Hey Studio, the game is fun and challenging. The intro was cool, it reminds me of classic games. I really liked the music, it has a good retro feel and sound. The controls are good and so are the weapons. I would like to offer a couple of suggestions. Instead of having the Gameplay Hud go off screen when the player or enemy gets close to it, perhaps you could have it go slightly transparent, where you can still see your health and the bosses health. Also, on the bosses health bar, maybe add some color to the bosses current health so it will stand out, it's a bit hard to see how much health the boss has left. Overall, great job! Keep up the good work!
A couple problems with making the HUDs go transparent is that transparency/object effects used on the menu layer are expensive, and the transparency does not effect drawn variable gauges on objects (which each HUD uses). Basically, most of it would disappear, but you'd still have these coloured rectangles which wouldn't. It doesn't look right.
Having them move off screen was the only solution that affected the entire aspect of each HUD.
I could try adding a colour to the mini-boss and nightmare gauges.
I think current status of level 1-3 is interesting and challenge. This is a typical arcade-mode game, which need well design of each level and CSE did well in level design. It remind me of those classic arcade shooting game.
The shooting mechanism is very interesting and creative. But the control mode of flash shield may need much more polished. It brings too much risk and usually made me feeling frustrated.
I can't wait to see the finished version of this game. Goodjob!
One of the most impressive game made with the PGMMV engine I had to play. Musics and visual effects are very good and the concept itself works pretty well for an arcade space shooter.
There's some bugs here and there, sadly due to the engine limitations but nothing game breaking for what I've experienced.
The game let you choose between multiple accessibility options for the difficulty like making enemies faster or giving you checkpoints, more health or infinite Continues, which is very appreciated.
Attention to detail is great. One of the best examples of what someone can do with PGMMV (with an immense amount of effort). I’m not a shmup guy but this is more than fair & accessible! Highly recommend!
A quick foreword: I am terrible at shmups and twinstick shooters at the like -- but in lieu of that and looking for new experiences, I gave this a try.
Music I actually can't say enough good things about the game's music! It's filled with a lot of 16-bit goodness that leans heavily on Mega Drive soundchip trappings, which compliments the visuals wonderfully.
Gameplay I played on the lowest difficulty and didn't get very far due to time constraints, but of the two levels I played, there is really interesting enemy and boss variety. Enemies will come from virtually any direction so you have to keep your eyes peeled. The three different shot abilities have different utilities as well, which forces the player to actually pay attention to what firing modes are best suited to the situations they're in.
The weapon upgrades are substantial too -- the only thing I don't like is that you lose them on being hit, but I guess that raises the skill ceiling and rewards good gameplay.
Controls Please play this with a gamepad, a keyboard setup just doesn't really do it justice whatsoever.
------
I'd heartily recommend this to anyone looking for a hidden gem in the shmup genre -- it's very accessible, which is highly unusual for a genre that's not normally known for pulling its punches with difficulty settings.
Really refreshing fast-paced shoot'em up in a uniquely creative universe and with original controls. Be ready to blast skunks from this hallucinatory world and come out on top of the challenging bosses.
Thoroughly impressed with what's been done so far. The controls feel tight, gameplay is well thought out. The music is a highlight and keeps you bopping as you shoot your way through each distinctly stylized level. I appreciate how the game demands your attention and mastery in order to complete it on the higher difficulties. Reminiscent of past scroller shooters but with it's own identity.
The scenario/story allows for some really cool level design; very much looking forward to what comes next. The polish on this gem is so shiny that you can see it from space.
Keep working on it, can't wait to see the finished product!
I replayed it after the restyle and that imporved a lot in the pixel scale, remain some issue with not contrasted background (where i will go and where not) and a lot different color enemy bullets who are difficult to understand what to dodge and what not expecially in the second stage.
