Well I was counting on working down to the last minute, but I have to quit for the day so this is going to be the final version, 5 hours before the deadline. The game is “done” in the sense that you can win and lose, but I wouldn’t really call it complete, there’s a list as long of my arm of things that need to be fixed up and added. All the art is placeholder, which especially hurts. Spent waaaaay too much time on the tech.
So overall, success! I made a game in 48 hours. This was my first LD and I had a blast, I’m definitely doing this again. And I’m *definitely* going with a simpler game next time. I think Solar Lift has some good ideas, but 48 hours wasn’t near enough time for me to experiment and pull those ideas out into a polished, enjoyable game experience.
The game is written in Gosu with Ruby. Intro is lacking, so here’s instructions: the goal is to rescue stranded people off the plummeting planets before they are consumed by the Advancing Wall of Doom. WSAD moves, left mouse shoots, spacebar fires your super laser blast. Rescuing people charges your laser, bullets are unlimited.
I thought this was excellent, with good visuals, controls and mechanics, and it has potential for expanding into a bigger game. The interplay between saving people and using the white bar blob-reducer thing (I still don't fully understand it, I might be misinterpreting it) was very interesting. Thanks for a fun game!
Great application of the theme. I'm a huge fan of Tempest so I was instantly sucked in. Loved the concept and the gameplay was fun.
I found the enemy ships to be nothing but annoying... I wish their movement was a bit more predictable so I could use more strategy on deciding which planets to attack.
I also wish I had a better picture of what was going on around the cone since I'm so far zoomed in and can't see most of it most of the time.
I enjoyed this :) Dig the art style. The player ship could have looked a little better. It wasn't obvious at first I had to absorb the asteroid things, but I was bad and didn't read your final post to learn this. The concept is solid enough to be made into a fuller game. Would have loved an epic sound for the white laser beam!
The way the blob works is really cool. I thought the point was that you had to eventually carve yourself a path through it somehow. I am disappointed to learn otherwise. But then again, there would only be one strategy in that case: fire at the same spot every time!
The need to go backwards is very confusing. It's fine in the gameplay, but since you don't see any planets initially, it's very unintuitive that you have to back up. Turns out there's a lot back to up, I discovered! Pretty cool once I understood it all.
Clever spin on the Tempest idea, but the enemy AI is just annoying. Enemies seem to love to get stuck on the edge behind you and don't do anything after that. I got it down to about 5 million or so.
It seems to be an interesting take on Tempest, but I couldn't really figure out what to do. Sometimes I would get one of those white beams which seemed to cut the wall back, but beyond that it wasn't clear what my goal was. I have to say that some of the sounds were a bit grating.
Figuring out the rules took me some time and I found the game really hard as there's apparently no way to regain health. I'm a fan of the minimalist vector graphics. It also looks really cool when you carve a hole into The Wall and then dive down to rescue a planet.
Well I got it down to 20 million or something, then died for no apparent reason. I think it would be quite a challenge to save all the people, but it also gets a little repetitive, maybe some different enemies or attack patterns would help.
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For a shooter, the game is a little too slow.
I found the enemy ships to be nothing but annoying... I wish their movement was a bit more predictable so I could use more strategy on deciding which planets to attack.
I also wish I had a better picture of what was going on around the cone since I'm so far zoomed in and can't see most of it most of the time.
Also... those waffles look delicious.
The need to go backwards is very confusing. It's fine in the gameplay, but since you don't see any planets initially, it's very unintuitive that you have to back up. Turns out there's a lot back to up, I discovered! Pretty cool once I understood it all.
Overall, not bad but didn't feel outstanding.
The enemy AI is not the brightest. Best to refuel from the side of the human being thingies.
I'm a fan of the minimalist vector graphics. It also looks really cool when you carve a hole into The Wall and then dive down to rescue a planet.
I think it would be quite a challenge to save all the people, but it also gets a little repetitive, maybe some different enemies or attack patterns would help.