Pretty decent game. The action gets fast and furious. The campaign feels pretty slow to me, but then I guess thats what the speed mode is for. For the playmodes, is the Campaign supposed to have an end/final boss stage? I guess I'm used to when clicking on a Campaign mode to have stage select screen. Not a big deal though. But maybe considering having a stage selection page for the Campaign? I like the weapons upgrades, but I'm not sure when I get them. Not sure if I its after I kill an enemy or if its set upgrade when you get to certain stage in the game. I'm guessing there's the "arena" is endless? I tried just moving in one direction for one whole stage and it seemed like it doesn't end. Nothing wrong with that..I was just testing to see if its an open area, or like some games, the world "wraps", or if there's a boundary. The thing with running in one direction is sometimes I'll end up overlapping where the enemy spawns. I'm guessing the enemy spawning location is just based on where the player currently is, not where they may end up? The controls feel spot on. Especially for the movement pad, I feel like there's a gradual shift from slow to fast movement, and I feel like I can weave how I want to. The one main thing that detracts from the experience is lagging. I'm on 4th gen ipod touch on iOS5.1... After a certain stage for campaign, and after a certain point in the speed mode, the game lags a lot and makes it hard to play. I think whenever there's the enemies that shoots bullets all around is about the place where the game gets slow. Don't know if its just too many things on the screen, or the 4th gen ipod touch running out of memory. Overall, feels like a pretty decent, fun game. Keep up the good work!
You and me are in the same boat buddy. I've been extensively testing each build, giving them feedback. Lagging is the problem I also have, since I have a 4th gen iPod Touch running 5.0.1. But they are improving it.
=D Well, one more thing I forgot to mention is since clearing level seems to be just surviving based on time, maybe consider adding some sort of visual and/or audio countdown to when the stage is over. Maybe flash a (transparent) 3, 2, 1..before the level ends? On pretty much all levels, its a bit jarring to be playing, then all of a sudden the level ends. This is just a nitpicking thing though.. Btw..normally I play games on the ipod without sound on..so if there was an audio countdown, I'd probably miss it. =P lol.
That is true, but for people that don't like to use their own music. Im wrong for saying its repetitive, but I'm right when it comes down to length, at least they should add a little bit more to it. Just a thought.
Oh no, you're not wrong when you say it's repetitive. I don't like the music either, but it's not that big of a deal to me.
Thanks for the kind words. We're trying hard, and it's good to know it's helping someone. Though coming up with more and more optimizations is becoming harder and harder at this point...
Maybe we should add some sort of a hyper-campaign mode. Caffeine mode, maybe? Not at the moment, though as you progress, bigger, boss-like enemies make their first appearance. You get a new weapon when you kill an enemy carrying it (or other upgrades and powerup items). It is limited per stage, though, so you don't end up with weapons that are way too powerful for where you are in the game. We should probably mention that we've heard the comments that want a weapons store - and we'll add one... just not to this game. We actually want to do another space shooter, probably top-down, with somewhat different gameplay, different-style levels which you can explore, and, of course, a weapons store. And possibly even a spaceship store. Yup, the arena is pretty much endless. And you've guessed correctly, the enemies do spawn in a general area where the player is, though we do try to distance them from you so they don't spawn right on top. Thank you. We put in a lot of work into tweaking the controls - and, again, you're right, there is a speed control on the movement pad, so the further away you touch it from the center, the faster the ship moves. We're still adding optimizations to the game. The latest build (1.12) should improve things, and we're doing more testing to see what else we can speed up. Thanks again for the detailed comments. Very much appreciated.
The enemy spawn proximity to the player and slowdown are the two biggest issues I'm having with this otherwise fast paced and entertaining game. A caffeine mode sounds pretty good . How bout naming it the 'Swarm' mode instead? Double/3x/4x enemies on screen, but half/one-third/one quarter health.
I have a question. Why is the game called "Violet" Storm? I never really understood that Also, with the spaceship store...will it have the ability to choose the weapon you want like using laser rather than electricity or 3 bullets etc etc? And will the weapons be upgradable?
I saw your video the other day and I must say, I'm impressed. Looks like a pretty fun and frantic game. My only gripe and maybe it's just personal taste is that the ship looks a little plain jane rocketshipesque. Maybe more gun ports or something to spruce it up.
Well, we were looking for a cool-sounding name that at least somehow relates to the game. So "Violet" is because the color is close enough to the main color scheme of the game (sure, sure, it's actually closer to magenta, but that doesn't sound nearly as cool), and "Storm" because when you go to level 4 or 5 or 6 that's what it feels like - being caught up in a storm of enemies, bullets, explosions, and homing missiles. Just don't google this title... Yup and yup. And you'll be able to rearrange them as you wish. Here's a question, though - for that next game, would you want to be in the same visual style as this one (i.e. minimalistic glowing outlines) or use more traditionally/realistically-looking spaceships?
We've increased that slightly. The real problem seems to be when a swarm of enemies (i.e. a formation) spawns up - sometimes, the leader of the formation is far away enough from you, but the rest of it is much closer to the player. That's likely to come in an update. Also, you'll need a beast of a machine to handle 4x the enemies... Although iPad-3 might be able to handle it. Or a Mac, for which we'll also release a version.
[/QUOTE]Yup and yup. And you'll be able to rearrange them as you wish. Here's a question, though - for that next game, would you want to be in the same visual style as this one (i.e. minimalistic glowing outlines) or use more traditionally/realistically-looking spaceships?[/QUOTE] I Think more traditional looking space ships because they never end up looking as cool traditonal style ships prob because of the retina display that makes the ship look very detailed. Like Phoenix HD for example, their ships are stunning and the details are very real and in my opinion look better than glow outline spaceships. for this game I think the glow works because it is a geometry wars type game, so you wouldn't want to put in a realistic ship with geometrical enemies, it just doesn't look good.
Just played the latest beta via Test Flight and its great! Love the bright colourful pew-pew geometry wars look. Controls are nice and sharpe. Plenty of different ships wizzing about and the weapons are outstanding. Maybe I had too many other apps open but it did seem to lag a bit at first. (on iPod 4th gen) Good luck with marketing it - that's where the fun begins MJ
Sure, I'm a bit of a mecha and spaceship fanatic/designer myself, so you can take my words with a bit of salt. Maybe others think the ship design looks great. It did remind me a tad bit of asteroids. Oh, maybe you could switch between ships, thats always a fun mechanic. A simple sprite switch would be all that's needed.
