Postby AndyThomas » Sat May 24, 2003 3:40 pm
Just had a quick crack at it, and I think it reflects what you've done with the web site very nicely. I'm running Windows XP with a 1900 Athlon and it's fine speed wise. It also picked up my joystick (which is very dusty!) and I had no problems changing weapons etc. Great retro feel to the whole thing - for someone who was barely around in the 80s you've captured the feel of some of the earliest games I ever played remarkably well!In terms of gameplay, for someone who isn't into shoot 'em ups, I found that the power-ups were a little thin on the ground? It's good that you can't crash into other ships, but as X-Bomber is a relatively large sprite (are they still called that?!) and not that fast I found I took quite a lot of damage. But then, as I say, I'm not great at shoot 'em ups anyway.I did notice that the power ups sometimes drifted off screen quite rapidly - I'm guessing they're using the same path routine as the ships are? Would it be possible to have them only drop in the vertical at all?What else... Oh, yes, the turrets - is there anything determining their direction of fire at all? I think I know why you've (apparently) made it random, because they'd be quite an uber-weapon if they targeted every enemy ship without mercy! I like the way X-Bomber's engines come on when you move up the screen BTW...Oh, yes, sound - on my system, there was a pause when the tracks changed over, about a second or so. Not massive, but it was enough to make you go "eh?". Otherwise very stable.So all in all, great game for what's nominally an alpha version - probably much better than the first release of many commercial games from the point of view of it all hanging together! I'm surprised your teachers are against it - it's a great piece of creative work, both graphically and with the use of language, but then I suppose they feel they've got a curriculum to teach. Are you looking to get into gaming as a career?Anyway, I'm off to try and sort out what I'm guessing is partially Matrix-sentinel inspired end of level boss which seemed a bit evil last time I got that far
Andy Thomas - SFXB Webmaster and Forum Moderator