Tentacle Blockade

by mahalis
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.63
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.30
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.67
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.17
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.03
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.55
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.22
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.60
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★57%
They sail for the shore, bold, foolish, ignorant of the terror lurking in the depths below. Can you let their hubris go unchallenged? Grasp the intruders, crash them into each other, and send their crew and cargo to an unmarked grave at the bottom of the sea.

This is my second LD entry and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out—the gameplay could use a bit more variety, but the graphics and animation got a lot more polish than I thought I’d have time for, and I even learned some basic music theory while figuring out how to compose the music. Hope you enjoy it!

Note: the original version of this had an inverted difficulty curve, so it would get easier and easier as the game went on; that was pretty terrible and has now been fixed.

screenshot

Comments19

broiledvictory24 Aug 2015, 17:11
The core mechanic is very strong. Only thing missing is variety (more things for ship to carry, maybe even mundane thnigs to make the weird things even weirder, perhaps?, more variety in size/health of ship) and a difficulty curve.

Still, even after all that, I really enjoyed it, I could see this game after being getting the variety and difficulty curve being a strong game that I would play a lot.
mahalis
mahalisauthor24 Aug 2015, 20:40
Thanks! I agree about the variety—had an idea for a special boat that would leave burning cargo behind to damage other boats, which could have been fun, but sadly I ran out of time. Your mention of the difficulty curve made me realize that it was actually inverted: the time between boats was getting longer instead of shorter. Math is hard, apparently :)
CosmicAdventureSquad
CosmicAdventureSquad25 Aug 2015, 01:16
A very well-rounded game! I enjoyed the controls and mechanic, although would have been nice to see a visual indicator of ships in a "grasped" state, as sometimes I would think I have grabbed one, went on to slam it into another ship, and realizing I didn't grab it.

I agree that there should be more variety of ships as the difficulty ramped up. A scoring system could easily up the replay value too.
Shaw
Shaw25 Aug 2015, 14:22
Love the map style look of the game, it plays well, very fluid and is a nice unique idea. Excellent work.
PEBKAC
PEBKAC26 Aug 2015, 16:01
Nice one. Especially liked the polished graphics and background music. Could've done with some SpundFX.
Sedsibi
Sedsibi26 Aug 2015, 16:05
Very well executed, I enjoyed it quite a bit. A little more polish and you'll have a great Mobile game on your hands.
mrdude1228
mrdude122826 Aug 2015, 17:10
Fun game. It got real hard real fast, but it was neat trying to strategize - do I try to destroy every ship, or do I try to just send lone ones flying off the left edge of the screen to buy a little time? The music adds tons to the atmosphere. Great start to a game, with a little more variety you could make a great time-killer.
VanDerGroot27 Aug 2015, 01:13
Really nice. This would make an excellent minigame in a larger story. :)
PeteGrammarman27 Aug 2015, 01:46
Man smashing boats into each other is fun! I liked that you labeled what the ships were carrying, a great way to add some humor. The map aesthetic was clever and looked cool. Add some screen shake and ship crashing sounds and it would be even more fun.
Feetsalot27 Aug 2015, 02:00
Great concept! Maybe add a few abilities or upgrades and this game is amazing. Variation in ships would also add some depth.
Pilly
Pilly27 Aug 2015, 02:11
This is great. Top marks on innovation, for sure - loved the core mechanic. One suggestion would be to add a fullscreen mode - I kept on accidentally clicking off the screen. Also, I felt like the labels, while humorous, didn't really fit with the mood of the game. Everything else fit together perfectly though - LOVE the map aesthetic, graphics were great, and the music made me feel like I was a monster terrorizing the seas :) Thanks for making this.
KilledByAPixel
KilledByAPixel27 Aug 2015, 03:07
Nice game. Style is good, nice take on theme. Grabbing and throwing ships was fun. Could use more variety and a win condition. Like maybe the meter is going up instead of down. When a ship gets there it goes down, but if it gets filled up then you win.
dydx27 Aug 2015, 03:08
This is a fantastic entry. I love the concept, the ship descriptions, and the hilarious monster reminds me of Mr. Game & Watch's final smash in Super Smash Bros. Really great job.
Hippomancer27 Aug 2015, 17:13
Solid gameplay and great use of the theme :)
the31
the3128 Aug 2015, 01:33
Nice! I agree it could use some variety--once I figured out what was causing the damage I just dragged ships to the left a bunch and seemed to do alright. But the graphics were really neat and I liked the fun cargo.
Empyrealhell30 Aug 2015, 23:49
Solid entry all around. As you said, it could use a bit more variety in the mechanics, but what you had was good. I also really liked the naval map art style, very fitting for the game.
FieroNZ31 Aug 2015, 00:16
super cool all round, 5*
Zephyr Raine31 Aug 2015, 02:59
Nice art style, had fun, a little too simple though
inurashii
inurashii9 Sep 2015, 16:14
Adorable! Wonderful graphics! I especially loved the cargo titles.

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