! Shuriken Toss v1.2 !
Changelog:
- Edited the Title screen slightly
- Added a menu system to the Title screen
- Added a 'Giant Shuriken' power-up
- Kunais now add to your score when they destroy a bamboo
- Some new sounds
- Bug fixes and improvements
The garden has become overrun by bamboo shoots! Destroy as many as you can before the time runs out.
Controls:
- Z to use power-ups
- Directional pad/Arrow Keys to move
! Shuriken Toss v1.1 !


Great little game and lovely art!
My highscore after 4 tries^^
Maybe you can add some different objects to destroy(take more hits, or needs the power up to destroy them) but they give you more points to shake up the gameplay a little. Also an idea is some more power ups that you can master, so that you can become better on the game without relying on RNG!



Thanks for the suggestions and support! I think I will add some more power-ups to the game and maybe red bamboo that give you 5 points or something.
I may also change it / add a different game-mode where you have to score as many points as possible within 50 seconds.


High score is 20 seconds! I like the feeling of weight in the controls and the graphics are very clean. It feels like you have to be awfully close to the bamboo shoots in order to hit them, though. I know you have to hit the base, but even then it still seemed like I hit it but would either pass through or maybe I just wasn't quite close enough. I probably need to get more used to it, unless there's a collision detection bug.
How does the powerup work? One time I fired it and it looked like it only fired two kunai, but other times it fires 4, and it also seems like there's a chain reaction effect, too?
Lastly, I wonder if you can throw in fractions of a second. It can be annoying to get 20 seconds twice in a row and not know how close you were to beating your record. Maybe it at least could show the tens place, e.g. "20.8 seconds"?
Overall it feels fantastic and was fun to play, and all of my suggestions weren't any kind of deal-breaker!
EDIT: By the way, that intro sequence? Awesome.


Thanks for all the feedback everyone, keep it coming!
@mghughson
Yes I totally see where you're coming from, it was kind of a last minute thing before release to have it count to 50 but I'll hopefully be changing the scoring system in the next update as well as adding a menu with controls/instructions :)
@Jamish
About the collisions, I also noticed that they can feel a bit cheap at points and make you go "Aw come on, I should've hit that!" so I'll fiddle around with the collision boxes and make them a bit bigger perhaps. At the moment, it destroys the bamboo shoots or collects the power-ups when the centre of the shuriken sprite enters the collision box for the objects.
I'll admit that the power-up is a little bit 'buggy' at the moment. What's happening is when the player has the power-up and presses the z key, it creates 4 kunai objects. When a kunai object is created it picks a random direction (up, down, left or right) to move in so there's a chance that all 4 kunai created have the same direction :/ . I can change this to fire one kunai in each direction, but that'll have to be in a future update.
When a kunai hits a bamboo shoot it destroys the bamboo shoot and then creates a new kunai that can then fly off and destroy another one.


This is a lot of fun! My best is 21 right now...chasing that 18 though!
I second most of the comments already mentioned. Count down rather than up and double checking all the collisions. I seemed to feel like collision to get the K bonus was wishy washy.
And everything you said about the bonus shots too...just having them go in all 4 directions I think would be a fair bonus.
I could see future "modes" or whatever where there is an obstacle on the board, so different level layouts...and maybe even special bamboo that are different colors but get you extra points or time or something.
Great idea and lots of fun plus room to expand. Well done.


The 1.1 update is exactly what was needed, way to go! Just feels better all around now given the revamped scoring and timer. I'm now more motivated to keep playing to try and beat my own high score.
Keep it up...don't discount small "features" that you can add like alternate color palettes and such. Make them unlockable achievements so people have more things to chase.


Nice addition with the giant star! Still lots of fun...my high is 118 so far.
Had another thought, for what it's worth...have a checkpoint mode or whatever that has "stages" with required numbers to reach (counting up) that keeps you going like Pole Position or Rad Racer. You have X seconds to get Y number of bamboo.


I guess in my head the checkpoint model probably coincides with additional features within a level (like obstacles). Point to get to next checkpoint is to keep going and slice more bamboo. If you miss the quota when time runs out, game over; if you reach the goal, time extends and you keep going.
The hiccup with how the game currently plays is it doesn't get "harder" the longer you go, and that's what would make checkpoints work. So there's more to my suggestion that I thought...guess I hadn't really thought it that far along either.


Totally agree. It's a ton of fun as-is. I just can't help myself from playing these games and thinking up new ideas :)
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