Breaking and Entering [2D Top Down Shooter]

Gamerev147

Member
Breaking and Entering [2020 Overhaul]
A year ago I started this project. Those of you revisiting this post probably remember the previous version of the game and how much of a nightmare it was!
I came back to the project after 6 months and decided to really make it a promising game. I still need feedback and ideas for the game!
With that being said, here is Breaking and Entering (the 2020 version):



Video of recent updates to the game and some game play:

And of course, a demo!

Let me know what you think!
Thanks.
 
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Kyon

Member
Heya, just played your game. Very nice mood! I liked how the camera works.
One thing that I noticed is that your game lags on my integrated videocard, which I think shouldn't have to happen with how big your game is at the moment and how it looks.
So you might want to check out what's causing the performance issues. (worked perfectly on my high performance videocard though)
Took a while to figure out that I had to enter the controls myself in the menuscreen haha.

Anyway, the game itself was nice so far, curious to see how it'll end up.
 

Gamerev147

Member
Heya, just played your game. Very nice mood! I liked how the camera works.
One thing that I noticed is that your game lags on my integrated videocard, which I think shouldn't have to happen with how big your game is at the moment and how it looks.
So you might want to check out what's causing the performance issues. (worked perfectly on my high performance videocard though)
Took a while to figure out that I had to enter the controls myself in the menuscreen haha.

Anyway, the game itself was nice so far, curious to see how it'll end up.
I've been clueless as to why my games always turn out so laggy. I probably have an endless lighting loop or something. And the controls was probably I file error I didn't fix before releasing a demo.
Thank you so much for telling me and playing! I will be sure to keep working on performance (and of course the game itself :))
 

HighlandCoo

Member
Morning Gamerev147. I had a quick play. I like the main menu and settings options, it makes the game appear very professional.

Some comments

- I was able to start the game without first setting my controls, but could not play until I had set my controls. Maybe there should be some default keys when the game starts?

- The game is very slow. My specs are
i7 4 core @ 3.3ghz
32gb RAM
Radeon HD 7000
.. some things to check
1. What is the room speed set to? If you can increase it to 60 do so, but be aware this will affect any alarms you are using
2. Are you doing any large or complex loops? I tend to put very large loops in an alarm so they only run every 10 steps (for example)
3. Maybe consider disabling or replacing the lighting system until you can optimize it.
4. consider de-activating objects that you do not need. I tend to have a global "controller" type object that deactivates things for me when out of view (for example)
5. If you are using objects for any effects like dust, fragments, blood, etc consider replacing them with particles which tend to work just as well but with only a fraction of the performance overhead. I tend to us objects for blood (for example) so that I can collide them with walls etc. But after a short time destroy the object and replace it with a particle. If you want to be really fancy, draw the particle to a surface then destroy the particle too, for even less performance overhead.

- The weapons need some "omph" maybe consider
* Muzzle flash (both a sprite on the end of the gun, and also a light effect)
* impact effects on walls and NPCs
* shell casings
* smoke
* screenshake
* push the NPCs back when hit

- Consider adding some contextual information into the game, it was not clear if I was the good guy or the bad guy, or why I was only armed with a blowgun?

- Consider the camera, right now it works, but it could be smoother. Maybe have it "trail" the player (by moving it slightly slower than the player is moving) so that your movement appears smoother.

I hope thats helpful! Keep up the good work!
 

Gamerev147

Member
Morning Gamerev147. I had a quick play. I like the main menu and settings options, it makes the game appear very professional.

Some comments

- I was able to start the game without first setting my controls, but could not play until I had set my controls. Maybe there should be some default keys when the game starts?

- The game is very slow. My specs are
i7 4 core @ 3.3ghz
32gb RAM
Radeon HD 7000
.. some things to check
1. What is the room speed set to? If you can increase it to 60 do so, but be aware this will affect any alarms you are using
2. Are you doing any large or complex loops? I tend to put very large loops in an alarm so they only run every 10 steps (for example)
3. Maybe consider disabling or replacing the lighting system until you can optimize it.
4. consider de-activating objects that you do not need. I tend to have a global "controller" type object that deactivates things for me when out of view (for example)
5. If you are using objects for any effects like dust, fragments, blood, etc consider replacing them with particles which tend to work just as well but with only a fraction of the performance overhead. I tend to us objects for blood (for example) so that I can collide them with walls etc. But after a short time destroy the object and replace it with a particle. If you want to be really fancy, draw the particle to a surface then destroy the particle too, for even less performance overhead.

