Released Spark | Combo-centric Shoot 'em Up

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EckyYakov

Guest
BUY IT NOW! =]



Spark is a creative, combo-centric, Shoot 'em up game. It's a 3-in-1 old-school arcade game fueled by the competitive urge to climb the leaderboards. The unique shooting system hooks the player as they discover more and more ways to create beautiful and effective combos.

Everything in Spark is rooted in the player's arsenal of destruction-- four bullets that vary in power and speed.

Whether you are testing your precision and cunning in the Puzzles, your destructive skills in Conquest or your resilience in Survival; mastering the multitude of combos at your disposal is crucial.

Blast, Dodge, and Solve your way to the top of the leaderboards to crown yourself the king of Spark.

Conquest

Did you ever dream about a world in perfect harmony, with no conflicts or power-hungry tyrants??? Yeah, me neither. That would be way too boring.

Time to step up! Crush your foes, and their fearless leaders in Conquest. Elaborate bullet patterns, coordinated enemy movements, and... BOSS BATTLES.

Rack up points by blasting everything that shows its ugly mug. Bonus points if you can defeat the final boss. I have to warn you though; he is a little bit... crabby.

Survival

Surviving is all the rage right now... It's been trendy since the inception of this beautiful blue planet. Even if trends aren't your thing, hop aboard the hype train in Survival.

Your objective is simple: Stay alive as long as possible. Think about it... you've been 100% effective so far IRL. Time to transition that effectiveness in game.

Craft combos to clear enemies, collect powerups to help when times get tough, and don't forget your dancing shoes because you are going to need some fancy footwork to dodge all those bullets.

Puzzles

Okay... so killing everything isn't your style? Maybe you're more of an intellectual? Don't fret, Ruler of the Riddles... these Puzzles were made just for you!

Flex your brain, show off that surgeon-like timing and precision, and solve your way through as many as you can, you Emperor of Enigma.

If you want to be the Captain of Conundrum, you're going to have to be fast. It is a race against time.And, I can assure you, time didn't skip leg day.

I can't thank you guys in the forums enough for help shaping the game to be what it is today by play testing and giving feedback while it was in development!

Let me know if you have any comments/questions/concerns. Planning on making fixes/improvements/updates every couple weeks after launch.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/601130/Spark/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/601130/Spark/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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EckyYakov

Guest
Hello Everyone!

We still have had some issues with the leaderboards. That is a high priority for me, and i am hoping these changes will fix the issue entirely, but let me know if it does not! Also some quality of life changes, balance changes to the sharks and dolphins, and some achievements are now... uh... achieveable. Please if you have any issues or suggestions drop them in the forums or contact me directly on Discord.

Fixed another bug with scores not submitting consistently to the Steam Leaderboards.
Now shows when you have set a new PR in the post game lobby.
Scores in game now have commas!
Fixed bug with first boss explosion SFX.
Nerfed probabilities multiple sharks spawn in the late game.
Nerfed health of Sharks.
Nerfed probabilities of Dolphin spawning early game.
Fixed Conquest Achievements

You can catch me on Twitch, if you want to see me working on patches or failing at climbing the leaderboards.

Cheers.

Ecky
 
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DyingSilence

Guest
You're on the "Made with Game Maker" section. It would be nice if I could play the thing, especially because it looks like a good review material :)
 
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EckyYakov

Guest
You're on the "Made with Game Maker" section. It would be nice if I could play the thing, especially because it looks like a good review material :)
It is available on Steam right now! http://store.steampowered.com/app/601130/Spark/. It's $6.99 right now, but am planning on some sales this winter, and will be in an indiegala bundle here in about a week if that price is too much haha. If you want to PM me we could talk about getting your a key for reviewing, I honestly just love seeing/hearing about people playing the game more than anything.

I'm a little confused what you were insinuating with not being able to play it! Let me know if you still have questions.
 
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DyingSilence

Guest
My problem was that both your posts and the Itch.io site didn't contain a Download/Buy link, but it's ok :)
 
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EckyYakov

Guest
My problem was that both your posts and the Itch.io site didn't contain a Download/Buy link, but it's ok :)
I'll make it more noticeable! Its the link at the top of the page. Also i changed my signature to now point to the steam store instead of itch. OOPS lol. Let me know if you get your hands on it!
 
I played the game. It took me about 15 minutes to understand the combo system. I made it through the tutorial on what felt like exploits. I'd finish a phase of the tutorial before the text would appear on screen just by randomly shooting. It is a better game once I understood simple combos like AA X, YYY X.
 
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EckyYakov

Guest
I played the game. It took me about 15 minutes to understand the combo system. I made it through the tutorial on what felt like exploits. I'd finish a phase of the tutorial before the text would appear on screen just by randomly shooting. It is a better game once I understood simple combos like AA X, YYY X.
Hey thanks for playing the game! I hope you enjoyed yourself a bit. Thanks for the video as well. the section of the tutorial you jumped through basically just said try to hit this targets with combos, the main objective of that section is just to make you aware of the system, and if you are spamming combos you obviously are aware of it so i don't think that is a big deal. The game is very hard, and on top of that there is a learning curve with the combo system so i don't think i did a good job there with being beginner friendly. Regardless hope it was a positive experience and if you have any other thoughts/feedback don't hesitate to let me know

Cheers

Ecky
 
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EckyYakov

Guest
Steam Store Page

Hello Everyone!

Noobs rejoice! Today is the day Spark got a whole lot easier. Based on data and some feedback from players... it appers things were WAY too hard. Especially for those who have never seen or played Spark before release. In this patch, the difficulty curve has been smoothed out in Conquest and Survival. Expect to be able to survive much longer than before, and hopefully get some higher scores! If you think it still needs to be tuned down or tuned up, don't hesitate to drop a suggestion. We are all ears. In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy yourselves much more!

PRO TIP: Focus on the combos!

Please if you have any issues or suggestions drop them in the forums or contact me directly on Discord.

  • Reduced difficulty of first section of Conquest
  • Reduced difficulty of first boss.
  • Reduced difficulty of second section of Conquest
  • Defeated bosses now give +1 HP
  • Smoothed out difficulty curve in survival mode so it takes much longer to get to the more difficult mobs.
  • Switched the positioning of Survival in the play list to be the top. New players should have an easier and more entertaining time learning the combos if they are under less pressure and have the help of powerups. We saw too may people giving up on the game entirely after playing only Conquest. We hope to see players stick around longer with this change.

You can catch me on Twitch, if you want to see me working on patches or failing at climbing the leaderboards.

Please if you put a decent amount of time into the game and have any feedback on how we can improve the game, leave a review. It helps me a ton to know where to focus on continuing development.

Cheers.

Ecky
 
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Akai

Guest
oh wow such a nice game, I'm amazed at the colourful firework that bursting from the exploded ships.
 
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EckyYakov

Guest
oh wow such a nice game, I'm amazed at the colourful firework that bursting from the exploded ships.
Thank you so much! Let me know if you play it and if you have any thoughts/feedback. Cheers
 
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