FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD42 → Oh no! This is monsters!

Oh no! This is monsters!

By alexey-akulovich

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2083.6166
Fun893.7866
Innovation4423.0366
Theme2613.7666
Graphics3423.2866
Audio2013.2964
Humor2082.8260
Mood1743.3559

Comments

squirmonkey 2018-08-12 23:38

I like your sounds and music. They fit the game well.

mrnyarlathotep 2018-08-13 00:04

Really solid 'twinstick' shooter for a compo entry.

The rocket launchers so good it kind of felt like easy mode though

(2001 points and 32 portals destroyed thanks to it)

catgol1 2018-08-13 00:08

The game is quite good but it takes a lot of CPU to run on the navigator !

moczan 2018-08-13 00:24

Solid entry in the Compo, quite the literal take on the theme but the game turned out to be a fun and well-done twin stick shooter. Impressive work.

Also thanks for making the game playable in the browser!

derek-volker 2018-08-13 01:00

Now thats a fine game for a compo. Variety of weapons, enemies, innovative mechanic. Congrats!

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-13 08:17

@catgol1 I did not optimize almost nothing (Except for bullets). This is a task for the future. Now I need to get a fun game.

What browser do you use?

catgol1 2018-08-13 08:29

@alexey-akulovich I use Firefox, and I don't have a very good CPU so it was quickly loaded, which is a shame because the game is cool otherwise !

wavertron 2018-08-13 10:23

Very nice, well done.

jsmcag 2018-08-13 10:34

Really solid experience! Really fun, really fits the theme. The weapons are very effective, but visually feel weak - a bit of a screen shake and flashier/bigger explosions (specially for the rocket launcher) would go a good way to make the player feel their power - as it is, the graphics really hide the real power they contain.

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-13 10:47

Thanks @jsmcag. Your idea is good, I'll try to implement it.

I'll prepare update with performance and small gameplay changes in near feature (with a different URL to stay within the COMPO).

winnie33 2018-08-13 11:07

Whoa, great game! The music fits well and the enemies are fun and balanced!

One thing I don't understand though, is your choice to make the big monsters (demons?) disappear when their portal is destroyed. It makes it easy to run in a circle and shoot the portal instead of him. With this strategy I managed to destroy 30 portals using the starter gun (didn't know how to switch weapons yet).

Also, and this is perhaps me, but right now it feels the real danger is from the monsters and not from the shrinking space. After a minute of fighting you have such a large field you forget there are boundaries. Of course, this depends on what feeling you want to achieve, but I thought I'd mention it nonetheless.

Overall really great game and I enjoyed playing it!

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-13 11:28

@winnie33 Big monsters (I call them "guard of portal") are invulnerable. They die only when their portal is destroyed. Their task is to protect they own portal as goalkeepers in football. You understand the strategy - this is a key :)

Guns can be changed by 1/2/3/4 keys or mouse wheel. But you need ammo for use all weapon except the pistol (it has unlimited ammo).

And yes, game can still be balanced. Thank you for playing and feedback!

shinysteel 2018-08-13 12:10

Nice job! I don't think the game matches the theme well as later on the shrinking zone becomes insignificant, but all other aspects are very well done. Sound effects and music are great and match the gameplay nicely. The game is also pretty fun (killing enemies while from far away). Having 4 guns is also a nice touch to have more variance. Solid game.

hakro 2018-08-13 12:25

Nice one. A lot of really cool details in there. I'm curious to see how you implemented the giant circle closing in, as I did the same with my game. But I guess we have 2 different methods :) Well done mate.

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-13 12:39

@hakro I make this circle in very easy way: it just a display.newCircle() with grass fill and red thick border. https://github.com/atercattus/LudumDare42/blob/5e7470212d6df3a62afd12aca3e77a6a66c8fa9a/scenes/game.lua#L237

runner-alien 2018-08-13 13:06

Enjoyed this one, the big demons are extremely tanky!

paden-shorey 2018-08-13 13:50

This is really fun to play! The big demons tanks are hard to kill (if at all) but once I figured out you just need to destroy the portal, then it got a bit easier.

donitz 2018-08-13 13:51

A small game about killing demons. What more could you want except Grenade launcher! Grenade launcher! Yeah!

The artstyle is good. It's a bit odd that the player is outlined but the demons aren't, but that's just a nitpick.

