Dev, Is there anyway to put in an option to select just the black background for use in all the levels? I sometimes get really crazy off colored back grounds that bother my eyes. See pic. I would love o just have the black space background for all the ships.
Hey - I can definitely have a look at changing some of the backgrounds if they are causing discomfort. Is it just that particular colour combination that bothers you? Or are there others too? Adding an always black option may cause some issues with other ships (like proto) that are already pretty dark and need a light background, but it's something I'll have a think about how I can improve.
Oh for me it's the opposite.. I find the black background hard on the eyes.. too much contrast I guess. So maybe a 3-way option: black only, colored only, all?
Having a quick think about it, I might be able to have a "Lighter/Normal/Darker" option that multiplies in white or black to the background to make it a little dark or brighter depending on your preference. I'll need to be a little careful that I don't make some ships unplayable because they rely on the background being light or dark.
I'm also sorry I didn't get an update last weekend! I actually went down to PAXAUS, so didn't get any development time. I've got some time blocked out next weekend for a build I want to try for a mission system.
I made some changes this morning so you can change the brightness of the backgrounds, which hopefully solves both the problems With the next build, in the options screen you can choose Lighter, Normal, or Darker backgrounds - some backgrounds are more noticeable than others (obviously black can't get any blacker) but it should provide a more comfortable experience for you
I apologize for not getting back to you. Thank you very very much for the changes that should be perfect! I think it was just that really weird greenish that was really getting to my eyes. But those changes should be awesome! I really love this game. I finally unlocked the last ship thismorning! And yea yea I know you probably will add more to piss me off hehe Billy
No problem! I guess I'll need to add some new ships soon I'll probably work on the mission system a bit first. Should have a new build out mid next week
Hey everyone! Just a quick update. Because of PAXAUS, sickness and some hardware problems, I haven't managed to get my planned build out this weekend. I made some progress on the mission system, but my brain couldn't... brain... and I didn't get very far. I'm starting to feel a bit better now, so I should make some good movement on it this week. I thought I'd run some of the ideas past everyone anyway, get some feedback on the direction I'm thinking of going. I want to create a mission system that has short term, mid term and long term missions. Each mission type gets progressively more rewarding. Missions are things like "Blow up 10 motherships", "Bounce the same ship 5 times", "Don't hit anything for 15 seconds", "Shield Smash 50 enemies using the Sloth". Completing missions will be a way to earn more coins, and give you a reason to come back and play it I was thinking of another couple of mission types. One would be a leaderboard mission - this one would take a highscore from the leaderboard, and give you the challenge to beat it. Beating that highscore completes the mission and gives you a reward The other mission type I'm thinking of is the one I'm most unsure about. I was thinking a "Loyalty" mission type. This is a really simple mission - watch a video. You still get coins, but it's another way for you to support the game without me putting things behind paywalls. I love Astro and want to make sure I can keep supporting it long after I release it! You wouldn't need to complete it, but the option is there if you want to help me out
Hey everyone - a quick update on how things are going. Sorry I haven't released a build in a few weeks - I've just been hard at work on the mission system. The good news is I have a lot of the code done (not all of it, but a good chunk of it), and have a number of the missions working. Next step is to nut out the remainder of the code, create a whole bunch of missions, then build the UI so you can actually see them I've been building this system so I can extended it (eventually) to support achievements too. It's going to take a little while longer, but I haven't forgotten about the project! It's just been a lot of boring backend coding.
I'll make sure to add everyone to the next build, don't worry I'm pretty set for knocking out this new missions system on the weekend, so should be a bunch of new things to do with the next build. I normally submit sometime Sunday evening, which means the build goes live sometime around Wednesday. If I have any issues, I'll be sure to let everyone know, but I'm tracking pretty well to get the next build out on time. I really appreciate the interest - making a game in your free time is hard, and everyone's support and feedback helps motivate me to keep going. Thanks everyone - I really mean it. I love working with a sweet community to make things more awesome.
Good news! I have an update in the pipeline, and I'm submitting to apple Test Flight as we speak (fingers crossed it works, because I've been working all weekend and I really would like to chill out before working tomorrow ) The next build will have a whole new mission system available! This is a very early version of this new feature, so expect it to be a little rough. A did a bunch of this while I was on the train to and from work, so I've found it's been a little buggier than normal. I'm really excited to start getting some feedback though. The mission system gives a whole new way to play the game. I'll get the android and ios version out later this week Edit - Build submitted!
Very nice. This is coming together very nicely. The mission system is pretty awesome, although the rewards may be too generous. I had fewer than half the ships unlocked prior to the new build and within about an hour I had enough coins to unlock the rest of them and had about 400 left over. Interesting using ads to get more missions. I just watched about 20 of them so hopefully you're getting credit for them in the test builds. At first I thought you had removed the death screen shot but I found it. Other then more ships and missions I can't see anything I would change. This is a great game. Good work James.
Thanks I'm really glad you like the mission system. I've been working really hard on it. That's a really good point with the mission rewards, they'll need a lot of tuning. That reward value will fluctuate a lot over the next few builds as I tune it. I've been trying to find a way to get ads in without being a jerk. The idea of the daily came from my love of MMOs and Destiny. I like the idea of logging in once a day to do my quests and get some rewards, and just added the ads in for people who wanted to skip the wait and do more now. Hopefully it does come across as putting up too many road blocks. I really appreciate that feedback - it's really motivating when I can see people playing it and enjoying it. Not enjoying it is fine too People just need to let me know so I can fix it! Did you have any ideas for new ships you'd like to see? Last set I did was the Atari 2600 theme, but I'm open to suggestions for other kinds of games and consoles people like. Right now my day job is working on Serious Game stuff (think game development for training), and most of my free time is made up of trying to play games and make games as much as possible. I even have a weekly youtube show where I just talk about games with my friends! (http://eightandahalfbit.com/) I'm hoping that Astro can go on to support even more time making my own games. The support from this community has been an amazing help so far
I updated the Android version last night, so android users should be able to jump in and give it a play too
I had forgotten there was an android version. I'll have give it a go on my tablet. It's mostly just for reading but I let my kids play games on it. I'll have to see how they like it.
