Xenosphere

by oxysoft
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.72
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.56
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.70
Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.84
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.75
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.61
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.74
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★64%
Play as a paddle lost in an alien spaceship and take on the misson to defeat the hivemind CORE in this unconventional Arkanoid/Breakout inspired game!

When you break upgrade bricks, you ball breaks bricks in a bigger radius and your magnetization force is stronger!

HINT: In case it wasn't obvious, you can rotate around the boss by slamming your mouse to the far left/far right of the screen then quickly returning your mouse to the center!

Controls:
Z - Launch ball
X - Magnetized paddle shape (pull the angle of the ball towards you)
Left/Right Mouse Buttons - Switch to angled paddle shape
Mouse - Move around

Can you beat the developer time?!
Developer's time: 223.78 seconds

======= Post-jam =======
I have done a few fixes and tweaks and added it as a post-jam edition. Changes:
- Fixes lag issues completely
- Fixed boss AI and fight progression
- Player can now take damage and die during the boss fight

Team:
Oxysoft - Programming, Game design, 3D modeling & textures
Kyle Riley (Neonlare) - Game design, Sound Design (Music, Sound Effects) and 2D sprites

Genres: action

Comments26

FrankieSmileShow19 Apr 2016, 04:28
Really cool game! Both on the visuals and audio. The idea of exploring a maze through breakout gameplay is simple but works very well. Solid job on this!
olkeencole19 Apr 2016, 04:31
Nope! 592 seconds lol. But I DID beat it! Which is more than I can say for some other entries. I couldn't put this down! What a great spinoff of breakout! I really wonder how did you get the look? What kind of shader is that? Great job guys!
oxysoft
oxysoftauthor19 Apr 2016, 04:43
Thanks. Initially it was just regular painted textures and then on saturday I found this on the Unity asset store https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/16314 and realized that this is what I needed to make this a memorable experience! Played with the colors a bit and got a style I really liked. I wanted more colors but didn't want to spend the time to modify the shaders to allow any number of colors. The author of has a "pro" version of his plugin that has this functionality so if you don't mind shelling out $10 instead of modifying the shaders you can get that.
nervous.composers19 Apr 2016, 11:21
Interesting art style and very upbeat music. Love it!
NuberuGames19 Apr 2016, 11:31
Cool game! on my second run I down't know how but I teleported to the boss directly and was able to beat him. It feels a little bit like I cheated but I beat him fairly :)
Good job!
aCoupleGames20 Apr 2016, 00:18
really nice work here :D love this retro visual and the game was pretty good too.
Aaranos
Aaranos20 Apr 2016, 02:05
Excellent game. I've seen a few pinball dungeon explorer games and this is definitely just as good. The biggest aid is that magnetism. Lets you really control the boss fight so well.
Marc F.20 Apr 2016, 17:59
Post-jam version was still quite laggy, but cool take on an old classic. Shapeshifting aspect is present, though somewhat weak maybe. Over all quite fun tho, graphics and music are also good.
ShadowTemplar20 Apr 2016, 19:18
Great idea to employ the simple mechanics of the original Pong, whcih most people are familiar with, and implement them along with level/maze exploration. I liked the concept very much and actually spent some good time plating. I experienced a bug at one point, where the ball just got stuck and I couldn't do anything to fix the situation. That's a minor thing tho, just thought I should mention it for you guys to fix it in the future. Overall, great job! :)
wg_phancock21 Apr 2016, 00:33
Really fun take on the breakout genre with nice art and sound, and some great moody lighting! I'm willing to let the occasional lag issues go, since it's so hard to track that kind of stuff down with limited time, and it didn't really impact the gameplay that much.

My only real gripe is that the shapeshift theme usage seemed a little weak, but that's really minor.

Great job! Would love to see a version with paddle powerups or different balls, etc.
dvdfu
dvdfu21 Apr 2016, 14:32
This is a great spin on classic breakout mechanics, very well done! The visuals and music are also very appealing.
Broxxar
Broxxar21 Apr 2016, 23:21
Love that lo-fi image effect. Very cool!
djfariel23 Apr 2016, 09:55
I like how you used the theme. Too few people are really doing anything with the theme it seems.
Nice entry
Manou23 Apr 2016, 10:07
Genius rewriting of Arkanoid, just the controls are hard (trackpad here!), would be perfect with gamepad support.
5* innovation and mood.
Pietro Ferrantelli
Pietro Ferrantelli23 Apr 2016, 11:04
Oh man I loved it ! Visuals and audio are super good, I liked the FX you put on it. I had a great time playing it, this was fun with a clever use and twist of familiar mechanics, which is what I love to do as a designer and to play as a player ! Great job overall :)
MagnesiumNinja
MagnesiumNinja25 Apr 2016, 07:50
A fascinating idea! I was a little irked by how the paddle's different states had no overlap at all, but I really loved the visuals and the overall feel of dungeon crawling crossed with breakout.

For the boss fight, I often found myself unintentionally rotating when I tried to hit the ball at the very edge of the screen. Maybe having the boss arena be a continuous circle would help?
Freank26 Apr 2016, 08:42
Hi, nice game ! We're realizing a video with several games of the Ludum Dare #35.
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description
AnaGF26 Apr 2016, 13:08
Perfect game. 5/5
dcolgan29 Apr 2016, 00:43
Hey Oxy! Thanks for rating our game. I really this this idea of almost an "adventure game" breakout game. Nice ideas.
wheerd
wheerd4 May 2016, 23:09
Nice concept and cool graphics!
puppetmaster
puppetmaster5 May 2016, 15:49
Really love the graphics style. Game concept is also great. Congrats for your cool entry!
Ellian
Ellian8 May 2016, 12:10
Shapeshifting is barely there but man, this was the smartest way of doing an arkanoid game I've ever seen, plus it has amazing graphics? Crazy good. The boss is super hard and I couldn't tell why sometimes I wasn't hitting him, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless. Grats!
MayankUnreal9 May 2016, 17:18
Great commercial game, nice concept
avinashd9 May 2016, 17:19
I initially thought it was a decent Arkanoid clone until the ball moved to the next level! Really innovative! The boss battle was tense as well, although I didn't beat it :|

I really hope you'll flesh the mechanics out into a larger game after the jam, it's got a lot of potential!

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