FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD38 → Slightly Angry Max

Slightly Angry Max

By takusan

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3403.44113
Fun1803.55113
Innovation7182.24113
Theme6712.63112
Graphics3.719
Audio3.429
Humor1453.38108
Mood3873.23110

Comments

richard-michael-smith 2017-04-25 12:54

**--Attempt at humour--**

The name of this game reminds me of something...but I can't think what it is...it's driving me MAD.

**--/Attempt at humour--**

Love the opening crawl!

I don't know if you're too young to remember this but your game reminds me of "Rambo" on the C64...and I loved that game! I think you've made a great game here and I look forward to rating it.

takusan 2017-04-25 13:48

@richard-michael-smith Ah yes, I remember - I played it years ago (I'm 30 :)), but I never had c64 (amiga 500 ftw!). I wasn't aiming to replicate it, but yes, now that you point it out - it does play similar :)

I'm kinda new to actually making games though - I made some simple games on amiga, then I stopped for some time. Now I've strapped down, learned some basics to get me going and starting again.

Thank you for the feedback! I'll be developing it further, because gods know that it's just playable for now and it's missing much, but it's good to know I've got the base to go further.

richard-michael-smith 2017-04-25 14:08

Ahhh developing on the Amiga - that takes me back. I actually started like that too. I used AMOS (but never managed to get anything finished) and then I upgraded to "AMOS Pro" where I made a game called "AmTank". I was very proud of it - my first finished game. It was made available via AmiNet.

takusan 2017-04-25 14:32

@richard-michael-smith Whoa, I think I stumbled across that one - two player game, tanks shooting each other? Yeah, I also started with AMOS, couldn't finish antyhing :D The first time I ever finished any game was with Unity, just a few months back. Eh, I should've started sooner instead of just focusing on my daily job and playing other's games :)

richard-michael-smith 2017-04-25 14:44

No way! You mean someone actually played my game!??! Yeah it was a 2 player tanks clone. Someone actually uploaded a video to YouTube of it - if you just search for "AmTank Amiga" then it comes up.

takusan 2017-04-25 15:01

@richard-michael-smith Yeah, that's the one :D I think it was among some floppies I got in a bundle, because I'm pretty sure I played it on amiga and not emulator... And my A500 is still very alive, just sitting quietly in my parents' home for now. I'll check it out when I visit :D

richard-michael-smith 2017-04-25 15:16

Oh how I miss my A500! Playing the games on the emulators just isn't the same...Speedball 2, Batman The Movie, Super Cars 2, Lotus Esprit, Monkey Island, Syndicate, Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Stunt Car Racer, IK+, anything by Cinemaware, the list of great games is phenomenal!

avon 2017-04-25 17:11

Fun game, feels very polished with the nice graphics and sound/music and really cool intro. I would recommend to make the player move slightly faster, he did feel a bit slow. I would also lower the hp of most enemies, the overheating combined with high enemy spawn rate and hp makes it very hard to kill them fast enough. It would be really cool to have grenades or another weapon that is more effective against a bigger group of enemies.

sheeptree 2017-04-25 19:10

Nice job overall! I think the opening crawl could move a little faster if you're working on an updated version for future. Just the end bit, specifically. The rest flowed nicely. Anyways, game was a lot of fun and could really be polished up into something amazing! Hope you end up keeping at it and taking it to that next step. :)

jk5000 2017-04-25 19:37

A very fun game. The music, sound effects and graphics is all really super great. The only small complain I have is that the AI is sometimes a bit stupid. A cobble of times I got a lot of the enemy's stuck behind a fence. But overall a great little game. Well done.

takusan 2017-04-25 20:35

@jk5000 I hear you - and I'm aware of it, didn't have enough time to code a better solution in (ideally it would be that they can get stuck a bit, to use terrain to your advantage). Thanks for pointing it out!

@avon yeah, I thought that it could be too much, though I didn't have time to playtest enough. More weapons and upgrades, plus balance tweaks, will be in the updated version. Thanks for the feedback!

@sheeptree Yep, I'd love to polish it up into a game that could be released as a full-fledged product. The reason behind the slow crawl was to take the slower readers into account, but I think I overdid it :D Cheers!

fedor 2017-04-25 21:18

Nice game!! The intro is really nice, maybe you could make it a bit faster. Game is fun to play. Overheat makes game harder, because you need to think about shooting more efficiency. After a while game is so much harder when there is more opponents. Some of them are too strong and player is too slow to catch some health to try face them. It looks like very good beginning for excellent game, just extend the story and add some mechanics. Saving link for voting time :ballot_box:

teslov 2017-04-25 21:23

Graphics looked nice but the game was very simple, even for an arena shooter. Enemies got glitched behind every possible obstacle and everything very quickly changed to hold mouse button to win simulator. Green boss was too much of a bullet sponge.

Overall it was pretty fun for these few minutes.

takusan 2017-04-25 21:42

@teslov - harsh, but fair. Although in the polished version I'll address those issues, yet most people said that it was too hard as it is, so I'm surprised by the 'hold mouse button to win' :D And yes, the enemies ideally will still be held back a bit, but not indefinitely. Green boss is supposed to be bullet sponge - unless you have double or triple fire rate upgrade. Thanks for the feedback!

