I’m making a side scrolling shooter and started work on a new level a couple of days ago, I wondered if I could get some feedback on what I have so far? I have only been working on the level design so haven’t added any enemies yet (although there are a couple in the vid which randomly spawn in which will be changed later). Do you think it looks OK? And do you think the music fits? I wasnt sure whether to go with a darker electronic sound, or perhaps a dance/dubstep soundtrack?
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I think it looks visually very good. The low lying mist is a clever addition and I’d be tempted to add some fog in the far distance if only to give the illusion of heavier rain fall. The music for me feels a little retro, and against the contemporary visuals comes across a little jarring. Maybe try a few different soundtracks a choose what feels right for you and the tone your aiming for. All in all, a stellar effort for a couple of days work.
Nice visuals.
Re. music, what’re you going for? What’s the story? Why are you flying a Battlestar Galactica Viper over an Earth-like city? What’re the baddies? Are you defending? I’d think the music should reinforce all that and the emotional tone of this level.
Didn’t you already have a thread for this game?
It looks pretty good. I might’ve changed the color of the fog and also made it fade a bit more and tried adding some street lights or something in the fog to add more life to it, so it doesn’t look only like a way to hide the ground.
Since there’s battling going on I’d also consider adding maybe some flames on some buildings, smoke etc. Liven up the background.
Lastly, not sure it was deliberate or so, but I’d avoid using a recognized brand name (Boss) in the game.
I will look at adding distance fog, the script for the ground fog includes distance fog but it was too strong, I will look at other options. I like the music, but I agree it doesnt really fit, i’ll try and find something more modern 
Well, if you want to know the story of the game: Earth has been occupied by Alien forces, they arrived via warp tunnel roughly 8 months prior and proceeded to eliminate major military installations and hold the people hostage. They are using humans as slave labourers and are transporting Earths materials back to their home world which is severely crippled due to overpopulation and intense mining operations. Earth has off world colonies and a distress call reached them during the initial invasion, so they built up their arsenals and when the game begins their attempt to drive out the invaders also begins.
As far as this city level goes: various areas of the planet remain untouched, this city was one of them, but it has suddenly seen a large formation of alien cruisers occupy its skyline. To prevent another percentage of the population from falling into enemy hands you are dispatched to destroy the arriving alien fleet and to establish your own defences so the city remains ‘free’.
I created a thread specifically to discuss this level, and the other seems to have died so I left it alone.
Good idea about adding street lights, I also had the idea of adding flames and smoke here and there. I could also have enemies flying in the background, dropping bombs or something
I will remove the Boss billboards too just to be on the safe side.
Yes, it does look good. But it also looks “dead”.
there are no lights. In this weather, this time of day (?) … one would think people switch their lights on the office.
Another idea would be a thunderstorm (in the background)
What I would recommend, to enhance the overall lighting is Amplify Color. (or another color grading solution, but AC is joy to use / implement) https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/1894
I think you risk breaking this rule:
“Do not create new threads for every piece of work that you do.”
So I’d suggest sticking to this thread, maybe giving it the title of your game, then resurrect it with new work when it “dies off” a bit.
I didn’t know about that rule, I will keep my work within this thread
I have a tentative title for my game and a design I made as a cover image, I was wondering if I could get some feedback on these?
My title is ‘Solar Strike’ and this is my cover image:
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I like the graphics and the soundtrack is not the best but its good enough, but what bugged me was sound effect when the enemy ships shots sounds too cartoony, maybe try changing the pitch or another sound similar to the player shoot sound…
I like the name Solar Strike.
I’ll be honest the enemy laser sound is just a placeholder at the moment, I have a bunch of different laser effects and will definitely go with a different one once I get around to it.
I have changed the music and done a lot of work on some enemy patterns, this is what I have so far:
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I dont know if this is within the rules or not (mods feel free to edit my post if it is) but I have set up a kickstarter for my game. If you feel this is something you would like to play please consider supporting my campaign, or at least please share it on your websites, twitter, facebook, etc.
If the campaign is successful I hope to release on Steam, PS4 and Xbox One, and a £10 pledge will grant you a free download on your platform of choice.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1925478962/solar-strike-shoot-em-up-video-game-for-pc-and-con
If you want that scene to look a little more cohesive, I’d bring the fog colour closer to that of the skybox. It’ll look a little less jarring.
Thank you I have done this and I agree it does look better.
What I am wondering now is what I can do to make the enemies more interesting. I would like to jazz up the enemies and make them visually more interesting but i’m not sure how I can achieve this. This is my opening level:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGE_LleDr3I
Does anyone have any ideas what I could do? What would make the enemies or in fact the level more interesting for you?
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I like the overall look so far, good job!
For a game this fast pace, I think you’d need to improve the contrast between fore- and background.
There is one technique I learned in design school that you might want to consider:
Try to look at it with your eyes almost shut (everything blurry). The parts of your screen that pop out most should be the foreground. To get a higher contrast, there are lots of techniques you could apply:
Lighting (bg dark, fg bright, or occasionally inversed), blurred background, contrast in color(mark enemies or powerups with colored HUD-elements or blinking lights, desaturate the background).
Edit: Oh and where did you get the soundtrack from?
I have already applied fog to darken the background somewhat, I guess I could darken it a little more. Depth of field effect looks cool but not something I would like to use for the final game, the backgrounds look very sharp and I wouldn’t want to hide that away behind a heavy blur effect.
The song is from a music back from the asset store, one of the action/rock packs (I cant remember which off the top of my head, if you search action rock in audio you are sure to see it as one of the first to pop up).
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