Ludum Dare #46compo

Fermi Paradox

by tversteeg

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.63

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.16

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.24

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.47

Audio★★★★★★★★★★1.00

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.20

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.00

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:rocket: Play Fermi Paradox here

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How come we don't see any life from other planets? What does an intergalactic society need to do to survive?

Fermi Paradox is a combination of the arcade games of yesteryear with some modern twists. It's played entirely by mouse.

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:alien: Features

:space_invader: Procedurally generated assets

Every time you play all visuals will be different.

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:space_invader: Different enemy types

Different enemies have different properties, and can even spawn other enemies.

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:space_invader: Upgrades

Use the scraps you earned to buy upgrades and make your life slightly easier.

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:space_invader: Tiny executables

The executable for all native targets are smaller than 1MB.

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Share what levels you've reached and how many scraps you have, you can probably do better than me!

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:tools: Tools

- neovim - text editor
- rust - awesomest programming language
- sprite:raised_hand: - procedural sprite generation
- const-tweaker:raised_hand: - live tweak constant variables

:raised_hand: Made by me!

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:books: Libraries

- anyhow - error handling
- derive_deref - automatic deref for newtypes
- direct-gui:raised_hand: - buttons & labels
- fastblur - gaussian blur
- miniquad - opengl context & input handling
- specs-blit:raised_hand: - combining specs & blit:raised_hand:
- sprite-gen:raised_hand: - procedural sprite generation
- vek - vector & geom types

:raised_hand: Made by me!

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:mute: No sound

Unfortunately my game doesn't have any sound, the reason for that is that the miniquad library I use for WebAssembly doesn't support it yet and I couldn't find another Rust library that supports sound in WebAssembly..

Comments34

Supereo18 Apr 2020, 14:04

Very very Cool! :)

ApexHurts18 Apr 2020, 15:06

I like it - although I didn't understand what to do from the start.

Also like the movement of the enemies - predictable but still hard to be exact in counter measure

tversteegauthor18 Apr 2020, 15:19

Hi, I didn't mean to publish it as a final state. It's still a work in progress. I've added instructions on how to play to the website.

Guille18 Apr 2020, 17:23

Very fun, excellent particle effects, but how do you restart the game ?

tversteegauthor18 Apr 2020, 19:07

~~@guille at the moment you have to refresh the page or restart the application. A proper restart is still on my TODO list.~~ This comment was placed while still developing the game.

Gaspar Laprida19 Apr 2020, 03:37

Nice game. Pong meets spaceship invasion. A little too slow. Maybe adding "the planet" behind you would feel more like "protecting" and "keeping it alive".

Owinmowe19 Apr 2020, 03:43

I Like it!

tversteegauthor19 Apr 2020, 09:50

@guille I've implemented the restart mechanism when you lose.
@gaspar-laprida I've added a planet but it's not the prettiest thing, no idea how to procedurally generate something good-looking.

plantleaf19 Apr 2020, 12:14

I got to level 6 and I like the variety in speed because it leaves me with the question "this one is closer so I should probably kill that first although the further one is faster so maybe that one will be here first". I really like that decision where I constantly have to estimate which one of the enemies is a bigger danger. For the controls I think it would be better if there were two keys, one for up and one for down. Because the mouse might be a bit too sensitive in some cases. Long story short: I really liked the game.

tversteegauthor19 Apr 2020, 13:25

@plantleaf the first couple of versions of this game had a keyboard as a control for the mouse. I found that it was too hard to control the paddle with the same reaction speed as with the mouse. Also using a keyboard doesn't allow people on phones and tablets to play the game as well.

ndrw20 Apr 2020, 01:06

I really like this, it seems very polished. I liked the progression of difficulty and the randomly generated assets!

Avi20 Apr 2020, 06:16

Good job! I really like the concept of the game as well :)

mhykah20 Apr 2020, 06:18

Hard but interesting game! Played a few rounds and could only get to level 6 but I had fun doing it!

mincemeat20 Apr 2020, 06:18

Nice! There were times where It felt too slow but I enjoyed it regardless.