When I woke up this morning, I knew today was going to be different. I didn't know how, or why, but I knew. Most of the day went rolling on by, and nothing out of the ordinary. It was suiting up to be just a regular Thursday in New Covid. 9pm rolls around. There I was, staring at my computer monitor, waiting for something to happen. I lit my e-cigarette, and suddenly a noise - "BA-DINK!" Huh? What was that? A second time. "BA-DINK!" There it is, out of the corner of my screen, a notification. A notification that would change my life. I click as I take another puff. Then it loads...COMA STATE EDEN, it reads. I knew this was it. This was what I was waiting for since the day began. Immediately I was transported to a new world. It was needed to escape this terrifying reality. Left and right, monsters came at me, as the effervescent chiptune score warmed my ears. I was hooked...but would I ever leave? 5/5
Banger music, creative visuals and awesome gameplay! I've played CSE in the first PGM contest and it was fun, and the new demo adds some quality of life things like checkpoints which I appreciated. I have played a good amount of shooters and this one keeps me on the edge of my seat!
Another great game from StudioDaeera! I've played upgradeable shooters before, but not as a side scroller too! The music is perfect to get you pumped up to fight through the levels!
Having not played a game like this in a very long time I feel that it was a great game. Great music, SFX, and good game play. The ability to use all 4 of the different shooting abilities was nice and the flash shield once I got use to it was great for getting extra score and quickly building lucid gauge.
There are some issues of enemy projectiles getting somewhat lost in the background (more so on the vaporware level) and the unforgiving nature of losing all upgrades on getting hit, no way of recovering lost hp, and losing flash shield ability (which I feel is a bit too much to be losing a base game play element). I also feel the player character may be a bit too big. Even if the hit box isn’t the full pixel model, I still feel he is to big overall but I’m not 100% sure if this is an issue.
Overall a great foundation and I can’t wait to see what gets added.
Bug-fixes, some object related optimizations (reducing the total count of objects/resources used from the CPU, making my eventing/link condition checks more efficient) and some balancing changes.
I often forget that it emails everyone each time I update the build. Earlier a friend told me they wanted to playtest so I made sure the build had the most recent things I did.
Depending on when you last played, lots of little things were adjusted to improve the game feel.
I really dig the trippy dream-verse theme of this game, all the surrealist imagery is very cool, and the retro inspired backdrops are right up my alley. Generally, as an artistic choice, I do prefer a consistency in pixel density, so the fact that some of the objects are higher resolution than others is a little distracting, but other than that, the visuals are great.
I also really liked the weapons system. Using the various different directions for the subweapons is really unique, and not something I've seen in other shoot-em-ups, which usually rely on switching. Being able to switch to the needed weapon on the fly, just by pushing in a different direction with the right stick (I used a gamepad) made the combat and switching weapons much more intuitive. The mechanics and the combat in general are very good, everything feels tight and responsive, and the visual cues and sound effects are good at conveying when you're dealing damage, or when an enemy is shielded.
I've never been particularly good at shoot-em-up games, so for me, having a checkpoint after the sub-bosses would be of great help. Even on Daydream difficulty I found the game to be quite challenging, but it's a lot of fun! I definitely want to keep trying just to see what other kinds of cool levels there will be. I'm glad that this isn't a bullet hell game.
I just noticed this response, apologies for replying late. There ARE checkpoints in the game now. On every difficulty except for Nightmare!
On the difficulty select screen, press the top face button on the controller and you'll toggle the difficulty descriptions with the actual details of what each tier brings to you in terms of challenge.
I've played a fair amount of this now, dying and retrying to feel that I've got a fairly good grip of it.
Graphics
The pixel style is interesting and definitely unique. Most things looks nice however, there a few issues with larger pixel sizes for some objects which throw it off for me a little personally. Not as much as I thought however due to the dream like aesthetic. This is something that can be addressed later but appreciate it requires much more time.
Some of the objects look for a lack of a better word muddy and some look too barren i.e. the detail is a bit inconsistent.
