erdiizgi 2017-05-01 18:21
This was fun. I don't say things are great but there is a good balance between the big planets and small ones. This one deserves more attention. Thanks for the web build and making the life easier.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD38 → Small World Collider
By tylerraz
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 686 | 2.75 | 26 | |
| Fun | 488 | 2.95 | 26 | |
| Innovation | 462 | 2.95 | 26 | |
| Theme | 571 | 3.00 | 26 | |
| Graphics | 712 | 2.20 | 26 | |
| Humor | 391 | 2.57 | 23 | |
| Mood | 701 | 2.43 | 25 |
This was fun. I don't say things are great but there is a good balance between the big planets and small ones. This one deserves more attention. Thanks for the web build and making the life easier.
Fun small game. It feels quite random, with more planets even more. I didn't play the game to get points or anything, it was more trying out what fun things more planets will do :P So i still had fun with it.
A great idea for a fun little game. I enjoyed it considerably. I found it nearly impossible to have any kind of control over the game with more than a couple planets, though, because of how much the planets knock your paddle around: you might consider making the paddle less affected by collisions for a sharper feel.
Also, Pluto's ability was hilarious. No more being bullied!
Pretty fun goofy game, haha. Neat twist on a classic idea! I'd make it so that the paddles don't accelerate; just have them start and stop moving when you press or release a button.
Well executed and pretty bug free. Fun gameplay but feels a little too frantic with 3 balls. The earth with its missles was a nice touch!
The gameplay was cool, reminiscent to DX ball DOS era arkanoids with a twist. I played and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I just wish the graphics were better.
@fanatrick I wish the graphics were better too :D one day I will progress from the simple shape tool and path/node editing in inkscape!!
Was a great experience to see pong executed in such a good and creative way.
Woah I didn't realize it saved the last chosen planets :earth_africa:, so when I played a second game I had 6 heavenly bodies bouncing amok!
OH THE CELESTIAL MECHANICS!
A unique and very enjoyable take on the classic breakout game with battling the AI paddles and the different planet mechanics. Great job!
I didn't think there was room to iterate on Breakout but you sure found it. Very clever take on the genre. I think I'd enjoy it more if the controls were more arcadey and didn't use forces to push the paddles. It's really hard to do last minute saves when there's a lot bouncing around, unless that was intentional.
Awesome! Breakout meets Pong. 'nuff said.
Ha cool idea! Needs sound effects and little tightening of the visuals. Good entry! :)
Really cool game! I love the different combinations of planets. I liked Neptune + Earth a lot. It felt really cool to have to deal with the paddle slow + earth launches at the same time. I agree with some of the other commenters that some of the quick/smaller planets feel a little too difficult to deal with, but it's still very fun to try out different combinations of planets. Good work!
Great idea, it could work well with two player modes. The concept of choosing the planet combinations (along with actually unique planet traits) really helped the game, good job there! I just thought it was so fast at some points that trying to block the ball was pointless haha. Pluto was quite funny as well :D
I enjoyed seeing the special abilities of all the different planets. I think the game could use some balancing work, it felt like I was at a huge disadvantage to the computer when there was more than 1 planet on the screen, since the computer has twice as many paddles. Maybe the paddle speed could be increased?
The music was pretty good, and the overall idea is well fleshed out. I found mercury (which is recommended to add on the web page) to be too fast compared to the slow and slippery physics of the paddle. I liked the different abilities of the planet, especially earth's missile which were quite original. Good job!
Works good! Sometimes the planets do not behave as expected, but i can live with that :)
It's very hard to make Breakout clones imo. To stand out, you really need to have super feedbacks, neat visuals and a very creative concept and/or universe if possible. Good examples are games like Nervous Brickdown, or Shatter, that really are the last great games of this genre from (my) recent memory. Your game clearly lacks feedbacks, comprehensive physics, sounds and thematic visuals to be enjoyable sadly. But it's not the most important, it's really things that you can improve or add from now on.
Your concept is the main topic. I think having planets in place of balls is a cool idea, and could be really reinforced by a space thematic: asteroids in place of blocks, stars in the background etc.. But let's talk about the gameplay. The issue is that games don't really feel different when I chose other planets. It's just more and more confused as I select more and more planets. There's a balance problem: some planets are too fast, or the paddle is too slow.. the space between the 2 sides is too small too. Some tunings that can easily be tweaked. The abilities of planets don't feel different either, it's more like characteristics: big/small, fast/slow.. except from the missiles which are a clever idea.
Anyway.. there are lots of things still to be said, to improve, but I guess I made a general point. I know it's not something you (nor me) want to read but imo best things about game jams are pushing the limits and sharing constructive criticisms (and having a good time of course). So well done for trying out this idea and good luck for the next one!
PS: if you need sounds, Bfxr.net is really the savior of game jams. Easy to use and quite powerful for a navigator tool.
It's certainly a classic type of game, but you pull it off rather well! Breakout-like games tend to be quite a bloated and unoriginal market, but I think yours definitely has enough fun new mechanics to pull it together quite nicely.
That said, there are a couple of improvements I would suggest to you: Firstly, as PowerSpark mentioned, this game would be super fun if two people could play at once. Secondly, I would suggest that you try making some pixel artwork for your next game - it's really quite easy to do, and can make your game look far more professional!
**Keep up the good work!**
I used to really enjoy these kinds of games back as a kid. I like the idea of the planets as balls but I felt the paddles were a little too unresponsive for me or maybe it was just the browser being funny. It was still fun to play for a little while as these games usually are.