I like the shrinking and growing controls in the menu, bringing it to the attention of the player. I'm stealing that!

suve 2018-08-13 14:03

A fun game about mindlessly killing everything that moves, with an added element of an ever-shrinking play zone. With some bonus pick-ups and an achievement system this could very well be a full-fledged commercial game.

omniorcus 2018-08-13 14:11

A solid piece of work here. Original? No. Well executed? Yes. The artwork is nice enough and does its job well, the same thing can be said about the music. The arcade feel of this is great, and more importantly, this game is just great fun to play. The one big issue is that the rocket launcher is a bit too powerful, especially for the amount of ammo you get for it. Otherwise, great work.

guardhei 2018-08-14 02:49

I love the retro sound effects! The idea of portal enclosing the area is somewhat weird in the first place but soon get familiar. The shooting feedback is nice with death animations. Might think about adding up some shooting recoil feedback.

reuno 2018-08-14 03:01

That music is SPOOKY.

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-14 09:28

@guardhei I experimented already with the shooting recoil feedback and throwing off enemies when hit. But I did not get a good result. I will continue the experiments.

@reuno This is my first fast experiment with Bosca Ceoil. I'm very surprised that many people like the result :)

fussenkuh 2018-08-14 11:45

Nice cohesive design. The art, music, effects and overall mood really felt like they were meant to go together. I had a fun time blasting demons back to where they belong! Fun game and great job!

aphego 2018-08-14 14:47

liked it, especially the mechanic of winning space by destroying portals

detectivelosos 2018-08-14 15:39

As weird as it may be, this game remids me whole lot of the old Doom. Shotgun? Check. Demons? Check. Repetitive soundtrack that yet makes you feel like a badass? Check. In general mechanics are really solid and that results in some really enjoyable gameplay that kept me playing until I reached a highscore of 40 closed portals. I really liked that killing enemies is not really a goal, but killing portals is. This results in that players start to search for an optimal angle to approach portals or rather dodge enemies than kill them adding an strategic element to the game.

As for the critique, the first thing is I had really bad lag spikes when new portals were opening. I also wish camera was twice as far from the player as it is now, so I would stop running into enemies and bullets that suddenly appear from the screen border. That would would not only give players a far better idea of what is happening around them but that would also add some cool scenery of a full crowd of monsters chasing for them. Another thing I would change is giving the monsters a little cooldown right after spawn before they could shoot. And also don't spawn portals near the player. A couple of times I died just because a new portal opened right in front of me, spawned a monster that shot me right away before I could even see it.

Overall this game is very enjoyable to play. Graphically it's very simplistic, but that gets the job done. And it also provides a good level of challenge.

fenderbate 2018-08-14 18:32

Wow your game really is similar :smile: I really enjoyed it, running around and shooting stuff, it's really simple and enjoyable.

However that said it was really easy. The player gets too fast (it does get faster right?) and the enemies drop too much eplosive ammunation which makes it incredebly easier. I suggest you either give less explosive ammo to the player, or don't kill off the enemies when you destroy the gateway they came from.

Or just leave it as it is, like I said it's really fun :smile:

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-14 18:54

@fenderbate I have changed version of game with different balance and some other updates. But I cannot update public version for Compo rules. So I will publish this version in a few days by different URL.

batlordz 2018-08-14 20:25

I really liked your game! You've made a great job! Variety of weapons, nice gameplay. Well done!

bootak 2018-08-14 21:53

Wow, I really like it! Great take on theme, very addictive game with growing difficulty over time. It does not getting repetitive which is also nice! Really solid work

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-15 00:37

If someone is interested in the further development of the game (not for the Compo contest!), you can try it here: https://ater.me/ld42x2/

Selection_006.png

awix 2018-08-15 06:30

Good Gaming Idea, Music needs to be improved Graphics good

annie-owl 2018-08-15 09:47

Solid entry you've got there. Gameplay is simple but fun and enemies look interesting enough. The only big problem i had that spoiled whole experience for me is constant game freezes, that happens almost every 10 seconds.

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-15 10:32

@annie-owl Thanks for your feedback! Yes, I already understood that performance not satisfactory :) It is one of the major tasks on the near future.

maroovan 2018-08-15 12:39

I really liked the mechanics and general feel of the game. Perfect take on the theme!

dubgron 2018-08-15 21:46

Nice interpretation of the theme. I've really enjoyed the game, but I think the bazooka is overpowered :sweat_smile:

albin 2018-08-16 12:39

10/10 in the fun category for sure. Really good fast paced game with a lot of strategy. The game mechanics all fit really nicely together too. Good job!

tomg 2018-08-16 13:28

The weapon choices are great and the movement is responsive. Feels good to play.

