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DEPTH CHARGE
DEPTH CHARGE
By jovialknoll
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 165 | 3.39 | 21 | |
| Fun | 175 | 3.18 | 21 | |
| Innovation | 182 | 3.13 | 21 | |
| Theme | 183 | 3.40 | 22 | |
| Graphics | 258 | 2.80 | 22 | |
| Audio | 176 | 3.07 | 21 | |
| Humor | 152 | 2.69 | 20 | |
| Mood | 192 | 3.21 | 21 | |
Comments
swooty
2025-04-07 01:44
Nice vibe and I really like the cloudy ocean setting. There's some cool gameplay ideas with the enemy's explosions persisting. Graphics and sound is all pretty cohesive, but I bet a bitcrusher on the voice would've really sold it :)
That said, at least with the Windows default layout, this game is very hard to play. I'm sure you get used to the movement keys being on , and / or Z and C but the game forces you to move right away or else you die immediately. Not much time to get bearings even with multiple resets. Also the fire button being on . and X makes this a bit extra challenging. There are a lot of accidental presses.
I appreciate the meaty and well featured menu for changing things like key binds. However, for me it was a bit glitchy with what was displayed when changing keys, and I found it a bit difficult to do controls remapping
I think you would get a lot stronger immediate impressions if you were you remap the controls to something much more accessible. I think even putting fire on space bar would go a long way, as a lot of the awkwardness comes from it being right in between the movement keys.
I also would like if the game were balanced around a limited fire rate as you can just kinda spam bullets like crazy. I bet even holding the button to auto-shoot would be a lot of fun, without requiring the dexterity.
Really neat lil game and again I think this nice menu is a sick feature to have. I think the biggest issue is the accessibility.
@swooty thanks for playing! yeah I tried a few mappings but honestly using a controller works best (though an arcade layout would be even better). You should be able to make space bar also activate shooting in the control editing menu, but I'll probably just upload a version with that on by default.
Not sure why, I cannot open the Mac version.
I love the concept, works well with the theme! Mac build ran fine for me (on an M2 MacBook) except it was blocked by System Integrity Protection (launching it from the terminal is an easy way to bypass). Also found the keyboard controls pretty challenging. Persistent explosions are interesting, but found the enemies backed me into a corner pretty fast if I wasn't playing like missile command and shooting down all their torpedos
Neat game! brings back a lot of memories about playing a bunch of these types of games on old emulators back when CD Roms were all the rage
@haokai-xu-1999 sorry if there are difficulties in the mac version, I don't have a mac machine at home to verify, so I'm just working on my existing build setup in github actions. The game is python though, so you should also be able to download and run the source, though admittedly that's a lot more work.
k1n
2025-04-08 05:21
Good job
Cool game, ran great, I appreciate the options in the menu! I would love if you included a volume slider as well, but good on you for including ANY options, that's rare for a jam game. Either way, I had fun playing it, and that's the most important bit! Great work!
Awesome game. I like the little mechanical extras, such as ongoing explosions still being deadly, and blocking torpedoes. As well as the way depth charges can be turned after firing them. The controls were a bit tricky to start with (I ended up on WSAD and <>/), but I eventually managed a score of 7598.
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dhim
2025-04-09 13:59
It took me a lot of try to understand that I should spam the space key to have any hope.. The dual controls are two hard for me! I would have reversed them, I am use in the other entry to move myself with asdw or arrows. It seems that I lost by touching an already explosed ammo? not sure.
Cool entry, thanks for the mac build.
It's nice to see you have used github extensively (107 commits! I managed 20 or so) during the development process of the game. I have starred and added your repository to a list of ld57 compo : https://github.com/stars/dhmmasson/lists/ludum-dare-57-compo
I have also created badges for the readme that you can use: ``` Ludum Dare Ludum Dare ```
Consider using these **topics** to make your Ludum Dare entry more discoverable: - `game` - `game-development` - `ludum-dare` - `ludumdare` - `ludumdare57` - `ludum-dare-57` - `ld57`
@googlefrog @dhim definitely agree the keyboard controls could use some more love, I think once I realized the controller controls felt good I put less time into them... Something I should revisit when I release a post-judging version.
