Interstellar Stupidity

erasmus-crowley 2018-08-13 18:27

Man, in spite of choosing to handicap your art style, you really nailed the look and feel that what you going for. It's really impressive.

The gameplay was very ambitious too. If you art style had been one that took longer to produce, it might have been TOO ambitious to have enough time to pull all these ideas together, but you managed to make it happen.

On top of that, the game was actually pretty fun and I spent a fair amount of time with it.

If I had to criticize something, maybe the lack of an end goal?

An argument could be made that the ties to the theme where kind of weak. I see what you were doing with the mode where the tiles drop out and your play area gets restricted, but the tiles dropping out wasn't nearly as big a threat as the waves of incoming enemies, so that's what held my focus most. The tile destruction seemed almost inconsequential.

Wonderful submission though. I enjoyed it a lot.

gulfick 2018-08-13 19:17

Nice game I like it! But too randomly floor disappeared and I don't understand how avoid fall.

terracottafrog 2018-08-13 19:21

I really love the feel. The graphics and sound give just the idea you're looking for. Fantastic work.

I do have a few complaints, however. I feel that it was a little bit hard to tell what was going on, and what would actually hurt me and what wouldn't. There needs to be some animation of falling through the floor, maybe some pause in the action or other effect when you get hurt, to show the player what is actually happening.

The game is also very lenient with extra lives. I racked up about 10 of them by the time I quit. ALso, I agree with the previous poster about how the tiles felt like much less of a threat then the enemies. Maybe if the game was slightly slower and there was different level layouts? That way it would effect the way the player navigates the level meaningfully, rather then occasionally suprising the player with death.

Overall, though, really impressive, especially the visual style, which, again, you nailed.

Great work!

EDIT: The enemy designs are priceless, btw :P

blight-radiance 2018-08-13 19:34

The game is super chaotic and addictive. Good music, nice visuals. Managed to score 34k before exiting. It feels like it's impossible to lose :smile: Good job!

whismirk 2018-08-14 15:47

Visually impressive, and the audio is awesome too. However, even if I find the gameplay fun, I just find it... too easy ? You get way too many lives over the course of the game, it it not that hard to survive an entire level without even getting hit a single time.

Nonetheless, you did an amazing job on the artistic and musical side, so great work !

ajay-2002 2018-08-15 02:59

Addictive, nice graphics and audio... what else to say it was a beautiful game. Great work and keep making games :)

cromo 2018-08-15 03:15

I will defeat the crustacean menace! But really, this is well done. I appreciate the constraints you put on yourself - it turned it into an awesome game. The graphics and the music are both amazing. I think my only complaint is that it's too easy - I got through several anomalies before I even lost a life; I had to intentionally lose.

But I love it. Bravo!

cromo 2018-08-15 03:34

Oh, and nice touch with the 8.3 filename for the executable!

tontonpizza 2018-08-15 16:59

am i on drugs ?

bloc97 2018-08-15 17:21

Putting limitations on a game's music and art gives it an unique style. This space shooter was chaotic and fun. Reminds me of games from the late 70's.

Interstellar Stupidity.png *"The space revenue agency is here to collect your taxes! Defend your wealth at all cost.*"

mrchippy 2018-08-15 17:33

That was crazy dude. My score was 36240. I had a hard time telling what was going on but for a game like this I don't think it matters too much. It was just fun to spray bullets everywhere. The music also fit the chaotic feel of the game and sounded really nice. You worked really well with the limitations you put on you're self. Only complaint is that while the floor disappearing is a creative idea it doesn't really affect the game too much since the levels go so fast. I never really felt the need to go near the side of the wall.

2018-08-15 17:34

Given your limitations, the graphics and audio were very well executed. The game played fairly smoothly, though the collision detection was sometimes a little off. I feel that the player would have benefited from a little more feedback (such as flashing after being hit), but overall very impressive for a 48-hour build.

psiv 2018-08-15 18:18

You have captured the DOS game vibe really well, very enjoyable. To add to what some others have said, I think if you made the enemies mostly pink, the player mostly blue and the neutral elements/tiles white it would help players to follow what's happening better, and also the energy/batteries flying everywhere was a little distracting at times.

something-something-games 2018-08-15 19:55

I had a lot of fun playing this I was a little unsure of what I was trying to achieve ultimately but as I said my time with it was enjoyable!

quicklyer 2018-08-15 20:45

Wow, great work! The frantic shooting was a lot of fun. Really impressed considering all the limitations you imposed, that CGA color palette brought me back.

