FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD47 → The Looping Legend

The Looping Legend

By pronomicalartist

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3923.2722
Fun5012.8022
Innovation2883.3522
Theme584.1923
Graphics1103.9222
Audio1493.5022
Mood3393.0820

Comments

ividusk 2020-10-05 04:06

As you say, it is quite hard - I only managed to kill a few enemies. But trying to master the spinning plane and dodge the bullets is a fun challenge.

The attention to detail on the enemy planes as they are damaged is great.

One small thing - when you restart the game, the music seems to shut out.

But overall I really enjoyed it!

tomeks 2020-10-05 04:12

Quite challenging indeed, but one can get used to it, on 3rd try got 175 score. Solid entry and nice graphics, very coherent !

causalpigeon 2020-10-05 04:31

fun controlls but really hard

paddylow 2020-10-05 09:20

Really cool idea and amazing pixel art! :)

But controlling when to shoot and having the shot on cooldown, could be quite fun cause you could f.e. fly under an enemy and shot when you're at the right angle

axelrinaldo 2020-10-05 13:42

I see we had the same take on the theme, very good!

Amazing graphics and fun gameplay, though a bit too hard for my mediocre skills.

One thing I'd like to comment on though is that the crosshair is a bit hard to spot, I didn't even notice it until I'd already died a couple of times. :)

zebraatomica 2020-10-05 21:35

Well, hello calart, since I had the opportunity to try you game before i`ll give my feedback based only on what grabbed the most attention to myself. Also, i'm impressed for how you've pulled off, player feedback, nice art, music. Definetly a high polished compo. But now i'll adress more critically the things i've said they were a problem and why, from my area side of view.

When you start the game it is funny and entertaining but a couple seconds passes and the terms "lack of control" and "bullet hell" are opposites. From what you've wrote, "Hard" is not the case, the game is almost unplayable what's written pass the impression that the blame is on the player, like others that already commented feel. Most of this, in my opinion, is due to:

Lack of control - Dodging is less effective than praying. No matter how good you are, there will be times that simply the plane is in a position that you won't be able to do something that you wanted to. What I belive is te capacitator of that is that the plane's spinning speed is faster than the player's moving speed, not alowing to stop motion by countering the direction.

Lack of fired bullets - You're cutting the fun of the player, you've set another mechanic as a timer, which honestly i l but that doesn't come as a challenge since the fire is so low that theres is no reward in firing at the right time, also it's possible to just hold down space and this mechanic becomes just a bother that you have to wait again and again.

Lack of strategy - Mostly a consequence of lack of control, there's not a good approach for the player, there is not a plan that you can make on the go. Not that there isn't but the options are few, one that i used was based on the enemy bullet lifetime and another strategy is kill till you die, which shouldn't be the good case if u need to survive.

To play from it's current conditions, I believe a lot of people won't be able to see you cutesy guided missiles.

Extra notes, there's also lack of freedom, there's too much unused space while the plane's own movement is quite big for such a small area, i can see it's limit if there were more enemy behaviours but for this stage it feels trapped. The rain thingy was just a visual polution in my opinion. And for last, there's an exploit, if you stay on the utmost left, the enemy bullets won't be able to hit you since they don't have enough lifetime. I've passed most of the time there nad and after a time i just stoped moving and was waiting to be killed. Got 3800+ with exploit and playing "seriously", most pressing left and right to mantain bullet lifetime distance from enemy, 645.

Loved to see how you progressed throught the jam.

elysiagriffin 2020-10-05 21:53

250 Highscore :D

pronomicalartist 2020-10-05 22:17

@zebraatomica

I see your point, but I had limited time. I'm just making a game jam game, I'm probably never going to work on it again. You're reviewing this game again as a sellable game, which is not something I was aiming to do or making.

zebraatomica 2020-10-05 22:59

@pronomicalartist I`m reviewing your game as a game. From my point of view, with my background. A critic is a critic and you should disregard none as you can learn something from any person here. I`m proposing solutions and guiding trought noted problems that you can perhaps avoid in a next game and maybe haven`t noticed, I`m not just complaining about your game. Disregarding it would be just ignorance. I`ve reviewed all the games that got my interest and that i gave importance in the past Ludum the same way as this. There`s no diference from a sellable game from a game. There are just good and bad games/ideas. Saying that i`m reviewing it wrong is unfortunate.

mathemagician 2020-10-06 15:06

What a tricky little game you've managed to put together here! Honestly, the biggest thing the game could use is some extra juice: the bullets are pretty small, and the effects from them hitting something are pretty easy to miss. A punchier SFX and upping the bullet size would do a lot for the feel, I think (though would make it quite a bit tougher).

It took me a hot second to realize that my plane wasn't autofiring (I think the countdown timer threw me off?)

It's a really fun (and funny) idea, I could definitely see this going somewhere post-jam.

pronomicalartist 2020-10-07 22:09

@ividusk @axelrinaldo @mathemagician Added some huge fixes in my post jam link! Should feel a lot nicer to play now.

paulhocker 2020-10-08 01:10

nice entry here. especially liked the artwork of the planes. the looping made ma a little dizzy, but i guess that was the point of the theme. lol. i think you could have done without the guide, just made the plane movable and that might have helped. but what you did for the jam was pretty impressive. good game.

godsboss 2020-10-11 07:19

Game idea is great and graphics and sounds are very nice. I hated the shooting timer, though.

elysiagriffin 2020-10-11 18:09

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/767474154?t=1h10m36s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

totteriludum 2020-10-15 08:14

I like the art and audio, and the concept is a new one. Interesting to try and utilize the looping movement. The style is very nice and the game seems well-polished. Well done!

velocitycss 2020-10-15 08:21

If there were a few chnages it would be alot better. The biggest downdall for me was the reloading of the weapon also stuck in a loop, it would have worked really well BUT its timed exactly when the plane is in the correct shooting position so you just hold spacel. other than that I liked it :).

pronomicalartist 2020-10-15 08:26

@velocitycss I get exactly what you're saying. If I had a little longer, I would definitely have had a more accurate and intuitive system for shooting, but it kinda works. Happy you enjoyed and thank you for your review!

riwmd 2020-10-15 09:33

Thanks for the entry man. Great concept, I liked how the plane moved exactly as expected when going up and down creating a spiral like shape. Indicators for the aiming is also great touch. I would have liked if the planes died with one bullet with great explosions and the torpidoes would move quicker so the looping kinda made sense as a strategy. Other than that great game. Keep up the good work!

peace-of-cake-games 2020-10-15 11:18

Nice work! I wish the player's shooting ability was better, the shooting worked about 5% of the time.

tammukka 2020-10-15 11:28

At first it felt like I had no control, I didn't understand why the plane didn't fire and the aiming felt unnecessary hard. But then I noticed the countdown and the crosshair and it cleared everything right up! I liked the feeling of a desperate dogfighter trying to survive in (apparently) malfunctioning plane, stuck doing loopty-loops :D Once the initial chaos was cleared up, it became almost calming. The rhythmic sounds of the planes, trying to position yourself so that you just avoid the oncoming bullets while hitting your mark.

pronomicalartist 2020-10-15 11:49

@peace-of-cake-games if you hold down space it automatically shoots. And use the cross-hair to line up your shots.