Eyes that Fry by Evergreen Games

[raw]
made by Evergreen Games for LD32 (JAM)
You are a Cyborg 00101. You have been equipped with an optical laser module to defend the central Core that powers the cyborg nation. Prevent the army of evil Vent Crawlers from reaching the core at all costs!! Just be careful where you aim your laser...

Press R to restart. Escape to Quit.

Ratings

Coolness 92% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.10 615
Audio(Jam) 2.95 434
Fun(Jam) 2.95 591
Graphics(Jam) 2.88 719
Humor(Jam) 2.30 783
Innovation(Jam) 3.31 370
Mood(Jam) 3.00 549
Theme(Jam) 2.93 790

Feedback

Demy
21. Apr 2015 路 07:36 UTC
Interesting idea with ray tracing. Controls glitch sometimes and don't let you move or jump. Enemy on the screen looks nice, I wish they'll be bigger in game.
j_peeba
21. Apr 2015 路 07:38 UTC
I had a second cyborg walking around on my game (windows standalone). Seemed like a bug since it was constantly blocking me from shooting. :/

The music and sfx were top notch and it's always a nice surprise to see LD games with animated characters!
馃帳 Evergreen Games
21. Apr 2015 路 07:47 UTC
@Demy the standalone builds are much more stable
@j_peeba thx for the tip i uploaded a newer build with those issues fixed
Shimmergloom
21. Apr 2015 路 08:40 UTC
I'm not sure what to do with the second android without a head. It was always blocking my shot of the ones from the right and those would just push us away.
Archonthewizard
21. Apr 2015 路 08:46 UTC
I really like the concept, but I think it needs some polishing. Had a second unit on round one which seemed like a bug. Couldn't figure out what to do on round 2.
rogberth
21. Apr 2015 路 08:52 UTC
I completed this game. Nice and simple. Last level was a nice challenge. The only bad thing is sometimes you don't kill enemies even if you hit them. Good job!
Tuism
21. Apr 2015 路 12:43 UTC
There's an idea there, but several flaws put together make the game quite tough to play:

1. Poor platforming controller - the character often stuck to walls, slid around, and couldn't go where I wanted him to go. A good platform control is *hard* and should never be underestimated. Especially with native physics - it's almost impossible.

2. The fun in the laser-eyes is the fact that it bounces around - but being just about completely unpredictable means I often blew myself and the base thing up, which means I'd much rather NOT bounce the ray, which negates the fun in the core mechanic. Some kind of predictor (like in old snooker games) may alleviate this.

3. Things weren't obvious - the level end thing looks like something you collect. But I couldn't get to it and was about to get frustrated. If you're supposed to shoot at it, make it communicate as such.

4. The fiction of the game doesn't make sense - soldiers walking on the wall could make sense, but then why can't you? Consistency is the keyword here.

5. The juice/feedback doesn't match the action quickly enough, when I blew my own base up I didn't know that my laser struck it as it was so delayed. The sound/shaking/visuals don't match and that gets confusing.

It's all a huge learning experience! Good luck man! :D
bace1000
21. Apr 2015 路 15:48 UTC
The laser seems really buggy... :( It was quite fun to play, though.
馃帳 Evergreen Games
21. Apr 2015 路 16:09 UTC
For all of you with a second cyborg, i had that in for testing and forgot to remove it in the build. it's fixed now
Fabraz
21. Apr 2015 路 21:14 UTC
Great idea, not the strongest execution of itl. Keep working out the glitches and this might be something!
monkeedude1212
21. Apr 2015 路 21:29 UTC
Music and SFX were good, yeah it seems like the online version doesn't work as well as the standalone, probably browsers not processing input properly. Nice mechanics with the reflections and such.
murilo
21. Apr 2015 路 21:40 UTC
Wow! Put aside the lack of polish and wonky player/wall collision, this was very good! I beat it after some tries on the last level. Very satisfying. Great mechanic!
TeamCalcium
22. Apr 2015 路 10:39 UTC
Cool character animations!
daltostronic
22. Apr 2015 路 13:04 UTC
Nice idea, but it was hard to feel the timing - how long the rays last and the fire rate. It may be really great fun (but maybe too easy) if you could move when the ray is active :D
Secret_Tunnel
22. Apr 2015 路 19:31 UTC
Pretty great game! I like that you integrated the directions into the first level so that I could start playing right away. Cool atmosphere, cool idea.

