FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD51 → Don't Shoot Yourself

Don't Shoot Yourself

By bo-dangles

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall504.1832
Fun114.3733
Innovation34.5933
Theme14.8333
Graphics5973.6133
Audio3253.5833
Mood3693.6733

Comments

dollcoded 2022-10-03 22:29

I love this game, incredible idea, implemented really well, innovative. Had a blast playing it, surprisingly difficult too. Hard to give any criticism honestly. Well done! fantastic game.

appleplectic 2022-10-03 22:37

Gosh I've always wanted to make a game like this; extremely innovative. I had a lot of fun, and also just love the idea of infinite loops and time travel. Decent art (although it could be more contrast-ive), and it was amazing!

piboy314 2022-10-03 22:41

Love it!

tj101010 2022-10-03 22:43

Great game! Really cool take on the concept and fun execution!

jonas-michael 2022-10-03 22:44

Such a fun game! I like that it has this puzzle-like aspect to it - it is very challenging and a lot of fun! Good job!

sliphtrex 2022-10-03 22:49

First all 5 star rating! really well done! It's such an interesting concept that as you defeat more enemies you expose your clones to damage. Great difficulty curve. I feel like there may be too much going on at level 4 though. I couldn't even make it to level 5. I could just be bad though :shrug: .

adamphoebe 2022-10-03 22:57

Hard, but in a good way! Had a lot of fun figuring out the best trajectories to hit everyone (might've spent way too much time on the game XD) Really cool game, and the sound and music are good too!

7/10

mafauris 2022-10-03 23:02

yeah that's quiet hard haha. But still cool ;>

caerul 2022-10-03 23:29

Great use of the theme for the game! The concept is great! Control is easy to understand. Good job!

grump-ai 2022-10-03 23:56

favorite use of the theme so far, easy to understand and difficult to master mechanic

sean-esopenko 2022-10-04 00:35

I've never seen a mechanic like this before, it's great.

mishoulin 2022-10-04 02:08

oops I shot myself dead :) great concept and execution! Excellent job!

jess-from-online 2022-10-04 03:19

maybe the cleverest game i have played so far. great use of theme and its so interesting the strategy that develops. really great concept and very good execution.

lululululu 2022-10-04 04:10

the dissapearance of hatsune miku

rogueagente 2022-10-04 04:24

Great Concept! Love the Mechanic. A very clever take on the theme.

zungryware 2022-10-04 05:38

Really clever idea! I've definitely seen flash games with the basic premise of "go back in time, but you can interact with your past self somehow". But this seems to be a new take on the subsubgenre and one that lends itself to a pithy title as well!

Each level felt like half bullet hell shooter, half puzzle game. Since you really have to plan out where you will park your past selves and how they will shoot so as not to obstruct future selves. The mechanic seems like it has lots of depth. For example, I figured at first that a past self getting hit was sort of like a permanent loss of life for the rest of the level. But then I realized that (assuming the damage was from an enemy), you could rescue a past self by killing the enemy before it reached them. That said, I never actually got to execute that plan since 95% of my damage was from myself.

I would love to see more done with this concept. Each level had a new puzzle to solve. I got as far as level 5. I think I figured out the solution, but I was never able to execute it without accidentally swerving into my own bullets too many times. It felt like too much of a chore.

Some minor complaints:

I would often think I had gotten hit when I was really only hearing a past self getting hit. Maybe pitch down the sound effect for taking damage (or reduce the volume and add reverb) when it's a past self getting hit.

The controls felt kinda sluggish. They got especially bad once four or more players were active. Maybe from the particle effects of the bullets?

Overall, it could use some polish, but design-wise it had a lot of cool ideas and I thoroughly enjoyed playing.

bo-dangles 2022-10-04 06:17

@zungryware Thanks a bunch for the well thought out comment and taking the time to play my game. I agree with all your constructive criticism. It's especially frustrating when a clone get hits off screen and it feels like you're taking damage and it's hard to tell why. I've thought of just not restoring the players health on time loop and not having damage on clones transfer. It kinda breaks the time loop though because as you said you can stop a clone from taking some damage they would have. The biggest idea I had but couldn't implement in time was to have a barrier that blocks a bullet that can be used once every 10 seconds. That way you can alter past damage even more by shielding damage clones would have taken.

zungryware 2022-10-04 06:47

@bo-dangles Yeah, a barrier would be cool. Generally, I think considering interesting ways to "change the past" would go a long way toward expanding this game.

salamandur 2022-10-04 20:39

Really neat mechanic. I thought i would cheese it by sitting in a corner but it seems youve thought of that. Nice work.

kujoen 2022-10-04 20:53

Really cool game, but did you push some debug build? Currently the time travel is every 5 seconds.

bo-dangles 2022-10-04 21:19

@kujoen ive seen a couple people have issues with the timeloops ending early. The way im calculating the time loop is a little janky, and I think its just a little wack on different machines/devices. Probably wont find a fix for this version of the game, but i''ll report it as a know bug. Game should still be playable even with the bug, but thanks for pointing it out.

kujoen 2022-10-05 09:15

Oh it was playable fine, I really enjoyed it! I did heavilly abuse the I-Frames though :P

harry-alissavakis 2022-10-05 11:53

Really nice concept and execution! It forces you to think strategically so I think that with some more intricate level design this could be a very nice full game. The mechanic is making the player to think before shooting, so the chaotic nature of the shooter clashes a bit with the strategic aspect, so something that slows the pace might be worth considering. I had fun playing it though, really enjoyed it! Really nice job =]

simba 2022-10-05 18:36

Wow what a unique mechanic! Super well done. It combines a bit of strategy with 2d shooter mechanics really well!

badcop 2022-10-05 21:20

I like this game a lot! cheesing the final boss felt very satisfying :p

wazce 2022-10-06 02:45

I love this idea. Pretty fresh take on the theme. For my run, I beat it with only 5 times back in time so mine was a little bugged I think, but I saw a play through on a stream and it looked really great.