I like it, but I'm afraid I really don't get it. Are all the sphere's just to get in the way? Is there any reason that I shouldn't be firing constantly?
Nice concept! Presentation is also very appealing. I didn't immediately understand how breaking a shell worked - is it when you pass a certain percentage of broken segments? In any case, great work. :)
Each layer gets destroyed when all the enemies on the previous one are destroyed.
A
Andrew Shouldice28 Apr 2014, 02:37
It was very satisfying to discover I could hold down the laser button. Destroy whole shells was also fun. I wasn't really sure what was draining my shields, though.
MattV: All the rotating purple is your shield,so every shot fired does hit your shield :) That's what the impact explosions/circle things are showing when the missiles "hit".
I really like the mechanic, and the concept was really cool. Movement was a little slow which made it a little difficult. The game looked really cool and those were great effects. The sound effects were great, but there was no music that really set the mood. Great job overall though!
A novel idea, and a nice touch that you learn to rotate in the opposite direction to the planet's spheres to more quickly get to the cannons. Nice retro vector-ish look, too :)
One thing I'd change - right now there's no incentive to ever stop firing your laser. Maybe if the player's camera moved faster while not firing it could add extra depth to the game?
Really cool. I love the concept and the difficulty. Graphics are awesome although this game is crying out for fancy shaders and a bit of shiny post-processing :) But it's the game that counts and this is great :)
I like it! Just think the camera shouldn't rotate at the same speed as the globe, because i you try rotating in oposite directions, you can't really change your relative position.
Was looking forward to playing this game after seeing a post about it and now after doing so I am not disappointed. Sweet interpretation of the theme, what in return gave a highly enjoyable game.
Really inventive use of the theme, and a gameplay mechanic I don't believe I've seen before. Great graphics and animation, too. I think this has a lot of potential. Good work!
Interesting game :) I would also like to see this as mobile game. Maybe make rotation faster when not firing, to add some more dynamical mechanics to the game.
Nice job, innovative and cleanly executed. I think with a bit of juiciness, and some smoothing of rough parts, this could be a great game. Might be interesting on mobile?
I really like the presentation and concept. I really wish I had some kind of defense against the missiles though. Might be my playstyle, but it takes me quite a bit of time to get through the shells, so it feels a bit unfair. Maybe if the laser did a bit more damage... (hint, hint)
Thanks for the tip on re-sizing the browser, glad I didn't pass this one over. Very fun trying to locate the turrets and destroying them before they do to much damage. Stressing, but also very rewarding with the explosions, great job. Probably one of my favorite, simple yet very addicting. :)
Very satisfying sphere destruction. I thought many times as I burned the inner sphere, why did I swallow this thing. Triumph, elation as I burned my inner orbs.
That was really cool! In the end it comes down to finding and destroying all the enemies asap, since all the missiles are bound to hit you. Well, the enemies did give away their positions by blowing holes in the planet, but it was still hard to catch up with them. Made it up to the 4th level with some luck. Good entry. And yeah, good use of the theme, too!
Very impressive considering the timeframe this was made in! I feel like the game was very heavily inspured by tetrisphere. Visual effects are gorgeous however the the average sound effects and no music let this down a bit, with better audio I believe this could have had a really good atmosphere!
I know I'm thinking of tetrisphere but if there was some 'purpose' to digging to the bottom, perhaps saving a 'friend', unveiling a treasure the turrets are protecting, etc that could have also added to the game
Josh: Thanks! Nope, not inspired by tetrisphere, I've never seen it until now. Just had a look at some screenshots of it though and I totally get what you mean! :)
Once I understood the strategy needed, really interesting game and seems very well balanced with the different surfaces. I enjoyed the challenge! Needs music! Love the low poly planet.
Very nice arcade game. Beautiful. Controls were good. I wasn't bothered by the lack of music (maybe on the title screen only?). I liked the sound effects as the background noise. Good job!
This is a really innovative Idea. I watched your progress during the compo and really liked the idea and the style. It is very functional and thus gains some really nice art. The sounds could have been done better, especially I miss some background music. Nevertheless a great game!
This idea works pretty well, although I was unable to defeat stage 5. I like how turrets reveal their position when they fire, but because the different layers are rotating independently there's some complexity to predicting their location.
Very cool. One of the most original games I've seen so far. I saw this on the blog and thought it was neat, but the gameplay is fun too. Awesome graphical style.
Hi. Love the novel look and feel, is perhaps a bit hard but I completed level 1... Is there a way to recharge shields ? The shell movements and generation are great!
Very interesting playing around the theme. Game become very hard for me since 3-d level. So I can't beat it. Need more polishing and balancing, I think.
