Weapon Alpha

[Valo]

Side-note: While playing a test room I noticed something about the beam mechanics. Given that the beam requires continuous contact to do any damage, if you try to turn away to maneuver  out of an enemy's or attack's way, you stop focusing on what you were aiming at.Should I attempt to add in a lock focus or moonwalk(from super metroid) type button so you can move back while still facing an enemy?

This? It kinda depends on what exactly you're looking to do with your game. If it has a big focus on combat and dodging while maintaining DPS, then I can definitely understand having such a feature. But you might instead want the player to have to manage their DPS more, then not having the feature could be good, too. There are probably more arguments for and against it that you'll have to tackle on your own, at least until you're able to get some feedback from people who've actually played it.

Oh btw, welcome to TVGR~
Hopefully you'll receive some helpful experiences, and sorry if my previous posts came across as somewhat rough.

From the pictures in the OP, I can definitely say your game seems to be shaping up pretty well and is fairly polished.

I'd rather you be able to have to manage you DPS through the already implemented over-heat meter. You only have a few seconds of that before you're left defenseless until it cools. I guess when phrased in this way, yeah, a toggle-able moonwalk/lock facing button would be better.

Which brings me to another question. In all those gifs, was the over-heat meter visible enough? Would it maybe be better suited in the larger empty bar slot underneath the blue one rather than above it ?

And thank you! Your posts didn't come off roughly, don't worry.

[Kitsu]

I honestly didn't know that it was an overheat meter lol
I think having a few visual cues on the character themself might help convey their overheat status (like plumes of smoke/flames/red glow/etc.)
Dunno about the meter itself; it's easy enough to notice it in watching a looping gif, but I can't really say how effective it is without playing it myself. Though, having it in the corner far away from the player may make it tough to figure out; I know that in GunHazard, I have trouble tracking my ammo count (since it's similarly small), so that might apply equally here. Again, I don't really know at this point.

[Valo]

I'll leave it as is for now until i get feedback from the next demo then.

[Valo]

Double post for minor update and I need a bit of feedback.




I'm going in and fixing as many errors as i can to get this mechanics demo out. I just got the score timer coded and i kinda wanted some feedback on the sprite font. Also how many targets should i place in the test?

[Bombshell93]

I like it, its plenty readable and seems to follow a style well, but I'm no typographer
As for the target count, depends on the level size, lay them out a little heavier handed than you would a regular level, also love the screen you just posted, its a damn side more than any of my mechanics demos XD

[Kitsu]

I would suggest dark outline around the font; it'll help it stand out against lighter backgrounds (while darker background are already fine because the font is already light).

[Valo]

I would prefer to create a small background instead to solve this issue. The font normally, when fully implemented, will appear on a dark blue text box background, thus being unneeding of an outline. Another point is that nothing in this game uses solid outlines if outlines at all, so outlining the font makes it look out of place. I think this little box will solve the problem, right?

[Kitsu]

yeah that definitely works, too

[Gors]

the rain is too harsh on the eyes

I know you want a hard rain effect but it's kinda distracting. maybe a transparent lighter color could help that, or changing the rain tiles to be more uniform.

[Bombshell93]

I think transparency might ruin the aesthetic, perhaps thicker sparser droplets instead, or representing the rain with something akin to waves rather than droplets,
just examples how you implement is up to you, but I feel this gives enough definition that its not jarring,

[Valo]

the rain is too harsh on the eyes

I know you want a hard rain effect but it's kinda distracting. maybe a transparent lighter color could help that, or changing the rain tiles to be more uniform.

You're entirely right and I apologize, that was brought up before on another forum, and i attempted something like you suggested then too. I guess i forgot to save the changes since then. It should look like this now. But what are your thoughts?

[Bombshell93]

it does look quite a bit better, maybe a little too soft, I'd playaround with blending modes see how something like a screen blending would look, but I'm a finnicky beast who'd probably end up defaulting back to transparent rain anyway XD
but yes it is quite nicer as is

[Valo]

Can you use blending modes on background layers? I've never tried something like that before.

[Bombshell93]

by the looks the best you could do would be to draw the background to a surface and use a blend mode on the surface, but I dont think thats worth it, best to stick with regular alpha transparency

[Valo]

still needs tweeked but the core function is running!