Power Up! [Local 2-Player]

agent-p 2022-10-04 01:10

Awesome game! Cool Mechanics! The different types of turrets a nice, but it would be neat if there was a distinct way to tell the difference

misha-levin 2022-10-04 01:47

I liked slowly maneuvering through bullets.Local co-op gamer are always welcomed.

alchemic 2022-10-05 19:58

Nice! I love games like this. It reminds me of one of my favorite games, Maiden & Spell.

I liked the turret mechanic, it adds a surprising amount of depth for how simple it is. The different patterns on their own don't offer much strategy, since they're essentially random, but being able to place turrets makes them much more interesting.

5 stars audio, I love the music.

ursagames 2022-10-06 22:05

This has some cool ideas! I think it could add some extra tension if maybe 1 powerup you were given like you are now, and then a second powerup would randomly spawn somewhere on one half of the map for each player to encourage the players moving to different locations. One player could even be overly aggressive and move in to enemy territory to steal their second powerup. Might work well if there was zones you were allowed to place down the targeted power up. It's challenging to get the full experience playing it solo, but I can definitely see how strategy could evolve between multiple matches with other people!

doctor-zeus 2022-10-09 05:05

@alchemic Thanks for the comment and review!

Yeah, I was definitely thinking of Maiden & Spell planning the design. I liked how the "lich of flowers" character played in that game - the win condition where you build up incremental advantage by placing the opponent-targeting butterflies while restricting the opponent's movement made for a cool dynamic. I especially like how it naturally pushes the game toward an end-state, because eventually you present enough variations of angles and timings to make dodging difficult-to-impossible.

My hope was that the gameplay could match up well with the theme, since getting more powerups in regular intervals gives you a back-and-forth sort of play between surviving and repositioning to get the most advantageous turret placement. I think the game might just get a little too hectic too fast with the sorts of power-ups we implemented, but I think it could definitely improve with some iteration.

The big feature that didn't make the cut was the idea that you could cash out a power-up for a 1-time "super move" - something with a brief, wide impact that doesn't persist. I think it could've added a really interesting element to the game (especially if the turret patterns were toned down just a little bit). You want to create a state that's complicated enough that your "super" can close it out, but if your opponent manages to survive then they get to pull ahead in persistent value.

It might capture that bullet-hell feeling even better as the late-game turns into players trading game-ending haymakers until someone cracks under the pressure.

doctor-zeus 2022-10-09 05:24

@ursagames thanks for the feedback and ideas!

I also thought about maybe making one (or all) of the power-ups spawn on the map, with the same sort of logic in mind. There were some problems I thought of that made me lean away from it though:

If powerup spawn locations are random, I think it would be a feels-bad sort of situation if a powerup happens to spawn right in the middle of enemy turrets and/or a high bullet-density area. It wouldn't be the end of the world, but I think it would be the sort of randomness that stings more because it's so clearly outside of your control.

If the powerup locations were fixed, then I think you'd have a different variation of the problem, where you'd sorta be obliged to put down turrets to threaten that specific area. Both players could do it, but I think it would make the sort of strategies you pursue more narrow (you'd need some significant upside to *not* want to threaten the opponent's power-up).

If the powerup locations were random-but-telgraphed (maybe you see a silhouette of where it will appear, or maybe a circle gradually shrinks to narrow down the final location of each power-up) you mitigate some of the totally-random feel-bads (if one is locked down, you can probably go for the other) but I also think would more often swing the game in a player's favor much more decisively. The round where one player gets 3 power-ups to the opponent's 1 is probably the round that decides the game. Subsequent rounds should snowball further, since 3-powerup player controls even more space that the 1-powerup player can't safely contest.

All of that said, I could be totally off-base with my evaluations. I ended up abandoning the pick-up-power-up idea during the design stage partially because of those concerns and partially because it'd make the game simpler to not worry about it.

I also had the idea that the whole "turret" mechanic would naturally give players an incentive to move around the screen to varied locations. My design intent was that turrets firing from different angles should be a lot stronger than turrets piled in one place. I don't know if the patterns we made totally bear it out in practice, though - having a bigger emphasis on static pattern turrets like the "plus" type would do more to encourage movement, I think, because those are more obviously limited when stacked in one spot.

otterfaelure 2022-10-10 08:13

A multiplayer game during LD? Cool!

But alas, I HAVE NO FRIENDS. :sob:

So I tried to play against myself. Several times.

Bizarrely, I always lost. Huh. I am no match for me it seems. :sweat_smile:

I also always won, though. Why? Naturally gifted. :smirk:

I had fun! The visuals, sounds and gameplay were simple but effective.

I was very confused at first so a quick tutorial scene would be of huge benefit for a game such as this, but tutorials are really hard to fit into game jam time. Well done. :D