Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Deep Space Beat
By srynetix
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 239 | 3.72 | 20 | |
| Fun | 444 | 3.33 | 20 | |
| Innovation | 810 | 2.47 | 20 | |
| Theme | 655 | 3.22 | 20 | |
| Graphics | 140 | 4.00 | 20 | |
| Audio | 97 | 3.86 | 20 | |
| Humor | 516 | 2.25 | 20 | |
| Mood | 325 | 3.44 | 20 |
The polygon aesthetic is very cool—it has a very retro vibe while the color palette is more modern! And the music is a neat groove, although I kept dying before I got very far into the song... My best was just under 5000m. ("That's... bad", thanks game, I know. 😅)
The art style and controls are great. Two things on my mind here:
(1) The enemies have a predictable pattern, but move so fast that it feels like "last moment" dodging isn't an option. That sort of snap judgement has the potential to make things more exciting imo (instead of just forecasting which side to hide in).
(2) For the duration of my playing, I didn't experience any moments where I needed to just hold down an arrow key for 2-3 seconds straight and make a sharp turn. I think that sort of variety in the pathing could prove exciting in addition to the routine small nudging.
Congratulations! A big thumbs up!
Nice game! The Vector style was really cool and I love that you made the level pulse in with the music, it really adds to the vibe.
I felt the movement was a little too "darty" but I think if you made the enemies come in a little further back or widen the playfield it would make the game feel smoother.
Hope you enjoyed the jam :)
@mduo13 @the-neon-shark @cooz @nodice Thank you all! :smile:
@the-neon-shark You are right about the enemies, I added them in a hurry and took too much time on other things instead of the gameplay. Replaying now they are quite hard to dodge, but with practice you can quickly go to 30000 :wink: And yes, I wanted to have sharper turns, but because of my bad collision shapes you could pass through the tunnel and navigate into space :sweat_smile: Thanks for the recommendations :)
@nodice Good point, originally the tunnel was deeper so you could see the enemies coming.
Pretty good game ! Loved the graphics and audio. Great job !
Really nice work there love the design and the music but i encountered a bug where i could simply fly out of the level and have infinite points anyway nice work !
I really like this game! The neon retro vibe like tron, music, elements that moves at pace of music, great jobs! Maybe some tweaking to improve the spaceship control would be great and also some improvements on camera to help player to see the proximity with obstacles. A suggestion: sometimes change the speed of spaceship could create a surprise and make this game less repetitive but well done! Great game for a jam
Hey, pretty good! I initially had a similar idea, but went with something else. The game works well, but I do have a few nitpicks.
1. Using arrow keys when you also have to use your mouse to click retry is awkward, it would work much better with WASD (or both if you could also press a key to restart). 2. The camera could **really** use some easing/damping. It's really difficult to keep track of what's going on when moving the camera around.
Those are the only two things I disliked. I dig your art style and the music was catchy. Good job!
Nice mood and feel of play, bit hectic but in a good way. Also. I noticed that being called "mediocre" hurts more than simply being called "bad"
For a first 3D game, that's really solid ! I like the wireframe graphics: simple but still clear enough to understand what is going on :). Of course, the gameplay is basic, but I enjoyed it :)
Very Cool game ! Love the crisp graphic, the rhythmic music, but most of a all the uniqueness in its genre. It's all a matter of small correction and anticipation. The controls tweaking is very good. The bouncey obstacles felt more treacherous at the beginning that when speed up (more bouncesss!) Tunnel avoider are a style of game I quite like :) Do you know Torus Trooper ? Game used flattery on me at the second attempt :up: deepspacebeat.jpg
@nocymer Thanks ! Yeah the "flying into space" bug can happen sometimes when you go between two tunnel sections, I didn't have enough time to fix my collision shapes, so I let it as a "feature" so you can just explore where you want :grin:
The graphics and music here are great, top notch stuff. The gameplay is pretty repetitive, though. It'd help if there was something else to encounter like coins to collect, or another form of input, like a speed boost, just to enhance the risk vs reward aspect and make the early game more varied.
@duck-reaction @sneakylemon Thanks for your input !
Yes, you are both right about the camera, easing could help with the sharp movements and the enemies, and as-is it can be frustrating sometimes :smile: (it's my first released 3D game, the next one will have quality camera movements I hope!)
Good point on the mouse/keys combo, it IS awkward to switch between the two, maybe everything would work only using the mouse.
@limbo Thank you ! Sorry about the taunts, that something I like to add in my games :sweat_smile:
@metalfox-dioxymore Thanks :)
@alexhall Thanks, great job on your new highscore :grin:
Yes, on the run, the enemies are "easier" to avoid because they keep the same speed, but your ship is at full speed instead.
I played Torus Trooper years ago, I did not even remembered :smile: Maybe that why I chose this art style :)
@quinn-patrick Thank you, I wanted to add items to make the gameplay vary a little, but time was flying fast, I had only a few hours remaining and no music, so I choose the music :musical_note:
@srynetix I have mixed feelings about using the mouse to control the rocket/ship. On one hand it would allow you to do smoother movements, possibly eliminating the camera issue or at least drastically reducing it. On the other hand, I feel like the sharp turns are part of the challenge.
Nice! The graphics are really sweet, especially how they react to the music. The music also fit really well and dragged me in further. There was some nice polish too, with the fun text when you finished. Would have liked a few more things to do (upgrades, different enemies), but it's a impressive entry for a first 3D game!
The way new tunnel sections pop in was a cool effect. I really liked all of the visuals for the game. The ship looks cool as some smoke in a cage. The text effects were nice too how the text was different colours for emphasis and how it waited a second before displaying your insult for dying. The space background with the twinkling stars gave a nice space atmosphere. I'm pretty amazed at how the visuals are so simple- just lines and colours, but then it looks so clean.
My first run was pretty hard to see what was going on because I just happened to steer up near the ceiling and it made it hard to see the rest of the tunnel. When I stayed closer to the bottom of the tunnel, it was a bit easier to see where I was and where the enemies were so I could dodge. Maybe it would be easier to see if the camera tried to stay in the center of the current tunnel segment instead of sticking to the player. Then you could see the whole scene. If that makes the game too stale, you can kind of combine the 2 approaches and have the camera center itself halfway between the player and the center of the tunnel. Then it would show most of the tunnel, but still follow the player a little bit.
It would be nice for the movement speed to be like half of what it is. I found I was trying to tap a direction for only fractions of a second so I didn't fly outside the tunnel. It would probably feel better if I could hold the button for a second to get the same distance. I don't think moving half as fast would really be a downside. Most of the time I was tapping a direction, then not pressing any buttons for a few sec so I think you would still have enough maneuverability.
@natpat Thanks !
@solrun Thank you for your review in depth. :smile:
Good idea to clamp the camera between the center of the tunnel and the player position. For the movement speed, I really like going at full speed in the game. But you're right, I should have set the speed lower for easier controls.
Really like the retro 3d vector aesthetic, found the enemies pretty hard to predict. While the steppy movement following the beat is cool in a way, I feel the style of movement somehow a bit uncomfortable to play in a slightly dizziness inducing way. Only made it 7686 and I think that was mainly just good luck. Music is quite nice too.
Nice work. Dug the music, very original art style, I'm going to check out your source to see how you made the 3d view work so well
Loved the 80's wired look! Nice work