Need feedback on my first proper game

[crazyDev]

Hey everyone.

I somehow managed to finish a somewhat proper game "Shoot the bastards!", thanks to this community's help.

Edit: Now playable on firefox as well.

Here's how it looks on mobile:

Here's the link to play it:

http://raiprographics.com/crazydev/shootEm/ Mild NSFW warning.

Controls: Directional keys to move and space to shoot, and onscreen controls on mobile.

So these are my queries:

1. The performance on mobile still isn't satisfactory. How to improve performance? I will provide you with link to the main game state file if you need that to answer it.
2. Can this game make any money? If so, how?
3. How to properly package it for distribution? I know I need to minify and obfuscate the code but don't know how. Is the package created by Intel XDK fine or should I manually install SDKs and package it using them?
4. Can I use the name "Shoot the bastards!" on play store, or do I need a more family friendly one? Should I also remove profanity from the game (the aliens call you a pu$$y once in a while)?

Any feedback is appreciated, and thanks again for helping me make this far.

[bruno_]

The game looks pretty cool.

I think you are on the right track.

 

My suggestions:

- The menus and start to play should all be with the keyboard, I had to use the mouse to play.

- I couldn't play in firefox, only in chrome.

 

In firefox I have this warnings:

Phaser.Loader - textureatlas[statics]: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

Phaser.Loader - textureatlas[invader]: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

Phaser.Cache.getImage: Key "statics" not found in Cache.

Cannot set frameName: shipLarge

 

Hope to see more from this game.

 

[TheHappyRock]

Played on the web

Great job getting a game to the point that people and play it!!!!!

Agreed that having to use the mouse is award, allow start with keyboard.

Performance was fine.

I didn't like how the ship would disappear and reappear when the click start, it is visually jolting.  If the guy disappeared after a stage it would be ok, or if he moved and stayed in the starting position it better, or if you allowed him to fly in and then start the stage, maybe best.

I found myself almost solely holding space and not paying attention to the guys and only dodging. 

I think a health bar would be visually more appealing than a number.   Have it go green/yellow/red as you get closer to death.

I think pacing needs to be a little slower, the game is a bit hard and intense from the beginning.  Let the players like the game before before making it hard or you will probably just lose them.  Generally, you want to make the players feel good not make them feel bad about themselves.

For monetization, certainly having a power up shop would be a natural fit.  Either allow them to collect coins on screen, or make the score into gold and allow them to earn permanent power ups.  Each power up would allow you to get deeper into the game.  The shop could also have fun items like cool ship models, backgrounds, etc.  

 

[crazyDev]

Thanks for your feedback @bruno_ and @TheHappyRock.

I fixed the Firefox issue by changing the JSON files' encoding to ANSI.

I also removed the ship's disappearance and movement. Now that only happens if you're killed. 

Also put a health bar with changing colors. Making the game easier(in the beginning) as well.

For monetization I just want to put some ad in the menu or between some levels at most, nothing special. As this is only my first proper game I want to make at least 2 more full blown games, a platformer and a tile based one, before I decide to expand them, so that I have some knowledge to do that.

I don't know how to make the menu navigate by keyboard, so will have check that out. Any more ideas on how to make the game more engaging are welcome.

[drhayes]

Congrats on finishing a game! I bet most people don't get that far. It's really something. I played in a desktop browser.

I like the art and animation. The music was kinda distracting, but I could turn it off so that's nice. I like the insults.

Having to switch between keyboard and mouse, not just for the main menu but also during the game itself, was not so great. It seemed like there were a couple of times where it said "Click to begin" where I had to click the word "click"? That was unexpected -- how about just spacebar the whole way through?

The hitboxes on the aliens and the player seemed big to me. My bullets are hitting blank spots on the aliens and vice-versa. Making it so I die instantly if the aliens pass the bottom seems pretty harsh; maybe it should just cause damage? Like TheHappyRock said, it feels like it gets hard immediately on the second level.

Looks like my player can go off the edges of the screen and disappear.

If I pause the game, go to menu, then start a new game my score stays where it was before I quit.

It'd be cool if there were more of an impact when the bullets hit, both on the player and the aliens. I think the hitboxes are really hurting here -- the bullet, the alien, and the explosion all kind of *feel* like they're in different places.

[fsboc]

Hey nice game! Assuming this is all client side Javascript incorporating phaser.js, I think you can make the menu navigate by keyboard using something like:

document.onkeydown = checkKey;

and  function checkKey(e) { e = e || window.event; if(secsPassed <gameTime ||gameOver==true) { if (e.keyCode == '37') { //do one thing     } else if (e.keyCode == '39') { //do other thing     } } }   my only suggestion is maybe to consider making ammo a limited resource. Again nice game!