The Lunar Invasion

liquidbrain 2017-07-31 20:41

**Wow**, I’m impressed and totally addicted to this game!

If I have to complain about something It would be the sensitivity on the mouse in the Lunar base, otherwise great game!

**The game** was well balanced and it was an creative game-idea. I got a score of 1535, first time playing!

**Overall** I had a good time playing this game, I wish there were more things to buy in the shop though! Thank you so much for this experience and good luck in the future! Have an awesome day, and I hope to see you in the next jam!

// Isak (one half of [LiquidBrain](https://ldjam.com/users/liquidbrain/))

zelos 2017-08-01 10:23

I really liked your entry. My criticism is pretty much the same as the other poster's.

The game is very fun and pretty creative. The graphics work pretty well as programmer's art. The music isn't too annoying, but after a while I turned it off, because it gets a bit monotonous.

The gameplay was pretty cool, and I agree that the sensitivity is really off. Fortunately my mouse can change that on the fly, but if you're doing a first person view you might want to at least include a slider for adjusting that.

It's a cool game overall. Good work.

baconsenpaii 2017-08-01 10:40

It was a really fun game. It might just be me, but it felt quite easy (score of 5264, after buying all the shop items). However, it also felt balanced. Its a creative idea, and the graphics aren't terrible. The music also feels very space-y.

alaah 2017-08-01 11:23

Pretty easy once figured out, but it's so much fun and creative. There's a lot of stuff to do. Would've been more replayable with a bigger shop.

petzi 2017-08-01 23:39

Wow it's really good! I played about 6 times and beat it. I thought the meteors were kind of unfair, but then I realized I had to buy the forcefield to counter them. My main complaint is the mouse sensitivity.

I found it really funny that the base in 3D and first-person while the main game was a programmer art sidescroller. Great work!

ajayajayaj 2017-08-02 04:55

I really liked the mix between 2D and 3D. I agree with the others about the mouse sensitivity, but the game itself is great. Congrats!

mcjammydodger 2017-08-02 07:41

Thanks for the positive feedback so far everyone!

I must have made this game when I had my mouse set on a low sensitivity! I shall be sure to include a sensitivity slider in future first person games I make!

cakemonitor 2017-08-02 18:04

It took me a while to 'get it', and it didn't help that I had some bad RNG to begin with so a lot of batteries were very hard to reach on my first try. However, once I gave it a few retries it became really compelling and I couldn't put it down. Good work! If you're planning to develop it further, I think it would be good if the aliens were more dangerous - as I sometimes felt it's fine to just let them carry me around for a while and it doesn't harm my progress (maybe have them steal batteries that you're carrying?), also the meteors can suddenly kill you out of the blue, so I think it would be good if they were slower but there were more of them - or perhaps create a health system (or 'space suit integrity' system) and have _loads_ of meteors which only do a little damage.

ryte2byte 2017-08-02 20:42

Escaped with a score of 10577. Took about four tries.

I love it! Let me count the ways...

Music is great especially the change when an alien is around. The combination of 2d & 3d was a great idea and each suits its particular setting and therefore does not feel 'gimmicky'. The pacing is very good.

A couple quibbles: My mouse was too sensitive inside the base. Also, you may want to lock & hide the mouse cursor on (at least) the web version as it gives fits to anyone not playing in full screen. Not totally sold on the block falling/moving mechanic. I'm not sure that the game really needs it with the jetpack. Being carried off by the alien feels like it takes control away from the player for too long.

This is a great prototype and I enjoyed it a lot more than your last LD game!

furkanfs 2017-08-03 10:53

Nice entry! I've played a couple of times and got a few thousand points, but couldnt get the rocket unfortunately. The aliens got me too often so my power ran out haha. Well done! I think that if you play on windows, that the mouse thing wouldnt be an issue, its because its on web so no problems there!

malicwanderer 2017-08-03 10:55

Love the idea, the switching from 3d to 2d was neat. Only complaint is that the mouse wasn't locked in the 3d part (on webgl at least) so turning around got weird sometimes.

repusv 2017-08-03 11:01

Wow the first person mode really needs some work ! Anyway the core mechanic seems nice.

thirrash 2017-08-03 11:06

Score: 10608.

