FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD38 → Spider Collider

Spider Collider

By againey, mooncalf and Andrew Ruder

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1563.7843
Fun364.0043
Innovation933.8043
Theme3463.5143
Graphics3883.5143
Audio1153.7542
Humor3122.8037
Mood3433.3038

Comments

king-kujito 2017-04-27 12:33

Link?

edit: it's fixed now so my comment isn't really relevant anymore

badram 2017-04-30 20:54

this is one of the best ones I've played yet! the music is excellent. the gameplay is well implemented and fun. the asteroids aesthetic is consistent, clear, and helps the player quickly grasp the unconventional gameplay. great job. :thumbsup:

the only problem I could find with it is that in some levels you can jump off the top or sides and land on your starting rock, canceling it's momentum before it touches anything. I cheesed several of the levels like that. I also found that I never needed to use the grapple function, since I would always land eventually. perhaps a slightly slower version of the game with death walls would be more difficult?

brotherst 2017-05-02 03:01

Loved the music and the minimalist graphical style. The game was very fun, but I agree with BadRAM that it was a bit easy because of the repeating sides of the screen. I found that I could complete most levels by repeatedly jumping off the side of the screen with minimal effort to avoid things. Making the sides of the screens result in death, and making the orbs move slower in general (especially the lightweight ones) could improve this.

But the game was still very fun and aesthetically impressive. Good job!

Thanks for checking out our game, [E.(a)T.](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/e-at). Much appreciated :slight_smile:.

eric-florio 2017-05-02 03:15

This game is amazing!! I don't know any other game with a similar gameplay. I was really having fun, and beat all the levels (some of them are very hard) The minimalist art fits perfect with the gameplay.

Just a few suggestions:

- The music is cool but doesn't fit your game (in my opinion). It reminds me a nostalgic race game. I think something more "minimalist" would be better.

- In some hard levels, it's easier to jump randomly as soon as you touch the other planet (this way you stay less time on the surface of planets, and reduce your chance of dying). To prevent this random playing, you could make a planet that kills instantly when you step on it.

- Another way to "cheat" the game when there is a lot of planets is by jumping only between the edges of the screen, where there is no planet to kill you. So, maybe you could have some levels with spiky walls in the edges, so the player have to use the center of the screen.

Great work!

maldo19 2017-05-02 03:27

It's a pretty good game, I really liked the music even if it didn't match the game itself. The spider looks awesome and the game idea is pretty good.

Some nitpicks: It's a little bit buggy in the collisions if the planets move really fast, and you can cheat if you mash the space bar so the spider jumps between planets too fast.

occultone 2017-05-02 05:42

This is pretty good, the music and art style are awesome and the mechanics are very solid, though it suffers from the ability to spam the jump button over and over to quickly get the score up and bypass the collision between balls.

jaytord 2017-05-02 20:11

I've cleared whole game, most levels (where number is lower than 10) could be cleared by random jump spamming, infinite grapple and no boundaries of screen make the game much easier, maybe it needs limitation on one of those aspects. I also encountered couple of bugs... once I grappled and hanged in midair, being able to move (counter)clockwise with a very large radius (there was no planet with such big one). And second, maybe not really a bug, but sometimes spider becomes really slow, like flying in slow motion, I usually used grapple in those cases, because otherwise it would've took dozen of seconds to reach nearest planet.

But I enjoyed the game anyway, some levels are challenging and game is addictive; graphics are nice too.

greeny7 2017-05-03 09:12

As it was said before, game suffers lack of any challenge - press space button to win. But I think that game mechanics is nice as concept. Also I like its fancy animations of death or end of level.

steve 2017-05-03 13:02

Had fun with this one, but as others have mentioned in the later levels it became obvious I could just constantly jump to pass them, however playing properly and alternating between jumping and grappling was great fun. Good work!

r8berto 2017-05-04 17:57

Interesting idea, I'm curious about the tech behind the spider, it's just a sprite or it's rigged in some way?

dgspitzer 2017-05-05 12:27

Interesting game. Had a fun time with this~ Very cool spider art!

Got a bug that spider stuck inside the planet lol

Bug2.jpg

bunnery 2017-05-08 15:10

As a bit of an arachnophobe I was wary about trying this - the critters were VERY spider-like! I did squish a few as I was getting to grips with the game - it wasn't deliberate honestly! It was actually fun and quite hard - really nice work ;-)

kappaix 2017-05-08 20:07

Absolutely love the vector-style graphics, as well as the music and the sound, really cool. As with others, I cheesed my way though the whole thing by hammering space - but - I did get through the whole thing because of the way it looked and sounded.

Well done, thanks for sharing!

danman9914 2017-05-10 06:01

Excellent entry. One of the best I've played this LD and I'm proud to say I beat all the levels. It's a truly unique take on the theme and, unlike many entries, translates the theme into mechanics. The visuals are minimalist but there's enough there to have a distinct style. If there is a criticism I have it is that most of the levels can be beaten without moving or grappling. Overall though, top notch.

