Nex Machinan

rodrigo-spilimbergo 2017-08-01 15:20

Uow, juice as heck. Very very polished, just fun to play right from the start, everything blends very well together aesthetically! If I could suggest anything, I think you could test adding and playing with some extra depth, such as using some of your energy to perform a dash or even shooting bigger bullets, not so sure if this would work out. I suggest that because sometimes when you are filled with enemies in your surrounding moving fast could help you avoid some of them, but to not exploit you could have to make the user spend energy for that... Not sure if all that would work hahaha But I like the complexity between using/collecting energy and I think this games could explore that. Nice entry!

mestrerothld 2017-08-01 16:16

Hi, Rodrigo. Thanks a lot for the feedback.

You brought up some good points here. There are some extra mechanics planned from the start which really connect to your ideas for the game, but I had no time to design these properly (how to communicate it to the player, fine tune the balance etc). Some of these (a energy consuming attack and power-ups) are high priority for the post jam, so "stay tuned"! haha

Thanks again. Cya!

aurel300 2017-08-04 10:59

We streamed your game with Danae plays on Twitch. :) Here's a link:

[Danae streams Ludum Dare 39: Day 1, part 1: Nex Machinan](https://youtu.be/4KfQtLDzK-g?t=25m53s)

As simple as the genre is, this game was quite fun. The visuals were coherent, the overall look quite polished. Of course adding more power-ups or mechanics would be good. I did see some of the enemies had a red aura around them, although I never stayed alive long enough to figure out what it did! Good job!

(Go rate some games! This game deserves a placement.)

mestrerothld 2017-08-04 16:49

Hi, Aurel. Thanks for the feedback and the gameplay video. I was watching it live, but the connection failed midtime.

I agree powerups will be a big boost to the fun. I'm currently planning it for the post jam, but it is really a no brainer. About your question "what happens next?", my idea was to make the game infinite, but not relying on procedural generation (which would mess the highscores). So, what you were playing is the easiest mode. Once you play through all the levels, you come back to the first level, enemies are harder, the whole game is faster and you make more points. =P "The real Nex Machinan starts here"...

About the red aura, the red enemy makes other enemies angrier aka faster.

Oh, and the "stay near enemies" tactics is risk-rewardy, but you can't really beat the game that way without a lot of skill. I tuned the enemy damage towards it. ;)

Thanks again for the feedback and even again for providing the link directly here.

cornelia-xaos 2017-08-05 02:56

This looks interesting! I notice you built the game in Unity.. I don't know how you're doing your global leaderboards... they might prevent it, but do you think you could try exporting to Mac and Linux?

johnnwfs 2017-08-05 02:57

Super fun and I tried quite a few times, never quite getting past level 3 - even knowing i can't hit the edge I kept doing that, or got drained dry by those big red eyed cubes. Really like the level change and while not what I expected, keeping my position when the field change had me scrambling to the base spot to deal with the level once I knew what was going on. Nice sounds and pretty colors.

mamoniem 2017-08-05 06:25

Really loved it! good mechanic and balance between the kills and dropping the power to continue. I see a good game here, you shall keep working on a full release at some point :)

-m

jason200101 2017-08-05 07:53

Awesome game! The idea seems unique and fun, and the execution was done perfectly! The animation when the enemies spawn in is great, there is a variety of enemies and even different levels with obstacles!

I would only add difficulty buttons. Easy so the enemy die quicker and the range for picking up the energy is larger. Normal, that would be exactly like the current version, and hard, that would take longer to kill the enemy, but the energy that you recieve is better, so it wouldn't become impossible.

I don't have any negative feedback to give. This is a great game with a great idea, and you managed to make it perfectly! Well done!

mestrerothld 2017-08-05 14:47

Thanks a lot for the feedback, critics and compliments.

@cornelia-xaos The leaderboards are simple http requests to a mySQL server. I can try building it to mac/Linux, but I wouldn't be able to properly test it right now, so I'll need to use some friends before I post these versions. Which one do you need the most?

