redwater 2012-04-23 12:38
Pretty cool. A bit bland graphics wise though.
The hitbox is pretty hard to judge.
Decent entry alltogether
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD23 → Gulliver
By ddrkirbyisq
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | 4 | 4.54 | ||
| Coolness | 3 | 72 | ||
| Overall | 65 | 3.75 | ||
| Theme | 71 | 3.82 | ||
| Fun | 78 | 3.56 | ||
| Mood | 83 | 3.43 | ||
| Humor | 395 | 2.29 | ||
| Innovation | 407 | 2.98 | ||
| Graphics | 438 | 2.87 |
Pretty cool. A bit bland graphics wise though.
The hitbox is pretty hard to judge.
Decent entry alltogether
Nice solid game, well presented and excellent music.
The player hitbox sometimes feels a but unforgiving when there are many bullets to attempt to dodge.
Thanks for the comments!
I found a bug that happens in rare cases that totally ruins the ending, so in the spirit of "minor one-liner bugfixes are okay!" I've uploaded a new version which fixes that. I also re-enabled pixel-perfect collision detection for bullets, which should alleviate the issues with the ship hitbox. (i was worried it might affect performance, but i think it seems fine)
Wow. Awesome music!
And I really like how you used the theme. Though, in a way, it's a simple concept, I found interesting the fact that you can shrink again after you enter a smaller space.
Overall, I liked the graphics... it's simple, but well done. The Only thing that bugged me is the player's graphic. It feels kinda unpolished in comparison with everything else...
Great game. =D
I only get a white window. Sorry.
@Thief: It's 17MB, so it may take a minute or two to load fully. You can try refreshing as well, force-refreshing, or a different browser, but in my experience white screen means it's just loading still. :)
Damn the soundtrack is really awesome ! How did you manage so many musics with such a quality ? Deserve a Audio 5-stars for that. The main reproach is unfortunately the ship hitbox :/
@yosh: I regularly participate in "One Hour Compos", an internet event where you're given one hour to compose a song based on a theme (kind of like LD, but one hour, and for songs, not games), so I've streamlined my music-making process a lot.
I agree with the ship hitbox thing, though it only really comes into play when fighting bosses. I'd change it, but I think it goes against the spirit of LD rules to make such a significant balance tweak at this point.
One strategy you can try is to use the minimization feature to dodge bullets. Obviously you can't stay minimized (since you can't shoot while tiny) but it can help in some tight situations.
Great game! Fun to play and the music is awesome! Has a lot of content too.
Good graphics and soundtrack!
Perhaps it´s missed a system of lives.
@PabloAM: true, but I'd rather have difficulty be player-managed than force it with a limited life system during an LD compo where I can't playtest for balance nearly enough ;)
Very impressive entry. I played this the longest out of all the entries so far. Solid gameplay and wonderful soundtrack.
Very well done.
Great stuff. An astronaut of some kind would have made more sense with the controls.
Cool game. However, you can complete it very fast by escaping every single monsters and just spam the boss and wait for respawning (it's faster than trying to escape the bullets).
Wow, I played happily for ages! Very very playable!
Nice little game, it looks a bit simple, but the gameplay is very good!
in 48 hours?? Damn! This is definitely a 5 star rating from me! Gameplay was smooth, there was a bit of story and you used the theme cleverly. Nice job! Good thing death was just a slap on wrists because the bosses would have been helluva hard otherwise. My only complaint is that the graphics are slightly bland, but the goods really outweight the bads. Also, kickass music!
The controls were a little bit bland, I didn't feel like I was controlling a ship, but rather walking something around that looks like a ship.
Music was great, and I loved the idea of the minimizer. Would have liked to see some more usage of it though :)
Very impressive overall. Great music!
This is fantastic all around. I think combining a shmup with a metroidvania (shmuptroidvania?) is super compelling and I would love to play more. Great work!
Fantastic Game! Last boss is a bit unforgiving and , in the end I abused the infinite lives going on but, wow, the music nd effects all came together to make this a solid game in it's own right, let alone a 48 hour entry.
Really good, loved the recursive shrinking idea.
Music is awesomely retro.
Graphics could be better, but I think it's just that with music this good, you want the graphics to go along with it. :)
Thanks for all the comments and feedback so far, everybody--I really appreciate it! Remember, if you liked the soundtrack you can download it for free at http://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/album/gulliver-original-soundtrack
Wow! Very solid metroidvania shmup made in only 48h. It felt incredibly consistent in the controls, sound effects, everything, very impressive. The music was really really good too. A lot of production value for such little time.
This is a nice combination, you should expand it, make the upgrades more interesting and diverse (not just different shooting colors), and improve graphics and we could have an amazing game here!
Good job.