The game in fact is quite easy with proper time management (just return to your base when your energy is still about 1/3) but nonetheless very enjoyable. I played in fullscreen so I haven't experienced any of the abovementioned problems.

If there is a thing I would change, it would be meteor spawn rate. I believe it is a bit too slow atm and you don't really have to dodge them because they are a bit slow :p Anyway, really solid entry, good job!

concalf 2017-08-03 11:52

I really like the idea of the 2D/3D switching. While the "inside the base" part could easily be made in 2D too i think it adds to the "you are home" effect. Mouse sensitivity is not the best on my system too, but who has the time to add options in the jam :wink:

I don't get the story behind the blocks, are the batteries and blocks debris from the alien ship you destroyed and now they are angry? :thinking:

mcjammydodger 2017-08-03 12:09

@concalf I didn't have a story in mind when making the game, I only came up with a "lunar invasion" just before submitting. So the blocks can be whatever you want them to be! :smiley:

cmlsc 2017-08-04 04:53

The player was missing, so I couldn't see what I was doing and couldn't play. :/

mcjammydodger 2017-08-04 07:30

@cmlsc In what way is the player missing? Is it in the 2D part of the game or the first person part of the game?

Has anyone else had this problem?

rikoclon 2017-08-04 08:09

This was frustrating and too easy at the same time. The 3d mode was not even worth it. could have put the ship, generator, shop in 2d mode, or made the game in 3d had you fixed the severe mouse-look issue. Every time I went inside the ship I found myself disorientated and thinking I was on the ceiling. I'm glad there were lights up there other wise I'd still be confused. 2d mode was so easy, I'd go get 10 batteries and come back, over fill the generator and by the time I get back to the exit, more than half my energy is gone because of the mouse-look issues. that was ok tho since it was so easy outside I could easily get 10 more even with half energy. Moving the strange and illogical blocks was a nice touch, especially since they covered the ship right away the first time I went out. if you had to spam a button to get out from alien control that would be fun. the asteroids were to devastating. could have made them smaller and not instant death. the force field should work automatically. The asteroids didn't add a challenge, just the feeling that the game could end unfairly at any moment. The jet-pack control made little sense. as a cartoony mechanic it worked I suppose, but if when you were out of thrust, you should probably drop back down. also would have loved to see non earth gravity. Keep it up with the art. (10,000 hours) practice makes perfect. I'm not trying being harsh. You did really very well considering this is all you, all on your own, so be proud!!! I hope my feedback assists you in continuing!

theflyingkeyboard 2017-08-04 09:27

Really fun idea, but needs a lot of polishing: - 2D mode was too easy, - 3D mode mouse controll makes it unplayable.

antti-haavikko 2017-08-04 11:55

Something very weird happened to me on the first try. On the 3d part I was in the ceiling, everything was mirrored (except for the UI) both vertically and horizontally. Even the controls were flipped (S moved forwards and W backwards). Still managed to go to the 2d section which then was normal and everything was also normal on the tries after that. This happened in the WebGL version. Tried to refresh and try to reproduce the bug but no luck there.

I had to do a double check to see if I was playing the right game because it looked nothing like the screenshot at first :D

Other than that, I pretty much agree on the points everyone else already made, the mouse sensitivity etc...

ace17 2017-08-04 15:49

Wow, FPS and oldskool platformer in the same game!

The FPS part, unfortunately, seems to mostly bring technical issues (mouse locking) ; it certainly provides some level of extra immersion, but it could be taken advantage of a lot more (e.g the path to the generator could be made dangerous).

I liked the concepts of extra upgrades. There are many ways this game could be improved, but it kept me playing until the end, because it was already fun ; so, well done!

willdata 2017-08-07 21:17

It was certainly cool. The UI wasn't super legible for the shop, the music was a bit repetitive, and there was one point where my view was flipped and my controls became inverted. Those are just some gripes though, I think you made a neat game that mixes genres.

elysiagriffin 2017-08-15 10:37

Featured The Lunar Invasion in my LudumDare#39 Highlights & Derps Video :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W8Ji5YhVkA