Really good! It was fun to chase down the little orange things, and to dig them out of their barriers. I wish that you didn't have to hold down the left mouse button all the time though, and I also wish that the character moved a bit faster, as it often took ages to reach an orange dot.
Really love the look of this and the gameplay is interesting too. Great work! I really really like the movement of everything it just feels really nice
I like it. During the first day of development I saw your posts and thought "how is that going to be a fun game?", but it turned out pretty well! Looks fancy and is in the last levels pretty challenging.
Fun! One thing you might do to adjust the difficulty level is to make the bullets go at varying speed and the player could perhaps burn them up? Combine that with the yellow shields regrowth and you might have possibilities for more levels..
This actually works quite well. Overall I think this is the first game I've really enjoyed on here. A few caveats:
Later levels become difficult in a rather unsatisfying way given the high rotational-speed of lower levels. I could either never get around to them in time or struggle to line up a shot rotating in the opposite direction due to the large amount of cover from higher levels.
If enemies were on the opposite side from the camera I had no way of knowing where I was getting hit from, this is was frustrating.
I spent all my time simply holding down the left mouse button. There was no reason not to have it held down so I wonder why I needed to press it at all. If a control is going to exist there should be ways to be expressive with it. Maybe add some additional ways to use the laser that involve the left mouse button. Pulsing laser fire, larger beams, etc., could all work.
I like it! The mechanics are fresh and new and has a lot of room for exploration! The strong visual/mechanic design tie is a great bonus too :) The way the enemies shoot so you'll go look for them is great design.
There are many things that can still be explored so I hope you carry on with this :) Like for example there's no reason to NOT be attacking. So give the player a reason not to hold down the button forever!
Theme! I would like to see a cooler theme, something like an armada of spaceships surrounding the sphere/enemy ship/planet/whatever. Cos right now you're a big sphere... Surrounding a smaller sphere... What?
Awesome visual style, possibly one of the top ones! Very clean and polished game, simple but not too easy/hard mechanics. I was positively shocked by this game.
To only part I didn't like were controls: Keyboard to move and left click anywhere to shoot didn't feel right, a mouse only approach could have fit better.
Really liked the concept, and it was very well executed. Nice and solid gameplay with no bugs (that I could see). Quite a fun little game, very good entry. Good job!
Never played a game like this before; only downside I can think of is (obviously) lack of levels, too easy, and mediocre audio. Still really great, though.
Solid entry, I liked the removing of layers, that they regrow and that enemy shots break the layers, hence give me feedback where to look for them. What feels weird is in the later levels that the rotation of the sphere becomes stronger than my ability to rotate, so my input feels very hampered with. Some more feedback about the position of the enemies would have been nice.
Really cool and innovative! Simple "programmer art" that is not in bad taste and gets the job done. I just don't like that surface pieces regenerate... apart from that a really excellent entry :D
Clever idea. There didn't seem to be any reason not to fire constantly, so an auto-fire mode might be nice to save the player's mouse finger. Although, it was hard to see where you were firing, so a more crosshair-shaped crosshair might help. It was also quite difficult to rotate properly to reach the firing missiles, though I imagine that was intentional. The missiles hitting the shield with no way to heal or dodge was a bit frustrating.
Nice concept, we did kind of the oposite for our game hehe. Liked the overall presentation and the gameplay was fun and simple. Maybe the camera/planet rotation could have a bit of movement friction when you let go of the directional buttons before it returns to it's natural self rotation, just to give a cool feeling when changing directions :)
Awesome mechanic! It seems all enemy bullets are hitting me even though they're not facing my direction. If that was fixed, I'd be having a blast!
Also, maybe some enemies shouldn't be able to shoot through their shield? Not all, just some. For more fair play. But it's awesome and I've spent a good 20 minutes shooting away, kudos!
Whoa, that was pretty cool! Its simple but a bit more difficult and interesting than it appears at first glance. Definitely like the stealth element of it. Nice job!
I really appreciate the unique and original gameplay. I'm a big fan of low poly flat shading, and this game definitely had that. The interface was simple and straight forward and it was easy to figure out what was going on (something that can be difficult to do when you make unique games). I think it might have benefited from a little ambient music. I found it pretty frustrating when I was going after one of the enemies and they were able to move faster than I was. I think in order to focus on the skill and eliminate frustration, the challenge should either be discovering the enemies location (since they're usually obstructed and you can just see the path of their bullets), or from the skill needed to catch up with the enemies when you don't travel at their speed by judging their path (without making it difficult to find them). Just my two cents, but I think you could make the gameplay stronger by focusing on one of those elements (I personally think mapping their trajectory without making it difficult to find the enemies is more interesting). Overall very nice game! It's complete and interesting, it fits the theme well and it's fun. Good job!