@Fedor - thank you :) Yup, as I said - there will be an updated, much more polished version. Better enemy follow, more weapons, more story behind it, balance tweaks, all that jazz. Cheers!

binaryferret 2017-04-25 21:54

Good job! A Fun little game. Loved the intro, and the overall feel of the game. Hope to see it expand if you decide to take it from jam state onwards.

takusan 2017-04-25 22:09

@binaryferret Yes, I'm going to give it a proper update after LD: balancing, better AI, more variety of enemies, more upgrades and weapons, more story (amd a faster intro) all that jazz. Thank you very much! Cheers!

spinaljack 2017-04-25 23:20

Nice graphics, loads of potential and hey, if you decide to take it commercial I hear that Nintendo Switch devkits are pretty cheap ;)

turncoda 2017-04-26 03:53

Your game has personality, I like that! Laughed at the opening crawl. I'm glad you decided it was worth it to work on a menu and an intro cutscene, because damn if Ludum Dare games can cut corners. Communication was good: taking damage, death, UI elements, etc. gave clear feedback on what was happening.

I quickly learned to conserve bullets once I got a pickup. The firing rate of the default gun just feels awful after losing the machine gun. I did manage to stack up several machine gun pickups and basically got myself a one-shot kill gun that fired bullet-lasers of death, and that snowballed into even more machine gun pickups! That was neat :)

Then I found this exploit. I was curious how long I could stay there without moving. Turns out I'm pretty much safe here forever.

takusan.png

mrerdalural 2017-04-26 08:59

Hahahaha the opening text made me laugh! I dit not find much innovation but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You have made a solid top-down arena shooter that has a freaking boss fight! Everything about the game (the graphics, the story, the sound) seems consistent too. I would love to see this game improve post LD. Thank you for creating this game!

avavt 2017-04-26 10:10

Lulz @ intro.

The game was a blast.

Enemies drive me MAD. So I kept my pickup at MAX.

Honestly though the enemies should be slowed down, it's impossible to get any stable game play without exploiting that invincible stuck spot. And yeah I think the stuck spot is too OP.

Overall I had great fun shooting zombie, much better than being chained to a truck.

takusan 2017-04-26 10:28

@turncoda the 'awful' feeling of default fire rate is kind of intended - to make the powerup (or multiple powerups) feel mor satisfactory. Still, I didn't manage (during the jam) to spawn them more often without completely overpowering the player. But I see that the intended satisfaction from multiple pickups works as planned, and that's a good start :D

@mrerdalural Thank you! I know this isn't revolutionary in any way, but since I still often struggle with Unity quirks, I primarily focused on completing the project and making it consistent (bcause base sprites weren't made by me). I'm glad you addressed that :)

And yes, all of those issues - enemy pathfinding, more variety, balance, adding some novelty (or hopefully innovation) are noted and will be addressed in the updated version.

Thank you for the feedback! Cheers!

move127 2017-04-26 15:08

Tons of fun! I wish the character moved a little faster relative to the stationary objects. You could make the enemies move faster to compensate for the difficulty change.

When I saw some of the stationary objects I got excited, thinking there would be some vehicles or exploding barrels. I guess I kind of forgot that it was a LD game.

takusan 2017-04-26 15:26

@move127 I hope to add that in the updated version, which will require some work. But yes, that would be great. I tried to make at least good old exploding red barrels, but I ran out of time. Still, we'll see what the future holds :)

Thank you for the kind words and feedback!

alexhoratio 2017-04-26 18:10

This is a really enjoyable game, well done! I'd be interested to see you expand on it. One suggestion would be to make the player character move a bit faster, and the bullets faster to compensate. If you're going for an action-packed vibe, I'd almost always recommend making everything faster.

Also, needs more screenshake :wink:

pixzleone 2017-04-26 18:10

I'm impressed for your first ludum dare, well done!

I found the intro really funny! :D

As other have already have said, the player is a bit too slow, but once you get used to it, it isn't that bad. Sometimes I felt like I was too slow to dodge the bullets, so that's the only real problem there.

I also think the overheating was a bit too frequent, as I felt like I couldn't clear the enemies fast enough. That might just me being bad at the game though x)

Even though you didn't make the graphics or the music, they fit well and the whole game feels overall well put together. If you give the overall gameplay some work and add some extra juice to it, I think it could be really cool.

Once again, very well done! Keep it up!

takusan 2017-04-26 18:19

@alexhoratio @pixzleone thank you so much! Yep, of course it needs more screenshake, and it definitely needs improvements and variety, I've collected a list of features to add in the updated version (I was set to finish in 48 hours, so that was inevidable). Thank you both for the suggestions!

xxdoombox 2017-04-26 22:42

hey really cool game! i know you didnt make the music but i really liked it! the intro was funny. i think the overheating bar was a really great idea. it could use some tweaking and game balance, but there is just no time for that in the jam, understandable. i liked how everything came together cohesively. i loved the ! boxes. whenever i got one it was super satisfying. I AM UNSTOPPABLE! xD oh yeah the direct download link is dead. i got a 404 file not found error. great job!

takusan 2017-04-26 23:02

@xxdoombox Thanks for the feedback! And thanks for pointing out the link - I'll fix that in a minute, I was just migrating my site. Heh, having the same problems as ldjam.com :) And of course there will be an updated version of the game with much needed tweaks and more content.