I think in the vaporwave level there could be a little more contrast between the chequered background that's a wall and just the background. It changes color but can fade into one of the same-ish so can get a little confusing.
Overall though, it fits the aesthetic albeit with a few issues.
Music and SFX
These are all on point. I can't fault them at all. They compliment the graphics, the gameplay and the lore. Nothing to critique here.
Gameplay
Took me a little while to get used to this but once I got the hang of it and played around a few times on the levels I got to feel the differences between the weapons and their advantages and disadvantages against enemies. Controls are tight for this type of game, no hiccups there. The twin stick mechanic was tricky to get used to for me personally because when I play I always drift up on the right stick. Maybe in time when we get deadzone control this won't be an issue.
Enemy variety is good, the designs I think mostly suit the level they are in pretty well and their attack patterns are straightforward to figure out but when combined together offer a significant challenge.
Level design is good but there are a few readability issues that i experienced personally whereby the same object was used in the background as the foreground but there wasn't a significant enough change in color/saturation for me to tell the difference. Mainly the pillars in the vaporwave level. Aside from that, I think the levels are planned well, I can see that it's not easy with the continuous camera view to get that feeling right so good job.
Powerups are interesting. I like that you can get them and I like the differences between the levels. The only thing I dislike about it is that you lose all of them when you get hit. At one point I was playing excellently and had both the laser and boomerang at max with the drop bomb at level 2. I got hit and lost everything. This was a little frustrating. Maybe you could only lose 1 powerup? perhaps the least levelled or something like that.
Lucid mode is sick and actually took me a while to activate for the first time. Love it.
Checkpoints. I feel like a checkpoint is needed after the sub-boss but at the same time, it would detract from the difficulty of the level. This is a tricky one, on one hand the difficulty is right and playing the level again allows you to get better, on the other hand I have to replay the whole level again if I die at the end, the boss on vaporwave was challenging. Take this with a pinch of salt for sure.
Difficulty as mentioned above is good, challenging but fair and you do get better the more you play which is nice.
Polish/Other thoughts
The level of polish for the game feel and aesthetic is really good. The little details added for the start screen, the continue screen counting down faster if you press a button to burai flying off camera after a level (not to mention countless others). All of this really shows a lot of love and care for crafting a great experience.
If there was one area that needs the most attention I would say the graphics, I think you could do some work here to unify them further and create a more consistent, chaotic dream world.
Overall, this was a fun game to play and unique in what it presented and how it presented it. Great job.
Coma State Eden is an unforgiving, but tighly designed, arcade-style shoot-em-up. I love this game, it has amazing visual and sound aesthetics, a strong theme, and the main character oozes with personality.
Although it may initially be intimidating, that is because the game starts you out with multiple tools and a strong challenge, which end up being great for multiple playthroughs (since there are 4 difficulties), because you don't have to snooze through easy sections every time .
If you take the time to learn this game's mechanics it becomes a super rewarding and memorable experience, I recommend this game to everyone who loves not only challenging games but also games as an experience, because this one really does stick in your mind.
![Coma State Eden [昏睡状態エデン]](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzQ1MDc2NjgucG5n/original/p%2F%2BU00.png)
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A really fun and juice filled retro shooter that is a great example of what Pixel Game Maker MV can do if you put in the time and effort!
This game is incredible. I love the level of detail and the graphics. I would have to say this game shows what is possible with this software.
Hey Studio, the game is fun and challenging. The intro was cool, it reminds me of classic games. I really liked the music, it has a good retro feel and sound. The controls are good and so are the weapons. I would like to offer a couple of suggestions. Instead of having the Gameplay Hud go off screen when the player or enemy gets close to it, perhaps you could have it go slightly transparent, where you can still see your health and the bosses health. Also, on the bosses health bar, maybe add some color to the bosses current health so it will stand out, it's a bit hard to see how much health the boss has left. Overall, great job! Keep up the good work!
