FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD47 → Loop Shoot

Loop Shoot

By superunknown

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2733.4840
Fun1213.7441
Innovation2853.3541
Theme3943.3941
Graphics5612.5541
Audio1793.4240
Mood4112.9438

Comments

nethead 2020-10-05 00:17

I really like the colour switching mechanic! Cute sounds/gfx too.

jegus9 2020-10-05 00:26

pretty nice. what i like the most is the audio. i don't have too much complaint about it besides the fact that using the spacebar to shoot is kinda awkward.

curdlegames 2020-10-05 00:56

Great work! I had a nice time playing this, it offered an interesting challenge with the three colors. Thanks for putting such a detailed rating system in the game as well, it gives the player a lot of feedback as to how they did. Well done, my friend!

superunknown 2020-10-05 00:58

@jegus9 - What would feel better than the spacebar? Let me know and I'll add it as an alternate input. Thanks...

smilewood 2020-10-05 02:44

I like this take on the theme. It is an interesting and challenging game to play. The effects when the shots hit the enemies were great, and the moment of panic when hitting the wrong color one is perfect. I was confused by having an accuracy stat in this game, as I had to shoot away from the enemies in the first level, but as I got further I realized how interesting of a stat it is, letting me see how correctly I ordered the shots. The music fit well with the game, and the sound effects were well done. Great job on this entry!

incd021 2020-10-05 13:00

Mac score of 27.. Find it a bit harsh that one mistake is punished this hard. Fun and hard. Nice entry :thumbsup:

jegus9 2020-10-05 13:20

@superunknown right mouse button! it's more comfortable because people don't have to tuck both hands at the keyboard. even if you have no directional axis to shoot, i like using the mouse because that basically turns the PC into dual stick machine.

ausstein 2020-10-05 13:26

Highscore was 94, but the screen changed back to the title screen before I could take a screenshot.

I got to Wave 9, that Wave is insane!

Overall a fun little game, but I think the theme is a bit of a stretch.

superunknown 2020-10-05 13:29

@ausstein Highest score I have seen yet! I agree the theme application was a bit of a stretch. Thanks for spending some time with the game!

peeweek 2020-10-05 20:31

Pretty good! Loved how you came up with the suicide bullet challenge... Reminded me a lot of Ikaruga, but the color loop makes it way more challenging :) Good job!

superunknown 2020-10-05 20:53

@ausstein, @jegus9 I adjusted the difficulty to scale more smoothly. There was a large bug that made the game scale to unplayable around level 7 or so. Give it a shot if you have time!

ausstein 2020-10-05 21:01

@superunknown yeah i don't know myself how I got through level 7 and 8. somehow managed to punch a hole through it.

ausstein 2020-10-05 21:25

Game is much easier nowm got a highscore over 500

loopshot.png

superunknown 2020-10-05 21:46

@ausstein Nice! Too easy or did it feel ok?

ausstein 2020-10-05 21:51

@superunknown takes a long time to get challenging maybe increase the difficulty a bit faster

zackavelli 2020-10-05 23:32

The music loop is a vibe. Mechanic is interesting and fun. Some spaceship sprites could really improve the game.

superunknown 2020-10-06 00:41

@zackavelli Thanks for the feedback! I totally agree with you about the sprites. For some reason I went 3D thinking I would make some simple polygon ships but there is no way I would have had the time...2D would be much better. I think I will convert it over and give it a full treatment now that Ld is over. Thanks again for the feedback.

tsunscreen 2020-10-06 09:01

Agree that some simple models or sprites would go a long way. The polish is great though, love those particle effects and sounds!

ale 2020-10-10 17:36

That was pretty fun, but the first couple of levels were really slow and easy. You might want to keep tweaking the difficulty curve until you find that sweet spot!

