Dale Kepler: Big Dipper Shipper Panic Vault LLC Dale Kepler: Big Dipper Shipper is a charming arcade shoot ‘em up with original dazzling visuals and an enjoyable, livel… Free Buy Now Watch Media DetailsDale Kepler: Big Dipper Shipper is a charming arcade shoot ‘em up with original dazzling visuals and an enjoyable, lively story. Play as Dale Kepler, owner of Big Dipper Shipper, in a quest of revenge against the infamous space bully Rusty Hubble. Work with newfound allies to unlock a path across the galaxy as you embark on your quest to defeat your arch nemesis, and get back your most prized possession. Customize Your Ship – Bargain with the crew at Nate’s Intergalactic Planetary Supply Co to purchase and upgrade a wide array shotguns, special weapons, and truck modifications. Cute and Delightful Visuals – Beautifully designed hand painted artwork by award-winning illustrator Micah Player. Fantastic explosions and special effects, and procedurally generated in-game backgrounds. Action-Packed Gameplay – Shoot, explode, and dodge your way through challenging foes that threaten your business. Use cunning strategy and a vast arsenal of collected weapons to defeat huge mini-bosses encountered along your journey. Information Seller:Panic Vault LLC Genre:Action, Arcade Release:Feb 08, 2017 Updated:Mar 08, 2017 Version:1.0.12 Size:352.8 MB TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating: (1) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal 7lilwhitewolf7 Well-Known Member Feb 1, 2012 3,129 15 38 Male Not hear on earth Georgia,Cleveland Ohio,Texas,New York #2 7lilwhitewolf7, Feb 22, 2017 Sky diving in Jayg2015 Well-Known Member Jan 5, 2015 3,734 41 48 Male Player 1 Liberty city #3 Jayg2015, Feb 22, 2017 Last edited: Feb 22, 2017 This game looks mighty impressive. Downloaded and review and impressions tomorrow. I've played about twenty minutes of it and right now very impressed. Has everything I love in a shoot em up which is great gameplay, developer spending a lot of time with controls and graphics, the story is even really good, UPGRADES, currency collecting, MORE UPGRADES, the menus don't seem like normal menus because it's like part of the story and after each "level" you end up with the shop owner and either saving or upgrading. For $1 this is a no brainer! So far 5 stars and heavily approve for the time spent on it. JamesTheMage Member Feb 22, 2017 13 0 0 CTO - Panic Vault Charlotte, NC #4 JamesTheMage, Feb 22, 2017 Last edited: Feb 22, 2017 Hey wolf - Dale Kepler game developer here Once you grab it, let me know what you think! I'd really like to hear feedback on what we can improve in updates, what content we should add, etc. We really want to see what players like and dislike, and change the game for the better. I'm so glad to hear this, Jay! I hope you enjoy the rest of the game For anyone else that comes across this thread, check out the trailer we have for the game (it's also on our website). We spent quite a while trying to make it enjoyable, I'd like to see if anyone likes it: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Bytebrain Well-Known Member Jul 24, 2010 1,459 0 36 Copenhagen, Denmark #5 Bytebrain, Feb 22, 2017 Hmm.. I took a punt at this, but lately I've been let down by a few games in the genre, namely Shoot'Em ups with no relative touch! That's a bummer.. Qwertz555 Well-Known Member May 22, 2010 2,318 29 48 #6 Qwertz555, Feb 22, 2017 Against my "only 2 upfront paid games per week", i simply had to give this cute shmup a chance... Well, as soon as relative touch controls are added, i'll give it another chance. It's unplayable FOR ME as is, sorry. The ship stays in front of my thumb, and while this works in a shmup like Galaga Wars (portrait), it simply is a pain for my short thumb when a game is played in landscape mode. Pity, cos the "Mooff" look is so adorable. Good luck! PS: the option "position truck under thumb" is even worse, for me. esty8nine Well-Known Member Dec 21, 2013 1,044 0 0 #7 esty8nine, Feb 22, 2017 Sounds great, just 2 questions, different every run and any kinda endless high score mode/type? BaronMunchausen Well-Known Member Feb 22, 2017 57 13 8 #8 BaronMunchausen, Feb 22, 2017 Devs, so far I'm lovin' it, but we most certainly need relative touch added in an update asap. BaronMunchausen Well-Known Member Feb 22, 2017 57 13 8 #9 BaronMunchausen, Feb 22, 2017 JamestheMage, any plans for relative-touch update soon? It'll be a keeper then for sure. BaronMunchausen Well-Known Member Feb 22, 2017 57 13 8 #10 BaronMunchausen, Feb 23, 2017 Update: I'm finding this game nearly unplayable without relative touch (just like another reviewer mentioned). I just don't understand how a shooter could be made any other way with touch screens; how can I see all the things my thumb covers?! It's heartbreaking because I can tell this game would stay on my device a very long time, but not as is. Jayg2015 Well-Known Member Jan 5, 2015 3,734 41 48 Male Player 1 Liberty city #11 Jayg2015, Feb 23, 2017 The controls could be it's own little flaw but I'm enjoying this game very much. I believe it's a great title still and has a lot to Offer JamesTheMage Member Feb 22, 2017 13 0 0 CTO - Panic Vault Charlotte, NC #12 JamesTheMage, Feb 23, 2017 Last edited: Feb 23, 2017 Hey, I really appreciate everyone here saying that they want relative touch instead of just deleting and not