FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD28 → Starbeard: The Curse of the Space Whales

Starbeard: The Curse of the Space Whales

By andrew-wagoner30

View on Wayback Machine

CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness1100
Fun373.75
Theme463.66
Innovation753.46
Overall763.64
Humor783.31
Mood1343.32
Audio1523.26
Graphics3412.95

Comments

ezolotko 2013-12-16 13:45

Wow, cool mechanic

ob6160 2013-12-16 19:27

Interesting concept nicely executed.

tobiasnl 2013-12-16 19:38

Nice! Good sounds and music, and the gameplay mechanic was very smooth and interesting. Really like the gold turtles (which I think should give more points when they die) Got to 910.

tiffi 2013-12-16 19:39

Really the best game under all these "you only get one shot" games! Good job

thatguy 2013-12-16 19:41

Fun and well made mechanic. This game could easily be expanded into much more, given more time. Great work!

kumokairo 2013-12-16 19:41

Definitely my vote!
Sounds, gameplay and graphics are absolutely beautiful

postmodestie 2013-12-16 19:42

Very nice! Simple and, as stated before, well executed in all departements! Funny: the ship colors reminded me of CGA-graphics. :)

static_boy123 2013-12-16 19:43

I really liked the mechanic. I think the bouncing was especially good, and the sounds were just great! I think the game would be a little better with different art, but I also recognize that you were going for a certain art style.
Overall, very good!

jago 2013-12-16 19:44

Nice work! It was very fun game to play. Music was nice and graphics fit the theme very well.

d_0o_d 2013-12-16 19:52

Yeah this was fun. You implemented the theme very good.

baton4ik 2013-12-16 19:58

Amazing game. It's fun, the graphics and sounds are beatiful.

scriptorum 2013-12-16 19:59

Everything about this game is great. Best game was 3080 points and then I got killed by these evil giant red jellyfish things.

iamwhosiam 2013-12-16 20:42

now this is my kind of game :)

van-noctar 2013-12-17 02:53

Really good collisions!!! Mouse and keyboard is a good control system. And sounds are very pretty!

ahnt 2013-12-17 02:56

Great idea, had a lot of fun with this one!

30dogs 2013-12-17 06:27

We had very similar ideas! You guys executed it extremely well. Pretty much everything is awesome. The jagged edges of the map to make the bounces more unpredictable is brilliant.

01rafael 2013-12-17 16:23

Oh damn whales! :)
Great game! No comments, you are great guys!

havana24 2013-12-17 16:25

Cool game! :)

andrerodrigues 2013-12-17 16:53

Hey, we have very similar games. =)

It's funny how we came up with similar game elements but took a very different approach to them. I really like some of the touches like using diagonal walls so the harpoon has a little more complex trajectory to it.

jaj 2013-12-17 16:56

This is great! Really fun and great sound!

cakencode 2013-12-17 17:12

Amazingly well-designed concept, I love that once you've shot the harpoon you get shields to defend yourself. The movement is drifty but I'll forgive that since it is supposed to be space.

This definitely needs some polish and post-LD work! It would be a lot of fun as a fully realized game.

cobhc6 2013-12-17 17:58

Really nice game you made here!

bitserum 2013-12-17 18:00

Nice, fits the theme very good, its hard and fun. Good job.
I just love when it bounces in some weird way and gets triple kill.

mventurelli 2013-12-17 18:06

Wow! I played this for a LOT longer than I thought I would! Super fun and funny game, you really had a good time doing this and it shows :D 5/5

local-minimum 2013-12-17 18:18

I guess I'm lucky getting this as my first "you only get one shot" game here. If all others are like this, then maybe the theme was OK after all. A small comment. For us with laptop + left handed right hand on WASD and left on mouse is a bit uncomfortable.

benjamin-soule 2013-12-17 18:19

Very neat design. The game is very fresh and this universe ( space whale, pirate talks & stuff ) is fun. The harpoon mechanic could have became boring with time but you guys had this genius idea of non-flat border. I like the fact it's shaped like a treasure map.

The game still have rythm problem : You should autospawn monsters everytime the screen is empty. Clearing waves very fast is more secure but you also get those boring waiting time when nothing is on screen.

The difficulty curve itself is weird sometime there's huge jeelyfish spawn and sometime you have to wait 10 seconds on a blank screen to see a lonely whale pop.

dyn 2013-12-17 18:22

Good game with great sounds!

vapgames 2013-12-17 18:31

Space Pirates!

hypermagical 2013-12-17 20:05

I like the dotted lines.

I really like the interpretation of the theme. It's a fun twist on the shooter-in-a-box gameplay.

I'm rubbish at the game, but that's all my fault. Well, except for the bit where it's easy for whales to sometimes spawn right on top of you, but at least there's a little bit of warning there.

acp_ld 2013-12-17 20:25

really well done game

latfoued 2013-12-17 20:34

Very nice concept. the gameplay was smooth and the music enjoyable. Good work

nazariglez 2013-12-17 20:43

Lol! quite original, i love it!

oskardevelopment 2013-12-17 20:55

Cool mechanics, nice esthetics and a fun game! A more interesting game than most I've played as of yet! :)

Thanks for playing my game, I've added controls tutorial at the top of the entry as to make it easier for other players in the future.

