Luzy Lazer
No wonder after milions of years of frugivory the fruits wanted to get back. But how did they evolve so fast? And how did they develop space travel? So many questions... But we did what we do best - we fought back. Actually, no one did anything except for one lonely hero: Space Commander Luzy Lazer. And there was no time to fix her spaceship. That damned thing seemed to break down every 10 seconds...
Controls: Arrow buttons=steering, Space=fire, R=restart
Controls: Arrow buttons=steering, Space=fire, R=restart
Genres: action
Comments18
One thing i would make different: Sometimes i got the same malfunktion 3 times in a row. This kind of randomness doesn't feel random and fair. There ist a story from Apple about the first iPod shuffle being truly random, so it sometimes played songs twice and they had to change it, because it didn't feel random. Make sure to choose only a modification if it isn't already applied. Or better: Make a list with all modifications and remove the picked one. When the list is empty fill it again. That way you have more control over the modifications in the game. You could choose to use only a subset in the first level and add more after the player progressed a little.
Nevertheless congrats on completing the game.
I like the mechanic of something malfunctioning every 10 seconds. Fits the theme well and is interesting. I would have liked to maybe have a very short preview, so I have a bit more agency on how to handle it (and a moment of panic as well).
Yes, you are perfectl right @limered, pure randomization is too primitive. The game would be more interesting with an increasing set of error types as it progresses.
Thanks @idenoh, I will fix the moving screen and the lack of randomness on the repair node.
Fruit Invaders is a MUCH better name. Thanks @flying-dog-fish!
Happy you liked the game @adam-gould!
* I enjoyed the patterns of the fruit. At first I thought they were all going to come down in straight lines but I noticed later they were sometimes curving but also sometimes they had non-constant velocities. Like they were making cool patterns with their curves and acceleration/decelerations. It was very pleasing to watch.
* I like the interpretation of the 10 second theme - it worked well. I did notice that if something malfunctioned (such as, go left) as long as I was holding left when the malfunction happened I could keep doing it as long as I kept my finger down. At first I thought this was a bug but later I tried to use it to my advantage and treated it as a hidden feature for advanced play :)
* I didn't figure out what the blue lightning bolts did but I tried to collect all of them anyway :)
* For the HTML embedding, it wasn't working on the ldjam site (try re-creating your archive with index.html at the root of the directory structure) and when I played in the web page everytime I hit down arrow the whole web page would scroll down and when I hit up arrow the whole web page would scroll up. This was a bit distracting but I was able to play the game anyways. I'm sure this is just an artifact of publishing the game for web play and not how it was for you during development so I tried to factor this out during the judging.
The game itself is chill enough that even the loss of controls is almost manageable. The real danger is the fact that using keyboard controls caused the itch page to move around because of HTML context issues, I think.
I wonder if the game would have felt different with Asteroid-like tank controls instead of Space Invaders.
Also... my first impulse was to try to run into the cherry and not shoot it XD, so maybe fruit is not the best pixel art to use as something dangerous.
Hi @davidsheadgames. See reply above. Asteroid controls could work but then it would be another type of game. The reason I used fruit sprites was pure laziness and lack of time, but I admit they look appetizing :)
...unless left/right malfunction :-( could you have made it wrap around or something? at least then I don't have to just sit there staring at fruit falling for 10+ seconds, depending on how the randomness plays out.
No, seriously I want to keep playing this. It's good. It's addictive. It's a casual game that you can't manage to play for less than an hour. But that hour always feels like it's been only a few minutes.
One thing, though; I suck at controling anything with the arrow keys, and therefore I hate it. Had Luzy Lazer WASD controls, it would be a prime contender for my new time killer game.
Well done!
Thanks for sharing your opinions @raphiell. I agree a longer break between the malfunctions would have been nice, but the theme was "every 10 seconds". Some hitboxes are too big since the fruit graphics I found were smaller than 16 by 16 pixels. Yes I know, it is a lame excuse, but time was very limited.