Void Scrappers - top-down space horde survival shooter

Showcases
#21

Updated version uploaded on itch!

Play here:

Changes:

  • Fixed bug where a particular music track would loop when it shouldn’t
  • Fixed UI scaling issues
  • Changed menu buttons to switch on press rather than release
  • Bye bye bouncy XP bar :wave:
  • Fixed bug in selecting upgrade card with mouse click
  • Upgrade cards now confirmed on release rather than press
  • Next/previous arrows added to character select (this took the longest - it’s what you get when you make custom UI)
  • Added padlock icon to character select to show that character is not unlocked
  • Fixed invisible start menu bug when clicking repeatedly on start up

Thanks again @ross.grams and everyone else for your testing and feedback!

13 Likes
#22

Hi Alex!!

I absolutely love this kind of game (probably more so than Ort type games) so I thought I’d chip in with some feedback too:

  • Firstly congratulations, it looks and plays fantastic. I look forward to getting it on the switch. I died a few times and wanted to get straight back into it, so that was good. It also works very well, as Ross.grams said - no teething issues, which is obviously important.

  • I would say that being able to control with the mouse is pretty important here (as someone who has played several hundred hours of @ross.grams’s [Play Rabid Robots, a free online game on Kongregate] it was difficult to change control schemes!)

  • Will it run in a window? I’d be more likely to play that than something full screen.

  • I love the boost function and I think that adding in other functions/weapons assignable to one of the keys would be a really great option. Obviously most of the time you want to be firing everything all the time, but giving that feeling of control to the player would be pretty great for a “big” gun even if it still has a pretty long cool down. Or, for example, setting mines, etc, a button which briefly makes you invulnerable, etc.

  • The glances into the character’s lives (“I will never financially recover from this”, “I need a drink”) are really great and really “add value” in my opinion. It’s the difference (in my opinion) between a free online game and something which is worth buying. I would consider adding more banter between bosses and Murphy, or the other characters. Similarly the character select screen, it looks good and I hope there are more of those sorts of glances that add a bit of personality.

  • I agree with other feedback that it would be useful to have a a little information about what each upgrade does.

  • I would also say it’s important to make the “threat level up” notification a little bit more exciting, to give that sense of progress. Maybe a quick score screen (“scrap collected: 39218, enemies killed: 3129, upgrades: 3, your rank: 1 star”), as well as a little sparkle to give that feeling of progress.

  • Is there anyway to repair damage to the ship? Adding in “health packs” (or ship repair packs) that appear at random locations, or among scrap, or in some other way, would be fantastic.

  • The notification that a boss is approaching is one of the most exciting parts of the game, and I wish that happened more. This would also give a sense of direction in the game, just the feeling that there is a planet to get to in 100 clicks, even if the planet is in a random location, would be good (even if all you get is a post card or something)

A lot of these are big changes, more or less, which I know isn’t the most helpful feedback… I will say that gameplay balance is perfect, it’s addictive, it looks good, so congratulations!

7 Likes
#23

Screenshot 2022-08-17 at 20.27.22
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level 21 :v::v::v:

4 Likes
#24

Hi Josh!

Thank you very much for your kind words and for your feedback. Ort means more to me artistically, but I have to say this game has been much more fun to develop (and quicker!).

Do you think mouse control would be as responsive as keyboard/gamepad? I’m trying to imagine it but it feels like it would be hard to do really suave dodges the way you can currently.

Yes, it will run in a window.

Re: boost. I’m with you that adding more user controlled weaponry and stuff might make things more interesting. That said, there is a lot of discourse on this genre of game, and my understanding is that a heavy degree of automation is quite key to the appeal. That means that I am already “straying” from the genre by having the boost functionality and fast movement generally. Something like Vampire Survivors is more about builds than twitchy things like aiming and quick reactions. If I take things further, I risk veering too far into twin-stick shooter territory, which is a stale genre relative to the “horde survival” genre (name still pending).

Thanks for your feedback on the characters! Will think about how we can add more flavour.

I like the idea about more information in the threat up.

You automatically repair your ship, albeit very slowly. There is an upgrade type that speeds this up. I am thinking about how to make this more interesting as I have already had feedback on it elsewhere.

I really appreciate this feedback! I won’t implement it all of course, but it’s very valuable to know what works and what doesn’t. For example, knowing that some people appreciate a bit of added personality (characters and their barks) is valuable, because something like Vampire Survivors omits that almost entirely.

2 Likes
#25

Oh, Alex, finally had time to check out the demo! Very enjoyable, very addictive :smiley: A lot of upgrades (good the time stops so I can decide, because there is a Loss Aversion involved), area to some strategies - e.g. with near ship explosions every second it makes me plan my trajectory the way I could damage as much ships as possible with such explosion, yet it was so dangerous and risky :smiley:

First impression was that an information about the health status of the ship was not so clear to me, perhaps bigger bar? Some damages visible on the ship, smoking engines a little bit earlier before actual explosion? Something like this :wink: For dash - perhaps a color change would be great, sometimes I missed a constant information about its status in “a reach of a hand” - something like Madeline’s hair in Celeste.

I hope you are aiming for other platforms too, as I would ideally play this on web or mobile :wink:

2 Likes
#26

Thank you for playing and thank you for your kind words and feedback!

Yes, I will work a bit on the health system as it has been mentioned here and there.