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@johnnwfs I appreciate the feedback.

The game was tuned to be between medium and hard, so I get your point. For the next version, I will probably implement some upgrades, which will make it a little bit easier in the beginning.

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@mamoniem Thanks for posting.

I'm very glad you liked the game. As any jammer know, we drive ourselves nearly crazy to do a good jam game. I will make a post jam version, so if there's anything you'd like to see, feel free to ask. Thanks again!

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@jason200101 Thanks a lot for your insights. I didn't think about different difficulties, since it would require proper tuning in the jam (impossible to do as a single person team), but I gotta be honest... What always worries me is doing the UI. :D

But it is a really great idea. I'm thinking about not making different difficulties, but allowing these stats to be changed via upgrades. Either way, I will take it into careful consideration.

And thanks for the compliments. It might not seem so, but it actually means a lot, since the end goal is always to make the players satisfied.

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Now, time to rate all your games. =)

kpded 2017-08-05 17:16

I like music and graphics of this game! I wish it be less challenging) Manage to get to just 4th wave of enemies It was not obvious for me that little green boxes, that come after enemy's explosion, give you energy. I would prefer this thesis to be on the main screen in huge red letters, since energy is the key in this game)

mestrerothld 2017-08-05 21:15

Thanks, kpded. I will remember this (need for instructions) for the post jam and the next projects. Everyone I saw playing realized it after a few tries, but nobody on the first try. Fair point.

About the difficulty, I didn't want the game to be easy, but a little tuning can always be done. Thanks again for the feedback.

pcmaster 2017-08-06 14:45

Very well done! I wonder why so few people play this. This is one of the best games on LD I've played so far. And the global stats rule! I made it to rank 20 and Imma play a bit more, it's pretty hard but very, very playable. I love the clean graphics (boxes for the win), the controls, also the sounds you chose. I'd make the sounds more loud compared to the music. Awesome epic job mister, please, continue making games!!!

mestrerothld 2017-08-07 00:14

Thanks a ton for your comment, pcmaster. I'm really really happy that you enjoyed the game. If you wish to have any other thing added to the game, feel free to ask.

I am not changing the music, so the sfx will be indeed much clearer.

Thanks again and good luck with your crazy games.

sebastian-m 2017-08-07 02:30

I love your game, it's simple yet fun. It feel really well to destroy the enemies and it gets addicting for that reason. My high score was 3800.

I really like the difficulty increase whith each wave, it feel great and it gets challenging fairly. I love the graphics and how far you could go with just cubes, really well done. It's a really polished game at the end.

Regarding postjam features, maybe some different weapons or power ups would be neat. Overall I gave it 5 stars, great game!

wabble 2017-08-07 02:31

The spawing animations and effects are very nice. I also like the music and the soundFX were arcadie :)

Pretty cool game

jwin 2017-08-07 03:28

Such a great little arcade game!

I liked how the energy bar forced you to jump into the middle of the enemies and collect the cubes instead of just kiting around them and waiting til they're all dead. I also really liked the way the new level popped in and the animation predicting where enemies would spawn.

I did have trouble aiming at enemies behind walls at the far end of the arena. This might just be a consequence of the camera angle, but it was WAY easier to shoot slightly in front of or behind them compared to enemies at the front of the arena.

frankiesmileshow 2017-08-07 04:04

Ranked 11th/140, with score of 3754! Really fun game, very well polished and sleek, and a lot of fun. Figuring out the right kind of movement that keeps you safe but gives you room to collect the power pellets had a nice learning curve. One of the best games of this LD I played so far! The one issue I got so far was a lack of feedback for when you take damage. When I squeezed through enemies I couldn't quite make out whether I was able to slide past and avoid damage or not. Feedback is missing on your character object itself especially for this.

elgregos 2017-08-07 08:28

It's a nice and polished game! TBH I only played 5 minutes because power decreases way too quickly to me, but I had fun anyway! I think power decreasing rate should depend on your action, to add some more strategic choices, i.e. barely decreases if you don't move & don't shoot, a bit more if you just move and as it is now when you shoot. I'm also happy you add arrows keys to control the game. Your screenshot states "WASD to move" and as an azerty keyboard user, I usually don't even play those games as they're just not usable, and a bit too oblivious to the fact that qwerty ain't everwhere.

tmpxyz 2017-08-07 09:20

Beautiful scene setting, nice BGM, intense battle.