I'm happy that the ! boxes give the satisfaction as intended :D

Cheers!

crazi456 2017-04-26 23:59

Wow really enjoyed that! Everything felt very solid, nice work!

veralos 2017-04-27 09:31

Cool game. The intro was kind of funny, and shooting enemies is pretty fun - especially once you get the rapid fire power-up. It's really cool that it can stack, though the shooting sound seems to stop working when your fire rate gets too high. The main issue I had is that you move very slowly. This makes it very hard to avoid bullets. I'm not sure how much I should comment on the music and graphics as you didn't make (most of) them, but at the very least you made good choices there.

takusan 2017-04-27 11:14

@crazi456 Thank you! Means much from the creator of Super Collapse Guy, I love that game :D

@@veralos Once again, I really enjoyed your entry :) As for the music and graphics comment - that's the exact amount I'm expecting: if I made the right choice. If it fits together, means I'm going in the right direction :) Player speed and other grievances players reported so far will be addressed in the updated version (I'm thinking about upping the speed, and adding a speed slider in in-game options to allow players to fine-tune their experience). Sound issue is tougher to crack, I think I should replace the sample at high fire rates.

Cheers, and thank you so much for the feedback!

undefinist 2017-04-28 12:12

This game is pretty fun! Definitely wish the whole game was faster. Right now it feels way more tactical than action. If everything moves faster then it will feel more intense. Also just a small nitpick: the game isn't pixel perfect. Overall a pretty good game for your first LD! Good job!

xmatos 2017-04-28 12:16

Great job on the game. As other already said, the movement feels too slow, and the AI is lacking(which is understandable since you only had 72 hours). I also think that the game would benefit from a smaller game room. Overall, your game just needs more stuff to make it more interesting, which you probably already ideas for. Good luck on the competition and on the development.

takusan 2017-04-28 12:31

@xmatos Thanks for the feedback! Yes, there's already a whole list I collected from fedback (speed, variety and AI included), and my own ideas. I'll be sharing the post-jam update when I finish, but that will take some time (many other things to attend to).

@@undefinist Yeah, I should've gone with smaller camera, then it looks like it's pixel perfect. In the post-jam version I'm aiming to make it look much more oldschool, bigger pixels and I'm planning a slight screen shader (delicate scanlines or something like that). Thanks for the feedback!

aviv871 2017-04-28 13:51

Very nice graphics and fun game!

togis 2017-04-28 14:28

A lot of humour in this one, and my favourite part is that it doesn't infringe any registered TM :p hehe.

Nicely done wave survival shooter. There is a lot of challenge here, and I'm saying this as a good point!

Dying only give the opportunity to the player to retry and improve.

The only change I would suggest, is to add a walk speed power-up. Movement is sometimes slow and it's hard to escape hoards of enemies, this is a good thing, but having the opportunity to pick up a speed crate and run away would be nice.

(You can see me playing this game for the first time on the vod https://youtu.be/_Upt3PIzndo?t=1h6m57s )

takusan 2017-04-28 15:07

@togis thank you! I've also left you some feedback on your project, nicely done!

drazil100 2017-04-29 08:51

This game was surprisingly pretty fun! The controls felt very solid and the difficulty was pretty solid. My only complaint is that it's hard to see which character you are at the start of your first game. took me a while to figure out where on the screen i was.

takusan 2017-04-29 15:54

@drazil100 Thank you! Although I'm surprised, because out of more than a 100 people that played it and left feedback this way or another, you're the first to report this issue - usually once player started firing, everything became clear. But it's a good point - in the future version I'd like him to drop a few lines of monologue, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. I'll think of a way to make it more noticeable, thanks for pointing that out!

Cheers!

la-mecanique-du-plastique 2017-04-29 16:16

Very pleasant, fun and enjoyable game, you did a great job in three days especially working solo, impressive ! With the solid base you have and if you want to push it further I think it would be great that your game gets its own graphics/music, although the one you used fit pretty well allready, I'm sure it would definitly gives it the personnal touch and the homogeneity it maybe still lacking. We wish you all the best for what happens next, Bravo !

takusan 2017-04-29 19:03

@la-mecanique-du-plastique yes, I'm thinking about deveoping a spin-off instead of just building upon this game, especially sine the sprites are licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0, which is fine for a jam game, but problematic if I wanted to publish it even as a pay-what-you-want item. Plus I've got some neat idea for new sprites, and a ton of feedback from players with multiple ideas, so there's a lot to work with.

Cheers and thanks for the feedback, I really love your 'Den'!

pkenney 2017-05-01 05:47

Solid game core, and nice "director" job pulling in various assets that worked well together.

I thought there was a good overall pace. The game didn't break down into a totally insane dodging/kiting fest, yet I still felt like getting hit was my own fault. Not an easy balance to strike but I think you found one.

The powerup on the weapon was very satisfying to use, and it was nice to have moments like that time I blew the boss away in a ludicrous superstream of bullets. You were stingy enough with them that it felt special to use at that stacked level.

If I had a pain point it was in wanting a little more feedback around two critical things: getting hit, and weapon heat status. These were indicated a bit, but I could have used more. Something about the heat to be seen right on my guy and not requiring me to look at the bar up top would have been nice... or if there already is that, then something less subtle. ;)

I played several games and had fun experimenting. Great pick on the music, which really fit with your game's mood and personality.

