Rail Runner: 3D Tower defense in space

[plutonicLove]

Originally Posted by Habakuk

Taken XN77NYT7JYPT. Thanks. Pretty weird game. Will need some time to get the controls. Needed already some tries for finding out how to select the tutorial in the menu (swipe pretty far). Will pick it up again when I have more time. Always open for something new.

Oh, you can double-tap to select too. I should probably just remove the swipe-to-select feature; it was an afterthought.

[Qwertz555]

Thank you for yesterdays code W4F...

I couldn't dive in more for now, but overall i like very much.
Will def spend more time with it this weekend.

Thanks again dear Devs and good luck.

[plutonicLove]

Originally Posted by Qwertz555

Thank you for yesterdays code W4F...

I couldn't dive in more for now, but overall i like very much.
Will def spend more time with it this weekend.

Thanks again dear Devs and good luck.

Np, thanks for taking interest! I look forward to hearing back from you.

[gemineye62]

I was not really sure what to think of this game at first. I tried the tutorial
,but just found myself moving and shooting without any guidance in the
tutorial. Perhaps I did not play far enough.

After trying the new game mode, I found my hand getting tired tapping
constantly. This game really needs an auto fire.

It was not until I hit both menu buttons at the same time , that I realized
you can use credits to buy upgrades such as , better shields, increased
weapon damage and range, ship speed etc. You can even get an upgrade
that allows you to build turrets along the rail that your ships moves on.

I started to enjoy the game more when I realized I could upgrade things
to make the game a little easier. It was a let down however, when I died,
but did not keep the purchased upgrades to make the next game attempt
a bit less frustrating. You need to start all over and buy the upgrades again.

You basically travel along a rail left and right as you protect your mother ship
from enemy ships that are launched at the opposite end from where your
ship is. A huge pack-man like character slowly gobbles up the rail and launches
enemy ships from it's mouth from time to time. You can shoot the Pack-man
like enemy to get credits and destroys ships as well. The ships can be hard to hit
as you will also need to swipe with your hand to rotate on the rail as you move.

I'm not sure if you can destroy the Pack-man guy or not as I always died
before I could.

I give the developer two thumbs up for trying something different in terms of game play for a tower defence game in space. Personally ,I'm not sure about the Pack-man head. I think a huge metallic spider-like creature
that crawls on the rail or a big alien ship would be more in keeping with the space theme.

I really like the upgrade screen. Buying one upgrade unlocks other upgrades
that are surrounding the purchased one. They also seem to be random as the
next time I played , I got different ones.

If you like a challenge and a game with upgrades and shooting then I
think you wil not be disappointed.

Just be prepared to get a tired shooting finger!


Thanks

[plutonicLove]

Gemineye62, thank you very much for playing my game! I'm the sole developer, and also a college student, so getting any response at all is extremely exciting for a beginning game developer like me. Please allow me to take the time to respond to your impressions

Originally Posted by gemineye62

I was not really sure what to think of this game at first. I tried the tutorial
,but just found myself moving and shooting without any guidance in the
tutorial. Perhaps I did not play far enough.

That's concerning. Did the tutorial not activate at all? I haven't seen this happen before.

Originally Posted by gemineye62

After trying the new game mode, I found my hand getting tired tapping
constantly. This game really needs an auto fire.

It was not until I hit both menu buttons at the same time , that I realized
you can use credits to buy upgrades such as , better shields, increased
weapon damage and range, ship speed etc. You can even get an upgrade
that allows you to build turrets along the rail that your ships moves on.

I started to enjoy the game more when I realized I could upgrade things
to make the game a little easier. It was a let down however, when I died,
but did not keep the purchased upgrades to make the next game attempt
a bit less frustrating. You need to start all over and buy the upgrades again.

There are two upgrades that allow for different forms of auto-fire: a charged up blast, and a continuous "laser," which is more like a machine gun.

The tutorial should tell you that you need to press both menu buttons at the same time to activate it. It's this way to prevent accidental activation due to the way people naturally swipe up and down with their thumbs. Unfortunately if the tutorial wasn't working for you then there was no way of knowing this without experimentation.

Hmm, I understand your frustration at losing your upgrades each time you die. I was going for a "clean slate" each time you play, so that you can start off with entirely different upgrades and try different styles of play. However my goal as the developer is not to frustrate the player so much as to provide challenge. To address this, a save feature that activates at certain check points will be added in the next update.

Originally Posted by gemineye62

You basically travel along a rail left and right as you protect your mother ship
from enemy ships that are launched at the opposite end from where your
ship is. A huge pack-man like character slowly gobbles up the rail and launches
enemy ships from it's mouth from time to time. You can shoot the Pack-man
like enemy to get credits and destroys ships as well. The ships can be hard to hit
as you will also need to swipe with your hand to rotate on the rail as you move.