Nice idea and good graphics implementation. I think it is a little bit bad balanced. It is more random when you discover the enemies, and you have barely time to track them down.
Holy crap, that last level! This is a lot of fun, and I love how at first the mechanics seemed very straightforward, but later on you realize certain things about how best to play (like how to rotate properly instead of struggling against the wrong axis). Great entry!
That was certainly interesting! It too reminded me of Tetrisphere, even though it's a completely different game. :P This one's got a really cool idea, and is a fantastic take on the theme. The way each layer rotates independently is a great idea, too, as it prevents the game from being too easy/predictable. Maybe level 5 is a bit too hard, though...those inner tiles get really strong!
Simple but satisfyingly challenging. Predicting the movement of the lower layers is fun, and the graphical polish is good. Could really do with some music and maybe some extra levels with more variety.
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killthealias: I'm on my Mac so I'll take a look at yours tomorrow when I'm on a PC :)
Great concept!
I have been fiddling around with Icospheres myself the last weeks, so i really enjoyed seeing this. Fits the theme absolutely perfectly.
Great job.
One thing I'd change - right now there's no incentive to ever stop firing your laser. Maybe if the player's camera moved faster while not firing it could add extra depth to the game?
I really want to add Oculus Rift support now...
It looks great and I love the concept :D
But this is real good.
Innovation wise it blows my mind!
Great entry!
i will steal it for other games ... muhaha (evil laugh) >:P
Supreme use of the theme!
I really like the presentation and concept. I really wish I had some kind of defense against the missiles though. Might be my playstyle, but it takes me quite a bit of time to get through the shells, so it feels a bit unfair. Maybe if the laser did a bit more damage... (hint, hint)
Niggles aside, I like it a lot. :)
Music would make the game a lot better though
Visual effects are gorgeous however the the average sound effects and no music let this down a bit, with better audio I believe this could have had a really good atmosphere!
I know I'm thinking of tetrisphere but if there was some 'purpose' to digging to the bottom, perhaps saving a 'friend', unveiling a treasure the turrets are protecting, etc that could have also added to the game
Overall incredible effort though, I'm -very- impressed!
You missed an opportunity to make bullet-dodging mechanics though!
challenging and really fun to play!
Downloading the source to compare it agains my idea ;)
This is a really innovative Idea. I watched your progress during the compo and really liked the idea and the style. It is very functional and thus gains some really nice art.
The sounds could have been done better, especially I miss some background music.
Nevertheless a great game!
If you're evil, add an in-app purchase for a powerup that auto-fires the laser. Lasts until you die, $0.99 each. ;)
I'm destroyed in the last level! XD
Later levels become difficult in a rather unsatisfying way given the high rotational-speed of lower levels. I could either never get around to them in time or struggle to line up a shot rotating in the opposite direction due to the large amount of cover from higher levels.
If enemies were on the opposite side from the camera I had no way of knowing where I was getting hit from, this is was frustrating.
I spent all my time simply holding down the left mouse button. There was no reason not to have it held down so I wonder why I needed to press it at all. If a control is going to exist there should be ways to be expressive with it. Maybe add some additional ways to use the laser that involve the left mouse button. Pulsing laser fire, larger beams, etc., could all work.
There are many things that can still be explored so I hope you carry on with this :) Like for example there's no reason to NOT be attacking. So give the player a reason not to hold down the button forever!
Theme! I would like to see a cooler theme, something like an armada of spaceships surrounding the sphere/enemy ship/planet/whatever. Cos right now you're a big sphere... Surrounding a smaller sphere... What?
Anyway good job!! :D
Very clean and polished game, simple but not too easy/hard mechanics.
I was positively shocked by this game.
To only part I didn't like were controls:
Keyboard to move and left click anywhere to shoot didn't feel right, a mouse only approach could have fit better.
What feels weird is in the later levels that the rotation of the sphere becomes stronger than my ability to rotate, so my input feels very hampered with. Some more feedback about the position of the enemies would have been nice.
It would be better if your view's rotation had acceleration and deacceleration, and the top speed was higher than the current one.
Also, maybe some enemies shouldn't be able to shoot through their shield? Not all, just some. For more fair play. But it's awesome and I've spent a good 20 minutes shooting away, kudos!
And good learning curve!
Good Job!
I liked the animations of the planet destroying
I think it is a little bit bad balanced. It is more random when you discover the enemies, and you have barely time to track them down.
This is a lot of fun, and I love how at first the mechanics seemed very straightforward, but later on you realize certain things about how best to play (like how to rotate properly instead of struggling against the wrong axis).
Great entry!
The game mecanism is interesting, the layers concept is innovative. And it is quite fun to play.
I wish there was a way to intercept an ennemy projectile.