Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → Manta Fighter
By pincushion
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 386 | 3.06 | 34 | |
| Fun | 400 | 2.83 | 33 | |
| Innovation | 443 | 2.62 | 33 | |
| Theme | 439 | 2.93 | 32 | |
| Graphics | 304 | 3.25 | 34 | |
| Audio | 352 | 2.59 | 34 | |
| Humor | 349 | 1.92 | 27 | |
| Mood | 399 | 2.68 | 32 |
Cool game, I know space is dark but lightening up the scene or just adding a few lights on the space craft to make it stand out abit more would have been nice. It plays well and the spacecraft controller handles well too. Well done!
Nice little game. I couldn't get behind enemy ships. But I'm bad at playing these kinds of games. Good sound effects, but could use some music.
good job.
Overall a great idea. I found it hard to tell where my ship was in relation to the surface and the bullets could be a bit bigger as they kind of vanish in the background, but its a great idea!
@aaron-smith @thegamearchitect I was wondering if the player needed more visibility. @mdotedot The controls were trickier than I had anticipated. I was wondering if the ship v ship fights were still too hard.
Thanks for the feedback.
I think the ship-to-ship fights are quite doable, as long as one takes the "speed" upgrades the first two or three chances one gets. (Otherwise, the enemy fighters are impossible to shake off.)
I find the dogfighting physics/flying mechanics quite irritating though. When I stop accelerating, my ship just kind of - stops and stands there in the vacuum? That's not how I would expect it to work. I assume that in this game, the throttle sets the speed instead of the acceleration - which is what you would expect to happen. This gives it an 80s-arcade-ish feel that doesn't really work for me.
Also, there are some hitbox and graphics issues. (When you fly away from the planet for a few seconds to shake fighters off your tail, the planet just disappears visually, and you better remember what direction you came from, or you'll just drift through nothing forever.)
@indigo The stopping didn't even cross my mind. That's a good point. Thanks for all that feedback.
This was fun! I kind of agree with another comment that bullets could be a bit bigger, felt a little bit difficult to angle the right way to shoot something. I like the idea of gaining upgrades every 10s and having to choose which feels more important at the time even if I'm low on both health and bullets. Nice sounds.
The bullets definitely need to be made bigger (and maybe faster), or at least add some kind of reticule. Also, for this type of free flying it's probably a good idea to add a way to control the roll since it can get disorienting. Maybe mapped to Q/E, or simply keep the up vector locked to the planet surface normal (although that would make it a completely different game).
Other than those difficulties, it was pretty fun. I found that the speed upgrade is overpowered since the other ships can't catch up even after a few levels. After flying around for a while, I noticed the framerate tanked because there were like a thousand enemy ships chasing me lol.
@alex-covert @ale The controls were definitely hard for me to get right (or working at all). I Actually started with mapping to the surface normal, but I had other issues. The roll-only buttons idea helps. Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback.
Feeling of the gameplay is quite smooth and good, jsut need better sound effects and graphics (for the explosion) I like the artistic choices of the game, remind me of Terminal Velocity.
I agree with all the feedback given. Bullets and dogfights felt a little off. Personally I felt that dying when I hit the planet was a little harsh too, but maybe I'm just an idiot. Nice work.
Cool fun game!!!.
@chromaphase Thanks for giving me a game to look up.
@thedashdude I was wondering what to do with the player hitting the planet. In hindsight, I think it would have been best to just prevent the player from hitting it.
@eugenik I'm glad you liked it :)
Appreciate the feedback!
I had a hard time reading the menus and the controls were a bit rough for me on the keyboard. Still, it's a pretty solid game for just 48 hours. Awesome ship design too!
The controls definitely took some getting used to and were probably responsible for most of my deaths (running into the ground), but otherwise I liked the game, especially the enemies that would shoot at you.
Quite an ambitious game for LD Compo. The idea is fun, but the game could use some polishing. The spaceship is little hard to steer, it would be probably easier with a keyboard+mouse combo. Also, there's a bug that allows for infinite upgrades if You hit 1, 2, 3 keys quickly enough. But overall it's impressive piece of entertainment :D
@jaykayey @schuster Controls seem to be an issue for a lot of players, so this feedback is very useful.
@undermountain Every jam I tell myself that I'll release a polished game and every jam I overscope. One day I'll get that right. I heard about that bug. Thanks for playing enough to exploit it :)
Thanks for the comments.
Nice submission, but the controls aren't for me, I easily get confused by this kind of control scheme and wind up upside down and not knowing where I'm going lol. When you die, is there no restart button? I ended up having to reload the webpage every time. Seeing enemy fighters coming from behind you is a bit challenging.
Why is arrow up move forward? That's so akward.
Nice 3d arts and HUD. Good idea. Controls felt a bit stiff, though.
This was super fun! I cheated by just mashing all the keys and getting infinite upgrades even while the timer was active. Loved it!
Overall, very fun game, good job! Missed some music, but had a lot of fun playing :D
@hungryroy Visibility and awkward controls came up a lot in the comments. I think I need to work on something to help players orient themselves. It's clear to me that enemy fighter fighting just needed more work. Definitely needs a restart button.
@boodbarbak I couldn't tweak the controls enough.
@wormius It's because I couldn't think of a better key :) Thanks for mentioning it.
@mooptychunk I'm glad you liked it! If the cheating made it more fun then it was an intended secret mechanic :)
@vetche-studio Thanks! I really wish I would have spent 30 minutes getting any music in.
I'll be working on the controls post-compo for the next game I make that needs it. Your comments are very helpful. Thanks!
I finished it, and it was fun, despite the confusing controls. I ended up flying away from the planet and turning around so I can re-orient myself.
If you don't want to have the ship to auto-orient so the planet is down, I would suggest adding Q and E to roll left and right respectively, so the player can do that themselves. Basically make A-D control Yaw, W-S control Pitch, and Q-E control Roll.
I actually enjoyed the controls, combining moving forward with stopping while turning in order to kind of loop around enemies and be able to shoot them when they're chasing you. It's a simple control scheme but it leaves you with enough possibilities to figure out how you'd move. I assume that other people will move in different ways.
Nice space mood and smooth controls!
I destroyed the core. I like the graphics. The controls a unusual but manageable. Audio got a little annoying. I would have liked some sort of radar or targeting system as I kept losing my bearings. Despite that the game made me want to finish it so that's a win in my book.
Good stuff :8ball: