FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD47 → Stuck in a loop

Stuck in a loop

By aligator

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4263.2026
Fun2073.5226
Innovation5262.7226
Theme4273.3126
Graphics4792.9326
Audio3992.7325
Humor2732.6320
Mood3603.0423

Comments

masaru 2020-10-05 08:49

I love the concept ! Really well done, very fun to play. I beat the game in 12 attempts after discovering the hidden power of holding down the space key which, with a fully upgraded ship, shred through the enemy waves, it was a very fun play trough, I love it =).

aligator 2020-10-05 13:35

@masaru Thanks :-)

indiequest 2020-10-05 14:17

I feel like I learnewd a lot from your game. I haven't finished a game in a long time but I did play your game over and over until I was done. I think the reason is, besides it was a very nice game, is the clear long term goal with smaller goals built into the game loop. So thank you for the lesson and for the nice game!

aligator 2020-10-05 15:09

@indiequest Thanks for the feedback :v:

wakobu 2020-10-05 15:12

Congratulations for making this game ! I didn't get bored despite of the lack of innovation and theme-matching. Honest entry overall.

aligator 2020-10-05 15:40

@wakobu Thanks :-) The idea about the theme was that you have to restart over and over again and replay it in a loop to finally finish the whole game.

sinusquell 2020-10-05 16:02

Nice one :) I think this is one of the best entries I've seen so far.

bootak 2020-10-05 16:16

16 attempts! Nice game, I liked it!. Reminds me of "Space Impact" on my nokia 6510. Those up-and-down moving bosses, little "bullet waves" I can make while flying through the level... I like the take on theme, and it feels so rewarding to start same level again, but with MOAR POWER this time :) Well done!

aligator 2020-10-05 18:29

@sinusquell thanks for playing it! @bootak Thanks, my dad needed 93 attempts, so I guess 16 is good^^ I generally also need something between 10 and 20. Space impact was definitely an inspiration for this game.

indivicivet 2020-10-05 21:59

13 attempts :)

good: fits the theme well. simple gameplay but satisfying. well balanced difficulty level -- took me a couple of tries to end the loop even once I had all the upgrades. it's cool that you added an endless mode too

bad: not very original, although I think that's not too bad since it meshes nicely with the theme. there were a lot of places where the gameplay could be a bit more intuitive/it wasn't clear what was going on: - it took me a while to realize you can move left and right too. I think it'd help if you didn't start on the far left edge - not easy to see how much health you/the bosses have; I think health bars would be much better - it's not obvious that some ships take multiple hits to kill, I thought I wasn't hitting properly at first - not that obvious how much damage a bullet will deal (the colour changes, right?) -- e.g. could make them bigger, etc

I think some small additions, like a simple background image and more sound fx (e.g. when you get a pickup), would have also been a quick way to make it a bit nicer :)

elemel 2020-10-05 22:09

Difficulty was well tuned for me. Hard to beat, but not too hard. Also found the idea of collecting upgrades for your next life interesting.

jimanzium 2020-10-06 16:09

11 attempts for me, got blown up straight away on my first. Fire rate was my favourite power up. I found the game really fun to play. I think the difficulty and progression were just right to keep someone playing until they beat it without getting bored or frustrated. The graphics and sound were simple but did the trick well enough. They would be an obvious area of improvement. The UI also could have been a bit more than just plain text and it also overlapped the gameplay area. However none of these really impacted my enjoyment of the game.

judgezedd 2020-10-06 16:09

I won after 8 attempts, which felt pretty great. I think I got lucky though, as I got the full shot strength powerups after three or four. Has a very simple concept, very well executed. Excellent little base to take forward onto something bigger, if you felt like it. Really good idea that might breathe some new life into the scrolling shooter genre.

indigo 2020-10-06 16:19

Fun to play. I will never tire of Space Impact clones.

I agree with the other commenters that the game was generally well balanced, although I want to nitpick that in the early to mid-game, it can be somewhat annoying that you have to wait so long for powerups to drop. I think a slightly higher drop rate would have made the game drag less, and also made is somewhat shorter. I also took 16 attempts, which I guess is fine, though.

aligator 2020-10-07 17:25

@indivicivet Thanks for the in depth review, I had some problems with LibGDX which took some time to resolve, that's why I hadn't much time for polishing things up. But your points are all valid, thanks :-)

@elemel Thanks, I seem to have hit a good difficulty balance for most players. That's nice. Thanks for playing.

@judgezedd You seem to have the best score so far as I know :-)

@jimanzium Yes, you have some valid points, too, thanks.

@indigo Yes, of course there are some possibilities for more finetuning. But I am relatively satisfied by the current difficulty. Thanks for playing

kunonooni 2020-10-08 01:13

This was a good entry. It was fun to play, the controls were good and it was a good use of the theme. Music would have added to the experience but I don't fault you for not adding it. I like the gfx, and the use of colors to differentiate the enemies. Congrats on finishing and submitting your game!

aligator 2020-10-08 17:56

@kunonooni Thank you, next time I will definitely put more efforts into gfx and sound maybe I will also use Unity, because I had some problems with libGDX.

fumybulb 2020-10-10 14:52

At first glance, it doesn't seem so, but it turned out to be a very exciting game. Excellent!

By the way, libgdx is able to compile the game into the web version. At least he was definitely able to do it before.

Have you tried it? Are there any problems with porting to web?

aligator 2020-10-10 15:45

@fumybulb Thank you! Yes, I tried it, but I did not get the web version working.

figueroass27 2020-10-12 02:26

I think the game is pretty fun and has good potential. However the ship is so big that you dont stand any hopes of being able to dodge enemy attacks so it feels that you just have to tank the shots. Also why limit power ups? I think having them be unlimited is more generous to weaker players and can get pretty fun later on.

catomag 2020-10-12 11:05

The game had an interesting mechanic where upgrades are preserved over time. The controls felt a little janky, but a good entry nontheless.

gonzalol 2020-10-12 11:06

I love classic starship games. It's hard like they used to be, maybe too hard, actually. It has potential, maybe with a little more work. Good job anyway!

aligator 2020-10-12 16:55

@figueroass27 @catomag @gonzalol Thanks for the feedback! It was intentional that you don't have a chance at the beginning. Only after collecting the power ups you have a chance. I didn't make them unlimited because at some point it would be too easy. I wanted it still to be a bit of a challenge even when all power ups are collected. But yes there is a lot of space for finetuning :-)

vrerabek 2020-10-18 08:30

Yay I won after 20 attempts! :smile: It was fun, good use of theme. I think it could use some balancing and sound effects were very repetitive after while, but hey, it's a game jam ! Good game, had fun :)

aligator 2020-10-19 19:27

@vrerabek Thanks for the feedback :-)