Asteroite pre-orders OPEN NOW

[phoboz]

On 7/4/2022 at 1:53 AM, sheath said:

I'm about 60% through my first run, and I've had to play this game like countless other great replayable games over the decades that get dismissed by the interwebs as "shallow" or "quarter munchers".  This isn't NES level try and redie, or the PS2 "revivals of those that cheapen even that with restarting entire sections without power ups or specifics you earned. This is just me missing gameplay mechanics that are right at my finger tips the entire time.  And I've played this the same with the original 3 Button Jag pad and the Pro Controller recently discontinued, to no ill effect either way.

 

I got stuck at the slime boss featured in one of the preview videos, without the high jump or the flip to make it easier to maneuver.  He was still beatable, I just had to figure it out like Shadow Dancer's last boss and his minions on Genesis.

I am glad you see the depth of this game. I wanted it to be a little bit different by offering multiple choices:

 

THERE MAY BE SPOILERS INSIDE!

 

Spoiler

1. If you choose one path (getting all the skill upgrades in the originally intended order), the game can be quite linear. You basically go from left to right over the game world. This is for the people (like me) who dislike the extreme backtracking that may be present in other Metroidvanias.

 

2. There are several options to break the originally intended sequence by using for example the bomb-jump. Depending on your skill it will be tougher, and tougher to go ahead without the other intended skill upgrades, but it is up to you to decide for how long you keep trying to get on?

 

3. You can get into some really tricky situations depending on where you save. Note that it is always possible (although it may be very hard) to get back if you saved at some point without the skill upgrade that makes it easier to go ahead, or go back. So here it's up to you again, do you keep trying to get out if this tricky situation, or do you just start a new game?

 

4. There are places where you can get an important item guarded by a mini-boss without even fighting it. Here you have to use your wit rather than your skill.

 

5. The lab area is a strage maze that looks very similar even if you are at different places, the task is to orientate despite this challange (anyone played the last level in the game "Psychic World?"). Still we wanted to offer some reward if you had a hard time to find your way to the end of the game (this was not in "Psycic World", but @Eternal-Krauser wanted to offer some reward for this, in "Psychic World" you just lost a lot of health wandering in cirles, fighting enemies)

 

These are just some of the design decisions we made during development of this game. I cannot speak for others, but if someone finds this game 'shallow', I doubt they have spent enough time with it?

Edited July 8, 2022 by phoboz

[leech]

I should find the time to play this more.  I barely got to the first boss.  Too many other projects...

[Robi-Wan]

Is this game still in stock for purchase?

[phoboz]

2 minutes ago, Robi-Wan said:

Is this game still in stock for purchase?

Yes it is, you can order from US, Europe or UK (depending on your preferred location). Please see the first post in this thread.

[JagChris]

@phoboz you gotta consider sprucing up your title screen logo. 

 

Like back in the day you had the Iguana logo. 989 studios. Singletrack. Lucarts. High Voltage Software. All the greats have a cool intro logo. Even Duranik has one that kinda zooms in.

 

Think about it.

[sheath]

19 hours ago, phoboz said:

I am glad you see the depth of this game. I wanted it to be a little bit different by offering multiple choices:

 

THERE MAY BE SPOILERS INSIDE!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

1. If you choose one path (getting all the skill upgrades in the originally intended order), the game can be quite linear. You basically go from left to right over the game world. This is for the people (like me) who dislike the extreme backtracking that may be present in other Metroidvanias.

 

2. There are several options to break the originally intended sequence by using for example the bomb-jump. Depending on your skill it will be tougher, and tougher to go ahead without the other intended skill upgrades, but it is up to you to decide for how long you keep trying to get on?

 

3. You can get into some really tricky situations depending on where you save. Note that it is always possible (although it may be very hard) to get back if you saved at some point without the skill upgrade that makes it easier to go ahead, or go back. So here it's up to you again, do you keep trying to get out if this tricky situation, or do you just start a new game?

 

4. There are places where you can get an important item guarded by a mini-boss without even fighting it. Here you have to use your wit rather than your skill.

