Space Breakers by DJWizardCop

[raw]
made by DJWizardCop for LD30 (COMPO)
Defend your planet from the SHMUP ships with your Breakout paddle!

Overall, very pleased with how this one turned out. I had a little trouble connecting it to the theme at first, but in the end I think the portal flavor works nicely.

Tiny edit: Fixed a glitch with reloading after beating the boss and a glitch with two bosses spawning.

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 3.80 89
Audio 1.70 946
Fun 3.76 90
Graphics 4.33 29
Humor 2.15 679
Innovation 3.13 575
Mood 3.23 358
Theme 3.00 724

Feedback

pa3kc
25. Aug 2014 · 04:20 UTC
Nice graphics + I like the combination!
Boodog
25. Aug 2014 · 05:53 UTC
Awesome job! I love the graphics! It would be better with some 8-bit sounds though :)
Roknsk
25. Aug 2014 · 05:56 UTC
Fun variation of arcanoid. Good graphics.
haveric
25. Aug 2014 · 05:58 UTC
Very fun game with superb graphics. I feel like a couple simple sounds could have added quite a bit to the game though.
BloodJohn
25. Aug 2014 · 05:59 UTC
Perfect arcanoid! Nice graphics.
pjchardt
25. Aug 2014 · 06:01 UTC
Nice take on Breakout! Really enjoyed the graphics. Gameplay felt solid, although I felt the paddle moved a bit too slow.
Corné Dorrestijn
25. Aug 2014 · 06:57 UTC
Nice, quite hard to hit the enemys but thats also fun.
lolofinil
25. Aug 2014 · 11:52 UTC
Really nice game!
yodamaster
25. Aug 2014 · 16:23 UTC
Quite fun to play, even though I don't like Arkanoid games in general. I guess some sound-fx would add massively to the experience.
DrMelon
25. Aug 2014 · 16:27 UTC
Awesome game! Very clever idea, very nice and clean pixel art, and great effects. Liked the "juicy" laser, with its screen-shaking goodness.
uvwar
25. Aug 2014 · 16:28 UTC
Very cool. I think the yellow and red ships stand out enough, while the blue and green ships blend into the background a little too much, maybe try tweaking the colors or intensity of the background etc. Something like a slight trail on the ball might be interesting to help you keep track of lots of things moving around the screen at once. You need little cities on the planet that get blown up like missile command when you get hit!
AdventureIslands
25. Aug 2014 · 16:36 UTC
84800! Really creative mix of shmup and breakout. I really liked this game, wish it had been in bigger resolution and that it had some music and sounds. Very good game!
Alexandre Szybiak
25. Aug 2014 · 17:52 UTC
Nice simple game, love the art style and overall execution.
humming
26. Aug 2014 · 00:03 UTC
Awesome!
ehtd
26. Aug 2014 · 04:12 UTC
Very nice, add more balls to shoots for improved pace
Linus123xbb
26. Aug 2014 · 16:01 UTC
This game was quiet addictive, the concept was interesting.
Thumbs up! :)
🎤 DJWizardCop
26. Aug 2014 · 17:49 UTC
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'll definitely try to add sounds to a post-competition version.

@uvwar: Very good points, I'll take them into consideration next time I'm developing something. Thanks for your input.

@AdventureIslands 84800 is an amazing score! You beat my personal best by miles.
Hyoga-3D
27. Aug 2014 · 12:55 UTC
Very nice game, good take on breakout, the power up were really nice too. graphics awesome too, Congrats!
badlydrawnrod
27. Aug 2014 · 17:56 UTC
My wife played this for several minutes as she's very good at this kind of game (in fact, I had to stop her so that I could review the game). Her one criticism was that once you get the ball bouncing wildly, it's actually quite easy to keep going without doing very much, particularly as the power-ups are quite abundant.

She is now telling me, "tell him to finish it. I want to play more!"

However, that being said, the concept is *excellent* and brings something new to the genre. I liked the detail on the ships, the scrolling effect, and the effect on the boundary between the two worlds.

Would have loved some sounds - this is crying out for some chiptunes.

Overall, great job.
Druid
28. Aug 2014 · 21:37 UTC
This can be hit on andoid devices! Really nice game!
ElectricSeagull
28. Aug 2014 · 21:42 UTC
Really fun game! It would be better with some sound. Also, the timer keeps on ticking and the boss keeps coming down after game over.
lorniebear
29. Aug 2014 · 14:37 UTC
It's fun! My mum is really good at it, I won't be able to get the computer back for a while...
dokidoki
31. Aug 2014 · 03:35 UTC
Great graphics and gameplay, except one time I somehow got the ball bouncing left and right at the top of the screen. :)
shatterhand
02. Sep 2014 · 17:18 UTC
Lovely game, it just lacks sound... and also it barely connects with the theme... but its a lot of fun, and I loved the graphics!
tbam
03. Sep 2014 · 19:47 UTC
Cool combo of mechanics, solid game. I'm not very good :/
TautNerve
03. Sep 2014 · 20:05 UTC
Very cool graphics and good gameplay. I had a hard time aiming
the ball for the boss section but overall I had lots of fun.
Would really benefit from audio.
Colapsydo
04. Sep 2014 · 07:53 UTC
Nice connection between two games's worlds, the result is very fun.
Also good job on the graphics.

If you're still working on it, I succeeded in pushing the blue square out of bonds (I've never seen it again).
And the projectiles'velocity value isn't constant which could be a decision of yours, but it feels weird.
SteveSalmond
04. Sep 2014 · 09:51 UTC
Neat! What a cool genre combo.. :D Very well done.
kristoffer zetterberg
04. Sep 2014 · 13:16 UTC
nice twist to the genre, and great graphics!
sephyka
04. Sep 2014 · 15:30 UTC
Interesting gameplay. Very good graphics. It might be better with sounds. :)
mildmojo
04. Sep 2014 · 19:31 UTC
Very pretty graphics, great selection of enemies and powerups. I'm glad the blue ball bounces off the bottom of the screen, much less frustrating. I found myself only moving side to side as if it were a regular breakout game; too much muscle memory from hours of Aquanoid and Super Ball.

The enemies were difficult to target with just the ball and paddle. I wonder if there are other enemy movement patterns for which the ball + paddle would be a better weapon?
🎤 DJWizardCop
04. Sep 2014 · 19:40 UTC
@Colapsydo: When the ball is at a screen boundary, it multiplies its x or y speed by -1 to reverse its direction. There's nothing that actually prevents it from going out of bounds though, so if a paddle or enemy ship pushes it out, it stays out. It's something I'm still looking at and have yet to find an elegant solution to.

You're correct about the velocity, the green ball's y speed is much higher than that of the blue one. When the green balls had the same y speed, it was possible to have 4-5 of them and the game became extremely easy.

Thanks for the constructive criticism!
Moosefly
12. Sep 2014 · 21:22 UTC
Second game I play this LD that combines a SHMUP with Breakout, first one being http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview&uid=11474 :P.

I'm pretty bad at Breakout-styled games, and that goes for this one too. I just couldn't get the ball(s) to go where I wanted them to go. Finished with a score of 29500.

Anssi@MooseflyGames