SEIZURE WARNING:
This game may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.
Controls:
Move: Arrow Keys
Shoot: X
Bomb: Z
Pause: Enter
NOTE: Shoot / Bomb buttons can be swapped in the Pause menu
Instructions:
- Defeat 30 waves of space pirates and recover the doubloons they leave behind.
- The ring around your ship indicates the range which will attract doubloons
- Destroying space pirates will increase your score multiplier. Letting a space pirate escape the area or taking damage will reset this multiplier to zero
- Collecting 100 doubloons will grant you a temporary shield which will absorb damage once without resetting your combo
- Once you take 3 hits your ship will be destroyed
Power Ups:
- Powerups will appear throughout the run, cycling between three abilities: Power, Option, and Magnet. Powerups can be upgraded 3 times, after which bomb pickups will appear in its place.
- Power (P): Increases the fire rate and potential damage of your ship
- Option (O): Options will orbit around your ship, firing additional shots, widening your range.
- Magnet (M): Increases your pickup range, allowing you to collect doubloons easier. It will also increase the range of any Options that orbit your ship.
- Bomb (B): Bombs will clear all enemies and their projectiles on the screen., awarding additional points for each enemy and projectile cleared. You start with 3 bombs.
Changelog
Thanks to everyone who checked out the game! Let me know your thoughts on the latest update, or what you'd like to see in the future for Space Ranger!
Gold star for a very smooth game.
My first few runs I didn't last long because I was trying to get all the doubloons. Then I read just how the combo system worked and concentrated on keeping that high.
Here's my score from getting the upgrade sequence S, S, W, T, T, W. No enemies got past and I lost no lives, so my combo reached 99 and stayed there.
I like the bold 4-color palette, but I think there might be too much use of all colors on every object. Could you try making all the player shots and coins blue/white and all the enemy shots orange/white and see if it makes the game easier to "read"?
Thanks for the feedback Cowirrie! Readability has been tricky with the limited palette. I'll try out your suggestion though to see if it improves readability!
I didn't have room to include an instructions screen but am glad the written instructions helped out!
Based on your score / upgrade sequence, did you feel like the game was too easy at that point? Or was it still fun?
Thanks again for playing!
@SVEDEN11:
"Based on your score / upgrade sequence, did you feel like the game was too easy at that point? Or was it still fun?"
It was fun, and having reached 99 combo I was really worried about taking even one hit.
I do feel like picking up at least two "S" upgrades achieves a lot more than any "W" upgrades, but that may just be because my aim is terrible, so I need a wider spread of shots more than I need narrow damaging shots.
Really dig the presentation! I think a sequel is totally worth it with more variance in baddies. I got to the sphere and died and haven’t played again yet. Dunno if that guy is mid-boss or final…thinking some bigger baddies thrown in after a while would help change up the pace.
@Cowirrie Thank you for the additional feedback on this. You're correct that collecting S upgrades is easier than W upgrades in some ways.
I was trying to design them in a way to let the player adjust their own difficulty depending on the upgrades they focus on, but still having all three be useful and benefit each other.
'S' upgrades make it easier to hit more enemies, but won't destroy them as quickly, and spread is dependent on how much you've upgraded your pickup range.
'W' upgrades increase damage and destroy enemies more quickly, but requires more accuracy, as well as more movement to collect doubloons.
'T' upgrades make collecting doubloons much easier, but limits your overall damage which means destroying enemies is more difficult.
If I had to assign a difficulty to each upgrade, I'd say an 'S' focused build is best for beginners / casual play, 'W' focus is a bit more challenging, and 'T' is the most difficult since you are limited on both damage and range (but can increase your score the easiest).
I'd love to hear people's thoughts on how this can be conveyed better in the game or in future titles, as it's not something I explicitly mention in the instructions.
@morningtoast Thank you for playing! The sphere you saw was the "oh crap I'm out of tokens, guess I need to wrap this up" final boss lol.
Originally the game was meant to have around 100 levels and 10 types of enemies, but I'm not a skilled enough token cruncher to fit all that in there.
I would like to make a follow up game to this either as a direct sequel or spiritual successor though!
I made this while waiting for Krystman's Advanced Shmup Tutorial to be completed and for Picotron to release. Now that Picotron is out and there's no token limit restrictions, I'd like to try making another shmup with a bit more experience now.
If you have any suggestions on what kind of variety you'd like to see with the enemies, let me know! Right now they're all pretty samey but there may be some opportunity to tweak things in a future update.
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