I'm loving the game so far, but I have to mention that the static noise for the hacker boss fight does not respond to the sound effect slider. The game is pretty loud by default, so I turned the volume down... and then I nearly had a heart attack from the sudden loud noise.
I also kinda wish that augments would tell you how much CPU they cost to install - if they do, I missed it. Other than that, I like it!
Hey, I just saw this (and spotted that you'd streamed it) -- thank you! It really means a lot to me to see other people enjoying the thing I made!
Apologies for the near-heart attack from the static! I added in sound effect sliders really late into development and apparently didn't catch everything that might have been affected by them.
Re the stuff you mentioned in the stream: you're right in that the main thing which affects the ending is whether or not you kill Emma and whether or not you open the station's comms. Once you've helped Emma wire the station, she'll carry out her plan to blow it and escape to Mars regardless of whether you escape with Paris or kill him.
And you were absolutely right: it is possible to get an ending in which Harold Phaiston gets what's coming to him -- although it takes a pretty circuitous route which I'd prefer not to entirely spoiler in the comments here :) The first step is to turn on Emma immediately after you've helped her wire the core to detonate; she'll drop what is arguably the most powerful secondary weapon in the game, even if not everybody recognises it as such.
(Oh, also, you can skip the ending credits / ending by hitting escape!)
Hi there! I'd really love to find all the endings . I got the weapon from finishing emma but do not know what to do next. I tried to "flaunt" it to paris at the violet area but ended detonating the ship. T.T "flaunted" it again at the docks area but instead detonated the ship. I'd like to know how to get to phaiston. I've been on it for soooooo long now. T.T couldn't find a walkthrough with all endings. hope you can help... Thanks!!
Hi, it's super flattering to hear from someone so long after putting the game out! To get through that door in the violet area, you need to activate the console in the room at the end of the red area where you and Emma fight the turret together. That will cycle the power and cause the doors to the secret, final area to open.
To kill Phaiston himself you need to go through a pretty convoluted path:
- cooperate with Emma in the red area to wire the core
- use the terminal to cycle the power in that room before you leave
- kill Emma immediately afterwards and take the detonator from her
- go back to the sealed door in the purple area, which will now be open
- in the area beyond, when you reach Paris, don't immediately murder him (this is possibly the most difficult step.) Disarm when he asks you to but keep the detonator equipped.
- join him on his escape pod
- during the ending sequence, Phaiston will now talk to the reporter from onboard the station instead of Paris. When he starts talking, press the button to activate the detonator.
Finally did it. The face the reporter made was similar to that screaming painting. Hahaha. But most importantly, the face of Phaiston. Is there an ending where Emma lives and Phaiston gets it? and maybe Paris too?
Anyway, thanks again so much. Now I can finally sleep peacefully. Hahahahha
Just finished it in a bit over 2h. Gameplay was fun, although I would have wished for actual controller support. There is a good variety of weapons and augments. The spacing between saves is also pretty good. The early game was a bit too easy (I played on the mid-difficulty level). I only died a few times at the end (after defeating the boss of the red zone).
I couldn't read what the first boss was saying, because it was behind his health bar. The text at the bottom of the screen (new Items etc.) is a bit blurry, should maybe be scaled with nearest neighbor. In general there were some dialogs that were skippable by pressing one of the fire buttons and some where this was not possible. Also, I got stuck in a wall twice*.
SFX were good, music was pretty nice too, except the fighting music of the dark blue zone. That one I LOVED! Animations good, enemy design also nice and varied, interesting color palette. The boss fight where you get hacked was also really great, although the screen indicating you were hacked (tv static) was not as nice as the rest of the graphics.
Overall, great game.
* Red zone, if you number the map from top left with (0,0) and the boss is at (0,1) safe point is at (0,2), move right (1,2) then down(1,3). There I got stuck in the top right walls when entering that screen. I had speed and cloak augments, which might be necessary to reproduce.
Thank you, that's really useful feedback! I would love to see the libraries you mentioned, I was never quite happy with the compromise on the particle effects.
First I just want to say that I LOVE the aesthetic you've got going on here. Big fan of the low res, limited palette, retro vibe, although I do feel like this could be improved in some areas. Most notably, the particle effects for enemy deaths don't conform to the same strict colour palette that's present for the other sprites, nor do they keep to the same rigid movement style that enemies do. There are some tools available for Unity that come help overcome these issues, I can send you a link to them if that's something you're interested in.
Some other QoL features would also go a long way such as the inclusion of a pause mode, controller support and firing with the directional keys, which was my first instinct considering this is a twin-stick shooter.
Also a huge fan of the enemy spawners and the animation of each new enemy being built piece by piece, an excellent little feature.
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Robostar Gameplay
I'm loving the game so far, but I have to mention that the static noise for the hacker boss fight does not respond to the sound effect slider. The game is pretty loud by default, so I turned the volume down... and then I nearly had a heart attack from the sudden loud noise.
I also kinda wish that augments would tell you how much CPU they cost to install - if they do, I missed it. Other than that, I like it!
Hey, I just saw this (and spotted that you'd streamed it) -- thank you! It really means a lot to me to see other people enjoying the thing I made!
Apologies for the near-heart attack from the static! I added in sound effect sliders really late into development and apparently didn't catch everything that might have been affected by them.
Re the stuff you mentioned in the stream: you're right in that the main thing which affects the ending is whether or not you kill Emma and whether or not you open the station's comms. Once you've helped Emma wire the station, she'll carry out her plan to blow it and escape to Mars regardless of whether you escape with Paris or kill him.
And you were absolutely right: it is possible to get an ending in which Harold Phaiston gets what's coming to him -- although it takes a pretty circuitous route which I'd prefer not to entirely spoiler in the comments here :) The first step is to turn on Emma immediately after you've helped her wire the core to detonate; she'll drop what is arguably the most powerful secondary weapon in the game, even if not everybody recognises it as such.
(Oh, also, you can skip the ending credits / ending by hitting escape!)
Thank you for the extra information! I'm planning on streaming it again at some point - it feels really good to play.
Oh, just so people aren't confused/want to see some gameplay:
Hi there! I'd really love to find all the endings . I got the weapon from finishing emma but do not know what to do next. I tried to "flaunt" it to paris at the violet area but ended detonating the ship. T.T "flaunted" it again at the docks area but instead detonated the ship. I'd like to know how to get to phaiston. I've been on it for soooooo long now. T.T couldn't find a walkthrough with all endings. hope you can help... Thanks!!
Hi, it's super flattering to hear from someone so long after putting the game out! To get through that door in the violet area, you need to activate the console in the room at the end of the red area where you and Emma fight the turret together. That will cycle the power and cause the doors to the secret, final area to open.
To kill Phaiston himself you need to go through a pretty convoluted path:
- cooperate with Emma in the red area to wire the core
- use the terminal to cycle the power in that room before you leave
- kill Emma immediately afterwards and take the detonator from her
- go back to the sealed door in the purple area, which will now be open
- in the area beyond, when you reach Paris, don't immediately murder him (this is possibly the most difficult step.) Disarm when he asks you to but keep the detonator equipped.
- join him on his escape pod
- during the ending sequence, Phaiston will now talk to the reporter from onboard the station instead of Paris. When he starts talking, press the button to activate the detonator.
Oh my gosh no wonder it would be so difficult to pull off. Thanks so much for spilling the beans!!! gotta get to work on it now. hahahaahah
Your game is really good. thanks again so much. good luck with your new projects. looking forward to them!
Finally did it. The face the reporter made was similar to that screaming painting. Hahaha. But most importantly, the face of Phaiston. Is there an ending where Emma lives and Phaiston gets it? and maybe Paris too?
Anyway, thanks again so much. Now I can finally sleep peacefully. Hahahahha
Just finished it in a bit over 2h. Gameplay was fun, although I would have wished for actual controller support. There is a good variety of weapons and augments. The spacing between saves is also pretty good. The early game was a bit too easy (I played on the mid-difficulty level). I only died a few times at the end (after defeating the boss of the red zone).
I couldn't read what the first boss was saying, because it was behind his health bar. The text at the bottom of the screen (new Items etc.) is a bit blurry, should maybe be scaled with nearest neighbor. In general there were some dialogs that were skippable by pressing one of the fire buttons and some where this was not possible. Also, I got stuck in a wall twice*.
SFX were good, music was pretty nice too, except the fighting music of the dark blue zone. That one I LOVED! Animations good, enemy design also nice and varied, interesting color palette. The boss fight where you get hacked was also really great, although the screen indicating you were hacked (tv static) was not as nice as the rest of the graphics.
Overall, great game.
* Red zone, if you number the map from top left with (0,0) and the boss is at (0,1) safe point is at (0,2), move right (1,2) then down(1,3). There I got stuck in the top right walls when entering that screen. I had speed and cloak augments, which might be necessary to reproduce.
Thank you, that's really useful feedback! I would love to see the libraries you mentioned, I was never quite happy with the compromise on the particle effects.
First I just want to say that I LOVE the aesthetic you've got going on here. Big fan of the low res, limited palette, retro vibe, although I do feel like this could be improved in some areas.
Most notably, the particle effects for enemy deaths don't conform to the same strict colour palette that's present for the other sprites, nor do they keep to the same rigid movement style that enemies do. There are some tools available for Unity that come help overcome these issues, I can send you a link to them if that's something you're interested in.
Some other QoL features would also go a long way such as the inclusion of a pause mode, controller support and firing with the directional keys, which was my first instinct considering this is a twin-stick shooter.
Also a huge fan of the enemy spawners and the animation of each new enemy being built piece by piece, an excellent little feature.