Xenotron - Retro space shooter

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#1

We’ve been with a group of friends working on an Android 2D arcade-styled spaceshooter for the past few months named Xenotron. None of us had any previous mobile game development experience, so it has been a great learning experience for all of us. The team consists of two programmers, two graphic artists and one UX designer.

Story of the game:

[quote]Galactic years pass in great revolutions that last for eons. Distant suns are born and finally lost in the hellfire of mighty supernovae. Countless new sentient civilizations rise, reach for the stars and fall to entropy. And yet the mystery of the Xenotron has remained shrouded. Until now. Three powerful factions face a fatal race to unveil the greatest mystery of the universe. A colossal interstellar war is upon us. Choose between awe and genocide. Enter the Xenotron.
[/quote]
Please leave any and all feedback, as we try and narrow down the direction of the game. You can also check out our development blog at http://xenotrongame.com

Available for free on Google Play (no ads either!):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xenotrongame.client

Teaser trailer:

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#2

Looks good, I can’t play it because I don’t actually have a android device.

It seems like you’ve got everything perfect, except for a few things in game feel.

The ship seems slow, I might understand if there was upgrades, but by the look of the jets on the back of the spaceship, it doesn’t look very “satisfying”.

Also, add a little bit of screen shake. It is an action game, and the explosions look like they have “Umph”. But the player doesn’t really feel it physically. Because not allot of android devices vibrate, I recommend adding a little screen shake in some of the explosions.

#3

Thanks for the fast feedback!

That screen shake is actually a very good idea! We are already making some camera changes to the next version where the camera is slightly behind on the movements of the ship, so it won’t always be centered, but applying some further effects to the camera movement sounds like a good idea.

Although it may be obvious for some, we haven’t actually even though about using vibration at all, but now that you mentioned it, it seems like it’d be something we’d definitely need to implement on hits as well.

#4

If you are going to implement vibrations, for goodness sake give an option to turn them off. Firstly, a lot of people don’t even like vibrations when they use XBox/PS controllers, and phone vibrations tend to be more “annoying” if you know what I mean. Secondly, vibrations eat up battery. If you’ve already got all these nifty graphics burning through the battery, a lot of people aren’t going to appreciate you adding vibrations to that.

I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m saying give people the option to disable it.

#5

Good point quew8, it’ll have to be adjustable by the user.