Frequent Flyer, a small shoot-em-up game

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#21

Hey! Thanks for the suggestions, I definitely want to make some kind of a floating enemy that charges you, not sure how helicopters fit ww2 theme though :slight_smile:

For the past two days I made plenty of changes:

  • Gameplay: all plane lives increased by one
  • Gameplay: slow rocket rework: start very slow, gain speed as time progresses
  • Gameplay: death ray no longer slows your plane on use
  • Gameplay: large gray zeppelin: scatters bullets on death now
  • Gameplay: large gray zeppelin has 8 lives now
  • Gameplay: weapon spread: your own bullets do not overlap
  • Gameplay: secondary weapon, bomb remake: projectiles are more slow, fly much further, 4x times bigger
  • Gameplay: enemy bomb explosion projectiles fly more slowly (and speed up as time passes by)
  • Graphics: bubble around plane (after dive / hit): dimensions fixed
  • Graphics: fixed large screen infinite mode texture problem: the backgrounds will appear in a timely manner now (no blue blank spaces)
  • UI: background gets darker after pause button has been pressed (for consistency)
  • UI: added clarification for plane price (stars)
  • UI: main menu resulotion changed
  • UI: main menu, credits button replaced to be a bit prettier
  • UI: showing exp bar instead of “NEXT UNLOCK: SCORE” at the end of level
  • sound: engine sound turns off after player dies
  • android: will attempt to login to google play once per launch only. to retry, special connection button will appear in the settings screen
  • android: no more toast messages when user cancels connection to google play

Zeppelin explosion intented to make you use dive more often. Here’s the bullet scatter screens:

J0, let me know if the page is still unavailable to you. (And yes, I’m kind of curious where did you get the second link :stuck_out_tongue: )

#22

Alright I went onto the normal page, seems to work now, but the applet is much smaller than what I’m used to, for some reason…

Also, here’s where I found that link: I went here from your website, then I went into the html and found this line:

I added [icode]http:[/icode] before the contents of the [icode]src[/icode] attribute, and it brought me to that page where it worked :stuck_out_tongue:
(by the way, it still does, and it shows with normal size there hahah)

J0 :slight_smile:

#23

Cool! I don’t mind if you use itch.io version, it’s just I don’t update it as often (not many people check it out). By the way, I see that you develop games, feel free to PM me anytime in case you want to show off something or need help with java. I also have some libgdx tutorials in case you want to get into that (I stalked your profile a bit and saw your libgdx topic from a year ago). :slight_smile:

Made a mostly-UI update today:

  • notifications when you have enough stars for new plane after the game ends
  • settings screen rework: easier to press buttons
  • time attack: time from bonuses changed to 3 seconds (up from 2)
  • reverse gun: made it a bit more useful (4 bullets instead of 2, 90 degrees difference)
  • “close” button added to all dialogs
  • going to ask to vote for us on steam (only once)
#24

I really like this game, unlocked all planes around the 25 point mark!

Some stuff that caught my mind:
-The follow aim is very jittery when you do not move the mouse but keep pressing and aiming with the keyboard is very inaccurate bc it’s too fast.
-The guns are positioned wrong and do not differ between planes, for example the me262 irl had 4 30mm guns in it’s nose (instead of in it’s turbines ;D) but i can live with that, it’s an arcade game and plays well.

Your sprites look really nice and fit the theme of the whole game well! I also like the menu a lot!

Did you consider about adding different guns, like mgs and cannons and placing them “historically accurate” in the plane? This would add some variety beyond minor speed and health differences.

#25

Thanks a lot for your feedback, I really appreciate that you took a time to unlock all the planes at 25! Good ideas, I actually really want to implement separate upgrades for each plane that would add some more uniqueness. Not sure about guns, but maybe perks (regain energy on kills? chance to avoid damage alltogether? take no damage from collissions? etc, etc).

The thing is, I’m doing this fulltime and I’m somewhat struggling to get the game on Steam. If it’s not interesting enough to get Greenlit - I’m not sure if it’s worth developing much further. I want to add mission mode, some more enemies and a few more upgrades at the very least, but I’d probably stop there if the game won’t be interesting and commercially viable at that point. It may be a good idea to switch to something else eventually :slight_smile: I am just a simple developer with no real marketing skills.

#26

There are a lot of similar games on the internet, so I think you need to really have a lot of unique content and gameplay to make people interested in yours :slight_smile:
Alright here are a couple ideas I came up with:
-> How about enemies in the background, such as tanks or battleships: can’t collide with them, can’t shoot them normally (they can aim at you with anti-air missiles though), but you can drop bombs on them
-> Some kind of ‘adventure’ mode where you have to go through a number of different environments (for example, moving around in canyonlands or glaciers, having to dodge both enemies and obstacles) — however, you would need to either design pre-made levels or make a level generator
-> You could also add some kind of boss fights (for example a huge flying machine or boat that takes up the entire screen, spawns other enemies and shoots missiles at you, you have to hit weak points to take it down)
-> And, of course, tons of upgrades, but from your last post you’re already working on that :wink:

J0 :slight_smile:

#27

Yeah, actually working on the content part :slight_smile: Polish is important for me too now, so I’m trying to balance between introducing new stuff and improving of what’s already there.