I also appreciate that the game ran flawlessly on my crappy Windows laptop even when a 100 sprites were coming at me. Lots of pretty simple 2D entries tend to bring this thing to its knees.

tinykidtoo 2018-08-16 22:25

I like the crazy shooting and frantic pace in each portal. I am not quite sure what is going on but there is enough stuff to shoot at to be fun. I really like the art style although it can be challenging to identify the character sometimes.

mrsylar59 2018-08-16 22:30

Really nice game especially when considering the additionnal limitations.The game was fun but also confusing when it restarted the level, at first I didn't see the "Press T for tutorial" and played without knowing the controls: I was even more confused. It went better afterward though. Overall nice entry :)

belowparallel-ian 2018-08-16 22:31

This was very well made for sure. The music (and audio overall) is spectacular imo. I also am a fan of the art style. I will say that the gameplay leaves something to be desired. To me, it just isn't much fun. Not that anything about it is poorly designed necessarily; maybe it's just my taste. Great work!

brent-chance 2018-08-16 22:39

Fun game. Impressive what you were able to accomplish given your self-imposed limitations.

It'd be great if you made the mouse cursor better contrast with white tiled floors. Assuming you'd want to keep to your limited color palette, I think a magenta targeting reticule would work nicely.

tom7 2018-08-17 03:02

Overally nice entry. The CGA graphics are lovely! I like the music, too. I had fun with the space shooting, although it's pretty hard to tell what's going on with the holographic floor stages (I don't really understand why/where the floor disappears and why there might be some large circle behind there?)... maybe not having the batteries shoot towards the center like bullets would have made this less confusing. It did seem appropriate for the kind of throwback you're going for, though! Second, I played for 20+ levels and got 58,000 points, but it didn't seem like the game was getting much harder, and it seemed like I could just go on forever? My wrist was starting to hurt so I just called it quits of my own accord. I think a little more difficulty ramp would have helped (but it's hard with this kind of game because it can just become unfair).

designernap 2018-08-17 12:27

This was great! I have to admit, I started without reading instructions and didn't know you could shoot... I got through three anomalies and it was intense! After learning shooting it was much easier. Great dedication to limit your palette too. Lovely work.

endurion 2018-08-18 15:40

The DOS vibe is working great :)

Quite a nifty entry, albeit majorly confusing with lots of sprites going on. It's really hard to tell things apart when it's getting hectic. What worked really well, going below the center and shoot all incoming enemies. Never had any trouble with running out of space :)

raivk 2018-08-22 08:44

You did a great game with such limitations..! That's super cool !

amras0000 2018-08-27 19:39

@tom7 said basically everything I was going to - a lot of the mechanics in the floor stages are unclear; I'm not sure why the power thing in the middle was sometimes cracked when a boss was around. It wasn't clear for a long time that I was falling off the edge and resetting the stage. And sometimes the mass of enemies and player all of the same color made the screen pretty unintelligable.

I was unable to move at certain points, and the movement controls occasionally felt unresponsive and sluggish.

I do like that you've made a modernish action dual-stick shooter with these limitations. It feels very nice to play, even if a little confusing.

The spaceship stages were a fun little diversion and a welcome bit of rest from the madness, but the spawn positions of the levels need a lot of work. On one occasion I spawned right on top of a level entry when I exited the previous level, giving me no time to prepare for the next floor stage. 5 times in a row.

Overall I think this is an excellent title and a great example of how to do a retro game right - use modern design principles and limit yourself only to the tech.

My final score was 34765, but I wasn't really running out of lives. I just stopped playing because the game was getting a bit too hectic and I didn't actually know what was going on in the levels, I just sprayed in random dircetions and apparently got enough 1-ups to counteract the deaths.