Good luck!

coblynau 2013-12-17 21:00

Good all round game, well done :)

velinje 2013-12-17 21:39

Game mechanics are really cool and fun. You can get really skilled at bouncing the harpoon and that is a big plus! Got to a score of 850 and died by a whale spawning very close. Easier to keep control of the harpoon by bouncing it horizontal as the sides are pretty much flat.

raiyumi 2013-12-17 23:03

Solid gameplay and sounds. :)

toureiro 2013-12-17 23:23

Loved the concept, the mechanic and the look/sound! Great entry! One of the best I've seen so far.

cake_catastrophe 2013-12-18 00:03

OK, guys, we can all stop voting now. This is clearly the Best Game.

endesga 2013-12-18 00:07

I LOVE the mechanic with how you have to pickup your bullet to shoot it again! Very nice!
Graphics are clean and simple :) and music is a tad quiet, but it's good enough :)
Sweet game!

aarongordon 2013-12-18 00:10

Nice! Simple mechanic but great use of sfx to reinforce it getting stuck.

jejeboy 2013-12-18 04:44

Very good design choices. I really enjoyed lining up the enemies.

matrixbai 2013-12-18 08:33

Greenpeace will sue me for killing big amount of whales. Really funny game.

glovecat 2013-12-18 10:39

I really enjoyed this game. I would play this game forever. Excellent WC game if you would launch it for a tablet or smartphone :D

diptoman 2013-12-18 10:46

Mechanic's great, the best I've seen so far with the one shot mechanic. And overall it's real fun, awesome job!

ltpats 2013-12-18 20:40

This was really fun, loved the "one retrievable bullet" mechanic! Music was nice and the sound effects helped round it out nicely.

static-64 2013-12-18 20:45

Wow! I wasn't sure what to expect just looking at it, but that was fun! The mechanic is great, one of the best implementations of the theme I've seen!

whiteknife 2013-12-18 21:15

Fun mechanic and definitely felt very pirate-y. Great job!

originalbigdan 2013-12-18 23:53

Annoyingly addictive and 6 times as good when you realise you can move around and collect the harpoon! (Duh! My bad!)

Great music and sound effects! I would love to see some powerups and alternative weapons.

kayelgee 2013-12-19 00:20

I really like what you've done with the art :D
The game is pretty fun and it's a really good one shot mechanic.

javifugitivo 2013-12-19 05:01

Nice mechanics! Nice sounds! Aaaaarrrrrrrr!

sekaru 2013-12-19 06:52

Fantastic mechanic! The music and sound assets are pretty cool too.

seconddimension 2013-12-19 13:17

This was really enjoyable to play, definitely a top score for fun. Great work here

occash 2013-12-19 20:11

Nice game)thank you for good graphics and sound!

danex317 2013-12-19 20:42

Great Job. I loved the trail you left behind you!

Side Note: Since you used Unity I suggest making a Linux build. The Web player does not work on Linux Machines.

somepx 2013-12-19 22:48

A very fun entry! Adorable graphics, retrieve-the-bullet theme works fine! (err, I used that too) :D

peacegiverman 2013-12-20 00:19

I really like the UI, the way the game is played on a map and the ship leaves a trail. Very nice.

The game's fun too play, though I'd like it if the ship was a bit faster or had less drag. As it is it feels a bit heavy.

archaeometrician 2013-12-20 03:02

Great game ! The mechanic is indeed very interesting !

venks 2013-12-20 08:13

Really like the art style. It's very inviting and I couldn't resist trying this one out.

sonnybone 2013-12-20 08:43

Man, this is deceptively fun. At first I was like, "Well... ok this is a bit slow." THEN TURTLES SHOWED UP! HOLY CRAP THE STRATEGY WHEN YOU GET 3 OR 4 TURTLES ON THE SCREEN AND WAVES OF WHALES AND OCTOPUSESSSSESES!

The game is really fun, has a great difficulty curve and pacing, and the audio fits well. You have this crazy concept of a snowglobed space pirate boat shooting a huge harpoon that's bouncing around a scroll boundary hitting flying space whales and turtles with rotating shields. It's crazy as hell and I love it!

The only bad thing is the graphics don't really do match up with the rest of the experience. With some better art and some more polish this would be AMAZING. It's still awesome fun right now, though. GREAT ENTRY!

jacksgamessucks 2013-12-20 14:05

nice, interesting little game. good job!

2hitadam 2013-12-23 10:08

Super fun. This is honestly just a graphics overhaul away from being a really neat game!

ras-lyon 2013-12-27 14:43

That's fun, I like the bouncing of the harpoon. I wish I was better at judging how it would bounce. Like a trajectory guide or something. Fun!

lucentbeam 2013-12-27 20:32

Really nice work. I love the dashed line, map/scroll background, and 'X's. Makes for a clever and nicely unified theme.

samoojamies 2013-12-28 09:50

Pleasant gameplay

tex-killer 2013-12-29 00:37

Nice take on the theme... the cursor could be centered, though: the harpoon aparently goes to the top-left corner of the cursor instead of the center

pjchardt 2013-12-30 02:51

Like the mechanic of one bullet and the way the bullet bounces around the screen. This led to a lot of depth. Felt a bit sluggish and unresponsive at times but the core of the game is very interesting!

lordjosephdeburg 2014-01-02 19:25

A lot of fun. Great use of mechanics, has a lot of potential in my opinion on the marketplace too. Nice Jam Ninja

zkenshin 2014-01-05 20:06

Great idea, lovely game play.
Well done.