Katavasi

Web version now available!

//played on web

Solid and functional. Congrats on completing your first Ludum Dare!
I found the steering of the ship very awkward, but it did feel spacey, so maybe that was intended.

Fun, little game. Really liked the simple but readable artstyle.

love the look of the game, the visuals and the style, great job. i played the web version and the text at the beginning was to small to read

Thanks for playing guys! That's a good note on the text. I was actually afraid someone was going to say that. It's a small easy fix so I went ahead and did it.

This is cool! The slow acceleration was a really interesting choice. Avoiding enemy fire WOULD be easy... just go in a circle... but because of the slow thrust, you have to plan ahead and be aware of your trajectory, or you'll end up with a wave of bullets coming at you and no escape. I got to level -8, had fun.

It took me several tries to realize up/down even did anything, because of the slow thrust. Some feedback (e.g. particles behind the ship) would be helpful.

By the way, I'm sorry you weren't able to play my game while it was Windows-only. Do you have macOS? I ported it to Mac, although unfortunately I don't think a Linux port will happen anytime soon, as I don't currently have a Linux install.

Cool graphics and sound. Steering is a bit too fast I think and it is hard to shoot where you want to. Overall, quite nice entry!

The game is really cool actually :)
Sounds are greats and graphics well thinked
Great job

Thank you for playing everyone! @ultimatewalrus , I think you are right about a particle trail. That would probably help sell the movement. I'm sorry that I couldn't play your game. I managed to get it started under Wine but the framerate was so slow that I didn't want to judge it yet. I have an old Mac mini that I could pull out of storage, but it's old. I'll give it a shot.

I liked the graphics and sound. Took me a minute to realize the movement used tank controls, my first round was very fast and confusing as a result.

All in all a very strong submission, and hopefully you can get to 20 in the next week or so!

Fast paced hard space action right here! Or it is just me, but felt awesome and hard :D kept dying here and there.

Interesting combination of wormhole and levels, although the games feel a bit hard, when there are so many enemies and bullets flying around, and the energy kept decreasing. But managed to go around them and open a few wormholes :)

With more attempts it became clear that I should use the gravitational space to my advantage and circle around, just making sure to shoot where needed and go to wormholes. But flying enemies and bullets everywhere, and also from the previous level, make it much harder.

If you continue working on it, as an idea, maybe the bullets from the previous level should not go to the new level. And as mentioned above, add some particles related to the ship's thrust.

Well done overall! Great jam game.

By the way, playing in background with the Interstellar "Docking Scene" soundtrack makes the game go full drama :)

I got a little bit addicted to this, managed to get to -10. Very challenging game! Visuals are cool, gameplay is satisfying.

I didn't like the fact that shooting decreases your "health". Seems like you are punished for shooting, which is the most satisfying aspect of the game in my opinion.

Congrats on your first ludum dare :) Keep it up!

Nice game! The art style is really cool. I found a strategy where I just went circling around the outermost orbit and went into the wormhole anytime it spawned, mostly ignoring the enemies which worked for me really good. Great job, especially considering this is your first LD :).

That's a pretty good entry for just one dev! I found it somewhat difficult to stay alive for too long; not shooting to focus on dodging actually made the game a bit more manageable for me. I had some problems with the readability of the levels, especially after entering a wormhole with a bunch of enemies and bullets all around me. Still, it's a solid little experience, working smoothly and accompanied by nice simplistic graphics and audio. I enjoyed giving it several goes and managing to go a bit deeper every time!

I don't know whether you intended this, but all the different gameplay aspects combine to create an extremely difficult, yet rewarding experience. The fact that shooting drains your energy means you can't just spam bullets. The fact that enemies carry over from one level to the next means you can't just flee as soon as the wormhole appears. The optimal strategy seems to be to take your time and pick the enemies off slowly, but even that's easier said than done: the enemies quickly flood the level with hundreds of bullets, your ship is *so* difficult to control, and if you get too close to the wormhole it just sucks you in and takes you to the next level.

I'm really impressed at how you managed to fit everything together to create such a challenging entry. Good job!

You guys are awesome. Thank you for playing. I was inspired by old-school games where the player just cannot win. You just find yourself diving into a hole and the only question is how deep you can go before you get a game over. I was actually not able to go as deep as many of you were. I am very impressed.

Also, just for the sake of clarity, this is not my first LD, this is only my first LD that I completed. I've tried before.

I failed. And then I tried again.

Also, how does everyone feel about Asteroids-style controls? I have noticed that some new players do not prefer it. Perhaps it is an antiquated control scheme.