Below the belt

by kill0u
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.44
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.33
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.69
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.05
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.62
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.36
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.85
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★71%
Theme: "Two button controls"

The enemy's EMP has messed up your systems pretty bad. You managed to put your ships on autopilot, and the only thing you can still do by yourself is dive in the asteroid belt or go back to the battlefield.

Controls:
Hold X to dive with your pink ship, and C for your green ship.

While hiding in the asteroid belt, the enemy cannot hurt you. However, the dirt is damaging your engines, so you can't stay there too long or your engines would explode.

Special shot:
Your ships can fire a special shot (the skull-shaped bullet) instead of basic bullets, under certain circumstances:
- They have to be really close to each other
- Both ships have to be in the battlefield
- They must be going forward

---
Sorry about the lack of sound, I know it would have been a lot better with some. I actually managed to get some time to do the sounds during the compo, but sunvox wouldn't recognise my sound card so I gave up after a few minutes.

screenshot

Comments24

fluidvolt
fluidvolt14 Dec 2015, 23:17
This is a really neat idea. I love how it looks. Diving your ships beneath the asteroids is neat, and that combo-skull attack is awesome! I have no idea how to reproduce it though, it just happens sometimes. Add some sounds and music and this would be a pretty sweet little game. Good job.
esayitch15 Dec 2015, 15:47
This could really use some music and at least some sound effects. Also, the game felt a bit like a 1 button game for two players :P

Aside from those two points, the entry is very solid, cool concept and well-executed. I liked the art and the game was pretty fun.

Good luck in the compo!
Drauthius
Drauthius15 Dec 2015, 20:42
I like the idea, i really had hard controlling both ships so i usually just dove with both at the same time.
But it could really use some music and sounds.
TomenLuca
TomenLuca15 Dec 2015, 22:15
First two button game I liked. Nice use of the theme in the mechanics. Cool bosses, well done!
Gamepopper
Gamepopper16 Dec 2015, 13:32
Like the idea of multi-tasking between two ships, although it would've been nice if you had a bit more control.
justinooncx16 Dec 2015, 14:06
Pretty cool game, although there wasn't a lot of control... And it got really difficult near the end.
pokipsy16 Dec 2015, 19:27
Very nice entry, you managed to make an innovative shmup which not so easy. I'm not a huge fan of shmups usually but I enjoyed playing this one !
tribrain16 Dec 2015, 22:19
sometimes less is more and this is one of that case, love the game really fun, love the SKULL!
LeReveur
LeReveur16 Dec 2015, 23:58
Clever idea, and good use of the theme ! Well done. :)
blackmagic17 Dec 2015, 10:35
Really nice, good mechanic, gc stalls around 8k and sound would just make it awesome :). Very cool entry !
Efuvex17 Dec 2015, 10:39
Neat graphics. Also really cool concept both mechanics wise and backstory ahaha :)
kill0u
kill0uauthor17 Dec 2015, 10:42
Thanks! :)
What do you mean, "gc stalls around 8k"? There's a (kinda messed up :P) slow-mo effect on power-ups, but the game runs smoothly on my laptop at least 'till 1M points (yeah, dev cheat codes :D)
PaulJs
PaulJs17 Dec 2015, 14:40
Nice idea !
francoisvn
francoisvn17 Dec 2015, 20:12
Cool idea. Seems like you forgot to include the source code (a compo requirement) :)
RevelBase
RevelBase17 Dec 2015, 21:53
Really nice art and concept :)
Galan18 Dec 2015, 13:08
Really cool idea. It would have been nice if there'd been time to build some challenges geared toward the control scheme. As it is everything feels random.
Husky
Husky18 Dec 2015, 13:10
This is really good! I like this idea, it's very solid and challenging, and it feels so smooth.
Well done!
kmakai
kmakai18 Dec 2015, 13:11
Really like this one. My score was 33.007, I had a lot of fun playing it! The art for the ships is perfect, and I really appreciated all of the variety in the ship/shot patterns! Great job.
Gipzo
Gipzo19 Dec 2015, 10:27
Great idea, nice implementation :)
crucknuk
crucknuk20 Dec 2015, 20:59
Nice entry! Despite the lack of sound, it is really polished and funny to play! Good work ;)
Hot Box Games
Hot Box Games20 Dec 2015, 21:05
Really great concept. Personally, I would have preferred one ship with maybe a duck and shoot button, as I found it hard to control two ships at the same time - nevertheless this was an impressive little entry that I had to keep playing for 10-15 minutes! :D Great work
XenosNS
XenosNS22 Dec 2015, 19:59
Great mechanic, liked how you used two ships. Sometimes felt like you didn't need to bother dodging for long periods of time.
markusfisch
markusfisch23 Dec 2015, 21:40
Nice concept! I like that you can play it alone or with a friend. That's a very rare quality.
freaknarf
freaknarf2 Jan 2016, 19:06
Nice game !
Good job with the original gameplay, the special shot introduces a cool but hard mechanic. The game becomes so hard at some point that sometimes it feels like diving is as punishing as being shooted :)
Neat pixel art, and great enemies design !
Good job ! Cheers !

Other games by @kill0u

Found a bug?
Tell us on Discord