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Splat Invaders Deluxe

Archive: 12 posts

A great little arcade-style game. I'm already getting fantastic feedback online with this one. Fight through 3 stages of alien attacks, plus a really cool mothership.

I know I'm not a celebrity author, but I think everyone will have a blast giving me feedback on this level.

Unsolicited quotes from current comments on the game:

"Genius"
"Thats one amazing level"
"Wow"
"Heart 4 Heart?"		2009-01-06 06:21:00

Author:
CCubbage
Posts: 4430

Great stuff, Cant beat a classic - and one of the best versions of it ive seen, very clean

.....

hmm trying to think of criticism...

- because the aliens dont shoot directly down they can sometimes hit you when your UNDER the barrier. I suppose this isnt a big thing though.

-Perhaps change the music to something a bit more "dramatic" for the mother ship?

really it is a good level though 8/10, <3 for you

-------------------

If you've got time could you check out my latest work - HEIST: The Midnight Star?

https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=p=113748#post113748

no rush though		2009-01-06 13:37:00

Author:
Mrgenji
Posts: 803

Great stuff, Cant beat a classic - and one of the best versions of it ive seen, very clean

.....

hmm trying to think of criticism...

- because the aliens dont shoot directly down they can sometimes hit you when your UNDER the barrier. I suppose this isnt a big thing though.

-Perhaps change the music to something a bit more "dramatic" for the mother ship?

really it is a good level though 8/10, <3 for you

-------------------

If you've got time could you check out my latest work - HEIST: The Midnight Star?

https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=p=113748#post113748

no rush though
Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it. I will look at changing the music tonight (I also may add some ambient spaceship sound as the mother ship lands).

Of note, I kind of liked that the barriers aren't 100% safety from the alien fire. Means you have to keep watch and maneuver around a little.

I will look at your game and do a proper review tonight.		2009-01-06 16:34:00

Author:
CCubbage
Posts: 4430

Hey, thought I'd finally give you some feedback!

A great idea carried out almost perfectly.

Pro's

+ Great Enemy Design/Movement
+ Nice progression
+ Clever use of the LBP engine

Cons

+Repetitive

We've talked a little about this and I think your splat invaders "engine" could do some really crazy stuff if you keep evolving the idea. This level felt really different than most LBP levels and it looked great too! The way you advance from room to room was done really well, I really liked how it got increasingly hard and the addition of the boss was pretty epic. I just wish the boss didn't take so many hits to kill.. because the boss wasn't hard, he was just time-consuming. Also, with everything being stationary and no camera changes it can become a little repetitive.

Anyway, here are some pics of your level, as thanks for reviewing mine

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1951/74/76/43100610/n43100610_30900806_3847.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1951/74/76/43100610/n43100610_30900805_3636.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1951/74/76/43100610/n43100610_30900804_3397.jpg		2009-01-08 01:20:00

Author:
Snowspot
Posts: 265

Cool. Thanks for the review.

I'm actually heavily adding to this level right now. I've got some great ideas from you, Risen, and Aer0blue. I'm going to be surrounding it with a story and additional arcade-style areas which really mix things up.

I'm torn by the number of hits to kill the boss. A quick trigger finger can kill him pretty fast. I increased it because it only took me about 15 seconds to kill him (I have a really fast thumb).

I'm actually stoked about this level. It was originally only an experiment which I wasn't going to publish (which explains the length), but it's had such a great initial reception and feedback that I am going to put the time into making it really rock!		2009-01-08 02:25:00

Author:
CCubbage
Posts: 4430

You were right, I had a blast.

The only con. I can move:
-The enemies retreats sometimes too high, slowing the action, but I think it is a minor thing to worry about.

The boss really surprised me (never read F4F posts before playing a level), never expected it to come; I was thinking (after the 3rd wave), why this level stucked, why it's not 'moving'... then suddenly... WOW!... Heeeeeelp...

I'm a fast finger too and i managed to kill the ship in about 5 or 6 raids, thought it won't never die...

Rated ***** and hearted lvl and author.		2009-01-08 15:31:00

Author:
Miglioshin
Posts: 336

I'm glad you didn't read the F4F area first. I think the game is much better if you don't know the mothership is coming (obviously I spent some time making sure the player is wondering "what's going on? Is the game broken?". Drama....)

Maybe it's just that I'm aware of how to kill the mothership (3 sections to shoot - each has a mini explosion), but I can kill it in 2 drops - which is about 20 seconds... but I need to keep in mind the normal players that have never played it before.... I'll go ahead and take the feedback and make it a little easier.

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I spent some time making sure the mothership would collapse into separate little sections upon defeat, thus randomly flying a few parts with rockets around the screen. Hopefully a "that was cool" moment.

