Well, I've had a chance to play Go Beryllium! and I like it. I found the repulsion shield thing difficult at first, but when I worked it out it was very effective and felt nice to use. It gives a really involving rhythm to the game. Also, the explosions are great. Nice subatomic particle paths
. Got up to the black hole a couple of times but didn't last very long against its evil bullet vortex. Anyway, here are some more comments:
- Sometimes it's hard to tell exactly when the beats occur - maybe the player atom pulse effect could be more obvious - larger, or a different colour - to make it easier to identify the audio cues. Or maybe I just have no sense of timing.
- It would be nice to have a small sound effect when you pick up a quark. I find it hard to work out whether I'm picking up all of the quarks or whether most of them are just expiring.
- I think the bullets could do with some more variety. It was nice to see the purple Hawking radiation, but maybe there could also be large bullets, small bullets, lumpy bullets, flashing bullets, pulsating bullets, bullets with small comet trails after them, etc. Most of the time I only saw red and orange bullets (mind you I only got up to the second stage).
- The way that bullets come out of electrons combined with the way the atoms move means that you end up dodging through a kind of random lumpy cloud of bullets. I really like the radium atom because it produces an interesting spiral pattern which stands out by being yellow. I think the bullet cloud would be improved if more of the enemy atoms stopped in place, or maybe moved in straight lines or circles or otherwise predictably, before firing distinctive bullets in a regular pattern. A certain amount of bullet cloud chaos is fine, but it would also be nice to see some structure underlying it. Even if the structure only lasts until you hit the shield key.
- The main weapon feels weak, especially compared to the way the cathode ray seems to cut through everything in your path. The bullet graphics are nice, though.
- Sometimes the game interprets quick repeated presses of fire as holding down fire, and activates the focussed attack. Bug or feature? (I'm using a keyboard)
- Glad to hear (via 2bears) that inertia will be optional
Inertia means that if I'm on critical energy I'm doomed, because I can't use the shield and it's very difficult to steer through the bullets without precise control. It's not so bad for the fast movement mode, though. And I like Edge's suggestion of giving the player a better weapon while low on energy.
Also - I had a look at the Eegra competition and thought about entering as well, but decided against it when I read the terms and conditions. In particular I don't know why they think entries couldn't be subject to classification, and why they want all of those indemnities(!). Pity, though - otherwise it looks like a great competition, and it's an Australian site. Oh well.
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Go Beryllium!
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