Vrax

by rasm
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.07
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.29
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.36
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.71
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.36
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.36
Vrax is a 2d shooter where you destroy waves of enemies while switching between different types of ships.
It's written in C# 7 and my own .NET Core game engine.

VraxScreen1_LD.png


I've made a one-line fix post compo found here:
https://github.com/PurelySimple/Vrax/commit/331d9fc9d8de88d6db1e359039e7a34a3a68a644

This just forces fullscreen mode so people running 1920x1080 resolution dont get the window offscreen.

screenshot
Genres: shooter

Comments14

Rasm
Rasmauthor2 Dec 2017, 08:31
First screenshot. Can move the ship, fire, and destroy an enemy. Not too exciting yet.
Rasm
Rasmauthor2 Dec 2017, 12:47
Player and enemies can now be destroyed. A parallax starfield is rendered in the background. Hit sound and explosion sounds play. Enemies spawn in waves based on how many are killed. Enemies shoot back and have collision damage while moving in a sine wave pattern. Wow that screenshot looks like a hot mess of programmer art.
Rasm
Rasmauthor2 Dec 2017, 15:07
Added 2 new enemy types (rocket launcher ship + ufo), Game Over screen, and fixed the stars and projectile colors a bit.
Rasm
Rasmauthor2 Dec 2017, 23:08
Added better ship art, better background effects, and a new beam cannon enemy.
Rasm
Rasmauthor3 Dec 2017, 03:21
Added game music and menu screens. It's starting to look more like a game!
Rasm
Rasmauthor3 Dec 2017, 18:09
Better art, bigger explosions, a new playable ship (the bomber), kill and level counter.
Rasm
Rasmauthor4 Dec 2017, 02:32
Finally done! It feels pretty good to be sitting here with something that didnt exist 48 hours ago. XD
shieldgenerator7
shieldgenerator75 Dec 2017, 03:20
It opened up fullscreen but in the top left corner of my screen and I couldn't move it, resulting in me not being able to see the entire screen. The gameplay was ok but nothing unique. Honestly, the screensize issue prevented me from enjoying the game.
Rasm
Rasmauthor5 Dec 2017, 04:25
Thanks for playing @shieldgenerator7. I should have defaulted to fullscreen desktop before publishing the build but instead its forced to 1920x1080 windowed. Something that can be easily fixed in an update.
Rasm
Rasmauthor5 Dec 2017, 07:49
I've updated the build to now force fullscreen mode. It was a one-line fix which can be found here:
https://github.com/PurelySimple/Vrax/commit/331d9fc9d8de88d6db1e359039e7a34a3a68a644

I checked the rules and it says the following so I think its okay.
>You can’t add new features, but if something broke or didn’t work correctly as you were finishing up, you can fix this after the deadline. You are asked to highlight the changes you make in your submission (a short change log).
Simone5 Dec 2017, 09:06
It's a nice standard space shooter :)

A couple of improvement could have been:
- A quit button (maybe there is one, but I couldn't see, so I used alt+f4)
- Some visual feedback when you hit an enemy that needs more than 1 hit to die
Rasm
Rasmauthor5 Dec 2017, 19:11
Thanks for playing @simone. Good suggestions. It would have been better to make the enemies flash white for a few frames when they take a hit so you know they are being damaged. The rocket firing ships have 3 hp and the large beam ships have 10 hp.
pebkac
pebkac6 Dec 2017, 20:23
Alright, nice game! Some ups and downs
+ Nice and varied enemy design
+ multiple playable ships

- Hitboxes for the player's bullets could've been a bit bigger; shooting enemies was a bit pixel-perfect now
- The foreground (w/ all the enemies and bullets) and background (with moving starfield) blended at times, making it hard to see what was going on.
Rasm
Rasmauthor8 Dec 2017, 06:35
Thanks for playing and the feedback @pebkac! I tried to make the bullets pop more by making them red but I agree that stars (while they look nice) can be a bit distracting. Maybe if I removed them or dimmed them to a dark gray.

The hitbox especially for the enemy dart ship (thin one that shoots up and down) is really hard to hit. Perhaps if I added another ship with a spread cannon it would be easier to hit. Using the bomber/carrier you can hit it with the vertical shot but its fire rate is poor. The best ship to hit anything would probably be the 4th ship (hovercraft).
Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord