Nuclear Arms 8.5er: Skeleton Survivor

Another Nuclear Arms game! Such a treat. The fully-voiced opening was awesome.

Generally, a very cool game. I definitely got the feeling of slowly building up my character, becoming more complex but also more powerful, while the game-world scaled appropriately in a way that the overall challenge went up but I could still feel my strength.

Some balancing issues, but that's understandable within the time constraints (specifically, the difficulty scales too quickly around the 6 minute mark, and the nuclear barrels are too powerful). I would have liked a few more varied power-ups because that feels like the main thing that keeps you going, variation and excitement in terms of powers. That, however, is an ask I make only because the existing game is so cool and I can see what more variation would bring because you've already given me a taste. So, just keep doing what you're doing!

Haha so fun!

A lot of fun to play! Also funny.

Awesome game! I know it's just a homage to Vampire Survivors, but I honestly almost found this more enjoyable! Super cool that you were able to use Ludum Dare to reverse engineer something!! Excellent work :)

nice! its interesting to see that my vampire survivors skill transfers over to this game! Love the intro and the gameplay is engaging!

Awesome Entry. Personally never played Vampire Survivors but i guess you hit the essence of it.

nice job,,,weapon system is good, maybe need some improvement in graphic

Played for you on my livestream was fun!

8.5er Skeleton Survivor is such a great title :D

I was hoping to see some VS games this jam given the theme. You actually improved on several things and weren't just derivative (I have not played the latest VS version so these comments could be outdated):
- The shotgun having some wind up before firing is great because it allows me to position my attack without jeopardizing my position as much. I can just aim and then go back to my original route rather than constantly thinking about my facing. On paper this SHOULD be the same thing, but for some reason I felt like I was strategizing more with this shotty.
- The zamboni machines being immune to knockback, thereby making my aura tactic useless was a good idea. No afking here!
- Being able to upgrade the size of the barrels, not just the quantity was super satisfying. It certainly create a lot of visual chaos, but it's almost like a risk/reward thing - use these super barrels at your own risk.

Loved how crazy it got near the end. This gameplay style of being over the top definitely fits the franchise. Great choice!

Thanks for the reviews so far everyone :).

@peachtreeoath that's what we like to see, absolute chaos at the end ;)

Damn I didnt know that there is some team that makes a whole series over a character. That's genius! Lots of variety for upgrades and weapons. I really enjoyed it! An easy competitor for Vampire Survivor :D

Great fun to play! Satisfying weapons/upgrades system over exciting visuals. Very nice entry.

Oh heck yes! I've been waiting for the next Nuclear Arms game! All around, this one is a wonderful time. I should've seen the robot coming, but it's a bit of shame my incredible run had to end. I was joking to myself, "Perhaps it was I who was inevitable" as I destroyed giant waves of enemies. No- it was the giant red robot who crushed my spine. HA! With every game this franchise just gets better. Thanks for sticking with it, and making a great game every time. Cheers!

I've never played the games that inspired this, but it was fun! Surprisingly calming to play, perhaps it was the awesome music! Sound effects were a little loud compared to the music.

Also, is the environment art timefantasy?

@0x746564 Yes they were. The Ashlands tileset here: https://finalbossblues.itch.io/ashlands-tileset

really nice gameplay loop, and the upgrade system was lots of fun, enjoyed the variety of powerups and enemy design too.

Entertaining game! Really tanked my framerate, though. 😅 Had fun playing on stream!
Edit: Would be cool if the shotgun placed after the shotgun sound so you had a chance to change your direction and aim it.

Great Game! Well Done! I think I'm in love with this kind of games ;)

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my stream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1450143040?t=8h08m41s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

Nice game. Loved the intro and gameplay. music was awesome. Good job!

I had a very good time. Great synthwave loops. I managed to survive, barrels FTW!

This is very fun. I liked how the upgrades made me feel like I was getting more powerful, but the enemies scaled well to make it so that it wasn't too easy. The sound effects for the laser hits do seem to stack up and get too loud when they hit too many enemies.

Audio and gameplay loops were great. Visuals felt a little disjointed, like many of the elements were of different styles. Feels a little slow at the start.

