FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD44 → SPENDOTRON: 2019

SPENDOTRON: 2019

By killedbyapixel

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1013.6860
Fun653.7160
Innovation2323.1360
Theme723.7859
Graphics2783.2760
Audio2223.0660
Humor1912.8956
Mood1783.2954

Comments

kntenshi 2019-04-28 22:36

Nice concept. The only thing I'd suggest is possibly making a copy of the X does Y (Yen earns 1 cent) on the side of the game screen. Good job either way!

saladon 2019-04-29 07:56

I like the idea. I had some fun. Runs smoothly and fits the theme perfectly. Good job

tfdiaz 2019-04-29 15:42

This game is hard but really addicting. I thoroughly enjoyed the aesthetic and theme. I couldn't get my bullets to fly in the right direction expect down which perhaps made the game harder to play but still very fun!

p0nce 2019-04-29 15:45

LOL. Spent $3.69 in my best run. I found it a bit hard to survive more than 3 levels. Fun.

zondarg 2019-04-29 15:47

Yay, Robotron, yes. But with the copyright and patent troll twist :grin: very nice. Smooth gameplay, but not that easy, especially when these undestructible things appear.

mmason 2019-04-29 16:24

A fun game, I played a couple times. The Ai movement was nice, a little choppy and a little organized. I feel the cost of things were fairly well balanced too.

argensis 2019-04-29 17:54

Quite challenging. The shooter mechanics work well and it fits the theme. I liked the arcade style game over screen with a high score.

paul59 2019-04-29 18:06

I'm crap at these reaction-type games but I really liked this despite finding it difficult. The graphics are simple and silky smooth and the sound effects are great. Excellent!

fazz 2019-04-29 18:23

Damn you bitcoin!!

grewoss 2019-04-29 19:11

Great take on the theme! i love the simple design and mechanics. i had a blast playing it!

rancoud 2019-04-29 20:34

Great work :) It's remind me Llamatron! So much nostalgia :v:

retti01 2019-04-29 22:36

Fun but hard. Love the take on the theme.

syrapt0r 2019-04-29 23:44

Hi! I played your game in my stream today, you can watch the video here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/418104572?t=02h18m45s

Super trippy and super fun, but way too hard for me :smile:

omnipotentindie 2019-04-30 00:55

I really liked it. It was a lot of fun. Most of these types of games are too slow but this had just the right movement speed

michaelsonbritt 2019-04-30 01:31

Best run $4.69 and getting brutalized. Tough but worthy.

cheesepencil 2019-04-30 01:59

that's tough! great entry

rainetheglutton 2019-04-30 03:00

Addictive game. I made it to wave 7 with $7.27 spent. The controls felt really smooth, despite the occasional jitters, and it was really satisfying to just shoot on rapid fire. Only recommendation would be providing some feedback on when you respawn and may not randomize the map on respawn.

akshay-b 2019-04-30 03:09

Best record: $4.41

This is really fun! The money pits confused me a bit because they change shape every level, but other than that, the controls were really good and the shootin' was satisfying. Nice work!

killscreen 2019-04-30 04:33

ZzFx, yum! Entertaining and challenging; the difficulty progression felt spot on. Great use of effects to keep the simple graphics visually interesting.

landosystems 2019-04-30 04:53

Love this game, played at least a dozen rounds and will absolutely be coming back to it. High marks all around!

gimblll 2019-04-30 07:13

Oh, now we're going oooolddd schooool. I sense a master sensei behind this. Tough as nails, as any Robotron should be. Good work. :)

jani-nykanen 2019-04-30 13:49

A wonderful little shooter.

exilegl 2019-04-30 14:09

Had fun with the motion blur and jumping-around little enemy dudes, the ones you've got to push back with bullets were interesting too. The large dollar sign for the intro looks cool but seems to lag my browser a lot, otherwise the game runs great.

Here's how I did over a handful of tries (couldn't survive past wave 4 yet :p fun to play even if I'm not all that great at it)

Screenshot from 2019-04-30 09-05-24.png

killedbyapixel 2019-04-30 18:42

Thanks for the awesome feedback everyone! I'm very interested in difficulty because one problem I have with most LD games I play is that they are too easy, so I really turned up the difficulty here. I think it is mostly fair and balanced. I spent a lot of time playtesting and tweaking values during the comp. Please post your high score after playing, that is the single best metric I can use to gauge difficulty.

craftlord 2019-04-30 18:48

Fun game, a tad to difficult for my taste.

dani-desa 2019-04-30 22:15

Good game, really solid I think. I managed to get wave 5 after a while playing. Yes it is difficult but difficult in a good way: it is not so frustrating. Sounds and visuals effects are really good. A little bit unbalanced on wave 4, it is very difficult. Overall really good entry!

