merged with Fun game!

Just downloaded and tried... Seems fun and great looking

Very interesting idea that "sketch look and feel"

And I DO appreciate that your games (such as RedLine recently...) still run smoothly on my "old" iMac G4/800.

Just a suggestion for a future update release:
could you implement the use of a really full resolution according to thae Mac model (i.e: 1440x900 for my old iMac G4) instead of a limited 1024x780?

I will see what I can do, but to be honest, the resolutions has been that way since the beginning of beta, and even in alpha.

I believe that the issue came up during beta testing but for now I can't recall what it is, as it's 3 in the morning and I'm tired. Once I get up after sleeping I'll go through the emails and see what we talked about regarding the screen res.

kroc camen said:

I've been waiting a long time to get the chance to play this, but I must say there are some minor things that are stopping me from buying it

1. No strafe, trying to shoot turrets is a chore. Please implement a strafe key that when held, lets you use left/right to strafe.

2. Tedium - dying on boss 2, and then having to go through a load of enemies again is too much. I've already proved my worth defeating them before, my main concern is the boss now.

Other than that, it looks very good. Great to include network play and worldwide high scores!

1. But it's a bit harder and more interesting that way.

2. Try killing all the enemies between the boss entry and the save station, then go back to the boss, beat it and return securely to the save station. It's a bit complicated, but it should be possible to do so.

Edit: Huh? The post of an unregistered member I replied to disappeared. Maybe this forum wasn't setted to no-replies-by-unregistered-members yet. I saw Ben Adams in this topic before I replied, so this could underline my 'theory'.

This post has been edited by Freq245 : 01 December 2006 - 11:10 AM

@freq245, on Dec 1 2006, 04:06 PM, said in Suggestions for 1.0.1:

Edit: Huh? The post of an unregistered member I replied to disappeared. Maybe this forum wasn't setted to no-replies-by-unregistered-members yet. I saw Ben Adams in this topic before I replied, so this could underline my 'theory'.

That was me, I'm registered now.

1. Without straffing it can take an annoying amount of time to kill a simple turret, and you can end up losing a great amount of health simply by manouvering difficulty. It's more annoying than it is challenging. This is probably the main thing that puts me off the game, everything else is very good.

2. Saving doesn't work for that. When you reload, the enemies are back. Again, it's something that's more of a chore than it is gameplay.

@freq245, on Dec 1 2006, 09:06 AM, said in Suggestions for 1.0.1:

2. Try killing all the enemies between the boss entry and the save station, then go back to the boss, beat it and return securely to the save station. It's a bit complicated, but it should be possible to do so.

Why bother with that? I did that a couple of times, but then I started just flying past everything. Once you've learned how to control your ship, you'll only lose a couple shield points at most on that run. You can then sweep back killing everything once you've done in the boss and picked up the shield recharges, or just run past at high speed again. Acquiring the beam cannon also helps (and yes, it is possible).

For the turrets, I find it easiest to stand still facing the turret, firing at it. When it fires, start backing up, and when the shots are one or two graph-paper squares away from you, turn sharply away from them (still backing up), and swing back to face the turret again once you're out of the shots' path. Yes, it takes a bit more work, but where would the challenge be if your cannons aimed almost completely independently of your movement?

As for suggestions, I've only run into one problem so far: when I clicked the "register" button, Sketchfighter went into the background, rather than quitting like every other ASW program I've registered. Unfortunately, when I switched back to SF twenty minutes later, it blacked the screen as if going into full screen mode, and never reappeared. I needed to do a blind force quit, as nothing at all appeared on the screen. I'm pretty sure the music kept playing, though.

Also, on the topic of resolution, is there any reason the game started with a default resolution of 800x600 on my 1024x768 screen? I have an LCD, so the graphics looked fairly fuzzy.

Edwards

I downloaded and played SK4000 and here are my impressions...

First, the look-and-feel is awesome. I love the concept, the tutorial, the graphics, and the music. You've successfully captured what a lot of us were drawing when the teacher wasn't looking.

However, the game is just way too hard. In the coin-op days, we'd avoid a game like this because someone had "set the difficulty level too high". See all the kids found out if the arcade owner was trying to jack the customers by making the games hard, and they found out quickly. If this were a coin-op, then you'd easily lose a dollar before you'd even get by the first boss. No fun!

So, why does it take a ton of hits just to blow up rocks? I had to keep the fire button down the whole time. There's no strategy in that. Even the minor bad guys (except for the fly-like creatures) take forever to destroy. They shouldn't. The tiny bugs should take one hit, the larger bugs three to four, and the rocks one.

The first boss is way, way, too hard. If it touches you, you die. Come on! You end up dying before you even figure out what hit you, and then you have to go all the way back to the beginning. (Yes, playing from a saved game makes you start over, at least on level 1). A level 1 boss should have about 1/2th the strength of this guy and probably half the size, too.

The thing that made the original video games fun is that they gradually got harder; modern video games have forgotten that lesson and make everything difficult right away. That scares off many more people than it attracts.

@kroc-camen, on Dec 1 2006, 12:00 PM, said in Suggestions for 1.0.1:

That was me, I'm registered now.