saying anything else - I'm in the code implementing it right now My only concern is that relative touch might be hard to work with during fights where you have to move Dale around a large object (if you've made it to a Rusty fight you'll know what I mean). I'm going to spend a while trying to get it to feel just right though. Many of our test users were pretty happy with the current controls, so I'm going to throw in relative touch as an option in the options menu (instead of replacing the current controls completely), and perhaps a popup at the start that asks which style you prefer. Thank you all so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I'll post back here when the update goes live (hopefully within a day or two). BaronMunchausen Well-Known Member Feb 22, 2017 57 13 8 #13 BaronMunchausen, Feb 23, 2017 Awesome, Mage. We greatly appreciate it. This game is something special, by the way. I'll spread the word. #Bonk3rZ Well-Known Member Mar 20, 2014 335 36 28 top of the world #14 #Bonk3rZ, Feb 25, 2017 Last edited: Feb 25, 2017 Just dropped in to tell you that, even though I'm one of those people that don't get why "they" even still release shmups without relative touch, this beautiful game is far! from being unplayable. Nice graphics, cool upgrade system, funny bosses, killer soundtrack - if you are on the fence with this one I really recommend you to give it a go. @JTM: the scenario you describe (e.g. Rusty) is not a problem for, but exactly the reason why I need relative touch. When playing a game with two hands, (thumbs), instead of holding the phone in one hand and doing everything else with your other hands trigger finger, your "steering thumb" can only go that far. In situations where you have to move through the whole screen this brings problems. But with relative touch, when your thumb is stretched to the max, you can just reset said thumb and move on. Cool, isn't it? One more thing: I totally see that game developers don't want to hurt their gamers ears, but this is like half of how loud you can hear music on the phone. It's one of those games where I keep checking game and phone settings again and again, 'cause I'm sure something is wrong, 'cause it's just too quiet in my headphones. Please give us a bit more sound power, especially / at least for that already mentioned killer soundtrack. When I do some action gaming, I want some action in my ears too. Thanks for listening and congrats for the nice game! JamesTheMage Member Feb 22, 2017 13 0 0 CTO - Panic Vault Charlotte, NC #15 JamesTheMage, Feb 25, 2017 Exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for! I am just about finished putting relative touch in, and will hopefully be submitting for an update tomorrow (along with a few bug fixes and tweaks). Interesting note about the sound volume. I might up the max volume a little and default the values to less than full, because I was thinking users might be upset at sudden loudness coming from the game as soon as it started. I'll post back here when it's updated. Thank you everyone for sticking with me here! 7lilwhitewolf7 Well-Known Member Feb 1, 2012 3,129 15 38 Male Not hear on earth Georgia,Cleveland Ohio,Texas,New York #16 7lilwhitewolf7, Feb 25, 2017 Yo! This iz dope! I couldn't get off the title page 4rm noticing the ✨. You can turn the vol up & down to see the # equalizer effects. Grand to hear you are tweeking the controls 4 everyone. Thank you Panic Vault - I'm curious, y this name? 7lilwhitewolf7 Well-Known Member Feb 1, 2012 3,129 15 38 Male Not hear on earth Georgia,Cleveland Ohio,Texas,New York #17 7lilwhitewolf7, Feb 26, 2017 Qoty JamesTheMage Member Feb 22, 2017 13 0 0 CTO - Panic Vault Charlotte, NC #18 JamesTheMage, Feb 26, 2017 Ahhh - so stoked you dig it. We thought it was pretty neat, and honestly that is a watered down version of what we originally planned for the stars. We didn't have enough time to fix it properly so we tuned it down to that effect. I'm going to try and put in the full effect in the next major patch - it's pretty rad. Keep tabs on us and you should find out in the coming months. #Bonk3rZ Well-Known Member Mar 20, 2014 335 36 28 top of the world #19 #Bonk3rZ, Mar 6, 2017 It's me again. I already told you how much I like the game for several reason, and while I can still sign that, there's a big "but ..." in the room now. Another good thing first: the levels have a nice difficulty curve, forcing you to decide for a strategy, e.g. additional cannon or shield, and to upgrade that stuff. But ... while 36 levels doesn't sound too bad, they are very short, the bosses are way too easy, giving way too much payout. So, if your strategy doesn't work well, just beat the next boss and go for another one. To cut it short, I have three stared all levels, and I beat the final boss in the second try with 100% health. All that within like an hour of gameplay. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed playing dale kepler. It just feels like being over way too quickly. Which is a shame, 'cause this could be one of the nicest sidescrollin shmups I ever played. I'd love to get another "galaxy" with another 36 levels or at least an endless mode. And some things should definitely get nerfed. While I don't need every game to be hard as frigg, just running through the final levels and even bosses isn't fun either. (Thats probably one of the reasons why I feel disappointed now. There was absolutely no "Yeah, I did it!" at the end, the game was just ... over. Very sad. JamesTheMage Member Feb 22, 2017 13 0 0 CTO - Panic Vault Charlotte, NC #20 JamesTheMage, Mar 8, 2017 Last edited: Mar 8, 2017 *****UPDATE!