Universal Phoenix HD - A Modern Arcade Shmup (by Firi Games)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by killercow, Aug 11, 2011.

  1. Marc55Mo

    Marc55Mo Member

    Sep 27, 2012
    8
    0
    0
    Anyway you know what to do now and i can't wait to see the next game from you guys

    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
     
  2. RCranium666

    RCranium666 Well-Known Member

    May 28, 2010
    456
    0
    0
    Thread bump. It would be cool if you could pay 5000 and skip 50 levels. I'd like to try starting at a super hard level.
     
  3. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    Heya!

    So you mean like an extended Phoenix Wake?
     
  4. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    Right guys, small patch heading your way soon.

    The biggest change actually doesn't affect most of you, but if you happen to have checked the Chinese App Store you would've noticed a slew of 1-star reviews. This is because of the Chinese government blocking most of the internet traffic to google... where we host the Phoenix HD leaderboards and authentication servers. I say "most" because a lot of Chinese players are getting through, but a considerable amount is being blocked. Because of this, they cannot use any of the ships beyond the Phoenix and anything else that requires communication with our servers, like updating scores or coin amounts. Quite a big problem.

    Trust me when I say I'm pretty capable of answering Chinese support mails using Google translate by now :p I'm sure you guys can see this was a big problem for us, but we found a solution, which is 'impossible' to field test, but "should work". *fingers crossed*.

    There are some cool changes for you guys as well though!
    * We have removed the black borders on the side for iPad users. The full screen look is awesome :)
    * We have adjusted the 'moveable area' on the iPhone 5, so the bottom won't feel like a huge invisible wall. Effectively we have moved a bit of the dead zone to the top.
    Important to note that the area you can move the ship in is still the same across all devices!

    There is a slight overhaul for the leaderboards as well. You will still be presented with a nice map view on the score screen, but when you go into details we are back to a list view. Simply because the lists offer a better overview. There are 2 lists, 1 with all the scores and 1 with the Medal Targets for your current score. We hope this will make the whole Medal Target concept a bit more clear as well :)

    This update will be submitted "soon" :)
     
  5. WCFields

    WCFields Well-Known Member

    Dec 6, 2009
    2,865
    0
    0
    steel worker
    Hike do I equip the power ups floating around on the screen ? I move my ship over them to pick it up & it doesn't pick it up?
     
  6. No black bars on the ipad version? That would be great! Looking forward to that!!!
     
  7. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    When a power-up is on screen you grab and store it as a default action. When you want to use it, tap the screen with a second finger. So you have 1 finger to move your ship and a second tap to activate the power-up.
    It is also briefly demonstrated in the video asociated with the Phoenix ship in Ship selection.

    I hope this answers your question.
     
  8. WCFields

    WCFields Well-Known Member

    Dec 6, 2009
    2,865
    0
    0
    steel worker
    Thank you
     
  9. RCranium666

    RCranium666 Well-Known Member

    May 28, 2010
    456
    0
    0
    Yup.:D
     
  10. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    Ok, noted. We actually had a Wake 1 and Wake 2 at some point, to get further for a higher price, but we wanted to keep it a bit more simple. Might introduce it at some point, who knows.

    Patch should be rolling out 2morow.
     
  11. Chiller ONE

    Chiller ONE Well-Known Member

    Sep 20, 2008
    1,614
    29
    48
    Nurse
    Sweden
    This is one of my favorite non CAVE shmups on iOS.
    Is there a sequel or more ships/ different levels planned?
     
  12. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    Thanks, that's great to hear :)

    I think Phoenix HD has some updates left before we have to move into sequel territory.
    We are taking careful steps moving forward though, millions of people have Phoenix HD installed, we want to keep them all happy. It might take a while before the next big content update hits, but we are happy with the past 2+ years of updates for Phoenix / Phoenix HD, so for now we will continue on this course :)
     
  13. Update is out!

    Wowzers! Looks so much better on my new ipad! Now uses the full screen, so that is cool. Looks a little diffent, but I like this look much better.

    This is the game when people see it, they are always awed by the wonderful colors and graphics, had 3 people come up to me when I was playing in public and comment on how good it looked.

    Cool, full screen on the ipad now! Cool!
     
  14. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    Yep it is available everywhere now.

    Happy to see you like it, the difference (without the black bars) is bigger than you would think. Great to hear people approach you to comment on the game. We're very proud of the performance of our Flare Engine and the aesthetics we have created for Phoenix HD. It's all about the word-of-mouth :)
     
  15. killercow

    killercow Well-Known Member

    And you should be! It looks even more amazing now, great job!
     
  16. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    Best wishes to all of you Phoenix HD players from us at Firi Games!

    2012 was great with millions and millions of high scores set on both the old and the new Leaderboards. We'll do our best to make 2013 even better and hope you'll stick around to see what we'll bring this year.

    Game on!

    Best Wishes from Firi Games on YouTube.
     
  17. Future Tomorrow

    Future Tomorrow New Member

    Jan 29, 2013
    3
    0
    0
    Thanks for that message and an amazing game. I want to address something regarding game play that I'm curious whether a fix/option is in place or other players have seen this as an issue.

    Storage of weapon drops -

    There have been more time than none(happens almost every game I play), especially when using the "Extra Powerups" boost that there are multiple powerups on the screen but you can only store one at a time.

    During the stages between scores of 12million and 23million it's not that much of an issue as the screen can get really busy and they are used pretty quickly but under those scores there are times when weapons are being fired at a blank screen or wasted on enemies that are no match for the Trinity.

