Mysterious Space (originally a 7drl)

[benmakesgames]

I happened to become re-interested in my 7drl entry this year - Mysterious Space - but I don't really know... where to go next?? so I was hoping to get some feedback on the thing: what's working; what's not... what's too easy; what's too hard... which rogue-like mechanics are missing; which are being misused... all that kind of stuff!

the 7drl release was a left-to-right-scrolling arcade shooter, but I've been trying to make it more rogue-like-y... it'll (probably!?) always be an actiony shooter, but it's got procedurally-generated planets to explore, and it's got the whole "descend to the bottom; find the amulet; return to the surface" thing going on, but, you know, with sci-fi words, instead

floors are persistent... um... there's a minor sort of leveling system... lots of equipment; several monsters (need more of those, still)... it's got the potion identification game, mostly just for the sake of "needs more rogue-like!" - it's possible it doesn't work at all here...

ANYWAY: download is here:

* http://benmakesgames.itch.io/mysterious-space

it's built on MonoGame, so in theory I could port it to other systems, but for now I'm building for Windows, because DirectX gives automatic Xbox controller support, and I like playing with my Xbox controller. if there are lots of mac or linux people interested, I could look into building for one or both of those, but to be honest, I haven't tried before, so... dunno how that'll go. (one way to find out, I suppose!)

ooh, and here's a screenshot, 'cause screenshots are nice:



thanks!

[Cirrus Minor]

Hi !

I've tried it, I've played 5 or 6 runs yesterday and today.
The game is well done, and is quite stable (but it crashes in the hi-scores screen - Windows 8 / 64 bits).
The universe is quite unique, the monsters have different behavior.
I cannot rebind keys - it was a problem for me, as I don't have a QWERT-keyboard, but I've seen I can play with the arrows too, so it's not an issue anymore.

The game is quite fun and interesting ! There is already a lot of content, and I will follow it.
Some "planet type only" monsters would be great ! And other ship types too !
And maybe an alternative weapon - not infinite - like missiles and bombs...

Keep up the good work !

[benmakesgames]

thanks so much for the feedback! I seriously appreciate it!

I wasn't aware of the high score screen crash! I do have a 64-bit windows 8 machine I can test it on; I'll look into it.

key rebinding is something I know I'll have to get to eventually. I forgot about possible issues with different keyboard layouts... perhaps this should be a higher-priority task than I thought.

I'd love to have different monsters - and equipment - based on the planet you visit... at the moment, though, I'm struggling to come up with enough monsters to fill out the game at all.

if you have any enemy/monster ideas, I'd love to hear them!

ooh: and I am working on alternative weapons, of a sort... I've been working on a new "Accessory" equipment, that often gives activated abilities (using CTRL or gamepad X). some are offensive, some are defensive, some are utility things (super speed burst!) weapons requiring ammo... somehow I never even thought about >_> which seems ridiculous. I'll have to think about this...

and thanks again for playing! and for pointing out keyboard layouts! I'll look into key-binding options soon. (and that win 8 crash!) and again, if you have monster/enemy ideas, definitely let me know - I could use the help!

[Cirrus Minor]

You're welcome, I'm working on a roguelike-like shooter too (although my game is in a dungeon and not in space) and I'm looking at what and how other dev are doing.

Hey, you know what you should do ? Ground "monsters".
Some who can just move left and right or jump, other who follow the "solid"-tiles in clock or counter-clock direction, and why not building with ability to fire, like towers or bunkers ?

Destructible tiles - like ice on frozen planets or mud in forest planets - could be fun too !

Oh ! I like the graphics effect when going from/to space

[Samildanach]

I was pleasantly surprised by the post-7DRL version (and did a video on it). I like the freeform roaming on each planet; it retains the sense of exploration and trying to retrieve specific items before escaping, but also blends this with the feel of something like Defender or Dropzone.

I'll have a think and see if I can come up with some suggestions.

[benmakesgames]

! you did a video! *watches immediately*

[edit] omg, that was amazing to see. a part of me wanted to be upset about the barrage of problems you listed at the beginning, but thinking more logically, they were all entirely fair things to point out. (and I did know, when starting the project, that it's "rougelikeness" would be... debatable ) but I'm super-delighted that you enjoy it overall! and the video! it does mean a lot to me!