Very nice entry.

jk5000 2017-05-01 08:20

I have now also rated your game.

richard-michael-smith 2017-05-01 09:56

This is getting ridiculous now...everywhere I go, @jk5000 has already been there. I feel like I'm stalking him. Anyway - as promised, I just came back to rate you!

pixzleone 2017-05-01 10:01

I have now rated your game!

(I also feel like I'm stalking both @richard-michael-smith and @jk5000 heh)

lepatryckduffy 2017-05-01 12:44

Maybe removed ratings categories on art and music now we can vote ;) So it's a good game i like survival shooter. And it's pretty fun. Like the other comment, i would like more feedback maybe and some speed power up. Nice entry :)

la-mecanique-du-plastique 2017-05-01 13:15

Just rated your game (commented yesterday) <3

fedor 2017-05-01 13:25

Rated your game like I've said few days ago ;)

aviv871 2017-05-01 13:28

I left you a rating in addition to the earlier feedback. Good luck!

takusan 2017-05-01 17:37

@pkenney thank you so much for the detailed feedback, I really appreciate it. All noted, and all will be addressed during further development :) Cheers!

erdiizgi 2017-05-01 18:08

You got quite a lot of comments. My first idea was something like this. Not that much retro though but like gta2 style. Then I went with another idea that was easier to do. You did a good job. You can extend the story in any way you want. Good luck with your entry.

technonugget 2017-05-01 18:10

Nice little game, It was very well polished and action packed. the drops could be a little bit more evenly placed out, but overall it's a very nice game for just a weekend.

smdeveloper 2017-05-01 18:17

GG ! :grin:

nidup 2017-05-01 18:28

Super intro, good ambiance, game design & feedback, the game is pretty well polished. The enemies may be a bit less dumb regarding movements and avoid to stay stuck behind obstacles when trying to reach our hero (maybe a-star path finding or a even more simple implementation could fix this). Anyway, great job!

jeremy-ryan 2017-05-01 18:34

Good job on this! Game played pretty smoothly, nice retro feel to it. I like the music and the assets you chose.

sagarpatel25700 2017-05-01 18:37

- The game is good. - Only two thing i would like to say is - Increase the player speed and enemys have variable speed - that will dfinately make the gameplay WoW!!!

aaranos 2017-05-01 18:46

Pretty solid arcade shooter. I ended with a high score of 2360, probably not great.

A few things to comment on. It was slightly annoying that dropped boxes were counted as obstacles and could not be shot through. I also found it easy to control the enemies since they are using simple path finding and do not avoid obstacles, which is completely acceptable considering it's a 72 hours jam submission so no expectation on super AI.

I liked the art style choice and other than the 2 complaints above I think it was pretty good. The little intro also gives it some life.

automatonvx 2017-05-01 19:20

Congratulations on your first LD. Pretty good, agree with the others the player movement needs increasing a bit and maybe his input parameters tweaking a bit. As said by others, probably best not to have all the enemies trying to follow you round because it makes them to easy to line up. Nice choice on the graphics and audio. I'm probably in the minority but i would like the option of controller or pure keyboard support instead of using mouse. I guess the retro visuals make me want retro input. Maybe i'm just getting my own back because I made an arena shooter with keyboard only input in the last LD and got lots of feedback telling me they wanted mouse support. Check it out if you want, its nothing special but maybe some of the feedback is relevant for you too http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-37/?action=preview&uid=64571 also made a post ld version with some extra features (such as controller and slightly buggy mouse support) https://automatonvx.itch.io/arena-3000 . Good job

geckoo1337 2017-05-01 19:30

Really nice entry with a fun mood. I liked your humore about MadMax. In fac, your project reminds me another game with which I played when I was young - Ikari Warrior. A good survival game. Thank you ++

spav 2017-05-01 20:46

Solid classical arcade shooter. Every part of this game is on it's place. It's nothing new, but whole experience was: "Ok, i played cool game, gimme next level" :D I wan't ride that bike!

rick 2017-05-01 23:07

Shoot, can't play. I'm on a Mac. Let me know when you get the chance to port to Mac.

zeriver 2017-05-01 23:35

The opening sequence is pretty funny 'Max that is mad about that'. Gameplay is pretty nice, right from the beggining player can see that this game is not going to be a easy one.

sachos345 2017-05-02 14:11

Ohh man i feel this game could be a lot better just by increasing the speed of it as a whole, i think its too slow right now. I would increase the moving speed of Max, and decrease the rate at wich you overheat i found it was too punishing, could not get past the first boss, found really hard to kill all the guys with just the basic gun i got no powerups man! haha

takusan 2017-05-02 14:34

@automatonvx oh, great, mate! I really could use some of the feedback your game got (great job btw), and I just played your entry (I've seen it before, on @Togis 's stream :D). As for Max, later version would support at least a twin-stick system, but full keyboard is also a nice idea, I just have to check if a standard keyboard would allow diagonal shots. Cheers!

sebasrez 2017-05-02 15:58

Hey Takusan, thanks for your comments on my entry. As for Slightly Angry Max, (no association with the madder max) this is a solid entry as others have pointed out! I would also increase the speed a bit to give me a chance to escape. Honestly, the theme is also not that clear, since its more of a small island. The programming is well done, and the bullet rate of the machine gun makes it entertaining. It would have been funny to work with the slightly angry nature of the game by making the power up make him red and faster with maybe a text bubble stating he is "I'M SLIGHTLY ANGRY!!!!". I'll look forward to the updates!

slash-random 2017-05-02 16:05

Well, the game mechanics work and the opening scene was pretty nice (reminded me of smashTV), but it's a real shame, that you neither made the graphics nor the music by yourself. Therefore, the game lacks of individuality which should be super important in my opinion. Anyway, thanks for sharing your game with us.

rongo-matane 2017-05-02 17:12

A really nice game! It was fun to discover the stacking of the upgrades, so you get kind of a mini gun. I wasn't really sure if anything else was going to happen. Do bosses come from time to time and the game is over if i die, or did i miss anything?

