Games > SPACESHOOTER.TIC

Pretty good, though the button instructions are a bit confusing.

I agree with #19029, maybe try simplyfying the controls or at least make them more consistant.

other than that i really enjoy the game

Pretty nice game.

Is it possible to add a saving possibility?

Heyy thanks for your feedbacks ! I didn't wanted to use the mouse in this game, so yess the controles are a bit tricky. How could i change them to be less confusing ?

I would like so much to create a saving system but i couldn't figure out a way to import saves. i tried to make it with json files but there is no way for TIC-80 to load external ressouces... At least i didn't found out how. Help will be appreciated !

Hey! Awesome! this game has really come along since I last saw it! First of all I REALLY like where this game is going, and I got 4/5 station upgrades before I accidentally refreshed page (crai, I shoulda downloaded it, but also impressive I played for several hours in browser. No crashing/errors either!). Personally I really hope you keep making this game! I'm not so sure you really need to migrate engines unless you are dying for functionality not provided by TIC functions. But I can think of so many things you could do without migrating to make this game AMAZING!

1) since everyone else has mentioned it I think dedicated keyboard controls w/ keyp() should be default and controller inputs w/ btnp() secondary. I think arrows are perfect as they are, but having A and S above Z and X sucks pretty quick. Even replacing A+S with C+Z would be preferable so I can rest my lazy hand without lifting my sweaty lil palms.

2) I haven't tried it yet, but pmem() would probably be the way to go about your saves. You can only save up to 255 32-bit integer values, but I reckon it's perfectly doable. Presumably you would only need to save cash, health, ship state, base state, planet coordinates, and miner+turret types & coordinates. Presumably this would put a cap on the total in-world miners/turrets you can have, but that would probably still be at least 50 or more if you aren't saving anything else (if the format is [ [miner/turret type], [x-coord], [y-coord] ) then 50 turret/miners would take about 150/255 of your pmem values, so you can probably get away with a bit more. Depends on the number of planets. I wouldn't bother trying to use external save systems. TIC-80 is a nothing in - nothing out kind of deal, so pmem is probably your best (and only) bet.

3) It took me a while to figure out that pressing left and right simultaneously is why my GUI display kept changing, was very confusing, but great when I figured out why it was happening. Maybe change the input for that or pick your favourite GUI (personally I just like the bars, maybe just add numbers to the bars?, also very cool compass, I wish it was a tiny bit bigger, I keep forgetting its there but it looks lovely.)

3) There is a lot of things this game could use and ideas that would make this awesome, but I personally think this is more need of music than it seems. I played for at least 2 hours and had to put music on in the background. Make a nice lil spacey tune or something! Maybe also add an optional mute... I was playing for 2 hours, and I wouldn't want to listen to the same 1 song on repeat, but I also understand if you don't wanna make a bunch of sound assets. At least 1 optional music track would be nice though.

4) on that subject, some subtle sound cues wouldn't go amiss. gun impacts, coin pickups, a sound that lets me know something was damaged off-screen (maybe it could also leave a blip on the minimap for a while?)

5) The pressure is VERY LOW on this game. It was not challenging (although it was surprisingly fun nonetheless). The first thought I have is that it would be nice if at least one of those enemies shot at you/miners. The second thought I have is that the enemies damage you by touching you. What if you take advantage of that? Imagine, if you will, a ship that looks for you or your stuff and slowly bumbles up to it then releases 5 drones right on top of you or your stuff. Now that might keep me on my toes!

6) I remember that I would often try to use/ drop off money at the station and miners would always obstruct it. Maybe make it so if I touch my station it automatically takes my munee! Also maybe get turrets to sit on the edge of the station, or add a bay on the station so miners only go to that part of the station to drop off them dolla dolla bills.

7) This might be a way down the road but I think, given the scope of this game as is, it could use one of two things. Either [ 1 ] give it an ending, or a final goal to gravitate towards that feels a lil rewarding. OR [ 2 ] give it rougelite elements and make it a lot harder. So the game really wants to kill you but as you keep playing you earn purchasable upgrades that persist through death. Then you don't need an ending as much. Or if there is an ending it's still replayable because you didn't earn everything from one playthrough.

I'm sure I could think of 100 things to suggest for this game, I think it's a really cool game and I am eager for the next update! If, by chance you wanted to discuss it, or wanted some help with game saves or something feel free to add me on discord: ManlyPinkPony#9761

just to give a little elaboration on point 7 while I'm thinking of it:
you don't necessarily have to ADD things to earn that persist through death. You could take things you already have (like base/ship upgrades) that you hafta earn, but you start with nothing, not even turrets/ miners. Perhaps you hafta do certain events (like waves of enemies) to earn an upgrade. Or there is a rare chance of an enemy space base to fly across the map every so often that is guarded by unique enemies, and you gotta smash it.

This would give you a tradeoff with save states using pmem(). For instance: you would have to save some states for your progression tree (base progress, ship progress, turret progress, miner progress), but on the flip side you don't hafta worry about saving the locations of planets or miners or turrets. It would be a roguelite, so you are supposed to die anyway and you can just generate a new map every time. All the game needs to know is where in the progression tree you are and what unlocks you have. If you did this you might want to embellish it a little though with some supplementary unlocks, like bullet types, or ship types. stuff like that.

ALSO LAST IMPORTANT POINT BEFORE I GO!:
I could not for the life of me figure out how the miner station upgrade thing was supposed to work (the 4th miner upgrade I think). It put down a box, and my miners decided to hug up next to it and just... sit there. It was hard to move the thing because miners were obstructing it right in the middle, and I didn't know how to make them to get back to work. It seemed like they were ignoring me when I told them to move back to the planets. I managed to move the thing somewhere else finally and nothing seemed to happen so I got confused and recycled it so my miners would keep mining... I can't tell if it's broken or if I'm missing something here but it was a little confusing how it was supposed to work. I assumed it was like a shortcut for your miners to drop of money. Maybe clarify how that works? Or adjust it a lil? Or maybe it's broke? idk...

Fun game tho! :p