1. Without straffing it can take an annoying amount of time to kill a simple turret, and you can end up losing a great amount of health simply by manouvering difficulty. It's more annoying than it is challenging. This is probably the main thing that puts me off the game, everything else is very good.

2. Saving doesn't work for that. When you reload, the enemies are back. Again, it's something that's more of a chore than it is gameplay.

I understand how you feel, as I had to fight that boss many times each time I played through the game. I suggest that you just learn to dodge around things to the boss corridor. It is a fairly short run, and you shouldn't take more damage than you can recover from rocks.

@tenebrous, on Dec 1 2006, 03:08 PM, said in Suggestions for 1.0.1:

I downloaded and played SK4000 and here are my impressions...

First, the look-and-feel is awesome. I love the concept, the tutorial, the graphics, and the music. You've successfully captured what a lot of us were drawing when the teacher wasn't looking.

However, the game is just way too hard. In the coin-op days, we'd avoid a game like this because someone had "set the difficulty level too high". See all the kids found out if the arcade owner was trying to jack the customers by making the games hard, and they found out quickly. If this were a coin-op, then you'd easily lose a dollar before you'd even get by the first boss. No fun!

So, why does it take a ton of hits just to blow up rocks? I had to keep the fire button down the whole time. There's no strategy in that. Even the minor bad guys (except for the fly-like creatures) take forever to destroy. They shouldn't. The tiny bugs should take one hit, the larger bugs three to four, and the rocks one.

The first boss is way, way, too hard. If it touches you, you die. Come on! You end up dying before you even figure out what hit you, and then you have to go all the way back to the beginning. (Yes, playing from a saved game makes you start over, at least on level 1). A level 1 boss should have about 1/2th the strength of this guy and probably half the size, too.

The thing that made the original video games fun is that they gradually got harder; modern video games have forgotten that lesson and make everything difficult right away. That scares off many more people than it attracts.

Well, it is always a challenge with this sort of game to strike a balance that satisfies most casual and hardcore gamers. I understand where you're coming from; I was a bit put off by the first boss as well. But I don't think it or any other sections of the game are unfair- they just demand that you get better at flying your ship. And it has been my impression that different people tend to find different parts challenging.

It never seemed to me like it takes a ton of hits to destroy stuff, so I can't say much about that. However, as you advance and your weapons get more powerful killing some things, like rocks, will naturally get quicker. You also don't want rocks to break accidentally, or you could waste powerups.

Oh, and you don't always die when you touch the first boss- only when he charges or crushes you. I suggest keeping your distance, staying near the entrance, and above all not letting those evil birds get to you.

edit: gah, double posted.
I can fix that - ZP

This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 01 December 2006 - 07:25 PM

Your ship moves much too fast and makes maneuvering very difficult, especially in tight spaces. I hope the developers will consider greatly reducing your ship's speed, or alternatively adding "strafing" capability, in the final release.

This difficulty maneuvering makes it not worth the effert to destroy turrets, but rather just fly past them.

This post has been edited by Titanium Decoy : 01 December 2006 - 08:04 PM

You can always not accelerate permanently, so as to master your speed (hey, that's something we have in common with Redline... we may not be so different after all ;)). Also, you can use the down arrow to quickly brake and go back.

I am having somewhat of a hard time with the game myself, but that is definitly a good thing. Otherwise I would probably have played through the whole thing by now. It is addictive.

Keep the game the way it is: simple and tough. Do not include any new functions that would require the use of more keys!

Manoeuverability issues? Come now, people. I went past the second boss before I died twice the first time I played! Of course, prior training could help. EV Nova is a great training aid for this. My old favorite ship used to be the Rebel Starbridge E: Fast, manoeuverable, tough, and bigger inside than out. Fighting Aurorans in a light ship at long distance taught me to dodge like a phantom, and the SketchFighter handles quite similarly. Bouncing off walls is a bit of an issue, but hey, it's 1/100th of my shields. I can take a dozen taps off the walls, no sweat. The quickness of the ship is great, it turns sweetly, and the reverse is a great feature. I have some minor aim issues (read: can't hit a thing), but it's a great game. The musicis awesome, it's smooth on a G3 600, and it looks great to boot! Thanks to Ambrosia for another hit.

@kroc-camen, on Dec 1 2006, 03:00 PM, said in Suggestions for 1.0.1:

1. Without straffing it can take an annoying amount of time to kill a simple turret, and you can end up losing a great amount of health simply by manouvering difficulty. It's more annoying than it is challenging. This is probably the main thing that puts me off the game, everything else is very good.

I kind of agree with this. I haven't played the demo very long, but already I can see that having to shift around back and forth in order to aim at anything is going to be more frustrating than fun. I can't help thinking it would have been a lot better with some sort of mouse control to allow accurate aiming.

Great game so far. In fact, only one nit: Flying speed is okay, but the rotation speed seems so fast that a haphazard back-and-forth spray is more likely than being able to nail a target spot on, especially in panicky situations. (Any chance it's tied to the system's key repeat rate? I set mine fast.) Game balance is crucial, of course, but it would be nice to be able to adjust the rotation speed in Preferences.

