FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD34 → Sphere Co.™

Sphere Co.™

By kaype

View on Wayback Machine

CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness358
Audio1703.65
Mood2003.63
Humor3133.00
Graphics3293.77
Overall5413.30
Fun6652.97

Comments

cruzer_au 2015-12-15 08:42

Download Link Doesn't Work.

mard 2015-12-15 13:27

Link gives a 404

marod 2015-12-15 15:35

Link is broken

jim3wg 2015-12-15 16:45

404 for download

kaype 2015-12-15 17:21

Fixed! Will add some more screenshots here in a moment.

blha303 2015-12-15 18:13

Sweet game, 8.5/10 for enjoyable gameplay and decent level design.

nopogo 2015-12-15 19:27

I like the art style and story aspect of the game. The game would benefit a lot if you added sound to it. Other then that fun game

kaype 2015-12-15 20:14

There is sound. Are you not getting audio?

nopogo 2015-12-15 20:23

The not getting audio was a fault on my part. This game has great audio even, it sets the mood perfectly!

kaype 2015-12-15 20:24

Ah, okay, thanks!

ahmeni 2015-12-15 21:42

Awesome work! The jar has an issue launching on OSX that can be fixed by editing data/display.config and taking out the trademark from the title.

webfreak001 2015-12-15 21:44

I can't run it (Linux)

Stacktrace:

Tue Dec 15 22:43:34 CET 2015 INFO:Loading Display Configuration...
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: null
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:454)
at java.lang.Integer.valueOf(Integer.java:582)
at co.kaype.ld34.Main.main(Main.java:144)

kaype 2015-12-15 22:02

Did you make sure to extract the zip before running, and to include the data/ & res/ folders with the game?

I'm not near a Linux machine at the moment, so there might be a few bugs for that platform. I can test it on my laptop later when I have time.

31eee384 2015-12-16 05:59

Nice atmosphere and graphics. I liked the ambient audio/music, and the art style worked well. I do think the sound effects were a bit basic to match the overall audio, but it was ok. Story matched too.

The gameplay didn't seem very new, unfortunately. I felt like I had two choices: do loops with the movement keys and time hitting space when I'm aiming at the enemy, or mash spacebar, hoping to hit the timing right. I managed to beat it using those two strategies, going for dodging loops when my health got low.

The theme also didn't feel very well integrated. Not sure if I missed some connections, but the "gun grows your health" mechanic is somewhat "standard" in games now, named lifesteal or health drain or something like that. Now that I mention that, though, I notice you've opted out of theme rating. Fair enough. :)

That all said, the basics are there for a directional shooter. Good luck on the post-compo work!

TaoPhoenix 2015-12-16 07:36

I think the game is a bit better than the pics might suggest.

The difficulty seems doable for anyone with shooter experience - I'm terrible at those and I got to near the end. It's a short game.

I didn't see many outright bugs - it was just awkward trying to snipe at the robots. So the "gain health as you shoot" is actually an interesting mechanic, so I ended up discovering you can "stand on top of the robots" and your health comes out as a tie, so you save that if lucky for the last round and it could be tight but feels winnable.

In the chat we went over it could have used with a couple of level saves, and a fast option to skip all the dialog, but a pleasant little game!

modoc73 2015-12-16 08:53

Nice art style.

mauludder 2015-12-16 11:34

Enjoyable game! Played it all the way through. Best for me was the mood.
OS X fix didn't work for me, although it gets further that way (actually see some Java thing bouncing in the dock, withouth the config fix it never does that). I tried with JRE7, update 79.

intchanter 2015-12-16 22:04

Doesn't run for me:

$ java -jar SphereCo.jar
Wed Dec 16 14:58:31 MST 2015 INFO:Loading Display Configuration...
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: null
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:542)
at java.lang.Integer.valueOf(Integer.java:766)
at co.kaype.ld34.Main.main(Main.java:144)

$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_66"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_66-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.66-b17, mixed mode)

I'm running Ubuntu 15.10.

theterribleswifttomato 2015-12-16 22:04

I can confirm I got the same problem as WebFreak001 on Linux. Looks like a display ID issue. I also have a multi-monitor setup, maybe that's the reason?

kaype 2015-12-16 22:58

I'm working on a build that fixes this problem.

mockthebear 2015-12-17 13:44

Good graphics. I loved everything in the game but one thing.
The enemys have lots of health, its a small game and i think its just an balance setting. In my opinion the enemys could take 3~4 shots and die. But 4.8/5 c:

kaype 2015-12-17 16:07

Just a reminder that I've fixed the Linux issue. Have fun everybody!

publicidadeba 2015-12-18 13:18

Very moody and cool level design :D

pankamil 2015-12-18 13:52

Good graphics and great atmosphere. The aiming is super annoying, though.

drteaspoon 2015-12-18 15:14

The gun play was not very fun. (smashing button or doing loops.)
Liked the graphics style and music.

weeping-rupee 2015-12-18 17:36

This game has a great mood going for it- ominous. I just wish there was more to it! I was expecting a wholly novel part of the game to start there when I pressed X to 'return to real life' but the game just ended I was kinda disappointed.

I think you could have also gotten away with including a theme judging if you would have made your max health increase rather than just having the gun heal you.

overall though nice job!

farelle 2015-12-18 18:58

The way fighting works was not very fun, would have liked to be able to do some sort of side sweep so my aiming direction wouldn't change

rnlf 2015-12-19 12:04

I really enjoyed the look of this game. The sprites and shaders fit very well together. There seems to be a nice story behind it, but sadly it's SO hard, that I cannot make it past the first room with robots, they just fire way too fast for me to run in, shoot and return before getting hit.

You said you wanted to make a new version with strafing, drop me a link on IRC when you upload it and I'll give it a second try.

arzi 2015-12-19 13:46

I really like the art style.

ointment 2015-12-20 16:46

This is such a Java game. There's something about the controls that gives them that shared feeling of unresponsiveness. Similarly to how Unity games are bound together by floaty physics and the mouse swooshing all over the place.

Combat is pretty tedious due to enemies being so static. I'd say you should rethink this with more of a Binding of Isaac control scheme in mind, which would let you could go wild with enemy logic. The lack of autoshoot and the slightly too slow movement are more annoyances that could be easily fixed. Unless they're a requirement in Java(TM)(R)(C).

All my cheekiness aside, it's moody for sure. I wouldn't call this a 1-star entry at all, the story and ambience are the meat that kept me playing. Maybe speed up the dialogue boxes a bit and lose the "use your gun to shoot" type lines.

utgarda 2015-12-20 21:55

Nice work with NPC speeches and level design, great audio!