I would suggest some extra super power for the player;

sbeif 2017-08-07 09:51

Well done, nice graphics and sound, gameplay is smooth. It works really well, good job!

mestrerothld 2017-08-07 13:33

@sebastian-m

I really appreciate your compliment. Even knowing that comments here are usually very lenient, I can't avoid feeling happy that someone had a little moment of joy playing the game. =P I will definitely add these features in the next version.

@wabble

Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking about changing some effects. Well... I'll think twice.

@jwin

That was exactly the intention from the start. A small arcade game. =P

You described exactly what I had in mind for the "gotta get near the enemies" to survive. Guess you got the game. :D

I'll check these aiming issues as well. I never noticed it, so thanks a lot for pointing it out. xoxo

@frankiesmileshow

3754 is a pretty cool score, as the highest one is still around 5500 (which btw I never managed to reach).

"One of the best games of this LD I played so far!" Thanks a ton! Really!

"Lack of feedback for when you take damage": I agree. I didn't manage to find a good sound for it and ran out of time in the end. I'll make this higher on the priority list.

@elgregos

I thought about this mechanic, but for a different, powerful attack. As I did it by myself, I lacked a designer to flesh out the details/balance of this feature, so in a "Masterchef" way, I decided not to serve an incomplete mechanic. But idk, I'm seriously thinking about a different mode closer to this, maybe even a "Superhot" mode. It wouldn't be too hard to implement.

About the keyboard, you blew my mind here. Thanks a lot, for I have never thought about this. Lame me. From now on, I'll always enable arrow commands and make it clear in the instructions.

@tmpxyz

Thanks for the feedback. This is something on the to-do list right now, give player that juicy oomph...

@sbeif

I appreciate the feedback and am happy you enjoyed it. This is always the end goal. Thanks a lot.

-

Now, to play and comment on all your games.

This week I'll release the postjam with a ton of changes.

sputnik3d 2017-08-09 02:47

Wow! Awesome! My favorite entry yet. I'm a big fan of geometry wars and this definitely gave off some of those vibes. Tons of polish here and great "feel". No complaints at all except I wish I was better at it. Fantastic work!

mestrerothld 2017-08-09 14:08

Thanks a lot. I love that kind of art style. You definitely should try Nex Machina from Housemarque then. Excellent game, which, midway, ended up serving as inspiration here! :)

PS: Thinking about inspiration, I wish my game had your Virulence's evolution system :D

indiemaniac 2017-08-09 15:14

nice arcade, would like to have more feedback when colliding into enemies, or losing health. maybe slower enemies, or diferente pathing/spawn patterns, some seemed unfair where the enemies would swarm you.

could make some of the bigger squares/enemies could be imovable, and or shoot stuff at you

avon 2017-08-09 15:26

Very fun game, though the difficulty curve is a bit steep. I like how the running out of power mechanic forces you to play aggressive and really think about where you are moving, but I also think I would have preferred if you connected shooting(and possibly other abilities) to power and make it more of a tactical decision when to shoot, as I found it easiest now to just hold down the shoot button continuously. The graphics are simple but polished, and the music was nice. I did get a bit tired of the laser shooting sound effect.

mestrerothld 2017-08-09 20:27

@indiemaniac

Player damage feedback is high on the priority list for the next version I'm working on.