 

5. The lab area is a strage maze that looks very similar even if you are at different places, the task is to orientate despite this challange (anyone played the last level in the game "Psychic World?"). Still we wanted to offer some reward if you had a hard time to find your way to the end of the game (this was not in "Psycic World", but @Eternal-Krauser wanted to offer some reward for this, in "Psychic World" you just lost a lot of health wandering in cirles, fighting enemies)

 

These are just some of the design decisions we made during development of this game. I cannot speak for others, but if someone finds this game 'shallow', I doubt they have spent enough time with it?

Thanks for posting this phoboz. As soon as I got the bombs I started bomb jumping everywhere. I figured that was intended, but tried not to do anything too fancy. I've ended up at difficult to reach save points with four hits left on my energy bar, in this case right before the slime boss. It was a good challenge, but doable without a full energy bar or the appropriate jump upgrades, as you mentioned. 

 

Asteroite is definitely not a shallow game or I never could have gotten where I did, much less pass it.

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

Now that I know for sure that there was a more linear route I'm actually more motivated to backtrack. I was attempting to get all of the upgrades in that one area, center right on the map, with near identical rooms on either side of a central cooridoor, I think of it as an alien office building. Maybe that's the Laboratory, I don't remember the zone names at the moment.  I definitely need to bomb jump to get up each level in the central part, so maybe I'll head back. I wasn't sure if the flip upgrade was in there somewhere, or to the far right section I was going to end up in.

 

Game on!  Thank you Songbird and Phoboz and all involved. This is the game I always hoped would show up on any other platform back in the day. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by sheath

[+grips03]

Not complete is the lower bottom section of the map with the long series of rooms to the left.  Is there a easier way to do this section?  The big robots and rats are tough.

 

Is there the plant / spider thing to harvest health in the second to last section that has the long rooms to the left and right?  I always seem to get hurt a little in each room, so by the time I had 26 missiles (started with 20 missiles) I tried to return back to harvest health and I died

 

With 1.4 I only had single issue with music still playing and screen black.  It was near a save area, so just turned off/on and did not have the issue since.

 

Really great game.

[+CyranoJ]

33 minutes ago, grips03 said:

Is there the plant / spider thing to harvest health in the second to last section that has the long rooms to the left and right?  I always seem to get hurt a little in each room, so by the time I had 26 missiles (started with 20 missiles) I tried to return back to harvest health and I died

 

That struck me as really bad design.

 

You get hurt going into that section, immediately hit a save point so, naturally, save. And then you can be stuck with not enough health to backtrack through the damage zone, and find no health further into the game to heal up. This can basically force a restart as the baddies shoot as soon as you enter a room with no chance to avoid them.  The only thing to do would be to restart again from the beginning.

 

And no, I wouldn't file that under "challenging gameplay" or "get gud".

 

At that point, I did what any sane person would do.  Hacked the rom, removed the EEPROM checksum so the save data could be changed and gave myself more health.  That, along with the cut'n'paste room design of that last section (these 20+ rooms are all nearly identical!) kinda ruined the entire thing for me as it felt like after 2/3 of the game had been done it was a rush to just finish making the thing and move on.

 

[phoboz]

2 hours ago, grips03 said:

Not complete is the lower bottom section of the map with the long series of rooms to the left.  Is there a easier way to do this section?  The big robots and rats are tough.

 

Is there the plant / spider thing to harvest health in the second to last section that has the long rooms to the left and right?  I always seem to get hurt a little in each room, so by the time I had 26 missiles (started with 20 missiles) I tried to return back to harvest health and I died

 

With 1.4 I only had single issue with music still playing and screen black.  It was near a save area, so just turned off/on and did not have the issue since.

 

Really great game.

If I understand this right, you are not completely at the bottom of the sewers?

Then you have a small room with egg/spiders to harvest in to the lower left. Try to get under the bridges to get to the section below.

 

As you talk about robots and rats I am still not sure where you are. Do you mean the giant armoured crabs?

That's at the bottom of the sewers, if you go further left you will eventually find a room to harvest health along the way. The armoured crabs have a weak point, make sure you exploit that. The trip here is definately worth it, just make sure you find the reward before you leave though. Then you have two options how to get back from here (the main one will only be open once you found the reward, unless you are really good at bomb-climbing)

 

PS. If you are really good at bomb-climbing there is actually a way to avoid going trough the hard part at the bottom of the sewers. Just backtrack and look for a blocks with specific symbols on. You may remember this part from early in the game?

