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[mklee]

EDIT: Cometburst is now available on the iPhone store! You can purchase it right now. Thanks to everyone for the feedback and support! You can check out the final full version (and free!) online at http://cometburst.com



Cometburst is a simple kind of arcade game inspired by Bird & Beans (if anyone played that with any of the WarioWares) and Missile Command. The game was built/prototyped using Flixel for the web and I created my own port for the iPhone.

http://cometburst.com

Please check it out and let me know about bugs, difficulty, any sort of feedback is welcome. In particular I'm really interested in gauging the difficulty and pacing. Right now its a pretty slow ramp up and I was wondering if people would rather there be a little more action early on (conversely it gets nigh-impossible at the end). Is there enough variety with latter enemy types? Does it get too difficult at the end?

Thanks guys, any feedback is appreciated!

[cai]

It's already looking pretty polished!

The user interface designer in me says you should skip the "next" button on the tutorial and just make it so clicking anywhere goes next, too.  Same for the "play" button in the tutorial.

It starts off like a snail... I would say it should start off as if you were 30 seconds or so into the game.  The difficulty ramps up pretty quickly, but I think it's at a good pace.

Whenever you get a combo, it'd be nice if it gave you more of a visual award.  Right now it's hard to tell that you're even getting more points.  How about making the text larger when the points are of a higher value?  That way when you get really big combos, you really know it.

I would've liked a few more sounds for the firing.  That "pew" got a little old pretty quick.

It's pretty hard to see when you're on the green screen.  It also seemed like a weird transition since the previous transition just added that galaxy.

The red stars on the pink background are super hard to see.  If it weren't for their tails, I wouldn't have noticed them at all...

K, now I've died... at least I got 49060 as my score.

Fortunately, I can say I did not find a single bug!  That almost never happens!

This is really great, and I imagine it will translate well to a touchscreen device.  I agree that you should probably add more enemy types, as there wasn't a lot of variation besides speed and number.  I don't think I would want the bomb button if it were only one use, plus it would add a bit of clutter to your interface, which is ultra-minimal (a great thing!).

[lithander]

I agree with pretty much everything Cai said. I too would have liked a little more action in the beginning. Gameplay wise I liked the ufo but it's sprite didn't match 100% with the style of the game. What was most fun about the game is to learn to anticipate the movement of the comets so you can intercept them - preferably in big clusters. So when you think about new enemy types I'd suggest sticking with comets and meteors and that kind of things but come up with more interesting movement patterns. Curves, Sine-waves, mutual attraction (gravity) and so on... I'd like the game more if it would challenge my anticipation skill more instead just overloading the screen with stuff that becomes impossible to fight off after a while because it's just too much!

Anyway: Great game!

[KillaGouge]

Good game, I played until the screen went to that shade of green.  I must say, that color didn't feel well thought out.  I liked it going from a twilight blue to night black, I'd have it cycle back to the blue.  Later in the game there either needs to be more red comets, or the ability to shoot more than 1 projectile at a time.  I also think there should be a goal.  I'm not sure what Bird & Beans is, but this is a great Missile Command clone.

I also have to agree with Cai, make the tutorial click/tap anywhere.

[mklee]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. I'll be sure to make the appropriate changes to the tutorial screens since that's something everyone so far has mentioned. I also really like the idea of comets that zig-zag and move in different ways so I'll implement at least one or two more comet types that appear.

For the backgrounds, I'll definitely adjust the backgrounds to more soothing ones. The pink and green ones were just placeholders while I try to figure out some appropriate ones for the game. I have a few ideas like alien landscapes and different space backgrounds that could spice things up nicely and not be so garish.

[TheUltimaton]

It looks as though your going to make this an ipod touch/iphone/ipad game, judging by the ipod touch in the background. I would definitely buy this game (if i could)

[mklee]

Hey guys, thanks for the great feedback on the game. I've taken a lot of the suggestions from here (and a few other places) and implemented them into the game. This includes stuff like new backgrounds, better gameplay balance, different enemy types, and slightly adjusted pacing. I've also added in all the stats and score-tracking sort of stuff.

Play the newest version: http://cometburst.com

I've put up the near-final version on the main website. Please check it out and let me know what everyone thinks!

Some images:

[mklee]

A final bump for this topic, I finished the game and submitted to Apple last week and I'm happy to say that the game was approved and put on sale yesterday. You can buy it right now from the App Store. Additionally I updated the website and web build for the game and you can check it out at http://cometburst.com.

I updated the first post with new images and info so check that out too.

Thanks again for the feedback and support from everyone. I plan to keep on updating and iterating on the game even after release so please keep it coming!

[snisnik]

Very cool game!! i love it jeje... for sure if i have an iphone i buy it jeje.. One question it is full coded with fixel?? how do u transfer it to iphone platform??

Thnx

Santi