FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD24 → Those Stupid Aliens

Those Stupid Aliens

By lonestranger

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Theme1502.65
Fun1572.74
Audio1592.45
Humor1681.93
Overall1792.78
Mood1912.37
Graphics1942.65
Innovation2002.35
Coolness61846

Comments

bonder 2012-08-28 18:56

It's fun! Two nits to pick: It seems sometimes the aliens can hide off-screen (which I guess makes them smart), and when game is over, there's no way to play again.

Other than that, a good effort!

qualityassurance 2012-08-29 04:58

The enemies' direction of fire seems too random. Most of the time they are not firing at the player's ship.

lonestranger 2012-08-29 06:52

@QualityAssurance - The idea is that the ones who don't fire at the ship are less likely to end up in the next wave. By the time you get the hang of what to do, "Those Stupid Aliens" will evolve and become not so stupid.

xhunterko 2012-08-29 20:57

Had fun with this one. Okay use of theme I guess. The 'evolution' seemed too much like random though.

acdimalev 2012-08-31 21:39

Cool game. Really straight forward, so I'm just going to mention a few things that aren't necessarily good or bad, they just stood out.

* Bullets do not exist outside the screen, but enemies do.
* Ship hum effect sounds good, but loops poorly.
* Frequently clicking outside of the game.
* Gaming the evolution system makes for a dull play experience.

Congratulations on a dare completed!

switchbreak 2012-09-01 00:27

Nice work! I got up to wave 20 or so before I was clicking so wildly I accidentally clicked off the page.

panda 2012-09-04 03:49

Congrats on finishing! I love the idea of the aliens evolving, very good use of the theme! And our ship's graphic is very cool! Am I guessing correctly that that the aliens' look represents their genes? The connection was difficult to make out. Another tip that would help is to be very clear to the player about what's going on: in the screen between the waves, you could say "aliens evolving..." - I think it would add to the game.

heuermh 2012-09-04 04:01

Thought this was pretty fun. I wasn't really aware of the aliens evolving over time though, just seemed like there were more of them as the level increased.

mohammad 2012-09-06 03:25

3 lives and then i die?
Not very fair considering my ship is the size of the sun yet I can dodge.
Still, I can see where its going toward.
But yet this was a Jam entry. Doesn't look very hard to code the ship and stuff. But i don't want to start a war so i'm going to say that the AI was hard.

hamster_mk_4 2012-09-06 03:28

If I were not explicitly told the aliens evolved, I don't think I could have figured it out from the game play.

pentaphobe 2012-09-06 05:50

Darnit - really keen to play this, but the music starts and nothing else happens.

Will see if I can wget it to local.. fingers crossed.

mohammad: 3 lives is computer game tradition! It's older than you and I combined :)

pentaphobe 2012-09-06 05:54

hehe - darn, no dice on running locally "you should really play this on the real site"

Hrm. unsure why it's not working on your page (for me); it's like the element is covered, or invisible.

marudziik 2012-09-06 08:58

@pentaphope For me it was the same, try:
http://blog.lonestranger.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/LudumDare24.swf

Feels very complete and is very playable, but the only way to defend is to shoot the bullets comping from aliens, which is very hard, so deaths feel kinda random and the game can easily become a clickfest. Also, I really wasn't sure if the aliens were really getting better (as they should, since they're evolving), or there were just more of them.
The idea itself has a great potential and - be it clickfest or not - I enjoyed the game (lost at waves 14-16 or so). I also liked the audio. Overall, it's a very good entry, and congrats for submitting this!
I might also add, I really like your journal, footphotos and the cat. Good job!

lonestranger 2012-09-06 17:00

Hey pentaphobe and marudziik, what version of Flash are you using? What exactly do you see on the page? I do have a sitelock built into it, so you would have to play it from the website.

triplevisiongames 2012-09-06 21:37

I shot bullets out of the sky!!! You panned the sound of the shots!!! Really had a load of fun with this. You've captured the simplicity of a space invaders type game and kept it fresh and fun. Great work!

defiantburrito 2012-09-07 05:00

I like the graphics, especially the scrolling stars.

The game itself is a bit boring, just seems like a clickfest to me. I didn't notice the enemies evolving really. It seems pretty random whether I get hit or not, because I can't really dodge.

amidos2006 2012-09-07 09:29

good game I like the idea of shooting bullet give u health and getting hit by them decrease the health :)

marudziik 2012-09-07 19:28

@LoneStranger
My flash version 11.4 r402 (Firefox). There's just empty space instead of a flash object and I can hear the music. The direct SWF link works, though.

lonestranger 2012-09-07 23:04

@marudziik - Thanks. I'm using Flash 11.3.300.265 in Firefox 15.0. I'll update Flash and check it out again.

lonestranger 2012-09-08 00:41

I installed 11.4.402.265 and it still works for me, so I'm not sure what is going on.

marudziik 2012-09-08 15:57

@LoneStranger
Okay, no need to worry. Turns out that, at least in my case, the Flashblock plugin in Firefox was at fault here. It's supposed to block flash content, letting the user click on it to open, and usually it works very well (this is actually the first time it's not working properly), but in this case this somehow gets in the way. Adding your site to a white list in the plugin options solved the problem completely.

ghribacki 2012-09-17 22:44

First game from LD24 that I play that uses this approach on evolution (through AI). Really nice! The evolution is kind of subtle at first, but then I realized that I wasn't being hit for a time and they became smart and beat me easily.

Congratulations. =D

thewiseguy99 2012-09-17 22:48

It was pretty good with some cool sound effects, kinda like space invaders. Nice job overall.