@dhim I work as a software engineer, so the git habits are well ingrained at this point :) makes it much easier in case I need to revert something
@floppynub The big benefit of using my own engine package! I want to revisit the menus at some point, they could use a lot of love, but it's so nice having something basic in place to start with for a new game project.
The gameplay here is neat, and pretty challenging! There's a lot to pay attention to at the same time. Dodging usually seemed like a better bet than trying to shoot the bullets out of the air. Or, ideally, I'd be able to hit the bullets while shooting at the submarines. Otherwise I'd tend to spend all my bullets as counters, and not hit any of the submarines.
I played on keyboard (with the space key in your new version), and I thought it was pretty intuitive, but it definitely felt like a game that'd work best with shoulder buttons.
Having to manage movable space (that's not hit with an explosion) was a pretty neat dynamic. I'd be curious what the skill ceiling is. Is there a difficulty curve to how many submarines show up over time?
Also, my scores:
your_score.png
I didn't have a controller handy and I wasn't any good at it at all, but this is a fun game! The gameplay mechanics are unique while being simple enough that I feel dumb for being bad at it, which of course leads to me restarting it countless times. It's minimal but effective with what it presents. Great work!
@sudocoffee thanks for the feedback!
The difficulty curve is something I'd like to improve with a post-compo version, but one does exist, in the code base here: https://github.com/JovialKnoll/ludum-dare-57/blob/master/src/mode/modeplay.py#L106-L119 and here: https://github.com/JovialKnoll/ludum-dare-57/blob/master/src/mode/modeplay.py#L201-L210
TL;DR: one every 5 seconds, after 15 seconds another every 10 (offset), after 45 another every 5 (offset), at 60 another every minute. Also the average speed of the ships goes up at 30s, 60s, 120s, 180s, 240s, and with some jumps the distributions also change.
remco
2025-04-11 10:02
Nice simple arcade game. Also neat to see people still using their own frameworks.
By simple I mean the concept is simple -- I didn't think it was simple to control. At first I thought that was because I wasn't using a controller, but when I dragged out my old controller and hooked it up, I was worse.
I think I did best when I just didn't bother aiming (separately from moving the ship around) -- you can get pretty far if you just leave the aim pointing down. That does exacerbate another problem though -- since the charges lobbed at you by the subs only explode quite slowly, they can essentially box you in (especially at the sides of the screen.
I do appreciate the voice-clips (other sfx) and the hi-score table though (and the menu's, but that's part of the framework). (Nitpick; It's nice that it's possible at all, but it feels a bit odd to have to save the hiscore table manually...)
@remco yup, the explosions can definitely box you in if you don't also target the enemy shots, it gets hectic fast.
For the saving: I didn't have time to set it up for the compo, but that's a good suggestion, I'll probably do that for a post-compo version. As is I was just using the built in save functionality of my framework, but I should make options in the framework to have auto-save and load.
khaotom
2025-04-12 05:57
This feels like it could have been in the arcades of my youth, the sounds and feel of the controls. I really like how the shots are controllable after firing, and how the enemy shots hitting the surface become momentary hazards. Has a unique tactical challenge to it. Nicely done!
atsh
2025-04-12 07:45
Cute game, sort of reverse missle command where you can move. The voice clip added to the charm
The controls are not the best, and initially I didn't see much reason to aim. The submarines can be really relentless, and trap you on the side where you can't really move
Keep it up!
A fun arcade game! Good job. I tried to think how I can survive as long as I can, then I found that I should shoot as frequently as possible, and move bit by bit from one side of the window to the other side to avoid being targeted. However my finger got pain after trying to keep pressing space wwwww
It's a fun experience playing this game. Thank you for making this!
velis69
2025-04-12 19:35
Its some remind me for game - sub command, love submarine! Check my game too comrade!
Controls on PC are a bit hard for me ^^U maybe mouse for aiming and shooting would have been easier. Anyways cool entry!
eugenik
2025-04-14 03:03
I definitely love the art style, very nice work !.
Really tough game but I went back and played it with a controller and def helped