I was disappointed - in myself - that you didn't seem to notice lava also prevents your shields from regenerating! it's an important effect, and it's my fault that it's not being messaged clearly. the flashing "lava" text next to the shields could just be for the slowing effect! I probably need the tutorial computer AI lady to pop up the first time you visit a lava planet... or maybe make the outline of the shield bar itself blink red? I dunno. SOMETHING.

oh, and you asked about a boss fight! there is none. there's a cut scene, though! haha. I am thinking about adding bosses, though. I don't know if you've picked up any of the Log items yet, that have little journal-like entries from various points of view... there is a sort of "lore" behind the game, and I'm thinking I'd like to add boss fights between some levels against some of the people mentioned in these logs. before the fight breaks-out, I'd like there to be some brief dialog that kind of reveals more about the game's setting. I worry that my skills as an artist are not up to the task of designing bosses but we'll see - haha

Cirrus Minor: no link!? (P.S. 'love your astronomy name) I'd be interested to see your game! (I'll steal cool ideas from your game if you'll steal cool ideas from mine haha)

also, I HAVE added an enemy that moves along the ground in clockwise or counterclockwise directions! I thought of Mario 2's fireball things, when trying to recall enemies from old games... well, I'm sure that type of enemy has been done in many games!

I do have a confession to make: pathfinding is not something I've done much, or very confident doing. it's actually one of the reasons most enemies just go through walls >_> still, an enemy that walks back and forth, as you mentioned, should be easy enough. especially if it hopped around to follow you (as the monsters do in Terraria).

I do worry... uh... so going back to Samildanach - your video - you mentioned that in the 7DRL release, it was better to just NOT fire. I worry that this is true for some enemies in the current release, as well. like those gnat swarms are just stupid (I'm thinking of moving them to appear around some fuel and upgrade pickups, to give them more purpose). but also, the follows-the-wall enemy I added... because of their very-fixed movement, unless you need to explore the tunnels they happen to be on, I feel like a better strategy is to just ignore them, rather than risk taking the damage. so: an enemy that walks back and forth, I worry will have similar problems. but I'm definitely willing to just try adding it, and see how it works.

thanks again for all the great feedback, guys! the video, too: it both feels REALLY GOOD, and is very informative, to see someone else playing the game!

[Cirrus Minor]

Well, for the ground monsters, you can make some them fire at the  player, but they will definitely make the world more "alive", I think.
For jumping monsters, you could do monsters which can only jump too (they will jump left or right, depending on the player position), they are quite funny !
Boss fights would be great ! What a shooter without boss ?

Oh ! Ships and submarines in water worlds would be nice !

Cirrus Minor: no link!? (P.S. 'love your astronomy name) I'd be interested to see your game! (I'll steal cool ideas from your game if you'll steal cool ideas from mine haha)

Oh, link to my game are in my signature (and I've stolen most of the idea of Binding of Isaac and the classic rogue games  )

[Samildanach]

a part of me wanted to be upset about the barrage of problems you listed at the beginning, but thinking more logically, they were all entirely fair things to point out.

It's understandable to find criticism upsetting. I do too. But I think it's important to be honest.

I do enjoy the game overall, and it's come a long way since the original 7DRL!

[benmakesgames]

just wanted to post to say that I AM working on more stuff. as christmas approaches, my schedule becomes a little more crazy. but ALSO: I discovered that the latest "stable" release of MonoGame has a terrible bug where pressing any of the arrow keys may ALSO trigger pressing shift, even if you're not pressing it! this has apparently been fixed in the latest development builds, but I'm scared about what other bugs may exist... but I'm definitely going to have to look into that. the shift bug is kind of crippling >_>

my boss at work is also looking into doing some boss AI. he wants to experiment with for-realsies, learning/adaptive AI, and we talked about it last night... I don't think it'd be appropriate for the normal enemies - part of the game is learning what each one does, and dealing with them accordingly - but a recurring boss who learns how you play, and on subsequent encounters adapts accordingly would be super cool.

NO idea when that'll get in, though...

meanwhile, full changelog for 0.4.6, to be released as soon as I sort out monogame issues:

UI
--

* When gamepad buttons are referred to in text, they are now done so using a
  colored button image, instead of a plain-text letter.
* When you pick up an item, a message on the top of the screen tells you what
  you picked up.
* Changed the "static" visual effect (given by certain Alien Artifacts). I'm
  still not pleased with it, but it is a touch better, I think.
* You can now delete saved games by pressing DEL or gamepad Y from the Continue
  menu.
* "Save & Quit" now returns you to the title menu, instead of quitting
  entirely.