Edited January 9, 2023 by phoboz

[phoboz]

2 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

cut'n'paste

What you refer to as the cut'n'paste section is a tribute to the fortress maze section in SEGA Master System game Psychic World:

It is supposed to be hard to find you way trough here, because it's a maze where all the rooms look very similar.

 

I also made a song to tribute this game, but it's the music on the first level (not the music in the fortress maze).

https://achillex.bandcamp.com/track/riddle

Edited January 9, 2023 by phoboz

[+CyranoJ]

2 minutes ago, phoboz said:

What you refer to as the cut'n'paste section is a tribute to the fortress maze section in SEGA Master System game: Psychic World:

It is supposed to be hard to find you way trough here, because it's a maze where all the rooms look very similar.

 

That entire video shows variety in design.... not sure how it's a tribute?

 

Hard is one thing, putting a save point after a death-bath and then having no health anywhere after it is.... bad design.

[phoboz]

8 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

That entire video shows variety in design.... not sure how it's a tribute?

It's a very specific section in the video just as it's a very specific section in Asteroite.

 

You ask me why I make games, because I want to make games that I would like to see myself, what I would enjoy to play. If you don't enjoy it, then it's your opinion. No need to criticise me for doing what I belive in.

 

PS. You can also make games you like, I have no problem with that. 

Edited January 9, 2023 by phoboz

[+CyranoJ]

8 minutes ago, phoboz said:

It's a very specific section in the video just as it's a very specific section in Asteroite.

 

You ask me why I make games, because I want to make games that I would like to see myself, what I would enjoy to play. If you don't enjoy it, then it's your opinion. No need to criticise me for doing what I belive in.

 

It's not a section of Asteroite, it's literally 1/3 of the map - 1/3 of the game.

 

A few things aside (which I told Carl about before the fixed version was released) the game was fine up to that point. And then, for me, it all fell apart.  The death-bath/save/no health was a really crappy thing to do to players.

 

I'm not criticising you, I'm giving my opinion of the game.  I bought the game anyway, so... all good. carry on.

[phoboz]

13 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

It's not a section of Asteroite, it's literally 1/3 of the map - 1/3 of the game.

The game have the following sections:

1. The Planet Surface

2. The Organic Caves

3. The Frozen Paradise

4. The Pipes

5. The Spider infested area

6. The Sewers

7. The Facotry Area

8. The Sewers

9. The Decayed Area

10. The Laboratory Area

(The laboratory area contains the maze you are talking you are referring to, along with other parts)

 

So how this 1/3 of the game?

Do the math...

[+CyranoJ]

5 minutes ago, phoboz said:

The game have the following sections:

1. The Planet Surface

2. The Organic Caves

3. The Frozen Paradise

4. The Pipes

5. The Spider infested area

6. The Sewers

7. The Facotry Area

8. The Sewers

9. The Decayed Area

10. The Laboratory Area

(The laboratory area contains the maze you are talking you are referring to, along with other parts)

 

So how this 1/3 of the game?

Do the math...

 

Because the other sections are tiny compared to that one, which is like 20+ long, near identical rooms, stacked on top of each other. With no health in them.

 

Check the size of that section on the map compared to the rest of the game.

 

Anyway, all good. Other people obviously enjoyed it. I don't want to argue with you about this, its my opinion, and yours might differ.

[phoboz]

10 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

 

Because the other sections are tiny compared to that one, which is like 20+ long, near identical rooms, stacked on top of each other. With no health in them.

 

Check the size of that section on the map compared to the rest of the game.

 

Anyway, all good. Other people obviously enjoyed it. I don't want to argue with you about this, its my opinion, and yours might differ.

Well a maze has to be large in size in order to be challanging, right?

Once you know how to find you way in the maze it's easy. Just like it's played in the long play video of Psyhic World.

 

Let people play and judge for themselves.

Edited January 9, 2023 by phoboz

[+CyranoJ]

2 minutes ago, phoboz said:

Let people play and judge for themselves.

 

I wasn't stopping them. I don't believe I have that power

[phoboz]

12 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

 

I wasn't stopping them. I don't believe I have that power

Well you didn't have the power to hack your way trough the maze 😀

[+CyranoJ]

I wanted to play it to see if any of the rooms had any point to them. They did not, as you just confirmed. 

