Ludum Dare #59compo
Aye Aye, Can't See!
By the will of the supreme leader of the free democratic republic of Ruxia, you, my liege, have been dispatched to eliminate the threat posed by the ungrateful inhabitants of the Uruxia dictatorship. These ungrateful wretches are plotting to attack us. We are obliged to strike preemptively. You and your valiant cruiser, my captain, will be sent to the eastern sector of the Uruxia dictatorship. There you are free to pillage and slaughter… pardon me, to restore peace and justice. Your primary objective is to eliminate the leader of the military junta; his battleship is located here. Our loyal spies have hacked the transponder on his vessel, and now we know precisely where he is. You can see the bearing at the bottom of your control panel.
As it happens, during your flight through the depths of hell, half of your ship was blown to pieces. But no matter. You have every right to expropriate any local resources to restore your vessel, for your mission is sacred. Glory to free Ruxia!
Controls:
- 1 — fire port broadside
- 2 — fire the mighty plasma lance *(the demons gnawed on it, needs repair)*
- 3 — fire starboard broadside
- Space — sonar
- Tab — engineering bay
- Q — decrease speed
- E — increase speed
- Left mouse button — set course
Ice, rocks, and iron are our only allies in this system. Harvest them from everything you find — they are the resources for repairing your ship.
Bugfixes in last build:
- Some ships were standing still and doing nothing. Forgot to assign them waypoints.
- The course indicator arrow was missing in the Web build
- All macrocannon upgrades were only upgrading one side of the ship
- Large asteroids weren't giving any resources
As it happens, during your flight through the depths of hell, half of your ship was blown to pieces. But no matter. You have every right to expropriate any local resources to restore your vessel, for your mission is sacred. Glory to free Ruxia!
Controls:
- 1 — fire port broadside
- 2 — fire the mighty plasma lance *(the demons gnawed on it, needs repair)*
- 3 — fire starboard broadside
- Space — sonar
- Tab — engineering bay
- Q — decrease speed
- E — increase speed
- Left mouse button — set course
Ice, rocks, and iron are our only allies in this system. Harvest them from everything you find — they are the resources for repairing your ship.
Bugfixes in last build:
- Some ships were standing still and doing nothing. Forgot to assign them waypoints.
- The course indicator arrow was missing in the Web build
- All macrocannon upgrades were only upgrading one side of the ship
- Large asteroids weren't giving any resources
Comments42
Also, a different cover image that matches the game's aesthetic would serve you a lot better!
An in-game tutorial introducing mechanics step by step would do wonders for this, but I'm well aware that making one in the small time frame of compo would be incredibly challenging.
Very polished and very solid overall, I see there's plenty of depth in it (though I feel like I just scratched the surface). Good job!
So hard to control, so many enemies.
If there was a shop or something i kept forgetting to try and open it, i only collected a few little squares anyway.
@sinemual maybe 20 straight years in gamedev are finally starting to pay off =) And I'm also too modest to do self-promotion. I'm a decent engineer, but as a PR person — not so much. So Reddit and the like feel like something out of a fantasy for me. Maybe my coworkers will back me up on that front.
@frowsyfrog @pres2300 the conflict between immersion and convenience — my eternal problem in my games. I want the ship to feel like a clunky tub, and responsive controls basically contradict that kind of design, but I agree that the controls should have been spread out a bit. For instance, I could've put speed on the mouse wheel.
Really nice graphics and vibe.
All in all I can really see the vision and with some more polish this game could easily be something I could sink many hours in!
About the accuracy, you're actually right. I wanted the enemies to aim the way you do — by following sonar pings — but they were so wildly off that I realized it'd take me a week to tune them. So they just shoot at your transform, which is a bit unfair, but they do search for you honestly via sonar — meaning they don't come after you if they haven't actually detected you with sonar. So their navigation is as fair as yours, but their shooting is cheating. That said, I deliberately didn't give them target leading, so once you get the hang of moving around, they barely hit you.
Very polished! A lot of mechanics.
I really like the signal graphics that really detect other objects!
Had little problems with the controls, it strange that after click '1' or '3' to shoot I can't change direction of the ship.
I also liked that bump with the meteoroids also destroy them! :D
The controls were a bit hard to figure out at first, but I think I managed)
Maybe I would make enemy markers a bit larger.
Great entry!