Past 2 days I was actually working on a mission mode. It will present a set of challenges of increasing difficulty while rewarding player with stars :slight_smile: makes the game a bit more objective-oriented. 7 easy missions are there atm, but I want to add at least 23 more.

Soo, as of today:

  • mission mode! Complete tasks & earn stars, gradually getting into the game.
  • mode selection screen rework: less annoying popups
  • bugfix: reseting controls after the game (sometimes plane turned/started shooting by itself after game restart)
  • time bonus: new sound
  • time bonus: animation on pickup
#28

Tried all the missions, good stuff! I’d suggest adding complementary challenges to some missions that bring even more stars: for example, the ‘survive’ challenges are quite easy if you just make your way without fighting enemies back, so you could have an additional challenge to kill x enemies or reach x score; in the same way, missions that ask you to kill x enemies are quite simple if you wait to kill only basic enemies, so you can add the additional challenge to kill at least 80% zeplins :point:

I just have a very quick and simple request: could you please put back the link to the browser version each time you post an update? Tired of scrolling back all the way up…

#29

The jittering when using follow control is still there :stuck_out_tongue: It’s very annoying…
Try holding down the left mouse button, while holding the mouse still, the planes rotation jitters.

#30

Eh, the follow function was kind of mobile oriented, but if you are using it on PC: sure :slight_smile: Fixed the jittering today.

Here’s the full list of fixes:

  • New enemy plane: seeker, follows the player around
  • Five new missions
  • Fixed jittering in touch follow / joystick mode
  • Bonuses are going to spawn closer to you (and mostly in your way)
  • Guaranteed to drop health bonus for every 1000 score now

Latest Version Here: http://coldwild.com/flyer

#31

Okay, v1.1.2 is out today! :slight_smile: Lots of changes, actually. Play the game here: http://coldwild.com/flyer

Added new enemies that made game harder (and more interesting in my opinion to play) as you progress.

  • new enemy: toxic plane, drags a cloud of toxins behind, slowing player by 10%/second
  • new enemy: follow plane (flies in front of you and fires bullets)
  • new enemy: booster rocket: speeds up, then slows down, then turns towards the player, then the cycle repeats. Happy dodging!
  • adding 6 new missions
  • spread3 cannon bullet damage reduced to 1 (down from 2)
  • seeker plane changes: 2 lives, becomes invulnerable for 0.6 seconds after being hit
  • changed spawns in infinite / organized / timed attack modes: new enemy types can spawn instead of the old enemy types. Replacements: scout -> toxic plane, seeker plane -> zeppelin, flying bomb -> booster rocket, minelayer -> following plane
  • shooting enemies will delay their shots if enemy hits them (if you shoot at an enemy - he won’t shoot back)
  • fixed bug when flying bombs kept exploding after respawn
  • fixed a bug when settings would not get saved after exiting the application
#32

Made a relatively small update, v1.1.3

  • bonuses fly towards you (if you are close enough)
  • you can also shoot with Z key
  • 3 new soundtracks!

Going to prepare for GameOn convention in Lithuania (going to be there to show off my game!). If anyone is going to be around - feel free to drop by :slight_smile:

#33

After quite a long delay, made a huge update to the game. unfortunately, I cannot update web/mobile anymore (added tons of detail/background stuff, so they are just slow, so I’m focusing on my greenlight, here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744697163)

Added more background effects (birds / planes / explosions) and changed UI a bit, here’s how it looks:

Here’s the task display:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/EvilFaithfulAmoeba-size_restricted.gif(image larger than 102400KB)

The GameOn Lithuania felt like a success :slight_smile: Found out my target audience: mostly kids liked the game (11-14 year old boys). Now I have idea about people who might like it, but zero thoughts about how to promote it to them (and should I even do it?). I enjoyed building community, it’s nice to meet lots of people and find out more about them when they are playing your game.

Full changelist:

  • Seeker planes (the ones that fly around you and fire at you) no longer have shields, lives increased to 3 from 2
  • Black rockets now have 2 lives and a shield (same as seeker plane used to be)
  • Tasks added! You can get additional small challenges during your game.
  • More Background effects
  • Changed keyboard handling in menus (just control the mouse)
  • Decreased Spawn Time in Infinite Mode
  • Shotgun: increased time between shots
  • Toxic planes now fire at you
  • Seeker planes now fire at you occasionally
  • UI: Not displaying speed, changed ammo display
#34

Voted! Your steam trailer is really good!

#35

Thanks! :slight_smile: Not sure if you’re serious, I have mixed feelings about it: from one point, it’s the best I could do (I think it shows action / transitions pretty well), on the other hand - well, I made it from a really raw version of the game, so it just looks somewhat unpolished to a lot of people (and I can totally get that). I’ve improved my game a lot since the time I made a trailer tho and not planning to give up, I’m going to improve the game quality as long as it is necessary until people consider it to be a worthy addition to Steam. :slight_smile:

Again, thanks for your support, it really means a lot to me!

#36

I was totally serious! The music is really cool and the trailer showcases a lot of action. Its 100 percent better than my trailer lol.