Ludum Dare #37compo

Moonlight Maximum

by slimabob

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.23

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.41

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.38

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.52

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.54

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.99

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.17

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.86

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★89%

DISASTER!

After the Moon is invaded by sinister alien hordes, our hero Max Damage finds himself as the last human alive on a vital moon base.

This moon base contains an extremely volatile nuclear reactor, which if tampered with, could explode violently- propelling the moon straight into planet Earth!

It's up to Max Damage to defend the reactor- even if it costs him his life.

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Moonlight Maximum is my first ever Ludum Dare entry, and I'm extremely excited to share it with all of you!

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CONTROLS:

The game is a horde-mode twinstick shooter. You move by pressing either W, S, A, D or the Arrow Keys. You can aim your weapon with the mouse, and shoot with Left Click.

Throughout the game, you are able to kill enemies and acquire points. These points can be spent by pressing "Q" and opening up the shop.

If you purchase a structure, you are able to go into build mode and place it by pressing "E"

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Mac build is untested, so please let me know if there are errors.

*Disclaimer*
The sound effects on the web build are a little distorted, but the Windows/OSX builds shouldn't have that issue.

-----------------------------------

CHANGELOG:

- I accidentally disabled the lore page right before the final build! :( I've updated the build with it re-enabled. Sorry! :L

UPDATE 2:
- I fixed the bullets spawning too far out, preventing you from killing nearby enemies. I also lowered the barrier cost just a little bit.

Comments68

mdzimmer12 Dec 2016, 05:39

The movement and gunplay felt a bit slow for a twin stick shooter. Rewards were also slow and I couldn't experience as much as I would have liked to. The progression I experienced though was engaging.

slimabobauthor12 Dec 2016, 05:41

Thank you for taking the time to play and rate my game mdzimmer, I'm glad you enjoyed what you experienced!

KadaDev12 Dec 2016, 05:49

Fun game, nice effects, explosions etc.

I think the bullets coming from the MG could miss enemies if they are too close.

Pretty complicated for an 48 hour game with purchases etc.

CMLSC12 Dec 2016, 06:04

I felt like I moved to slow... Also, I when I bought the machine gun, it didn't seem to do anything. Another thing I noticed is that the bullets don't go where I aim. I like the loss effects though. :D

ZQMony12 Dec 2016, 07:07

Really nice looking game that plays pretty well. It is a bit slow though.

conradte312 Dec 2016, 07:34

Pretty fun, I like the variety in weapons and their usefulness in different situations. Seems like the guns don't hit if enemies are too close but that just adds to the challenge I guess. I thought the reward progression was quite good as well.

jcmonkey12 Dec 2016, 09:05

games like this really need mouse butten held down to shoot. i would love to keep playing this, but i like my fingers more. :(

Mieeh12 Dec 2016, 09:07

Good feeling game! good job!
Didn't get far but the part i saw looked good!

cjke.777712 Dec 2016, 09:08

This was actually really fun. Thanks for doing a web build.
You should polish up the graphics and re-release it somewhere

Zarkonnen12 Dec 2016, 09:41

Well, we didn't need the moon anyway...

I had fun, and I liked the buying/building elements.

batmanasb12 Dec 2016, 09:47

You need to enable the fullscreen button on the web player. I think it's a setting in the entry page.

TechXSoftware12 Dec 2016, 09:49

Haha, fun game, I happen to have made a very similar game lol. I was going to add more weapons and stuff to mine too, but I had work during to compo haha.

SoerenBachNielsen12 Dec 2016, 10:27

Fun game, with good game feel. And a lot of depth to it actually, from a LD game.

kptemre12 Dec 2016, 10:53

This is a good game! I will definitely check your source to learn how you manage to the building phase. Keep up the good work!

Cosmic-Hawke12 Dec 2016, 11:05

Those the little enemies are real bastards, haha. This was fun I liked the building aspects

Aster0id200012 Dec 2016, 11:22

As already been said, the game is really slow.
But still, the game is pretty hard.
The building thing is interesting tho, i think i'll try to build a maze for the enemies in the game. Good job!

creativwhisper12 Dec 2016, 11:40

Good work, a lot of features for a 48h game. The character moves slow and fast enemies catch you too quick to kill them. If you buy the machine gun the shots fires from afar the character so you can't kill an enemy on melee. Good work overall.

slimabobauthor12 Dec 2016, 11:49

Thank you to everyone for the kind words and constructive criticism! I've got so many ideas on how to improve my game thanks to all of you, and I really appreciate the feedback (positive and negative)!