I'm gonna run through and play your levels tonight. Subject matter sounds right up my alley.		2009-01-08 16:08:00

Author:
CCubbage
Posts: 4430

I must say as a whole I enjoyed this level. It was a good recreation of some of the good old school top down shooter mechanics.

Let me make some suggestions...

As others have said, especially in stage 1 and 2, the monsters fly a bit too high half the time and are off screen. The paintinator can only shoot upwards so far, and it felt like they were out of range half the time. It might be good either to move them down a bit or move the camera up at least so they are on screen more and easier to track.

You might want to revamp how the score bubble thing works. They often land on the shields, meaning you need to jump up on top to get them. It would be nice if they were more visible and less fiddly to get.

Sometimes it felt the sound mechanics played a few too many times, especially the boss breaking up while I was trying to jump over the debris. You may want to consider changing it from what I suspect is "on impact" to more an "on destruction" sort of thing or having them work more with switches.

The final boss' bombs that it threw down felt a bit cheap. I could not really tell any pattern for when or how they appeared, I just new to basically steer clear of it. It would be nice if they were somehow more visible and avoidable so it felt less like a "cheap death" sort of thing.

As a whole though, once again, I really enjoyed this level. It looked great and had a great feeling to it as a whole. It sounded like you were going to continue expanding on the whole idea, which sounds great to me as you have done so well so far.

I'd even go so far as to say you have inspired me for a few ideas for some games of a similar type of my own. It might be a long way before I get those done though, by which time I am sure you will have some truly great execution happening. 		2009-01-08 20:07:00

Author:
Elbee23
Posts: 1280

Cool. Great suggestions. I'll look into having maybe the guns turn red right before firing on the boss or at least a "sound" that ramps up telling you they are going to fire. Also, I'll look into lowering the aliens a bit (I lowered them to where they felt comfortable to me, but obviously based on multiple feedback it's not quite right.

By the way, there IS actually a way to avoid the mother ship fire. If, when it is coming toward you, you shoot your paintinator close to the cannons you can actually blow up the missiles as they fire. But this definately takes practice.

I'll do a few changes and repost it.

Of note, the additional sounds you hear are something I didn't catch originally (and other designers may want to take note): The sound objects are set to trigger "by switch", but they seem to ALSO trigger when you get near them. So, the sound objects are placed a little above the floor. When you jump in the air you can trigger them, even though they are not supposed to be triggering based on player proximity. Doesn't sound quite right to me, but there you go... I'll need to move them.



Edit: OK, I made a bunch of little changes and it makes a pretty big difference. Aliens no longer fly so high, and the mother ship takes less damage. Also, on the mother ship I changed the entire switching system for the firing of it's cannons. Now they light up and have a "mechanical" sound right before firing, so you can run out of the way or prepare. It's kind of neat.

Thanks for the input! Definately let me know if theres any level I can give feedback on!		2009-01-08 20:41:00

Author:
CCubbage
Posts: 4430

Hi CCubbage,

I just played your level this morning!
It is a very interesting level, on the form of a mini-game.
Here are my thoughts:

PROS :
-The concept is original. I know well the japanese LIBIDIUS level but didn't see yet a LBP remake of this so old arcade game: Space Invader. It remembered me moment of ly lttle childhood.
-The MGS matters fit perfectly with your theme.
-The movements of yours ennemies is great. It perfectly fit SI. I loved a lot also the way you choose to make the protection during the SI stages.

SUGGESTS:
- There is a lot of dark matter visible in your level. I think you could polish the overall level in term of visual details.
-The Level design is a little bit poor. There is one way, only one way. Two or three jump, three rooms and the scoreboard.
-The Gameplay is limited to shooting. However, as i stated, this level is more a mini-game than a classic level. Then, the level could appear quite short, but i think it is the good lenght to use unless what it could be be repetitive.
-There is not any storyline. I know it is not really the purpose here but some bubble speech with a slight storyline could add a lot to the level.

Overall, it is a very good minigame with a fantastic retro style and i rated it 4 stars 		2009-01-09 11:03:00

Author:
Takelow
Posts: 1355

Great! Thanks for the review. Interestingly, every single complaint you mention is being fixed right now for the next iteration of the game.

I can definately use a little help on the visual front on the next one. I'll see if I can get you a key to get in and take a look before I officially open it (if you would like to).		2009-01-09 11:38:00

Author:
CCubbage
Posts: 4430

Great! Thanks for the review. Interestingly, every single complaint you mention is being fixed right now for the next iteration of the game.
I can definately use a little help on the visual front on the next one. I'll see if I can get you a key to get in and take a look before I officially open it (if you would like to).

Great!
I'm happy that you improved your level and that my suggestions was not out of purpose!
Tell us when the new version will be published, i will play it with a lot of joy

And i will be happy to playtest the level with you before publishing 		2009-01-09 11:45:00

Author:
Takelow
Posts: 1355


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