Time Tug

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.76
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.46
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.66
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.17
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.69
Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.91
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.81
"A Turn based bullet hell"

PLAY HERE!

Instructions:


* Press X to begin.
* Arrow keys to navigate, Z to confirm, X to cancel
* When moving: move the destination with the arrow keys, confirm with Z. You can't pass through hazards, so don't get trapped!
* When shooting: Up and Down arrows for quick gun rotation, and Left and Right for detailed. Confirm with Z
* When ending a turn: Double confirm with Z.

Screenshot



Description

Time tug! Freeze time every handful of moments to plan your strategy!

This game is inspired in the old school bullet hell schmups. The twist, however, is that you have a limited number of actions you can do each turn!

Social media

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screenshot

Comments28

22 Apr 2018, 22:07
How do I rate? I love it! Super impressed. Great application of theme.
Serious07
Serious0723 Apr 2018, 01:51
I'm like the pixel art in game, and sounds, may be some red lines for enemies movement prediction would be cool to see here. Solid game. :)
fashionbatman
fashionbatman23 Apr 2018, 09:09
Great job! I love how the 2 genres mixed together. This was a lot of fun to play!
Lecalat23 Apr 2018, 09:19
Definetly a fun twist, I enjoyed it.
Tutti Ankka23 Apr 2018, 09:19
This was a great use of theme, 2 completely incompatible genres mashed up! I liked the old pixel art look.
Aarre Entertainment
Aarre Entertainment23 Apr 2018, 09:29
This was an excellent display of how the theme is incorporated in gameplay. Very interesting take and something that could be made into something if polished and more content added.
SMILEY_4_
SMILEY_4_23 Apr 2018, 10:01
Fun game and great execution . Really like the graphics
ildfuglen
ildfuglen23 Apr 2018, 11:15
Really, really cool! So far, this is the entry I have enjoyed the most! The graphics are great, the turn-based mechanics are interesting and a overall a really solid entry. Well done!
Memel06
Memel0623 Apr 2018, 11:34
I had a great time playing this!
Super stable, cool and polished game.
You nailed it!
Thanks for making this!!
mat1er23 Apr 2018, 11:35
Fantastic game! Really well made! Too bad it's that short and there's a crual lack of music.
5/5 would play again.
bcvery123 Apr 2018, 12:16
Nice idea, and great game. The retro graphics look great, I especially like the 'Booting cartridge'
Shoj9223 Apr 2018, 12:37
Really nice idea and execution! Would have loved some background music too!
VinegarLove
VinegarLove23 Apr 2018, 12:38
Interesting idea. It is also difficult, just like bullet hells ;)
Moczan
Moczan23 Apr 2018, 13:01
Really solid entry, polished and fun to play, probably the best I've played so far in LD41. In the beginning it's not super clear if you already used your shoot command or not, maybe have an actual aiming lines persist until you end your turn? Also Pass should probably be End Turn/Execute/Start/Play/etc since it implies you are not going to do anything and forge your current orders.
XCVZXC
XCVZXC23 Apr 2018, 13:24
I dont really like turn based games but this one is sooo playable
jf1989
jf198923 Apr 2018, 14:20
I'm glad I was correct that I wouldn't be the only one making a turn based bullet hell :-). Though we've gone about it in quite different ways!

The artwork and game feel of this is great - it makes a nice whole with a consistent feel.

One thing about the UI - if I were to play this for a while I would really want to use the mouse to move. Also, the trade off seems to be how many bullets I can fire per round to how far I can move - so if I could limit my moves to a certain number of points and see the radius for that, then click with the mouse inside that radius, it would be nice. As it is, I find the input style a bit clunky.

That's not such a big thing, though - altogether it's a great little game :-).
Noa Calice
Noa Calice23 Apr 2018, 14:20
Such a fascinating game idea :) ! This can definitely be expanded on and released as a full game !
Adam Wallberg
Adam Wallberg23 Apr 2018, 20:05
This was very fun to play, even though I rarely like turn based games ^^
caeonosphere
caeonosphere23 Apr 2018, 22:08
Great execution on the theme. One of the few compo games with a high-functioning interface! It would be cool if enemy behavior was a little more predictable -- sometimes they turn on a dime between turns.
Secretmapper
Secretmapper24 Apr 2018, 04:49
I love how moving is 'instant' in that it doesn't wait for enemy movement. Makes it feel like if the game was realtime, the player is 'teleporting' :)

I think that could be a great little mechanic/world building to explore upon - the player is a time lord who can 'stop time and move' which manifests as 'turn based'
IronyGames
IronyGamesauthor24 Apr 2018, 06:08
Morning, everyone!

@Serious07 yup, I've been getting comments like this, and I agree more enemy feedback will make this less trial and error. I'll aim for that!

@Moczan that is a think I've noticed as well, the bullets just don't stand out. Thanks for the feedback!

@jf1989 That's an interesting one, I didn't even think about mouse support, but it does make sense. I'll take a gander :)

@caeonosphere Thanks! I kind of wanted enemies to be unpredictable, at least the first time around -- figuring out the pattern being the fun part and all. But I agree some sort of feedback would be very helpful.

@Secretmapper Hey thank you! That was somewhat the effect I was going for. Though your description has given me an idea for a story -- let's see if I have time to develop it :)

Thanks for all your feedback, people!
sndr
sndr24 Apr 2018, 22:18
Great and clever execution! Really enjoyed the ride :) It's cool the way the turn-based thing has been built, where everything is frozen but some of the actions you take have immediate effect (such as moving). Good job!!
25 Apr 2018, 07:55
I approve of this game.
kbjwes77
kbjwes7727 Apr 2018, 12:12
Very clever! A little tedious, but that's coming from someone who doesn't like turn based games as much as real time games. Still a solid game, exactly what I expected from a turn based bullet hell!
Jimbly
Jimbly2 May 2018, 14:46
Nice game, mechanics work pretty great! The first level seemed a little too dependent on memorizing where things spawn, the first time guys would spawn and shoot at me before I had any chance to move out of the way or kill enough so there wasn't a solid wall of bullets coming down (although, from playing more, maybe my hit box was small enough I could have fit through some of those bullets, but it sure didn't look like it). I had to play the first level a couple times before surviving through it, but then died on the third level. Was exciting to make it that far! Letting the movement happen on your turn was nice, it eliminates the "where exactly are the bullets going to be by the time I get done moving" guesswork in other turn-based shooters.
nilstastic3 May 2018, 18:29
Nice graphics and the mechanics were spot on, good work! (Also, interesting pico-8 work on twitter)

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