AntiCon

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.07
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.47
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.18
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.42
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.07
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.33
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.62
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.57
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★82%
NOTE! IF THIS GAME PLAYS SLOW, USE THE "No Grad" LINK TO SEE IF IT IMPROVES (works for iPad at least)

Top-down shooter web game where you're swinging a ball around to hit your enemies. (Ball only does damage if it's moving at a decent speed.)

You can play on tablets, too! Tested with Firefox, Chrome and Safari on Mac, and on Samsung Tab 4 and iPad, too. Probably doesn't play well on MSIE.

Done in HTML5/JavaScript. The only external JS library used is SoundJS, of the CreateJS library. Sound effects recorded and manipulated using Audacity, music loop banged out on Reason.

All source code, sound effects, graphics, and music for this game are free to use, modify, and redistribute under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Originally, I wanted the "ball" to be your younger sibling, as the two of you making your way through an anime/comics/gaming cone ("Un-CONVENTION-al", heh), dodging vendors and cosplayers. But since I never had enough time to make "real" graphics instead of simple shapes, that's not really borne out in my results. Except for the gleeful giggling and squealing of the "ball" when you hurl it around quickly. :)

I spent a lot of time on the sound. If you don't hear the sounds, please try it in another browser, as it really adds quite a bit to the experience.

screenshot

Comments30

vini60
vini6020 Apr 2015, 03:18
Not much to do but it's ok, it has floppy things. (no homo) The sounds are really fun.
Matsuki20 Apr 2015, 03:18
I really liked the mechanic of spinning your ball (sibling?) around, was fun
Crafting4U20 Apr 2015, 03:18
Fun little game to pass the time. :)
redding20 Apr 2015, 03:18
The game was fun, but I didn't like the child sound effects that much.
pvwradtke
pvwradtke20 Apr 2015, 03:21
Whee! It simple, but I spent much more time whipping around than I originally thought I would. Nice entry!
jacketsj20 Apr 2015, 05:27
Reminds me of hammerfight, except less complicated and significantly less serious.
polegar
polegar20 Apr 2015, 10:40
Nice job, clean and fun to play with really cool audio !
DKoding20 Apr 2015, 16:00
I like the physics. Kinda reminds me of my own game. :-)
Cheshyr
Cheshyr20 Apr 2015, 16:23
hahaha, that was great. sound effects really made the game, and the mechanic was a good time. well done.
Mimus
Mimus20 Apr 2015, 16:26
It's very lol sound. :)
madameberry
madameberry20 Apr 2015, 20:24
Got into a groove swinging that thing! My arm got tired from wiggling the mouse though.
vvolis21 Apr 2015, 06:04
Nice gameplay, feels very fluid. The mechanic reminds of Hammerfight, but I really love your idea of it being a con attendance, would love to see it with graphics!
jmborden21 Apr 2015, 06:34
Another pure HTML5/Javascript game, nice!
sanojian
sanojian21 Apr 2015, 16:43
So the unconventional weapon is a floppy.... oh I get it. Quite fun. I think it could better if the floppy bit was less springy so you didn't have to get so close to the blocks. I could be wrong though.
micahcowan
micahcowanauthor21 Apr 2015, 16:58
@sanojian - you don't really have to get particularly close to the blocks - the floppy bit/tether stretches if you get the momentum going, just swinging it around. Faster it goes, further it stretches (to a point)... like one of those rubber-ball paddle thingies.

@madameberry - Yeah, it's a little less tiring on a trackpad (what I used), but I'm thinking if I work on this post-compo, I'll incentivize less repetitive swinging. Like the weapon will overheat or something if it goes too many times too fast in the same direction (probably ditch the whole "con/sibling" idea - maybe an energized alien so I can keep the sounds, though - they're fun!). I'll have to play with it a bit to find out what works best. And maybe plug in a mouse. :)
micahcowan
micahcowanauthor21 Apr 2015, 17:05
BTW, if people want to play with the tether and springiness, you can open a JavaScript console and muck with the value of AntiCon.defs.TENSOR_TETHER_STRETCH_LENGTH. You probably don't want to fuss with the tether length "at rest", because if you lengthen that it just makes it harder to get it swinging. :)

Lengthening the swing does indeed make it easier to hit the baddies without getting close in, but it also makes it much harder to clear/avoid bullets...
garygreen
garygreen21 Apr 2015, 20:08
Such as simple, but clever weapon design. It was fun playing it.
suppi
suppi21 Apr 2015, 21:25
A really solid entry. I love it! it was fun to play, the sound effects very nice and it was a very refreshing take on the bullet hell genre. great job!
IMO, If you improve the graphics this could be marketed.
Dining Philosopher22 Apr 2015, 23:17
Nice game! I had fun swinging the ball around the screen. :D
OnlySlightly23 Apr 2015, 03:13
I loved the "woo"-ing It was fun playing with the physics and flailing around :)
NoxNode23 Apr 2015, 03:15
ahhhh my wrist! lol fun game.
Diventurer23 Apr 2015, 07:39
Fun game! I got a score of 5500 or so after some tries. It gets hard with those circle bullet formations. I like the music and sound effects.
nonetheless23 Apr 2015, 18:57
Damn hard but really nice idea :)
nonetheless23 Apr 2015, 20:15
I appreciate your comment Sir :)
gnx24 Apr 2015, 05:18
The mechanic is really interesting. I think there could be a bit more inertia with the mouse following as now your position moves reaaally fast and most of the time I didn't even see the bullets that hit me.
jojocanard
jojocanard24 Apr 2015, 13:21
Really nice mechanic and sound.
Score 10485 !
micahcowan
micahcowanauthor24 Apr 2015, 18:24
@gnx, that's basically just a function of how fast your mouse is. I mostly practiced with a trackpad. At the moment there's no speed limit, so it actually jumps to wherever the mouse is now (somewhat useful info on the tablet, heh: you can just warp to wherever you touch next). I'll probably add a per-frame speed limit if I continue working on it, but meanwhile you can just slow down your wrist... ;)
badlydrawnrod24 Apr 2015, 19:43
Love the sound effects. Just how much helium did you have to use in the making of this game? Shows it doesn't have to be highly graphical to be highly playable.
DarkMeatGames24 Apr 2015, 19:47
Nice work yo. Even though it's a small game, it shows off the mechanic nicely. Great audio!
Frozen Fractal
Frozen Fractal11 May 2015, 18:51
Very nice! Once you hit the resonance frequency of the swing, it becomes fun to keep it spinning while dodging the bullets. Would be even better with more particles and other juice!

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