Enemies
-------

* Swarming Sirrah have been completely reworked. They no longer give points, or
  have a chance to drop loot, and they are now ONLY found swarming around
  pick-ups (fuel crystals, crates, and upgrade parts). To be clear: they aren't
  found around ALL pick-ups. Just some. An interesting side-effect: since
  swarms give off so many bubbles when in a liquid, finding fuel and other
  items in lava and ocean worlds is kind of fun(ny)

Equipment
---------

* Added a new equipment type: Accessory! (Would like a better name for these.)
  You can only have one Accessory equipped at a time.
* New "Alien Integrater" Accessory grants a temporary shield whenever you use
  an Alien artifact.
* New "EMP Channeler" Accessory fires a ring of bullets when under the effects
  of EMP. Higher level EMP Channelers may have shorter cooldowns between
  firing, fire more bullets, fire stronger bullets, or have bullets which
  bounce off walls or pass through walls.
* New "Weapon Booster" Accessory passively increases the fire rate of all
  weapons by a percent, but also decreases the recharge rate of shields by a
  (smaller) percent.
* New "Phase Shield" Accessory grants invulnerability when you press X or CTRL.
  Higher-level Phase Shields may grant invulnerability for longer, or allow you
  to activate more frequently.
* New "Engine Booster" grants increased speed as long as you hold X or CTRL,
  but disables weapons while boosting, and for 2 seconds afterwards.
* New "Last Resort" can be activated to destroy every enemy and enemy bullet on
  screen, at a cost of Hull damage. (P.S. Invulnerability DOES protect from
  this!)
* Added five new bullet graphics for weapons.
* Rainbow weapon bullets now cycle through the spectrum, instead of just firing
  bullets of random colors (except for RNG guns, which remain totally random).
* RNG guns now fire random bullet graphics with each shot.
* Regenerating Armor's armor rating has been slightly improved.
* All armors have a chance to provide some extra, passive bonus. Currently
  there are only two possibilities: increased weapon speed, or increasead
  shield regen.
* New weapon: Vertical blaster. Fires two bullets with each shot: one up, one
  down.
* Improved the math behind split blaster generation, so that the angle of the
  bullets can now be precisely controlled. The angle between the bullets has
  been tightened, but I've also allowed for a range of angles, so two
  identical-looking split blasters might actually be different in the angle of
  separation between their bullets. (I guess this is technically a hidden
  stat...)

Planets
-------

* Two new rock graphics! YES!
* New type of forest world: white/golden forest
* New type of world: mining. Features totally different planet-generation
  algorithm. I consider it a work-in-progress, but wanted to get it out there.
  Can only be found in Sector 2 or higher.
* Lava planets can no longer be found in Sector 0.

[benmakesgames]

alright! I compiled using the latest version of MonoGame... like, the LATEST-latest, from Dec 18 (today!)

* http://benmakesgames.itch.io/mysterious-space

I tested a few times, and was not able to reproduce the shift key bug, so I'm HOPING it's fixed. this is not a stable release of MonoGame, so it's possible there are some other bugs lurking around as well...

Cirrus Minor: I've started drawing up some boats and fishes that I'd like to add in the next release... I've also been thinking about your idea to add other ship options for the player. I think it'd be a cool way to add progression, if you unlocked these through play. some ship ideas I've had:

* slower-moving ship; when it gains temp shields, they are twice(?) as powerful
* ship that can only have two weapons, but the second fires at the same speed(?) as the first
* ship that cannot equip shields, but all incoming damage is reduced (1/4? would need serious testing)
* ship that cannot use alien artifacts; starts with +1 upgrade point
* ship with a built-in split-shot weapon that cannot be disabled, slowed, or hastened. starts with slightly-smaller hull. has upgrades for the built-in weapon. (add EMP; add split shot; add speed; etc)

lots of "?"s for specific numbers, because I'm sure those would need to be tweaked after testing.

I just kind of came up with these ideas on the fly, but I should really probably sit down and try to build ships that address different play styles that different players might enjoy... for example, would some players enjoy the feel of a big, beefy ship that just rams into shit, instead of shooting it? how would I accomplish that? do some players want to feel super-skillful, dodging every bullet, and landing every attack they fire? how could I make a ship that lets them do that? the "can't use alien artifacts" ship was me wondering about players who hate the potion identification game of roguelikes but "you just can't use them at all" is kind of a blunt solution maybe "you start with all alien artifact effects revealed, but... " ... I couldn't think of a good "but".

anyway, definitely let me know if you have ideas of your own, or styles of play that you would like to try out, that perhaps an alternate ship could facilitate!

[benmakesgames]

Mysterious Space 0.5.0 == released!!

download is available here: http://benmakesgames.itch.io/mysterious-space

Change log is SIZABLE >_> highlights:

* totally new sector map... with various routes to choose from... (how mysterious!? )
* a couple new equipment; a couple new alien artifacts
* various enemy tweaks (trying to improve difficulty curve)
* a few bug fixes
* more tutorial pop-ups, explaining things like lava mechanics, and why taking different routes on the sector map might be important
* unlockable ships! three of them! here's the WEIRDEST/most-complicated/probably-hardest-to-win-with one: