InterGalaXia - Playtest

[Danny]

Morning Everyone.

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InterGalaXia is now available for playtest. For those who are AppHub members you can download the game here:
http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-US...abf429f&type=1

You can download the game (21mb) and deploy it to your Xbox 360 for testing. I have extensively tested it for the duration of the development so I am very keen on any feedback, particularly any feedback in regards to the Evil Checklist.

Official Microsoft AppHub Forum Thread:
http://xboxforums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/107970.aspx

However, I am also keen on feedback to visuals / audio / gameplay.

Thanks in Advance,
Danny

[colej_uk]

Cool, I'll download tonight

[Sloxone]

Hi i test it tonight too
Would you like to test my game?

[Danny]

Sure thing Sloxone, Link meh!

[Sloxone]

Here:
http://catalog.create.msdn.com/en-US...d1f1342&type=1

[colej_uk]

Hi Danny,

I've played the game, here are some of my initial thoughts/suggestions/comments;

-At the start, the game asked me to sign in even though I already was.

-It would be nice to be able to navigate the menu with the left analog stick as well as the dpad.

-The menu & menu controls are nicely layed out and clear which is good.

-Did you build it with the latest beta (released today)? If not then it might help you cut down load times.

-The first time I played it (arcade mode) I didn't know all the controls and so I pressed Y and it restarted the level. Might be an idea to have the restart as an option in the pause menu or at least a promt asking me if I'm sure I want to restart. Even if you know the controls then it's quite easy to accidently press Y, which would ruin your progress. Many lazy players like me just like to jump into a game and learn the controls as they play instead of checking them before hand.

-I don't exactly know why but the weapon selection took some getting to used to. I think I'm just used to having the selected weapon highlighted, where as here the selected weapon is the one which isn't highlighted. I think a little arrow pointing to the selected weapon would work best.

-The purple swirly weapon is cool

-It might just be me being an idiot but I couldn't work out how to quit to the main menu once in-game?

-If you are looking for suggestions, I think a larger variety of sfx & music would be nice. 2 Player co-op would also be really cool but I know that would be a lot of work to implement.

Again, I don't know if you are looking to change the game much, but I think retro 8-bit graphics would work really well with it, I definitely got that vibe from the gameplay.

There are loads of 2D side scrolling shooters out there, so you do have a *lot* of competition. Nevertheless, it is fun and pretty cool

[Danny]

Cole, Thankyou very much for the rapid response.

I will address each point individually for you.

1) I created this initial screen regardless because there could be more than 1 profile logged into and I wanted to initialize and 'set' the active gamepad and active system index pre-title (this is so I could load settings/medals pre-title) and other ones. What do you think I should do? Just have it like a 'mini-title' screen, remove everything and just have a 'Press Start' flashing?

2) I will implement the code for Left-Stick navigation on the menus

3) Glad you liked it, I still have some polishing up to do before Peer Review.

4) I didn't build it with the latest release and I wouldn't be able to take that chance yet. The loading screen you see on the level load was put there on purpose, it's an active screen in front of the engine because the galaxy is generated at random so the user shouldn't get to see this until everything has finished initialising... Is that what you meant? Apart from that I don't get any other long loads... I could always decrease the amount of time that loading screen is displayed if you think that would be wise.

5) Y - Restarts the level yes. I think I may re-design the entire pause menu, at the moment it's quite static so I may just throw in a proper usable menu.

6) Yes, I did that intentionally with the weapon selection however, looking back now you're right lol, I really should dim the ones NOT in use and highlight the active one. Why I inverted these I don't know.

7) Thanks, I do plan for more weapons available in the sequel (which I already have planned) I really wanted this initial release as a sort of 'dipping the toe' into XBLIG

8) You're right again, you cannot quit. I'll integrate a proper pause menu.

9) I was thinking of ditching the music behind the level and just having an 'airy' type loop? 2 Player co-op I reserved for a sequel. That would take much longer to develop but I am game for developing it.

Could I ask you a HUGE favour? I really need to test the login/logout situation. My game loads the INI file on the title based on the currently logged in system index. Could you have a play about in different circumstances and login, logout, go to select profile, choose a different one etc.? I need to ensure this works.

Have you also tried with a second profile logging in and playing? I can't atm as I only have 1 pad, at the moment anyway!

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

[colej_uk]

I'll do a quick run through with the scenarios in the evil checklist later.

I didn't have an issue with the load times, they are perfectly fine. It's just that the less time spent loading the better, and the latest beta helps a lot with loading times. I've got a game which I am hopefully going to put up for review very soon because with the previous versions the loading time was just too long.

The start screen is fine, it's just that even though I was already logged into my profile, after I pressed start it still came up with the xbox log in pane thing. I'll double check this later.

[vittix]

-Did you build it with the latest beta (released today)? If not then it might help you cut down load times.

hi there is a new beta for xna exporter? where can i get that?

[colej_uk]

The XNA owner's lounge forum.