Do you mean it was hard to tell when the dash was ready? We do a few things to show this but perhaps not enough:

  • The yellow bar which fills up and then gently flashes (this is probably the least useful)
  • A forcefield animation when the dash is ready
  • Text that says “Dash ready!”

I wonder what else I could do? Flashing the ship is an option like you say but I already use that for invincibility.

Your phone would explode in your hand if you tried to play this game. I will use web to distribute the demo (any suggestions beyond itch?) but otherwise I’m not sure it would monetise well. I do however plan to put it on the Switch.

Thanks again!

3 Likes
#27

Playing back today I managed to collect three auto-repeaters which gave me the “ultimate power” notification (I think that was what it was called…) which was very satisfying and gave me that “sense of progress”. It would be fantastic if there was a way of knowing that I was working towards a collection of three in order to get the boost (maybe not an upgrade tree but just a way of quickly seeing what upgrades I have installed and how many more I need to reach a combo)

1 Like
#28

I know what you mean about smaller = quicker = more fun to develop!! Ort is of course an incredible achievement and a fantastic game, but I have always been more of an arcade gamer than a RPG gamer.

2 Likes
#29

That’s a new build for today actually! So you couldn’t get those before.

It’s quite minor perhaps but you do see a “1/3” on the weapon upgrade icon cards when you’re picking them. I wonder if someone playing for the first time would spot them.

1 Like
#30

Gamejolt, Newgrounds? Sites like Poki, Yagames, CrazyGames, Indiexpo too, but they host free games mainly (or only), but there is nothing stopping you from putting a demo there, it will blew up surely :wink:

I never intuitively connected the yellow bar to the dash before :smiley: The forcefield animation together with the text is the most visible and clear indication for me, I just meant the indication where I missed it (e.g. (un)intentionally looked at something else at the moment or was in a whirlwind of fighting), so the bar should be such indication, but I never connected it without you saying this - perhaps a tutorial for those bars? Or removing the yellow bar (and this will leave the health bar very clear) and using some other kind of indication (circle? some flame indication from engine?) :wink:

2 Likes
#31

Screenshot 2022-08-23 at 15.40.25
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I absolutely love the shield drops! In this last run I got one just as I was about to die at threat level 19, and it was (for whatever reason) much further away than the previous ones I had gotten. I didn’t make it but it really added a layer of tension, sprinting towards an objective.

After multiple plays, I would say that it might be a good idea to make the bosses a bit more of a challenge. right now, they are faster than the flock, but still slower than me, so as long as I continue in the same direction with them directly behind me, that’s all I have to do to kill them. Same thing with projectiles from enemies- I don’t think I’ve ever actually been shot by one (but this doesn’t bother me as much in terms of gameplay, they still spice things up)

Okay, I see that now. Personally I think it could it would be a good idea to make a bigger deal out of that because it’s quite subtle, and it could be a source of motivation for the player.

2 Likes
#32

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I have now released the Void Scrappers Prologue on Steam. This is a free taster version of Void Scrappers, available before the demo and full version. Grab it now and enjoy!

You can help the release in three ways:

  1. Play it - median playtime is really important for discoverability on Steam - so the longer you play the better.
  2. Review it - We want to get to 10 reviews as soon as possible, so we get a proper score on the page.
  3. Share with your friends - Know someone that enjoys horde survival games like Vampire Survivors? Tell them about the Void Scrappers Prologue.

Would love to hear what you think of this version! Bug reports very welcome too of course.

11 Likes
#33

Hi! I’m getting a message in steam. " Notice: This product is not compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina or above. Click here for more information."

But the void scrappers prologue works perfectly fine. I am on Big Sur 11.4.

Also, you currently have a free demo and a prologue (also free) listed on steam. Not sure if that is on purpose.

Game plays well as always, can’t wait to get my hands on a laser.

3 Likes
#34

Hm, I wonder if that’s because I’m not certifying the app. If it still works, then I’m not too concerned. Particularly because of how tiny the Mac market is.

Yes, Prologue and Demo are intentional. It’s a way to maximise visibility on Steam at the cost of some confusion. I will be phasing out the Prologue in favour of the demo, which will have more content.

Lasers are SUPER fun in my opinion! Particularly in the full version where you have some upgrades that can produce really wacky builds.

2 Likes
#35

The Void Scrappers Demo is now out on Steam!

The Demo has much more new content available: two new playable characters, a new enemy faction, new weapons and new upgrades!

Give it a whirl, and share it with your friends! The longer you play, the more the demo will be visible on Steam.

12 Likes
#36

If anyone has a Reddit account, I would really appreciate an upvote on this post:

Getting closer and closer to launch, and every bit of visibility helps!

7 Likes
#37

Done!

1 Like
#38

Thank you very much for the kind words too :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Once it’s up on Steam I’ll need to get it on Switch for you asap!

2 Likes
#39

Void Scrappers is releasing TOMORROW :scream:

It will release 3pm UK time (4pm Sweden/7am PDT). If anyone here buys the game (THANK YOU) then one huge thing you can do to help is to leave a review as soon as possible. How quickly one gets to 10 reviews can really make or break a game’s launch.

Now if you’ll excuse me I am going to go panic in a corner until tomorrow :slight_smile:

19 Likes
#40

Good luck! (Hoping for million copies :stuck_out_tongue: )

7 Likes