Universal Gun Rounds (by Tobin Huitt)

I like this game, but I am terrible at it. I guess I have poor reaction time.

 

You know what, I figured it out! Seems like the timer doesn't stop counting until you "tap to continue" after a gameover, so the times are off. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix that in the next update

Haha I'm glad you like it! It's definitely very challenging, and judging by some of the iTunes ratings (oof) it might be a bit too hard for a decent amount of players. I might have to quickly patch together an easy mode.

 

Just submitted a quick update that adds an Easy Mode! It seems like a few people (or at least the people who are actually rating the game) are having issues with the difficulty, so hopefully this'll help. It's perfect anyway, since I needed to pave the way for a game mode selection screen for a big future update anyway....

 

Hi! I am loving the game, very unique and fun, and I will NEVER stick to the Easy mode - I will die trying! :-D
I have only one minor suggestion: I think you should also get some sort of audio feedback when you got hit, because most of the times - in the middle of a battle - it's hard for me to realize if I parried the shot or I got hit.
I know there is a little flash on the screen, but it's too little for me in the chaos of a battle.
Please think about this, you might also find a different solution to make you "feel the hit" a little more - which adds to the tension.

 

I read the review yesterday as well.
While I disagree calling this game a shallow shooter with the amount of and the uniqueness of weapons and perks, he does have a point where defensive action is governed by the muscle memory, reflex, and attack pattern knowledge.

Maybe the defense system can be enhanced in future updates. Well, I tried to come up with an idea but I am too hungry right now.

 

I haven’t had chance to play much yet either but as the post says above I’d like an easier way to know when I get hit as at the moment I can’t always tell while I’m watching to block more shots. Maybe an option to turn vibrate on hit on? So whenever I get hit it vibrates for my phone just with one buzz.

 

Didn't think I'd need to pull out this rusty account ever again, yet here we are.

I mean...if enemies only had one attack, the complaints about recognizing attack patterns and whatnot would be 110% on point, but you barely have time to recognize what's being thrown your way in order to react. Yes, it starts off incredibly easy once you've learned patterns, but when the screen's littered with enemies, it gets increasingly hard to react based on muscle memory.

You know, all that said, I do understand where this is coming from, and I don't know if it's the same on hard, but I have a plausible solution: Randomize the enemy attacks. As is, they all start with the leftmost enemy and work from left to right. This way, memorization plays a big role. By randomizing which enemies attack, it mostly negates this issue. Perhaps the upcoming easy mode can remain as is, while normal (?) and hard have randomized attacks? Food for thought @blabberf

 

Ignore below if you want to discover what the hard mode is like yourself.

Spoiler: What the hard mode is like

Well, I was intentionally hiding what the hard mode is, so that people can figure it out on their own, but basically what you described is what the hard mode is.
A bee may use attacks for mushrooms, octopus, or even that of the final boss.

Did the difficulty increase? Yes, the fact that I have to first determine what the attack is, combined with +1 on enemy attack strength and increased enemy numbers, the difficulty did increase substantially.

Did it make the game interesting? Not for me. Because enemies can use all of the attacks in the game, enemies lost their characteristics.

Enemy’s appearances lost meaning. A circle with a letter E with different health values would serve the same purpose.

I would’ve preferred added attack patterns rather than randomized attacks.


I will still tackle the hard mode from time to time, but not as enthusiastic as I was with the normal Mode

 

Oh WOW that's a lot of discussion. I'll try to respond to everyone without making too huge of a post!

Glad you're enjoying the game! I can for sure do that, there IS actually a unique sound that plays when the player gets hit but it is a bit subtle haha I can add a little more feedback.

Thank you very much, that means a lot to me! I know reviews are subjective and I'm a bit biased, but I definitely would disagree with their description haha. But yeah the shopkeep is brutal, you have to REALLY want those free items! Luckily, if you defeat him, he forgives you and is happy to sell you more items next time

I'm not sure I really understand the point, is it bad that defense is governed by those things? Haha I'm not trying to be sassy, genuine question! I've been having a weird experience where about 50% of players have said "this game is amazing, the difficulty makes me feel alive, I'm addicted and I'll never forgive you" and the other 50% straight-up think it's trash.

I wanted to add that feature, but for some reason Gamemaker doesn't give me any ability to use haptic feedback. So we'll have to stick with visual/audio for now!

I don't feel like I understand what you're saying here to be honest! It kind of seems like you're saying the opposite of a lot of people, which is that the game is too easy? Haha if so you've got to be the first and I am amazed at your reflexes.

At any rate, it seems like weirdly enough, the iOS users are much more vocal about the difficulty being too intense than the Android users! Not sure if that has anything to do with the respective platforms, but interesting to note. Anyway, I do understand peoples' issues with the difficulty, so hopefully the easy mode will take care of that!

 

Haha, not at all! I'm definitely on the "difficulty makes me feel alive" side and I wouldn't change a thing. I'm just saying that (literally) the first couple of rounds become really easy when you've gotten used to the enemy patterns. After that, it's an all out war.

 

Ahhh I see! Glad to meet a fellow masochist haha. Yeah a problem that early testers had was that Farmlands felt too easy, so I tried to really up the difficulty (even I sometimes can't make it through Farmlands if I'm not paying attention). Although, It seems like the difficulty of the first level is what's frustrating some people I think if I make it any harder I'm really gonna be in trouble!

 

Well thank you, and you have a good point, hopefully the addition of easy mode will make the game feel more approachable to people! Haha the goblin backstab is a very popular attack to hate, I wish I had enable some kind of API that would let me see how many players died to it!

Also, I'm toying with the idea of making Polymorph change chests & shop items into other items...

 

Is the defense system bad? No, I think it’s fine as it is, but can be enhanced.
I am trying to think of an idea but haven’t came up with something interesting yet.

 

I think the only thing missing at the moment is an online leaderboard (although I can live without it... my competitive instinct is close to null).

The goblin backstab attack is kinda easy to block, thanks to the sound cue. I've lost more times to bee sting attacks or slime 1-2 shots, than to backstab attacks.

The only "issue" I had with gameplay was the cancel attack button, [X], getting in the way when I was aiming at enemies located at the upper left corner of the screen, but now I'm used to the UI and can avoid that (also, I have thin fingers).

And, since this game is kind of leaning to the "addictive" spectrum, getting back to the action faster is welcome. As a friend said, it's not so nice seeing your character shooting at the title when it's been only 30 seconds since the last time you saw that. A retry button at the Game Over screen will be very welcome by many [masochistic people], myself included.

I'm looking forward to Easy mode myself, since I'm pretty sure it'll do as a fine "trainer" of sorts. Zone 3-4 is still the farthest I've made it! (ಥ﹏ಥ)

One more time: GREAT GAME; THANK YOU!

 

I was thinking about adding a leaderboard, but in the end it turned out I straight-up couldn't figure out how to do that so I didn't haha I've only been programming for about a year so I don't really know much about coding. But, I actually am adding a quick-restart feature right now!

I'm wondering, for the people who are wanting this feature, would you rather have it so that the game instantly restarts with whatever game mode you were using for the current run, or it makes you choose again? My feeling is that it'd probably be better to just jump right back in with the same mode, since adding 1 extra step would kind of negate the point of a "quick" restart