Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD41 → Tharkarys Invasion - Last Line of Defense
By fil089
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1186 | 2.33 | 30 | |
| Fun | 1155 | 2.37 | 30 | |
| Innovation | 1186 | 2.10 | 30 | |
| Theme | 1163 | 2.35 | 30 |
i look forward to try your game, but it would be really helpful if you could put some screenshots or a short video and people will be more interested in the game rather then just skip it, i will try your game and feel free to check our game and we hope you will like it https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/incompatible-rally
I'm having trouble putting screenshots here, but the game page on itch.io have them now. Thanks for the heads up.
Nice game and idea 5/5!!! Good Luck!
I see someone else mentioned it before but a screenshot would be appreciated. I love TD type games, especially when you get something more to do during each wave. I didn't love the low friction movement though.
@Rapter Wish you had anything interesting to say other than spam.
@ThatSommeS I didn't get satisfied with the movement either, but by the time I had finished it and moved to other stuff I didn't come back to it until it was waaaayyy too late to change it. I'm doing a postmortem of the game if you're interested in getting a look in the behind the scenes stuff.
I like the idea you had here, being able to maneuver around while setting up the towers is fun. Control of the ship felt very floaty so it was hard to position to setup the towers, and there didnt seem to be much of a goal beyond staying alive, which became very easy once all the towers were set up. A very good entry though and I look forward to seeing what you make next time!
@gamesplusjames Yeah... Dificulty balance was kind of a problem for me.
You're right, I didn't implement much besides a dificult scaling (that I personally think is way too slow) and a failure state only. It certainly beats having nothing at all, but since I did screw the dificulty balance from the get-go and forgot to implement a scoring system, I prefered to leave the game very easy.
On retrospect though I should've kept the speed increase per wave as it could've remedied the lack of dificulty later...
Oh well...
I like the slooowly approaching enemies. Balance isn't that bad -- not great, but not critically bad -- but it was hard to tell when waves start/end. However I don't think TD/Shooter mashup is uncommon.
Seems like the ship has 0 mass? So it feels quite floaty. I was always bouncing between towers making it hard to place them.
I saw what you were trying with this combo but the beauty of TD games comes from the variety of strategies and breaks between waves, and the beauty of shmups comes from the enemy patterns and interesting bosses. Best parts of both genres were missing in this game so I didn't find it fun.
Well done for completing a game though it's a serious achievement for only 2 days of work.
@Librorumque64 Thanks for the feedback on the balance and waves. I honestly thought it was much worse but I'm happy to see that somebody enjoys it.
@JezPez I have a [postmortem post](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/tower-defense-shootem-up-1/so-i-finished-my-game-in-time-i-guess-so-im-doing-an-almost-post-mortem) of my game if you are interested in looking more on the process. But you're right, TDs and Shooters aren't my prefered genres so I don't know much of their more nuanced aspects. I'm much more familiar with Platformers by a huge margin, so during this jam I always felt something was quite not right with my game and by the time I figured it out I didn't have time to implement it. But thanks for the honest feedback. Feels good knowing that I finished something good out of what I usually do/know.
So, getting just a bit overwhelmed here...
LDJAM - TD+Shoot'emUp_2018-04-25_17-50-01.png
Friendly reminder to people to read the instructions. I was having a bad time before reading that **shift** slows down the ship and **x** can be used to build turrets. Afterwards, I was having a better appreciation for this game.
For what it's worth, it's a short but good time. The genres are not a very impressive mix, but placing the turrets and seeing them work actually alleviated a lot of the problems that could have otherwise made this a bland experience. Moving around is floaty, but Shift did improve the movement a lot. At times I wondered if it could be the other way around: Be faster while holding shift and just move slower overall.
Regardless, a good entry here. Rough on the edges, but certainly something worth building on. [My team](twitter.com/whalesandgames) would like to see your next projects. Cheers! :whale:
Hey there. Just tried out your game for a few rounds. I think the idea is great and fits the theme well. The game works flawlessly and the base idea is easy to understand.
I know this it a jam entry but still, here some suggestions to improve game play even more:
I think the shooting could be more generous. It's just so much fun to blow up dozens of ships so giving the player a higher rate of fire would greatly improve the fun and the visuals (because the explosions look gorgeous)
Instead of a tutorial file just add hints into the game itself. For example show a small x icon when the player can build a tower.
I was holding shift the entire time, because the player is too floaty and bounces around from things way too much, it's as if this was a pinball game.
There are also way too many enemies spawning at the start, the gun on the ship doesn't shoot fast enough to keep up. The fire rate on the gun should be faster anyways, it'd be better for game feel.
After you get 6 turrets there isn't really much else to do in terms of tower defense, you just keep shooting enemies over and over.
Interesting concept, but needs more polish.
Nice entry, but could gain a lot by little tweeks.
Like @GiovanniBarrottu said, the bounces plus the floaty impression make the controls pretty irritating. Especially since you bounce where you should build.
I would really recomend you to watch the "art of screenshake" video from vlambeer, and apply every single point he make to your game. I can assure you those changes wouldn't be so hard to implement and you would see an instant improvement ;)
I liked the idea of a shooter/tower defense. It could use some sound effects and a little balancing. I'm assuming that there is no victory or loss condition? I wasn't able to win or lose. After awhile I was just overwhelmed by the number of ships appearing and I didn't seem to be able to kill them fast enough. It would have been fun to upgrade the towers also.
Sometimes enemy ships can spawn right on top of your base. Might want to have a minimum distance they spawn it.
Nice job! Congratulations on finishing!
Controls are a bit too slippery for my liking but it's still a fun idea with a lot of challenge :)
On the other hand if you are looking for challenge that originates from broken game design then look no further: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/sam
please leave a web version
Nice concept, could use some more enemy and tower types.
Feels a bit under-developed. The controls are rather awkward, the enemies don't take any path to the tower, as they do in typical tower defense games, and the shoot-em-up aspect isn't really enough to offset the waves of enemies. Building towers was awkward. I couldn't quite get the hang of hovering over them, and this felt to me like it would have been better accomplished by simply pointing the mouse over them and clicking. The programmer art graphics for the player and enemies make it feel unfinished. I think this could be improved if you keep developing it though.
Wow that one ramps up really quick. Before I knew it, the screen was filled with enemies.
But once I built a few turrets, it wasn't that big of a deal. As far as I could tell, though, you can't lose the game? My central core was touched several times by enemies (until I got the hang of it), didn't seem to do anything.
I can sympathize about not having instructions in the game; I wasn't able to cram my own game with a tutorial in the time I had left. Which sucks for people if it's a complicated game, or not obvious how you do things.