The music is really good and it's immediately clear what to do. The only thing i do not understand is the overheat - no idea what it does, my mini gun wasn't bothered :D

nick-bota 2017-05-02 21:33

Amazing first entry. I was utterly impressed by every aspect of the game, looks great sounds awesome and is very fun to play while being very challenging which I know is very hard to accomplish. The only thing that frustrated me is that I couldn't shoot through the crates but hey that's just me. Overall a very well deserved 5/5 entry!

samlo 2017-05-02 22:12

Fun game! I got up to about 920 score but I couldn't beat the boss. I like the overheat mechanic instead of reloading, but I wish there was more of a indication that I was about to overheat in-game instead of just relying on the bar which is a bit hard to divert attention to. Awesome art style as well!

gamechoy 2017-05-03 00:23

Very fun entry, I got up to 5050 for my best score. Movement and bullet speed were perfect and the enemy spawn rate is just right too, along with the boss spawn rate. Very nice entry, great job!

gamesplusjames 2017-05-03 00:55

Really good game. I loved the whole intro sequence. I felt like the movement could have been a little faster but overall it was fun game. Nice work!

sondrian 2017-05-03 01:51

Well done! I really liked this game, great feedback, everything makes sense and feels right. I do have one gripe though, I didn't really like the overheating feature on the gun. I understand that it does sort of make sense to strategize with ammo usage but the player's damage output wasn't really very good to begin with and being gated by a cool-down hurt the game more than it helped in my opinion.

nettleflap 2017-05-03 10:11

Despite being really simple I enjoyed the game very much. I think if enemies behaved differently and they had pathfinding this could be awesome. Speed boost and multiple bullets could be other power-ups. Very similar to Crimsonland so you can check that out if you have plans to develop it further.

tuteupaituamae 2017-05-03 12:58

Nice game art bro

Please rate us on https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/deep-bottom

nuebomundo 2017-05-03 20:31

The movement of the character is too slow and floatie in my opinion, but there is a good game under that (although formulaic). It was disappointing that you eventually lose all upgrades, but overall I liked that you can use health/upgrade kits that you didn't pick up yet as barricades/defense! I think that has potential (and they don't disappear, bonus point for that!)

dunin 2017-05-04 15:53

Simple but fun game. Maybe the character could move faster, but I just say that to say something... 2450.

grena 2017-05-04 17:53

Simple but solid game. Nice graphics, sounds and music! The whole thing gives a feeling of well polished game :)

The game is hard, here are maybe the thing that bother me: - When ennemies attack you, they "stick" to you forever, there is no "latence time of attack" that you could avoid, so it's pretty hard once they are on you - It lacks a feedback of what you picked up on "!" boxes (I understood it was a better weapon, but there is not visual feedback) - Ennemies stay blocked on behind walls and other stuff ^^

Anyway, solid entry and fun game! :)

fueelin 2017-05-04 19:47

Balance issues prevented me from playing this one too much, but I liked a lot of things about it! In particular, the sprites were great! Liked the music too. I just wish the character was a touch faster (and agree with @grena about the enemies "sticking" - I basically had to ignore ranged enemies completely just trying to keep the melee ones off me).

luigi-lupo 2017-05-04 22:06

Let's see. I really liked this game: you managed to create what felt like a good progression in difficulty, which is not easy to pull off, and a coherent mood too, by using assets from different sources. This too is no small feat. I also appreciated the simple but clever humor with the title and opening narration.

The balance of challenge and fun is, to me at least, undoubtedly the strongest point of this game, and it is what kept me playing for quite a while, trying time after time to top my highscore. It simply felt fun to play and play again.

Personally I did not mind it being a little more on the slower/tactical side rather than pure fast paced action, as a matter of fact I think it complements the "crowd control" gameplay well, but that might be just me. The fact you cannot shoot through bonuses on the floor is actually a plus to me, for it forces me to think and actually be smart about my positioning.

There is however room for improvement, at least in some regards: the balance of the game, as you yourself said, needs some tweaking.

During my playthrough for instance, it felt really easy to create a snowball situation with the powered up shot bonus, to the point where I could sometimes clear a dozen or more enemies in one volley of bullets, pick up the power up again and repeat, while pretty much ignoring the whole overheat mechanic. My rate of fire was so high, even multiple bosses at the same time could do very little to stop me.

The enemies themselves might need some reworking: I almost never felt like those who could not shoot posed a serious threat. I was able to almost literally run circles around them without getting hit, and that was before I realized I could snag them into objects and keep them running against walls. Enemies who can shoot on the other hand pose a real threat, and feel fair to me.