A couple problems with making the HUDs go transparent is that transparency/object effects used on the menu layer are expensive, and the transparency does not effect drawn variable gauges on objects (which each HUD uses). Basically, most of it would disappear, but you'd still have these coloured rectangles which wouldn't. It doesn't look right.
Having them move off screen was the only solution that affected the entire aspect of each HUD.
I could try adding a colour to the mini-boss and nightmare gauges.
I think current status of level 1-3 is interesting and challenge. This is a typical arcade-mode game, which need well design of each level and CSE did well in level design. It remind me of those classic arcade shooting game.
The shooting mechanism is very interesting and creative. But the control mode of flash shield may need much more polished. It brings too much risk and usually made me feeling frustrated.
I can't wait to see the finished version of this game. Goodjob!
One of the most impressive game made with the PGMMV engine I had to play. Musics and visual effects are very good and the concept itself works pretty well for an arcade space shooter.
There's some bugs here and there, sadly due to the engine limitations but nothing game breaking for what I've experienced.
The game let you choose between multiple accessibility options for the difficulty like making enemies faster or giving you checkpoints, more health or infinite Continues, which is very appreciated.
Overall, pretty enjoyable!
fun game, a showcase on how capable this engine is on good hands, nice work.
Attention to detail is great. One of the best examples of what someone can do with PGMMV (with an immense amount of effort). I’m not a shmup guy but this is more than fair & accessible! Highly recommend!
I love vegetrain music
A quick foreword: I am terrible at shmups and twinstick shooters at the like -- but in lieu of that and looking for new experiences, I gave this a try.
Music
I actually can't say enough good things about the game's music! It's filled with a lot of 16-bit goodness that leans heavily on Mega Drive soundchip trappings, which compliments the visuals wonderfully.
Gameplay
I played on the lowest difficulty and didn't get very far due to time constraints, but of the two levels I played, there is really interesting enemy and boss variety. Enemies will come from virtually any direction so you have to keep your eyes peeled. The three different shot abilities have different utilities as well, which forces the player to actually pay attention to what firing modes are best suited to the situations they're in.
The weapon upgrades are substantial too -- the only thing I don't like is that you lose them on being hit, but I guess that raises the skill ceiling and rewards good gameplay.
Controls
Please play this with a gamepad, a keyboard setup just doesn't really do it justice whatsoever.
------
I'd heartily recommend this to anyone looking for a hidden gem in the shmup genre -- it's very accessible, which is highly unusual for a genre that's not normally known for pulling its punches with difficulty settings.
Really refreshing fast-paced shoot'em up in a uniquely creative universe and with original controls.
Be ready to blast skunks from this hallucinatory world and come out on top of the challenging bosses.
Hi, i cant play the game, i execute the "player.exe" and nothings happens
Can you try checking:
- To make sure you have these window distributables ( VC2010, VC2012, VC2013, and VC2015 ).
If you don't have them you need to install them on your own PC.
And also check:
-Your graphics card is up to date.
A cut above.
Thoroughly impressed with what's been done so far. The controls feel tight, gameplay is well thought out. The music is a highlight and keeps you bopping as you shoot your way through each distinctly stylized level. I appreciate how the game demands your attention and mastery in order to complete it on the higher difficulties. Reminiscent of past scroller shooters but with it's own identity.
The scenario/story allows for some really cool level design; very much looking forward to what comes next. The polish on this gem is so shiny that you can see it from space.
Keep working on it, can't wait to see the finished product!
"Great work in gameplay, and great music.
I replayed it after the restyle and that imporved a lot in the pixel scale, remain some issue with not contrasted background (where i will go and where not) and a lot different color enemy bullets who are difficult to understand what to dodge and what not expecially in the second stage.
Great game, the controls are smooth the art is great and the different weapons are fun.
Solid gameplay and controls.
The last 20th September 2021 build really lift the overall experience with everything from power-up colouring to sound design.