    Is Firi Games working on a better storage system? There are TONS of games out there that allow for multiple weapon storage and I found this rather odd in Phoenix HD.

    If I have any gripes with the game that's the only one. Everything else is beyond positive and this is the only game I really play. I'm not a gamer but Phoenix HD has me hooked. When you guys added the Trinity I had to have it. Before that ship I didn't get past 8 million+. Yesterday I scored 23 million+ and only had to use the Revive around 18million +

    I also want to mention that adding another Wake might not be a bad idea. The game is pretty easy with constant play after the 12million - 17 million mark but getting there can be tedious.

    Thanks again for an awesome game! You guys seriously rock!

    Cheers,
    Future Tomorrow
     
  18. syntheticvoid

    syntheticvoid Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2010
    14,504
    124
    63
    Musician & factory worker.
    a[V-O-I-D]
    I thought the extra power ups boost was for drop %, not for storage... =o/
     
  19. Selachii

    Selachii Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Nov 13, 2009
    659
    6
    18
    Game Designer
    Netherlands
    @Future Tomorrow:
    Thanks for your kind words! It's always great to read messages like these.

    I'll gladly answer your question regarding storing power-ups. We are always looking for ways to improve the game. In-fact, Phoenix (SD) launched in october 2010 without the ability to store power-ups at all! This feature was later added based on user requests and received a couple of tweaks to improve the experience.

    We have considered the option to store more power-ups multiple times and there are several things to consider.
    • If it would be possible, how many would you be able to store? 1 more? 2 more? Infinite? Since they are so powerful they have a big impact on the difficulty and balance of the gameplay. We don't want to make them weaker, because they need to remain awesome. We are pretty happy with the current difficulty of the game, so we prefer not to meddle too much with this.
    • How would you use the power-ups? Is it a first-in-last-out type situation, with the current controls? How do you see which one is used first? The inevitable next feature-request would be an option to select which power-up to use. This would need a new interface or a different way to interact with the power-ups.
    • It would weaken the dilemma of "which power-up to store?", which is a bit of gameplay I like.

    Everything is possible, it's just that we haven't found a solution we are very happy with...yet. Maybe the first power up should float on the left side and a second power-up on the right side? Then a tap on the left half of the screen would use the left side and a tap on the right half would use the right side? ..., but then your next request might be to store 3, because there is still power-ups with sub-optimal use.

    Like I said, it's a big feature with many consequences and many possible directions. We want to have a perfect solution, so for now we are considering everything on this matter, trying a lot and will continue until we cracked it (Like we did with all updates :) )

    I personally, currently, would like to chalk it up to skill on how to use the power-ups. Yes sometimes there are 3 of them on screen and there's no way you can achieve 100% effectiveness from all of them, but at least you can try to get the most out of it. Choosing your location on the screen, which power-up to attract first, which one to store, etc.

    Alternatively we could also add a Drone, capable of carrying an extra power-up for you. This would fit in with the new Drone system nicely, but the interaction/control problem still exists.

    So, we have considered many possibilities and I hope the above gives a glimpse of questions and challenges we are considering. Feel free to share your own idea on the matter, the above is just my view and is something that should be challenged by all of you :)
     
  20. Future Tomorrow

    Future Tomorrow New Member

    Jan 29, 2013
    3
    0
    0

    Thanks for your response Selachii and some great answers. Some of the questions you've posed I did consider myself but wanted to keep down the length of my original comment.

    Ace comment and beyond true. What I currently do now is teleport to different spots away from the weapon drop and stay in slow motion until enemies appear. When they do I time my jump to where the weapon is gravitating or another strategic place so that it's absorbed and released at the right moment. This doesn't always work out but has worked well enough for me to prolong commenting on only being able to store one element at a time. There are the instances though when several elements are on the screen and not enough places to jump or use them. In particular the life generators. There was one game I used two at the same time because I was already storing an EMP weapon.

    But what about other players whose favorite ship isn't the Trinity and hence don't have the ability to slow down time or teleport? How do you guys see added storage working? Do you wish added storage was in a future update or you don't mind the current layout and do just fine with your ship of choice?


    I honestly respect this and your other comments. I definitely DON'T want the game to get too easy because then it loses it's challenge and the quick thinking you need to apply in avoiding getting mauled to death by bullets in the more aggressive scenes. That being said, if an extra storage were added on the next update I wouldn't be back several months later saying "hey guys how about a 3 weapons storage capability now?" Two would be enough for me. Anything more doesn't feel right for Phoenix HD, at least for me personally but I would also love to hear what other players have in mind and what they think is enough storage.

    Couldn't one of the current drones or a newly added one just be a carrier vehicle in addition to it's current task? Say I have an EMP and pickup a life generator module, the drone just carries it. When I use the EMP, the life generator floats(or other picked up item) from the drone and goes to the main ship. This of course poses several possible questions:


    • Should I be able to cycle through the picked up elements and choose which one I want to use? Maybe Triple tap instead of Double tap and watch the two elements transfer(switch places) from your ship and the drone?


    • What if I don't want the drone to store a particular element? Does or should this just fall into the category or realm of strategy and how to best store weapons and when to strategically use them? Does the game become to easy if you can choose which drops to store or not?

    I'm going to give the control question some more thought but what do you think of the way weapons are stored in Shogun HD by int13?
     

Share This Page