I have seen others suggesting to add some invincibility frames after taking damage so that your entire healthbar does not get drained too quickly at the first mistake, and while it did not bother me too much, I took it as part of the challenge, I can see their point, and I believe it is worth taking into consideration.

These blemishes are however minor, especially considering you only had 72 hours to work with. The only real shortcoming could be seen in the "innovation" category, but there is nothing wrong, I think, in choosing to try and create a solid consistent and cohesive game over a crazy innovative one, and a solid game this is. All in all, excellent work!

takusan 2017-05-05 15:15

Oh my. Since I'm busy leaving feedback for each and every one of people who took time to comment here, I can't answer to all of you personally. Nevertheless I'd just like to thank you all very much for constructive information, and I'm trying to do the same for your games. This is priceless, I never had so much playtest opportunities before :) Thank you @luigi-lupo @fueelin @grena @nuebomundo @nettleflap @sondrian @gamesplusjames @gamechoy @nick-bota @rongo-matane @slash-random @samlo @sebasrez - I've already left you some thoughts on your projects, and all your issues are noted and landed in backlog for future consideration and update. Stay awesome!

puppetmaster 2017-05-06 10:04

Very cool little shooter game. Like the pixel art and the catchy sounds. For me, I think the player should walk faster and the enemy should not spawn right next to to player without any mark. My score was 1450. Keep up the great work, well done!

porcus-pie 2017-05-09 02:23

Nice game, I really liked the whole concept and it was quite fun. The player did move way too slowly however, and the enemies would just rush me. And due to the overheat system I ended up spamming to get them off, causing my gun to stop and more to attack me. So this game is fun but ridiculously hard. (Also the intro sequence is way too fast, but amusing nonetheless)

peachtreeoath 2017-05-09 04:52

First off, let me say I really like your dedication to the community here. Lots of posts/reviews and nice blogs too!

This is a pretty polished experience, from the title screen all the way to death. The monsters are simple but hey, they do their job. I definitely loved the guns when I stacked buffs for the first time, they felt great.

I think the music is maybe an incorrect choice. I'm a big fan of chiptunes but I don't know how well that one fits a Mad Max theme, even if the game is 8-bit and frantic.

Really solid entry though, I played this more than a lot of other games so far.

takusan 2017-05-09 06:53

@porcus-pie Thank you for the feedback, noted :) Interesting that you find intro sequence too fast, players mostly told me it's too slow :D But that's the way it is, lots of fine-tunung even for such a detail.

@peachtreeoath Thank you! I'm trying to keep alive, since there's so many games that need feedback, and I know that playtesters, especially devs, really help out with fine-tuning the game. I'm glad the stacking powerups worked as they were intended to :) Music, I must confess, was chosen mostly because of the overall design decisions, I know it's not an absolutely perfect fit for 'mad max-y' theme, but that came after the initial mechanic. First - small area shooter mechanic and music, then the idea with 'Slightly Angry Max' came to life. Noted, I'll ponder on that further :D And, since from what I see I haven't left you a feedback yet, I'll get right to it. Cheers!

lancescaterpie 2017-05-09 11:32

I really enjoyed the music, it added a lot to both the intro and the gameplay. The gameplay felt slightly too slow, increasing the movement speed of the player and the enemies would have made it feel more frantic which I think would be a positive. Also the audio of the gunshot seemed to glitch when your fire rate became too high (maybe it kept retriggering every frame which bugs it out?) On death I see what you were trying to do with the slow motion, but the slowed down audio effects seemed a bit grating and I feel its missing some blur / fade out? Overall I enjoyed the game however!

takusan 2017-05-09 12:26

@lancescaterpie yeah, it's exactly that - too much sounds at once because of play() retriggering :) It will be substituted with looping sound to prevent that, death sound will also get a new crisp sound effect, much less jarring :D

Thank you for the feedback!

rockhoppergames 2017-05-09 17:47

Congratulations on your first Ludum Dare! While the idea of this one isn't anything new, the presentation is top notch, and it's clear you put some work into balancing the game! It looked like you even had more bosses to spice things up when I thought I had things under control. One thing that wasn't mentioned in the how to play, though, was that powerups block bullets, so I wasn't sure if that was a bug, or a way to help provide cover.

I got to 6810 points, which looks like it's higher than anyone else who's posted their high scores here yet, so I'll let that be a gauntlet to anyone else who wants to compete!~

sleepystudios 2017-05-09 18:32

This game really oozes polish and I appreciate that a lot (wish there was a bit of screenshake though ;)). Perhaps making the player move a bit faster would've made it a bit more enjoyable but overall solid effort!

athomicus 2017-05-10 08:26

Very good start I like this game looks like liitle Canon fodder from Amiga :)

zorg 2017-05-10 08:46

Well done, you even have a menu (something i'd only trying to do at the very end of making a game, in short: never). The gameplay feels solid in terms of a top down shooter and it's an acomplishment for a jam game but... I think you should try to give your games something personal. It's hard to do this without own graphics nor music. Your choice for the graphics and music is good and your game feels complete and polished. I don't want to sound harsh, but in my opinion you should see this game more like an exercise and move on making it your own or building another game with a personal touch.

hlavik 2017-05-10 14:35

Wooooooooooow this is the best game on ld I've ever seen on Ld. It is like mini dayz. Definitely finish this game. I wanna play it and payed for it. Really nice work.

