SPACE KATANA

by joedev
co-authored: @marlon-gilliam
Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.03
Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.20
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.80
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.16
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.48
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.87

*SPACE KATANA* is a brutal horde survivor game where your ship loses one of its weapon systems every 10 seconds. Retro aesthetics with hard fast-paced action.



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A deadly cyber-virus has infected your warship. Weapons are turning off one by one, and your enemies keep warping in.

Choose the order that you lose your weapons to maximise your chances of success. Only the smartest and fastest can defeat the horde.

Will you survive?

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Would love to see your fastest win times in the comments :rocket:

#### NOTE: If the HTML5 build doesn't work well (e.g. some screen sizes have weird UI), try downloading the windows build.

Socials:

- Joe (Programming/Art/Design) - https://twitter.com/DevFatigued
- Marlon (Programming/Art/Design) - https://twitter.com/MarlyGames

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Comments37

Savolae
Savolae3 Oct 2022, 23:58
Managed to beat it, love the art style. I really liked how losing weapons had an actual visible effect so it was clear what was lost immediately. Good job!
DileriumL
DileriumL4 Oct 2022, 00:06
Beautiful design. Big plus that I can test it on mobile
CrimOudin4 Oct 2022, 00:08
Very cool game idea. The game feels pretty polished for a 3-day game jam. The background music is great. After attempting the music for my teams Jam I have an appreciation for all the sounds.
Raphiell4 Oct 2022, 00:11
130 seconds! Is there an end? Had a great time. Looked great and the variety of weapons and enemies was great.

Well done!
Budda4 Oct 2022, 00:14
Cool game, Spinning around for the katana to slice through things is super fun.
BeetleBox4 Oct 2022, 00:15
Cool take on the theme! The swarms of bullets were a lot of fun to look at. My only complaint is that enemies can spawn so near the player that crashing into them was inevitable.
Misha Levin4 Oct 2022, 00:46
We also plyed a little bit with the idea, but decided against it because of the time constraints. Glad I had a chance to see it in action.
zrrz4 Oct 2022, 07:23
Loved the idea and the implementation! Great job
OtterFaeLure
OtterFaeLure4 Oct 2022, 09:17
This is the first time I've ever won a bullet-hell type game. Thank you. :D

I have long awaited a game where you get less strong over time instead of becoming OP, and this was AMAZING!

I did have to eventually download the game, as right clicking wasn't working quite right in the web but overall this game was very well done.

The laser enemies were my enemy because I sometimes struggled to find them.

Room for growth comment would be maybe putting in something so that when people are in the menu and looking at the weapons, having a preview of what the weapon does. That would be so beyond convoluted though for the time you have in a game jam so extraordinary job!

Thank you again.
SudoCat
SudoCat4 Oct 2022, 12:47
this is tight as hell and really fun, great job!
eerongal
eerongal4 Oct 2022, 13:53
This is a really cool game. Smooth gameplay, great graphics, and i really like the retro effect. Well done!
fermingimpel
fermingimpel4 Oct 2022, 15:46
simple but funny gameplay, i like the sfx, the art and the music
Castitatis4 Oct 2022, 16:02
wow ok that game is so polished omg. Simple mechanics but so much fun. Dashing through enemies feels so good :D
Nobongo
Nobongo5 Oct 2022, 05:16
I really loved this game! All aspects of it were really impressive. The visuals were super clean and complete, and the game was brilliantly simple which made it incredibly easy to pick up and just get going. I kinda wish I got to keep more of my stuff at the end, but I guess that was the point so it hit home :P Well done!
Bender Biber5 Oct 2022, 09:17
This was a great game. impressive that you made so many different weapons.

I like Jam Games that ends with the felling "I can do better than this" so you hit that replay button :D
Urggann
Urggann5 Oct 2022, 12:55
Fun and deep. Well done!
Sandeia5 Oct 2022, 18:05
Being able to fight as an overpowered ship and have the training wheels hidden away from you, making you have to use your skills and your final chosen weapon? AMAZING idea, and it was pulled off very well too. Mowing down enemies was super satisfying, and I particularly loved being stuck with the Katana at the end - I set it to the final weapon, and trying to spin my way around and dash through enemies was a unique and risky experience, that was extremely fun. The variety in enemies was particularly enjoyable, as well - there were enough differences to keep me on my toes, as well as the number on-screen always feeling like the perfect amount. Not too many to make it impossible, not too little to make it too easy - I loved it. Well done!!
Helzinko
Helzinko5 Oct 2022, 18:57
So far my most favorite game in this jam. Everything is so well executed, I am huge fan of retro style and you nailed it. Love this game!
Bentekiller
Bentekiller5 Oct 2022, 19:18
Fun and dynamic combat with great visuals and sound, what more can you wish for ^^

Could only make it 137 second, felt so weak without all my weapons.

