A Key Sacrifice

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.69
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.47
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.05
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.10
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.05
Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.60
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.41
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.75
You have discovered an old arcade-style game on your grandpa's old computer. You are determined to get a high score, but the keyboard is very old with not much life left in it. You must sacrifice the keys to get a higher score, and will need to remap new keys for moving and shooting. How high of a score can you get before you either die or have no more keys to use?

screenshot.png
Controls: WASD to move and arrow keys to shoot (initially). Spacebar to use a bomb.

Written in Java using libGDX (https://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/)

Note: some of the standalone executables are untested. If they don't work, just download and run the jar file (or play online).

Bugfixes:
- Fixed a bug in the web version where the speed was too high on some computers

screenshot

Comments35

Abeyance3 Dec 2018, 03:28
Using the power up felt super awesome! The key-remapping gets reaaaally hard to manage really fast. Overall, pretty fun. I'd say the second best out of the 8 or so I've played.
xesenix
xesenix3 Dec 2018, 04:27
Thats theming by game mechanics remaping keys is sacrifice that you feel quickly.
CalLavickaauthor3 Dec 2018, 04:41
@xesenix Yeah. It gets very hard once you lose the original 8 keys.
xesenix
xesenix3 Dec 2018, 04:44
@callavicka the worst part was when I started losing keys from a new part of the keyboard and couldn't move anywhere else where the relation between keys would be similar
Matthew Roelle3 Dec 2018, 04:46
I love this idea! This got very hard very quickly, but it is definitely the most unique take on the theme that I've encountered so far. Great job!
sky-coding3 Dec 2018, 05:15
This is really fun! It gets really difficult really quick!
benbusby
benbusby3 Dec 2018, 05:17
This was great, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I would've liked some sort of feedback on enemy ship health or something so that it felt a bit more rewarding to shoot them -- as it was I never knew how close I was to breaking up a cluster of enemy ships so I would usually just give up on them. Some more frequent power ups or something would help offset the mental gymnastics of remapping my keys so frequently too. Really enjoyed it though, great job!
CalLavickaauthor3 Dec 2018, 05:25
@matthew-roelle Thanks! I was definitely trying for a unique take on it, glad it went well!

@sky-coding Yeah, it definitely gets really hard and requires good planning about which keys go where. Glad you enjoyed!

@benbusby Thanks for the feedback! I would definitely like to expand with powerups, more variety of enemies/weapons, and an actual end goal. For health I could maybe tint enemies as you damage then? In any case, thanks for playing and glad you enjoyed!
SomewhatInfinite
SomewhatInfinite3 Dec 2018, 06:25
One of my top games I have played so far, good job. Never seen someone sacrifice keys in that way before, really unique. Would be cool to see additional enemy types.
Anyonebacon
Anyonebacon3 Dec 2018, 06:26
Pretty difficult, but I loved the concept of it! Super nice use of the theme. Great work!
SlizzBen3 Dec 2018, 08:07
It's was painful, thanks! :) I like it
DigitalLimestone
DigitalLimestone3 Dec 2018, 08:17
This is an awesome idea, and it was excecuted really well.
Nice Job.
hungryghost
hungryghost3 Dec 2018, 17:45
Yeah, that's just nasty, making the player change the keys every minute! Like the vector display type graphics, well done on the clever idea!
CalLavickaauthor3 Dec 2018, 19:13
@slizzben Glad you enjoyed! It certainly kicks my ass, my highest score is around 35000.

@digitallimestone Thanks. Appreciate the kind words.

@hungryghost Thanks! I didn't have a ton of time for graphics so I thought the vector graphics would be easy enough way to replicate an arcady feel - glad it worked!
timeshapers
timeshapers3 Dec 2018, 19:33
Pretty amazing how lost I felt just after a few remaps. Well done.
mrnyarlathotep
mrnyarlathotep3 Dec 2018, 20:12
Very clever take on the theme; its all good fun up until the point it really isn't, heh.
Kaish
Kaish4 Dec 2018, 02:20
Congratulations, good job!
My fingers gave a knot xD
philippkick
philippkick4 Dec 2018, 04:23
so funny to play!
played it with a friend, he controlled the ship and my part was the shooting

respect mate :)
SpixBird4 Dec 2018, 04:25
I really really liked that mechanic, but seriously, you can't actually play this alone. ;) but its addicting
erebus4 Dec 2018, 07:59
Cool concept. I liked the art and basic idea. Thanks for bringing it by the stream!
timeshapers
timeshapers4 Dec 2018, 08:06
The difficulty is spot on for a compo entry. You want players to experience the full range of the game quickly, otherwise they might get bored and leave. We're all trying to play 20-40 games, offering the full experience in 5 minutes is great.

I do have a suggestion:
Each time you take damage, reassign a key. When you run out of keys to reassign, you die.
CalLavickaauthor4 Dec 2018, 09:17
@timeshapers Yeah good point. I was mainly thinking though for an updated release with more content. Also that was my original idea but I felt what I ended up with more closely matches the sacrifice theme, as the very act of moving sacrifices your key's life (although I think both work just fine).
Pukami
Pukami4 Dec 2018, 10:30
"A Key Sacrifice" Great concept with a fitting name for it! It was a lot of fun, but got quite difficult really quickly for me.
rexpeppers
rexpeppers4 Dec 2018, 20:23
Impressive! Great idea and execution.
cowa
cowa4 Dec 2018, 21:15
(I did not read the description before playing)

At first I was like "ok it's a space shooter".
And then a message for remapping a key... that was surprising.

Very interesting idea to match the theme. But it's very painful! :sweat_smile:

Congrats :)
Jimbly
Jimbly6 Dec 2018, 22:05
That was fun! Got really difficult, really fast. My final score was 7100.
CalLavickaauthor6 Dec 2018, 22:28
@crosenlund79 Any errors I can debug? Did you try playing the jar / standalone executable version?
Nick Rafalski7 Dec 2018, 02:19
haha this was wild. I didn't think it would be very fun but it turned out to be quite enjoyable in a sadistic way. Great concept!
Suchista
Suchista9 Dec 2018, 11:06
Very clever and original idea :) The gameplay is annoying but in a good way!

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