I'm not sure if you can destroy the Pack-man guy or not as I always died
before I could.

That "Pack-man" is Pluto! He's mad that he's not a planet anymore There used to be an intro video that explained this, but Apple made me remove it as they thought it was too similar to Star Wars' opening crawl. Admittedly it's a direct parody of Star Wars' intro, the only differences being the font and the fact that the text scrolls around an invisible rail to hint towards the game's premise. I'm going to make some modifications to it and see if Apple approves of it in the next update. Here's a screenshot of the original intro:

Originally Posted by gemineye62

I give the developer two thumbs up for trying something different in terms of game play for a tower defence game in space. Personally ,I'm not sure about the Pack-man head. I think a huge metallic spider-like creature
that crawls on the rail or a big alien ship would be more in keeping with the space theme.

You aren't too far off from what Pluto used to be originally. In fact, the bad guy was the mothership! I found that people showed more emotional investment when I gave the mothership blinking eyes (a la Banjo-Kazooie where EVERYTHING has eyes). Making the bad guy everyone's favorite ex-planet got a lot of people interested in playing who wouldn't have otherwise.

Originally Posted by gemineye62

I really like the upgrade screen. Buying one upgrade unlocks other upgrades
that are surrounding the purchased one. They also seem to be random as the
next time I played , I got different ones.

Thanks! I'll work on a way to save people's progress while still keeping the game fresh every time.

Originally Posted by gemineye62

If you like a challenge and a game with upgrades and shooting then I
think you wil not be disappointed.

Just be prepared to get a tired shooting finger!


Thanks

lol thank YOU!

P.S. Sorry about your finger

[plutonicLove]

Again, if you take a promo code, please leave reviews/impressions so that I can make Rail Runner the best that it can be. Also, please leave a note stating which code you've taken so I can mark it as unavailable. Thanks!

WFLWPFEPYKHH *taken*

3NNKH9MHMXJ6 *taken*

PNKEELA9ANXP *taken*

APL6FWJME7JE *taken*

KX4HA7YWF4TL *taken*

[plutonicLove]

496LJK4MNRX7

PR9FM6Y4RKN3

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FWY4N74NLELN

K6X9NRKPY4FK

[C.Hannum]

Figured I'd give this a go this morning on the exercise bike... (thanks again for the code)

Interesting game but in BAD need of tuning on the balance.

First game I had issues finding the tutorial as some others mentioned so I just got dumped in and had no idea what I was doing... died after a few minutes.

Found tutorial, ok, I know what I'm doing...

Play again and... I could not die to save my life. Eventually had every upgrade and could earn 100K points in less than a minute, spam all the cannons right near Pluto I wanted, watch as rail grew even huger and longer. After 90 minutes of playing with no sign of death in sight, figured it was time to give up.

Once you have the charge shot, the game is a cake walk. Just stay near your mothership, every time you're charged, spin and fire. As you get a pile of points, upgrade damage & charge time, once you find the piercing shot, it's game over (in terms of there being any risk of you losing). You can easily spam fire faster than Pluto advances or burps out ships.

[plutonicLove]

Originally Posted by C.Hannum

Figured I'd give this a go this morning on the exercise bike... (thanks again for the code)

Interesting game but in BAD need of tuning on the balance.

First game I had issues finding the tutorial as some others mentioned so I just got dumped in and had no idea what I was doing... died after a few minutes.

Found tutorial, ok, I know what I'm doing...

Play again and... I could not die to save my life. Eventually had every upgrade and could earn 100K points in less than a minute, spam all the cannons right near Pluto I wanted, watch as rail grew even huger and longer. After 90 minutes of playing with no sign of death in sight, figured it was time to give up.

Once you have the charge shot, the game is a cake walk. Just stay near your mothership, every time you're charged, spin and fire. As you get a pile of points, upgrade damage & charge time, once you find the piercing shot, it's game over (in terms of there being any risk of you losing). You can easily spam fire faster than Pluto advances or burps out ships.

Thanks very much for playing my game!

Yes, I agree. The next update will focus on giving Pluto more of a fighting chance. I'm also going to limit the power of the charge shot. As for the tutorial, I'll make it detect if it's the first time the user plays the game and make it start automatically.

Also, I'm adding levels and the ability to save so that there's a sense of progression. That way next time you play for 90 minutes it will actually amount to something Eventually I'll make it so that you can actually win and beat Pluto. Unfortunately I'm doing this in my free time, so I have to add features in incremental spurts.

Thanks again for your input. Not many of my friends and family are gamers, so their input is usually "looks good!" etc. without any regards to gameplay.