I like your project! I remember this game in arcades. Here's a few comments.
Strengths
- I love the classic 8-bit arcade sounds. They help add some nostalgia to the game, as do little nods at tradition like the ships in the bottom left corner representing how many 'lives' are left.
- I like the star field background. It manages to give a sense of motion without being either annoying or overwhelming.
- The ship designs are cool, both your ship and that of the enemies.
- The accurate shots drive me nuts, but it's neat that you are able to make the enemies aim well.
Weaknesses
- Playing the game on a white web page is a little boring. Perhaps instead, use a javascript
window.open() command to control the size of the window, and fit it to your game. Or, if you're feeling ambitious, design your page to look like an arcade game, with the flash movie as the screen.
- I can't remember if you could do it in Galaga, but giving the user the ability to move the ship forward a little, within a certain range, might be interesting, and let people dodge enemy fire easier.
- Speaking of dodging, from playing, it appears that your 'hitbox' for the ship is a square. I don't know if there's any way around it, but it is frustrating to get hit when the enemy shot clearly misses your wing.
- One little touch I remember from a similar game: if you could add two more views of your ship, one tilted left and one right, to indicate the directions they are moving, and then when the user is pressing left, use the left leaning one, it might be cool.
All in all, great job!