I would make it so that W would let the player jump--feels more natural that way, so that one hand can control the character and the other can control the laser aiming. I would also probably make it so that the laser will kill the enemy whenever it's on screen, rather than when it just first appears, so that enemies who run into it after it's been fired will also die.
jprogman
22. Apr 2015 路 23:37 UTC
It's a little difficult to jump when I'm next to the wall, but I can get around that.
I couldn't play the game in full because it is presented in widescreen only.
It would have been very helpful to switch between widescreen and fullscreen as I don't have a widescreen monitor. (Yes, there are still such a thing as fullscreen monitors.)
Scornz
22. Apr 2015 路 23:54 UTC
Fun, played it for a while
Buzzwerd
25. Apr 2015 路 06:31 UTC
Wasn't able to get past the second stage, it seems like I reached the fail state for no reason, maybe I missed something. I liked the concept, wish I had gotten to play with it a bit more.
kirbytails7
25. Apr 2015 路 07:26 UTC
BWAAAAAA! Lasers! The platforming is kind of weak. Since the objective is to shoot baddies without hitting the core, perhaps free 2D movement would work better?
crazyninjamofo
27. Apr 2015 路 03:09 UTC
Fun idea, firing the laser was satisfying. Once the laser started bouncing around, I noticed some reflection and collision bugs. Like, the laser would pass through a wall and bounce off of nothing and blow me up. Fix the bugs and gameplay would be much more fun. Finally, that laser "bwaaaah" sound was solid!
Tatsu Studio
28. Apr 2015 路 01:38 UTC
this game was really cool
TeamQuadratic
28. Apr 2015 路 01:41 UTC
Seemed a bit buggy (getting stuck in walls when jumping), but overall good. Nice sound as well!
OnlySlightly
28. Apr 2015 路 04:09 UTC
That was a ton of fun! Making the lasers bounce around was very satisfying :) I liked how well you animated the walk cycle. Great job!
BIZM
28. Apr 2015 路 21:05 UTC
Cool idea, killing a bunch of those crawlers at once was very satisfying :) the controls were a little bit buggy but other than that good job!
TheMeorch
06. May 2015 路 21:53 UTC
The music and laser sound effect set the mood very nicely. The core concept is really neat, and taking out a bunch of enemies in a single shot is really satisfying.

There are some parts of the game you could polish up if you choose to keep working on this:
- In at least one of the levels, it was very unclear which walls reflected lasers. Given that bouncing lasers can kill yourself or the core, it's important players don't feel like they're accidentally sabotaging themselves too much.
- The player tends to get stuck on corners/sides of ledges when jumping.
- The laser sometimes fires erratically.

Having to avoid hitting yourself or the core with the laser provides some strategic depth, but it can be frustrating to accidentally mess up the entire level with one errant shot. I'd consider ways of maintaining this strategic element while lowering the potential frustration resulting from it -- perhaps a real-time preview of the path the laser will take, or a slower-moving laser that the player can delete at any time after firing, or just more hit points for the player and/or core.

Interesting challenges to think about, nice work!!
Druid
06. May 2015 路 22:24 UTC
Little floaty controls and bad collisions but still amazing entry! I really enjoyed this game!
sputnik
07. May 2015 路 01:28 UTC
Not really touchpad friendly, but good idea
Geckoo1337
07. May 2015 路 04:20 UTC
Interesting idea with ray tracing, but it can be improved by another aesthetic. However it's a good entry. Thumbs up ++
IamAcoconut
07. May 2015 路 21:14 UTC
Cool game! I like the concept. Shooting the lazers could sometimes be a little buggy, and I got confused in level 2 when the game kept restarting for some reason. I later realized it was because I kept accidentally shooting that teleporter thing. You might want to make death collisions more obvious. Either that that, I thought the game was pretty fun! Nice music! :)
Xanjos
08. May 2015 路 13:18 UTC
I liked the laser refraction mechanic although the laser itself is sort of hard to aim correctly (especially at the later levels). Also I think the core needs a better visual indicator for when it's about to blow up (maybe change it to a red colour?).
Omiya Games
09. May 2015 路 02:20 UTC
One of the best lasers I've seen or heard in a video game. Well done with that laser.
Dagatts
12. May 2015 路 00:17 UTC
I really like the idea, looking forward to see the completed version =D
Os_Reboot
12. May 2015 路 00:27 UTC
Awesome entry! I love the laser reflection physics. Collisions were a little buggy. Nice job with audio and graphics, both were very appropriate. It was almost scary how the robot noises got louder as they got closer, perfect touch. Overall well done!
Mossy Frog
12. May 2015 路 00:35 UTC
Nice, controls were a bit finicky at points, but I loved the idea. Great entry :)
RyanNielson
12. May 2015 路 00:48 UTC
Interesting mechanic, the laser bouncing could probably be expanded in so many different ways.