FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD35 → ShmupShifter

ShmupShifter

By terracottafrog

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness364
Fun523.91
Overall993.76
Graphics1543.74
Audio1723.36
Theme2563.68
Humor3772.45
Innovation6712.79

Comments

micromacro 2016-04-18 02:31

Very fun. It did seem a bit unfair that I could just spam ZXC but I think that was intended. Very nice!

red15 2016-04-18 02:36

Very good entry, a classic shmup as you clearly state yourself. Love the 8bit style. Shame there's no awesome soundtrack to go with it.

vividredemption 2016-04-18 02:38

Pretty fun and hectic, The variety of firing modes was fun, and pretty well balanced!

cerno_b 2016-04-18 02:58

I love SHMUPs and this one is very well done. If I had one request, that would be to allow pressing Y in addition to X since on German keyboards these keys are switched and it's really hard to play like this (maybe other locales require key switches as well). The only game so far that I would continue playing after LD (if that keyboard thing gets fixed that is). No music is pity though.

brice 2016-04-18 03:01

Ok, this was pretty fun. I got frustrated that I couldn't beat the boss.

I liked the tip: "Try approaching from a different direction", but I was disappointed that the boss shot at me no matter where I was. It seems like the concept of "you can shoot in different directions" was leaned into a bit more. It seems like there's a bit of that, but it really still heavily favors shooting upwards. The tall vertical screen also reinforces that, and there weren't many enemies (that I got to) that really forced you to go into the other 2 forms. It seemed like those were just novelties, except when bad guys were down at the very bottom.

Nice job!

Nice big bright pixels!

terracottafrog 2016-04-18 03:08

If you don't hear music, try turning up a little bit. If there is none, tell me the system specs. A post-compo thing will be posted tomorrow with keyboard fixes and gamepad support

cerno_b 2016-04-18 11:13

Yeah, I have sound after all, must have overheard it. Sorry. I was a bit tired yesterday.

Technically, the keyboard fix would count as a bugfix according to LD rules right? So you could add it to your regular release if I'm not mistaken.

red15 2016-04-18 12:21

Found the music now as well, the volume balancing is a bit off, music and most sound effects are rather quiet while the deaths sound is obnoxiously loud :)

flygamer101 2016-04-18 13:14

This was a great game :D Had really good polish, gameplay, and fun, as well as a cool take on the theme. I think I've played this game longer than any other. Imma keep it.

anaguilefdez 2016-04-18 13:27

Nice shmup, gameplay is rather original. Graphics are nice too. I had a good time with it!

floatingghost 2016-04-18 13:50

Nice traditional shmup - I've always sucked at shmups and this was no exception :P

I didn't make it past the first boss, but everything up until then was done pretty much perfectly, Nothing terribly new or innovative, but what was there worked well <3

goutye 2016-04-18 15:30

I really like Shoot'em up games. Because of that I wanted to try your game! A bit tough, but really fun. Take a bit of time to learn the best pattern to kill everyone! Well done.

cerno_b 2016-04-18 16:45

I just returned to the game after you fixed the buttons and I have to say it's really lovely. I got stuck at the second boss though. May pick it up again later.

I would encourage you to keep working on it. A bit of polish (e.g. boss energy bars), more content, powerups and so on and you have a game that you could sell on itch.io for a few bucks.

The visuals are quite unique and it's fast paced and fun. Great job again.

hyoga-3d 2016-04-18 23:37

Nice gameplay, very classic style too, the controls works very well and fluid, good job.

terracottafrog 2016-04-19 02:17

There is now a "Jam version" of the game. Made in 72 hours with the additional features and polish to match!

hadesfury 2016-04-19 02:28

Great idea ... quite hard by the way :)

dustoutgames 2016-04-19 03:09

Disclaimer: I am very bad at shmups.
Solid game! I only barely got past the first boss, but I love how different enemies seemed to have vulnerabilities/exploits based on the forms. Good use of theme and mechanic!

oxysoft 2016-04-19 05:45

Cool idea but would be a lot better if it

1. particles didn't make it so hard to see everything
and
2. having more accurate hitboxes. I wasn't even sure where I was supposed to be exactly to stay alive, there were multiple times that I went over enemy shots that I thought would kill me but ended up doing nothing instead, making the whole thing feel less tight as a result

ithildin 2016-04-19 15:22

Awesome! It all felt very polished, and I love the retro graphics. Great job!!

