FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD56 → Apex Elysium

Apex Elysium

By bogden

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1163.6524
Fun683.7924
Innovation2053.1824
Theme2882.9024
Graphics1633.5423
Audio343.9723
Mood1313.5024

Comments

void4 2024-10-06 23:27

Very slick and polished, nicely done!

wubbaduck 2024-10-07 01:02

Nice! I want to keep playing this just for the music! Well done. This is a fun use of boids.

refrax295 2024-10-07 10:33

This is the first game I've seen that uses boids as part of the main gameplay mechanic and you've pulled it off nicely. Great work!

jake-pearce 2024-10-07 10:38

Game is really fun and visually pops, and music is great. Did have some issues when playing on a low-res monitor (window was larger than the screen with no way to make it smaller) but overall very good.

nazariglez 2024-10-07 11:39

Nice music, the game looks great too, gj!

flipsy 2024-10-07 12:56

Great job, very hypnotic and engrossing. Music works perfectly with the flow of the game. Very polished entry. Well done!

tolja 2024-10-07 17:28

Very nice!

sviborg 2024-10-07 18:06

Great game! I really liked the mechanics - original and exciting! The graphics and music create a hypnotic atmosphere, you want to play again and again. The game looks polished and smooth, everything is harmonious. Great job for Ludum Dare! 👏

weirdbitgames 2024-10-08 00:20

Incredibly music and such fluid gameplay. Once I realised I was supposed to eat all of the little white "sheeps", it was so much fun chasing them around!

superzoom 2024-10-08 00:36

I loved it! Its a fun game, and the music makes it even more exciting. Great job!

a-priori 2024-10-08 03:13

Really polished and stylish game! Only thing I would change is making the red enemies a different shape to set their silhouettes apart from the white ones - maybe a square or a pentagon? Great submission, and very cool to see someone else taking inspiration from Boids in their game!

apexelysium.PNG

human-writes-code 2024-10-08 07:42

Nice one. I really like the difficulty scaling. The controls are simple to understand but difficult to master. I do feel like it would have been better if the dash went past your cursor rather than stopping at the cursor if it was too close - but I also understand that would have been hard to get right from a gamefeel perspective. Overall, great job!

codeman1010 2024-10-08 08:17

image_2024-10-08_021747752.png

pomo 2024-10-09 00:05

Screenshot 2024-10-08 210458.png

garys 2024-10-09 00:47

Seemed simple enough, until I started trying to beat the high score and found it was really a challenge to avoid the red ships... Best I could get was 211. May come back to it though! Really rather fun to play. Excellent soundtrack too.

apex.JPG

jammygunns 2024-10-09 10:03

I was interested to see how you used the boids you've been showing off during the jam and you did a great job with them.

Provided a good challenge which grew in difficulty at a good rate, I found I was genuinely improving with each go as opposed to just getting lucky.

Had to stop my attempts to top the leader board to get some sleep but may get around to trying again later. Here's my current PB: Apex Elysium PB.png

bogden 2024-10-09 18:23

@pomo @garys @jammygunns Glad y'all are finding it engaging enough to go for the gold! Let the high score chase begin!

@human-writes-code I was waffling between fixed dash and completely controlled. I think this is more unique when it comes to games like this but not necessarily better. It does lend itself to an extremely high skill ceiling, which might not be a good thing.

garys 2024-10-09 21:42

Update: apex2.JPG

Insane number on the screen at this level, and I got the music track to loop!

bogden 2024-10-09 22:13

Screen Shot 2024-10-09 at 3.12.01 PM.png

@garys @pomo

Congrats! The true high score has been unlocked. Can you beat it? ;)

garys 2024-10-09 22:31

Oh come on!!

bogden 2024-10-09 22:35

@garys I believe in you!

garys 2024-10-09 22:42

apex3.JPG

garys 2024-10-09 22:53

YEAH!!!

apex5.JPG

bogden 2024-10-09 23:08

@garys See?! No problem! My turn!

garys 2024-10-09 23:09

No problem, he says! This is definitely the game I've played the most so far... very addictive.

willianfhs 2024-10-10 00:18

Very fun and difficult :laughing: I wonder how you did the cluster logic, very interesting Overall, a nice entry, congrats!

bogden 2024-10-10 00:29

@willianfhs It's based around a concept called "boids"! Essentially each entity has a relatively simple set of rules. There's a few forces acting on each one. 1. Try to get close to neighbors 2. Try to stay away from neighbors if they're TOO close 3. Try to align in direction with neighbors

That's the basic logic of boids, with lots and lots of potential for tuning those forces differently that make them behave in very different ways. Then for this game there's 2 additional forces. 4. Try not to get too close to the border 5. Try to stay away from the player (but the red ones don't try as hard as the white)

judith-hantisse 2024-10-10 01:36

Really fun game, with a nice use of flocking behavior! I could really see myself play in on my phone on my commute.

willianfhs 2024-10-10 02:04

@bogden thank you for taking some time to explain, you made it very easy to understand :slight_smile: I'll take a look on that later!

budster16 2024-10-10 06:23

Screenshot 2024-10-10 022153.png

Fun game! love the arcadey style of it and the movement feels super fluid! I didn't see any indicator of dash cooldown which would be my only criticism.

clare-chan1738 2024-10-10 06:35

score.png

Really nice graphics and audio! I like the movement, it feels really good to move around and feels effective when you dash! :)

sbzellex 2024-10-10 06:43

Simple gameplay with clean graphics and audio. Short and easy to understand is a plus. Great work!

bogden 2024-10-11 20:33

@budster16 Thanks for playing! The dash indicator is the level of yellow fill on the player. I tried to do it in a more diagetic way, but I guess it wasn't clear enough. Thanks for the feedback!

garys 2024-10-11 23:44

I can't stop playing this game. 334 is still my best score.

garys 2024-10-14 01:13

God damn it!!! apex6.JPG

garys 2024-10-14 11:02

I mean... Ugh. Never mind... thought I'd topped it.

crocidb 2024-10-14 19:49

I love it! It's so much fun, simple and so efficient. The art style and the sound effects match so well together! Great job!!

[Screenshot 2024-10-14 214613.png](///raw/fc8/2/z/68d2f.png)

crocidb 2024-10-14 19:51

Screenshot 2024-10-14 214613.png Oops

jammygunns 2024-10-15 00:59

Had another couple of goes at a new PB. Struggling to consistently get past 220.

My current PB:

Apex Elysium PB.png

Going to have to try again after a break.

garys 2024-10-17 21:39

WEHEY!!!

apex8.JPG

garys 2024-10-17 21:51

Oh man... I am on _fire!_ Apex 9.JPG

bogden 2024-10-23 11:39

Holy cow @garys you are my hero!!