- The weapons need some "omph" maybe consider
* Muzzle flash (both a sprite on the end of the gun, and also a light effect)
* impact effects on walls and NPCs
* shell casings
* smoke
* screenshake
* push the NPCs back when hit

- Consider adding some contextual information into the game, it was not clear if I was the good guy or the bad guy, or why I was only armed with a blowgun?

- Consider the camera, right now it works, but it could be smoother. Maybe have it "trail" the player (by moving it slightly slower than the player is moving) so that your movement appears smoother.

I hope thats helpful! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the feedback!
I always tend to have trouble with lag. I've been looking into it. I don't know what could be causing it because it never lags on any of my computers.
I do have a sufficient camera. It has dynamic movement based on the player, and has dynamic screen-shake.
I put shell casings to the side at the moment due to the lag people experience.
Muzzles do have a smoke effect, however the light might dull the effect. I will look into changing it.

Keep in mind this is a demo, and I'm trying to keep it very realistic. In real life, a person won't necessarily be pushed back from a bullet, but rather twitch when they are hit.

I plan on having a tutorial at the beginning of the game when it's finished. You are the bad guy; you have to find the money safe in the levels, breach or pick them to find your payout.
I recently made the people in the house only have a knife, and if they see you, they call the police. The police are different from the SWAT team that shows up. So it makes it a bit of a stealth game, that also requires good "run & gun" skills.

I'm also not sure why the default controls don't work. I have them, they load successfully but don't apply in-game for some reason.
Anyway, thank you so much for the feedback! I plan on making an update post soon.
 

Orak

Member
Hi! I just want to say something about the concept of the game. You want to have a high state of realism, may I ask why?
I think it is only good if it brings something to the game. For a game where you have to break into a house, I don't think adding needs like food or water would bring fun.
I prefer the part where you have to think about how you want to break into the house, and make quick choices depending on the situation.

In stealth games, the satisfaction comes when you think you have made a good sneaky move and it pays out.
If you make too much noise, the squad will come and you have to deal with it another way.

2 ideas that cross my mind:
- I think it would be nice to make it harder to get out of the house when ennemies are on alert (like having to go back to a vehicule).
- adding other valuable things to pick up, but harder to get, to reach higher score at the end.
 

Gamerev147

Member
Hi! I just want to say something about the concept of the game. You want to have a high state of realism, may I ask why?
I think it is only good if it brings something to the game. For a game where you have to break into a house, I don't think adding needs like food or water would bring fun.
I prefer the part where you have to think about how you want to break into the house, and make quick choices depending on the situation.

In stealth games, the satisfaction comes when you think you have made a good sneaky move and it pays out.
If you make too much noise, the squad will come and you have to deal with it another way.

2 ideas that cross my mind:
- I think it would be nice to make it harder to get out of the house when ennemies are on alert (like having to go back to a vehicule).
- adding other valuable things to pick up, but harder to get, to reach higher score at the end.
The realism makes the game a bit harder by having some-what realistic mechanics. Gun mechanics operate very similar to a real gun; it might make it feel a bit more "bold" if that makes sense.
I removed food and water because I realized it was a really dumb idea.

I like your idea on getting out of the house! I added a "perimeter check" into the game. So while the safe is being opened, you have to run to certain areas of the house, either killing the enemies, or finding another creative way to deal with them.
Then of course, when you bust open the safe I plan on having an area you have to go to in order to escape from the house and receive your payout.

Thank you so much for the feedback! :) I plan on making an update when I finish some more levels and optimize a bit more.
 

Gamerev147

Member
Thanks for the response! I actually have a few games up on Itch.io. Just didn't think about it for this game.
Future releases will for sure be uploaded to Itch as well! :)
 

Niels

Member
Heya, just played your game. Very nice mood! I liked how the camera works.
One thing that I noticed is that your game lags on my integrated videocard, which I think shouldn't have to happen with how big your game is at the moment and how it looks.
So you might want to check out what's causing the performance issues. (worked perfectly on my high performance videocard though)
Took a while to figure out that I had to enter the controls myself in the menuscreen haha.

Anyway, the game itself was nice so far, curious to see how it'll end up.
Problem is the lighting system. The box standard Intel HD cards are not powerful enough to render it. I have the same problem with my own project which runs at 15 fps on integrated video card and 1000fps on my gt960
 

Kyon

Member
Problem is the lighting system. The box standard Intel HD cards are not powerful enough to render it. I have the same problem with my own project which runs at 15 fps on integrated video card and 1000fps on my gt960
ah yeah, if you ever find a fix that gamemaker .exe's automaticly open with the "better video card" instead of integrated please let me know. I have this problem a lot too.
 