ianh 2016-04-19 16:03

I love the style and use of the theme! Cool stuff.

samlo 2016-04-19 19:31

Awesome! Love how the ships have individual lives per type.

demane_f 2016-04-19 19:35

Nice ! I don't have anything to add from all previous comments

sanka-x 2016-04-19 19:50

Very fun! I like very much that enemies can come from the bottom !

plaguespark 2016-04-20 00:26

C-attack seems lacking DPS

The unsippable attention screen makes you skip main menu if you spam enter trying attention screen to end

the_flash_point 2016-04-20 00:39

Really fun game, I'll definitely play this occasionally!

And i haven't even played the post compo version. YET...

wizbyte_games 2016-04-20 01:16

This game is hard, but fun. The sound is great as well.

ryannielson 2016-04-20 02:25

Great little game, I love the art and the idea of shooting in multiple directions to destroy enemies. It's too bad there's no music though. Also, I think the game would feel better if the basic enemies died more quickly.

crazy 2016-04-20 12:18

Fun

mango-malarkey 2016-04-20 17:38

Great work! Sadly I wasn't very good at the game, so I didn't get very far. Good job though :)

maysickdev 2016-04-21 01:31

This was the game I was waiting most for based on your progress gifs. And it was everything that I expected. Good job!

thedashdude 2016-04-24 16:28

Liked how the game looked, but shmups aren't really my thing. I thought it got hectic too quickly and the boss was too hard, but these are my complaints with all shmups so I am biased there. A pretty fun game from the parts I played ( up to the first boss).

horsed 2016-04-28 10:30

I used the version that was labeled "JUDGE THIS". Nice take on the theme.

rnlf 2016-04-30 09:50

Nice idea with the different fire modes! The game itself felt solid and was fun to play. Too bad I suck at bullet hell style shooters and there sure was a hell of a lot of bullets :D

officialcodenmore 2016-05-03 01:25

I absolutely love the style of this game, it fits so nicely and works wonderfully!

gamepopper 2016-05-03 12:58

Very well polished vertical shmup! The particle effects are very smooth and colourful.

Didn't really understand the benefits of the different ship types, there weren't many scenarios I had to shoot downwards and shooting at the sides didn't have much of an effect.

But as a huge fan of shmups, this was very satisfying. :3

rock-eaters 2016-05-04 00:12

good danmaku game, really responsive but not easy to focus on patern. i like the shape shifting for the te weapons direction :) great game

mrmordem 2016-05-04 09:38

Simple but fun, the game feels very polished overall, my only problem would be that it's kinda hard to see the ennemy projectile at times.

Other than that, nice job :)

jupiter_hadley 2016-05-08 00:23

Really nice, well made game! I included it in my video compilation series of Ludum Dare games, if you’d like to check them out :) https://youtu.be/tTBSC0cP_38

ellian 2016-05-08 10:30

Classic idea, but executed so well!
I'm amazed at how good it feels and plays. Super snappy, super nervous, feels so satisfying! Good job!

spiffl 2016-05-09 22:01

I really enjoyed this game! I'm a big shmup nut, and it was well-designed and the graphics and music are rad! I do have a few minor criticisms though:

1. The elongated bullets that many enemies (particularly the first boss) shoot look incredibly cool, but I think they might be a bad idea from a design perspective. They're not large, but they can easily form nearly-impenetrable walls and are much more dangerous than even a whole bunch of normal circular bullets. You should use them more sparingly, I think.

2. The enemy types and flight patterns are a bit dull. GameMaker's path feature is super easy to use, so there's no reason the enemies shouldn't be moving in more complex formations! And you dont' need to hold off until the end for that cool stuff, either; even from the first level I was a bit put off by the fact that enemies always just flew in a straight-ish line.

3. There's not enough incentive to use the sideways gun. I would suggest copying the excellent Radiant Silvergun, in which the sideways bullet does much more damage than the other guns to counteract its difficulty of use!

Despite these nitpicks, I think you've done a great job with this game, and I'll probably play the updated non-submission version in just a bit! Congratulations :)

aaranos 2016-05-09 22:43

Pretty standard shmup. Being able to shoot in multiple directions is nice but not needed.

thecain 2016-05-10 00:58

1 minute left. Oh man, this was close. No time to give criticism!