Hi there! I just downloaded the game and i'm ashamed to say that i didn't pay for it...because damn, this is one of the best arcade games in recent memory.
I love everything about it. the controls are weird at first but i found that on a gamepad/controller it's heaps better. The gameplay, while simple at first, is surprisingly deep and i've had a great time with the game so far. The upgrades are amazing and incredibly satisfying to use/aquire. While later phases tend to be longer, with the right upgrades, you can literally blast through an infinity of them
I've reached phase 18 with a score of...231.699.470 which is, as of today, the 8th highest score in the world. Safe to say, i'm proud of myself and i'm extremely happy that i've found such an amazing game. i don't have the time or the money to play AAA games anymore. this is just the perfect game for me, a bullet hell with quick movement, rogulike elements that you can play in short bursts.
if i were to add anything, i'd maybe add a couple of songs as this one tends to get a tad repetitive
(and maybe for a future idea: maybe some sort of an enemy gun/turret mounted on the walls that has faster bullets, thus forcing the player to be even more aware and use the dash more frequently, as it isn't always necessary) (and also i reckon the game would fit great on a portable console like the switch, but i'm just dreaming now, i know it's not exactly the easiest thing to do)
Overall, it's an amazing game and you bet i'm going to "buy" it this holiday season. Thank you for making this game and i hope you've got more projects like this one for the future:)

Edit: looking forward to this year's update and hopefully for the many more to come. i'm following you on twitter now and if there are enough people, i reckon you should create a discord server in the future.

Concoan3 years ago

This game is the chaos

Oakleaff3 years ago(+1)

Very entertaining (and educational) to watch others play, thsnks for the video! You can drop the bombs with SPACE, and you can actually dash through the enemy beams, might wanna try those next.

There is a little bug apparently, you're only supposed to get max 3 bombs

casho3333 years ago

This game has so much juice that I need a straw. Well done!!!!

Giodyne3 years ago

I'm in love with this game i reached 6 million and im guessing the game gave in and it crashed. There was also one point where i spawned lots and lots of bombs and that tanked the frames for maybe about 3 phases. Kinda sad my score didnt save but I expected it after playing for an hour straight hahaha

Oakleaff3 years ago(+1)

Ahh dang it, sorry to hear that. Did you get any error message before the game crashed? That could help me hunt down the bug.

Glad you like the game though!

Jaklub3 years ago

got the download version, gave it a go, had fun. the enemies with the lasers between them are a clever mechanic and the game makes nice use of it with some of these dudes trying to wrap you around them and push you off to the border.

i didn't like the control scheme, aiming is kind of imprecise and sluggish. as enemies come up your face, it feels like the controls are yet another obstacle you have to battle instead of being a tool to use against the foes. i think the game would feel much better to play if it was possible to lock on a shooting direction at least. doesn't help that the game didn't pick my xinput controller up aside from vibrations, but i have some weird drivers on that one, so maybe it's something on my side.

upgrading feels good, some of these pare pretty much game changers while others barely useful in comparison. i pretty much never used dash until i got the laser phasing and enemy destroying upgrades, since it didn't seem worth the risk of having to readjust the shooting direction, then it became central to my playstyle, even more so after nabbing the double dash perk. at this point the difficulty curve didn't quite catch up, so i ended up killing myself at phase 25, as i've seen most stuff the game has to offer anyway. either way, the phase formula with the game feeding you upgrades to keep you going is a classic, there's a nice rhythm to the game even if latter phases sometimes drag on.

the graphics are effective, game looks nice, everything pops and is shiny. it's nice to watch, it's polished, the camera tilts are a great touch. great showpiece for that operagx stuff yoyogames is peddling nowadays.

so yeah, you've done a good job with this little arcade spiel, would recommend giving it a try.

Oakleaff3 years ago(+2)

Thanks for the good input! I deliberately avoided going the twin-stick route which would've been an obvious choice. Perhaps I'll add an option to enable "strafing" that locks your firing direction while the <shoot> button is held.

It propably isn't clear, but you can dash through the enemy beams even without any upgrades to get out of tight spots. But it's good that you found one of the central points of the upgrade system, that you can go all-in on your abilities: be it the dash, bombs, gun or something else.

You're propably right about the difficulty, I couldn't figure out quite how to ramp it up effectively (wanted to keep the scope small so didn't go all out on enemy types). I also intended for most players to die before phase 15...

As for the controller input, I've been using DS4windows so it propably skews things a bit, I'll look into it...

Thanks for the review!