(EDIT: Thanks for the feedback! Later I will be making the levels much shorter and making the gameplay more dynamic. Right now this is more of a proof of concept, but hope you still enjoy the music.)
Hello, this is my first ludum dare ever.
For the theme "combine 2 incompatible genres" I made a ship-shooting game similar to Galaga + a generic Maze game.
How it works: You control the ship-shooter and shoot down enemy arrows. These enemy arrows, when killed, move the mazerunner in the direction of the arrow. For example, if I shot down an up-arrow enemy, then the mazerunner will move 1 space up. Your ship has limited lives (the enemy arrows can shoot back at you).
Get to the end of the 2 mazes and you win. (it takes a while)
Programmed in Java. I used a framework called libGDX (https://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/) to assist with development, since games aren't typically made with the JRE alone.
That original idea made me say: WOOOW. I love Galaga, so I found it very good. The music is a bit agressive and repetitive, but i can't complain about it due to the 48h. The gameplay is way too long, but very interesting. Maybe more levels but shorter would be better. Good Entry
@Dragojt Yeah, the levels take forever to complete, and I also figured that the music wasn't exactly fitting for the mood of the game. I could make the individual tiles larger to make shorter levels. Thanks for the feedback.
Your concept is my favorite out of all the games I've played so far. I think you really nailed the theme. The audio is great too. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the way the ship part worked. There are way too many arrows on screen at one time moving so fast that I found it impossible to shoot the one I wanted which made it very hard to make any progress. I think if you made the ship part a bit easier and increased the difficulty of the maze part by adding different levels and hazards, the game could be a contender to win. Great job!
@jack-hipson Thanks for the feedback. I had thought that it would require "skill" to aim for the correct arrow, but I realize that it gets tedious after a while, considering how long the levels are. So I'm definitely going to try to make it so that there won't be arrows that are impossible to shoot because other arrows are blocking the way.
Really cool concept, cool music too ^^ But I was disappointed when I saw that the music of the menu is not the same at the music while playing, it is a way better :(
Too repetitive also I think, the level is a little bit too long ^^'
Despite that, I enjoyed the experience ! Keep coding :)
@Mathiouza Yep, I realized what I made is more like a proof of concept rather than a game with real depth. I'm definitely going to work on much shorter levels and more dynamic gameplay later. Thank you for the feedback. Also, you mean that you like the menu theme more than the in-game theme?
The game concept is very creative. It can be considered as "double jeopardy". Shooting enemy arrows is one challenge, another challenge is that the awrrow on the maze has to move to the correct direction to fast complete the maze. It is incredible that a first time participant accomplishes it from design to complete from scratch just using LibGdx game library. Superb job. You will have a great future. One suggestion for future enhancement is to add two players to the game. Real time competation will be even more fun.
Awesome combo! It worked really well. Remembering which colors corresponded to which direction worked best for me. Like others said, a short first level would be great. Great job on your first game jam!
I think instead of dying when you get shot, the shot should move your character in a direction. That could add another level of gameplay (maybe you want to get hit sometimes).
Great idea! I like having to multitask both sides of the screen at once. More levels will make this super fun! I like the idea of having "easy" "medium" and "hard" levels, and having "impossible" because some people will definitely see that as a challenge!
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Too repetitive also I think, the level is a little bit too long ^^'
Despite that, I enjoyed the experience ! Keep coding :)
One suggestion for future enhancement is to add two players to the game. Real time competation will be even more fun.
I think instead of dying when you get shot, the shot should move your character in a direction. That could add another level of gameplay (maybe you want to get hit sometimes).