DarriasArt20 Apr 2020, 06:19

Nice polish and I like the feel

ivn20 Apr 2020, 06:24

I like this Arkanoid + Invaders mechanics a lot!
Bonus points for Fermi Paradox :)

Tattomoosa20 Apr 2020, 07:21

Very cool! The procedurally generated ships look great. I made a little rogue-like tech demo in Rust/specs a while back but I couldn't imagine doing it under game-jam time constraints... The borrow checker would not be happy with all the gnarly things I do to my poor game-jam code lol.

Excellent work, it plays extremely smoothly and the concept is a great take on breakout/pong/space invaders and a perfect fit for the theme.

sayumeki20 Apr 2020, 07:59

This arcade mashup is a really novel idea to me! I like the concept and the procgen visuals.

I think in the early levels the shop actually breaks up the pace too much since the levels are too short, and I do agree with others that the pace probably could be a bit quicker sometime. But I had fun playing it!

Given longer development, I think more stuff in the shop could be interesting - as is, 1000 scrap takes a while to reach and until then the shop is just like "get out of my way so I can get to the next level". :P

scottthoo20 Apr 2020, 08:01

Hope i can shoot !

tversteegauthor20 Apr 2020, 08:17

@sayumeki I understand how you feel about the shop, I tried to make the first couple of levels a sort of taste of what enemies you will encounter, after level 4 the levels suddenly get a lot longer and harder. I also try to didn't ramp up the difficulty immediately too soon to allow more casual players to enjoy the game as well.

zondarg20 Apr 2020, 10:23

Liked the idea of reflecting bullets back to hit the enemies! The first levels feel very short, somehow. And in the first levels there is no need for a shop - maybe just show it once there is enough scrap to buy something? Overall some sound would really help (understand the library limitation though) to give the game more feeling of hitting something. Nice!

IronyGames20 Apr 2020, 10:36

Fun concept. The upgrades feel like game changers, and the graphics are schmuck as heck.

As feedback, I'd ask for a timer to see how much is left. Also maybe allow upgrades a little earlier? by wave 3/4.

Yonman20 Apr 2020, 10:41

Awesome! The game is fun to play and the idea of proceduraily generated assets was very good.

gamepopper20 Apr 2020, 10:48

I think the game starts off way too easy, I was progressing through eight levels before I got any worthwhile reward. I never even got to shoot anything, just deflect projectiles in a Breakout fashion. Also the graphics appear to be a bit blurry for some reason.

SteelySam20 Apr 2020, 12:24

Loved being able to send bullets back to the enemy pong style, nice game

Nick Barrash20 Apr 2020, 19:21

Echoing the above, bouncing bullets was a fun mechanic. Nice game!

Sinamon21 Apr 2020, 01:22

I liked the simplistic graphics. Well done.

If you add some visual and audio ques to the events, the player will have a better feel about what's happening.

sigod21 Apr 2020, 09:14

Enemies were kind and picked up health packs for me. :)

Kto-to21 Apr 2020, 15:13

Cool game. I like the good gameplay

FedorL21 Apr 2020, 22:44

I am so happy to see a game made with miniquad!

Sorry about the sounds, working on it :)

NoahRo22 Apr 2020, 00:59

Had a lot of fun playing!
It's very satisfying to store up a bunch of large shots and
then destroy all enemies on screen with a barrage of bullets!

I'm a bit biased, our entry is also written in Rust.
Props for your development setup!
I'm impressed with everything being code-generated (no asset files).
And congrats on your WASM build!

Happy to see another Rust entry :)

Szieberth Adam22 Apr 2020, 15:01

Recently I was thinking on giving a shot for game programming in Rust. I am happy you made this game and will certainly look for its source code if I go for Rust.

Eckkert23 Apr 2020, 14:13

Thanks for posting all of your libraries, I'm interested in trying Rust next LD and your game is helping me learn. Also, very interesting thing you did there with the procedural ship generation. Our jam game has semi-procedural planet generation, but it leans heavily on assets put together by our amazing artist. I also think it's pretty sweet how you got it running in the browser, did you use that rust to webassembly thing? In any case whatever you did beats Unity hands down.

puppetmaster6 May 2020, 18:51

interesting and innovative Pong mix, with cool effects, great game play keep up the good work!