w1n5t0n 2016-04-17 15:57
The game is really fun to play and kind of addicting. When I was loading the game the screen was completely white until the game fully loaded, I thought that the link was broken. You should try to fix it.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD35 → Shape Invaders
By famer
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | 476 | 2.67 | ||
| Graphics | 616 | 2.73 | ||
| Fun | 683 | 2.81 | ||
| Overall | 884 | 2.53 | ||
| Coolness | 2155 | 14 |
The game is really fun to play and kind of addicting. When I was loading the game the screen was completely white until the game fully loaded, I thought that the link was broken. You should try to fix it.
Nice. Would have prefered to have a single button to change shape/weapon, without having to hold down a button all the time. The standard/default shape was the easiest to play with, as I could just hold down space and strafe left and right. Did like your explosion sprite :)
I like the range of enemies and the fire effect produced by the laser. Using the circle shape (big bombs) seemed far more effective than the other two.
From a usability point of view it would be nice not to have to use the mouse on the post-game menu since I'm playing with the keys the rest of the time.
It looks good and plays smoothly. Nice sprites. Score doesn't reset.
Good job on the pixel art, especially the explosion
Nice take on the classic space invader, fits well on theme and keeps the fun of it.
Minor grip (probably bug):
The base and fast shapes allow you to keep spacebar down while moving and in shape.
The big/slow shape prevented you to go left while doing the same (but right was ok for some reason).
Otherwise, kudos :)
Nice game idea. I like the simplistic controls. took me a bit to realize that holding a different shape was a different weapon. Nice!
Nice audio and graphics. Congrats!
took me some time to find how to change my shape, after i ve played for several minutes.
Not bad. A few suggestions:
Make collisions more forgiving -- I tended to die "unfairly" by hitting enemies that I thought had passed me by.
I think it generally would have been better if the screen were narrower, so I could cover it a bit more easily, or else if the enemies descended more slowly. I didn't like the laser weapon very much because it seemed like it had to be held on the enemies for too long to kill them than was effective. I'd always have to move to try to hit other enemies, only to find that I didn't laser the first enemies enough to actually kill them, and then they were still a danger.
The game also doesn't seem to really get any more difficult, at least as long as I managed to play. I just died, usually unfairly due to a collision that felt like it should have been a near miss, or I'd laser a column only to have it survive and become an obstacle that prevented me from moving freely, etc. and died pretty quickly. A little bit better balance and a challenge curve, and it could be really fun.
Fun little game! As you said you were focusing on the art/sound, I'll focus primarily on that.
I really liked the main theme and it was suitably 'game overy' on the game over screen too. However, the track played during the game was something of a funeral dirge and didn't match the feel you were trying to create with the art and gameplay. Additionally, the fact that it was drowned out by the sound effects made it difficult to hear.
Graphically it's very pleasing, however, a big nitpick I have with games that use pixel art, especially if the sprites are any smaller than 32x32, is that pixels shouldn't partially overlap or 'slide'. Pixels are supposed to be atomic, therefore when you see them moving cleanly it breaks the visual style that the art style possesses.
Individually, however, I liked the bold colour palette you went for, each sprite is nicely made. I see you spent a lot of time working on the explosions and they look absolutely great.
Overall, solid entry given your background. It's always cool to see LD participants trying things outside their comfort zone and pushing themselves to learn, so commendations there.
(Just as a sidenote, two bugs I caught: 1) the score doesn't reset between tries and 2)if you click the menu button in the game it layers the game over screen on the menu screen)
It's simple, yet fun. No surprise here, but one don't need surprise to have fun. ;)
Having the enemies despawn immediately upon receiving fatal damage rather than lingering for nearly a second would make the game feel more responsive. Would also be nice to have a death animation rather than a hard "cut-to-black."
There also seems to be a significant bug where game state (score, enemy speed) doesn't reset when the game is restarted after a loss.