Niels

Member
ah yeah, if you ever find a fix that gamemaker .exe's automaticly open with the "better video card" instead of integrated please let me know. I have this problem a lot too.
I will.
Maybe a good project for anyone that can and likes to made plugins for gamemaker?
 

Cameron

Member
Except breaking and entering is the name of the crime
I did a little googling and it seems that both phrasings are used for the same crime but I couldn't find which contexts they were used in. So OP, never mind me and use whichever one seems right to you, or talk to an english teacher or something to find out which one is more appropriate in this context (game name). I personally think "Break and Enter" sounds better and sounds like the right choice here but I can't say for certain which one you are "supposed" to use in this context.
 

Niels

Member
This was always strange to me as I'm using a "light weight" (according to the YoYo Marketplace page) lighting system.
I used to use Glare Lighting Engine. However that was pretty heavy weight. Looked amazing though!

In the demos of the game, the Aura 2.0 - Lighting Engine.
Marketplace Page: https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/5229/aura-2-0-lighting-engine
I use the same lighting engine, and when it stuttered on my system (on the onboard Intel HD card) I contacted the creator and together we found the culprit of this stuttering, which was gamemaker not switching to my gtx960 card, and my onboard Intel hd not being pow1erful enough.
Setting your preferred video card from automatic to your powerful card fixes the issue
 

Gamerev147

Member
I use the same lighting engine, and when it stuttered on my system (on the onboard Intel HD card) I contacted the creator and together we found the culprit of this stuttering, which was gamemaker not switching to my gtx960 card, and my onboard Intel hd not being pow1erful enough.
Setting your preferred video card from automatic to your powerful card fixes the issue
I found all problems involving performance on low-end system using integrated graphics:
In the game's options, there are two options for FXAA: Shadow and Standard FXAA.
Setting these as "Enable" results in an FPS drop of about 40! Otherwise, the game runs smoothly.
 

Gamerev147

Member
Update 1.2.0

I decided to make a quick post on what I've been fixing and adding into the game. Here is a list of everything I've done since the original post update:
  • Fixed general performance bugs.
  • Fixed minor lighting issues with spawned rewards and power ups.
    • If problems still persist and you are experiencing lag, TURN OFF anti-aliasing in the GAME DISPLAY SETTINGS!
  • Added achievements and rewards for completing missions of the following:
    • Kill Rewards (get a certain amount of kills)
    • Money Rewards (obtain certain amounts of money)
    • Grenade Rewards (use a certain number of grenades)
  • Added "Assets"!
    • This is a big update that is still in it's early stages. You can now spend your wealth at the Asset Store.
    • Purchase assets of assorted categories and prices. You can keep them, increasing your overall net worth, or sell them for (usually) less than the price of purchase.
    • GUI and functionality of the Assets addition is not guaranteed to perfection in the slightest. Take caution.
  • Fixed "Normal Level - Map 2" door clipping issues, as well as inaccessible enemies.
  • Adjusted artwork for level up sprites and notifications (GUI).
  • Fixed HUD layering issues.
A known bug that I am currently working to fix: If you complete all "Money Mission Achievements," and have remaining money-- The player will level up every time they enter a new room with the Player instance active.
Hopefully, next update this will be fixed.

Screenshots of Assets and Achievements:


Download the 1.2.0 Demo!

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think! :)
Thanks!
 

pixeltroid

Member
Hey. I played your game for a bit....but I ran into this error--->


breakentererror.png

I'd like to also share some other thoughts I have on your game. Give me a moment to write it down.

:)
 

pixeltroid

Member
General points.

I am not too familiar with this genre, so it was a little disorienting. So maybe I'm not exactly qualified to critique the finer aspects of your game, but I will give you my feedback in a very general sense.


1. Gameplay Graphics.
- Graphics were good in an overall sense.
- It felt like you were trying to mix hand drawn graphics with photorealistic images and textures. If I were you, I'd just pick one style and apply it throughout the game. Perhaps you can convert the photorealistic textures into something that looks more, graphic? Doing this will give your game a more stylized look.
- The interactive objects such as the PC needs to stand out more. Right now, it's just sitting there like along with the other pieces of furniture.
- IMHO, I felt it was overdone with all the shaders and what not.