When I woke up this morning, I knew today was going to be different. I didn't know how, or why, but I knew. Most of the day went rolling on by, and nothing out of the ordinary. It was suiting up to be just a regular Thursday in New Covid. 9pm rolls around. There I was, staring at my computer monitor, waiting for something to happen. I lit my e-cigarette, and suddenly a noise - "BA-DINK!" Huh? What was that? A second time. "BA-DINK!" There it is, out of the corner of my screen, a notification. A notification that would change my life. I click as I take another puff. Then it loads...COMA STATE EDEN, it reads. I knew this was it. This was what I was waiting for since the day began. Immediately I was transported to a new world. It was needed to escape this terrifying reality. Left and right, monsters came at me, as the effervescent chiptune score warmed my ears. I was hooked...but would I ever leave? 5/5
Banger music, creative visuals and awesome gameplay! I've played CSE in the first PGM contest and it was fun, and the new demo adds some quality of life things like checkpoints which I appreciated. I have played a good amount of shooters and this one keeps me on the edge of my seat!
Another great game from StudioDaeera! I've played upgradeable shooters before, but not as a side scroller too! The music is perfect to get you pumped up to fight through the levels!
Having not played a game like this in a very long time I feel that it was a great game. Great music, SFX, and good game play. The ability to use all 4 of the different shooting abilities was nice and the flash shield once I got use to it was great for getting extra score and quickly building lucid gauge.
There are some issues of enemy projectiles getting somewhat lost in the background (more so on the vaporware level) and the unforgiving nature of losing all upgrades on getting hit, no way of recovering lost hp, and losing flash shield ability (which I feel is a bit too much to be losing a base game play element). I also feel the player character may be a bit too big. Even if the hit box isn’t the full pixel model, I still feel he is to big overall but I’m not 100% sure if this is an issue.
Overall a great foundation and I can’t wait to see what gets added.
What's in the update?
Bug-fixes, some object related optimizations (reducing the total count of objects/resources used from the CPU, making my eventing/link condition checks more efficient) and some balancing changes.
I often forget that it emails everyone each time I update the build. Earlier a friend told me they wanted to playtest so I made sure the build had the most recent things I did.
Depending on when you last played, lots of little things were adjusted to improve the game feel.
Sounds good. I'll definitely check it out!
A mixture of Contra and R-Type!? SIGN ME IN!! The game is definitely a toughie!
Great music! Challenging combat makes the game very replayable. Reminds me of some of the better flash games I played in the early 2010s as a kid.
Can't wait to see/play more games by you in the future!
Loving this game so far. Great soundtracks, graphics are unique and good. Gameplay is solid!
I really dig the trippy dream-verse theme of this game, all the surrealist imagery is very cool, and the retro inspired backdrops are right up my alley. Generally, as an artistic choice, I do prefer a consistency in pixel density, so the fact that some of the objects are higher resolution than others is a little distracting, but other than that, the visuals are great.
I also really liked the weapons system. Using the various different directions for the subweapons is really unique, and not something I've seen in other shoot-em-ups, which usually rely on switching. Being able to switch to the needed weapon on the fly, just by pushing in a different direction with the right stick (I used a gamepad) made the combat and switching weapons much more intuitive. The mechanics and the combat in general are very good, everything feels tight and responsive, and the visual cues and sound effects are good at conveying when you're dealing damage, or when an enemy is shielded.
I've never been particularly good at shoot-em-up games, so for me, having a checkpoint after the sub-bosses would be of great help. Even on Daydream difficulty I found the game to be quite challenging, but it's a lot of fun! I definitely want to keep trying just to see what other kinds of cool levels there will be. I'm glad that this isn't a bullet hell game.
> I've never been particularly good at shoot-em-up games, so for me, having a checkpoint after the sub-bosses would be of great help.
Agreed!
I just noticed this response, apologies for replying late. There ARE checkpoints in the game now. On every difficulty except for Nightmare!
On the difficulty select screen, press the top face button on the controller and you'll toggle the difficulty descriptions with the actual details of what each tier brings to you in terms of challenge.
Hi!
I've played a fair amount of this now, dying and retrying to feel that I've got a fairly good grip of it.
Graphics
The pixel style is interesting and definitely unique. Most things looks nice however, there a few issues with larger pixel sizes for some objects which throw it off for me a little personally. Not as much as I thought however due to the dream like aesthetic. This is something that can be addressed later but appreciate it requires much more time.
Some of the objects look for a lack of a better word muddy and some look too barren i.e. the detail is a bit inconsistent.
I think in the vaporwave level there could be a little more contrast between the chequered background that's a wall and just the background. It changes color but can fade into one of the same-ish so can get a little confusing.
Overall though, it fits the aesthetic albeit with a few issues.
Music and SFX
These are all on point. I can't fault them at all. They compliment the graphics, the gameplay and the lore. Nothing to critique here.
Gameplay
Took me a little while to get used to this but once I got the hang of it and played around a few times on the levels I got to feel the differences between the weapons and their advantages and disadvantages against enemies. Controls are tight for this type of game, no hiccups there. The twin stick mechanic was tricky to get used to for me personally because when I play I always drift up on the right stick. Maybe in time when we get deadzone control this won't be an issue.
Enemy variety is good, the designs I think mostly suit the level they are in pretty well and their attack patterns are straightforward to figure out but when combined together offer a significant challenge.
Level design is good but there are a few readability issues that i experienced personally whereby the same object was used in the background as the foreground but there wasn't a significant enough change in color/saturation for me to tell the difference. Mainly the pillars in the vaporwave level. Aside from that, I think the levels are planned well, I can see that it's not easy with the continuous camera view to get that feeling right so good job.
Powerups are interesting. I like that you can get them and I like the differences between the levels. The only thing I dislike about it is that you lose all of them when you get hit. At one point I was playing excellently and had both the laser and boomerang at max with the drop bomb at level 2. I got hit and lost everything. This was a little frustrating. Maybe you could only lose 1 powerup? perhaps the least levelled or something like that.
Lucid mode is sick and actually took me a while to activate for the first time. Love it.
Checkpoints. I feel like a checkpoint is needed after the sub-boss but at the same time, it would detract from the difficulty of the level. This is a tricky one, on one hand the difficulty is right and playing the level again allows you to get better, on the other hand I have to replay the whole level again if I die at the end, the boss on vaporwave was challenging. Take this with a pinch of salt for sure.
Difficulty as mentioned above is good, challenging but fair and you do get better the more you play which is nice.
Polish/Other thoughts
The level of polish for the game feel and aesthetic is really good. The little details added for the start screen, the continue screen counting down faster if you press a button to burai flying off camera after a level (not to mention countless others). All of this really shows a lot of love and care for crafting a great experience.
If there was one area that needs the most attention I would say the graphics, I think you could do some work here to unify them further and create a more consistent, chaotic dream world.
Overall, this was a fun game to play and unique in what it presented and how it presented it. Great job.
Coma State Eden is an unforgiving, but tighly designed, arcade-style shoot-em-up. I love this game, it has amazing visual and sound aesthetics, a strong theme, and the main character oozes with personality.
Although it may initially be intimidating, that is because the game starts you out with multiple tools and a strong challenge, which end up being great for multiple playthroughs (since there are 4 difficulties), because you don't have to snooze through easy sections every time .
If you take the time to learn this game's mechanics it becomes a super rewarding and memorable experience, I recommend this game to everyone who loves not only challenging games but also games as an experience, because this one really does stick in your mind.
Amazing game with a retro feel and wonderful soundtrack!
Excellent. Old School Arcade Goodness! I Rocks Wit It.
This game was surprisingly addicting! I really enjoyed it!
Awesome work - looking forward to seeing it come together!
This is absolutely amazing.
Great game!