I guess every Unity download I've played in the last several LDs has had a sub-folder called "BleedingEdge" in it. Curious that I never noticed it until playing a Nuclear Arms game...

I appreciate that the title was a half. Some will assume you did that to rhyme and [STORY SPOILER REDACTED], but I know it's so that Brodie can say he "didn't miss one." Poor guy. Tell him I got set up for go time on this one with his friend:

I had a blast with this one! I got off to a most interesting start when I ran immediately away from the first skeleton, which happens to be also away from the first xp orbs, without realizing the consequences. "Gee Craig seems rather pacifistic this time out..."

Oddly that run was also the one where I got my Spine Crushed. I went early and often into barrels and cooldowns, with minors in health and speed, which is an indirect but potent strategy.

After my spine was crushed I had to go back and try a few other approaches. I loved how the different abilities rewarded me for interacting with the mass of mobs in a different way.

Punching is pretty sweet for a while, and it was cool to be dancing right at the edge of danger all the time. Nuclear Fists (or whatever the one that makes the fists huge) was a key upgrade, so sweet. It felt like pure-punching eventually got out classed, but before they took me down I got decent at flipping directions exactly in between the punches so that I could double-punch in the same direction. Only late in the run did I figure out that the general overcharge upgrade also gave me an extra punch?? That could get out of hand.

I also enjoyed the shotgun build, which appropriately asks me to turn and rush right at the mob-blob to be effective. Yeah, just gimme a sec, that should be no problem.... right?

Actually that was the only thing I felt myself wishing for this time out: a reload sound on the shotgun just enough before it gets placed that I can use it as an audio cue to turn around. I missed the window a lot, turning early and then having to bail, or dropping the shotgun just when I meant to turn.

I've never played a game quite like this before. I liked it! I was a little confused why I'd want to NOT be the one doing the action at first. But it didn't take me long to dial into why this is great.

Another really nice entry into the series, gang! Great work.

OK wait maybe I'll go play one more time now that I know the overcharge adds additional punches, to see how ridiculous it can get...

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EDIT: I would like to apologize to fists everywhere. HOLY SMOKES. All-in fists build was NUTS. Instead of running and picking off strays I was able to turn straight into a fully-dense mob-blob and cut through it like a hot knife through butter. I honestly thought I might beat the doombot.

Really great ! Loved the combo build punching+aura.

Ah yes, classical game franchises: Resident Evil, Half-Life, Doom and Nuclear Arms :D

Honestly, it was crazy fun. I loved how overpowered it made me feel at the end. And loved the twist!

Damn, what a great vampire survivors style game! Definitely done right. Duke Nukem vibes too. I guess my recent binging on VS is to thank for winning this one the first time through. Played HTML version, but downloading too so I have it for later. Awesome work!

Nice

Really solid entry. Game length was great, not too short, and any longer than that would have made it very repetitive. The story was funny. Gameplay felt great. I would have liked to have more weapon variations and bigger differences to Vampire Survivors.

Another suggestion: having both flat upgrades (+1) and percentage upgrades (+10%) without having the base values for the abilities shown makes it impossible to know which one is better.

Overall, really enjoyed it. Would play again if you add more content at some point.

Curse you Heat Death! This is one of the most fun games I've played this jam, congrats! Did you guys compose the soundtrack too? Some of the songs were super familiar...

I found the radiation + armor combo a bit imba, but what can you do. Btw you seem to have some bugs wrt to full screen scaling, I only saw the timer and progress bar on the screenshots in the comments here. (By default I didn't see any of them, entering fullscreen I could see the bottom of the timer, but not enough to make out the values.)

Very fun game! I love the voice at the beginning haha

This Game is Solid, really enjoyed the variation in abilities and randomisation on the upgrades. kept finding myself playing again to see what builds i could achieve in the time frame.

Now I want to grow a mustache

Best game I played so far! Even with voice acting!!
Perfect score from me, I had fun and enjoyed it 100%
Great work!

8th, really? I should check the previous ones. Overall quite cool nuke dukem serious with crimson land addiction and passive mechanics. Nice one, thanks for the experience!

I beat it but I'm kind of disappointed that it just kills you in the end, I wanted to keep playing