Really polished soundtrack. Thanks for making it available. I think "Cavernous" is my favorite. By the Bandcamp discog, it looks like you've had some experience with this. =)
I liked the theme of continually shrinking to fit into smaller spaces, though I found myself staying minimized and dodging enemies rather than engaging them. I think there could've been a better audio cue for getting hit--I was always surprised when I died.
Super solid game for 48 hours. And a surprising amount of surprisingly catchy music!
Excellent soundtrack! I have some issues with the controls, though. I don't like that moving backwards actually turns the ship the other way, because most of the time what I want is to continue firing at the enemies while retreating. Also, most of the time I found that is easier to just avoid the enemies instead.
At first I didn't understand the theme in your entry, but after I entered the first passage it clicked. Nicely done.
Great work! A bit more variety of gameplay might have been nice, for backgrounds and enemy behaviour, but that's all I can suggest - and can't imagine how you would've fit that into 48 hours anyway :) Very good work with the music too.
I very much like the music soundtrack! Solid gameplay.
A solid game with excellent music. I really liked the recursion mechanic, which contributed to the feeling of heightening danger as you get smaller and smaller, and feel more vulnerable.
Some minor nitpicks: it could have done with the ability to strafe, or mapping the shooting left to one button and shooting right to another. Personally, I would have preferred the bosses health to replenish when the player dies, as it's not very satisfying when you know it doesn't matter if you die - though I wouldn't have been able to beat the bosses if this were the case, it made me wonder how well balanced it was. Also, some of the enemies that close you down could be killed out of range.
Great game. Played it all the way to the end. Fantastic soundtrack!
Very cool! Really nice soundtrack, great that I could navigate around, reminded me of metroid a bit (In a good way!)
Question: I just started out in flash, made my first game using flixel. How did you build your levels? Did you use an editor?
@Super Soul: I used DAME. I'm not sure how much I like it; so I don't know whether I'd recommend it or not. I've heard good things about Tiled, so I might try that out next time.
Thanks a bunch! I haven't spent any time looking into level building. I will check out DAME and Tiled. I actually looked at Tiled for our XBLIG game but did not end up ever using it. Cannot comment on it, sorry.
Woah, pretty cool entry! It's well polished and fun. I would have liked some more variety in the weapon types, but I don't know if that would have detracted from the core gameplay.
Amazing game! I've noticed that there is shrinking not only in visuals, but in gameplay: when you get a new weapon enemies become weaker. Especially after the 2nd one, where you return all the way back.
Good job, really great music and probably the best use of the theme yet and I've nearly played 100 games.
Music is so AWESOME. The game's decent, but the music is just fantastic.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz :p
excellent audio. rest of the game was okay, but really great sounds
Really entertaining, actually. Your interpretation of the theme is pretty cool, not to mention the music. It makes me want to do one of these one hour compos sometime. :)
Fantastic little game!
Wonderful music and ambience, really enjoyed the text communication that set the scene, right from the opening quotation (first use of literary quotation I've come across so far in this compo). Nice controls though I think it may feel better with a little acceleration and drag rather than instantaneous movement? Nice colourful graphics, good separation of figure and background and loads of scope for enemy types etc. Good levels and difficulty curve, the complete package, thank you!
:)
Thanks for all the feedback everybody! You are all awesome.
Pretty good game. Played it to the end. I liked the idea of shrinking your ship.
The graphics could be a tad more consistent, the music is good.
I liked the way the theme was integrated and the overall level structure, although some of the levels were a little bland. I would have liked the ship to have a little momentum or something to make travelling a little interest. The soundtrack was excellent though, and I played through to the end. I think with a little more time this could be really fun. Good job!
This game is fantastic. Would it be asking too much to ask you to upload your fruity loop project files? Your music is really impressive and I'd love to see how you did some of the things you did. If not, that's fine - just thought I'd ask.
@johnfn: thanks! I actually don't normally release FL project files to the public...I have some really old tutorial stuff but you probably don't want to see that because it's completely outdated and is totally not reflective of the way I do things nowadays.
However! I do have a bunch of 3xOsc (and TS404/etc) presets that you can grab here: https://sites.google.com/site/ddrkirby/music/resources
Be sure to check out the rest of my music at http://ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/
I also do One Hour Compos every thursday night at thasauce.net, and I really have to say that it has improved my production skills -immensely-. Feel free to join in if you'd like--if you do, maybe I'll see you on the IRC chat during the weekly listening party :)
Also, let me know if you have questions on anything specific I did in the Gulliver OST--I'd be happy to answer ^.^
Whoa! So much cool stuff! The presets look great - I should learn a lot from these. And the one hour compo thing is pretty much exactly what I never knew I needed. I'll totally be doing it :) I can't thank you enough!
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