Feedback I7

A nag screen? Didn't see that one coming I'll be sure to register later. Nice with the new level(s) too, and multiple lives was a nice addition. That's definitely a keeper

I had to sign up because I was playing so much, and I was going to point to the high score table, but this update is basically a reset of the high scores.

I'm glad I got to see the changes (not that they are bad), but this let's me have more of chance.

I can never get past the part where the two red worms come from the bottom, each blasting in a spiral/helicopter-blade pattern. Any tips?

This is one of the few shmups I've enjoyed. I would make the text on the missions bigger (if people actually read it ) and it needs to be easier to tell what power you are using, so in the heat of battle you aren't frantically scrolling the mouse wheel and looking up, trying not to be hit.

I'm curious if you are using a special library for the high scores and connecting online.

I found you looking at a fez video. I think you should be able to get in the Google Top Ten for "indie game hub" that is what I searched for when I wanted to find the site again.

The lives are more clear now, I thought before (wrongly) that when you glowed if you got hit again, you died, but your ship would automatically return to normal.

I got some good and bad news.

the game now plays on my 9800 computer. no crashes. however the enemies aren't drawn at all. the shots and hit/die effects works.

I agree on the bigger font and any sound/visual confirmation which ability I have/switch to. the more the better if cleanly done.

didn't you post such code already hobbe? although maybe not for twtpb.

Different sounds for the abilities would probably help, but please, no voice. That would just be annoying. Btw, what does t.w.t.p.b. mean?

I like the mystery, it's exciting!

Woot! I beat the red boss. I was playing in offline mode though and it didn't upload my scores when I connected now.

I like the addition of lives!

However, isn't it strange that the level restarts when you lose a life? Isn't it typical to just keep going from where you died, perhaps with a grace period of invulnerability?

Also, perhaps now with the addition of lives, maybe the health concept isn't as applicable? Of course removing it would make the game even harder

Yes, now that you mention it it would work like that.

I think the main difference is how "death" is communicated. In the earlier implementation it was not obvious that you "died", and there was no pause before you "respawned". At least for me it did not feel like classic "arcade death", i.e. compare to Ikaruga.

I'm not really against the concept of health, but I am against restarting the level upon death.

Also, are there extra lives to be gained in some way?

[quote="hObbE"]

Ah... ok... the enemy shader is a bit more complex (many arguments in that shader). Did the log say anything interesting?

/hObbE[/quote]

no same as before. I'll give the game a go on the big screen now instead

EDIT: ... or nto. now my good computer can't show enemies either.. perhaps a ATI issue now. take a look at the difference to i6 because it worked then.

I heard from a friend things like 1 or 1.0 is a common problem on different video cards. its hopefully something easy like that

I have actually found an issue in the code that could be the cause for this. I will post an update later today.

I can't make any guarantees though since I don't have a radeon card to try it out on.

/hObbE

my i7 feed so far:

-if I really must restart the level upon death, I would like to have full energy again.

-when defeating a level (the boss), I would like to have full energy and health again.

-I would like regeneration to be automatic when selected, i.e. it recharges when it can and at the same rate as if you held down the button

-an autofire option would be nice, as there is really no case in which it is a bad idea to kill the heretics

Bosses should definitely give more cake than now Both in regards of gameplay and visually. Big whammo blammo explosion

The only drawback in regards to autofire is possibly that the screen will get cluttered with shots... and that the sound might get annoying Autofire could maybe be an option then...

/hObbE

Sweeet!

I have found an old ati radeon 9500 Pro to use as testbed. I have not got around to install it yet though... so any info is appreciated

/hObbE

Super sweet!

I guess running DX in debug mode was not a bad idea then Seems like nvidia is much more forgiving set of cards

Thanx for the feed! Full energy and health is comming up in the next iteration!

I'll do a pass on the ability costs too

The red boss is actually quite easy You only need to figure out his weakness and then a bit of energy to exploit it

/hObbE

He he he, the problem was actually just an erroneous parameter to DrawIndexedPrimitive

So the shader(s) themselves where ok, they are free to use by the way, they are in the twtpb/data/effects folder

So if you know some shadercode you can "mod" t.w.t.p.b. to look differently if you want

/hObbE

[quote="mathrea"]wow hobbe, TWTPB is really addicting simple and fun (the way a game should be )

ive made it to red level 2, but that level is really hard, not impossible though.

hint: do not get to red level 2 because its hard to destroy em and hard to get score. I kill my self after ive destroyed the surroundings of the Eye level 2.

well now u got my teknik so im happy to see new highscore.

I think music gives a little adrenaline and I like that, maybe the music should change when u reach a certain level or so ( just a thought) nice music btw

btw what does TWTPB mean?

thanx får a nice game. keep it up man.

// Marro[/quote]

its more likely to see pigs fly than h0bbe telling u what twtpb means... ive tried so many times

[quote="hObbE"]Hi Marro, and Welcome to the forums!

I'm glad you enjoy t.w.t.p.b.

Yes... I think your strategy of not going to the red level on the second pass is a good one... at least for now

The meaning of t.w.t.p.b. is a well guarded secret that will be revealed as the story and game evolves

/hObbE[/quote]

well since everyone's guessing anyway. make a "guess the acronym"-thread

I'm back from a weekend of roleplaying and have a few things to add. I was reading some of the comments on gametrailers friday and got a few ideas (mostly lull things).

Firstly, the ship would look a lot better with some nice particle animation for the engines (sci-fi blue is my suggestion). Take heed not to make this trail too long though, it shouldn't get in the way when you are flying around dodging stuff. I suggest a only small (blue) glow behind the engines, that gets slightly larger when accelerating and smaller when breaking. You could also add the steering to this, so the left engine glows extra when flying right and vice versa.

When the ship is damaged you could show this with small "explosion"-particles on the ship. The more damaged it is the more frequent and larger explosions. Maybe some gas venting and stuff too..

The health/energy bars around the ship aren't that helpful as my eyes rarely are looking in that general area. I think having these bars at the top of the screen would be better.

Inbetween missions you could have an animation of a larger ship coming to refuel the players ship to account for the full health/power inbetween missions.

It's still hard to tell what special ability you have active, I think adding some graphics to the ship would help with this. Chaging it's colour slightly or something would suffice.

I also noticed that when I have rapid fire active it doesn't "fire" unless I hold the fire and special ability button down which is a tad unintuitive. I would prefer if it fired when you hit the special button in this case.

Rapid fire and time warp would be sweet to use at the same time too.

I also agree that rapid fire sucks a bit too much power at the moment. Time warp feels pretty balanced now though (not like before when it was teh uber!).

Frag on everyone!

Thanks. =) Hope you have had a good weekend to hObbe!

Yaey for eyecandy! \o/

Another art-thing that sprung to mind would be nozzle flashes when you fire.

I totally agree on this! More cake when killing a boss!

I have made some minor changes in the scoring when advancing to the next level. We'll see how this changes things

/hObbE