Asteroid Field

by mesa
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.76
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.62
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.24
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.19
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.67
Play the Game
=============
Play Demo Game

Instructions - Wait a few seconds for asteroids to appear, then use the crosshair
cursor to aim at approaching asteroids, and click to fire.

Source Code
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GitHub

Screenshots
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Tools Used
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- Game Engine: Phaser-CE 2.7.7
- Build Tools: GNU Make, Webpack, Babel, Closure-Compiler, and YUICompressor
- Editors: Atom, Aseprite, Gimp

Description
-----------
This is an HTML5 web-based game built on Phaser. It is a very simple game where
you play as the tiny earth-like planet in the center (called "asmallworld" in the code)
and you click on the screen to fire missiles at much larger enclosing asteroids
that threaten to destroy your tiny and fragile world. As you destroy asteroids,
your score will increase, and at certain intervals, your missiles will upgrade.
However, as your weapons may improve, the asteroids will increase in size,
speed, and density, so it will gradually get more difficult. If any asteroid
makes contact with the world, it is game over.

Looking Back
------------
This is my first successfully completed game ever. I know it's not going to be
the most impressive or complete game on here, but I was certainly impressed with
what I was able to do in the time, I had a lot of fun making it, and I learned
an incredible amount about game development. In addition to that, I hope some
of you are able to enjoy or at least admire it for a moment too!
Genres: shooter
Tools: Aseprite, GIMP

Comments18

flusap
flusap2 May 2017, 23:15
It's a pretty fun defense game! I like how you implemented the theme different to what someone would expect!
zondarg
zondarg3 May 2017, 00:15
Nice Asteroids themed game, congrats on your first entry! Pretty fun, and the giant asteroids vs the tiny little earth... cute :)
feips16 May 2017, 20:42
Nice Entry, i like the mechanic, but somehow(or was it intendet?) the first asteroids spawned only after a minute and also very rarely so it isn't a real challenge, anyway, nice entry.
🎤								Mesa
🎤 Mesaauthor19 May 2017, 04:32
@feips You're 100% right, all of the asteroids spawn along a line just outside of the screen, and the early part of the game limits the velocity quite a bit, so the unfortunate side effect is that lengthy delay in the very beginning. It's something I would've liked to have fixed, but time was running kind of low, but oh well. Thank for playing by the way!
theslate
theslate19 May 2017, 05:33
Nice first game! I could defend myself forever by just holding the mouse button in one place, so there wasn't much challenge.
Lars DK19 May 2017, 05:45
I played it and enjoyed it for a while. I love seeing more JS-based games! :)

Things I liked:

1. Interesting art style - I liked the animation

2. Controls worked well

3. Game ran flawlessly / no bugs

Things to work on:

1. Providing difficulty challenge / setting goals

2. Stuff like audio would be cool

3. Minimize wait time for players
Hierophant19 May 2017, 05:48
If this is your first game it's a good job! Ran without any problems, everything seemed to work. Gameplay felt good. One thing I would comment on though, is you had the asteroids get progressively bigger, which while looking threatening, actually makes it easier to hit them. Just a small think to think about when designing threats. Best of luck getting your votes!

If you like, take a look at the game me and my team made for Ludum Dare, it's also my first completed game!
OccultOne
OccultOne19 May 2017, 05:57
Art style was solid, the animation was pretty good! Control scheme seemed to work fine, so all the basics are covered. I think you might wanna make it a bit more difficult, modulating the speed of asteroids, and raising and lowering the rate of spawn.

Thanks for the submission!
🎤								Mesa
🎤 Mesaauthor19 May 2017, 06:25
@theslate Thanks for playing! I noticed that myself when I was debugging on the last day, but I wasn't sure what to do about it. I did try increasing the cooldown on the rockets to prevent that, but it didn't help all that much. I definitely need to work on balancing difficulty in general though. Thanks for the feedback!
🎤								Mesa
🎤 Mesaauthor19 May 2017, 06:28
@lars-dk Thanks for the tips, and I'm glad you enjoyed! I've definitely got a lot of things to try improving on next LD. Thanks for taking the time to help out a newbie like me!
🎤								Mesa
🎤 Mesaauthor19 May 2017, 06:31
@hierophant Thanks for the kind words! I agree on the asteroid sizing thing. I thought it would look neat, and it does, but after the time ran out I kind of regretted not making the difficulty increase make the asteroids smaller instead, and maybe give them a bit more speed. And the rocket upgrades, if you noticed those, are another feature I think really hurt more than it helped. Anyway, thanks for playing and for the advice!
🎤								Mesa
🎤 Mesaauthor19 May 2017, 06:33
@occultone Thanks for checking it out! Lack of difficulty was definitely one of my regrets for this game, but it's a good lesson for next time. Thanks for the help!
DemyHallar
DemyHallar19 May 2017, 07:12
It should get faster and harder over time. Right now it's boring. I like the pixel art of the planet =)
🎤								Mesa
🎤 Mesaauthor19 May 2017, 07:21
@demyhallar Thanks for playing! There is actually a time-based increase in the size of the planets, their maximum speed, spawn rate, and maximum number of asteroids, but I agree with you, it isn't quite enough to make it challenging. I definitely need to get better at balancing the difficulty. Thanks for the feedback! (and agreed, the planet is the cutest part of the game)
DaisyChubb19 May 2017, 12:55
Well done, I think you did an awesome job adding a themed twist on a classic.

You have definitely already received this feedback, but if the asteroids started coming a little faster it might hook people to keep playing longer.

That's just something to consider for another iteration of the game, as it stands it is polished anc omplete - you did a great job.
🎤								Mesa
🎤 Mesaauthor20 May 2017, 00:07
@daisychubb Thanks for the kind words and feedback! Definitely agreed, it's a good lesson for next time.

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