Screenshot 2019-04-30 at 23.12.44.png

neowhoru 2019-04-30 22:22

Funny to play the game. It reminds me to Robotron but really good gameplay.

irwatts 2019-05-01 00:47

Hey Frank! Excellent work here. That respawn feels juicy! Colors and symbols are all on point. The bullet trails are sweet. Controls feel great. Sounds add a nice tactile feel without getting annoying (The cue played when enemies move does sound a little like interference though). The one issue I had was the hit box corners for enemies clipping me when I thought I was out of range. Nice punishing difficulty that made me want to get better! currencyWarsHighScore.png

I love it!

gwinnell 2019-05-01 13:00

HAHAHA. Oh shit! You can zoom your browser out and the game becomes SO MUCH EASIER! ($6.71)

shunaky 2019-05-02 05:42

I saw this game in a Livestream, played it, but forgot to rate it. Hope you fixed the Bitcoin exploit and the Yen sound ^^

The game is awesome, btw

carlsonandpeeters 2019-05-02 08:19

I got really addicted to this. I want to try to get more and more money. Its hard but engaging and encourages me to try again. And the visuals work really well with the design. Great stuff! And thanks for tuning into the stream!

benburgh 2019-05-02 15:18

This is a funny interpretation of the theme, even if I'm not very good at it.

I played this game on stream, you can find the timestamp at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14MpruNv7RN4pVCr4go77VXJuePogxHuI9intx5phEqk/edit?usp=sharing

schizoid2k 2019-05-04 01:00

A great take on Robotron... loved it! Same look and feel of the arcade game. Would be great as a twin-stick shooter. Nice take on implementing the theme into this gam.

jin9310 2019-05-04 08:36

Impressive idea, at the begining it all seems to be bit too much (so much colors and so much info that you will not be able to absorb it during the first run), but the gameplay feels very natural and overall good handled. It is really nice idea how to approach the theme. Some frenetic music in the background would perhaps build up the atmosphere better, but I mean... Really great job!

geckoo1337 2019-05-07 21:57

Impressive game (and in a simple html/js code) - I don't think that it could be possible to do something like that. The gameplay is addictive and it fits the theme as good as possible. All is really smooth and controls are efficient. I had fun playing. This is ~~one of my favorite entries~~ my favorite entry for the 44th LudumDare. Thank you ++

PS: I took a look at the code source and it seems to me that it could be the best way so as to to participate at a jam session. Never I thought that a html code could create something so addictive with a gorgeous vibrance in colors and an efficient way to move & shoot an ASCII object. I keep this code as a treasure. The ZzFX is just amazing so as to create some retro sounds. Today I played you game - but before all, I learnt something. You made my day ++

ithildin 2019-05-07 22:08

A simple concept brilliantly executed, I love it!

At the beginning I went a bit slower as I memorised the shapes and what they did, but after that I just couldn't stop playing.

Game is hard as nails, but in a good way; the only minor quibble I have with the difficulty is how fast cents go away (heh, as IRL :smile:). My best score so far is 4.55$

I loved the trippy graphics and the sound effects. Controls feel really smooth, and was it just me, or are there aiming aids? I was under the impression that I was landing hits that should have been near misses.

Amazing job!

shess 2019-05-08 02:32

Perfect theme representation! You know, I'm notoriously bad at precise shooting, so in these type of games I'm mostly relying on half-hearted panicky scatter shots while I'm busy avoiding the danger. Well, this game surely taught me that every shot counts (no pun intended). Simple yet thrilling!

poovi 2019-05-09 08:11

The game is nicely executed. Although i still think it is a normal shooter game. I am unsure how this goes with the theme life is currency. The character are just dollars and pounds. But i enjoyed playing the game overall.

killedbyapixel 2019-05-10 16:07

@irwatts - Dang, I meent to tweak the hit boxes but I forgot, they are all square.

@gwinnell - No longer is that possible. I locked the res at 1080p ;)

@geckoo1337 - Thanks for the kind words! If you are interested in an even simpler & cleaner version, check out the code for Queens Gambit - https://js1k.com/2019-x/details/4211 This is what I built on top of for spendotron.

@poovi - Aside from the graphics, your life meter in the game is literally currency that you spend to fire your weapon and lose some of when you respawn.

muchoswaffles 2019-05-12 01:56

Fun game, cool concept. I like the graphics and SFX. Although I suck at it, I had fun. Great job! :D

papaver 2019-05-12 20:43

Awesome game! Addictive. :) The game runs smoothly, and I like the flashy but clean graphics. My highscore is 5.31, at the moment. ;)

I wasn't really aware of how much momey I still had while playing, so sometimes I was waiting to respawn, but that never happened because apparently I ran out of money without noticing. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: A new level/wave was mainly hard at the beginning, finding a way to escape.

neowedge 2019-05-13 06:06

Interesting and funny concept ;).I like audio, and graphics. Maybe I would change the cursor for a cross hair, but it is a great entry anygame, good job!

schmavery 2019-05-13 06:33

Pretty tough but fun concept with everything involving money. Nicely done :)

jordantanner 2019-05-13 08:41

@killedbyapixel Good work, sir. Loved the arcade vibe and especially the "rainbow" color-cycling used on many of the UI elements and other "currency" objects. I didn't last long-- I felt the big "B's" (couldn't remember the currency) were a little tough to move. Solid entry!

carpin 2019-05-13 09:11

I liked the graphics of the game and the jazzy colors! I think that was a bit hard but, it's just me hahah!

aurel 2019-05-13 16:55

Made it to Wave 7 - very fun. My favorite element was the fact that all projectiles are destructible and can be shot down. The sound effects are great, although when the levels first start, the clicking sounds of all the pieces moving is a bit annoying.

Another thing that might help is a second or two of frozen waiting before the next wave starts. Half the time I struggled to find my character after a wave started, having like a 3 second countdown before the wave begins would allow my eyes to refocus on the center of the screen and know which way to run so I don't immediately run into an enemy.