Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Scorched Asteroids!
By svkj
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 536 | 3.60 | 22 | |
| Fun | 237 | 3.85 | 22 | |
| Innovation | 788 | 3.07 | 22 | |
| Theme | 884 | 3.13 | 21 | |
| Humor | 699 | 2.61 | 19 | |
| Mood | 644 | 3.44 | 21 |
Great game. I love the music, it reminds me of terraria. My only gripe is that some levels are far too easy which gives the blue player a massive advantage. It would be nice if it alternated giving the red player a chance to go first.
There's really no interaction between the players when it's turn based like this. One shot is all it takes more times than not. I also don't really see the theme in it nor the value of recreating something that exists like this without adding much. The worms like gameplay never gets old though.
@raaph Yeah, it definitely needs to be more challenging, and at the very least ensure that the first player can't win without the other player even getting a turn! Bigger levels would help with this, or maybe some health for each player. This would also make the game fit the theme better, since as games last longer the lack of space on your asteroid becomes more and more important.
Truth is we spent most of the jam just getting the gravity physics, asteroid rendering, level editor, and shot preview working at all :) In retrospect we definitely should have reduced our ambitions there and reserved more time for gameplay balancing
We also considered making it real time but it's not as fun when not using the mouse to aim (therefore local multiplayer isn't possible), and also this way it's more true to the original which we liked
The physics, feedbacks and random generation is really great and i'm curious how you did it ! It may be too easy or clunky, it's just a jam game. I enjoyed the little time I spent on it !
I think missiles should collide with enemy tanks though. I missed a great shot :(
@eryph Thanks! The random generation works by having each level composed of a bunch of metaballs, which I use to generate the surface. Explosions create negative metaballs which chew away at it.
The tanks not colliding with the missiles was a bug that I've now fixed
@gamedevsourcery Great idea about alternating who goes first. I've added this change too
I didn't have anyone to play it with but I liked the feeling of pulling off difficult trick shots weaving in between asteroids. The mouse control is bit difficult when performing longer shots, but it makes it all the more satisfying to land the shot. Good Job!
This is a genius idea, I'm shocked I've never something like this before! It feels pretty solid, the movement is a little wobbley but feels bug free which I think is impressive, it must have been tricky to calculate the movement paths.
Graphics are simple but nicely made which I think suits the game perfectly, a shame there's no AI so I couldn't really play it, but I imagine it's good fun. Hard to screw up a great formula like scorched earth.
My only gripe is the aiming system feels a bit clunky and unintuitive, I prefer the classic style where you manually adjust angle and force by holding keys.
Overall a great little jam game that nails it's scope perfectly, great work!
Nice game, well executed. Graphics are simple and works great with the music. Just had a bit of trouble moving a tank, controls are disturbing for me. As a result, I didn't often have time to play my turn.
@3mpty Thanks! Yeah you aren't the first to request keyboard controls for aiming, similar to the original. That might be better. You could also more easily re-use your previous aiming and just make adjustments to it. I might give that a shot to see.
@martinboue Thanks! I'm assuming you mean the WASD/arrow keys for moving the tank. It is a bit strange because there is no "go forward/backward" button and instead you choose the absolute direction you want to go with WASD/arrow keys. I thought this would be less confusing than just forward/back because forward/back gets inverted when the tank is upside down
Re: turn time - I just re-publishing it with a change to have a bit longer turn times, and also reduced the move speed of the tanks (so users can't just drive to their opponent and shoot them directly as easily) so that may help a bit. I was also thinking maybe requiring that users "Ready Up" by hitting space bar before starting the timer and gaining control of their tank every turn.
I played this during stream, really awesome little base to build something cool off of. During stream we talked about AI and online MP, I think those would be awesome. Overall I think the currently implemented features are just awesome.
Interesting game. It reminded me a bit of Pocket Tanks. It's a shame that there is no computer battle mode. From a technical perspective, the implementation of gravity mechanics seems very interesting. If it were limited to playing with a friend, I would add a short pause between turns to have time to pass control.
nice tank shooter game.
I like how you did the land areas and break em.
maybe add indication when turn changes. and maybe small wait time in between if actually 2 users would be playing the same game with same keyboard and mouse, you need time to switch around.
Gameplay is clear and simple to learn. though shooting could be integrated to keyboard controls maybe? Like first move to place, then turn the gun where you want.
bit more time per turn would work, but I guess it's fast paced in a sense.
@alexascher @jukepoks1 Thanks for playing and the feedback! I added your suggestion and there is now a pause between turns, where the new user has to hit space bar to begin the time countdown. I agree this is really helpful
Really nice entry! It's pretty creative take as a worms-like with gravity bending bullets. I like the idea and I think it has a TON of potential as a full game if it gets polished out more. Exact wasd movement controls need a little work I think, but other than that, it was fun for what it is! Good game!
@pious Thanks! I am debating following through with it for a real game so glad to hear. Can you elaborate on the issues you encountered with wasd movement? Or is wasd just not very intuitive? The challenge there is how to move around a full circle, so having just forward/back also feels a bit weird
That is true. I think the problem is that I'm not sure which button is for which direction. Perhaps the solution are two different routes: Have a toggle or setting of sorts that uses WASD/Arrows for relative direction (if it moves you to the right of the tank no matter the orientation), global direction (no matter what pressing A is going to move you left), etc. OR have little helper UI's showing what button moves in which direction.
Alternatively, you could change the movement entirely. Instead of tanks, perhaps a self launching kind of thing like angry birds? I think a neat way to go about it is to move by launching, let gravity take you around, then after the move phase, it goes into your shoot/action phase, then ends your turn if you didn't win.
I think experimenting would be good!
Fun game, as a mechanics-focused guy myself I like seeing other games with interesting mechanics at their core. I'm curious why you went for metaballs instead of a per pixel or polygon intersection based solution? It's certainly novel, but I noticed that shots tend to affect terrain fairly far away from where the shot lands quite often.
For the movement I'm a fans of left\right (and\or A\D) being counterclockwise and clockwise, in games like this.
Can easily see it expanded into a full game with enemy AI and different weapon types.
@nathmate Honestly I went with metaballs because I'm familiar with that and was more confident I could get that working during the jam :) If I continue working on it I think I will move to a different approach. Asteroids really aren't goopy in the way that metaballs are, and also make it hard to keep the explosion localized to a small area like you say. Thanks for the feedback!
A really fun throwback to old Scorch! Made me recall all the times I got angry at MIRVs not hitting where I wanted them to.
The gravity mechanic is an excellent addition to it. Getting trick shots perfectly and hitting the target feels really satisfying.
The game looks great, and I like the way the asteroids reshape after a hit. Though it does feel weird that I am changing the ground under the enemy tank when the shell hit a rock far above them. Seeing your explanation for it makes it a bit clearer, I guess I'll have to write an implementation of metaballs and do some experiments myself.
On the audio front the game is good too. All the needed sounds are there, and the background music is banging. It makes me feel more like I'm playing a scrolling shooter like Raptor rather than Scorched Earth, but it does hit the nostalgia button.
As for the controls - maybe changing the tank sprite to have a distinguishable front and back then controlling movement with A/D as forward/backward buttons would work better?
Fantastic implementation of the concept. Thought, I did manage to break the game by blowing up the enemy tank and myself at the same time, so now the game is just playing the music in my background now with no way to move on. haha.