2. Sound
- Excellent. Nice music and SFX. Definitely the best part of the game.

3. Controls and movement
- First, the game was extremely slow on my computer. I had to disable the effects in the menu. Even after that, I'm not entirely sure if I was playing it at the quality it was intended to be played. It just felt slow. Like, even after holding "shift" it didn't feel like I was running. Maybe it wasn't performing well on my computer, so I dunno.
- I had some issue moving through some areas. Even though there was place to move, it was as if an invisible object was blocking my path. For example, in this area:
bneproblem1.jpg


4. The UI and Menu layouts
- You have a rather complex menu system that lets the player customize many things, which is good, but I still think it needs to be fine tuned to improve functionality, as well as aesthetics.
- The setting menu is functional and all that, but it lacks a logical hierarchy and polish. Buttons are arbitrarily grouped together. Fonts are clipped. Buttons keep moving around. bneproblem3.jpg


Why is "menu" grouped with "apply" in the audio section? Why is the visual section missing the "apply" button? Why do the buttons on the top change places? Why is "settings" in the same class as visual, audio and gameplay?

Here are some suggestions:
  • Get rid of the "menu" (that takes you to the home menu entirely. That way, the player can only get back to the main menu from the settings page.
  • Make the "settings" button bigger than the buttons for categories "audio", "visual" and "gameplay". Keep away from the buttons for the categories.
  • In the pages for "audio", "visual" and "gameplay", have the "apply" button at the bottom right for categories and don't move it around.
If you feel I haven't articulated myself clearly, I can make a basic layout that you can use for reference.

- Units of information appear on the screen, sometimes overlaid on each other, after the game starts and takes ages to fade. This was annoying, especially considering there were enemies around me. And the text and the box was blocking my view. There has to be a better way to communicate this info.
bneproblem2.jpg

- The shop menu on the PC needs to be more streamlined. You've got point and click for every thing else, so why does the shop menu operate on button presses? If the PC takes you to an "online store" or website, it would make better sense to use a point and click function
- The in-game text for certain things appears in black and is difficult to notice. But I'm assuming that you've just left it the way it is because you're sharing a WIP build.
bneproblem4.jpg

- The game doesn't show me my health bar, which is weird because it shows me health kits, the amount of health I've restored and an alert that I'm bleeding. But it it doesn't visually tell the player how much time or life he has left.
- The weapon system can be improved. The game should make it clear that buying/equipping one weapon removes the previous weapon. Perhaps at the weapon shop you could have a tab showing the equipped weapon. So upon purchasing a new weapon, the player can see that he's carrying a new gun.
- The in-game HUD layout needs to be refined as well. The game window is huge and there's information scattered all over the place.

5. Enemy AI and combat
- It was alright. It would be nice if the player had a laser pointer that would highlight enemies when they're in range. So that would help when it comes to aiming.
- Sometimes I would get shot at by enemies even though they were out of view.
- There needs to be a way in which the player can clearly tell he's being shot at. Perhaps add a bullet trail for enemy bullets or something.


Anyway, that's it for now. Hope my feedback was useful. Good luck and let me know if you want any more input from me! :)
 
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Gamerev147

Member
General points.

I am not too familiar with this genre, so it was a little disorienting. So maybe I'm not exactly qualified to critique the finer aspects of your game, but I will give you my feedback in a very general sense.


1. Gameplay Graphics.
- Graphics were good in an overall sense.
- It felt like you were trying to mix hand drawn graphics with photorealistic images and textures. If I were you, I'd just pick one style and apply it throughout the game. Perhaps you can convert the photorealistic textures into something that looks more, graphic? Doing this will give your game a more stylized look.
- The interactive objects such as the PC needs to stand out more. Right now, it's just sitting there like along with the other pieces of furniture.
- IMHO, I felt it was overdone with all the shaders and what not.

2. Sound
- Excellent. Nice music and SFX. Definitely the best part of the game.

3. Controls and movement
- First, the game was extremely slow on my computer. I had to disable the effects in the menu. Even after that, I'm not entirely sure if I was playing it at the quality it was intended to be played. It just felt slow. Like, even after holding "shift" it didn't feel like I was running. Maybe it wasn't performing well on my computer, so I dunno.
- I had some issue moving through some areas. Even though there was place to move, it was as if an invisible object was blocking my path. For example, in this area:
View attachment 31360


4. The UI and Menu layouts
- You have a rather complex menu system that lets the player customize many things, which is good, but I still think it needs to be fine tuned to improve functionality, as well as aesthetics.
- The setting menu is functional and all that, but it lacks a logical hierarchy and polish. Buttons are arbitrarily grouped together. Fonts are clipped. Buttons keep moving around. View attachment 31361


Why is "menu" grouped with "apply" in the audio section? Why is the visual section missing the "apply" button? Why do the buttons on the top change places? Why is "settings" in the same class as visual, audio and gameplay?

Here are some suggestions:
  • Get rid of the "menu" (that takes you to the home menu entirely. That way, the player can only get back to the main menu from the settings page.
  • Make the "settings" button bigger than the buttons for categories "audio", "visual" and "gameplay". Keep away from the buttons for the categories.
  • In the pages for "audio", "visual" and "gameplay", have the "apply" button at the bottom right for categories and don't move it around.
If you feel I haven't articulated myself clearly, I can make a basic layout that you can use for reference.

- Units of information appear on the screen, sometimes overlaid on each other, after the game starts and takes ages to fade. This was annoying, especially considering there were enemies around me. And the text and the box was blocking my view. There has to be a better way to communicate this info.
View attachment 31363

- The shop menu on the PC needs to be more streamlined. You've got point and click for every thing else, so why does the shop menu operate on button presses? If the PC takes you to an "online store" or website, it would make better sense to use a point and click function
- The in-game text for certain things appears in black and is difficult to notice. But I'm assuming that you've just left it the way it is because you're sharing a WIP build.
View attachment 31364

- The game doesn't show me my health bar, which is weird because it shows me health kits, the amount of health I've restored and an alert that I'm bleeding. But it it doesn't visually tell the player how much time or life he has left.
- The weapon system can be improved. The game should make it clear that buying/equipping one weapon removes the previous weapon. Perhaps at the weapon shop you could have a tab showing the equipped weapon. So upon purchasing a new weapon, the player can see that he's carrying a new gun.
- The in-game HUD layout needs to be refined as well. The game window is huge and there's information scattered all over the place.

5. Enemy AI and combat
- It was alright. It would be nice if the player had a laser pointer that would highlight enemies when they're in range. So that would help when it comes to aiming.
- Sometimes I would get shot at by enemies even though they were out of view.
- There needs to be a way in which the player can clearly tell he's being shot at. Perhaps add a bullet trail for enemy bullets or something.


Anyway, that's it for now. Hope my feedback was useful. Good luck and let me know if you want any more input from me! :)
Thanks so much!
Just a few things to get out of the way:
  • The shaders are overkill only because without them, the game looks like sh*t.
  • Performance issues are caused by the FXAA settings in the graphics. I've mentioned this before in a previous post. If your PC still runs the game slowly, then it's your PC.
  • The healthbar is dynamic. When you get shot, the screen gets darker every time. When you use a medkit, it gets brighter. Personally, I think I will keep it this way as I've never seen too many games using dynamic health display.
  • Clipping, GUI popups, and other general errors are in the very early stages of development. I literally added them this update just to give everyone an idea on where I was going.
  • In the settings, buttons on the top are moved depending on which setting selection you are in, eliminating redundant buttons. The APPLY button only appears in menus where the settings NEED to be APPLIED before they will work.
The next update I plan on making the shop a more visible aspect. However, it will probably stay button-based, as it's extremely light weight. And as you can tell, the game needs more lightweight mechanics to improve performance. These menus will however, be "spiced up" in future updates.

Art for my game was all found on open source art websites. I'm a terrible artist and I tried my best to have all the graphics essentially look the same.
Could have sworn I changed that in-game font from black to white, but I guess not.

Thanks for the feedback, stay tuned for the next update.
 

Mk.2

Member
The healthbar is dynamic. When you get shot, the screen gets darker every time. When you use a medkit, it gets brighter. Personally, I think I will keep it this way as I've never seen too many games using dynamic health display.
Isn't every game with regenerating health which either tints the screen red, or adds blood effects to the screen while taking damage using a dynamic health display? And in those cases, that the player is taking damage is communicated more clearly than dimming the brightness of the game, because a) it's thematically consistent with being injured and b) it's immediately very visible and shows the level of damage taken and rate of healing more clearly.

When a medkit is used in this game, and it displays the numbers "+55", what does that even mean? 55 out of what? And what number is the player at right now?

I don't necessarily think that the dynamic health display idea needs to be discarded entirely, but worth taking these things into consideration. And simply changing the dimming of the screen to the more blatant and vision obscuring examples given above wouldn't really work here, because in those games the effect quickly fades when the player stops taking damage, but here it would remain that way until a medkit is found and be too distracting.
 
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