Different patterns and imovables are there too, just not so high. A shooting tower is on the way to the game.

Unfair swarming: that is by design. Some spawns were really meant to drive you to some point and screw you if you went there. But people are doing well against it, tbh, so that's not something I intend to change. Maybe the incoming difficulty settings will help with it.

@avon

Difficulty curve: I agree it is steep, but by myself I had no time to design good easy levels for the beginning, so it is mostly one, two easy levels, then it already starts to get crazy. I'll take this into consideration.

Power cost to actions: This was planned and I still intend to do this as another game mode. I didn't put it into the game because I had no time to properly design the ways to clearly communicate these mechanics to the player. So I went with a smaller scope.

About just holding down the button: that's actually the idea... But "easy" is relative, as there is the leaderboard... "Easy" to beat a few leves? Surely, without any effort. "Easy" to reach a high position on the leaderboards? That's a different story...

About the sound, I made the shooting sound as low as possible. I'll consider adding a setting to change this value even more.

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Thanks a lot for the valuable feedback.

edwingamedev 2017-08-10 03:19

I loved your game! You did a great job, i really like this kind of stuff, thank you! :heart:

mestrerothld 2017-08-10 14:37

@edwingamedev

Well, thank YOU for playing and leaving your feedback.

I hope you don't mind if I blatantly copy your shooting pattern for one of the powerups I'm implementing into the next version of this game. =P I really liked the spread and how it can be used strategically. :D

nuebomundo 2017-08-12 06:48

Very polished! And lots of content!! Challenging but not unfair, fun and addictive. I reached the level where more than 5 big enemies pop up at the beginning. That was my limit... but not for long! /double click

...Ah, right. The feedback. Apart from the purely positive, I did see a little uncorrelation between what was happening and the power bar, caused by the constant depletion and dynamic recharging, as well as the fact that I always die before the power bar is depleted (a little remains, so it's a little deceptive). I also think the big enemy with the barrier has too little hp, and has potential to be a mid-boss by himself (or not that many little turbo orange side-kicks). Art wise, you could try to use less colors for the game's elements and create a more impacting or eye-catching visual combination (like, a limit of 4 colors, or 6, or 2)... And more levels!

Great entry. Haha. Also:

CA768 YES LD39.png

mestrerothld 2017-08-13 18:45

So... we have a winner!

Or do we? One week to go. :D

Amazing score, @nuebomundo!

"as well as the fact that I always die before the power bar is depleted (a little remains, so it’s a little deceptive)" - Good eye. I noticed it only after dozens of plays. It happens when you die by enemy contact. Derp me, the UI stops updating once GameOver became true... But don't feel cheated. If I'm correct, it only happens if you took damage that would kill you. Thanks for reminding me, will fix it asap.

About the colors: I have a friend that rules on visual design and will check the game this week to give his insight. I will tell him about this idea. You know, let it for the pros...

Thanks a ton for the feedback. Good luck with your crazy game.

crown-games 2017-08-15 21:00

This game was actually incredibly fun. It felt really well polished, though I did find myself running out of power even though I had collected power. Not sure if that's a bug, or if I just need to gg, lol.

9/10 Would get swarmed by big cubes with white pointy things again

mestrerothld 2017-08-16 04:31

@crown-games

Well, it seems power is never enough... Yes, you did get power, but your supply is always depleting, so you have to keep getting more and more.

Thanks for the feedback and for playing. Good luck with your game. o/

coauctor 2017-08-16 16:40

My score is 1924! :)

The art is coherent with simple but addictive mechanics. I was surprised that you even managed to make the boss enemy. Also, obstacles spawning adds variety to the gameplay.

Cheers!

badly-drawn-rod 2017-08-17 20:02

Not bad at all! Very good, in fact. You mad me remember that I still like this style of gameplay, particularly with the shiny, neon aesthetic. I particularly liked how the levels would become more complicated - I'd initially expected screen after screen of empty arenas - that was a nice touch.