fronwewq 2020-10-11 06:29

Pretty nice little shooter, good use of the theme. I agree that the first few levels were quite slow, it takes a long time for the game to get challenging. Have you tried slower but more numerous enemies? I think what's cool about this mechanic is trying to correctly sequence your shots so you hit 4-5 in a row of the same color. It was hard to do that at least through wave 9 since the enemies came so infrequently, but they moved too quickly that I couldn't really wait for more to appear.

superunknown 2020-10-13 19:05

@ausstein @ale @fronwewq Just thought I would let you all know that I have tweaked the difficulty scaling. It should ramp up much more quickly now. The enemies keep their speed, just spawn more rapidly. Also added a screen showing the high scores. Would be honored if you all would give it one more play!

ausstein 2020-10-13 20:25

@superunknown there seems to be a bug with the hit detection in the current version. My shots often went straight through the platforms...

superunknown 2020-10-13 20:33

@ausstein Thanks for playing again man! Sorry to hear about the bug...I was struggling with that in earlier releases and thought I had it fixed...basically the missile fires so fast that collision is never detected. I will need to slow them down or increase the hitbox.....thanks for the feedback!

ausstein 2020-10-13 20:37

@superunknown yes that is what I suspected. Making the hitbox much longer behind the bullet would be a quick and dirty fix :)

fronwewq 2020-10-13 20:44

Very nice update @superunknown, this is what I was expecting the game to be like! I was hitting those shot sequences as early as wave three. Really fun, I played it multiple times. On higher waves, it becomes less about correctly sequencing your shots and more about only taking shots you can safely hit, since there's less space to shoot an unwanted color. Can't say if that's good or bad, just an observation.

Are you using an unweighted uniform distribution for generating new enemies? If you wanted to preserve the color-sequencing aspect of the earlier waves, you could consider making the randomization weighted based on what's currently available, to create more strings of different colors. You could even make a rhythm/puzzle mode where the enemy spawns match the ship's color cycle perfectly, requiring perfect accuracy.

Anyways, great work, I enjoyed this a lot.

superunknown 2020-10-13 22:33

@fronwewq Thanks for the feedback! The enemies are spawned totally at random. I am increasing the spawn rate and the number of enemies exponentially for each wave. I agree with you though that the shot sequencing is what makes it fun. I have been thinking about how to improve the game outside of the jam and I think there could be a bit of a rhythm game in there. I would like to come up with an idea that has the same gameplay but isnt space ships...perhaps slinging paint or something....also what do you think about composite color enemies..for example a purple enemy would need to be hit twice, once by red and once by blue...sorta like super enemies?

mrchickenboy 2020-10-14 04:18

I like the game, the graphics could be improved, I love the simple sounds, though

2020-10-14 09:34

I dont like game art, try next time invest more time, and it will be better.Average fun game, but maybe next time you will polish the gameplay and it will be better.Audio for me is not good, but not bad.Averagly fit into the theme..

One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will aperceite very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)

glaikunt 2020-10-14 10:29

Great game, great ideas. I like that the main focus was on the gameplay. I really enjoyed my time playing it.

danielblanco3d 2020-10-15 07:01

Simple, fun and clever gamepley!I like the music loop too! g.png

celuloide 2020-10-15 16:15

I really like the main mechanic (switching colors in order to kill the enemies) and the fact that you needed to shoot into empty space in order to change your bullets. It adds another extra complexity layer to the game that I really like! also it reminded me a bit to Ikaruga so kudos for that. Good job!

ausstein 2020-10-15 21:43

259 baby

arron-fowler 2020-10-16 15:41

Simple but effective. I really enjoyed the pleasure pain balance of the game loop. It was an interesting ride.

cole-and-jordan-studios 2020-10-25 01:50

Why was this so addicting? Every little punch was so satisfying. Even though the game was so small in its scope, it was well executed. The music was a little repetitive but decent. I enjoyed it. Thanks for this submission!

burnedkirby 2020-10-27 10:44

Simple looping-shooter shooter, but gets complex in terms of difficulty as the player has to deal with multiple obstacles of usually a different color. Interesting game idea, good work!