[Songbird]

7 hours ago, grips03 said:

Not complete is the lower bottom section of the map with the long series of rooms to the left.  Is there a easier way to do this section?  The big robots and rats are tough.

Endless jump is your friend.  Otherwise, that first time through the area with the giant armored crabs and giant flying bugs is tough, and requires patience to catch enemies at the right time.

[+grips03]

Yes, I die at robot crab area.  I get pretty far, but have not seen a weakness in the crabs as of yet.  So far I think shooting the legs when they turn around is the best way to beat them.  I've tried to jump them, but the hero gets hit when doing this.  I have many items, I don't have continuous jump yet.  I found the ability to destroy boxes above above you (as ball), which gave access to this lower sewer / crab area.

 

I saw really early in the game a place I could not access, even with the longer and higher jump.  I think this is the area you say to use bomb climbing method, right?

 

Also if I backtrack to beginning of game there should be an area that the destroy boxes comes in handy.  If I remember right it was red boxes that had to be destroyed.  I think it leads to the front side of the robot crab / sewer / rat area.  Does that sound right?

 

For the upper area, 2nd to last, I think I'll have to get the x1 missiles from the first vertical section, then go get more health from spiders, then go back and get the 1x missiles from the second vertical section, this way I have enough energy to get back, repeat for all vertical sections.  I should have made a map with the plant spider locations.

 

The boss in the tank made me laugh.

 

I'm using an arcade stick to play the game (jag pad hacked into arcade type stick) and I found its easier to play that way.

 

 

 

 

[phoboz]

3 hours ago, grips03 said:

I've tried to jump them, but the hero gets hit when doing this.

Have you beaten the Predator minboss?

Spoiler

Then you obtain the somersault upgrade?

Using this skill you can jump over the crabs if you time it right.

 

3 hours ago, grips03 said:

Also if I backtrack to beginning of game there should be an area that the destroy boxes comes in handy.  If I remember right it was red boxes that had to be destroyed.  I think it leads to the front side of the robot crab / sewer / rat area.  Does that sound right?

If you are really good at bomb-jumping you should be able to get to the area beyond the lower sewers (the decayed area) from behind. I haven't tried it myself, but I have seen some videos of people doing amazing things using the bomb climbs.

 

You can also go back up and to the right in the sewer area, to enter the lab area. Here is a good place to harvest before you go down to the lower sewers again.

 

3 hours ago, grips03 said:

have not seen a weakness in the crabs

They do have a weak spot, once you learn to jump over them you will be able to exploit that to defeat them. It does take a couple of hits, so you should make sure they have some room to walk before they turn against you again.

Edited January 9, 2023 by phoboz

[phoboz]

3 hours ago, grips03 said:

should be an area that the destroy boxes comes in handy

Do you mean the red boxes in the organic cave?

 

Spoiler

This area is located at the bottom-left in the shaft of the frozen area. This is where you find the health-bar extension. I wouldn't try to complete the game without it.

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by phoboz

[leech]

2 hours ago, phoboz said:

Have you beaten the Predator minboss?

  Reveal hidden contents

Then you obtain the somersault upgrade?

Using this skill you can jump over the crabs if you time it right.

 

If you are really good at bomb-jumping you should be able to get to the area beyond the lower sewers (the decayed area) from behind. I haven't tried it myself, but I have seen some videos of people doing amazing things using the bomb climbs.

 

You can also go back up and to the right in the sewer area, to enter the lab area. Here is a good place to harvest before you go down to the lower sewers again.

 

They do have a weak spot, once you learn to jump over them you will be able to exploit that to defeat them. It does take a couple of hits, so you should make sure they have some room to walk before they turn against you again.

Man, I need to find time to play this... got it, tested and got to the first boss, and haven't played it since!  I clearly need more time off to play video games!  😜

[JagChris]

On 7/3/2022 at 4:53 PM, sheath said:

This is great game design, great attention to detail, and actual challenge to the player's dexterity and problem solving at the same time.

 

Thank you for taking the time to make it this way, not to mention what you made it for.

I got to get back to this game. People raved about this game at the PRGE in much the same way.

Edited January 9, 2023 by JagChris