Very nice game entry, this was a fun one!
BugByte14
BugByte145 Oct 2022, 20:37
I really love this game, it's so satisfying to dash through a huge group of enemies. I somehow made it to 203 seconds, and I enjoyed every second of it. Amazing job!
Capitals
Capitals5 Oct 2022, 21:13
This game looks really nice, reminds me of that Activision game Geometry Wars. The twist was good, however potentially too easy as I managed to complete it in one go without modifying the list. Really good job though
Nalquas6 Oct 2022, 13:54
Fun, although a bit chaotic. I like the melee combat with the katana weapon.
eyezzzick6 Oct 2022, 17:21
This was a cool concept. I can imagine how different each run could be with a different order of failures.
Demigiant
Demigiant6 Oct 2022, 17:36
Woah the title screen already had a lot of charisma and sold me. The game concept and mechanics are pretty much brilliant, and I especially liked the fact that the ship doesn't follow the mouse but propels towards it on command. Great.
LDJam user 257946
LDJam user 2579466 Oct 2022, 21:46
This game is insanely fun to play, especially using the space Katana! However, this feeling is lessened once all my weapons are gone through no fault of my own. I like the idea of weapons failing; however, I think it would be better if a player could gain weapons back if they performed well within the game. Overall, though, great job!
nardandas
nardandas6 Oct 2022, 23:00
I really like the overall aesthetic of the game. After optimizing my order of decay, I got 94 seconds. It felt so dire as my last systems failed, really good job there. The movement also felt great! I think a little more clear definition of when you get hurt vs when your katanas can cut might be nice, but it wasn't really an issue. I didn't use the front guns much, the bullets were a bit slow to really be aimable. Just some fodder for the decay chain!
JoeDev
JoeDevauthor7 Oct 2022, 16:41
@helzinko thats so nice of you to say! Cheers :smile:

@bentekiller Cheers for the nice words!

@bugbyte14 203 seconds is very impressive! Must've been chaotic at the end :smile:

@capitals Haha clearly you're just too good at the game ;)

@nalquas @eyezzzick Cheers!

@demigiant Ahh thank you, I'm glad you liked it :smile:

@ideaspersecond Haha cheers! Yeah its a concept we struggled with because even though we liked feeling powerful with all the weapons, we wanted there to be an inevitability in losing your power so the choice of the order that they were lost was more impactful - its hard to balance though, and perhaps a way to get them back would have been a great idea!

@nardandas Ahh nice, thanks for playing! Yeah I agree with the definition of your player hitbox vs the katana hitbox, it can be hard to judge whether or not you're going to hit an enemy or kill them :grimacing: Glad you liked the rest though!
Fax
Fax7 Oct 2022, 20:24
What a stunning aesthetics ! o_O
That's a really solid entry.
Congratulations
AntonioTheReis
AntonioTheReis8 Oct 2022, 02:08
Beautiful presentation overall, from the music to the overall visual aesthetic the game is immaculately presented. I don't know how much the 10 second loosing of weapons actually affects it though because in the hardest and most crucial parts of the game, when you have nothing left, it doesn't matter what you chose. Still it is fun enough to just evade shots and enemies that I would definitely not mind playing a slightly more developed version. Great stugg
JoeDev
JoeDevauthor8 Oct 2022, 10:31
@fax Thanks so much! :smile:

@antoniothereis Thank you! And yeah that was a big discussion between me and the other developer - we wanted it to fit the theme and we liked the idea of losing weapons, but 10 seconds is such a short time you barely get to experience each one! It's definitely open to some extra mechanics that might make that more interesting (like suggested above, some way of delaying the next loss). Thanks for your detailed feedback! Its really helpful :smile:
Gonzalol
Gonzalol8 Oct 2022, 21:50
I like your take on the theme, nice entry, it's almost look like a finished and polished game.

Some thoughts:
- The art is amazing, also the controls are original and good
- It would be great to allow the user change the system failures order during the game instead of before.
Tatha8 Oct 2022, 21:58
My favourite one so far. I enjoyed the music, more SFX would be nice but there was limited time. I think the take on the theme was cool and I loved that you gave the player choice in the beginning. I think the way the spaceship moves is excellent. I would have liked to have died sooner
jandourek
jandourek9 Oct 2022, 13:23
Very solid game! It's fun and polished. I could only survive for 141 seconds but I'll probably go back and try to beat it! The enemy designs and attack patterns are very well done, and visually it also looks very nice. I didn't have any gripes with this game, but I think it would be cool to have a scoring system based on kills and combos, that could maybe let you repair the ship, or at least see how many enemies you killed. Great job you two!
epeachyband
epeachyband17 Oct 2022, 18:49
Graphics, audio and gameplay feels awesome

Also, I like the vibes comes from this game

Overall, Thank you for a sweet submition
Corrupt Spaghetti
Corrupt Spaghetti18 Oct 2022, 20:18
This game has a really nice concept and aesthetic. It's especially fun to dash past enemies and slice them with the katanas!

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