesterday).

Originally Posted by Predseda

So I think it needs to be tweaked probably. But I will tell you after I played your demo on myself.

That won't give you an idea about the difficulty, since the demo will be the first level..

Originally Posted by Predseda

Anyway - good work and I am looking forward. I hope polyplay will create a nice package for it as I am willing to buy it boxed.

Thanks...

I say it again, I think people are underestimating the difficulty of the game right now.

add/edit: for reference: [ Show youtube player ]
This looks super easy as well to me.. he goes through the levels like a hot knife through butter.

[Tigerskunk]

Here we go!
You can download the demo including the first level of Inviyya here:

https://tigerskunk.itch.io/inviyya

And please remember, this demo is "pre beta release"-state of the game..
Means, this is before the real beta test will start in a few weeks when all the bosses were finished by me...

Have fun,
and please give me a lot of feedback here...

Michael

[Predseda]

Completed on first attempt and I think I could make 2nd attempt with my eyes shut

Technically it is better than it looked in the stream yesterday!

[Tigerskunk]

Well then the first level did everything right..

[nikosidis]

A lot of games on the Amiga was to difficult. It is good that people don't loose interest right away cause of that. A good thing to do here is difficulty levels. 2 could be enough. Easy and Hard. In hard mode add more bullets and no auto fire :P

That game look and play fantastic Steril707. Keep on the great work.

[zzbylu]

and small gameplay
[ Show youtube player ]

[MickGyver]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Here we go!
You can download the demo including the first level of Inviyya here:

https://tigerskunk.itch.io/inviyya

And please remember, this demo is "pre beta release"-state of the game..
Means, this is before the real beta test will start in a few weeks when all the bosses were finished by me...

Have fun,
and please give me a lot of feedback here...

Michael

I really wanted to try this out after watching the Twitch stream, so thank you for this playable demo!

The demo mostly plays great, solid movement etc. The number of times you need to shoot certain enemies is spot on (I don't like shumps where you have to shoot stuff 100 times, like Project X). The collision detection for the "flame" projectile of the big robots are maybe too generous, sometimes the projectile was seemingly totally touching the ship without it exploding.

I really like the graphics style in general and the feedback from shooting enemies is good (flashing or exploding). The explosions are ok, but could maybe be improved graphically, maybe even have bigger or multiple explosions for bigger enemies (if hardware allows for it).

I have always been quite bad at shmups, but I was able to breeze through the first level, I think I died once from a stupid mistake. I was able to kill the boss on first try and then I played the entire first level three times in a row without dying (since the level automatically starts over). The boss dies quite quickly now, would be good if it would take more hits to destroy it.

In my personal opinion, classic shmups are usually very hard, so it's nice to see that you want to keep the difficulty down, I guess your target audience is the Amiga community in general and perhaps not only hardcore schmups fans. The first level should be easyish but should still give the player a little challenge to give them a feeling of achievement when completing the level. The first level as it is now is still too easy I think, suitable for an easy difficulty mode.

If you are worried about making the game too hard, you could always have (as already suggested) two difficulty levels. BUT, instead of normal/hard, you could have easy/normal, since normal difficulty is probably what most people want to complete a game at.

The autofire makes the game easier. Quite often in shmups there is no autofire because if you hold the fire button, your weapon charges so you can wait and release o more powerful projectile. I guess you will not include that mechanic. I like that kind of mechanic though, gives the player an option to wait and charge or just shoot normally.

The music is ok but could be improved a little. The style and beat of the music is good but the melodies of the brighter strings gets a bit repetitive. Take this one with a pinch of salt, because the taste in music varies a lot.

All in all, this game is coming on great and you have done a splendid work so far! As a fellow game developer I just wanted to share some of my thoughts without filtering them too much. Looking forward to doing some more testing, if I may, later.

[Tigerskunk]

Thanks for the feedback, MickGyver..

Yes, it seems even for a first level, this is a bit too easy. That's the general consensus.


Also I got a lot of valuable feedback regarding the collision detection. Most valuable feedback here is watching videos of people playing the game, off course.

[nikosidis]

So smart to release this demo level Steril707. With the feedback here I'm sure the game will be better. I agree with MickGyver. You should feel some soft of satisfaction even finishing the first level. When that big cannon starts to fire at you can I suggest that the shot is faster. If that happen you might get suprised and possibly die at first but you learn that the shots always come from middle of screen. Keep on the great work

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by nikosidis

So smart to release this demo level Steril707. With the feedback here I'm sure the game will be better. I agree with MickGyver. You should feel some soft of satisfaction even finishing the first level. When that big cannon starts to fire at you can I suggest that the shot is faster. If that happen you might get suprised at first and possibly die but you learn that the shots always come from middle of screen. Keep on the great work

Yep, I already changed some stuff, corrected some bugs, and made the level more difficult in places.
The first level shouldn't be discouraging, but pose a bit of a challenge. My goal would be that people need like one or two continues on their first tries.
Seems at the moment most people make it through the level on their first or second life..
That's too easy, I concur..

So, that's exactly what this demo is for. I can get a feeling how people respond to this, and what they want.
When you have been coding on a game for a few years, living in your own little bubble, this is super interesting.

[nikosidis]

Originally Posted by Steril707

Yep, I already changed some stuff, corrected some bugs, and made the level more difficult in places.
The first level shouldn't be discouraging, but pose a bit of a challenge. My goal would be that people need like one or two continues on their first tries.
Seems at the moment most people make it through the level on their first or second life..
That's too easy, I concur..

So, that's exactly what this demo is for. I can get a feeling how people respond to this, and what they want.

Great
It would be very nice if you release an update to the demo when ready. I'm quite sure the feedback would be helpfull. We all love the game so much and want it to be perfect.

[Predseda]

I will add my bits: collision sometimes doesnt't properly work even for walls. Also I noticed the game works on A500 setup much better than on A1200 (which was also visible even in Bill's stream) - on AGA machine there are fragments in the picture and the movement is sometimes incredibly choppy. Maybe it is worth try to run the game on A1200 with relokick to 1.3.

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Also I noticed the game works on A500 setup much better than on A1200 (which was also visible even in Bill's stream) - on AGA machine there are fragments in the picture and the movement is sometimes incredibly choppy. Maybe it is worth try to run the game on A1200 with relokick to 1.3.

That's something I cannot replicate on my hardware setups. Have you witnessed that yourself?
What kind of setup do you use on your 1200 and your 500?

On my 1200 the game runs smoother than on my A500, since those instances where frame drops occur because there is too much stuff on the screen don't happen on the 1200.

And that's what I have seen on any 1200 or 500 I have tested so far.

Originally Posted by nikosidis

Great
It would be very nice if you release an update to the demo when ready. I'm quite sure the feedback would be helpfull. We all love the game so much and want it to be perfect.

Thanks for the kind owrds, Niko..
Yep, I will release a newer version of the demo when bugs are fixed and gameplay is adjusted.

[Alpha One]

Really nice game so far... I only noticed when crashing into some wall below the player I lost my other 2 lifes too because the game always restarted with the player position right within this block. :-)

[Tigerskunk]

Originally Posted by Alpha One

Really nice game so far... I only noticed when crashing into some wall below the player I lost my other 2 lifes too because the game always restarted with the player position right within this block. :-)

Thanks for the feedback. That bug is already repaired, will be working in next version of the demo...

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by Predseda

On AGA machine there are fragments in the picture

I also noticed fragments/gfx garbage on the stream.. It is quite noticable if you pay attention..