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A jam submission

Exo-RailView game page

Build your armored train and defend the mining post
Submitted by ShooBox — 2 days, 16 hours before the deadline
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Exo-Rail's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Sound/Music#623.5003.500
Art / Graphics#1023.5003.500
Overall Fun#1283.1673.167
Controls / UI#1642.6672.667

Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Ai Usage

Human made

Genre

Action

Shooter | Platformer | Slasher | Beat em Up | Base Defense | Survival | Racing

Rating

For 13+

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Comments

The game shows great promise, I loved the variety in bugs! I liked that there were active abilities, made the down time between level ups more entertaining. I did wish there was the ability either through a perk or just as a rare chance to get upgraded train cars as a choice, nothing crazy just a level or maybe even have them have effects. Again this could be an unlockable perk or something.

The UI could also use a touch up, specifically an indicator for where the front of the train is located on the car equipping screen.

Gameplay 04:43:19

Submitted

Game coverage starts at 23:15

CHOO CHOO!! I played the browser version, and sometimes when I held right click , it caused me to exit out of the game/open a new tab. If you can, please add controller support. Frantic clicking with the mouse seemed more effective than anything else. Holding the mouse to auto fire helped, but rapid clicking was best. Music was fine.  Some of the weapons didn't seem to work (missiles, minigun).

For future missions, perhaps have different sizes/shapes of rail and also different music tracks. For the modules, can they be both they keyboard 1, 2, 3 AND the num pad 1, 2, 3? 

Submitted

Game coverage starts at 23:15

CHOO CHOO!! I played the browser version, and sometimes when I held right click , it caused me to exit out of the game/open a new tab. If you can, please add controller support. Frantic clicking with the mouse seemed more effective than anything else. Holding the mouse to auto fire helped, but rapid clicking was best. Music was fine.  Some of the weapons didn't seem to work (missiles, minigun).

For future missions, perhaps have different sizes/shapes of rail and also different music tracks. For the modules, can they be both they keyboard 1, 2, 3 AND the num pad 1, 2, 3? 

(2 edits)
  • Youtube Link / Twitch Link
  • Graphics : Mostly fine but needs some tweaks
    • E.G. the ground texture is very visibly tiled with the same 4 little dunes everywhere
  • GUI : Mostly Fine
    • The 'technician terminal' with the build and inventory is a bit of an eyesore tbf , it's hard on the eyes and it feels like it's half done and missing information.
  • Performance : Fine
  • Music / Sfx : 
    • Music : Mostly fine but a variety would be nice
    • SFX : A bit lackluster , moving items in the inventory has nothing, monsters dying have nothing, the cannon on the train sounds less like a cannon more like a pneumatic tool
  • Gameplay :  A bit lacking atm
  • Notes : 
    • Let us click and drag certain turrets over others to swap them out , needing to drag them out to slot in the new one is needlessly tedious.
    • Many of the turrets feel ridiculously short range
    • Something more could be done with the train idea and the tracks, ATM it's literally just spinning in  a chamfered rectangle.
      • Give us rails we can choose to travel down for one reason or another , maybe larger maps where we can cut of an encroaching swarm
      • Give us different outposts and allow us to build little defensive posts to travel to and from
      • Where're the futuristic weapons like a gauss cannon , tesla, cryo, etc?
    • Unsure if it's a bug but you can click to fire significantly faster than the hold
  • Final Thoughts : Unless more is done to the game's formula, it's a glorified tower defense game that makes you dizzy, the gameplay right now would be no different if the train was instead stationary.
Submitted

I like trains! It reminds me a bit of Choo Choo Defenders, though that's a pure autobattler. 

A lot of enemies are reaching the middle and the rail loop is fast enough that it could have been a static TD in the middle. I'd make use of the rails, make them longer and reach more diverse areas, enemies move slower and this way the train cycle brings hope of killing X on Y on the other side of the map. 

Also you could try save settings in PlayerPrefs, they reset after each refresh. The game has a bug with fullscreen toggle, it often bugs and hangs when maximized. It didn't work on ultrawide so I had to play it minimized.

GL HF with your game <3

Submitted(+1)

As for the concept, I think the idea is solid, but at this stage it needs major reworking

First, I ran into two bugs in a short play session, for example, the "clock out" button didn't work after I died. There's also a lack of feedback when enemies die: no shadows under them and death animations is not emought. In this type of game, weapon feedback and impact effects really matter a lot. Visual tower upgrades are important in this genre, players want to actually see their towers getting stronger.

As for the towers themselves, I liked that there's a good variety to choose from. What I didn't like is the train length limit, I'd love the option to make it longer, and maybe in the future have different maps where you could place two trains, that kind of thing.

Also, towers currently have pretty short attack range, which feels lacking. Enemies spawning from the top and bottom are also way too close to your base's center, which doesn't feel great either.

Settings also don't seem to work properly, I turned off camera shake, for example, but it was still shaking.


As an indie developer myself, I understand this might sound harsh, but I'd rather be completely honest than sugarcoat it :)

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for your feedback and insight! I much prefer harsh and honest feedback. I went ahead and patched the clock out button, thanks for bringing that to my attention. Still working on the camera shake disabling, and I like your suggestions with creating more feedback and possibly increasing the trains length. Still much to be worked on, but I'm glad you like the concept :)