More levels in Titan Attacks or not?

[princec]

TI has 50 levels in it (40 in the recently released alpha). I can't help but think that's a bit on the skanky side seeing as some of you have just breezed through to the end of the game in 3 goes flat.

Do you think I should double the number of levels? (I'd just use each background twice in a row).

It would mean that you spend somewhat more time on a particular planet, and have to wait rather longer to come across a boss... but you'd have a lot longer to earn cash to build up your guns.

Cas :)

[Savant]

I think the planets are just about the right length as it is. I'm just getting tired of Earth as we move to the moon...

I think 50 is somewhat skinny, but then again - the game is $10 or less. I think that's good value for the money. But, of course, more is always better and the more you have, the more willing the customer will be to grab the full version.

[Anthony Flack]

I don't think you want to spend more time on each planet. Perhaps you could ask Chaz if he could find it in his heart to do a quick stopover by Jupiter on the way to Saturn? 60 levels vs 50 could make all the difference if the last ones were well evil.

[Gnatinator]

I'm with Savant, the amount of levels seemed about right to me. :)

The game is already quite a gem, a 10 dollar pricetag in its current form wouldn't be unreasonable.

IMO, repeating level backgrounds will just thin out the experience and make it more mediocre.

[princec]

Well, not exactly thin out the experience... it lets me put in a few new alien behaviours and formations. Still lots to blast etc. You won't really notice the backgrounds.

Cas :)

[Gnatinator]

Any chance of some exclusive alien behaviours and formations as per difficulty path?

I don't wanna sound intrusive or anything, but I personally really missed a difficulty option.

[luggage]

The length seemed fine, it just wasn't that balanced.

I finished it on my 3rd go but it was mainly due to finding a sweet spot for the smart bombs. I'd buy one bomb, then use it on the level and I'd still have enough cash to buy another bomb for the following level.

I also found it got a little easier in the middle. The level where there's lots of green space invader things were quite easy to wipe through. And the ones where they all fall down from the sky towards the ground likewise. Only problems I have is just clipping those bombs that explode slowly.

Power up wise I never did more than what I needed. 1 for speed, 4 or 5 for shield and an extra bullet or two.

--edit--

Forgot to say, can you draw the enemies bullets on top of everything else. A couple of times I got hit because it was hidden behind a power up.

[Savant]

I see these comments going in a bad direction so I'll put this request in: please don't make it harder. Balancing it against the skill set on these forums would be a major mistake. It's plenty hard as it is.

[luggage]

Savant is right - don't make it harder, just balance it a little more.

eg. The aliens who have spinning balls round them and bounce round the screen are tougher (especially when there's a few) then some of the later levels.

And maybe have the bosses have a pattern to them. Or if they already have it's a tricky pattern. Sometimes I couldn't get underneath to get a shot at them and there didn't seem a "2 shots from here, 2 shots from there, pause, big shot" type sequence I could use to get a few shots in there.

[aaron]

I can't agree with the last two comments.... this game definitely needs to either be harder or to have a difficulty setting. I played way too much of the game on my first go.

[Leper]

Honestly the farthest I got was the moon (on 6th try) so I guess I'm not as skilled as most peeps here :) I found the game fun as is, but I dont see a prob with adding more levels.

[Savant]

Honestly the farthest I got was the moon (on 6th try) so I guess I'm not as skilled as most peeps here
Yep, and I've only reached the second mothership.

Most people on this board are expert game players. Balancing a game against the general skill level on this board would be a real mistake.

[cliffski]

does the pause button still pause the game on the shop menu? thats really annoying.. :D

[Hamumu]

What I see in terms of balance is that the late game is too easy. I struggled through the beginning, but once I finally had the money to crank up some addons (my favorite upgrade, except that they don't work with autofire... intentional? My hand started to hurt), extra bullets, and gun power, suddenly it was a breeze. Levels went from taking 1-2 minutes down to literally 2-5 seconds.

Particularly Saturn is something of a joke - you're either utterly dead (if you don't clear them right away), or you win in 1/8 second. I don't know what to recommend on Saturn, because if you make the enemies tougher it'll just mean you definitely are utterly dead. It would be nice if losing a shield then protected you from further harm for a second, because most of the time (Saturn by far the worst), you lose big chunks of shield all at once. But in general, I would recommend tougher enemies later on, to make those upgrades needed. The last 10 levels may provide that once they're done. I wouldn't recommend flipping that around and just making upgrades more expensive, because it's fun to have lots of big guns.

When you compare this game to Ultratron, I breezed through this on my 2nd try (with x5 multipliers most of the way), and Ultratron I have never even gotten to the 3rd boss.

Like people say, don't tune it to us... except you ARE trying to make hardcore games, aren't you? So maybe you should, I don't know. I'm giving you what my experience was, use as you wish.

And in case you hadn't already planned it: some reasonable amount of indication when you get hit would be very nice! It's impossible to tell now.

Oh, I do have one big Saturn idea - make the enemies come in several waves instead of one giant clump right away. At least then the level would last a little while.

[lakibuk]

The game is a lot of fun.
What about doing this:
After you have completed all 50 levels the game gets saved and you start from the beginning. Score reset to 0, weapon upgrades removed.
But it's harder, more enemies etc.
If you complete 50 waves again the game gets saved again. Third level of difficulty starts.
Separate hi-scores for all 3 or 4 levels of difficulty.
This would add great depth and replayability to the game.
Would also be quite some work though.

Yes,Hamumu is right. If you have levelled up your ship when you arrive at Titan, it gets to easy. Had no problem rushing through the waves with my gun power and addons.
EDIT: Titan? Sorry, don't know what i am talking of. I mean after the 2nd mother, the yellow level. Add a map of space! (kidding)

[Tom Cain]

I like Karl's idea of replaying the levels. A different way of doing that would be like Diablo, where you don't change the enemies or their patterns, you just increase their health and point/money drops. If you do this according to a formula and don't reset the score each time, the game would never end and ever-higher scores could be achieved.

[electronicStar]

Maybe you could unlock a special mode after completion of the game where the player is in space and fights forever random difficult waves of aliens with a few stops at the shops thrown in between.

BTW this game seems to be tailored for expansion packs (wink wink)

[arcadetown]

In the free demo you'll probably give 10 levels and 30 or 60 minute total demo limit to boot? If so 50 levels is good as you get 4 times more fun. If was a $20 game I'd want 100+ levels. For $10 think it's a good sales proposition.

HeavyWeapon was a relative dud for Popcap. IMHO because the full version had only 18 levels and could easily blow through 8 - 10 levels in the demo. Thus not enough perceived value.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

In the free demo you'll probably give 10 levels and 30 or 60 minute total demo limit to boot? If so 50 levels is good as you get 4 times more fun. If was a $20 game I'd want 100+ levels. For $10 think it's a good sales proposition.

For the demo, may I recommend cutting people off 1/2-way through the first boss. Just fade the screen to black and thank them for playing.

F.E.A.R. did that recently, and it had me hooked. You get to play lots of normal stuff. And just as you get to something really cool, the player is left hanging, leaving them wanting more...

-Hiro_Antagonist

[Vorax]

For action games I also second what I call the - "Rip out their heart out" form of demo evaluation. This strategy wouldn't work nearly (or at all) for a quiet puzzle game, but for an action game it's the equivelant of a cliff hanger. I bet alot of people will wip out their credit card right then just to continue the adrenaline buzz :)

[princec]

Version up now has twice the levels - see what you think. Total in the game now will be 100 levels, and I can easily give away 20 levels now in the demo.

Cas :)