Tauka12 Dec 2016, 12:10

I like this kind of games, run and shoot. Glad you managed different weapons and even buildings, insane! Great job.

P.S. Shotgun does not harm too close enemies, which is why I died

slimabobauthor12 Dec 2016, 12:14

Thanks for the heads up Tauka, I didn't notice that until it was too late to change! :(

erikiene12 Dec 2016, 12:18

Fun to play, maybe the movement and shoot rate a little to slow. Also, shotgun didn't seem to do much. Like the soundtrack! Good work for such a short amount of time!!

cynicalmonkey12 Dec 2016, 13:22

is the size of the gun changing an intentional hurdle, as soon as I upgraded if I missed one of the little pink ones I was unable to shoot them because they clung to me, but it didn't feel like that should of been the challenge

Artsicle12 Dec 2016, 13:24

Graphics were great!

rburema12 Dec 2016, 14:20

A nice amount of polish for a compo-game! Especialy since it's your first. The excessive explosions after game-over are a nice touch, for example :-)

Even tough it's relatively difficult (but then I'm always pretty bad at twin-stick shooters...), you keep wanting to come back.

I noticed that, if you've already got 'build-mode' enabled, and then go to the 'buy stuff'-menu, you can't actually build the thing you bought unless you toggle in-and-out of build-mode.

Also (very minor quibble); when building something, you shoot.

Omniorcus12 Dec 2016, 14:43

Everything feels a bit too slow, except for the enemies movement speed. Early game turrets aren't worth the cost, and the lack of a reloading sound breaks the feeling of the guns, especially compared to shooting sounds. Lack of sound effects in general is a problem, such as a damage taken indicator or an enemies spawned sound. On the positive side, the back story fits(although that a stupid spot for a reactor), and the end game sequence is good, if a little juxtaposed with the lax of additional sounds before it. The gun play is also fine, with the shogun feeling satisfying; although the MG, not so much. A good entry. Next time, try to ad more audio ques for the player. They really add to the immersion.

onyon12 Dec 2016, 15:06

I liked it! Got to wave 5. Sounds are awesome and the explosions look great. I like the weapons and building idea, overall a really solid entry,

Artylo12 Dec 2016, 15:39

There are some balancing issues when it comes to variables like speed, item cost and wave size, but otherwise it's a good twin-stick shooter. The turrets were a nice touch too.

Avocadosan12 Dec 2016, 15:57

Whoa, i don't know how you made this game in 48 hrs! I really liked the weapons and the buy system. It would be great to see a finished version of this game :D!

martincohen12 Dec 2016, 16:46

The shooting is a bit slow for my taste, but I love the complexity. Must have taken a lot of effort. Kudos! <3

drakekin12 Dec 2016, 16:58

Some way of healing would have improved it.

Soundless_dev12 Dec 2016, 19:37

Not too shabby. Nice graphics. Interface was pretty ugly, could have gone with a pixel font for better aesthetics. Gunplay felt a bit slow, shotgun wasn't god for anything it seemed.

nikitapash12 Dec 2016, 20:16

The weapons are really made good, theme is suited

vipper12 Dec 2016, 20:31

Awesome :D Very simple td!

eri0o12 Dec 2016, 21:14

Nice game. I liked the explosions! I also died a lot! A looot!!! I am not very good in tower defense. I had a lot of fun. I wish the game had prettier graphics and I could hold to keep shooting, I see no reason to not shoot everytime.

Martin Vilcans12 Dec 2016, 21:51

A bit slowly paced between waves. But I like weapon upgrades!

batmanasb12 Dec 2016, 23:35

I don't understand what the barrier does. Also, there is a serious bug with the machine gun where the projectile comes out of the end of the gun, so small enemies that are directly touching you can't be shot!

I'm hoping you hotfix that so I can play it some more. But besides that, the game makes good use for various effects improve the feel.

xesenix13 Dec 2016, 00:24

Simple but fun game play not bad graphics is there any music i see toggle mute but cant hear anything?

Alexander Kondyrev13 Dec 2016, 05:25

Good game. Please add better graphics and more weapons :) I need guns, lot of guns.

slimabobauthor13 Dec 2016, 06:16

Hey @batmanasb, I didn't know we were allowed to make changes like that- but I will fix it now!

slimabobauthor13 Dec 2016, 06:30

Also the barricades are meant to give you a bit of protection- you and your turrets are able to shoot over them.

I've updated the build with that fix. Thank you for your feedback!

@xesenix, are you playing on the OSX build? I don't have a mac so there isn't really any way for me to test it :(

PeachTreeOath13 Dec 2016, 06:30

Not bad. I know people here are mostly saying it feels slow, but one way you can alleviate that is maybe making the early level enemies have less HP. You can scale up afterwards but it's nice to jump in and pop people right away.

d3uced13 Dec 2016, 06:39

Nice, love the different weapon attacks and they feel like they are doing damage.

slimabobauthor13 Dec 2016, 06:42

Thank you @PeachTreeOath- again, I'm still not 100% sure how much we're able to change our game during voting but I'm definitely looking to expand upon this after the jam and that would be a great change to make.

onixowl13 Dec 2016, 07:40

I would really like movement be a little faster. But overall, I liked the game. Simple and well executed

ema1ih13 Dec 2016, 10:50

The movement is a bit slow, but I had fun playing it, I like it! :)

HeartOfTheFall13 Dec 2016, 15:56

hey this is a really cool game , love the extra thought you have put into visual player feedback!! gg

pcmxms13 Dec 2016, 19:24

Difficult but fun. Congrats!

eruiz0013 Dec 2016, 19:26

Hey good shooter almost same concept then my games

TeamAxolotl13 Dec 2016, 20:20

Cool little game, the pixel art explosions are beautiful but I don't think it fits with the other graphics.
The intro text looks bad, but the game is fun. What I don't get is: why does the nuclear reactor explode when I die when all enemies try to attack me and not the reactor...?
Maybe you could have added different enemies: some that focus the player, and others that focus the reactor?

negativice13 Dec 2016, 22:59

Very simple and certainly fun, great job!

tompudding14 Dec 2016, 00:13

Really impressive amount of polish, great job. I don't agree that it was too slow, it gave it a weight that I enjoyed. The explosions and placeable turrets very particularly impressive, and the balance is great for 48 hours effort.

WeaverDeveloper14 Dec 2016, 02:46

Solid implementation, but pretty slow for a game of this type. Didn't last very long, got swarmed because I wasn't looking :~)

BubsyPoochies14 Dec 2016, 07:37

Impressively solid for a first LD entry! Really playable and fun, controls are very smooth. Gameplay might be a tad slow, but I guess that's the game's personality. Would benefit from a few powerups, especially in more advanced rounds when it gets really hard! The gameover explosion is really cool. Congrats on this!

MrEvilGuy14 Dec 2016, 07:49

The different amounts of money/enemies at the first round is aggravating! you need the machine gun asap but it's hard to get before too many enemies surround you! Almost impossible unless you get lucky in the first round and get close to 60. Otherwise great idea and execution. The mouse cursor didn't line up with the target at angles but that might have been a browser issue. Overall good job.

TheScragglyMan14 Dec 2016, 09:34

i enjoyed the sounds, i found the movement to be quite sluggish in the higher waves, but it added to the difficulty. Maybe quicker movement could be a power up you purchase i dunno. Strong entry i liked it

kraftkar14 Dec 2016, 11:59

Nice game, good word on graphics and audio.

Zawdit14 Dec 2016, 12:26

Cool little shooter! Only thought was I wish I moved a bit faster.

AngrySquirrels14 Dec 2016, 15:08

Maybe the movement and the reloading are a bit too slow. Can't escape from ennemies, we should be a bit faster.

Didn't understand how to build stuff either, maybe i'm slow as well >.> I press q and then can't build anything.

Cool game though!

TubbyS14 Dec 2016, 17:15

Nice game with lots of potential, it felt a bit cramped at times, but with the theme I think it is nice.

vg_iba14 Dec 2016, 19:38

It's a basic top/down shooter. But I see some problems though, when you hold the shooting button the camera stops and you can move your character outside of the screen, that can be a problem to know your surroundings, and the other thing is that you move a little bit slow. Fixing both those things it will get a lot better.

TrampolineTales15 Dec 2016, 14:58

Pretty fun for a simple top-down shooter. I think some additional movement options (maybe purchasable as upgrades) would add a lot to the game too.

batmanasb15 Dec 2016, 20:27

Good work, oh and one more bug: if you hold shoot on the machine gun and move around, the camera doesn't follow you.

Catwheel16 Dec 2016, 10:37

I saw you playing and rating so many other people's games so I figured I'd give yours a shot. Pretty fun! I really enjoyed it. Pretty tough stuff! As a note I should say it was not immediately obvious that I could but stuff. Maybe have the text for Press Q to toggle store blink in between waves?