Bazooka is OP!

lonehearts 2018-08-16 15:07

great game overall, maybe too easy, i had to suicide to end when I was over 9000 :)

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-16 16:51

@lonehearts I do the more balanced and fun version ;-)

historymaker118 2018-08-16 17:28

I wasn't expecting much from this, the graphics didn't look all that impressive and I was ready for yet another uninspired top down shooter. But somehow you exceeded my expectations and I had a lot of fun playing your game! The controls were so smooth and felt great, there was never that moment where I didn't feel in control of my character, me failing was my own fault. The guns had great variety and felt good to use and taking down the large monsters was surprisingly engaging.

Of course there are plenty of things to be improved here, most notably in the graphical department, but mechanically this game is super solid. Well done!

pickens-inc 2018-08-17 18:34

Nice entry! Genuinely fun and whilst the graphics and sound are simple, the gameplay is really solid and the entire loop is sound. Destroying portals felt actually satisfying and there was plenty of variety in both enemies and how you killed them!

A minor niggle was I would have really liked it if I could scroll through my weapons, as it meant I didn't have to take my fingers off of WASD in the heat of the moment, but that's definitely not a dealbreaker. More animations would have also been nice, but it's the LD so that's all good.

Overall, nice entry! Good stuff. Enjoyed playing it on stream and thank you for hanging out there!

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-17 19:46

Hi, @pickens-inc. Mouse scroll works fine in game for changing guns :)

Thank you for twitch stream and feedback.

victor-c 2018-08-18 10:59

THIS IS THE BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST GAMEEEEEEE!! U SO GREEEEEEEEEEATTTTTTT!!!!!

victor-c 2018-08-18 11:08

Hello your game is very engeinging but i think It will help the player a lot to allow him to change guns by scrolling the mouse wheel that will be awsome please add it !

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-18 11:47

@victor-c I am glad that you liked it!

Mouse scroll already works fine. Do you have any problems with it?

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-19 10:49

@catgol1, @detectivelosos, @annie-owl Hi! I did a some post-compo changes in code for performance optimization: https://ater.me/ld42x2/ May you check it on your PCs? Whether it became better/same/worse?

detectivelosos 2018-08-19 14:41

Yeah, now game runs without any freezes. I also noticed that you've done some balance changes and a much needed camera zoom. But the game became too easy now. If you manage to overcome the first half a minute of it you pretty much can't die afterwards. I noticed that there is a limit of five portals, and that limit is ridiculously small when you extend your play area. There are almost no enemies and you just run from portal to portal without any challenge whatsoever. OhNo.png

alexey-akulovich 2018-08-19 15:34

@detectivelosos Thanks for testing! The absence of friezes now is the most important thing :) As for the difficulty, I have complaints about both difficulty and simplicity. So, I want to add a difficulty button in main menu. I can mention you in the future, when such a version will appear.

arron-fowler 2018-08-19 15:50

A good challenge and plenty of variety. I like the way the arena shrinks. It is simpilar in many ways to my entry. Play it if you like. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/clapbang

annie-owl 2018-08-19 17:12

@alexey-akulovich Yeah, now game runs perfectly.

tlcoc 2018-08-21 11:04

Great game nice work. Really addictive. Would be great if damage taken could be more obvious. Many times i find myself dying without even knowing. But overall a really good job

void-productions 2018-08-22 15:36

@alexey-akulovich Nice music man really loved it and as for the gameplay it was simple yet addicting, nice job. Do check our game as well.

local-minimum 2018-08-25 09:25

Fun game. I'm not that great at these types and my left mouse button don't work too well (but I was pleased to notice I could keep it pressed). I kind of forgot about different weapons, being too occupied with staying alive. I mostly died from falling off, and this wasn't really because I was running out of space, but because it felt like the edge wasn't where I expected it to be given the visuals. So I would suggest having the edge-collision or however the game works be a bit further out compared to now. If the red thing is supposed to burn rather than be the edge of the world, then I think it would be better if it didn't insta-kill but instead delivered hurt per second.

zinski 2018-08-25 14:54

I really loved the concept of this little shooter game! The gameplay is nervous and dynamic, so we do not get bored for a second! I think however that with some additional visual feedbacks this game would be even better! Nice interpretation of the theme! Great job! :)

By the way please feel free to leave us some feedbacks on our game!

simogecko 2018-08-28 07:46

the best thing about this game imho is the weapon variety. it feels really great to be able to choose between such a wide range of different weapons, and having to balance the ammo. if the ammo was a bit scarcer it would be even more fun! what I think could be improved are the graphics. I like the pixel art for the character, weapons and ammo but the enemies seem in another style. making the colors and pixel size a bit more consistent would definitely improve it. good job overall! :smile:

p1nkmaria 2018-08-28 15:39

Very simple and funny! Really great game :) Well done

andrei9 2018-09-04 18:18

Nice game! :thumbsup: +++++