My problem is that I just can't get past the sparkly lava dots (where the blobs live), whether by cleverly waiting for cool spots, or by blindly plowing through them (always my second strategy when strategy alone doesn't work). But as no one else seems to have this problem, maybe I'm just not very smart. Just wish those wee bastards were a little less dense.

Serious question: Does it get much harder than the red dots? Considering my astonishingly limited skill level, is the difficulty of the game thereafter worth my $20?

-strictly a Level 1 guy

@scamper, on Dec 1 2006, 08:34 PM, said in Suggestions for 1.0.1:

Great game so far. In fact, only one nit: Flying speed is okay, but the rotation speed seems so fast that a haphazard back-and-forth spray is more likely than being able to nail a target spot on, especially in panicky situations. (Any chance it's tied to the system's key repeat rate? I set mine fast.) Game balance is crucial, of course, but it would be nice to be able to adjust the rotation speed in Preferences.

My problem is that I just can't get past the sparkly lava dots (where the blobs live), whether by cleverly waiting for cool spots, or by blindly plowing through them (always my second strategy when strategy alone doesn't work). But as no one else seems to have this problem, maybe I'm just not very smart. Just wish those wee bastards were a little less dense.

Serious question: Does it get much harder than the red dots? Considering my astonishingly limited skill level, is the difficulty of the game thereafter worth my $20?

-strictly a Level 1 guy

see lava

I've don't think I would have been able to beat the game yet if you had to dodge all the way through the lava fields, and I had almost a year of a jump start.

@veritus-dartarion, on Dec 1 2006, 08:44 PM, said in Suggestions for 1.0.1:

see lava

I've don't think I would have been able to beat the game yet if you had to dodge all the way through the lava fields, and I had almost a year of a jump start.

Aha, I should have seen the impossible density of the dots as a hint. That's really good news for me.

(Can I just say that no time limits and unlimited ships is my very favorite feature? Whew.)

Thanks for the tip...

-bloody stump finger

A bit of an annoyance that I just recently found on The End Zone. The enemies are often created directly on top of your ship. It would be nice if there was some way to keep that from happening, as I've died several times and it seems a bit of a silly way to die.

Oh come on people, this game is easy for a shoot em up and the first boss is super easy you basically just have to stay in place and shoot it and the small flys too and dodge it when it comes for you and in the crab boss i just hid behind a small bump next to the entry and i was completely safe but could shoot it when it was down.

and to beat turrets, just shoot a missile at them and you can get shields in the demo at the race challenge ( took me a couple of tries ) which makes you have double your original health!

cant wait to buy this, but yeah strafing might be cool but this is easy enough already.

and in my opinion mouse shot aiming would be stupid and just make the game boring, just go play some flash games if you want that.

Games nowadays are much easier than old games, arcade games for example and this game happens to be a shoot em up and shoot em ups are some of the hardest games in arcades, though they are still fun.

This post has been edited by Xaerock : 02 December 2006 - 04:59 AM

I think the game difficulty is perfect. Here's my take (and tips) on the issues brought up so far:

Strafing: I like that the game doesn't allow this. It makes for a fun and different sort of challenge.

Turrets: Hard at first, but I quickly discovered two strategies. First: backing up and turning is a great way to dodge their shots without getting too far away from them, and is a great substitute for strafing in general. And you can back up almost as fast as their bullets move, so if you find your aim is perfect and you don't want to dodge, just run straight back while shooting. You'll probably deal a good amount of damage before you get too far away or reach a wall.

Second turret strategy: They turn fairly slowly. If you fly up close to one, and go right past it, you can usually destroy it before it can face you. Once you get the beam weapon from the mini-boss near the second boss, this becomes even easier.

(I had my own problem with the turrets, which is that my otherwise great Kensington keyboard can't recognize two arrow keys and the space bar at the same time, so backing up, turning, and firing was impossible! I had to remap fire to the command key.)

Bosses: I agree that the bosses were surprisingly hard, and it took me quite a few tries to beat each one. This was annoying, until I realized that I could speed by most of the enemies between me and the boss, instead of fighting through them every single time.

Players with ship speed issues, turning issues, enemy difficulty issues, etc.: practice, practice, practice

Each boss requires a certain set of skills to beat. Just as the colored doors and the missile walls (and, I assume, the super-dense lava pit) are obstacles that the player cannot pass until they obtain a certain item, the bosses are obstacles that the player cannot pass until they develop a certain skill. The second boss, for example, requires the ability to shoot a small target accurately from a distance, and also requires decent skill in dodging bullets. By the time you can beat this boss, previously "difficult" enemies such as turrets seem rather simple. So the bosses are skill-checkpoints of a sort.

Having said all that, I must admit that I do play a lot of games. A difficulty control in the preferences might still be useful for younger or less experienced gamers. Playing through the game on an easier mode might prepare those players for the full-difficulty version of the game... and I imagine that after I've beat the game, I would enjoy playing it again on an extra-hard difficulty level.

Oh, but you will enjoy playing it in hard mode (unlocked once you first beat the game).