Ludum Dare #37compo

DangerRoom

by hermetic

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.62

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.62

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.69

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.86

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.69

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.89

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.36

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.11

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★56%

A little one room game inspired heavily by Geometry Wars. Works with keyboard and mouse or controller.... I only tested on an Xbox controller.

A little more instructions:
The game has an increasing difficulty curve and delivers different enemy types over several waves.
Collecting the detritus from the explosions (little green pills) will increase your rate of fire and the number of directions in which you shoot.
Getting hit by an enemy when your power level is greater than 1 will remove progress toward the next level AND reduce your power level... But, you get a whole 1 second of invulnerability in exchange.

Take it easy on me, it's only my second time. :)

I used Unity, Krita, Blender, and As3sfxr.

Comments22

fdr12 Dec 2016, 04:36

Good work overall. I like the background and layout, it has an unique feel to it, good choice there. I had a hard time telling which way I was firing, maybe make it a bit more obvious with a larger cannon or change the color of the rebounding bullets. I actually didn't realize I could move the ship during the first play through; I think it may even be easier if you just sit in the same spot!

ambi13 Dec 2016, 03:06

Pretty nice game. Very fast. Can't quite keep up.

tylerraz13 Dec 2016, 03:16

Great fast paced action, and the art&sound style is perfect for a game like this.

I liked playing on the xbox controller over the keyboard.

GameGrape Gaming13 Dec 2016, 03:42

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jcmonkey13 Dec 2016, 03:46

something felt off about this game, then when i looked at it more closely it was that the gun and the ship are on different rotations and it was throwing me off. not sure if that is the game style, or a oversight.

Zarkonnen13 Dec 2016, 07:27

Cool trippy graphics!

erik13 Dec 2016, 07:37

Definitely getting a Geometry Wars vibe. Using the keyboard and mouse, the motion feels fast and too direct. More momentum would probably feel better. And a larger cursor for the mouse to aim with would help. I betting it feels better with a controller.

MrEvilGuy13 Dec 2016, 08:56

I got to wave 8. Hard game. Such a treat but also a minefield for the eye! The controls and the graphics were very smooth. Good work!

TheMonsterFromTheDeep13 Dec 2016, 09:10

The graphics in this game are absolutely incredible. However, it's really really difficult - I could never make it past wave three. I'm not sure what could be changed to make it easier - maybe I'm just really bad at this game. :P

The only other improvement I would suggest is music.

hermeticauthor13 Dec 2016, 16:50

@TheMonsterFromTheDeep - Totally agree. Needs music badly. I even downloaded some tools. Alas, I am not a music composer. Maybe I will work on that for the next LD. The difficulty curve was tuned by me playing it. So maybe it's wrong. My best score so far was Wave 10 ~ 21k pts.
@MrEvilGuy - Awesome job. Thanks.
@erik - Definitely better with a dual-stick controller.
@Zarkonnen, @ambi, @tylerraz - Thanks
@jcmonkey - They are supposed to point in different directions.
@fdr - Good point, the cursor gets lost in the action when playing with a mouse. I didn't notice as much because most of my playtesting was with a controller.

schizoid2k13 Dec 2016, 22:21

Nice! I wanted to keep on playing, even though my best was level 3. Nice neon effects.

JimmothySanchez14 Dec 2016, 04:30

I like the style of your game. A 2d game projected on a 3d wall is a cool take on the theme. The game is pretty hard which is fine, but if you make a game difficult you should streamline the process to get back into the game. For instance only make the player read the intro on the first load.

djfariel14 Dec 2016, 04:31

This was pretty awesome. No negative critique.

HotByteDog14 Dec 2016, 12:34

Very solid shooter.
Has a tron likes cyber atmosphere with its neon design and sounds.
A more futuristic room scenario would be more fun for me.

jperlin14 Dec 2016, 17:13

I think the game would benefit from an aiming reticle better visible than the mouse cursor, but other than that it was a really nice experience, with smooth gameplay and nice style.

Broxxar15 Dec 2016, 06:53

Tying your health and power together was a clever mechanic. I also enjoyed that it never felt "unfair", no enemies seemed to spawn right on top of me which is often a pit fall of these types of games. I will say that the 3D background didn't add much and it was a bit confusing that the walls were invisible (rather than being the edges of the screen, or otherwise represented).

Overall this is pretty decent, great job :D

ursagames15 Dec 2016, 07:12

Very solid twin stick shooter! It was definitely more manageable with a controller. I think the cursor would need a really beefy visual upgrade to be comparable. Also the purple dots didn't really convey "death" until I ran into them, I thought they were just more goodies to pick up that dropped from the purple spheres like the green pills.

seano17 Dec 2016, 20:17

Was fun to play, looked nice too. The enemies could be much more obvious. The controls and movement could be tighter, the enemy could spawn off screen to give more room too. The progression of waves and new enemies was good for gameplay.

Zeriver18 Dec 2016, 11:34

Cool particle effects and nice art style in general. Music fits in just great and sets nice retro game vibe. Gameplay is fun and get chaotic really quickly, so you have to be focused all the time if don't want to get killed.

emmelineprufrock18 Dec 2016, 17:17

It was fun. Lots of frenetic energy and I enjoyed the particle effects surrounding the enemy germs. Had some difficulty steering the ship (specifically precision movement), but I think I could've gotten the handle of it over time.

aemiliu519 Dec 2016, 14:19

great little game! i couldn' t understand how to control the character so i could avoid the red squares hitting me in the back...but overall it was fun and had a great mood...

Cody Hansen21 Dec 2016, 04:50

Breakneck pace! I loved the particles in this game. Really pretty to look at.
I thought that the menu controls took me all over the keyboard and could have been chosen differently to optimize gameplay since the game is so fast but navigating is so slow.
Also, they could look a little more like bacteria and less like a generic ship and cubes as I immediately forgot what the story was, but I may be getting nitpicky.

Besides that, I love the idea. The feel of the game is nice and smooth and the gameplay could keep me going for a long time. I did quite enjoy playing this.

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