2017-05-10 23:26

I really liked this one. It's unique and immersive straight away. The concept is understood quickly but has a lot of subtleties to it. Loved the graphics as well. If I had a couple complaints though : The music looks out of place. Most levels can be beaten by just spamming jump. Some planets move really fast when knocked off.

Aside from that, it's all good !

hellsquirrel 2017-05-12 03:46

Awesome!!!

yves 2017-05-12 09:55

I played all Levels and here are my thoughts: - Graphics where very minimalistic(1bit) in a good way(nice and clean). I liked the particle effects on finish/ on die. These where satisfying. - Mechanics are pretty cool and worked well. It wass fun to play and felt good. The grappling hook gave good air control and overall the controls where very simple so you immediately get started. - Music was good but it could be a bit more adapted to the game.

So my game experience: The first levels where really beginner friendly with the small moving spheres. As soon as the fast once appeared it gets really though until you figure out that you can fly of the screen and appear on the other side. Here the game had some issues because you could just spam space the whole time and get through the levels without dieing (which kills kind a the purpose). Besides that "Bug" if you want to call it so the game was very enjoyable and at a very good state. Good work mate!

Cheers

pascalman 2017-05-13 19:18

Great job!

arch-a-type 2017-05-13 19:19

What an addictive game! I love the mechanics and game play of this! It is surprisingly simple yet well constructed. I loved the effects and the sprites. Adding different speed orbs was a nice touch to the game play and difficulty itself, as well as the grappling. This game is super easy to pick up and play. I may be an outlier, but I enjoyed the music. Although, it may be a good idea to switch up the color and music every couple of stages though. :)

I had times when I would move between to planets and die even when they were still, not sure if that was intended, but it is weird. Spamming jump works on a lot of levels, because once you reach zero it doesn't matter what happens as long as you land. Maybe add a second or two that the player has to stay alive after the final landing. Also, I think it may be a good idea to count the jumps as long as the player lands on a different planet, but it is just a suggestion.

Good job!

ectucker1 2017-05-13 19:29

This game is very fun! I really enjoyed the gameplay and the blood effects.

A minor annoyance was that when planets were resting on each other, and I moved close to them, I'd die. The directions were also a bit counter-intuitive when upside down.

Still, I enjoyed it over all!

sputnik3d 2017-05-13 19:31

Music and sound effects were good! While possibly one of the simplest, this was the game that held my attention the longest. I probably played about 30 minutes, and was pretty addicted. Great job!

ryte2byte 2017-05-13 19:36

I found a bug. There's this thorax-banging spider in every level I played.

Sorry. This is, like, the 100th game I've reviewed and I'm a little cheeky.

This is fantastic! I'm a sucker for those old vector CRTs (I have a little dream that I'll own my own Asteroids machine someday). I don't think you quite pulled it off (missing the flickering and bright overlap points), but I am delighted you tried.

The music is FANTASTIC! THANK YOU for not just slapping a freaking chiptune track in there. There just aren't enough screaming guitars in video games anymore.

I also enjoyed the gameplay. I did complete all the levels. Had some trouble with the second one until I figured out I could wrap around the screen. The grapple in a good idea, but one I got the rhythm of things (Meaning, I guess, I was pretty much invisible as long as I was airborne), I barely used it.

Great game. I would have played more levels.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot one little complaint. Sometimes left/right was backwards from what I expected. I know, tough problem to solve on the spheres, but wanted to mention it.

mordokay 2017-05-13 19:36

I can't find anything wrong with this game or something that needs improvement without changing what this game is.

Its a very VERY good game with a very polished feeling. I love how the spider moves and its animation ... The soundtrack fits perfectly in the game and the controls are very intuitive.

I don't know how other people are voting this game but for me its a 5/5 stars on almost all categories. Great job guys!

kate-kligman 2017-05-13 19:49

Played this on OS X.

1) I liked that you had a loader before the game started to tweak visual settings. 2) Great font! Reminds me of tempest! 3) Loved the gameplay -- the physics and spider flight are fun! This reminds me of a throwback arcacde game in all the right ways. The spider animation has just the right amount of detail. 4) MUSIC 100% AMAZING!

omarshehata 2017-05-13 19:49

At first it was a really fun game, and I absolutely love the mechanic of how jumping from planet to planet is the goal, and is how you win, but at the same time it's what leads to your death as you end up inadvertently crushing yourself.

It was really fun and engaging, and the difficulty was just right, until I realized I could almost always win any level just by spamming space and not really paying attention to anything. This felt like it kind of broke the design of the game for me, since it made too easy and not very interesting. (I ended up finishing the whole game in a few minutes and on a lot of levels the only key I used was space!) I think what would be really awesome would be emphasizing the planet/momentum mechanic more. Maybe you have to touch every planet to progress a level instead of just landing a bunch of times? Actually it would be really interesting if you had to touch every planet in a specific order. Then you'd really have to think through where to go! Or if you want to keep it as an action game, maybe you (a) can't immediately jump off once you land, or maybe there are things on the surface you have to collect on each planet so it forces you to move around?

Overall, awesome work!

alexrose 2017-05-13 20:05

It's fun, but a couple of things I think could be improved

1. There is almost no danger going off the side of the screen, so the optimal strategy is to never stay in the centre of the screen and instead just ping around the outsides. To this effect you can actually just spam space from beginning to end and complete the entire game without dying. Either if you couldn't wrap off the screen or there was some danger, it would feel more skilled based.

2. The stakes don't really ramp up that much with the gameplay, it feels almost like the same difficulty of level randomly generated rather than a difficulty curve.

But, cool idea, nicely executed, fits the theme etc. etc.

Nice one.

gamequester 2017-05-13 20:11

This was one of the most fun games I played until now. The sound and gamefeel were very good, too. Very cool idea and execution.

ashdnazg 2017-05-13 20:11

I enjoyed this game a lot! The main mechanic is wonderful and the particle effects make losing quite amusing, so there was never a dull moment.

The introduction of the speedy balls added even more fun to the equation, and I would've liked to see more types of insane objects.

Music is brilliant and sound effects are on point.

Great job!

npizzle1 2017-05-13 20:15

cool little game i like how it gets harder with the faster moving planets. Bit buggy when your kind of halfway on and off the side of the screen but otherwise cool.

geckoo1337 2017-05-13 20:28

Interesting physics - interesting project. Your game fits with the theme. Addictive. I had fun playing it. I didn't notice any bug. Thumbs up ++

automatonvx 2017-05-13 20:28

Great idea, nicely done, a lot of fun, just need to fix the loop holes in gameplay mentioned already that can make it too easy, balance out the difficulty curve, then its perfect. Music was cool but a maybe a bit over intense, after a while starts to get annoying, I guess just needs more songs with random ones for each level or something. Overall great job.

wati888 2017-05-13 20:48

Really enjoyed the game. It was fun to play, looked great, and I liked the audio too! What I especially liked was the physical movement of the spider! Really innovative.

gaiusjulius 2017-05-13 22:16

Kudos for the audio. It was really fun to play with that in the background.

I found out that 90% of the time you can just jump immediately as you land and finish the levels almost instantly. The 10% is where there are too many adjacent balls, so you need to crawl to the edge and then jump. Maybe you should ban smartasses like me from playing.

teammonumental 2017-05-14 01:04

Really cool idea for a game and implemented well with simple graphics that work with the nice music. The game feels very finished/complete and has a nice level of difficulty and level progression.

atmospherium 2017-05-14 02:17

Seriously, this is absolutely my favorite game in this jam. You took a very simple concept and made a very polished game with surprisingly challenging gameplay. This game is TOUGH, but I always found myself feeling like I just hadn't though far enough ahead or reacted quick enough and never felt like the game was unfair.

The visuals were great - the animation, the simple visuals, the burst of particle effects - things are simple and nondistracting where they needed to be and bold when they needed to be. Really impressed with the presentation

impbox 2017-05-17 16:39

Very fun little game! I like the mechanics but I think the fast moving balls didn't work so well though. I could just avoid them, I kind of felt like a lot of the time to succeed I just needed to "avoid the game" rather than face the challenge. Great music!

Update: realised I didn't know about the grapple last time, I don't know that it's really needed. But it's cool. Maybe it should rather than pull the spider to the ball, pull the ball to the spider to get things moving.

cerno-b 2017-05-20 04:05

I just watched the game on the TechValleyGameSpace stream and wanted to give it a spin myself.

The general idea is awesome and both music and graphics make the game really enjoyable. The sudden use of red together with the pixel burst when you are smashed are super effective.

If I was to suggest some tweaks it would be to the gameplay: I found myself just mashing space which worked out fairly well for most levels. The fact that the player has to wait half a second after landing before controls register again hinders the game flow a bit. I think I would have preferred instant reaction after landing together with the possibility to move mid-air a little. With tighter controls could have come more challenging levels, as currently the increasing difficulty mostly asks for luck instead of skill.

I could have done without the grappling hook, as I didn't use it at all. I think the reason for that was that it was controlled via mouse. Maybe you could try controlling it with the keyboard (A/D for targeting with an indicator that rotates around the spider when airborne). I think this would offer more consistent controls and might be more fun. In case you build a post-compo version that has this mechanic, drop me a line, I'd love to give it another spin.

Overall I enjoyed the game a lot, despite some minor issues with game flow. The idea was quite unique and well executed, good job!