james-war-lloyd 2017-05-10 18:40

I loved the intro! Mad Max mixed with Water World.

ret44 2017-05-11 23:32

This is really nicely polished and complete game, from the intro to the end credits. I loved to see some variety of weapons, because right now, most of the enemies feel like bullet sponges.

cenullum 2017-05-12 17:36

You should disable hitbox on health, ammo box, rocks and cactus . My opinion if you add drivable car and quest system , It have to be sold few thousand in steam. Atmosphere made me feel mad max . GREAT GAMEEEE :D

takusan 2017-05-13 20:34

@zorg - spot on, mate :) The idea was exactly that: exercise in coding the whole thing, making it coherent (including the menu) and implementing playable mechnics. I'm not very experienced (yet) in making games, much more in programming per se. So all you noticed is exactly that - a stepping stone to making something truly of my own, and a test if I could do it in short time. Cheers and thanks for the feedback! I'll be working on a future version with all the feedback I got, and I'm thinking about my own graphics and music.

takusan 2017-05-14 10:39

@cenullum I like that idea with quest system and drivable cars very much. Getting closer to mad max might indeed be the way to go :D Cheers!

joekinglake 2017-05-14 14:03

Haha great entry, really overall nice theming and mood of the game. Found myself playing for quite a little while. Awesome to see a complete package like this made in the time frame available. Main piece of feedback would be that i skimmed over the how-to page before playing first time round (though the conrols were super intuitive so i had no problem) but you could have the how to play info in-game (something like how Binding of Isaac does?) and i also noticed that enemies continue to move whilst the pause menu is active. Overall really great game!

siegfriedcroes 2017-05-14 14:48

Nice game :) Really nicely polished. No remarks at all, well done :)

mordokay 2017-05-16 02:42

The game itself is very fun to play. Feels very polished and the progression and increased difficulty is well balanced. Aside from a few details like enemies don't walking around obstacles its a very enjoyable experience. Also loved the UI. The shades of red and the font used work very well here. :P

Good Job!

paulhocker 2017-05-16 04:44

@tukason - thanks for playing my game - this game is very fun to play and quite polished - however, the player movement felt very frustrating to me, maybe because it always felt as if I was sliding instead of moving - i liked the powerup for the weapon and obviously if you had more time you may have added other weapons, and upgrades - very solid game - great work

dejvo 2017-05-16 08:18

a fine game. I wish, that there was an end goal and I could move a bit faster. other than that, I liked the humor. good job

mewsoul 2017-05-16 12:13

Damn that's a great entry! Moreover for your first entry here, that's even better, congrats!

The intro is a great plus! That reminds me of the talk "The Art of Screenshake" of JW, when he talks about adding some meaning to the game, and that's what you do with this intro, so it's like you're more into the game, and moreover your intro is funny!

What you did is well polished and complete, so I won't have too much to add about it, but I have few points in mind that you maybe would like to consider to improve it (or for future games).

- The first feeling I had was that the character moved a bit too slowly, that kinda frustrates me a bit ahah

- Another thing is that when you're playing the game, as a player you don't really focus on the UI, and the overheated bar stays the same color if it's almost empty or full, and so you don't notice you're getting too much overheat, you only notice it when you're already overheated and can't shoot anymore. So I guess having this bar flashing when you're getting too much overheat, or maybe changing the color, the players will notice it more easily.

- Another feeling is about the sound of the pistol, I would give it a deeper sound when it shoots, so that you've the feeling it's powerful and that you're being badass shooting with it.

- One of the point of the talk I wrote about previously is the screenshake, and I felt I was missing it in this game. Maybe you could add some when firing, or when killing an enemy, you'd have the feeling it's a bit more "alive".

- One thing I didn't really get was how the weapon was improved, I think it was like cycle of 3 different fire rates but not sure at all. It was kinda weird that after improving it, it came back to normal after some time. Maybe adding a bar which gets empty with the time could help to understand the improvement is not definitive (or a least if is like that currently in the game, but that's what I understood, sorry if I assume wrong :x ).

- And as you do a scoreboard, I discover one thing by checking out games during this Ludum Dare, that is Dreamlo.com . It helps to create easily online scoreboard, and there is an implementation of it available on the asset store (I didn't check it yet), and I was thinking of maybe using it for my next Ludum Dare, so maybe you'd be interesting in it! ^^

Anyway, great game you've made, congrats!

Cheers!

local-minimum 2017-05-16 16:47

Well made entry!

A bit strange to feel so slow walking around, because in these kind of games. Like nuclear throne, it feels more common that the character can run quickly. I'm not saying I'm necessarily opposing the slowness of the movement though.

The way you were allowed to keep mouse pressed and then only had to release for overheat was a really nice touch.

There might have been a meter for it, but it felt a bit unexpected each time I ran out of power-up.

First time I played, I died because I assumed that you could pass the tree at the top of the island, because it really looks like it and that was a bit evil.

