Scrapped

peachtreeoath 2023-01-14 04:56

You read my mind when I was playing the game. I didn't read the tutorial text going into this game so I wasn't aware of the scrap mechanic. I started shooting robots as normal and they bounced around like a pinball so it take me too long to realize they were invincible. So then I thought "I wish there was a VS game where I'm pushing enemies into killzones." Lo and behold, that ended up being the primary mechanic in the game!

The strategy change was a lot different from the others. You now have to camp around the scrap heap. On top of that, you needed to make sure your shot angles were correct and would push the robots in. This already created a different enough strategy that felt fresh.

Although the bouncing mechanic killed me MANY times (24 was the highest I could reach), I'd still say that the design choice to do that was great, mostly because I'm tied of the same shambling zombie mechanic and having things come at me.

The upgrades were pretty different as well. I can't help but guess you went for the implementation because you lacked the time to make a whole UI and selection menu :P Ultimately I'm ambivalent on the choice of upgrades instead of HP taking a hit, I think it could go either way.

For such a loaded genre, you still managed to find a fairly unique design in it. Good stuff!

falkreon 2023-01-14 17:50

I really wish I could have fullscreened this game to prevent misclicks outside the play area. Robots bouncing each other around led to many, many unavoidable deaths both for them and for me. I felt that the chaotic nature of the playfield took away from the fun of dodging around and ringing them out in the center. I probably got some upgrades because there's a sound cue that I didn't see any reason for, but I don't know what they were or whether they helped.

pennycook 2023-01-14 21:27

This feels really polished, and was a lot of fun to play. The pixel art is really crisp, the 8-directional movement feels really smooth, and the soundtrack fits the gameplay perfectly. A very impressive entry!

I like that shooting robots more than once increases their velocity, and I think the bounce mechanic is cool. But I think that they probably move _too_ fast. More than once I accidentally shot a robot into another, setting off a chain reaction of bouncing robots that was impossible to avoid. It made me play very cautiously.

The UI elements are very small, and I'd recommend making them about 5x bigger. With them being so small and in the corner of the screen, I found it very difficult to pick them up with my peripheral vision. They contain important information, so they deserve to be about as big as other important elements (like the player and enemies).

rezioz 2023-01-15 01:43

A rather original gameplay, I like it ! Love the bouncing mechanics! Also, nice musics ! Maybe the UI is a bit too small, but that's not a big deal.

bloodfin 2023-01-15 02:21

I like the original take on the gameplay pushing the robots around and great music! I will say the robots bouncing so fast and unpredictably did make dying frequent and hard to strategize and get into a groove playing but really fun idea and great job getting it done!

datagreed 2023-01-15 02:22

Nice music and graphics! Love that you took your time to make diagonal version for the sprites. I didn't really understand if there is a difference between just destroying enemies and pushing them to the pile in the center though.

random-storykeeper 2023-01-15 02:28

@datagreed I'm not sure I understand you correctly, but the only way to destroy enemies is to either push them into the pile or make them go into the pile. There isn't really a difference between both of them - when 10 of them go in, then you're supposed to get the upgrade. If that doesn't help clarify things, then let me know.

khaotom 2023-01-15 06:43

Difficult game, rockin tunes. Found the premise pretty interesting and different, but I did have it backwards at first, thought the point was to prevent the bots from getting to the heap.

matank 2023-01-15 08:26

Awesome idea and very nice implementation!

What I liked: * Killing the bots by pushing them around into the pile felt very innovative and made this game different from other games of this type. * The "health" mechanic being a loss of a random upgrade also felt unique. * The art looked really nice.

What I didn't liked: * I think the upgrade could've come sooner. At least for me, killing 10 robots was really hard, and I almost always got hit at least once before getting the upgrade, so I never actually managed to upgrade anything beyond the initial 2 levels. * The difference between the different upgrade levels didn't feel big - I didn't feel like it actually made gameplay harder when I had firing rate at level 1 vs level 2 for example. * There could be better indication when you get hit (maybe some sound effect or particle effect?)

Anyway, had a lot of fun playing this!

vphyre 2023-01-16 04:27

Very beautiful game! I really liked the graphics, everything works very well visually! The sound is very good, and the gameplay is very simple and fun.

Good work!

smilewood 2023-01-16 18:53

I like the idea of your health and upgrades being the same resource pool - I don't know that I have played a game with that mechanic before. Overall I thought that this game was well put together, the art and soundtrack worked well with the gameplay, and for the most part it was fun to play. As others have mentioned, it took me a while to realize that I had to get the enemies into the scrap pile, once I realized that it became a very interesting game. I found the near-frictionless bouncing to be very difficult to control, especially as the enemies colliding with each other seemed to gain momentum, so quite a few times a soft tap came flying back at me at hyperspeed. Great job with the game, it was a refreshingly new take and fun to play!

amarokczukay 2023-01-19 10:06

nice, i liked a lot the bouncing mechanic! sometimes robots were bouncing a little bit too fast for me to process the information, but the idea is very original! game felt polished, and i really liked the music! great job

fluburbio 2023-01-20 21:14

Nice vibe! I love the graphics and music. This is a nice concept, though I had to read the comments to figure out what to do. Some in-game instructions would have helped, maybe as an option on the title screen. I had a lot of fun, thanks for the great game!