****** Hello 7lilwhitewolf7, BaronMunchausen, Jayg2015, srtmxx, and everyone else in this thread - we added relative touch in and pushed it to the app store along with a few other updates (play store to follow tonight). Feel free to go check it out, several people have already reported that the game is far more enjoyable to play now. You can change the movement settings in the options menu if you prefer the classic style as well. We've also increased the overall difficulty a little bit. srtmxx: Thanks for the detailed feedback, and thank you so much for playing through the entire game and replying back here! The good part about this game is it wouldn't be too difficult to add in additional environments with longer, harder levels and a couple more bosses. Since we plan to continue adding content to the game, we're glad to see that players are wanting harder content - this is something we've been wanting to add. That said, we're trying to be careful not to throw in boring, endless levels that reuse the same enemies and mechanics for hours at a time. It takes a decent amount of effort for us to create these quirky enemies, so if the content doesn't feel like it's stretched too thin, adding additional environments and scenarios would be great! If you feel disappointed right now, then we're absolutely going to work towards something that makes the game feel more fun to complete, be that endless mode, additional bosses, or more levels - so I wouldn't consider it over quite yet. That, and we're working towards a PC release that will certainly have additional content, so some of that goodness is likely to spill into the mobile build. I'll reply here as we make progress on this. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) Show Ignored Content Page 1 of 2 1 2 Next > Share This Page Tweet Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now. Yes, my password is: Forgot your password? Stay logged in
This game looks mighty impressive. Downloaded and review and impressions tomorrow. I've played about twenty minutes of it and right now very impressed. Has everything I love in a shoot em up which is great gameplay, developer spending a lot of time with controls and graphics, the story is even really good, UPGRADES, currency collecting, MORE UPGRADES, the menus don't seem like normal menus because it's like part of the story and after each "level" you end up with the shop owner and either saving or upgrading. For $1 this is a no brainer! So far 5 stars and heavily approve for the time spent on it.
Hey wolf - Dale Kepler game developer here Once you grab it, let me know what you think! I'd really like to hear feedback on what we can improve in updates, what content we should add, etc. We really want to see what players like and dislike, and change the game for the better. I'm so glad to hear this, Jay! I hope you enjoy the rest of the game For anyone else that comes across this thread, check out the trailer we have for the game (it's also on our website). We spent quite a while trying to make it enjoyable, I'd like to see if anyone likes it: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Hmm.. I took a punt at this, but lately I've been let down by a few games in the genre, namely Shoot'Em ups with no relative touch! That's a bummer..
Against my "only 2 upfront paid games per week", i simply had to give this cute shmup a chance... Well, as soon as relative touch controls are added, i'll give it another chance. It's unplayable FOR ME as is, sorry. The ship stays in front of my thumb, and while this works in a shmup like Galaga Wars (portrait), it simply is a pain for my short thumb when a game is played in landscape mode. Pity, cos the "Mooff" look is so adorable. Good luck! PS: the option "position truck under thumb" is even worse, for me.
Update: I'm finding this game nearly unplayable without relative touch (just like another reviewer mentioned). I just don't understand how a shooter could be made any other way with touch screens; how can I see all the things my thumb covers?! It's heartbreaking because I can tell this game would stay on my device a very long time, but not as is.
The controls could be it's own little flaw but I'm enjoying this game very much. I believe it's a great title still and has a lot to Offer
Hey, I really appreciate everyone here saying that they want relative touch instead of just deleting and not saying anything else - I'm in the code implementing it right now My only concern is that relative touch might be hard to work with during fights where you have to move Dale around a large object (if you've made it to a Rusty fight you'll know what I mean). I'm going to spend a while trying to get it to feel just right though. Many of our test users were pretty happy with the current controls, so I'm going to throw in relative touch as an option in the options menu (instead of replacing the current controls completely), and perhaps a popup at the start that asks which style you prefer. Thank you all so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I'll post back here when the update goes live (hopefully within a day or two).
Awesome, Mage. We greatly appreciate it. This game is something special, by the way. I'll spread the word.
Just dropped in to tell you that, even though I'm one of those people that don't get why "they" even still release shmups without relative touch, this beautiful game is far! from being unplayable. Nice graphics, cool upgrade system, funny bosses, killer soundtrack - if you are on the fence with this one I really recommend you to give it a go. @JTM: the scenario you describe (e.g. Rusty) is not a problem for, but exactly the reason why I need relative touch. When playing a game with two hands, (thumbs), instead of holding the phone in one hand and doing everything else with your other hands trigger finger, your "steering thumb" can only go that far. In situations where you have to move through the whole screen this brings problems. But with relative touch, when your thumb is stretched to the max, you can just reset said thumb and move on. Cool, isn't it? One more thing: I totally see that game developers don't want to hurt their gamers ears, but this is like half of how loud you can hear music on the phone. It's one of those games where I keep checking game and phone settings again and again, 'cause I'm sure something is wrong, 'cause it's just too quiet in my headphones. Please give us a bit more sound power, especially / at least for that already mentioned killer soundtrack. When I do some action gaming, I want some action in my ears too. Thanks for listening and congrats for the nice game!
Exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for! I am just about finished putting relative touch in, and will hopefully be submitting for an update tomorrow (along with a few bug fixes and tweaks). Interesting note about the sound volume. I might up the max volume a little and default the values to less than full, because I was thinking users might be upset at sudden loudness coming from the game as soon as it started. I'll post back here when it's updated. Thank you everyone for sticking with me here!
Yo! This iz dope! I couldn't get off the title page 4rm noticing the ✨. You can turn the vol up & down to see the # equalizer effects. Grand to hear you are tweeking the controls 4 everyone. Thank you Panic Vault - I'm curious, y this name?
Ahhh - so stoked you dig it. We thought it was pretty neat, and honestly that is a watered down version of what we originally planned for the stars. We didn't have enough time to fix it properly so we tuned it down to that effect. I'm going to try and put in the full effect in the next major patch - it's pretty rad. Keep tabs on us and you should find out in the coming months.
It's me again. I already told you how much I like the game for several reason, and while I can still sign that, there's a big "but ..." in the room now. Another good thing first: the levels have a nice difficulty curve, forcing you to decide for a strategy, e.g. additional cannon or shield, and to upgrade that stuff. But ... while 36 levels doesn't sound too bad, they are very short, the bosses are way too easy, giving way too much payout. So, if your strategy doesn't work well, just beat the next boss and go for another one. To cut it short, I have three stared all levels, and I beat the final boss in the second try with 100% health. All that within like an hour of gameplay. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed playing dale kepler. It just feels like being over way too quickly. Which is a shame, 'cause this could be one of the nicest sidescrollin shmups I ever played. I'd love to get another "galaxy" with another 36 levels or at least an endless mode. And some things should definitely get nerfed. While I don't need every game to be hard as frigg, just running through the final levels and even bosses isn't fun either. (Thats probably one of the reasons why I feel disappointed now. There was absolutely no "Yeah, I did it!" at the end, the game was just ... over. Very sad.
*****UPDATE!****** Hello 7lilwhitewolf7, BaronMunchausen, Jayg2015, srtmxx, and everyone else in this thread - we added relative touch in and pushed it to the app store along with a few other updates (play store to follow tonight). Feel free to go check it out, several people have already reported that the game is far more enjoyable to play now. You can change the movement settings in the options menu if you prefer the classic style as well. We've also increased the overall difficulty a little bit. srtmxx: Thanks for the detailed feedback, and thank you so much for playing through the entire game and replying back here! The good part about this game is it wouldn't be too difficult to add in additional environments with longer, harder levels and a couple more bosses. Since we plan to continue adding content to the game, we're glad to see that players are wanting harder content - this is something we've been wanting to add. That said, we're trying to be careful not to throw in boring, endless levels that reuse the same enemies and mechanics for hours at a time. It takes a decent amount of effort for us to create these quirky enemies, so if the content doesn't feel like it's stretched too thin, adding additional environments and scenarios would be great! If you feel disappointed right now, then we're absolutely going to work towards something that makes the game feel more fun to complete, be that endless mode, additional bosses, or more levels - so I wouldn't consider it over quite yet. That, and we're working towards a PC release that will certainly have additional content, so some of that goodness is likely to spill into the mobile build. I'll reply here as we make progress on this.