But besides these comments, really well made and enjoyable game.

pixlwalkr 2017-05-16 19:41

Really fun game overall. Nice intro also. Great job!

takusan 2017-05-16 20:44

@mewsoul Oh cheers mate, thanks for the feedback! Yes, there should be some more distinctive UI feedback regarding stats, and some powerup timer indicator, noted. Screenshake is something I wanted to add, but I failed at making it in time, so it's pushed to updated post-jam version ;) For powerups, you noticed correctly that they stack up, but in the jam version it's potentially infinite stack. Sound gets buggy unfortunately. Yeah, it gets confusing, through playtesting I never got more than 2-3 powerups simultaneously ;) Thank you very much for all the info, I'm adding it to my backlog - screenshake, UI improvements, powerup meter, sound issues and shooting sound with more punch. Cheers!

takusan 2017-05-16 20:48

@local-minimum hah, that tree is more trouble than good, actually - when it was first placed there it had buggy hitbox, which made player stick to it, fly-trap style. I think it needs to retire altogether :) As for the player speed, from time perspective I think at least a bit more speed would be good - not wipeout mode, but a tad more dynamic movement would be better. Powerup timer UI feedback is something I indeed missed (it was intended to be like that, but it's too confusing for player), so you're exactly right on that one. Glad you liked my project! Loved yours btw. Cheers!

icxon 2017-05-16 20:51

Awesome and fun entry.

Moments I liked a lot: - Game setting, level design (despite art is not yours, everything in its place) - Game introduction and "How to" page. - Game-to-player feedback (death animation, bullet hits, etc) - Fun and classic gameplay

Moments I doubt: - Some sprites overlapping is incorrect (enemy head under wooden fence, for instance) - Passive AI and exploit caused but it. - There is no gameplay progression (like in Alien Shooter survival mode where you get new weapons from bosses and enemies become stronger) - Barrels are not explosive (how dare you!)

Here is my playthrough: https://youtu.be/jXoIPeFavU4

max.png

Thank you for the game! :gem:

takusan 2017-05-16 22:34

@icxon Thank you for taking so much time to review it and put up a video, that's absolutely great! And yes, I'm totally guilty for not making barrels explode, I couldn't get the mechanic down in time. Still, it kinda fits - now you know one of the reasons why max gets angry [beep-boop, not-a-bug-a-feature] :) Everything you pointed out is true, and I'll try my best to address it when developing max further. It actually turned out better than I expected , since I never tried to get things done so quickly, but it still needs loads of work, and the feedback I got so far is extremely helpful. My backlog and todo is full, so I'll be busy in no time, just have to get the everyday work out of the way :)

Thank you, you're awesome!

rujo 2017-05-17 07:58

I liked the game, kinda disappointed cause I was going to compliment you for the graphics before reading they're pd assets. Btw you've choosen and used them very well!

orquigames 2017-05-17 08:17

Good game and interesting!

richard-michael-smith 2017-05-17 12:01

How is Max these days? Still angry? :grinning:

joemid 2017-05-17 13:20

My only complaint- I want to blow everything up and ride those vehicles! Had fun with this! Great humor- love the long opening crawl. The action can only get better with time! Great job and congratulations!

richard-michael-smith 2017-05-17 16:52

@joemid - you maniac!

takusan 2017-05-17 18:29

@joemid - haha, I get you :) Yeah, didn't manage to make even barrels explode during the jam (a great sin on my part), but people suggested drivable vehicles and environment destruction - I'm seriously considering it, and it's already in my backlog. So I hope I'll manage to get that working. Cheers, and thanks for the feedback, your game is in my queue for this evening :D

takusan 2017-05-17 18:31

@richard-michael-smith oh cheers! Yeah, angry mostly because I didn't have much time to develop him further, I just started a new job about a week after LD - and in the evenings it's mostly leaving feedback on LD and daily routines :) I hope I'll squeeze in some serious time for him soon... Did you make any considerable changes to Globe Trot in the meantime? :D

shubham-gupta 2017-05-17 18:35

-Funny intro ( great one ) -great Graphics -music was ok -great humour -Player speed needs to be increased -nice controls - improvement needed in AI game mechanics Overall a great game.Loved playing it

Do try my game : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/sunken-mystery

takusan 2017-05-17 20:59

@rujo Thank you! Post-factum, I could probably manage to make my own in the future, but I was uncertain If I could get everything down with short deadline. And those were just right, so I decided to use them in this project (had my eye on them for some time). Glad you found them consistent with the rest of the game ;) Cheers!

richard-michael-smith 2017-05-18 00:28

@takusan - Not yet. I am waiting for the competition to be over and then I will go back and fix the problems. I did try and create a WebGL version but I had no idea that controller support was so limited for it...and playing Globe Trot with keys just isn't the same!

2017-05-18 17:18

Simple but nice game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDuO7KTgNEs

takusan 2017-05-18 17:58

@jupiter-hadley Oh cheers! I was wondering if you'll have the time to check it out, thank you! :D

bloodyaugust 2017-05-19 02:32

I really enjoyed what there was to play, and just found myself wanting more diverse gameplay. Great entry!

gris 2017-05-19 17:30

Really cool game. Pretty solid and complete. Congrats!

lvl99chicken 2022-04-08 18:10

Solid entry! I like the graphics and audio even if you did not make them still good choices. I feel like the player was very slow and my run felt soft-capped because of that, being so slow I just could not dodge the enemies. Agree with the posts above about needing some more feedback on picking up objects and the enemies would rapidly hit player once collided (some invincibility frames would help that). The enemy spawning was cool and liked the boss. Overall solid submission!