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Polychoron
Polychoron is a simple but challenging zero-gravity 3D shoot'em up in endless series of unique mazes. Designed for hassle-free short game sessions. Available on Windows, Linux, Android and Web.
Navigate your way through mazes filled with hostile drones and deadly machinery. Survive longer, take out more hostiles and collect more score than others to get your name on the global high score table.
The game is currently in development and I'm looking for feedback!
- Added two new unique wall texture variants to serve as landmarks in levels.
- Added laser beam weapon power-up.
- Added extra blaster weapon power-up.
- Added a shield to laser sentry gun to make it vulnerable only when it's shooting.
- Tweaked laser sentry gun shoot/aim timing to be more consistent.
- Added charge sound to laser sentry gun.
- Added more HUD messages to instruct new players.
- Made damage glitch effect fade out slowly while not taking damage.
- Minor tweaking to red flash effect to better show the direction of damage.
- Limit some ship module power-ups to higher levels only.
- Tweaked all enemies to turn a little faster.
- Added a sound to laser beams powering up.
- Made patrolling enemy type a little bit stronger.
- Made all enemies remember player location longer after losing line of sight.
- Tweaked camera shakes to be slightly shorter but more aggressive.
- Trigger temporary glitch effects on nearby "electric" explosions.
- Moved screenshot saving to a separate thread to prevent frame drops.
- Added one more particle layer to explosions to make them "beefier".
- Improved explosion fragment spawning pattern.
- Show HUD messages when reaching major global high score ranks.
- Added a tip showing required scores for a new global high scores.
- Increased the maximum number of simultaneous dynamic lights.
- Added a separate shoot button to touch screen controls (can be hidden in settings).
- Added noise to materials when using GLES2 renderer (web) to hide the ugly banding effect.
- Allow choosing the type of anti-aliasing (MSAA 4/8x, FXAA).
- Disabled anti-aliasing by default.
- Improved HUD scaling and positioning on different aspect ratio screens.
- Redesigned HUD crosshair to indicate destructible enemy objects.
- A few more power-up types.
- General improvements in graphics, audio and gameplay.
Roasts
Karg 3 years ago
Controls Level Designreminds me of a minimalist version of descent, i think you've managed to capture the spirit of that classic game.
i couldn't find any way to regenerate health. i expected the green thingies that pop after you kill an enemy would heal, but apparently they don't? they seem to grant score points? in any case, i found myself at level 3 with 3% life and died soon after. perhaps regenerate the health to full at the beginning of the level?
in the first couple of levels, it would be helpful to paint the walls with signs, i felt lost navigating around. also, the fact that you have to destroy those red thingies to open gates, it's not very straight-forward. perhaps it's better to add old-school keys/keycards and color-code the gates?
the portal that activates the level end, i think it should really scream "this is the exit!!!!!". it took me a while to figure out that that was really the exit and not some glitch/visual effect.
i couldn't find any way to regenerate health. i expected the green thingies that pop after you kill an enemy would heal, but apparently they don't? they seem to grant score points? in any case, i found myself at level 3 with 3% life and died soon after. perhaps regenerate the health to full at the beginning of the level?
in the first couple of levels, it would be helpful to paint the walls with signs, i felt lost navigating around. also, the fact that you have to destroy those red thingies to open gates, it's not very straight-forward. perhaps it's better to add old-school keys/keycards and color-code the gates?
the portal that activates the level end, i think it should really scream "this is the exit!!!!!". it took me a while to figure out that that was really the exit and not some glitch/visual effect.
fractilegames 3 years ago
Thanks for playing the game!There is no way to regain heath, although some power-ups like the shield module will help you avoid taking damage. This is intentional and unlikely to change.
It seems I will have to make it more obvious to the player how things work. I have some ideas on how to make navigating easier. Perhaps adding actual wires going from the power boxes (the red thingies) to the laser screen would make it more clear that destroying them will turn the screen off.
As for the level exit teleports, I didn't know they are that unclear. I don't know which version you played, but in the web version the teleports do look boring due to the lack of distortion effects. I will see if I can find some way to make them look more like exits.
Dyuozor 3 years ago
Game Graphics ControlsReminds me a lot of descent.
I like the simple graphics and the atmosphere in general.
You really get a claustrophobic/lost feeling. The music is great too.
I enjoyed the gameplay, my only problem is that the controls are a little bit too loose.
I understand that it's a space game and you are trying to give that feeling of floating but I think the game would gain if it had slightly tighter controls.
I like the simple graphics and the atmosphere in general.
You really get a claustrophobic/lost feeling. The music is great too.
I enjoyed the gameplay, my only problem is that the controls are a little bit too loose.
I understand that it's a space game and you are trying to give that feeling of floating but I think the game would gain if it had slightly tighter controls.
misha 3 years ago
Mechanics Tutorial/Learning CurveI like the mechanics, it's quite fun.
I had troubles reading the blue on black text popping up at the top of the screen, so I have no idea what it was saying.
Also, it wasn't very clear from the very beginning what am I doing there and how. In the first play I got killed without any understanding what just happened. In the second play I figured out that I'm in zero gravity and I need to shoot those red things shooting back at me. After clearing the whole level and flying through the dim purple circle without anything happening, I somehow stumbled up the brighter purple circle, which got me to the next level, where I got killed again. In the third play I tried pressing various buttons and figured out that Q and E rotate you, which was exactly what I needed, but still got killed. The fourth play after noticing the red energy gates I started to think that maybe I need to open them somehow, and maybe the other red things attached to the walls can help me with that. And so on. What I haven't figured out is what do the different green things do.
I had troubles reading the blue on black text popping up at the top of the screen, so I have no idea what it was saying.
Also, it wasn't very clear from the very beginning what am I doing there and how. In the first play I got killed without any understanding what just happened. In the second play I figured out that I'm in zero gravity and I need to shoot those red things shooting back at me. After clearing the whole level and flying through the dim purple circle without anything happening, I somehow stumbled up the brighter purple circle, which got me to the next level, where I got killed again. In the third play I tried pressing various buttons and figured out that Q and E rotate you, which was exactly what I needed, but still got killed. The fourth play after noticing the red energy gates I started to think that maybe I need to open them somehow, and maybe the other red things attached to the walls can help me with that. And so on. What I haven't figured out is what do the different green things do.
fractilegames 3 years ago
Thank you for the feedback!I assume you played the web version because it has a bug that makes the text color much darker blue than in the other versions. I will have to fix that at some point.
The game does need to make the objectives more clear and add some instructions. Currently the controls are only documented in readme.txt -file and on the website. There will be an in-game help screen once I have implemented configurable controls. As for the level exit teleports, laser screens, and the green things (score and score multiplier items to collect), I need to make them more intuitive. I'm trying to avoid adding a tutorial. We'll see if I have to change my mind..
ADDION 2 years ago
Game Graphics Tutorial/Learning CurveThere is no clear explanation for the controls but i like the graphics
