Squirrel Chaser WIP - BETA AVAILABLE!

casperdj777

New member
i LOVE the concept for this game. it wont play on some my emulators though i would buy a copy of this if the mappers get fix
 

SciNEStist

Well-known member
Thank you very much. I'm practically ready for a beta release already.

just working on game balance. Im trying to add a feature to give players 1up after every 20 enemies, but having trouble with how i read the 2nd digit of the player score. might just ad a separate counting system.
 

Logana

Well-known member
Dose The most recent demo end at the raccoon? idk i just kinda got stuck their after playing for an hour and about 15 minutes, i have like 3 issues with the game though,
1. The small enemy's that have a greater speed then yours, generally just a rule of thumb that I have with basically any game
2.The attack, it sorta kind of just doesn't respond some times, and when charging it its easy to get hit and die, basically you die or you die trying to attack
3. the music
 

SciNEStist

Well-known member
0- the current version has about 3X the map of that early demo. the raccoon was pretty much the end of that old version, so congrats, you got to the end!
1-i have greatly sped up the player movement since that last preview. I got that suggestion earlier and have adjusted.
2-i have slightly tweaked the attack. you can pretty much spam the upclose attack, the timing for the medium attack and the long range attack charge up is adjustable. Looking forward to hearing opinions on it.
3-im sorry about the music. I have realized I'm not a very good composer and I might ask a musician friend for some help. I just wanted something that sounded happy and upbeat, like the kind of music that would run through the head of a happy dog out for a stroll.
 

Logana

Well-known member
Well I mean I could do some music for yah, although it might take some time but I’m okay I will put an example, also your probably gonna have to remind me if I don’t message you about music progress for a week because sometimes I forget about these thing, nice to see that everything else is fixed though :3
 

SciNEStist

Well-known member
BETA RELEASE!

DOWNLOAD HERE AND ENJOY!!!

So there is still more work to be done before I consider this game finished, but it is more or less ready to be played. Been working on it on and off for over a year now, so I figure it's time to show off a bit of progress.

Before I put more work in, I'm hoping to get some feedback. Is the gameplay any fun? Are there any parts where players aren't sure what they need to do? Any major game breaking stuff I haven't found? Is this a game you could see adding to a physical collection?

If you try this out, please let me know what you think. good or bad. Any suggestions are welcome.

I have included some .nes files with the spawn moved to later parts of the game. This is so players can experience more of the game without having to play all the way through. If someone is willing to actually play through though, I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts.
 

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  • squirrelchaserbeta.zip
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Logana

Well-known member
Alright, just played trough the full thing and these are my clean uncensored criticisms, i know it might not be what you want to hear but i feal it is necesary to fix things that i will take about. But first let me talk about some things that you really nailed.


GOOD
1. The best thing I have to say is the style of humor you went with and made the game with. sometimes i literally laughed out loud
2.The map/ story, the reason I think it is so good is because you never feel lost, you always know where to go and if not then go look for a npc
3.Bosses the bosses we particularly good, especially the final boss, although the squirrel king boss needs to be tweaked so people better understand that you have to destroy all the little acorn piles
4. the Unique player attack, this is good but the way you handle monster movement kind of makes this not such a good idea, maybe try and remake the monster attack patterns to be more suitable for the attack style.
5. improved art is always good

now to move on to things I feel really NEED to be fixed to make this game so, sooooo much better

BAD

1.Player physics, they just feel way to slippery like just a straight ice level
2.Enemy speed, attack patterns, seriously this just straight up murder's the game, I would strongly suggest that you slow all if not most of the enemy's down, by like 5 at least
this in line with the attack just makes the controls feel like utter garbage.
3.Art, okay I know this is sorta a contradiction of myself but I'm talking about a specific part, mainly when textures don't like up, for example when you destroy a garbage can the texture of the grass just magically appears this sorta takes me out of the experience and can be simply fixed by adding the texture to the trash can sprite, this goes with almost all blocks that can be destroyed except for the acorn piles and the broken fence parts,
4.Music this is fairly self evident but its not really because their bad songs they just need work, they basically don't have a scale to go off of witch again basically murders the music, I could actually try and fix this for you or make new compositions if you like just chuck me over the famitracker file, if you want of course


Conclusion

While it dose show really great promise with its story, art, writing, and bosses their are a few things that absolutely kill the experience for me, i still say its an okay game although in this state I would not buy an actual cart copy, if you do manage to fix these main issues then I can definitely see myself and others buying copy's, its just their are fundamental flaws in the game, also I would suggest doing some art over like the cars in the graveyard and the squirrel king boos sprite. its a good game but it still needs a lot of work.



1609429827551.png
 

Jonny

Well-known member
I really like the whole idea of your game and felt super relaxed playing it. Feels kinda chilled. Not sure if thats what you were going for? Agree with Logana about the monster speeds, its surprising how low you can take the speed.
I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing tbh, but that isn't such a bad thing for a dog exploring the world. I haven't played in through yet as I wanted to stop to watch the fireworks with my boy. I wasn't sure what the attack mechanic was, if I held bark it seemed to be a hold to charge thing? Maybe thats something you're working on.

Anyway, so far so good.
 

SciNEStist

Well-known member
yeah, there are 3 levels of charge to the barking attack. you growl to charge up and the longer you hold it the further your bark attack travels.
 

SciNEStist

Well-known member
Been working on it this still. I have a pretty much complete game, but I'm cramming in as much extra content as I can.
so far I've
- added sidequests
- done multiple endings
- more areas to explore
- updated graphics
- more bossfights

Ive also took some of the great feedback and implemented it.
-enemies have been slowed down considerably
-player movement tweaked
-timing on the growl/weapon charge is tweaked
-various bugfixes

Thought i would share some screenshots
squirrelchaserupdates1.pngsquirrelchaserupdates2.png
squirrelchaserupdates3.pngsquirrelchaserupdates4.png
 

mouse spirit

Well-known member
Thank you very much. I'm practically ready for a beta release already.

just working on game balance. Im trying to add a feature to give players 1up after every 20 enemies, but having trouble with how i read the 2nd digit of the player score. might just ad a separate counting system.
Not sure if you fixed this yet but, look into using this

Code:
;arg0 = how many places this value has.
    ;arg1 = home variable
    ;arg2 = amount to add
    ;arg3 = to what place?
TXA
    STA tempx
    AddValue #$02, player2presses, #$01, #$00
    UpdateHud HUD_player2presses
    LDX tempx
also use player2presses+1....or truly like...........myScore+1,to reference the 10s place directly.
 

SciNEStist

Well-known member
OMG, I am finally almost done this game!

since the last version on retroverse, I have

-fixed the barking not working bug
-fixed the extra lives when defeating 20 enemies not working
-fixed the hud not updating on death
-fixed the good ending not coming up
-added another sidequest
-fixed wayward collision issues
-corrected some screen triggering issues.
-added a new enemy
-some graphics tweaking/updates

All thats left is more bugtesting, getting some music made, and a few sound effects. Then I'll upload an updated (and hopefully final version) to retroverse.
 
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SciNEStist

Well-known member
Only testing remains! perhaps some more music tweaks if I can get assistance.

I have added a pause feature, that displays a "Paw" indicator....lame pun I know
I have added a freeroam mode that unlocks all areas and removed the boss fights
This is partially for testing purposes, but I realized it would be a fun way for people to play the game and not worry about story, but just explore. Might turn a freeroam only mode into a demo to show off the game.
 
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