Acelloids aka Pseudo-MicroNuclear Marmalade Sponge Asteroids On Drugs
Made for Ludum Dare #26 Jam. Project status: Prototype
How to play:
Controls:
Use NumPad to shoot from the first (or previous) selected point to the next one in a 3x3 grid arrangement.
Alternatively, you can use this layout:
QWE ASD ZXC
Arrow keys and Home/End/PgUp/PgDn block also work and do the same. Keycode of NumPad5 without the NumLock on turned out to be 12, so I think it will work independently of NumLock status.
ESC to quit. R to restart.
F5 to save, F6 to load, F9 to take a screenshot.
There's also an emergency control for cells that are stuck out of the shooting range. Hold the middle point (NumPad5 or S) for 4 seconds (at full 50FPS) to change their direction slightly (30 degrees).
Gameplay:
Destroy the cells before they spawn more cells than your computer can afford without dropping the FPS to something unreasonable. Maximal FPS is set to 50. There's actually no Game Over condition (minimalism, that is).
Shoot bonuses to gain temporary weapon boost.
With each level you have to deal with more cells, but boost time also increases. Bonus chance does not, and is 5% per second.
Tools used:
Engine: Game Maker 8.0 Lite Graphics: GM built-in sprite editor, Paint.NET
Materials used:
'Philosopher' font by Jovanny Lemonad Everything else by HD408
Interesting idea, but it is hard to gather what a player is doing or why from the gameplay... maybe more feedback or an altering characteristic of the player's objects? Love the Damascus pattern in the back!
The graphics were nice, and while innovative, the game was very difficult to control. The major issue was that you needed to draw a line then wait for the dot to travel along the line to hit the cell. This took too long and made aiming very difficult. In the end I ended up just spamming the buttons in a circle that just hit everything on screen (seems there is no limit to the number of attack lines I can have out at once).
I loved the control scheme. Make it WAY more difficult. Give me a method of failure. Also, on level 6 I ended up getting a potato thing stuck out of the range of the attacks and not moving closer in any way. It just keeps looping downward.
The second level starts out really crazy, you can just mash buttons. Then it gets slow, as you weight for something to cross one of the paths. Innovative mechanics.
MinionStudios: There's no story or meaning to that. Never knew about the Damascus pattern. It was interesting to google that.
dalbinblue: I thought about making an upgrade system, but that'd take more interface design time than I had. Maybe other power-ups would be better, but I didn't think about them.
Cosine: Well, maybe it's a potato under a microscope, and it's inhabited with some bacteria. ...So actually it's not a potato anyway. More like a watermelon, as Pinkerator said.
TehSkull: "There's also an emergency control for cells that are stuck out of the shooting range. Hold the middle point (NumPad5 or S) for 4 seconds (at full 50FPS) to change their direction slightly (30 degrees)." - that's from readme file and game description on this page. So, it IS a method of failure, not to read manual carefully!
Pinkerator: No, you're not. It's actually the most obvious way to play this game. And you've made me laugh - it actually looks like a close-up of a watermelon slice, albeit actually it is a fragment of sponge ("... Marmalade SPONGE Asteroids ...").
netmute: Sorry, too, I don't make games for Mac.
Everyone else: Thanks for your comments! If I didn't rate your games, it means that either I didn't have time for LD at all, or I couldn't launch them. I've got really old and slow machine here, so even Web entries are often slow and unplayable because of that.
Tifu: Thanks. Probably the visuals are the best of this.
avidgamerNino: That would be against rules, I can't modify the game now. There's no end of the game, and also - it's the actual concept behind it. It doesn't end, it just becomes slow, sooner or later, so player decides whether it is comfortable to continue. And at last, it becomes clearly unbeatable. I just don't want to put the limit. This game feels more "natural", such as it is now. As intended.
This game seems like a good idea and visuals re rather nice but it is very difficult to control; I couldn't properly use the controls so resorted to mashing all the buttons
Playing Acelloids really making me feel like I'm a cat trying to catch a flashlight spot. First I was thinking the concept was good but I ended up bashing my keyboard for maximum efficiency. I think the proto would work better with a drawback for key bashing : - If two shots = 1x cell spawn you will have to be efficient on each move. - You can also put some non-target you have to avoid while shooting. ( 3 errors = game over ) - Or making the shots convert bad cells in good one but make the process reversible
Visual style was neat, mechanic was interesting but not fully developed. I didn't see any reason to not just mash the four corner buttons. Would love to see this idea developed further.
Tiago Ling Alexandre, sorry for the late reply. Background image was made with a photo of a sponge (the very same texture that the "asteroids" are drawn with) and Paint.NET for heavy deformation effect and coloring. Also made it seamless with my own graphics utility.
Comments26
Interesting mechanics in any case =)
There's no story or meaning to that.
Never knew about the Damascus pattern. It was interesting to google that.
dalbinblue:
I thought about making an upgrade system, but that'd take more interface design time than I had. Maybe other power-ups would be better, but I didn't think about them.
Cosine:
Well, maybe it's a potato under a microscope, and it's inhabited with some bacteria. ...So actually it's not a potato anyway. More like a watermelon, as Pinkerator said.
TehSkull:
"There's also an emergency control for cells that are stuck out of the shooting range. Hold the middle point (NumPad5 or S) for 4 seconds (at full 50FPS) to change their direction slightly (30 degrees)." - that's from readme file and game description on this page. So, it IS a method of failure, not to read manual carefully!
Pinkerator:
No, you're not. It's actually the most obvious way to play this game.
And you've made me laugh - it actually looks like a close-up of a watermelon slice, albeit actually it is a fragment of sponge ("... Marmalade SPONGE Asteroids ...").
netmute:
Sorry, too, I don't make games for Mac.
Everyone else:
Thanks for your comments! If I didn't rate your games, it means that either I didn't have time for LD at all, or I couldn't launch them. I've got really old and slow machine here, so even Web entries are often slow and unplayable because of that.
Enjoyed the visuals!
Thanks. Probably the visuals are the best of this.
avidgamerNino:
That would be against rules, I can't modify the game now. There's no end of the game, and also - it's the actual concept behind it. It doesn't end, it just becomes slow, sooner or later, so player decides whether it is comfortable to continue. And at last, it becomes clearly unbeatable. I just don't want to put the limit. This game feels more "natural", such as it is now. As intended.
I think the proto would work better with a drawback for key bashing :
- If two shots = 1x cell spawn you will have to be efficient on each move.
- You can also put some non-target you have to avoid while shooting. ( 3 errors = game over )
- Or making the shots convert bad cells in good one but make the process reversible
The background art is very cool! How did you do it?
Congrats!
Right now this project has rather low priority.